Periodic Resume Updates

austen.ito
2 Comments »

Rands says that you should update your resume every 6 months regardless if you are looking for a new job or not. I haven't updated my resume in a couple of years, so this was a pretty interesting exercise. Updating your resume let's you figure out what you've done and where you are heading. So that's what I did tonight. Let's see what I learned...



What I did:

I spent a lot of time working on Hackystat. This is a good thing since I learned about Java, Ant, XML, JAXB, Postgres, and SQL.

I had one line about my work project. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but I have learned quite a bit from my work experience.

I worked A LOT on the software development platform at work. My work experience section for my job is mostly about setting up out continious integration build server, working on our Ant build scripts, code reviews and mentoring interns. I was debating if I should put some information on trying to start a Wiki usage movement at work, but I decided against it since it didn't really pan out.

I was actually surprised that I had enough "Volunteering" items to put on my resume. I have to thank Aaron for that one.



Where I'm going:

This one was a tough one. I'm looking at my resume and it isn't clear where I'm headed. It seems that I'm interested in hacking for fun. Maybe mentor students and help developers grow or something. Looking at my resume I don't get that "ah hah" that's where he's headed.

But there's hope!

Even though OpenMBP isn't on my resume, I'm pretty sure it's the direction I'm headed. I want to build software that's useful to people. I want them to enjoy using software that I've been working on. Development on that project is starting to ramp up so I hopefully in the next resume revision I'll be able to add a new OpenMBP resume item with Ruby on Rails, Git, and an URL to the released version of our software. I think that's a good goal to have.





I really feel that I haven't done enough in the past two years. Before I started updating my resume, I was thinking that I would have lots of things to add. It turns out that I didn't really add all that much. I added some things about my work project, extra activities like Hackystat and volunteering, but it all felt a bit lacking. I couldn't add anything about the books and blogs I'm reading, the blogs I'm writing. I guess resumes are a way for companies to weed through people and find who they really want to interview. It looks like I'm going to have to work harder in the next six months to put things on my reusme that make me stand out.

Revolutionary Improvement perhaps?


Counter-Blog: Path to Awesomeness

austen.ito
1 Comment »

Jason is an intern at the company I work for and he wrote his take on the Path to Awesomeness.  As a mentor, I hope to be helping him along his awesome journey.  I decided to write a counter-blog that talks about how I'm helping him along the way.


  1. Learn bout real projects:  Requirements, customers, deadlines.  Ah the joy of real projects.  The classroom environment tries to provide these things, but it doesn't compare to working on a real project.  We put our interns on existing projects that will expose them to all of stresses and fun times of a real world project.  Right now Jason is working on a real world project and doing quite well.
  2. Learn about research: The first day that Jason started, I gave him an article on How To Ask Questions The Smart Way.  Since that day he has never asked me another dumb question ;)  But as Aaron pointed out in his comment, the research skill that we want to impress on our interns is learning how to research.  My goal is to expose Jason to a wide variety of interesting science topics which may spark some interest and maybe some gradute research of his own.
  3. Learn about software development processes: I'm concentraing very hard in this area to teach him about the entire software process.  On his journey, I want to him to be fluent in software tools such as Eclipse, JUnit, Checkstyle, Findbugs, and other static analysis tools.   I'm focusing on his code quality and implementation with frequent code reviews using Jupiter. I'm trying to get him to start off with good habits by commiting early and often.  He got familiar with Hudson, our continous integration build server, by adding his own module to the integration build.  My goal is for Jason to absorb as much as possible by working closely with the developers on the project team.
  4. Learn how to learn: Figuring out problems on your own is a very important skill to have.  As everyone knows, Google is your friend.  This might be the most important skill for to learn because it will help you throughout your entire career.  Basically, learning how to learn means trying to figure out a problem on your own.  If you still don't understand what is going on, think of some educated questions and ask your peers.  They will be more than happy to help if you have invested some time on the problem.  This item is a must for all interns to understand.  Luckily, Jason picked this one up on his first day.
  5. Learn how to increase marketability: Jason wasn't too sure on this item.  We want our interns to be wanted by companies in the high-tech industry.  Our goal is to increase the skills of our interns for their benefit rather than our own company interests.  By increasing our interns value, they in turn increase our company's value.  Marketability means having something other companies want, like your l33t skillz.  We want everyone to see that you outperform everyone else at the same level.  We want you to stand out and be awesome amongst your peers.  How we want to accomplish this is by exposing our interns to as wide array of work experiences that they can't get in school, but also focusing on key areas that we believe will help them succeed and stand out.
  6. Learn about the industry:  Finally, we want to our interns to know what's out there.  What other types of work is out their in the government and private sectors.  By showing them what type of work is available, they can make a choice on their career path.  Hopefully that career path involves our company, but we want our interns to enjoy their career.  We want to help them succeed in their career and life even if that means saying goodbye.