Jonathan Nolen

Bonus Resume Tips

While I'm at it, a few bonus resume tips that may be of service to you, no matter the job you're applying for.

1. Don't waste space on an objective. The interviewer doesn't really care what you want, and everyone writes the same thing anyway. Instead, give me a one- or two-sentence description about why I want you.


2. Pre-seed Google. Your potential employer is going to Google you. Make sure there is something there that you want him to find. Being a non-entity on the net is not a good sign.


3. Do not tell me that you're a team player, a fast learner, have great attention to detail or have excellent written and oral communication skills. It may be true, but everyone says that and, consequently, no one believes it.


4. One page.


5. No, seriously, one page. It's fine if you can't fit your entire work history on there. Especially in technology, I only care about the last five years anyway. I will greatly appreciate the brevity.*

* I once read the resume of a gentleman applying for a developer position that went on for more than twelve pages. His work history went back to 1973. When he was a shoe salesman.

Agile QA?

Sherali from Atlassian posts about our search for QA developers:

Atlassian QA

This whole concept is not without controvsery inside Atlassian, and I'd love some input from anyone interested. Has anyone seen a QA team and a agile development team work well together? How was it set up? How did it play out? What do you think of Sherali's plan?

Tables turned - hiring a UI developer

I find myself in an odd position. Back when I was first starting my career in technology, I was a web designer. This was circa 1995 and there weren't a whole lot of people who knew what the web was, much less why you'd need to design it. Jobs in the field were not abundant, and interesting, state-of-the-art, forward-thinking web-development jobs were as rare as unicorns. I wanted desperately to build the web, to put into practice all that I was learning, but I wasn't really ready to land one of those gigs, even had I known where to find one.

Obviously, the industry has changed a lot since then. And I now find myself in charge of hiring someone for a job that I would have traded my left arm for in 1995. Atlassian is hiring a UI designer/developer for the San Francisco office. I've been reading résumés for about two months, and much like last time, we've been coming up short.

Since this résumé meme had been going around Atlassian recently (Jeffrey, Mike, Charles, Mike again), I wanted to talk a little about the applications I've been reading and what I'd love to see instead. Think of it as me giving my unemployed, 1995-self a little advice. If I were on the outside today, trying to score this kick-ass gig at Atlassian, what would I want to do?