Entries tagged 'Resume Advice'

  • The best way to list skills on your resume

    Posted Wednesday, January 25 2012 by Eugenia Sawa

    Dear JobsBlog: I've done it before, and I've seen it in virtually every resume that I come across. But let’s put the question to rest. What is your take on the famous "list of skills" like: "Programming lauguages: C#, Java, C++ Software Design: UML, Merise Services and Hosting: Web Services, WCF, OData, Windows Azure platform." Are they always good, always bad, or "it depends"? Should this list be included on a resume? If so, why? Thanks in advance!

    -List of Skills

    Dear List: As a Developer or Engineer, your main skill or trade is your ability to code, build, ship, optimize, test, and solve problems.  As recruiters we review a lot of resumes and  appreciate it when you include the arsenal of technical skills you have with regards to specific programming languages, database experience, and other tools/technologies.  So yes, you should include this information. With one caveat: what we don’t want to see are technologies listed you barely have experience with.  If you’ve used XML once and aren’t well versed in it, it is better to leave it off your resume. Anything you list is fair game to call out during a technical interview/screen.  It doesn’t bode well to list things you aren’t very familiar with. We know you have a lot to offer and that you have broad technical ability but we want it to be clear to us what you have done and what your areas of strengths are technically. For example, by your skills list alone we can tell if you’re a hard core Microsoft technologies engineer, someone who fully immersed in the mobile world, a UI Developer, or someone who is focused on the LAMP stack. 

    Beyond technical skills, if you have a strong ability or domain expertise in an area please call that out.  Without clearly listing this, we won’t know what your expertise is in, what jobs might best suited for you, and better yet what your technical background looks like.  Also if you have special skills such as experience with R, machine learning, data mining, Hadoop, or MapReduce to name a few, we would love to be able to see these skills listed clearly.  Writing a resume is not an easy or quick task however erring on the side of simplicity, getting straight to the point about what your contribution was for each job, and clearly citing your strong ability in certain technical areas is probably your safest bet. A resume is supposed to summarize your skills and experience on paper, it’s job is to get you that phone screen and interview.  Help us understand you on paper and get you to the next step in finding your new career.

    Good luck!
    Eugenia

  • Translating Military Experience to Real World Jobs

    Posted Wednesday, February 22 2012 by the JobsBloggers

    Sometimes we get questions that even our expert staff needs a little extra help answering. We are very lucky that we have so many talented recruiters at Microsoft to draw from. Today we have a special guest post from Joe Wallis who agreed to help us out with this question from a reader.

    Dear JobsBlog: I will finish my degree in Information Technology in a few months. Technically, I am inexperienced in the job market, but I have 11 years of experience in the Air Force. During those years I've set up SharePoint portal pages, developed databases, managed accounts etc. Basically, I've worked on computer systems and programs with no real focus but to "get the job done". My question is how do I use those skills I picked up in the military to make me appeal more to hiring managers, specifically Microsoft? - Very Eager Technologist

     

    Dear V.E.T. - That is a great question and we appreciate your interest in Microsoft. First of all, thank you for your service and Microsoft wishes you the best of luck in your career search!

    As you finish your degree in Information Technology and with your computer systems background in the Air Force, Microsoft is a great place to leverage your skills and a company that values your experience. Microsoft has a specific military/veteran recruiting program called Militay2Microsoft. We use the tagline “We Still Serve”. A great place to start engaging our program is at our website, www.westillserve.com. Our site has several functions that can assist in finding the right opportunities to match your experience. We have a MOS/AFSC/NEC decoder tool that will present you with open positions at Microsoft that best match your military specialty.

    Every Friday afternoon between 12 and 3 PM PST, you can chat with veterans at Microsoft through our website and find out how they made their transition to Microsoft. Veterans representing our internal Microsoft Military Community are available to answer your questions concerning a career at Microsoft.

    Our website also has a function to join our Talent Network and set up a search agent that will email you open positions that match your experience at whatever frequency you want. This is set up with keyword entries and is a great way see where your skills currently match to Microsoft open positions. I would also recommend you follow our social media sites at LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Our social pages are all named “We Still Serve” and can be found on our website.

    As our program presents numerous well qualified veterans to our staffing organization and our internal Military Microsoft community advocates within their businesses for veterans, hiring managers are becoming well aware of the great skills and experience our veterans bring to Microsoft. Again, good luck in your career search and we look forward to hearing from you.

    Regards,

    Joe