Punchcode Programming Bootcamp, Day 63

A day without code?

Today was focused almost entirely on my resume. I'd always felt that my resume was pretty weak because I've never been good at explaining the things I can do. For example, when I lived in Japan I was a Performance Supervisor. My main role was to make sure that all of the teachers in my area were following the curriculum and performing at a high level. Almost like a "Head Teacher". But there were many HR functions involved in that role as well, such as disciplinary meetings, scheduling, curriculum creation, and so on. Not to mention that it was a bilingual position because a majority of the teaching staff, and almost the entire student population, are Japanese and English is not their first language.

When looking at my resume it is very easy to dismiss my work as that of a "teacher" (not to dismiss the work of teachers, but when you are hiring for a tech position it is easy to make a snap judgement about an applicant and move on to the next resume). But my role had a lot more responsibility than even my job title would insinuate. I think that if someone took a few minutes to look over my resume and read into the experience and how it could translate to their situation I would have gotten more interviews in my time. Alas, resumes are not about getting a job they are about getting an interview.

That is probably one of the biggest takeaways I've gotten from the Punchcode career counseling. Resumes are no place for nuance or deep reading. Be bold, be clear, be truthful and be relevant.

As a result I've done more work in the past couple of days on my resume than in the previous year or so. And those changes are crafting a resume that is easy to understand at a glance and shows the things I have done.

Now I believe that a resume is a living document that needs to be tended to and updated every once in awhile. So my work is hardly done. But whereas my old resume was comparable to a lovable but dirty mutt at the kennel who hangs out at the back of the cage, my current resume is more like a nicely bathed and groomed pooch with irresistible puppy-dog eyes and a cute scarf. Who wouldn't want to give it a chance? Especially with that scarf!

When working with a career counselor at your bootcamp (assuming your bootcamp even offers that option), understand that building a resume is a two-way street. Your counselor can give feedback on the things you've already written but it is important for you to also let your counselor know the things you've done that aren't on there yet. You could be sitting on some great experience that a tech company would love to leverage but because you took it for granted you just didn't highlight it on your resume.

Case in point, my resume previously listed my job title as "Lead Butler". Take a minute to imagine what that job would be. Now what if I told you that my daily role was to coordinate and manage a staff of about 30 people across 3 departments, interview new hires, schedule teams, train and work with managers in other departments across a company with thousands of employees? So making sure that my job description was the highlight meant making my job title a lot more generic so that people don't get hung up on that mental image of what a "Lead Butler" does.

Along with a few other points on my resume that needed changing and now I feel like I've got a resume that sells me a spot at the interview table. There aren't too many projects and there isn't much tech work experience to list, but that comes with time.

Or I could just scrap the entire thing and go with the obvious choice...