Movin' on up...

[thebitterguy]

So, I gots me a posse, aight?

I've got some guys helping me go over my resume to make it better. One of the suggestions was to remove the 'hobbies and interests' section, or at least make it more amenable to any current or future corporate overlords. So, loyal bitterites, I come to you to ask this question: How Geeky Should a Rezoom Be?

[Poll #950991]

The last question should read "Absolutely: you gotta be you, and you don't want to work for someone who won't appreciate you"

Shout out to viktor_haag, who has geek face # 22 and provided the idea and the questions.

Edit: The way it's being done currently is I have my con work and freelancing listed as freelance writing and convention work, but I also have a 'hobbies and interests' section that includes, IIRC, writing, reading, and cooking.

Comments

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

I've always treated my interests list as a way to show my employer that yes, I do have interests, and they are diverse and make me a non-boring person. In my opinion it helps the cause if I have 'comics and graphic novels' listed alongside 'amateur astronomy' and 'food writing'.

I wouldn't get terribly specific to the level of individual fandoms. It's one thing to mention 'science fiction', and another to list 'Star Trek' and 'Doctor Who' and 'Battlestar Galactica' as interests. If they were less geeky fannish interests, it would probably look more cool and grown-up to put 'major league baseball' as opposed to 'The New York Yankees' (unless you were deliberately trying to suck up to a boss who was a Yankees fan, although that might be too obvious a tactic anyways).

Bonus points if you have fannish activities that look good on a resume. Anyone who has volunteered/worked for a convention or organized large-scale gaming events can definitely describe that under experience, and then putting geeky things on the interests list won't look completely out of the blue.

[thebitterguy]

Good points. As it is, I may omit interests entirely and instead list my experiences as part of normal job experience.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I know here in the US, it's generally considered a good idea to leave it off the resume completely unless it's a part of the job you're applying to. Now, anything you've achieved in your hobby that demonstrates marketable skills (like running a con, producing and distributing a fan film, publishing a story) is another matter; that they'll want to know about and should be in an area at the bottom marked "other experience."

[thebitterguy]

Yeah, my con-running and freelancing get their own sections; I have a little 'hobbies' entry that's pretty brief and boring (none of the actual interesting things are listed).

[anidada.livejournal.com]

If you can tailor some aspects of your geeky interests so that they look like an asset to The Man, that's best, IMO. You have event planning experience, journalistic experience, experience working with teams and leading them -- just as a few examples. Geeky, sure, but as long as it's presented as something at which you excel, that's the main thing.

My experience is that bosses don't give a damn what you do with your spare time. They want to know what you can do for them. They get to the "interests" section of a resume and don't even look at it, for the most part. Or, electronically or via their admins/HR staff, the resume is scanned for keywords. Generally those keywords won't be "gaming" or "SF" -- you know what I mean?

Also, shouldn't this be flocked? :)

[thebitterguy]

Why? I'm obviously working on making my resume better for advancing within my current company, of course.

Wink wink.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I list my work for Sanguine as part of my job experience, but, frankly, I leave off "interests" simply bacause I don't have room.

[(Anonymous)]

ideally, you would have several versions of your resume depending on to whom you submit--some places don't need to know or even care to know what you do in your spare time--and it just lengthens your resume (unnecessary and even undesirable in some situations). you have to use your own judgment, from there, of course. i vote all of the above.

:)

[styrofoam-guy.livejournal.com]

I guess I am different from most as I do look at interest and hobbies when gong through resumes. It gives me a more rounded opinion of the person.

[thebitterguy]

Definitely an idea. That depends on someone as open minded as you being the hiring person.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

Take it out, else frame it a little different.

Mundy's who hire just don't understand our shared hobbies.

You can be a maverick and get away with things once you have proven yourself, but you'll never get hired by many conservative persons so you will get to prove yourself otherwise.

::B::

[commievampire.livejournal.com]

I think this really changes with what jobs you're applying for. You want your resume to reflect you in a positive light, so things like organizing cons/gaming things, as others have said, shows that you can take responsibility/show initiative, etc. I will definately mention the LARP I ran for a year on mine, but I will call it an "ongoing interactive improvisational theatre game" or somesuch, which is what it is, technically. A geeky employer will get that it's a LARP and a non-geeky employer will not be confused or alienated by my use of geek vernacular. It's all in the wording. You want to word things in a straightfoward and professional manner.

[thebitterguy]

That's pretty much how I'm doing it now. It's surprising how many marketable skills you get running a gaming con.

[adamjury.livejournal.com]

If your interests are something that can be found via a few easy google searches for your name, it's best to list them on your resume so you can frame them in a positive light.

[thebitterguy]

Ah, crap. If they google me, I'm a dead man.

[adamjury.livejournal.com]

If? I don't believe that there is an If anymore.

[thebitterguy]

Fudge. That's just bad news. At least there's no criminal records out there.

[ladystarstruck.livejournal.com]

So I had to google you right after I read this, and you have the whole first page! I didn't go any further. I googled myself, and there's nothing on me, but there's a flautist, a real estate agent and a professor of criminology, all with my name. Oh, the obscurity of having a far more common name.

[thebitterguy]

It's the result of being a huge nerd on the internet with a unique name.

[maureenans.livejournal.com]

I use my involvement in "geeky" clubs to showcase my leadership abilities - I was "faithful lackey" (president) and "money-grubbing slime" (treasurer) and currently serve on the board of directors for a fannish non-profit. This says "not only do I have others interests, but I work hard and do well in all aspects of my life."

[thebitterguy]

True. My con work gets listed on my resume. It's the actual hobbies and stuff that gets listed separately.

[uniquecrash5.livejournal.com]

I have a substantial section of my resume titles "Areas of Experience"; in addition to purely job-elated items, I also list Role Playing, Science Fiction, Super Heroes and Cat Herding.

Actually I put 'Cat Herding' in a pretty noticeable position in the list; it generates questions relatively frequently, and allows me to talk about gathering disparate resources together for a task... Recently I also saw the term "duck herding", as in "getting all your ducks in a row", but I'm more a cat-herder myself.

I'm fixing up my resume myself, and I have a format I'm pretty fond of that might work well for you. If you're interested lemme know and I'll toss you a copy.

Also: a friend tells me that for technical type positions, reviewers like resumes that use Styles rather than just raw editing. Sounds like good advice to me, I read up on Styles in Word briefly and am redoing my resume using 'em.

[thebitterguy]

Cool. I should check the styles stuff. I'd love to see a copy of your resume format, sure.

[kabael.livejournal.com]

List anything that could be considered a skill or vaguely applicable to work. Everyone laughed when I put my fanpublishing and convnetion work on my resume - and then it got me a dream job.

I think it's only people within the hobby that are really concerned with hiding it. Joe Random boss doesn't really care if you read comic books, he cares if your a drooling idiot or not, and not liking comic books isn't any guarantee you aren't a mouth breather.

[thebitterguy]

Yeah, my con work is at the top of my resume, since it's one of my current things.

In fact, I keep meaning to email you about something regarding conventioneering.

[kabael.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm all ears - just drop me a note :)