EasyResume™
(Version 2.4 - 12/9/94)
A
resume composition outline and sample resume for experienced Software
Engineering professionals.
© Copyright 1994 by Integrated Resource Search, Inc. dba Lee Johnson
International. All rights reserved.
PLEASE
SEND US A COPY OF YOUR COMPLETED EasyResume™.
When
we receive your completed EasyResume™,
we will send you EasyOffers™, our interview advice outline based
on our observations of interviews since 1972.
DOWNLOAD
a template of EasyResume™
(MS word format)
and get started on the road to a successfull career.
WHY
YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE A CURRENT RESUME
The best time to investigate new opportunities is when you don't have
to! Keeping your career moving upward should be a continuing activity,
not just something you do when you decide (or are forced) to "look around."
What you should do is map-out a definite CAREER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM!
The first step in establishing a CAREER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM is to
prepare a good resume ....... our EasyResume™.
There are several good reasons for having a current resume other than
looking for another job:
(1) at review time, you can show your boss all the extra things
you have done (in addition to your job description duties) so your boss
can justify giving you an above average raise;
(2) when you get a new boss, or are trying to persuade a candidate to
accept your offer (both of whom should know all the extra work you do
that's not in your Job Description, as well as your accomplishments at
other companies);
(3) when your company has a reorganization;
(4) when you are asked to be on a technical conference panel, and the
moderator needs information to introduce you properly;
(5) when you apply for a big loan (it's very effective to attach your
resume to the loan application);
(6) when an exceptional opportunity comes along;
(7) a resume prepared when you are employed will probably reflect a higher
self-esteem than if prepared when you are under pressure to look for another
job. If you update and polish your resume annually, it will be much more
effective than one thrown together on the spur-of-the-moment.
Nevertheless, most people only think about their resume when they are
considering changing jobs. As a result, many deficient, flawed, and poorly
constructed resumes are in circulation today, and many people are not
achieving their goals and career growth potential.
AN
EXPLANATION OF OUR RESUME PHILOSOPHY
A resume may well be the single most important representation of a professional's
career. Many well qualified candidates never even get to first base (the
interview) because they were screened out due to an inadequate resume.
Having been in the recruiting business since 1972, we have observed that
the vast majority of resumes do a very poor job of describing the significant
ACCOMPLISHMENTS of a software professional. The reason for this
is that most resumes describe RESPONSIBILITIES rather than ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
(It seems that most people just copy their job descriptions out of their
company's Job Description Manual!) A mere description of your responsibilities
doesn't say whether or not you accomplished them successfully -- and it
certainly doesn't show the phenomenal things you did to accomplish them!
For example, don't just say you were responsible for writing software
for controlling a robot: say you wrote 8,000 lines of C++, using Rumbaugh's
Object Modeling and Design methodology, under UNIX on a SUN, and integrated
it into a 100,000 line project, then ported it to a VAX, and shipped it
on time.
IT'S
YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS, AND HOW YOU ACHIEVED THEM, THAT GET YOU INTERVIEWS
AND OFFERS!
By following the EasyResume™
outline precisely, your resume will be quite long. (Four or five pages
is average.) Do NOT let this bother you! Look upon what you are producing
as the master database of ALL your SIGNIFICANT accomplishments, from which
you can produce a resume tailored to each specific position for which
you apply.
SHORT VS. LONG RESUMES: There are two kinds of resumes: one to attract
attention; the other to inform. The short form is best when you don't
have anyone to perform the attention-getting function, and the resume
is probably in a stack of 200 resumes that is being mindlessly screened
by a non-technical person with a list of buzz words. The long form is
best when the technical hiring manager's attention has already been called
to you by your headhunter. If the manager is interested in interviewing
you, he/she usually wants to know the details of your significant accomplishments
so he/she can interview you intelligently. To the extent that the manager
is "pre-sold" before you walk in the door, the interview will go more
smoothly. Also, your headhunter needs to know as much as possible about
you in order to present you effectively, and only bring appropriate opportunities
to your attention.
