Of late I have been perusing the essays by Daniel Read on the developer.* website. Dan is a talented writer with a knack for understanding many issues we face in our careers as software developers. (see The "Principled Programming" Project for more references to his site)

One of his essays, Art of the Developer Resume, I found to be particularly informative. He offers some hard-nosed advice on how to put together a strong resume that will stand out from the pile on a weary hiring manager's desk.

One aspect missing from the essay was whether or not publications and efforts in open source projects should be included on a technical resume, so I asked him (using The Perl Journal and CPAN as examples). Dan was kind enough to respond to my query and I present an excerpt below (with permission):

I would absolutely include your extra-curricular project work on your resume, and don't hide at the end either. If I were reading a resume and saw that, I would definitely consider it a plus because it communicates to me that here is a developer who is into what he does so much that he spends personal time contributing to something bigger than himself; here is a guy who won't just be here punching a clock. Also, I know the amount of written communication required to participate in open source projects, and I would also consider that a plus. Having an article published is something to be proud of as well, and communicates that you can write and that you are interested in your craft, not just your job.

This was gratifying to read. Now I just have to determine how to demonstrate that my current coding skills are considerably more evolved than they were in 1998 when I first released some of my modules. Though not as prolific (or talented) as some people I wonder if selective inclusion is the way to go.

Matt

P.S. For Aristotle I offer the single page printable version of the resume essay!

In reply to Open Source, Publications, and Resumes by mojotoad

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