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I've had interviewers look at an unweighted keyword digest from my resume, apparently without reading said resume (which clearly states my current skill focus on the top, which has evolved quite substantially over time). And then start "grilling" me on a language that appeared on a job description from 10+ years ago.



Take out any of that old stuff. It's not necessary. Your resume should fit on one page, two at absolute most, and only include things that you would expect to be grilled on. If you are annoyed about being tested on something on your resume, take it out.


It's interesting that different companies will want different things on a resume. This is why no two jobs I've applied for get the same resume. If they want lots of experience in a lot of different things, sometimes they DO want the laundry list of acronyms (make sure you know what they all stand for). You might not even get through the first selection if they use XSLT heavily and you didn't think it was relevant that you had worked with it before on a project.

I've also had interviewers rip the other pages out of my resume in front of me, but everyone is different. At the end of the day, don't feel too bad about not getting an offer. A lot of it is luck.


I've also had interviewers rip the other pages out of my resume in front of me,

Really? That's incredibly rude.


I see what you're getting at.

I still think that in general, people who can't be bothered to read important documents, and instead just eyeball them for keywords (and start shooting off questions accordingly) -- aren't my cup of tea to work with, anyway.


I understand your point, it drives me crazy in interviews as well. But by the same token when I'm interviewing, I want to be able to grok someone's resume as quickly as possible - I don't want to see stuff that they themselves don't think is relevant.


There's no need to be "grilled" on something you did 10+ years ago (unless it's a requirement of the job, of course). Perhaps a "have you used Pascal since leaving ...?" would suffice.


A resume should reflect your current skills and abilities. You should feel free to leave in old positions, and the interviewer can ask about it if they want, but you should not leave in technical things you don't want to be asked about.




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