A Response
First, read up. Chris Becker is a Microsoft employee, an alumni of Computer Science House at RIT, and a great guy. This is a link to a post he made about what to include and leave out on a resume:
http://blogs.msdn.com/coolbeans/archive/2007/05/10/when-i-was-in-nam.aspx
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Have you read up? Great! My response to this piece is “generally, yeah.” When applying for jobs it is important to target your resume toward the position you are applying for, and I definitely agree applicants should be prepared to perform the task they are hired for. What I do not agree with, however, is leaving a technology or facet of your knowledge off because you may not want to work in it. In both co-ops I’ve had this far, I’ve been required to do programming in Java, this time specifically in GUI development, while my management figures out where my real skills and interests are.
I do not particularly enjoy it.
Does that mean I should remove Java and GUI experience from my resume so I immediately get assigned to a project that does not require it? It is a possibility. My preference in that situation however would be to be completely frank with my interviewer, telling them that I would not be interested in taking a position that would require I spend more than xx% of my time doing some task I do not enjoy. Especially with students and obtaining their first industry jobs, I believe people are too accommodating to requests they would normally ignore because they are afraid of not getting that job. Managers may need assistance on a particular task, but more often than not they have an entire project to look over. They probably will not mind respecting your requests, after all, they would much rather see the productivity of a happy employee doing something they are very good at versus an unhappy employee doing anything.
So my advice is simple. Take Chris’s advice into consideration, but do not be afraid to leave things on your resume even if you do not want to do them. Get your foot in the door, get the interview, then tailor the position to something you will enjoy.
Happy job hunting!
