I'm currently in the cable advertising industry as a Release Engineer. I've only been in it a short time, 1.5 years, and it was a job I took straight out of school because I needed the money bad enough that I couldn't hold out for a game dev job. After 1.5 years, I feel that I'm in a better position to start looking for game dev jobs again, and my resume is looking pretty rough.

The main problem is that my only "good" experience is in a field, Release Engineering, which I quite frankly don't want to stay in. I see Release Engineering jobs at game studios from time to time, but I cringe at the thought of even applying for them simply for the fact that I don't want to become specialized in it.

I've applied to tools programmer jobs, technical design jobs, and junior production jobs with a similar resume, although (of course) I try to tweak it to match whatever I'm applying to.

My resume is below. I know it needs work, particularly with that first section. I put this together after reading some of Marc Mencher's material on resumes. Overall, guidance on resumes is so back and forth: "Don't put a skills section / Put a skills section, Don't have an objective / You need an objective, Only one page / More than one page, etc..."

I asked the girlfriend to look at it, but she is (as expected) too nice about it. I need you guys to tell me what's what.

NOTE: I'd like my resume to be the focus of this topic, but if you want to criticize my site, go ahead; I'm constantly changing it (to the detriment of developing more content, I assume).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw4oJoTc0LvvSzlacVl2T2tvVUU/edit?usp=sharing

EDIT: Noticed a typo, new doc up.

Thank you for the prompt feedback, Hodgman!

Yes, build engineering and release engineering overlap in some job duties. In bigger companies the jobs are split; my company just puts all of the duties on one person.

As much as I hate the thought of culling the writing job (I've gotten some interesting reactions and had interesting discussions in interviews with it on there) I can understand why it should go. Honestly the only reason the clerk job is there is because I didn't want to leave it off and have a space of unemployment between the writing job and the build engineering job, so if the writing job gets culled the clerk job will be right with it!

I'm also considering killing off the Organizations section, or at the very least the Boy Scout piece; I've gotten some mixed reactions with it. They're sometimes known for their right wing, heavily Christian views (which has nothing to do with why I counseled a merit badge) and I'm not looking to offend. On the other hand, I'm almost positive it's one of the main reasons I have my current job, because my boss talked to me for half an hour at my interview about his kids being in scouts!

Thanks for responding, ApochPiQ.

I originally had a long rebuttle (read: list of excuses) about the way my resume was. I took your suggestions, gutted my resume of everything but my education and my current job, and realized there was nothing left.

After taking a couple of days thinking about it and conversations with a few people close to me, I've decided that I need to just rework my resume building process.

1. I will make different resumes for each position, highlighting the parts of my current job that apply to the position to which I'm applying

2. I will link a specific page of my portfolio on the resume that I think will be of interest to the job

3. I will list a brief point about relevant projects if I think they apply to the job

4. I will list my education after my current work experience.

Thanks again. It's good to get feedback from someone on the inside. I hope you continue to be generous with your time on the advice forums.

Remove the MS Office part.

I removed the skills section, in general, but I'm just curious why you would think it would be a good idea to "remove the MS Office part" when many (more than half?) of the jobs I apply to specifically list it in the job description?

I removed the skills section, in general, but I'm just curious why you would think it would be a good idea to "remove the MS Office part" when many (more than half?) of the jobs I apply to specifically list it in the job description?

Remove it because it is a programming position.

Think hard about this. Imagine a programmer whose application included things like "can touch type", "comfortable with word processors", and "able to work with spreadsheets". If I saw an applicant for a programmer that included those lines their information would immediately be binned.

A programmer is expected to know how to write and manipulate documents. A programmer is expected to know how to manipulate spreadsheets, since data tables are a central thing in most programming.

If you were applying for a data entry position, the type of job where they list requirements as "job service certified typing speed of 30WPM minimum", then maybe including that you know Office would be a good thing. But for a programmer it demonstrates a level of incompetence.



The biggest problem is that you **MUST** show rather than tell. You have not done that.

The next biggest problem is that you are not using a reverse chronological format. Start with your current or most recent job, then the previous, then the one before that, etc. Since you have been out of school for a while your work experience should come before your education.

For consistancy, everything should be past tense. Worked on, developed, maintained, etc.

Finally, you don't have enough experience for a 2 page resume in the US. Fortunately reducing it to one page of good information shouldn't be too hard.

Let's go through a few sections of your current document.

* Dual Major Graduate, Always willing to take on...

