<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div style="" class=""><span style="" class="">A good set of tips for any job-hunting programmer. But speaking as a Perl-exclusive employer, I can tell you that the Houston market for top-notch Perl coders is tight enough right now that I hardly bother to filter candidates by resume any more. I just glance at the resume to check that it mentions Perl a few times in some non-trivial way, and then I offer an interview. The candidate codes during the interview, and that's really the best way I can judge. For me, at least, it's all about the coding. But the big companies do filter your resume through a hiring manager, and, yes, they're generally clueless. Also bear in mind that most big companies only do "light scripting" in Perl, so you have to think about what
kind of job you want.<br style=""></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;" class=""><span style="" class=""><br style="" class=""></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;" class=""><span style="" class="">Professional recruiters and hiring managers tend to rely more on degrees, experience, and other "paper" qualifications (because they have to), and that's why I don't use them. I've encountered too many instances where a young candidate with no degree, no professional experience, and a crappy resume would code circles around other candidates with 20 years' experience. This doesn't seem to happen so much with C++ and the like.
I'm thinking this </span><span style="" class="">problem might be unique to the Perl market, since most places only use Perl for "light scripting" (automation, QA, etc) -- and not even 20 years of light scripting will prepare you for "real" Perl coding at a Perl-exclusive company. The Perl market is bifurcated. So I'm highly aware that my candidates' resumes can mislead, particularly on Perl skills. I do skim briefly for markers of deeper knowledge: open source involvement, </span><span style="" class=""><span style="" class=""><span style="" class=""><span style="" class=""></span>projects beyond light scripting, </span>specific CPAN modules mentioned, </span>etc. But this is still unreliable, and, frankly, there are few enough actual Perl candidates in (or willing to move to) Houston that I can afford to just interview them all. Honestly, I pay more attention to the cover letter than the resume (if it's tailored to my job
posting); those are rare, and a good idea.<br style="" class=""></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;" class=""><span style="" class=""><br style="" class=""></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;" class=""><span style="" class="">One last note: any candidate willing to relocate will have a huge advantage in the market. It's by far the single largest limiting factor I've encountered in my search. If I accepted telecommuting candidates, then I'd probably have to hire a recruiter to filter through the great hordes of programmers worldwide trying to telecommute. If you do want to telecommute, then you might consider reading
that slideshow carefully, because you'll need an optimal resume. Just my opinion, though. ;-)<br style="" class=""></span></div><div class="" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br style="" class=""><span style="" class=""></span></div><div class="" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span style="" class="">Damon Hastings</span></div><div class="" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span style="" class="">CTO, BookTrolls, LLC</span></div><div class="" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family:
HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span style="" class=""><a style="" class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/damon-hastings/5/630/309">https://www.linkedin.com/pub/damon-hastings/5/630/309</a><br style="" class=""></span></div><div class="" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br style="" class=""><span style="" class=""></span></div><div class="" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span style="" class=""><br style="" class=""></span></div> <div class="qtdSeparateBR"><br><br></div><div style="display: block;" class="yahoo_quoted"> <div class="" style="font-family:
HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <div class="" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <div style="" class="" dir="ltr"> <font style="" class="" size="2" face="Arial"> On Monday, November 10, 2014 8:01 AM, G. Wade Johnson via Houston <houston@pm.org> wrote:<br style="" class=""> </font> </div> <blockquote class="" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> <br style="" class=""><br style="" class=""> <div style="" class="">On Mon, 10 Nov 2014 06:34:22 -0600<br style="" class="" clear="none">"B. Estrade via Houston" <<a style="" class="" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:houston@pm.org" href="mailto:houston@pm.org">houston@pm.org</a>> wrote:<br style="" class="" clear="none"><br style="" class="" clear="none">> I just happened to see this on HN.<br
style="" class="" clear="none">> <br style="" class="" clear="none">> These slides use a Perl-heavy resume as an example and seem to have<br style="" class="" clear="none">> some very good tips.<br style="" class="" clear="none">> <br style="" class="" clear="none">> <a style="" class="" shape="rect" href="http://www.slideshare.net/perlcareers/how-to-write-a-developer-cvrsum-that-will-get-you-hired" target="_blank">http://www.slideshare.net/perlcareers/how-to-write-a-developer-cvrsum-that-will-get-you-hired</a><br style="" class="" clear="none"><br style="" class="" clear="none">Thanks for posting this.<br style="" class="" clear="none"><br style="" class="" clear="none">I was really expecting this to be bad. As someone who has done<br style="" class="" clear="none">interviewing and hiring in the past, I've seen some really lousy resume<br style="" class="" clear="none">advice.<br style="" class="" clear="none"><br style="" class=""
clear="none">Although this contradicts some of the professional resume advice I've<br style="" class="" clear="none">seen, I like its handling of programmer-specific resumes better. The<br style="" class="" clear="none">point about audience may be the most important point of all.<br style="" class="" clear="none"><br style="" class="" clear="none">G. Wade<br style="" class="" clear="none">-- <br style="" class="" clear="none">Results are what you wanted, consequences are what you got.<br style="" class="" clear="none"> -- Michael VanDusen<div style="" class="" id="yqtfd86272"><br style="" class="" clear="none">_______________________________________________<br style="" class="" clear="none">Houston mailing list<br style="" class="" clear="none"><a style="" class="" shape="rect"
ymailto="mailto:Houston@pm.org" href="mailto:Houston@pm.org">Houston@pm.org</a><br style="" class="" clear="none"><a style="" class="" shape="rect" href="http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/houston" target="_blank">http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/houston</a><br style="" class="" clear="none">Website: <a style="" class="" shape="rect" href="http://houston.pm.org/" target="_blank">http://houston.pm.org/</a><br style="" class="" clear="none"> $</div><br style="" class=""><br style="" class=""></div> </blockquote> </div> </div> </div> </div></body></html>