CV comments?

[ciphergoth]

I've tweaked my CV a little, but I'd appreciate advice on how to improve it:

your comments please!

Comments

[vampwillow]

I've got a few comments and suggestions to make but will mail them to the address on the cv rather than clutter up LJ...

[keirf.livejournal.com]

Pedantic comments:

tamper resistant hardware which I demonstrated

Either:
tamper resistant hardware, which I demonstrated
Or:
tamper resistant hardware that I demonstrated

on a colocated host

Is 'colocated' a word? Perhaps co-located, or collocated? Not sure about this one, but it's not in my dictionary.

General comments:

Your CV might be considered to be a bit long by some employers. In 10pt in Word it takes up four pages. Perhaps reduce the amount of space devoted to your final year project, your other skills and interests paragraph, your employment history pre-1999, and your summary paragraph. Depending on the job you are applying for you can cut out about 1/3 - 2/3 of the content (as crypto employers won't want to hear much about printing techniques, and so on). Bullet points rather than paragraphs in your employment history might be worth considering too.

[conflux.livejournal.com]

So what kind of a job are you looking for?

Micromuse are recruiting intermittently but the work it not exactly mathematically challenging, so I can’t really recommend them from a work satisfaction point of view.

Just out of interest...

[kingginger.livejournal.com]

... do you ever wonder what a potential employer may think about your mentioning of Bisexuality etc on your C.V. ?

I know there is equal ops and stuff involved in such issues... But just wondering if you ever wonder... Sorta thing :-)

Other than that - the C.V. looks fine to me, except maybe cutting out some of the earlier jobs for length issues...

Laterz

Re: Just out of interest...

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I figured that if they couldn't handle the concept, I didn't want to work for them (and I think most employers would only read that far once they'd decided to interview you).

I did think that if I went through a prolonged period of unemployment, I'd reconsider. :)

Comments to Paul: get rid of your O-levels and possibly some short jobs. Get rid of the apostrophe before "phone" because some employers will think you're pretentious. I don't know if techie employers like summaries - employers in fields I've been in hate them. Still, at least it wasn't a 'personal statement'!

You could shorten the blurbs for each job by omitting 'I did' and making it into points. If you could get it onto 3 pages max I really really would.
If you do a printer-friendly version, make sure it's 11 or 12pt, well-spaced and that each page has your name on it for when they drop all the CVs (good advice from someone who admitted they'd done this and chucked all the CVs they couldn't match up again!) And it doesn't need to say CV at the top cos it's bleedin' obvious, and gives you more space.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for these comments! I know they're long, but any chance I can persuade you to post them here as well so it can be part of the big discussion? cheers!

No sooner said than ...

[vampwillow]

Hi Paul,

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: Just out of interest...

[vampwillow]

in the vein of the first point I'd also have some worries about possible employers browsing your site where they would read (for example):
- I'm generally recognised to be a complete slut
- I'm a sadomasochist
- I'm a big fan of threesomes and group sex

My own experience has been that mentioning these things after you start a job usually works out fine, but employers look for ways to 'include you out' rather than 'in' and being as upfront about these areas might scare them off unduly even though once they've met you they'll understand and be reasonable. One of the reasons I'm mostly on LJ as vampwillow rather than posting the same subject areas under my real name.

It may not be a perfect separation but employers have a strong tendency to employ people like themselves / like the people already employed in that company. If you make a great noise about being a goth - sub - slut them that might scare them away at the point of first contact.

[babysimon]

Write it in MS Word.

No, I'm serious. When I got this job I wrote my CV in KWord and exported it to PDF. Recruitment consultants wouldn't touch it unless it was in MS Word format. I guess because they want to do some "judicious" editing...

Re: No sooner said than ...

[vampwillow]

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.

Re: Just out of interest...

[ajva.livejournal.com]

I disagree.

What Paul puts on his private site is his own business. It's not as if he is putting 'enjoy getting a damn good sadomasochistic seeing to' in the 'hobbies and other interests' section of his CV. Then, perhaps, a little toning down would be in order. I think his skills are good and valuable enough for his sexual preferences to be academic to his selection, even unofficially. This, however, is personal choice. But the main thing is that Paul is very good at getting on with people, and in my experience this means that colleagues are less likely to 'include [him] out', as you put it. Confidence goes a long way.

As far as mentioning bisexuality on his CV is concerned, it is in the context of organising a conference. This is relevant to jobsearch because it shows organisational competence, team-working ability and a willingness to take responsibility - aspects of Paul which are not necessarily evident from the rest of his extensive (excuse me for saying this) 'geek' CV.

Re: Just out of interest...

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I've decided to stay out about these things while job searching - it's so easy to find out with the slightest poking about on the Web that I might as well be brazen about it. Especially since it seemed to actively help me get the job I just left - not because the interviewer was a perv, but just because it made me memorable.

Re: Just out of interest...

[vampwillow]

just to clarify, I see nothing wrong with being open, not to say blatant (!), but was looking at this with a former employer's / interviewer's eye/mind. You can't always rely on the company being staffed by pervs (nice though that would be <g>!)

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Lots of recruitment twonks and even companies just do searches for buzzwords so would want a non-pdf.

I have no idea what the buzzwords are in Paul's field, but I recommend he make sure he's used them all!

[babysimon]

To be fair, I have participated in recruiting a couple of times, and obvious buzzword listing really puts me off.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Hur hur. You said "box of tools".

I have nothing constructive to add because I understood none of your cv. BUT what people said about having a word version all doubleplus good. I'd also start off with the real actual experience at the top rather than a chat - but that's just me. I've only ever hired admin type folk and then I'm lucky if they can even SPEL.

Hem hem.