Resume Critique
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I agree with Jared, keep the details on the resume sparse. It's just highlights.
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@jaredbusch said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
Expand on your points. What has consolidation provided to the business? What else have you setup? I'm sure going from 'N' aged servers to 'X' new hosts under support, has helped improve performance and reliability? Have you a second host with Hyper-V replica in place? Mention that...
None of that should be mentioned on the resume. that is detail stuff that you discuss in an interview.
From all my experience, at least here in the UK, leaving such things out put you in the bin pile, before even getting you to the position to discuss those things. The CV says 'Hyper-V', so what... If it doesn't give any actual details it's just a word anybody could have copied and pasted. Details are key.
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If you are just somebody that does a copy/paste on IT words, without any actual details, bin.
IMO, tell why you'd those things. If you say Hyper-V, and don't say why, you lose to the person that did.
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@jaredbusch said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
Expand on your points. What has consolidation provided to the business? What else have you setup? I'm sure going from 'N' aged servers to 'X' new hosts under support, has helped improve performance and reliability? Have you a second host with Hyper-V replica in place? Mention that...
None of that should be mentioned on the resume. that is detail stuff that you discuss in an interview.
From all my experience, at least here in the UK, leaving such things out put you in the bin pile, before even getting you to the position to discuss those things. The CV says 'Hyper-V', so what... If it doesn't give any actual details it's just a word anybody could have copied and pasted. Details are key.
That seems to be the difference between a CV and resume, is it not? The CV is designed to be a detailed history whereas the resume is supposed to be succinct.
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@eddiejennings said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@jaredbusch said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
Expand on your points. What has consolidation provided to the business? What else have you setup? I'm sure going from 'N' aged servers to 'X' new hosts under support, has helped improve performance and reliability? Have you a second host with Hyper-V replica in place? Mention that...
None of that should be mentioned on the resume. that is detail stuff that you discuss in an interview.
From all my experience, at least here in the UK, leaving such things out put you in the bin pile, before even getting you to the position to discuss those things. The CV says 'Hyper-V', so what... If it doesn't give any actual details it's just a word anybody could have copied and pasted. Details are key.
That seems to be the difference between a CV and resume, is it not? The CV is designed to be a detailed history whereas the resume is supposed to be succinct.
In the UK they are the same thing, I think. A one or two page document giving an overview. But, still with key details. As in:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
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@eddiejennings said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@jaredbusch said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
Expand on your points. What has consolidation provided to the business? What else have you setup? I'm sure going from 'N' aged servers to 'X' new hosts under support, has helped improve performance and reliability? Have you a second host with Hyper-V replica in place? Mention that...
None of that should be mentioned on the resume. that is detail stuff that you discuss in an interview.
From all my experience, at least here in the UK, leaving such things out put you in the bin pile, before even getting you to the position to discuss those things. The CV says 'Hyper-V', so what... If it doesn't give any actual details it's just a word anybody could have copied and pasted. Details are key.
That seems to be the difference between a CV and resume, is it not? The CV is designed to be a detailed history whereas the resume is supposed to be succinct.
No, two names, same thing.
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
No, the second isn't impressive, it is filler and speculative. It doesn't show that something smart was done, it compares what was done against abject incompetence. Hyper-V may be too little, but the subjective opinion as to value or adding in totally useless details look like desperate filler at best and outright deception or incompetence at worst. I would avoid this.
As a hiring manager what I see in a line like that is a poor understanding of the reasonable value comparisons combined with having worked in an environment where value is difficult to perceive because the bar is set so low.
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To give a similar example, a friend's husband is an "IT Director" at a firm and she swears that he is brilliant and does truly ground breaking IT work. But her sole example of her husband's brilliance that she repeats at every turn to show how five years of being an IT Director has paid off - he taught the office not to print out emails in hard copy.
That's it. Nothing technical or even IT related. Nothing impressive or difficult. All he did was apply a modicum of common sense and explain this to a company that, apparently, was so brain dead that they were actually doing something this dumb.
If he put "saved the company $50K in paper by implementing digital email usage" on a resume, we'd all laugh and laugh and never hire him.
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@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
No, the second isn't impressive, it is filler and speculative. It doesn't show that something smart was done, it compares what was done against abject incompetence. Hyper-V may be too little, but the subjective opinion as to value or adding in totally useless details look like desperate filler at best and outright deception or incompetence at worst. I would avoid this.
As a hiring manager what I see in a line like that is a poor understanding of the reasonable value comparisons combined with having worked in an environment where value is difficult to perceive because the bar is set so low.
We'll have to disagree here. One shows a word. The other shows some thought and deeper understanding. It's purpose isn't to sound impressive, but to show reason and some depth as to why the word is on the CV/resume.
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
No, the second isn't impressive, it is filler and speculative. It doesn't show that something smart was done, it compares what was done against abject incompetence. Hyper-V may be too little, but the subjective opinion as to value or adding in totally useless details look like desperate filler at best and outright deception or incompetence at worst. I would avoid this.
