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Resume question.

N

n0cmonkey

Elite Member
Do you put a skill on youre resume even though you haven't used it in years? There are some software packages I've used quite a bit in the past, but have no recent experience with. I don't know if I'm comfortable with them on my resume (although they would help bunches), but people say I should put them on. Opinions?
 
Absolutely! Familiarity does not imply current mastery. Everyone in the industry knows that you don't have the opportunity to use all that you have used continually, but people generally want to see diverse experience. For example, I worked heavily in Oracle for about 2 years about 5 years ago, but I haven't used it since. I merely list it to provide a historical reference with my experience; this seems analogous to listing your past jobs as well. No one would expect you to perform your job from 5 years ago with the same aptitude as your last job.

My tupence.
 
Originally posted by: Descartes
Absolutely! Familiarity does not imply current mastery. Everyone in the industry knows that you don't have the opportunity to use all that you have used continually, but people generally want to see diverse experience. For example, I worked heavily in Oracle for about 2 years about 5 years ago, but I haven't used it since. I merely list it to provide a historical reference with my experience; this seems analogous to listing your past jobs as well. No one would expect you to perform your job from 5 years ago with the same aptitude as your last job.

My tupence.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree, only caviet is I'd keep the list reasonable (a second resume page listing out 100 odd apps isn't gonna help either). But if you have, say prior SQL server experience but your current job isn't related, I'd still list it.

Bill
 
Knowing how much some people butter up their resumes with crap they haven't the slightest clue about, I would definitely include something that I had actual prior experience with.
 
Being a no experience college grad I'm to the point where I've put

"3 years Managerial experience with Vandelay Enterprises"
 
Definite Yes on this one...I haven't meddled with VB and C++ for about 5 years, but it's still listed on my resume.
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Do you put a skill on youre resume even though you haven't used it in years? There are some software packages I've used quite a bit in the past, but have no recent experience with. I don't know if I'm comfortable with them on my resume (although they would help bunches), but people say I should put them on. Opinions?
Click to expand...

On a technical resume of course I would.

If a job posting said "skilled in xxx" and I even remotely heard of said skill it is going on my resume. I always recommend tailoring your resume to the job description.

Resume's job is to get interview. Interview gets job.
 
Originally posted by: spidey07
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Do you put a skill on youre resume even though you haven't used it in years? There are some software packages I've used quite a bit in the past, but have no recent experience with. I don't know if I'm comfortable with them on my resume (although they would help bunches), but people say I should put them on. Opinions?
Click to expand...

On a technical resume of course I would.

If a job posting said "skilled in xxx" and I even remotely heard of said skill it is going on my resume. I always recommend tailoring your resume to the job description.

Resume's job is to get interview. Interview gets job.
Click to expand...

Wow, I wouldn't recommend that at all. I've been in team lead positions on quite a number of projects, and I've let people go who were intellectually dishonest. "Tailing your resume" doesn't mean adding skills that you do not have.

You can't fake "hard" skills. If you say you know x, then anyone who truly knows x will be able to quickly determine that you were dishonest.
 
I'm sure it's been said already, but you can just hint at the fact that it's been a while. For example, my resume says "Experience coding xxx, xxx, and xxx. Limited experience coding xxx, xxx, and xxx."
 
I do. Although I've been told that if you haven't used it in a while or have little exposure to it, you may want to separate it from what you use on a daily basis. Or perhaps you could add the number of years of experience you have with each skill next to them. For example in my case, I have experience writing code in Java, VB, C# and C++. I don't want a job as a C# or C++ developer so it's listed last on my resume and I say I just have exposure to C# and C++. And even though I haven't used VB in several years, I don't worry about people asking me about it since I'm only searching for Java jobs.
In any event, if someone asks me about those skills, I can just say I haven't used them in a while but like anything else, I can quickly get back up to speed on it.
 
Originally posted by: AmigaMan
I do. Although I've been told that if you haven't used it in a while or have little exposure to it, you may want to separate it from what you use on a daily basis. Or perhaps you could add the number of years of experience you have with each skill next to them. For example in my case, I have experience writing code in Java, VB, C# and C++. I don't want a job as a C# or C++ developer so it's listed last on my resume and I say I just have exposure to C# and C++. And even though I haven't used VB in several years, I don't worry about people asking me about it since I'm only searching for Java jobs.
In any event, if someone asks me about those skills, I can just say I haven't used them in a while but like anything else, I can quickly get back up to speed on it.
Click to expand...

Sounds good. I tend to do the following:

1) List all of my most recent jobs, obviously. In the description I tend to list the technologies employed on a regular basis.
2) Highlight specific projects that I feel are worthy of note. This gives potential clients a more appreciable understanding of experience, depth, etc. Specific technologies are noted.
3) Give a summary of qualifications. Here I tend to list all that I know, but it's known when I last used them by simply checking my projects and their dates. For example, I've been focused on .NET for quite a while, but they can easily see I have a C, C++, etc. background by checking past projects.

I absolutely detest intellectual dishonesty, and no professional would simply lie about what they know. Doing so would quickly besmirch your reputation unless you work with ignoramus' who don't know any better.
 
I'm thinking about including version numbers. It'd give people a better idea how long it's been since I used the particular software product...
 
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