What follows is an outline that encourages you to concentrate on your
ACCOMPLISHMENTS and produce an EasyResume™. But first,
let's look at a sample EasyResume™:
Sample
EasyResume™
Software Wizard
123 Main St.,
Anytown, CA 94124 Home phone: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
Office phone: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
EDUCATION
B.S. Math - Rice University, Houston, TX - 1980. GPA 3.8/4.0
EXPERTISE
SUMMARY
Generic
Application/System Software Development Expertise
Extensive:
* Interactive, source-level, symbolic debuggers for UNIX systems.
* Graphical user interfaces, especially using X and Motif.
* Portable software, across operating systems and hardware architectures.
* Distributed applications using a client/server model.
* Multiprocess applications using lightweight threads.
Moderate:
* Pascal/Modula-2 compilers.
* Configuration management systems.
* Kernel debuggers, debuggers for parallel or highly-optimized code.
Hardware
& Operating Systems
Extensive:
* DEC VAX under UNIX.
* MIPS R2000/R3000 under UNIX.
* Apple Macintosh under S/6.0 & 7.0.
Moderate:
* Intel 386 running MS-DOS or SCO UNIX.
* DEC VAX under VMS.
Languages
and Tools
Extensive:
* C, C++, X window system, Motif, SunView, YACC, LEX, ksh, csh, dbx, Saber-C,
Emacs.
Moderate:
* DCL, Pascal, Modula-2.
Networks
& Protocols
Extensive:
* TCP/IP, UDP, X window system wire protocol.
Software Wizard - Page two
Academic
Understanding & Potential Abilities
* SQL/Ingres, Courier RPC, XEROX D-Machines, Mesa, Pilot, Apple Macintosh.
PROFESSIONAL
EMPLOYMENT
Foobar
Technologies - Softwareville, CA -- 1/85 - Present
Principal
Engineer
Senior technical member of the company's R&D laboratory. Currently responsible
for the architecture and implementation of a source-level C++ (AT&T 2.1)
debugger for Sun SPARCstations under SunOS (UNIX).
Major
Accomplishments
C++
Debugger (6/90 - Present):
As architect and chief implementor for the C++ debugger, have day-to-day
responsibility for all major architectural decisions for the debugger.
Along with three other full time engineers, two consultants, and a writer,
have brought the C++ debugger from initial concept up through delivery
to customers. We are the first full symbolic debugger for C++ available
on SUN platforms, and the only debugger on any platform to fully support
all features of C++ in the debugging of production programs. Results:
The debugger has succeeded in demonstrating the viability of independent
window and command line user interfaces to the same debugger, without
having to resort to such clumsy artifices as a window "veneer" over a
simple command line interface. It is written entirely in C++ and is portable
across a wide range of C++ dialects, hardware platforms, and versions
of UNIX. Our use of object-oriented design has allowed us to keep the
implementation very easy to maintain, without sacrificing functionality.
We set out to make the debugger hardware architecture independent, operating
system independent, and user-interface independent. As a result of our
work, SUN is in a position to offer a premier C++ program development
environment on its systems, enhancing our CASE offering, facilitating
porting of applications to and from our platforms, and leveraging engineering
talent internally.
Xt
Toolkit Intrinsics (2/88 - 6/90):
As architect and chief implementor of the Xt toolkit intrinsics for the
X window system, responsible (with three other engineers) for the design,
implementation, and delivery of the intrinsics to the MIT X Consortium.
Personally responsible for much of the design of the Xt intrinsics, and
the implementation of large parts of the library including event and translation
management, and the resource manager, as well as the design most of the
class and inheritance mechanism. Also personally ported and tested the
intrinsics on IBM MVS after the initial implementation under SUN UNIX.
We developed the Xt intrinsics on SUN UNIX using the PCC C compiler, Emacs,
dbx, rcs, lint, and Saber-C. We worked closely with the groups developing
the first implementations of the X window system server, and groups using
the Xt intrinsics to develop the first widget sets. A significant challenge
was the development of a portable classing mechanism in C. Results: The
UNIX workstation industry has standardized on the Xt toolkit intrinsics
we developed as the basis for graphical user
interfaces for UNIX workstations. Motif, Open Look, and SunView all use
the Xt intrinsics. As a result, the company's reputation as a provider
of X window system platforms, and its workstation business has directly
benefited. I was the first engineer in the company's UNIX organization
ever promoted to Principal Engineer, a promotion that was a direct result
of my work on the toolkit.
