I'm a 53 YO developer who reads a lot of resumes.

You want to tailor a resume like this. Indeed don't mention essentially obsolete things like DOS or AIX unless they help you get the job you're applying for. I don't mention that stuff at all now.

"Reason for leaving" isn't necessary.

I also like to see metrics. "I did X, Y and Z and we got Q fewer support calls" or something like that.

I'd also like to see some evidence of teamwork ("worked with Frobozz group and got Z shipped with important feature F").

Interesting that you like metrics. I always consider them B.S. Especially the ones where they say they saved the company X millions of dollars.

Chiming in here -- some metrics are B.S. metrics (like how much money you saved company, I gloss over these myself), but some are valuable. For example: "designed and developed system Foo which ran in production for X years and processed Y events per second utilizing Z nodes."

I agree. Some projects have SLAs. It could be beneficial to mention that those were met or expectations were exceeded.

In some cases saving a company that much money is very believable. For instance if you fixed a transaction processing bug at a company who does $84K a month and it lasted a year, you saved them a million dollars.

I've often wondered how most people do that (metrics, I mean).

I don't feel that I'm in a unique situation where I have worked in groups on projects. The work is divvied up but often multiple people have at least some amount of hands on many things. I feel like there is very little (perhaps nothing) that I can say that I and I alone have done which led to some interesting metric.

Perhaps I'm being overly cautious/team player here? Or do people really mean that they singlehandedly did X, Y and Z to resolve Q? Because to me the latter doesn't sound realistic, at least not at the places where I've worked.

Quantifying yourself is the most important thing you can do in a resume. If you can't figure out what you've accomplished in less than 10 seconds, consider revising.

Yes, regarding reasons for leaving. I'm going to drop those.

DOS and AIX are included to illustrate breadth as opposed to depth. Not because I expect anybody to be impressed by 20-year-old work in these two OSes.

Metrics are an interesting point; I'll need to look further at this.

Regarding teamwork, the resume mentions that I was considered a "mentor". Does this count?

DOS and AIX might well be measures of your breadth, but unless your potential employer cares deeply about that, they don't do you much good. Think of some other way to say "I know a lot of different systems" than mentioning systems that don't garner much modern respect.

I don't mention that I used to frob PDP-11s, nor DOS, nor anything else. There are hints in my resume that I know that stuff, but I don't explicitly say it.

I think that mentioning dead technology creates a kind of taint. Sucks, but there you go.

The problem isn't presently the age or the resume.

With you, the resume would be a problem. But this might be a good thing.

As I've said elsewhere, I'd be pleased to obtain a junior tech position if it was a good match. But you're looking for specialists, aren't you?

I might be mistaken, but perhaps you're not familiar with how generalists operate. If this is the case, I'd prefer that you proceed to "circular file" my resume. It will save my time as well as yours.

Regarding the points that you've raised:

1) The website you've looked at isn't my professional site. The post went there, but the professional site is located at:

http://oldcoder.org/

Yes, I know that the professional site is sorely lacking in polish. I'll Twitter Bootstrap it sometime. :P

2) If somebody does not understand what it means to build a Linux distro from scratch, and feels that this is irrelevant to their firm, they are not looking for a generalist. Accordingly, I'm not a match for them and they're not a match for me.

As a side note, yes, over the past two decades, I've written literally hundreds of small servers and clients from scratch, plus a number of large ones.

Should all of the different servers and clients be listed on the resume? If so, would you look through the list, searching for some past project that matched some current need?

Do you understand what a generalist does?

3) I feel that this point is incorrect. You're thinking like a specialist here.

Nobody is going to hire me to work on DOS or AIX. Well, not AIX anyway; there is still some DOS work going on. But it's the range of things that I wish to convey here. Not the specialties.

If somebody such as yourself looks at my resume hoping to find a specialist, and dismisses the parts that illustrate a generalist background, it's best for all concerned, including me. that they toss the resume.

4) No idea what I'm talking about? :-) Heh. I maintain a fork of "sloccount".

First, it's about both code and documentation, not simply code. Or did I forget to note that? Regardless, I had a specific reason for mentioning the page count originally.

However, due to ongoing revisions, it may no longer make sense to include it. You may be correct about this point.

5) This point is confusing. You asked for more details but criticized the details for the Grumman job as "fluff".

The project included a Java GUI, Perl database code, network protocols implemented using multiple languages, a large OO Perl framework, the simulator that you mentioned, and numerous other components.

Which part is "fluff" ?

What I "did" was to design each component from scratch and implement it, except for the ones that I based on FOSS (which I then modified or extended).

Regarding the closing point, "Fix up your resume, and cleanup or hide your web presence, and you'll have a better chance":

It doesn't seem as though you've read much of the original post. You've commented on the resume and on the website where the post appears. You are not fond of either. It is your right to feel this way.

However, these two things are not presently the key issues. Nor were they the subject of the original post.

Hi,

I have a lot of "creative" friends. I suspect you may be like them. I have to tell them: Your resume gets you in the door. It's not about being original. It's like the gas in your car that gets you to an interview. The individuality will start to come out in the cover letter (but not too far!) and then fully in person.

I have no doubt that you're a skilled person, but if you don't choose to comply with the simple standard of resume-writing, then how can an employer count on you to follow other conventions and rules?

Now if you'll graciously accept my critiques, you'll find you'll get a lot more impressed reactions than bewildered reactions:

That resume is very non-standard. The PDF version isn't congruent with the web version.

Overview is too long.

Bolded first letters are weird and non-pleasing. Too much space between heading letters: same.

You have a mixture of phrases, sentences with omitted subjects and full sentences. Swapping between those is uncomfortable. Pick one style a stick with it.

Reasons for leaving not useful on resumes.

Key Points has good info. C for 30 years, but no C++? Why not?

Linux distro: what's it called? You've listed custom distros about 4 times on your resume. It's worth one mention.

Your education is listed twice. Only list it once.

Overview should not have specifics such as the census and Adobe projects.

Languages are listed twice, no three times. Only needed once.

Good luck and I think if you make my suggested changes, your responses will be much higher quality! As I said, I think you have a lot of great experience and would improve many work situations!

> I'll Twitter Bootstrap it sometime. :P

You don't have to go that far. Replace the water background and the top pattern with interesting solid colors, with a little white noise pattern if you're feeling froggy, change the menu bar color to fit, find a couple of nice-looking free fonts, and spend a little time on your table styling and your website would look plenty spiffy.

The ":P" was intended to convey tongue in cheek. But the suggestions are useful and appreciated. And I like the idea that one might feel "froggy". I'm not sure what this means but it sounds lively.

Sure!

To feel 'froggy' is to be ready to jump into something new at a moments notice for no real reason other than to feel good going the extra distance. One of the more useful idioms I've picked up.

I consider myself a generalist as well, and while there are some problems with it, there are upsides too. I wouldn't consider that a barrier.

You look like a very talented and productive coder, and I don't think your skillsets are out of date, as some people seem to imply. If you know both Java and Unix well, then you're employable in spades.

Are you actually looking for work now? What happens when you apply for jobs? Are you stumped by algorithmic questions (i.e. textbook style questions)?