Mentioning each and every project versus mentioning selective projects on resume ?

[Monica Shiralkar]

In resume some people mention each and every project whereas others mention only selective limited number of projects which they want to emphasize or are realavent and omit others.(e.g either less realavent ones or old ones )

However , omitting may produce some gap durations in resume. For example in company A ,I worked on project1 from Jan 2010 to March 2011 and in company B ,I worked in 2 projects, project2 from April 2011 to Feb 2012 and project3 from March 2012 to Jan 2013.

Now if I want to emphasize project 1 and Project 3 but want to omit project 2,then it would look like below

Project1 - Duration Jan 2010 to March 2011
Project 3- Duration  March 2012 to Jan 2013.
And so on ..

But between these there will look a gap.How to deal with such situations. ?

[Campbell Ritchie]

If it is a proper resumé rather than a CV, you won't have enough space to record them all.

[fred rosenberger]

I generally list the companies i've worked for, not the projects.  so



Company B - April 2011 - Feb 2012
  a few details about what i did for this company

Company A - April 2010 - Feb 2011
  a few details about what i did for this company


No real gap.

[Monica Shiralkar]

fred rosenberger wrote:I generally list the companies i've worked for, not the projects.  so



Company B - April 2011 - Feb 2012
  a few details about what i did for this company

Company A - April 2010 - Feb 2011
  a few details about what i did for this company


No real gap.

Understood for the details about what I did for company.But what about project details .If not here then whether will it come

[Monica Shiralkar]

It has happened twice that some recruitor told me that I should write the duration with each project so that interviewer can easily know my realavent experience on each technology by adding up the duration for all projects where a particular technology is listed.
E.g project1 duration is 1 year and technologies used include Core Java , Cloud,Microservices.
Project 2 duration is 1 year and technologies include Core Java, Spring MVC,Microservices.
Project  3 duration is 1 year and technologies are Core Java , spring MVC

So total exp 3 years
Realavent experience on core Java 3 years
Realavent experience on microservices 2 years
Realavent experience on cloud 1 year
Realavent experience on spring MVC 2 years

[Tim Moores]

Shorter is better in this regard. If you're not starting out in the industry, there will be way too many projects anyway. I like Fred's approach, which is the one I use as well. If you want to make it easy to discover how much experience you have with each technology, you can mention that in the skills section of the resume, like "Java (3y), Microservices (2y), Cloud (1y), MVC (2y), ..."

[Monica Shiralkar]

Okay and where will the project details come in resume.

Not for the old irrelevant ones but atleast for the latest and realavent projects one would like to give details.

Is it fine to give details for the realavent and latest projects and for old irrelevant projects just mention very little?

[Campbell Ritchie]

Remember the difference between a CV and a resumé. A CV is allowed to record everything and a resumé should be short. Very short. If you start going beyond one page of resumé, start worying that it is too long. You must therefore be ruthless not with what you write, but what you omit. If you have a website requesting a 400‑word resumé and you enter 401 words, it will simply ignore the last word.

[Monica Shiralkar]

Does one need to maintain same style for all projects or for latest projects I can write more and older projects I can write very less ?

[fred rosenberger]

Monica Shiralkar wrote:Does one need to maintain same style for all projects or for latest projects I can write more and older projects I can write very less ?

Ask ten people how to write a resume, and you'll get twenty opinions.  

There is no right or wrong way to put together a resume. There are just ways that person A like more, and ways that person B likes more.  And you never know how or what a specific company or person wants.

[Les Morgan]

Monica,

here is the general rule of thumb that I use: how many years do you need to show to qualify for experience commensurate to the position you are applying for?  If you need 10 years of experience you need to have at least 10 years of history shown.  I have been in the industry now for over 3 decades and I find it really goes like this:
 
 What did you do recently?  the last 1 to 5 years
 
 After that, you need to show uninterrupted work experience to make the cut.

 Keep it to a page, if I can, so can you.  After that first 5 years things start looking like this:

XYZ Consulting Inc  June 2010 to July 2015 Senior Software Engineer * Java/SQL

Enterprise Consulting LTD Jan 2000 to May 2010 Senior Software Engineer * Java/SQL

then at the bottom of the page, I add the comment: "* detailed experience provided upon request"

A company will rarely look at more than your first 2 or 3 employers unless you have very little time in the industry.

DO NOT MAKE THE TYPEFACE SMALLER TO FIT MORE.  I run with 16pt and I've had many Senior-level people tell me thank you because after looking at a few resumes the words on the page kind of all run together.

Also, be sure that you put your name and contact info (phone number) on each and every page you send in so if they get separated, they know who's it is.

Les

[Les Morgan]

and don't be afraid to brag a bit on the cool stuff.

Les

[Monica Shiralkar]

Thanks.I saw many resumes with duration (from mmYYYY -to mmYYYY).
Never did I see a single resume with even a month's break between these durations  although chances are high that one would have been on bench too between projects sometime during his long career.