Other
activities:
Conducting tutorials both at the X conference and inside the company on
X toolkit programming and writing X widgets. Currently a member of X/Open's
User Interface working group, and the X/Open Technical Committee on Graphical
User Interfaces. Was also active in the X consortium.
Earlier work at Foobar involved porting UNIX to a RISC machine.
ENGINEERS-R-US
INC. - Disk City, CA -- 1/83 - 12/84
Senior
Member of the Technical Staff
Senior engineer in the Workstation Group of the company's Systems Development
Division. Was responsible for the symbolic debugger.
Major
Accomplishments
Symbolic
Debugger (1/83 - 12/84):
While personally maintaining and enhancing the existing the symbolic language
debugger, completed a design and began to implement a significant revision
that would allow the debugger to cleanly debug multi-threaded applications
running on 68030 UNIX workstations. The technical challenge was to allow
the debugger to be simultaneously debugging multiple threads, each running
asynchronously, while presenting a single user interface to the user.
This design required an internally multi-threaded architecture, and to
allow the user to interactively make arbitrary calls into a running program
required extremely careful design. Used the workstation's language (a
predecessor to Modula-2) and workstations for my work. Results: Debugging
multi-threaded applications is often an arcane art. Bugs are often obscure
and unrepeatable. This debugger for multi-threaded applications significantly
reduced the amount of time needed to develop good multi-threaded applications.
Reason for leaving: Most of the Workstation Group left at the same
time to form a new company. I was one of those founding members.
EIEIO
TECHNOLOGIES - Capslock, TX -- 3/82 - 1/83
Consultant
Hired as a consultant to implement a Pascal/Assembly language debugger
for a new microcomputer. Had full design and implementation responsibility
for this debugger, and worked closely with my client's employees working
on the operating system, as well as other outside contractors implementing
the Pascal compiler.
Reason for leaving: Contract complete.
BLAZING
COMPUTERS, INC. - Capslock, TX -- 6/80 - 2/82
Principal
Engineer
Responsible for design and implementation of the Pascal compiler for a
new VAX/VMS-like timesharing super-minicomputer.
Was a member of the ANSI Pascal standards committee, and the ISO International
Pascal Experts Committee.
SUPPLEMENTAL
EMPLOYMENT
S.
Software Wizard CONSULTING - Anytown, CA -- 9/79 - Present
Owner of a small sideline software consulting business. Designed and implemented
a small and fast parser generator for LR(k) grammars (Syntax/Semantics
Language), a grammar analyzer for Extended Backus-Naur Form language specifications,
and a disassembler for the Motorola MC68000 on a DEC PDP-11 under UNIX
V7, all in S/SL and C on the Apple Macintosh.
EMPLOYMENT
DURING SCHOOL
Computer
Programmer ---- 1976 - 1980
Worked during college as a programmer at various jobs on and off campus.
- UCSD Pascal project doing programming on early bitmap display minicomputers.
- Data format conversion for the Center for Music Research on campus,
moving data from Burroughs B6700 and CDC 7600 system to Digital PDP-11's.
- Programming for the on-campus course and professor evaluation organization
including data reduction and statistical analysis on UCSD's Burroughs
B6700 in Algol.
- Programmer at XYZ Corporation designing and implementing small college
management custom software packages including custom databases, scheduling,
general ledger and accounts receivable on timesharing computers.
PUBLICATIONS
"Pascal
for the VAX", Journal of Computer Languages, October 1981.
ANSI Pascal Standards, June 1981 (with M. Wirehead and H. Chipps).
FOREIGN
LANGUAGES
Fluent in German.
Can read Serbo-Croatian.
COMMERCIAL
TRAINING COURSES
"X
widgets internals", ToolTrack International, March 8-12 1988.
SECURITY
CLEARANCE
Secret Clearance issued 1981, not currently active.
HOBBIES/OUTSIDE
INTERESTS
Fishing, skiing, cooking.
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