My first suggestion, having had a discussion with HR types, is that they rarely actually read an on-line resume 'on-line' I ahven't checked whether this one has print mark-up delineating the employer headings (on-line in pale blue) but it would probably help if you have a word-formatted version available as a down-load, either at the top or the bottom of this page (and better, as both). Whilst MS Word may be the spawn of the devil it iwas what most people expect, in my own case I have Word, PDF, RTF and TXT versions available for them to download at their choice.
Overall, it is impressive, there looks to be rather a lot of positions for one so young. This could be improved by clearly making the pre-leaving college ones as vacation positions. Something employers seem to always be keen on is people having a record of staying a long time in one place (even if you and I know that the time spent is irrelevant, it is the quality of the work!).
Something that I felt while reading it may or may not be a problem, and that is the way it makes it appear you go aronud breaking security: "broke a cipher designed by Cisco", "found cryptographic flaws in the standard", "found small statistical weaknesses", etc. These come across as somewhat 'negative' traits and, if I was a possible employer, as someone I might be slightly afraid of letting onto my system. I think you need to push the positive results of these discoveries (eg. did Cisco change their code? if so, say so - it would be a faether in your cap, similar with the others).
Almost final comment for the moment is you name employers but give no information regarding their geographic location, etc. DataCash Ltd, Harlequin Ltd, Concept Systems Ltd, Voxar Ltd and Promco will be totally meaningless names to most people (including me) so adding their town would make the seem 'more real' to the reader and allow them to independently check the information given.
The last bit is what are you looking *for* in your next job. Most of the cv reads as though you are a researcher. 'Research' is givenas the focus of many jobs as well as having its own section. If that is your target then fine, but many business now are looking far more at the bottom line and would not necessarily see reseach as contrinuting in that way sufficiently to want someone new "pursu(ing) original research". You may need to spin this a bit depending upon the type of position you might get in the current climate.
I'll also add a couple of points about use of jargon...
"on a breadboard" ... you and I know what this means, but many won't
"proving correctness" ... similarly (eg. you mean you'd design something that was incorrect? hmmmn.)
"application which OCRed" ... again (and usually written "OCR'd" if you really must leave the initials in)
plus "The Edinburgh CS degree is highly regarded" .. by whom? so what? are the immediate questions here. Either the reader knows this already or they'll think it as over-egging the pudding.
also, including leisure interests is generally only done by school or college leavers - it is now unnecessary with your demonstrable track record but could again serve to 'include you out' if the reader dislikes goths, etc. if they don't know what it means.
I'd also reinforce thekumquat's point about your over-use of 'I'. Generally, current received wisdom is to get nearer the active third person and reduce the 'I did' 'I was' etc wheneverpossible.
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timeasmymeasure
No sooner said than ...
Date: 2003-07-04 06:22 am (UTC)My first suggestion, having had a discussion with HR types, is that they rarely actually read an on-line resume 'on-line' I ahven't checked whether this one has print mark-up delineating the employer headings (on-line in pale blue) but it would probably help if you have a word-formatted version available as a down-load, either at the top or the bottom of this page (and better, as both). Whilst MS Word may be the spawn of the devil it iwas what most people expect, in my own case I have Word, PDF, RTF and TXT versions available for them to download at their choice.
Overall, it is impressive, there looks to be rather a lot of positions for one so young. This could be improved by clearly making the pre-leaving college ones as vacation positions. Something employers seem to always be keen on is people having a record of staying a long time in one place (even if you and I know that the time spent is irrelevant, it is the quality of the work!).
Something that I felt while reading it may or may not be a problem, and that is the way it makes it appear you go aronud breaking security: "broke a cipher designed by Cisco", "found cryptographic flaws in the standard", "found small statistical weaknesses", etc. These come across as somewhat 'negative' traits and, if I was a possible employer, as someone I might be slightly afraid of letting onto my system. I think you need to push the positive results of these discoveries (eg. did Cisco change their code? if so, say so - it would be a faether in your cap, similar with the others).
Almost final comment for the moment is you name employers but give no information regarding their geographic location, etc. DataCash Ltd, Harlequin Ltd, Concept Systems Ltd, Voxar Ltd and Promco will be totally meaningless names to most people (including me) so adding their town would make the seem 'more real' to the reader and allow them to independently check the information given.
The last bit is what are you looking *for* in your next job. Most of the cv reads as though you are a researcher. 'Research' is givenas the focus of many jobs as well as having its own section. If that is your target then fine, but many business now are looking far more at the bottom line and would not necessarily see reseach as contrinuting in that way sufficiently to want someone new "pursu(ing) original research". You may need to spin this a bit depending upon the type of position you might get in the current climate.
Good luck!
Re: No sooner said than ...
Date: 2003-07-04 07:27 am (UTC)"on a breadboard" ... you and I know what this means, but many won't
"proving correctness" ... similarly (eg. you mean you'd design something that was incorrect? hmmmn.)
"application which OCRed" ... again (and usually written "OCR'd" if you really must leave the initials in)
plus "The Edinburgh CS degree is highly regarded" .. by whom? so what? are the immediate questions here. Either the reader knows this already or they'll think it as over-egging the pudding.
also, including leisure interests is generally only done by school or college leavers - it is now unnecessary with your demonstrable track record but could again serve to 'include you out' if the reader dislikes goths, etc. if they don't know what it means.
I'd also reinforce