Brian Hartsock's Blog

Resumes are a necessary evil. In no way can they fully represent a person’s qualifications, but they need to come close. Resumes contain a list of skills and experiences. As an interviewer, I use a resume as the guidebook on interviewing someone. So it is important to put things that matter on there.

One key goal I have in an interview is to talk in depth on some project, concept, or technology that I am familiar with. Doing this helps me gauge how smart an interviewee is. Going in depth and asking the hard questions can be the Yes or No moment for an interview. When I continually hear answers like, Another employee worked on that technology or That was a long time ago, I can’t remember too well, I am very disheartened.

What this means is BE CAREFUL WHAT IS ON YOUR RESUME! If you don’t know much about Hibernate, be wary about putting it on your resume. I will grill you on it.

Put items on your resume that you want to talk about, and can talk about in length. It is ok to put things you are familiar with, but make sure you help direct the interviewer to the areas you are strong.