[Monica Shiralkar]

Les Morgan wrote: how many years do you need to show to qualify for experience commensurate to the position you are applying for?  

If you have 15 years exp and the position is for 10 years of exp ,then ?

[Ryan McGuire]

fred rosenberger wrote:
Ask ten people how to write a resume, and you'll get twenty opinions.  

There is no right or wrong way to put together a resume. There are just ways that person A like more, and ways that person B likes more.  And you never know how or what a specific company or person wants.

And I'll give my opinion: The right way to write a resume is whatever it takes to give the hiring manager the information that they need to make an informed decision without a lot of extra fluff.  One aspect of this is to provide more detail on more relevant and more recent projects.  Back in the late 1980s and early 90s, I worked on a bunch of projects that used Motorola, HC11 microcontrollers.  If I'm applying for a Java Web Developer position, I'm going to provide a lot less detail about that position than about the one from the last few years where I actually used Java in a Web/DB project.

As long as we're talking resumes, I'm going to get up on my soapbox and declare that any resume over four pages is actually a detriment to getting a position with our team.  If you expand your resume by mentioning every technology that was used anywhere in the company at the same time you working there and pretending you're "proficient" with every single one, I'm going to assume that 80% of that info is a lie.  I'd much rather hear about how you used a smaller, well-thought-out arsenal of technologies to complete the project.

As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry puts it, Elegant design is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.  This applies to product design, software and resumes.

[Les Morgan]

Monica,

then I'd concentrate on the 10 most recent years, then just list the other years like I did in the previous example... company duration position and relevant experience with the note more detail available.

Les

Monica Shiralkar wrote:

Les Morgan wrote: how many years do you need to show to qualify for experience commensurate to the position you are applying for?  

If you have 15 years exp and the position is for 10 years of exp ,then ?

[Les Morgan]

Monica,

one things to make sure of too: make sure your references didn't change their number the night before.  I have had that happen! One of my references got mad at a telemarketer and changed his number the day I submitted a resume.  I emailed the recruiter and left the new number with a very short description of why the new number.  I got that job.

Les

[Monica Shiralkar]

Thanks.

Just as an example if my experience is as below :

Project1 : Jan 2010 to Dec 2010
Project2: Dec 2010 to Nov 2011
Project3: Nov2011 to Aug 2012
And so on

In long experience there it is likely that one might have been on bench sometime in career between the projects.Suppose one was on bench for 2 months between project 2 and project 3 so will it look like below :

Project2: Dec 2010 to Nov 2011
Project3: Jan 2012 to Aug 2012

But I have never seen any resume where anyone shows small gaps like this which means there never came one bench in entire career.Doesnt seem practicle.Is it to be shown as above ?

[Monica Shiralkar]

Ryan McGuire wrote:

fred rosenberger wrote:

As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry puts it, Elegant design is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.  This applies to product design, software and resumes.

True. Thanks

[Monica Shiralkar]

Les Morgan wrote:Monica,

DO NOT MAKE THE TYPEFACE SMALLER TO FIT MORE.  I run with 16pt and I've had many Senior-level people tell me thank you because after looking at a few resumes the words on the page kind of all run together.

I read that we should not use any other for styles than then the standard one so I use Ariel with font size 10. Is this size fine ?

[Dave Tolls]

Are you talking between projects within the same role?

I really don't see any advantage of listing all your projects...you are, after all, employed as an XYZ developer, so presumably the role involves developing in XYZ?

[Monica Shiralkar]

How about as below :

Organizational experience :
-----------------------------------------

CompanyA              
Software Engineer
Duration : Feb 2018 -Present

Project1
Write a line or two about project.
Client name:
Role: Developer
Technologies : mention the technologies.
Responsibilities :List the responsibilities.


Project2
Write a line or two about project.
Client name:
Role: Developer
Technologies : mention the technologies.
Responsibilities :List the responsibilities.


Project3
Write a line or two about project.
Client name:
Role: Developer
Technologies : mention the technologies.
Responsibilities :List the responsibilities.


CompanyB              
Software Engineer
Duration : Apr 2015 -Feb 2018

Project3
Write a line or two about project.
Client name:
Role: Developer
Technologies : mention the technologies.
Responsibilities :List the responsibilities.


Project4
Write a line or two about project.
Client name:
Role: Developer
Technologies : mention the technologies.
Responsibilities :List the responsibilities.


Project5
Write a line or two about project.
Client name:
Role: Developer
Technologies : mention the technologies.
Responsibilities :List the responsibilities.


And so on



CompanyX              
Software Engineer
Duration : Mar 2008 -Nov 2010

//Briefly write few lines on what you did in this company since it is old data
Worked on Project10 doing this and one project11 doing this and on project 12 doing this .

[Campbell Ritchie]

Too long.

[Monica Shiralkar]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:Too long.

What exactly shall be done differently in this?

[Stephan van Hulst]

Don't list all projects per company. List only projects that really stand out and that stuck with you because you did something super interesting. Even then, describe them in just a short summary. There's no point in listing the clients, roles and technologies used per project.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Monica Shiralkar wrote:. . . What exactly shall be done differently in this?

