Resume Items

Heather Marie is applying for a grant or scholarship or similar to go to a state museum conference later this year, so I've been helping her with her resume off and on all evening, which has made me think about my own. I don't anticipate needing mine anytime soon, but it's a useful way to take stock of what my career looks like so far.

I have a hard time helping with Heather's resume. Liberal arts resumes tend to be pretty verbose. More like a curriculum vitae, really. In tech fields, though, the shorter the better -- ideally just your contact information and a list of interesting things you've done. Ideally, at least. I guess if the goal is to slip your resume past the clueless HR, then the usual lists of superfluous blather are important. Personally, I think my goal is to do things that are interesting enough that my resume is really short, and hopefully impressive enough to the people whose impressions really count that the HR guys won't ever even get to see it. Something along the lines of:

Ryan Wells
(contact info)
Developed/Researched/Invented SuperInterestingThing

Yes, I realize that there are probably less than two dozen computer scientists in the world who could do that, but there's nothing wrong with wanting to join them! :-)