I often push people who work as employees to view themselves as actually being self-employed. When you take a job, your little business just sold some of your time to a company for an agreed-upon amount of money per year. It's a business arrangement, so treating it like one makes sense.
When people make that shift, they often start to see their resume's more like potential "customers" of their services (employers) do. The resume and anything that accompany it are your marketing materials to land an interview. In that interview, you need to push the "deal" forward, but if your resume ends up in a stack with dozens or hundreds of others only to be tossed en masse, you don't even get that chance.
Sure, lots of places are pushing resumes into giant keyword databases. And, for that, you should make sure the text itself is optimized. However, there are still PLENTY of places where your carefully formatted resume gets viewed by a real person.
In those cases, having a resume that catches the eye makes a big difference in getting someone to actually read it and call you in for an interview.
If your resume is based on one of the 3-4 that come with Microsoft Word, consider something a little more unique. This great sample of really nice-looking resumes came through the feed reader this morning really shows what can be done to wake up a tired resume.
Some are more feasible than others if you aren't a graphic designer, but the ideas should certainly spark some changes in yours.
Posted in Business, Career, Lifehack, Links, Saved Links | 1 Comment »
My digital scratchpad's got a few things on it I wanted to share. None are "meals" in and of themselves, so, here's a batch of leftovers. Take what you want and leave the rest for someone who likes reheated tuna casserole.
Introversion is Not a Disease
I found myself nodding a lot as I read this article on introverts. Western society is so oriented toward extroversion that those of us who *are* introverts can often find our perfectly healthy psyches being questioned by people all over the place.
This article does a great job of explaining what the actual difference is. When I spend a whole day in meetings with project managers (many/most of whom are extroverts who draw energy from other people), I've been asked why I look so tired and wiped out. When I respond that being around that many people all day is exhausting for me, I get this strange look that makes it clear that they don't understand.
If you are an introvert (even if you're in denial), you should read this thing. And, if you're an extrovert who can't seem to "get" why that group of introverts in IT doesn't seem to enjoy the loud company get-togethers, this might give you some insight.
Snitter: A Twitter Client on Adobe AIR
I've been intrigued by the cross-platform application engine that Adobe's got in beta. Writing apps with HTML and Javascript is something I've messed with at various time (including HTA's and various proprietary attempts at this idea), but I think Adobe's platform might have a a better shot and this might be a better time for it to succeed.
Anyway, I ran across Snitter, a Twitter client written for Adobe AIR. It's one of the first apps for AIR that isn't just a proof of concept. It actually is nicer than most of the other tools in that particular niche. Nice work, though the default color scheme was a little bleeding-eyes worthy.
Stopping the Automatic Windows Reboot
I caught the raw end of the Windows automatic reboot followed by a 40 minute install of Office 2003 updates on a client site this week. I was mid-compile, preparing for a production push of code when the screen just went black and then I was staring at the BIOS startup.
I'm just glad I wasn't halfway through *actually* deploying the code when that happened. Anyway, I definitely took note of this download to beat this particular problem back a bit.
Posted in Links, Personal, Saved Links | No Comments »
I bookmarked quite a bit of stuff during January. Looking back on it, there are a few themes that repeated themselves.
Atom Publishing Protocol
I really, really, really want an end-to-end Atom Publishing system. To me, an ideal implementation would start from the ground up based on this and actually not even *have* a web-based interface. I had hope for one project mentioning APP support as a core feature. However, given that all of their initial work has been on designing an administration page/interface and logo, I kind of tossed that hope out the window. I'm building some of the pieces myself, to soothe my desire a bit.
- About Yulup
An atom publishing protocol client that hooks into firefox. I installed this, not knowing when I'd first get to use it. Then I ended up on a Wordpress.com site that triggered this app because the site was enabled. Raised my hopes of a truly Atom Publishing Protocol method of writing for this and other sites.
- Getting Started - Yanel
Atom publishing protocol server in Java Recommends Yulup as a client. Looks like Yulep and Yanel would work together well for a cohesive test system.
- How to make a good ID in Atom [dive into mark]
The "id" element on each Atom post needs to be globally unique, associated with the site/author and independent of any URL changes to the site. That means that they need to remain valid even if you change your CMS engine, etc.
- isolani - Atom: PHP AtomAPI Implementation
A basic implementation (an early one) of the APP server in PHP. At the very least, it's a good example of how to get hold of and deal with the PUT and DELETE HTTP methods in addition to the GET and POST we're all used to.
- habari - Google Code
Proposed PHP blogging software that is based on the Atom Publishing Protocol. This is the engine that I was hoping would turn out well. The early work points to another open source project that is going to be "design by committee" and end up mediocre. To me, they should be starting with the overall architecture, NOT the look and feel. If you base an engine on APP, you should actually be able to have any number of different admin interfaces, depending on how you plan to use it. It looks like they are mostly building what they wish Wordpress was and tacking APP on as a cool feature. Oh well.
- URI Templates - Well Designed Urls WiKi
If you build a truly RESTful application, how you do your URL's is critical to how the thing works. I really like this approach for simple rewrites. Definitely much easier to explain to people than mod_rewrite (despite the latter's power).
- APP Test Client GUI
A GUI application that serves as a test client for your APP server. Tools like this are critical if everyone's aiming to match up their interoperability on these things.
Fonts
From fonts for an eventual redesign on this site to finding the perfect font to go with the perfect programming environment, I ended up with quite a few font links.
- Free Font Manifesto
Arguing for a little bit of open source spirit in the fontography realm.
- FontForge install procedures for cygwin (MS/Windows)
Tool for creating fonts, ported to Windows. Beats the heck out of paying the big bucks for the font tools, especially if you're just doing it for fun.
- Inconsolata
monospaced open source font for programming. While I looked at lots of programming fonts, this one is not only free, but open source and includes the files you need to tweak it if it bugs you in some way.
- OFL Fonts
Open Source fonts. All under the open font license. Though many aren't much to look at, I think it's an important distinction to single out these open source fonts as being different from yet another free font site.
Pens and handwriting
As I have been working on my handwriting, I've gone looking for stuff that's related.
- Grand Illusions Ltd Best Sellers
Inkless pen. I wants one. So, much in fact that when they came back in stock, it was past my impulse tax window and I've got one on the way. No ink to spill out into the laundry. We'll see how fast I can lose it.
- handwriting tips
Some general tips for fixing bad habits in your handwriting. If you don't need the kind of overhaul I needed, but just a brush-up, this might help you out.
- Improve handwriting. Quick results, easy work
Improve handwriting using the italic script that's been used for a *long* time. Just because they got away from it for a few hundred years doesn't mean it isn't worth returning to.
- Italic Handwriting
Feels a bit silly, but if you're looking for a free way to get the sheets for tracing out the letters, here they are.
- moleskinerie: Moleskine Pens?
Discussion about pens to use with Moleskine notebooks. Lots of recommendations of good pens in there.
- { Pixilate } Handwriting Fonts
If you're fed up with trying to fix your own handwriting, but still want that handwritten "look", just grab a font and fake it.
Just Plain Interesting or Useful
Posted in General, Saved Links | 1 Comment »
