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


"Tony" <someone@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:119np4o91ln897e@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "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 :)

Is it not normal in your country to list the schools that you went to, even
if you didn't take any exams? If you didn't go to school, then I don't know
what would be best. All I can say is that not listing that information on a
British CV would probably be considered odd.

Even 19xx - 19xx So and so High School - Smallville, Canada (or whatever -
shows you have a background).

>
> As for the rest - I've ALWAYS been told not to put personal information on
a
> resume, and I've had that echoed recently.

I'm not saying, personal as in 'I like baking bread the traditional way at
weekends'. I mean that I have absolutely no idea in my head of who you are,
what makes you tick, what motivates you, how get up and go you are.

> That would include age & such.

Maybe there's a reason not to include age in your country (legislative?) -
but this can be estimated from various sources, including the education.
However, it's just considered 'polite' in the UK (so that the reader does
not have to do the mental calculation - make it easy to carry on reading the
20th CV that they've seen that morning). Make it easy to carry on reading
your CV.

>
> > I don't know what a CompTIA A+ is.
>
> Don't know if it's relevant

If it's a well-known certification, then it was an irrelevant comment,
otherwise is it just as meaningless to your CV's reader as it was to me?

>
> > 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?

Maybe it is - but to be honest, I was skimming it because there was nothing
keeping my interest.

> I've also never thought to put
> links on a resume - but I'll consider that - it could help, I suppose.

When I used the brainbench C cert that I got, I didn't link - but I put a
small brainbench thumnail graphic in the top right hand corner of the CV and
made reference elsewhere to my percentile score (which was quite high). No
one seemed to complain.

>
> > Check the file properties on Word (332 minutes and 18 edits on that
> > document, author: someone, Company: someone).
>
> Not sure what you're saying ...?

It might look like you're slow or don't show attention to detail if you send
the CV out electronically.
>
> > 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?

Very 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.

To anyone that knows what these things are, the list is over the top -
they'll get the idea from 'complete computer assembly'. To someone that
don't know what these things are, it may not sound as good as you think -
they may just glaze over. Maybe as a compromise mention a few, but put an
all encompasing clause in there too. (My opinion - no strong reason to
disagree with what you've already done, though).

The thing about 'recruiters' is they ask questions like, "Do you have PCB?",
"Do you have DLL?" - which are just silly, cos they often don't know the
industry that you are targeting. So, a list of motherboard cards just sound
like useful keywords to them - they don't really know what they are asking
you to put. (again, my opinion).

>
> > 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 an internet search - find _50_ online CVs (don't look at them until you
have all 50). Now print them out. Then sit down when you're feeling
_stressed_ and need to be somewhere else in 3 hours and read through them
with the intent of choosing your favorite 3 to bring in for interview (all
the time working out which ones are just keeping their toes in the water,
which ones are serious, which ones are probably a waste of your time, etc.).
The ones that get your attention, put in one pile and the others put in a
pile called 'bin'.

At the end, analyse the difference and emulate the good ones.

>
> Do you think a professional resume service would be worthwhile?

I have no idea - I'd go to a book shop and get a 'write your own CV' book
first. Flip thru a few and pick that one that you find yourself nodding
your head and going, "Yes, I see".

>
> 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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