As a hiring manager what I see in a line like that is a poor understanding of the reasonable value comparisons combined with having worked in an environment where value is difficult to perceive because the bar is set so low.
We'll have to disagree here. One shows a word. The other shows some thought and deeper understanding.
I don't agree, it shows a misunderstanding. You can state that you did a consolidation project. But stating the savings suggests a huge misunderstanding of the project and how to evaluate it.
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
It's purpose isn't to sound impressive, but to show reason and some depth as to why the word is on the CV/resume.
The reason it should be on the resume is only to show experience as might be useful to the next employer. Explaining why the last employer needed it shows a misunderstanding of the purpose of a CV. Why would the next employer care about that factor that was not relevant to your skill nor relevant to them?
The CV has a context, and that context is demonstrating or suggesting value to a potential employer. Those opinionated value details show neither, but suggests a misunderstanding of both the project (lowering the value of the employee) and of the CV itself.
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@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
No, the second isn't impressive, it is filler and speculative. It doesn't show that something smart was done, it compares what was done against abject incompetence. Hyper-V may be too little, but the subjective opinion as to value or adding in totally useless details look like desperate filler at best and outright deception or incompetence at worst. I would avoid this.
As a hiring manager what I see in a line like that is a poor understanding of the reasonable value comparisons combined with having worked in an environment where value is difficult to perceive because the bar is set so low.
We'll have to disagree here. One shows a word. The other shows some thought and deeper understanding.
I don't agree, it shows a misunderstanding. You can state that you did a consolidation project. But stating the savings suggests a huge misunderstanding of the project and how to evaluate it.
It really doesn't. If you are unable to show savings made between solutions, and unable to show how your solution is better and saves money, then you are missing something critical.
A company doesn't care you consolidated. A company does care that you saved the board money which can then be reinvested or paid back to them. Money is the key.
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If you want to say that you have technical experience in Hyper-V, you just put Hyper-V. If you want to explain that that experience is limited to using it for consolidation, you add "Hyper-V for Consolidation." Those are the limits of the information that can be used positively by someone reading the CV.
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
No, the second isn't impressive, it is filler and speculative. It doesn't show that something smart was done, it compares what was done against abject incompetence. Hyper-V may be too little, but the subjective opinion as to value or adding in totally useless details look like desperate filler at best and outright deception or incompetence at worst. I would avoid this.
As a hiring manager what I see in a line like that is a poor understanding of the reasonable value comparisons combined with having worked in an environment where value is difficult to perceive because the bar is set so low.
We'll have to disagree here. One shows a word. The other shows some thought and deeper understanding.
I don't agree, it shows a misunderstanding. You can state that you did a consolidation project. But stating the savings suggests a huge misunderstanding of the project and how to evaluate it.
It really doesn't. If you are unable to show savings made between solutions, and able to show how your solution is better and saves money, then you are missing something critical.
You can't. He didn't compare it to KVM or Xen, it's being compared to "failure." This is my point. It's a false, opinion of value, not actual value. That's why it is SO important not to put it there. Because it shows both a certain level is misunderstanding of IT valuations or at least suggests it. How did Hyper-V save so much money compared to other options that are just as free? It looks like the resume writer is confused or just lying.
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@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
No, the second isn't impressive, it is filler and speculative. It doesn't show that something smart was done, it compares what was done against abject incompetence. Hyper-V may be too little, but the subjective opinion as to value or adding in totally useless details look like desperate filler at best and outright deception or incompetence at worst. I would avoid this.
As a hiring manager what I see in a line like that is a poor understanding of the reasonable value comparisons combined with having worked in an environment where value is difficult to perceive because the bar is set so low.
We'll have to disagree here. One shows a word. The other shows some thought and deeper understanding.
I don't agree, it shows a misunderstanding. You can state that you did a consolidation project. But stating the savings suggests a huge misunderstanding of the project and how to evaluate it.
It really doesn't. If you are unable to show savings made between solutions, and able to show how your solution is better and saves money, then you are missing something critical.
You can't. He didn't compare it to KVM or Xen, it's being compared to "failure." This is my point. It's a false, opinion of value, not actual value. That's why it is SO important not to put it there. Because it shows both a certain level is misunderstanding of IT valuations or at least suggests it. How did Hyper-V save so much money compared to other options that are just as free? It looks like the resume writer is confused or just lying.
It could equally show off hypervisors. That's not the point. The point is why any hypervisor bwas used... Why any consolidation was done.
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
A company doesn't care you consolidated. A company does care that you saved the board money which can then be reinvested or paid back to them. Money is the key.
Yes, money IS the key. Exactly why you don't want to put in easily disputed opinions of value based on abject failure as the comparison.
This is like being a taxi driver and every day claiming that you saved the company $30K by not driving your taxi into a brick wall. Sure, you COULD have driven the taxi into a brick wall and lost all that money. But "not failing" is not how you evaluate your value in IT (or anything.)
It's exactly because money matters that you never put something like this on a CV. And because they can't evaluate the internal decisions from the previous job, and are hiring you to do technical work that is applicable to them and not to the previous company, that you put what matters for THEIR money on the resume.
