Tips For Constructing A Tech Resume'

I work at the Help Desk for a university in Ohio, and the student workers at our desk sometimes ask me to look over resumes they are constructing, some for the first time. They are interested in jobs in IT, but are unsure how to construct a useful techie resume. I came across this blog post today from someone in the industry, who looks at tons of these types of resumes all the time. He uses the name Rands, but it's not his real name. As he explains in his 'About' section:

My personal weblog. No, Rands is not my real name. I use my real name as a full time engineering manager of teams that designs phenomenal software. Yeah, that's me in the logo. I hadn't shaved in some time. My hair is longer now.

I've been writing here since April of 2002. I tend to write about four significant pieces a month, but changes depending on shipping schedules. Content varies from thoughts of being an engineering manager in Silicon Valley to writing to Vegas.

He passes on some interesting insights into what he's looking for in a techie resume, such as:

The terrifying reality regarding your resume is that for all the many hours you put into fine-tuning, you've got 30 seconds to make an impression on me. Maybe less.

It's unfair, it's imprecise, and there's a good chance that I make horrible mistakes, but there's a lot more of you than me, and while hiring phenomenal teams is the most important thing I do, I'm balancing that task with the fact that I need to build product and manage the endless stream of people walking into my office.

Lots to learn here, if you're writing your very first resume as a college student, or even if you've been around for a while, and just need to blow the dust off your current resume. Check it out!

Rands in Repose: A Glimpse and a Hook

New Apple iPhone Ad

It made its debut on the Academy Awards broadcast last night, and now Apple has it posted on their website; the initial teaser ad for the new Apple iPhone, due out in June. Teaser, in that it doesn't discuss specific features; heck, you don't even see the phone or the name of it until the very end of the spot. But, that's just like Apple, and that phone is beautiful...

No, you don't think so?

Hello?!?!!

iPhone Ad Spot

Mac OS X: Display the Date in the Menu Bar

Problem: You want to display the current date along with the current time in your Mac OS X menu bar. However, the OS doesn't allow you to do this.

Solution: With a little work in OS 10.4 or later, you can use the International Formats area to get the job done. Feeling adventurous? MacInstruct shows you how to get the job done, step by step. Wonderful job; I'll be using this right away. Take a cruise to the home page and check out their other tutorials. The interface is easy on the eyes, too.

MacInstruct: How To Display The Date In The Menu Bar

Creating An OS X-Bootable Flash Drive

When it comes to troubleshooting hardware and software problems, you usually would like to keep the main hard drive of your system free, so that you can run diagnostic programs on it. Hard to do when you need to boot from that main hard drive. Having a version of the operating system on a flash drive would be ideal. The folks over in Windows XP-land have had this option available to them for a while, but no well-presented solution had been available for us on the OS X-continent. Until now.

Brad Bergeron explains in this blog post how you can create a bootable version of OS X on your own flash drive. Besides the fact that you can troubleshoot with it, you can also pop it in someone else's Mac, choose the flash drive for startup, and work within your own environment on apps and docs. Brad says you'll need at least a 1 GB flash drive to make it happen, but with the prices of flash drives coming down every day, I'd say 2 GB or better would get you more elbow room. Flash drives run faster, cooler, and might just help you out in a pinch someday. I'm going to create one myself as soon as possible.

HOWTO: Install and Boot OS X on a Flash Drive

Collision Detection: Science and More

I came across this blog on the way to something else entirely today. You know how that goes? Of course you do. In essence, that's what this whole blog is about, fun snippets of info I find on the web. But it's even more fun when I find it unintentionally, then I can't tear my eyes away from it until I read a the majority of this new page I'm on.

So it was when I found Clive Thompson's blog. From his intro, he writes on:

[...] science, technology, and culture. This blog collects weird research I'm running into, and musings thereon.

He also writes occasional articles for the New York Times and Wired, amongst others. His writing style is fresh and breezy, and he explains complex science concepts in easy-to-understand language. He recently posted on a medical study of sword-swallowing injuries, and one on a study about how just thinking about losing weight might help the body actually lose weight. Not all of these are original by him -- he finds interesting and unique articles from all around the web. But wow, if it isn't a compelling read. Go check it out yourself.

collision detection: a blog of clive thompson

Google Gmail: Now You Can Invite Yourself!

Regular readers of this blog know what an e-mail junkie I am. And when it comes to personal e-mail, nothing beats the ease and convenience of Google's Gmail. Once you were in the beta program (being invited by another beta user), you knew you were cool when you were awarded your "invites" to share with others, and bring them into the Gmail fold.

Well, I'll have to redefine that particular term for cool. Why? You can now sign up for your own account without an invite! That's right! If you haven't had the pleasure yet of getting your very own Gmail account (hello scads of room; goodbye to trashing email to make room for new), then hie thyself over to Gmail.com this instant! Yes, I know you have other e-mail accounts...I do, too. One for work, one on Yahoo!, one somewhere else...but trust me, you'll love the look and feel of Gmail, from its labels to the Google Talk feature.

