Resume Writing Tips

[Radar]

Originally Posted by glatt

Well, don't put a funny name at the top of the resume if you want Radar to hire you.

If I was hiring someone who had done stuff in a previous career, I'd like to see a brief mention of that other stuff, just to account for that time. I'd want to know you weren't just living in your mom's basement playing video games. Not a lot of detail, just a line for the job title, employer and dates, and a second line for a very short description.

Can't help you with the other stuff, since I'm not in that industry.

I am in that industry, and it's funny that you mention this. I put an ad in for the job the other day and in the first 2 days alone I've gotten about 60 resumes. I've been kind of shocked. I'm not paying much. Only $24-$27/hr, but I've been flooded with resumes from very qualified people with tons of industry certifications. Some have PhDs or Master's degrees with a lot of experience too. I've been trying to figure out why they would take so little for this job. I don't think the market is that rough right now. I think they just want to work in a relaxed environment, or especially work for a tv producer. I think they want to be "discovered".

My advertisement requested that they send me their resume in Microsoft Word format. Some were sent to me in PDF format. I can open either of them, but if they can't follow simple instructions, I am thinking I should disqualify them even though the contents of the resume are impressive.

A lot of them have very funny names, but not funny in the way I was discussing earlier. I don't have any Frank N. Steins, Lemonjello, Ocean, etc. names, but I've got a lot of very foreign ones. I don't discriminate on those kind of names, just the freak names by cruel parents.

In my personal point of view, hands-on experience is worth more than classroom education, certifications, or a college degree. I can tell within 2 minutes of an interview if someone is a poser or the real deal. If you've got hands-on experience you'll stand out in a crowd. A lot of people pad their resume or learn buzzwords hoping to get their foot in the door. I can spot these guys a mile away. Of the few that slipped through, I told them when they arrived for the first day of work, I'd give them 3 days to show me their stuff and if they can't hit the ground running or show me they know what to do, they'd be gone. Some didn't get past lunch on the first day.