Rodman;

Something of what I have been taught (by experts in the field) about resumes is this: You create at least a dozen resumes listing the jobs you have had, with different emphasis. These you keep in a library.

When you apply for a job you are applying for a specific position. Take the resume that most closely matches the requirements of the position of interest and modify it (child resume! J ). Save that resume and all correspondence related to that position in a separate folder in your filing cabinet or on your computer.

In Silicon Valley it is not unusual to have one position offered and the HR Department will receive over 4000 resumes. To help resolve this companies do a number of things, one of which is use a scanner. The scanner will only accept a specific font, font size, and key words. You have to know what these are but how do you find out? Each company in this area that uses this technology has different standards.

Looking for a job in Silicon Valley is such a joy! I have not begun to scratch the surface of this topic!

As you stated todays programmer has to have specific skills that are of interest to an employer. That is the list of skills today is greater than ever before. Technology changes so fast. What you knew yesterday may have no value today.

As a friend of mine with a degree in Marketing from UC Berkeley said, "It does not matter what you know. If you cannot sell it, it has no value"!

Tom


>Point understood.
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>I always laugh at people that send in resumes with a list of technical skills that looked like they were taken from the bookstore shelf. They list every product they might have heard of as a skill.
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>Yes specialization is where it's at. We are actually in strange times though... we need to be specialists and generalists as well. General skills must include XML, SQL, COM, UML, database design, Architecture, not to mention specialized skills in products (Fox, VB.NET, C#, SQL Server, Oracle, etc.)
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>Rodman