Another Website Check

[Robizzle01]

I built this website mostly for fun last spring but also knowing that a lot of employers that I give my resume to are going to visit it if they are at all interested in me. I will be a junior next year and am looking for a summer internship. In preperation i'm going to spend the last bit of summer going over my resume and website.

Feel free to make any comments about either. Anything from layout to content or small things that you would change if the site/resume was yours. You can not hurt my feelings so go ahead and give me the truth -- flames aren't needed but i'd rather get some of those than no feedback at all.

Website: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~meyerro3
Resume: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~meyerro3/resume_files/resume.pdf

Thanks in advance. I know these threads are normally annoying but I wouldn't ask unless it truely did help -- and it does.

p.s. The resume is slightly oudated. I do plan to change the objective or to even possibly move it but I don't know what to do -- recomendations would be good.

 

[Pugnax]

Looks okay to me.

One quick critique on resume, I don't know how useful that objective line is. When you send out your resume for a job, internship, what not your objective is to get the job plain and simple. Having an objective (not your's) can also get you locked into certain things you might not want to be doing after all. I'd say leave it out and use that space to elaborate on something else.

 

[abudhu]

I'll start with the resume:

1) Usually an Objective is needed, but rather than be so simplistic needs to be specific and streamlined for the job you intend. "Seeking Summer internship with engineers" is too broad, too lack-luster. As a potential employeer it tells me nothing. I see, "Its summer, I want a job, and I want to work with...engineers..." Not even what type of engineers. So if I stuck you with a Civil engineer (given your resume, which has nothing to do with Civil Engineering) you'd be happy?

2) Too much text. No employeer is going to read all that. You need to realize how many resumes they are "reading" (more like glancing) at a day. As an employeer I'd like to see point by point. Not "I have achieved 72 credits and will be taking blah blah classes". I want to see:
"Attending University of ____ 2009
Major: ______"

3) If your GPA is below 3.00 don't put it on. If they ASK then you tell them.

4) Relevant Courses?...to what...Engineering? Again, what Engineering (there are so many). To me you have just listed courses, which aren't relevant to anything. Remove this section entirely.

5) Here is my version of your Resume.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objective: Be Specific to what you want to get.

Education:

Michigan State University
Expected Graduation Date: ____
Major: _____

(Since your in college, Your HS information means Nothing).

Qualificiations:
Change:
"Currently Learning Python and Java" --> Python, Java.
"Microsoft Windows 95,86,2000,XP" --> Windows 9x, 2000 (Which Edition), XP (Which Edition).
"Many Linux Disctributions including" --> Just list them. I.e. remove that line.

Work Experience:
Good Job.

Activities:
Battleship GUI Interface --- Current
BattleShip AI Competition ---- Fall 2005
RM Color Clear ---- Summer 2004

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, your Resume lacks coherence. You have periods in some sections and then commas in others. Example: Windows 95,98,2000,XP(PERIOD). Blah Blah Blah.
Above you never did that. You didn't go "Adobe Photoshop,ImageReady Dreamweaver(Period)"

Makes it seems weird. Trust me.

--
--
Your webpage is pretty nice, but be careful of what you put up If you know employeers will be looking at it. Password Protect your personal information (like your photo section) so an employeer doesn't run the risk of seeing you get plastered one night.


Sorry for seeming like crazy person out to rip your resume apart. However, since its the focal point of a getting any type of job its better to be "mean" and see changes than be "nice" and have nothing changed.

Best of luck.

 

[Robizzle01]

abudhu, I appreciate your honesty. I never get such good feedback from my family or girlfriend. Allow me to respond to some of the things you said.

Last year a resume almost identical to this one got me a free trip to Seattle to interview round 2 with Microsoft. I only mention that because this makes me think i'm on the right track. Either that or I killed at the first interview (which I was happy enough to get.)

You are compleatly right about the objective. I normally produce a seperate resume for each company I plan to give it to, tailored more for them. The one that is on my website is supposed to be very generic. I even considered dropping the objective all together. You make a good point about me never stating what kind of job I am looking for though. I should state there that I want to work with computer science/programming. I guess it was always so clear to me that I overlooked it.

As for the GPA. I was told by a Microsoft rep to always put GPA on a resume, regardless of how low it is. He said that they don't care much about a low gpa, however, it will come up in an interview if you leave it off. He said that if you put it in the resume then its already out in the open and should be a non-issue. Also, I took one summer class and 4.0'd it so my gpa is up to 3.01 now .. heh.

Relevant courses: I meant relavant to the job the resume is for and relavant to the work that I will be doing. However, your point is still valid. I will consider chopping it all out.

Leaving out highschool information: This was more important last year when I was only a sophmore with 2 cse courses behind me. I wanted to show that I had some AP credits from highschool. Now, you are right, this is an artifact I need to chop out. If I was looking for an intern then I wouldn't look for this old hs stuff.

Coherence: Valid point. I'll start going over this tonight.

As for your version of my resume, your changes are great. I don't know why these things didn't occur to me when I wrote the resume but now they seem so obvious. For the activities did you just shorthand that for the sake of your post or do you think I should really one-line them and expect the employer to ask me about them if they care for the description? For the jobs you would go ahead and drop the lifeguard job? I originally had 4 or 5 jobs in there and i've been dropping them all year since they weren't computer related -- I guess I should have dropped all except for my current one?

Thanks for the feedback. My only concern is that i'll be left with such a short resume after chopping most of this stuff out. I agree that nobody wants fluff but i've never seen someone with a 1/2 page resume before -- no matter how novice. eek

edit: just noticed "eciency" in last paragraph of my resume. It is correctly spelled efficiency in the .tex file and always compiles without the 'ffi'. I'll have to look into this tonight. Also, I realize that the website listed in my resume doesn't currently work. I'm having my yahoo domain transferred to godaddy and it will take 5-7 days they say.

 

[abudhu]

Strange. A MS rep/IBM rep here at UofA (University of Arizona) During career fair told me to leave it out if its below 3.0. *Shakes fist at mis-information*. Lifegaurding I would leave out, as that doesn't have much to do with programming. If anything put it under activities. I am at work right now, but when I get home I can show you mine, most of my activities I have short hand. But even when you cut out all that stuff your resume will not be half a page. 3 Jobs descriptions will mint you a full page in anycase. So no worries. I forgot to add to the example resume, and since you want to showcase your AP credit and such, you can have a section before Activities labeled Awards, and put things like Deans List, Deans Honor under it. Also remember to list any clubs you are in (even if those aren't relevant) because they show dedication to another cause and a willingness to step outside the educational system.

Edit:
Also, you don't need to "only" post jobs that are relevant to the subject matter. In that I mean, if you are going for a comp sci job, you don't have to only post comp sci jobs as experience. You can put on there a job where you had managerial experience to showcase you understand how to work in groups, and get a single goal accomplished. So, its all about having each part of your resume blend to compliment one another.