Re: Advice for mid-life career change (to programming)

"Joe Butler" <ffffh.no.spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:d7diq1$q5r$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> (Just my thoughts - might seem a bit harsh, but it's only my opinion.)
>
> You've got nothing to loose now in making sure your laptop has all the
> demos
> on it that you would like to show, and then calling the person every day
> until they give up and meet with you just to get you off their back. If
> they truly don't need you, then you might be able to find out why they
> didn't contact you previously. Easy to say, btw, I'd never be able to do
> it
> myself :-) but some people would, and it would work in their favor.
>
> Are you sure your demo sites are accessible?

They WERE - I tested them - they're not even hosted on the same site, so I
don't know what the problem is. It appears that a change has been made that
I am unaware of.

I'll have to check the logs, perhaps - see what's going on. That's weird

> http://www.dslextreme.com/~tony23/aquadyne/
> Parse error: parse error, unexpected '}' in /home/httpd/html/error.php on
> line 62
>
> Don't say, "Welcome" on your website.
>
> I think your web site banner is huge - look at it in comparison with some
> other sites.

Fair enough - I'll check that out, make some changes.

<...>

> I'm not an expert on CV's, particularly not for US and Canadian ones, but:
>
> If I read your CV, I'd have no idea about you, whatsoever - I don't even
> know how old you are - I see no education information (which makes me
> wonder
> if you were formally educated - not that that's immediatly a negative
> thing - it's the cover up that's negative).

There is no education because I have no formal education to speak of. Pretty
hard to include something you don't have :)

As for the rest - I've ALWAYS been told not to put personal information on a
resume, and I've had that echoed recently. That would include age & such.

> I don't know what a CompTIA A+ is.

Don't know if it's relevant

> I happen to know what BrainBench is, but how many people do? It also
> does
> not say how well you did in the certification (something like "20th
> percentile of all Canadians tested" would be a start - along with a link
> to
> your certification).

The "Master" level isn't enough for that? I've also never thought to put
links on a resume - but I'll consider that - it could help, I suppose.

> Check the file properties on Word (332 minutes and 18 edits on that
> document, author: someone, Company: someone).

Not sure what you're saying ...?

> Why do you say: "Manage and operate blah blah comptuer." Why not:
> "Successfully managed/operated installation's mainframe - which consisted
> of
> liasing with various departments, blah blah..." "Provided <insert upbeat
> positive adjective here> training..." "Implemented successful custom test
> programs which <insert positive descriptive comment about the positive
> effect of said program>.

OK - I can look some of that over, see about rephrasing. Seems to me like
you're basically saying it's dry?

> Computer assembly tech.
> This how I read that in my mind (and I'm sure that others will read it in
> the same way).
> "Assemble (doesn't sound like he did it himself) computer components and
> systems, install CPU, motherboard, memory, AGP & PCI video card...(blah
> blah
> blah - skip over all this samey stuff).

Interesting - it was a recruiter who suggested the list like that.

> What about, "Worked in all areas of HP's computer assembly production.
> Knowledge gained enabled me to provide computer support to various blah
> blah".
>
> (If you can push 1 type of card into a motherboard slot, you can push
> another kind in too.)
>
> You know 'Outlook Express' and 'Acrobat' - why are they even mentioned?

OK...

> There's no reason for anyone to think that you know assembly language, or
> for that matter C/C++ to any level that would be useful to someone wanting
> a
> C/C++ programmer - they are there with no backup (do Brainbench still do a
> free C programming test?).

Still working through the certifications - I have the subscription :)

> You need to provide links to the website that you were involved in and
> what
> you personally brought to it. E.g. Designed/advised on 'one-click'
> shopping
> cart, ensuring it was protected from various forms of exploit, etc.
>
> Some of the background on your original post gives me a picture in my mind
> of what to expect - but the CV is barren. Sorry, maybe this is a
> US/Canadian thing - but a CV like that (with no sparkle) would be dumped
> in
> the bin without a second glance.

I've long thought the resume is a major part of the problem, and you appear
to be confirming that - it's just really hard to know what to do with it,
especially when I keep getting contradicting info.

Do you think a professional resume service would be worthwhile?

Again, thanks for the input - I really appreciate the feedback - and I'll
have my sites working again soon as I'm done here...


.

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