The quoted text is a classic example of not talking to your audience, i.e. the person who is actually able to sign your paycheck and who wants to know "what do I get?"
Take the first item:
I've created a Linux distro of my own. Original and
not a fork. See articles on website.
How did this help anybody? Did it save the company time? Give them a competitive advantage? Did it increase server uptime, increase developer productivity, increase the price of the packaged product? SHOW ME THE MONEY.
A targeted resume, intended to present me as a specialist in Linux, would zoom in and do precisely this.
However, if I tried to add this level of detail to everything on the resume at once, I'd end up with dozens of pages. Remember that I've done hundreds of projects.
In the 1990s, I tried to produce a complete resume. The result was a short novel :P I'm kidding, but it did take me years to get the thing down to a single page.
> However, if I tried to add this level of detail to
> everything on the resume at once, I'd end up with dozens
> of pages...
If we saw a function in a program that was twelve pages long, we'd think there was a problem: The code is trying to do too many things at once.
Resumes are a bit trickier because they have several purposes these days:
1. It lets the hiring manager *quickly* scan the resume
to see if it's a good fit for
an *already open* position.
2. It lets the recruiter/HR database index all of
the keywords for future candidate searches.
3. It lets hiring manager use it as a template
for *creating* a job description to give to the
HR manager that they've already selected
the candidate to fill.
Note that (1) and (2) presume that you're applying for a job the traditional, ineffective way. (3) presumes that you've actually had a face-to-face conversation with the hiring manager, have convinced them that you can help out, and left them with a copy of your resume as a courtesy. You definitely want to be doing (3). (There are many, many books and articles on how to tap into the "hidden" job market that will help you with (3).)
So is the resume supposed to be "how can I make money for the company?" I thought that the resume was supposed to present the skills of the candidate to the person looking to fill a role. If said role already exists at the company, than the definition of how this role will generate revenue for the company should already be fairly well defined (or they wouldn't be looking to spend money on hiring someone).
Maybe this is the difference between applying for an open position, and cold-pitching yourself to a company?
> I thought that the resume was supposed to present the skills of the candidate to the person looking to fill a role.
It's always about making money for the company. (Or making your hiring manager's life easier.) Filling a role is just a means to the end of making money.
Take the first item:
How did this help anybody? Did it save the company time? Give them a competitive advantage? Did it increase server uptime, increase developer productivity, increase the price of the packaged product? SHOW ME THE MONEY.reply