CVs are tedious

mid_gen said:
Take my advice with a pinch of salt, I work in game dev which has a massive skills shortage, so finding work is incredibly easy! Also at 40 I'm in my employable prime, lots of experience, without being consigned to the dustbin yet, it's a privileged position to be in!
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That's great, I'm glad it's going so well for you. I've started learning Java and it's already blowing my mind
 
No more Matlab? Would like to think when I taught you it in your first year of engineering it would serve you well ;). I've not used Matlab in years though. Mostly C++ these days, bit of Python.
 
Scotty123 said:
No more Matlab? Would like to think when I taught you it in your first year of engineering it would serve you well ;). I've not used Matlab in years though. Mostly C++ these days, bit of Python.
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Haha sadly not. I was utterly lost on that module. In all honesty, I felt like we were told "these are commands that are available to you" and not what any of them did!

I scraped through my final project and then someone copied my code so I ended up capped at 40% after a tribunal!!

I've learnt some VBA since then, which is starting to make more sense as I learn JS, but it's incredibly difficult. I'm using freeCodeCamp, which makes it nice and convenient but sometimes things aren't explained quite well enough.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
Haha sadly not. I was utterly lost on that module. In all honesty, I felt like we were told "these are commands that are available to you" and not what any of them did!

I scraped through my final project and then someone copied my code so I ended up capped at 40% after a tribunal!!
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Was gonna say, if you've got an engineering degree and already know Matlab then might be worth taking a look at Python (and NumPy) initially and perhaps implementing something familiar there. But I guess if you didn't get on with it then maybe not... (see also perhaps Julia or Swift one or both of which are potentials to take over from it - Python is pretty slow, it's useful in scientific computing, data science etc.. as an easy to use glu language, all the heavy lifting stuff is actually written in other languages).

dirtychinchilla said:
I've learnt some VBA since then, which is starting to make more sense as I learn JS, but it's incredibly difficult. I'm using freeCodeCamp, which makes it nice and convenient but sometimes things aren't explained quite well enough.
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JS? You mentioned starting to learn Java a few posts up - just checking as those are different things, you don't want to stick down Java on your CV if you've actually been learning JavaScript for example.
 
dowie said:
Was gonna say, if you've got an engineering degree and already know Matlab then might be worth taking a look at Python (and NumPy) initially and perhaps implementing something familiar there. But I guess if you didn't get on with it then maybe not... (see also perhaps Julia or Swift one or both of which are potentials to take over from it - Python is pretty slow, it's useful in scientific computing, data science etc.. as an easy to use glu language, all the heavy lifting stuff is actually written in other languages).

JS? You mentioned starting to learn Java a few posts up - just checking as those are different things, you don't want to stick down Java on your CV if you've actually been learning JavaScript for example.
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Sorry yeah JavaScript. I haven’t put that in my CV yet as I haven’t got very far with it…it’s really difficult.

Sadly I really didn’t get on with Matlab, and didn’t touch it after I finished that course.

I’m really thinking about trying to change from building services engineering to tech, but I have no real experience and no experience of Scrum Agile frameworks, which will make it much for difficult. I’d even take a small pay cut, but I need to convince a company I’m worth training up first!
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I’m really thinking about trying to change from building services engineering to tech, but I have no real experience and no experience of Scrum Agile frameworks, which will make it much for difficult. I’d even take a small pay cut, but I need to convince a company I’m worth training up first!
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I wouldn't worry too much about the various agile frameworks etc... lots of companies will have their own ways of doing things anyway that sort of bastardise whatever process they claim to be using. Is there any sort of overlap where you might be able to use your domain knowledge still with some tech/software firm that works in something related to your current role... like I dunno, there must be people programming elevators etc.. or looking after the systems etc... (granted JavaScript probably isn't the right language for that though you can get (some) general programming concepts via learning any language tbh...).
 
dowie said:
I wouldn't worry too much about the various agile frameworks etc... lots of companies will have their own ways of doing things anyway that sort of bastardise whatever process they claim to be using. Is there any sort of overlap where you might be able to use your domain knowledge still with some tech/software firm that works in something related to your current role... like I dunno, there must be people programming elevators etc.. or looking after the systems etc... (granted JavaScript probably isn't the right language for that though you can get (some) general programming concepts via learning any language tbh...).
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Honestly, I’m really hoping they see transferable skills in me. I think they’re there, and I’ve obviously got a passion for technology otherwise I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t be attempting to learn JS!

VBA is the closest I’ve come. But I’m adaptable and hopefully that will show.

I’m also hoping that they might see some suitability in me, enough to make it worth training me up. There are so many damn jobs in that sector and very few in mine.
 
Kenai said:
Maybe a way to more quickly and efficiently copy and paste it all into the online job portal that asks you to repeat all the information that's contained in it anyway? :p
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I generally don't like to do that as it feels a bit silly (and you have to worry about loss of formatting etc), I usually put a more concise summary of what a role entails on the form, and leave off some of the more junior roles earlier in my career on the basis that the detail is in the CV if they want it. However I probably should save these summaries away somewhere to save me writing something each time!

I've noticed a trend, I think with applications going via Workday to request "Skills" where you basically type in a bunch of keywords and pick the closest matches. One of those things that seems an unnecessary faff as it's evident on the CV, but you daren't not do it in case the HR department are applying some sort of filtering on it.

One thing I have done for brevity on my CV is where I've held a position "X" and then been promoted to "Senior X" at the same organisation (has happened a couple of times) I've basically bundled the responsibilities/achievements in one place under the senior role and then just listed the date for the less senior position. Helps to save some space and cut down on repetition.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I’m really thinking about trying to change from building services engineering to tech, but I have no real experience and no experience of Scrum Agile frameworks, which will make it much for difficult. I’d even take a small pay cut, but I need to convince a company I’m worth training up first!
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Tbh, you can learn the important principles of Agile development in 10 minutes. None of the formal training I've done has added anything useful beyond the basic approach.
 
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