POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Another day of strife : Re: My CV Server Time
7 Sep 2024 01:22:02 EDT (-0400)
  Re: My CV  
From: scott
Date: 19 Nov 2008 05:52:06
Message: <4923efd6$1@news.povray.org>
> If you take out the word "small" it sounds like I did something really 
> major.

Good.

> Similarly for the scripting; copying some files from A to B isn't exactly 
> rocket science. It's not like I developed a major application. It's just 
> some small utilities.

Which you'd be surprised how few people could actually get working.  Didn't 
you write something here about that automatic ping program you wrote?  If 
you want, make a list of the titles of each small utility you wrote to help 
with your job, it shows you can.

> Kwi?

Eh?

> Heh. Should I include the anicdote about the time I got so bored that I 
> learned PostScript in my lunch break just for something to do? ;-) I think 
> it's a great story, but I'm not sure whether I should actually mention it.

Yes mention it, not in that way, but list PS as one of the languages you are 
"familiar" with, and even mention that you learnt how to use it in a couple 
of hours if it fits in.

> I suppose I could try to claim that the lab backup script I wrote saved us 


Well go for it then, just say something like a script you wrote saved the 
company needing to buy a commerical piece of software that would have cost 
8K.  They are not going to interrogate your manager to check if this is 
exactly true, but they will probably ask you questions about it so there's 
no point in lying.

> Well I'm *supposed* to work with the US dudes, and I'm *supposed* to be 
> responsible for planning future upgrades. But frankly, nobody really 
> bothers to communicate with me any more. I just find out about these 
> decisions when new hardware arrives on the doorstep.

That's all discussion for the interview, when you can explain how you try to 
improve the way the US dudes think about backup, protocols, systems, 
documentation etc.  For the CV just put that you work with them on the 
network infrastructure etc.  In the CV you want to leave no doubt about what 
you do, make it impossible for the person reading it to think "oh well it 
looks like maybe he just does nothing each day".

> Do *you* see any GCSE results listed? I don't.

I see you said you got 3 GCSEs.  That of course leads to the question "does 
he only have 3 GCSEs? that's a bit weird.".  Take out the whole line and 
don't even mention your school.  Leave in the bit at Milton Keynes College 
if you want, but I am thinking you are a bit too old now to be listing what 
you did before University, especially as it wasn't via the normal "A levels" 
path - take it out altogether!

> You realise that the grades I mentioned are just the good ones, right?

Right, but C- sounds bad, and is worse than the others.  If they ask you in 
the interview then you can explain that the grades go down to F or G and 
that you got a C-.  A C- by itself looks bad and there's no space in the CV 
to explain.

> [Nitpick: It was a 4-year course.]

That's why I suggested making it clearer what you did each year, and it will 
then be obvious that it was a 4 year course and not force someone to check 
the years and then guess if you took a year out or whatever.

> Does it matter? MVC is highly unlikely to be even remotely relevant to 
> anything I'll be doing. (And it would take several paragraphs to explain.)

It doesn't matter if it's relevant or not, just write out the words because 
someone who doesn't know what MVC stands for is going to feel much better 
just seeing the words (even if they don't understand) compared to if they 
just see MVC.  Can you not just write a couple more sentences about the 
project, how much of your time did it take up, individual or group project 
etc?

> Hmm. Skiing? Rock climbing? SALSA?? Hahaha!

Exactly.  And photography?  Sound and music production/recording, PLAYING 
THE ORGAN!


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