What Stephan said.

[Monica Shiralkar]

Stephan van Hulst wrote:Don't list all projects per company. List only projects that really stand out and that stuck with you because you did something super interesting.

Thanks. But in that case suppose for companyX where I worked from say Apr 2014 to Aug 2018, if I choose to list only 1 project from this company ,would it not look like did he just do this much in such long tenure at this company  ?

[Stephan van Hulst]

Not if you use a subheading such as "Notable projects".

[Liutauras Vilda]

Monica Shiralkar wrote:I read that we should not use any other for styles than then the standard one so I use Ariel with font size 10. Is this size fine ?

I think you just thinking too much and getting hooked too much on nitty gritty details. Do simple things which make sense, but most importantly - do, i.e. apply for jobs instead of thinking for weeks whether it is fine or not, should you apply or you shouldn't. Whether font size is 11, 12 or 13 is fine, or you better would go with 16 - it is absolutely nothing.

I think one would have better chances of getting job if they apply to 50 jobs a day (with an "average" quality cv, no way to meassure, but let's just call it like that) comparing to one who applies to 5 jobs a day (with too much thinking along the way).

Perfect is good, but "done" is better.

Gap(s) between projects, jobs or whatever? As long as you have an explanation which makes sense - it is perfectly fine either way. If you say you took a break so you could drink - that's not fine. If you say you had a break because you travelled around the world with your best friend - that's great.

If you have many of those gaps and they tend to happen very often and don't have yourself logical explanation what's going on - that might be a worry.

Monica Shiralkar wrote:So total exp 3 years
Realavent experience on core Java 3 years
Realavent experience on microservices 2 years
Realavent experience on cloud 1 year
Realavent experience on spring MVC 2 years

It is more important what you have learned how you progressed in those 1, 2 or 3 years as opposed to saying you just used for 3 years (very dry). I know people who almost don't progress over the years, so they could say programming 5 or 10 years, and I know graduates who in couple of years did such an amazing progress, that you'd assume they program for many years.

[Liutauras Vilda]

When you say projects, are you contracting or talking about permanent employment with a company within which you have/had multiple project(s)?

I agree with the guys, that it is not efficient to list each and every project with bunch of details. Provide some headings and very short mentioning what you were doing. Whoever is hiring and looking for particular skills - will recognize immediate you might have what they are looking for. And in case of that - they'd figure out in details during resume deep dive session if they are interested

[Monica Shiralkar]

Liutauras Vilda wrote:
i.e. apply for jobs instead of thinking for weeks whether it is fine or not, should you apply or you shouldn't. Whether font size is 11, 12 or 13 is fine, or you better would go with 16 - it is absolutely nothing.

.

I am already applying but parallelly when I get time I try to keep improving my resume from time to time, trying to make it more concise and crisp.

[Monica Shiralkar]

Liutauras Vilda wrote:

Perfect is good, but "done" is better.

Thanks

[Monica Shiralkar]

Liutauras Vilda wrote:

Gap(s) between projects, jobs or whatever? As long as you have an explanation which makes sense - it is perfectly fine either way. If you say you took a break so you could drink - that's not fine. If you say you had a break because you travelled around the world with your best friend - that's great.

If you have many of those gaps and they tend to happen very often and don't have yourself logical explanation what's going on - that might be a worry.

I do not have any actual gap but meant if 1 of the 3 projects I worked for in a company is removed it will look like gap.But as others have told this situation will not come if duration is specified by company and not by projects .

[Dave Tolls]

I have never stuck timescales on any project on my CV, back when I was permanent.
And if a contract covered a couple of projects the timescales don't get mentioned there either.
Single projects, well, the timescale is implicit in the contract length.

For example:
Jan 2019 -  Aug 2020 - Some Airline Ltd

Lead developer on several extensions to Some Airline Ltd website (brief desc of general areas).

These projects covered the use of Spring, JEE, web services, and followed a TDD strategy blah blah blah

The highlighting depends on what I'm going for.
(The above is, obviously, fictional)

[Monica Shiralkar]

Dave Tolls wrote:I have never stuck timescales on any project on my CV, back when I was permanent.
And if a contract covered a couple of projects the timescales don't get mentioned there either.
Single projects, well, the timescale is implicit in the contract length.

For example:
Jan 2019 -  Aug 2020 - Some Airline Ltd

Lead developer on several extensions to Some Airline Ltd website (brief desc of general areas).

These projects covered the use of Spring, JEE, web services, and followed a TDD strategy blah blah blah

The highlighting depends on what I'm going for.
(The above is, obviously, fictional)

Thanks

[Monica Shiralkar]

I did changes in my resume and now the Career section (listing projects) have 2 types of project. The latest/relevant projects and the very old/less relevant projects. For the latter I have simply put just 1 line without even having the project name in bold font since I dont want to highlight those to the interviewer unlike the former.