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boylett
7y

Stop using progress bars on your résumé/CV!

Back when we were looking for people to join us, we got hundreds of résumés in the mail and online, and I saw so many of them using these progress bars to indicate competency in a particular skill or programming language.

Yknow what that says to me, and to my colleagues?

"Yeah, I'm ok at this, but I'm even worse at THIS"

Your résumé is about selling yourself!
We don't want someone who's '68%' in Photoshop or '82%' in JavaScript. We want someone who knows they're good at what they do and knows they can learn if they need to.

You might feel like you're being 'big headed', but that's what a good resume SHOULD be! Sell yourself to be as if you're the solution to all of my problems and you might just get a job!

Rant over.

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Comments
  • 16
    7y
    Don't sell yourself. Sell your time :/
  • 2
    7y
    @martikyan A lot of young, up-and-coming developers don't have time to sell, but I would expect seasoned devs to steer clear of progress bars either way
  • 9
    7y
    The bars are supposed to be seen as relative to one another. For instance, I want to mention on my resume that I know my way around PHP, but I don't want anyone thinking I'm just as good at PHP as I am at CSS.

    Do you have an alternative solution for that?
  • 30
    7y
    Look at my cv and tell me this isnt how one should look like

    https://razorsh4rk.github.io/
  • 2
    7y
    @spritanium don’t mention PHP then, only want you want to do.

    I had to edit because listing both caused me to misremember which one you wanted to do.
  • 7
    7y
    @spritanium
    Main stack: css, js, picking my nose
    Other stack: php, haskell, flicking the snot
  • 1
    7y
    @sharktits Wow I totally want to do something like this now. What do you do when someone requests a PDF though?
  • 1
    7y
    @spritanium What I would do is list it as a skill and talk through my knowledge in the interview. Gives me something else to talk about and I can communicate it in a way that doesn't undermine my other skills.

    @sharktits Good God, it's beautiful! 🤩
  • 3
    7y
    @spritanium im gonna add some css to apply when printing (yeah you can do that), so i can send them that.
  • 2
    7y
    @sharktits Ah, print styles. Very underutilized. Cool idea though, hope you don't mind if I steal the general concept, lol.
  • 2
    7y
    @spritanium make sure to ping me when done, would love to see it haha.

    But also your cv site thing is gorgeous, i wish i could make designs like that
  • 2
    7y
    @sharktits Thank you! I'm in that weird middle ground where I know a lot of code and a lot of design, but not enough of either one 🤔
  • 3
    7y
    So what you’re saying is, if I use them, set them all to 100% 🤣
  • 11
    7y
    @C0D4 Just to be extra clear, start off at 100% and go from there.

    Ruby? 512%!
  • 9
    7y
    @Root Sorry, for this position we're looking for someone who is at least 600% good at Ruby.
  • 1
    7y
    @sharktits

    Probably the coolest idea i have heard of!
  • 0
    7y
    @gitpurge fuck me
  • 3
    7y
    @Root ++ for a power of two 😉
  • 0
    7y
    @Bitwise Then your probation will prove whether you are the right fit for the job or not. Employers are always taking a risk employing anyone - it's entirely possible to completely fabricate a résumé (which has happened to us in the past too!)
  • 2
    7y
    I would accept the progress bars in a fresh grad's CV, as it's better than nothing if s/he has hardly any work experience yet. But if you've been working for a while now, I'd like to see facts highlighting your competency, ex. Helped develop 10 web apps that have made it to live production release, then break down your contributions, like you did the backend part using so and so languages, you did unit testing, etc.
  • 0
    7y
    @Bitwise Exactly. So all the more reason to focus on a job YOU know you'll be good at - a PHP focused role, for example, isn't going to need 50% of jQuery
  • 0
    7y
    @Brosyl you get a score for around 10 pieces, yeah i know that bug but i have no idea why does it happen :/
  • 0
    7y
    No1 reads resumes, people just scroll to section with your LinkedIn profile and your GitHub repo.
  • 0
    7y
    @PAKA I get the feeling that the design of the resume is often more important than the actual content. Just making something that "pops" is probably enough to get noticed.
  • 0
    7y
    I did that too, but just because it looked nice on paper.
    Writing that you are a professional or intermidiate can also be a lie, so maybe you feel like progressbars are a better way of showing your skillevel.

    Plus: whats written on paper does not have to reflect reality.
  • 0
    7y
    @spritanium Why would you need to get noticed? You almost never have to make the first move, once someone gets 1+ year of experience recruiters start harassing you with offers.
  • 0
    7y
    @sharktits is one of the items under experience supposed to have an underscore when the others don’t?
  • 0
    4y
    If I prepare a resume myself, it will turn out to be quite unsightly, so it is better to use such editors.
  • 0
    3y
    A good resume is the key to a successful career. Proven on my own experience. I had a period when I could not find a normal job at all and no one responded to my resume. I wrote it with a quick hand and sent it to many vacancies. Somehow my friend accidentally saw it and explained what my problem was. He recommended me a website https://resumeservicescan.com/resum... and I decided to try to order my resume there. When I compared mine and this documents, I understood why I could not find a job for so long.
  • 0
    3y
    It's interesting, thanks!
  • 0
    3y
    @RandyEverman87 The article is the thing that everyone should think of.
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