Why do you write that? You have written that you are dual major under your schooling. Your willingness to take on new challenges should be demonstrated by the items on the page, not by a statement. Show, don't tell. Cut this.

* Consistently awarded...

If you recieved any awards or recognition that detail belongs inside that item's details. Cut this here, add the details in the projects.

* Advanced user of...

For programmers that is irrelevant at best, harmful at worst, as mentioned above. Cut it.

* Proficient in C#, OOP, SQL

Proficient relative to what? Relative to a fresh college grad? Relative to someone with 10 years experience? Relative to someone who help maintain the C# and SQL standards? Again, show your proficiencies, don't tell about them. Cut this.

* Exposed to...

Is that like radition exposure? What does it mean? You looked at a screen that had some code on it? Cut this.

* Highlighted coursework: courses.

It is better than when people write things like CS410, but the list is borderline useless as written. You went to school and had very similar courses to other people. In the professional world a university education is just barely enough to qualify you for entry level work. If you did something special or exceptional during your studies you should include those. If you had any specific notable projects you did, include those notable details. I don't care about your transcript, just your notable skills.

* Projects...

This is a mildly useful collection of stuff, but again you are telling rather than showing. Again, reverse chronologicl. Your school projects should probably be part of your education section.

* Created a 2d shoot 'em up game while learning...

Borderline useless. You told me you did something and gave a link. I have no motivation to follow it. Start with specifically listing languages and tools used (beyond GameSalad), and give me some reason to follow the link to your site.

* Daycare Disaster...

Very useful information. You can provide more details, but it is a good start.

* Library Timekeeping...

Looks overdone and very inflated. Kill the buzzwords and do an honest assessment. I'm guessing it was a simple data table, a small script that automatically entered the data, prints out some Access reports.

* Management Science ...

This is mostly good stuff. The first paragraph has many buzzwords, I'd consider cutting it entirely. Rewrite everything to past tense. Does "over a dozen" mean 13, or 23? Replace it with a hard number.

* Organizations ...

Cut. This does not help your job prospects and isn't really supportive of the job.



With those cuts, and putting work experience before education, it should be much stronger.

Thank you for taking the time to respond, Frob. The original post is over a month old, so my resume has changed since I first posted it. I've already made many of the changes that you've suggested.

However:

I did not remove MS Office. I kept it in, but it's stated in a different way. You mention that "It's a programming position," but I'm not sure what you mean by "It." The MS Office reference was not under my current position, it was in the summary, not under any position.

And while you keep mentioning the relevance of parts of my resume to a programmer, it may surprise you to learn that my current position is not something I would consider a programming position. I spend less than one day a week writing any software of any kind. I don’t consider myself a programmer by any means. My official job title is Software Developer, but who knows why my company decided to list it that way. I call it a build/release engineer because it's more descriptive; My job revolves around build and release systems, but I'm not always programming them.

I stated in my original post that I didn't want to be a release engineer anymore, but really what I should've said was that while I did apply to that one programming job, in general I don’t want to be a programmer. I’m not concerned with looking like the best programmer, because I already know I’m not.

Specific to my projects:

I’ve cut my projects out of my resume entirely, but I would like to add them back in when applying to a job in which I think they would help my case. I’m not sure how to “show” rather than “tell” on paper. I can only write what was done, how do I show it?

You said:

* Created a 2d shoot 'em up game while learning...

Borderline useless. You told me you did something and gave a link. I have no motivation to follow it. Start with specifically listing languages and tools used (beyond GameSalad), and give me some reason to follow the link to your site.

I say:

GameSalad was the only tool used. No languages. GameSalad is a drag and drop editor. Not the greatest project to pick for myself, but I did it.

You said:

* Library Timekeeping...

Looks overdone and very inflated. Kill the buzzwords and do an honest assessment. I'm guessing it was a simple data table, a small script that automatically entered the data, prints out some Access reports.

I say:

I don’t mean to be defensive, and I understand where you’re coming from, but you guess wrong. It was more than a table and a small script. It’s 21 WinForms and 7 tables. The tables were small, of course, and all total it was only around 3k lines (plus the VS generated code), but the program is still in use today, and it was a centerpiece of my previous interviews.

Final Thoughts:

I get a lot of mixed feedback on buzzwords. Most of it says “use them.” “They get you past HR and robot filters.” I can try to thin them out, but I'm not sure which ones you consider buzzwords when I consider them job relevant vocabulary.

Again, thank you to everyone who posted feedback. I have used the vast majority of it, and for anyone who cares to know, I landed a couple of production interviews since posting the original post.