There, I'm done now. Move along. Nuthin' to see here...Enjoy!

Google Mail (Gmail)

[Edited to correct my error: I originally posted that Gmail was out of beta. Nope. The new part is just the ability to signup for an account without an invite from someone else first. Thanks for the heads-up, Sebira! See first comment below.]

Boomers, Part Deux: The Boomer Chronicles

You can't keep a good Baby Boomer down, especially when the writing is crisp and funny. And so it was that Rhea commented on my I Remember JFK post here. She has a wonderful blog herself titled The Boomer Chronicles. I stopped by, took a look, and was educated and entertained at the same time. Always a good combination. I highly recommend that you take a look yourself!

The Boomer Chronicles

Free Fonts? Sure. How about 9800?

Every now and then you're putting together a flier or other advertisement, and want to crank the creativity up a bit by using a font different than the same-old, same-old. I keep looking out for free font sites, and there are a few out there. Here's a good recent find. 9800 free true-type fonts. You can type in a line of text to see how it appears, and then click to download the font to your system. Once downloaded, us Mac folks will need to drop the .ttf file into your hard drive > Library > Fonts folder. You Windows folks should know what to do with yours ;)

9800 Free Fonts

"Essential" Mac Apps

Every now and then, a Mac fan comes up with a list of essential, "must-have" applications that all true Macolytes should have on their systems. I'm sure the same goes for the Windows crew as well, but you'd have to check their blogs to be sure. In any case, a good app-list came up on a blog, and a lot of folks commented on the list, but then the list stayed stagnant, and some of the app pages disappeared. That's where Peter Baer Galvin stepped in, on his Peter Baer Galvin's Blog:

Mac Specialist posted a great list of essential Mac OS X Applications here, and it caused lots of discussion on the topic. Unfortunately they never revised the list based on this input and now it takes quite a lot of effort to navigate through the list and all the comments. I thought I’d take a run at creating a new “consensus” list starting from theirs and adding all of the other input.

And so he did. I believe I have even posted a Mac app list here at least once, but if you want a great list of goodies to potentially use on your Mac, I'd take a gander at the list he's put together.

"Consensus" "Essential" Mac OS X Applications

Apple iPhone: The New Swiss Army Knife?

What? You're thinking about not buying an Apple iPhone when it comes out in June? How could you! Don't you know it's so much more than a phone?

Vidmeter: Capturing The Online Video Zeitgeist

So you hear about them all the time on the 'net -- viral videos. What are they, exactly?

Well, according to Wikipedia:

The term viral video refers to video clip content which gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or IM messages, blogs and other media sharing websites. Viral videos are often humorous in nature and may range from televised comedy sketches such as Saturday Night Live's Lazy Sunday to unintentionally released amateur video clips like Star Wars kid.

Now sure, you could run around to all the different web sites that feature online video to get your daily fix, but wouldn't it be nice if there were a website devoted to gathering all that info for you, then ranking the most popular stuff out there? The internet, at your service. Vidmeter brings together the Top 100 videos online at any particular moment, for your viewing pleasure. One-stop shopping? I like it. Standard-issue warning applies here: The Top 100 videos can be in any category, and some may be for mature eyes and ears only. View at your own discretion. Enjoy!

Vidmeter

Baby-Boomer Reminiscing

"...we'll go dancing in the dark, walking through the park, and reminiscing." ~Reminiscing, Little River Band

Major life events compel us to mark them in a way that you can easily describe what you were doing at that point. Remember the Challenger disaster? Hurricane Katrina? The Stock Market crash? ...and so on. One of the most indelible moments in time if you happen to be a Baby Boomer was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I remember hearing adults talk about this time when I was growing up, and they always said they remembered where they were, what they were doing, even the topic of the conversation when they heard the awful news.

Well, the premise of being of age to remember JFK's death is the idea behind the I Remember JFK website, albeit with more pleasurable memories. Here you can go back to your childhood and read about such recently-discussed topics as: 45 inserts, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, and baseball cards. Each article posted has room for comments, and even if you aren't quite of the age to remember JFK (I missed it by a mere couple of years), you'll find plenty of essays on items you do remember from days gone by.

I Remember JFK: A Baby Boomer's Pleasant Reminiscing Spot

Ultimate Console Database

Hello, video game fans. Having grown up in the 70's myself, I've been around gaming consoles since the early, pre-Atari 2600 days. I remember getting one from Sears that had ping-pong and hockey on it, and my siblings and I were in heaven...then came the Atari 2600, and it blew our socks off.

But I digress. If you're into perusing the history of video game consoles, and perhaps reminiscing over an old console system you or a friend used to own, then look no further than the Ultimate Console Database, collecting information from every system the author could get his hands on. He's still working on some sections, so your input is vital if you owned some of these old systems. But it is amazing what is here. I remember my nephew having a 3-D, short-lived version of the GameBoy called 'VirtualBoy' -- it's here. And one I thought I'd never find, called "MicroVision" by Milton Bradley, right there in the 'Portables' section. Groovy! Check it out...

Ultimate Console Database