Remember also, saving $100K to a company with a $100K budget is a huge deal, to one with a billion dollar budget means nothing. All of the details that would make the savings meaningful are left out - which tells a hiring manager that money is not understood. Hence my concern - the last thing you want to do is demonstrate a lack of understanding of money when money is what matters.
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
No, the second isn't impressive, it is filler and speculative. It doesn't show that something smart was done, it compares what was done against abject incompetence. Hyper-V may be too little, but the subjective opinion as to value or adding in totally useless details look like desperate filler at best and outright deception or incompetence at worst. I would avoid this.
As a hiring manager what I see in a line like that is a poor understanding of the reasonable value comparisons combined with having worked in an environment where value is difficult to perceive because the bar is set so low.
We'll have to disagree here. One shows a word. The other shows some thought and deeper understanding.
I don't agree, it shows a misunderstanding. You can state that you did a consolidation project. But stating the savings suggests a huge misunderstanding of the project and how to evaluate it.
It really doesn't. If you are unable to show savings made between solutions, and able to show how your solution is better and saves money, then you are missing something critical.
You can't. He didn't compare it to KVM or Xen, it's being compared to "failure." This is my point. It's a false, opinion of value, not actual value. That's why it is SO important not to put it there. Because it shows both a certain level is misunderstanding of IT valuations or at least suggests it. How did Hyper-V save so much money compared to other options that are just as free? It looks like the resume writer is confused or just lying.
It could equally show off hypervisors. That's not the point. The point is why any hypervisor bwas used... Why any consolidation was done.
It's exactly the point. A hypervisor should already have been used, if consolidation was needed, this suggests bad things. Why was consolidation not already done? This isn't "a big improvement" over something good. This is "fixing a major failing." Who created that failing in the first place and why is it there?
The logic here is that your resume should look better if you work for awful companies and bring them closer to baseline competence rather than doing amazing work at amazing companies? That doesn't make sense. And I don't know any hiring manager that would agree that "creating big problems them fixing them minimally" should look better than just doing a good job in the first place.
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@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
A company doesn't care you consolidated. A company does care that you saved the board money which can then be reinvested or paid back to them. Money is the key.
Yes, money IS the key. Exactly why you don't want to put in easily disputed opinions of value based on abject failure as the comparison.
This is like being a taxi driver and every day claiming that you saved the company $30K by not driving your taxi into a brick wall. Sure, you COULD have driven the taxi into a brick wall and lost all that money. But "not failing" is not how you evaluate your value in IT (or anything.)
It's exactly because money matters that you never put something like this on a CV. And because they can't evaluate the internal decisions from the previous job, and are hiring you to do technical work that is applicable to them and not to the previous company, that you put what matters for THEIR money on the resume.
Remember also, saving $100K to a company with a $100K budget is a huge deal, to one with a billion dollar budget means nothing. All of the details that would make the savings meaningful are left out - which tells a hiring manager that money is not understood. Hence my concern - the last thing you want to do is demonstrate a lack of understanding of money when money is what matters.
That taxi example is just silly. Why are you saying I'm comparing to failure? No failure here. I'm saying by explaining in a brief way what was done and why, is far better than just listing a word. Anybody can send me a page listing various words in IT. I care not for that. I want a short reason of why that word was listed to actually show some depth.
Like I said, we'll have to disagree on this one.
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What we are looking at here is simple, baseline job requirements. Industry best practices. Running a big consolidation project takes effort and creates experience. That's worth showing. Real numbers, facts.
The "savings" are pure opinion and only exist by taking an arbitrary failure state (buying tons of unneeded servers, over buying licenses, not following simple best practices or common sense) and using that failure as a gauge for success. That's completely crazy.
Since it is an arbitrary failure point, why not double it? For example... in this case sixteen servers were consolidated to one saving $150K. But since the failure decision was never made, why not assume that they would be even more foolish and buy thirty two servers and the savings here is $300K? Where do you stop when the comparison is against "irrational failure"?
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
A company doesn't care you consolidated. A company does care that you saved the board money which can then be reinvested or paid back to them. Money is the key.
Yes, money IS the key. Exactly why you don't want to put in easily disputed opinions of value based on abject failure as the comparison.
This is like being a taxi driver and every day claiming that you saved the company $30K by not driving your taxi into a brick wall. Sure, you COULD have driven the taxi into a brick wall and lost all that money. But "not failing" is not how you evaluate your value in IT (or anything.)
It's exactly because money matters that you never put something like this on a CV. And because they can't evaluate the internal decisions from the previous job, and are hiring you to do technical work that is applicable to them and not to the previous company, that you put what matters for THEIR money on the resume.
Remember also, saving $100K to a company with a $100K budget is a huge deal, to one with a billion dollar budget means nothing. All of the details that would make the savings meaningful are left out - which tells a hiring manager that money is not understood. Hence my concern - the last thing you want to do is demonstrate a lack of understanding of money when money is what matters.
That taxi example is just silly.
My point exactly, it's silly exactly like this is.
