HN Explorer

Ask HN: Roast My CV

3 points by notpushkin ↗ HN
Hey HN! I'm currently searching for a job as a full-stack developer and looking for some feedback on my CV. I would greatly appreciate if you could glance over it and share some insights. Maybe also share your own CV too?

CV: https://u.ale.sh/Alexander_Pushkov_%E2%80%93_CV.pdf

Cover letter example: https://gist.github.com/notpushkin/40d665d96a769eccbcc75e2872dc24f4

9 comments

[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 25.8 ms ] thread
by_Seeing
Wow, great design, did you use Microsoft Word?
sdfzguf
Layout. I'm not even going to read this. You don't need to do it in LaTeX, but you really have to add structure to it. I want to glace over it and make out distinct areas of different contents.
notpushkin
Any suggestions, or maybe a good example? I'm not sure how I can add more structure, given it's literally a basic profile followed by distinct work positions.
sdfzguf
I'm not an expert. Please go through a guide about the topic. Also look at sample CVs. Here are a few short ideas that come immediately:

- First paragraph same font size as the rest.

- Split your content into different categories and make the distinction visible. Name, personal info, technical info, experience, education, etc. Now split each of those categories again. For example: experience - firm, duration, role, bullet points about learnings. Now list these entities within a category

- Again, you don't have to do it in LaTeX, just go there and see what differences you find in terms of your own document. https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/tagged/cv

- I want to make clear, that I am not talking about implementing design elements or making your CV more fancy. Plain and rudimentary formatting is fine!

markwu2001
bold or italic or something key skills from your work experience.
kwar13
No education listed? Fine if you don't have any formal training but if you do you should list it. Also at least in North America it's uncommon to list your age on your resume.
notpushkin
Thank you! Yeah I should probably add some info. I've dropped out of uni, but my high school was pretty fancy, with courses on CS and Maths and stuff like that.

Re: age: I'm not sure why I included it. I think it's pretty common in Europe, but I have absolutely no idea why.

diavelguru
Good experience!

Get rid of your age.

I like the overview of your resume.

Try to work with headhunters in your region who get paid to find you a job.

Get to the interview stage..only way to deal with the pressure of interviews is to as many as you can and feel that pressure.

Say “I don’t know” if you don’t know the answer. You can learn anything.

I like your overall tech stack at the top but I include a one liner at the top of each job with the tech stack and versions for quick glancing.

Ex: your Lunni job says you are leading front end but I don’t know what you’ve actually done without the tech stack. That will be my first question in an interview (if it even gets that far). (I just saw the Gitlab link - that works for OSS)

Also if you have any education, any at all; even one course list it under a heading called Education.

Thanks and luck Add as you get more or complete degrees/certificates.

notpushkin
Thank you so much! Your response was really encouraging.

I'll add stack descriptions to the jobs listed (just today, one interviewer asked me about that too :-) I've tried to focus more on responsibilities / achievements, but I agree that specifying stack is important too.

Re: education and age – good points, answered here in more detail https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36910311