I’m often faced with the need to do a one off crunch of data to provide answers to questions management ask about raw data. Not the kind of thing they’ll be asking for on a regular basis. Just a need to scratch an individual itch. One off reports on specific aspects of code metrics. Calculate some predictions of data growth in the application across different aspects of it’s user base.

On these occasions, I either turn to Query Analyser to mine our SQL Server databases directly, or use the data import tool in Excel and try and crunch the data swiftly in that. Sometimes, those needs become a long running need to manage some data, where Excel is often the preferred format, because I can do some initial crunching and manage the data in there and the rest of management can then take a copy and further manipulate it and play with it to get additional information as and when it occurs to them they need it.

The problem I face is that Excel is designed for accountants and management types with no programming knowledge to manage spreadsheets of data they understand. It’s too damn user friendly. I find it very hard sometimes to find a good way to manage my data in Excel. I often throw my hands up in dispaire and lash up a software tool specifically to manage the data. I’m talking about a full on database driven web application in most cases. It’s so much faster for me to work with the data that way, and I can then use the Data Import tool in Excel to shove the data in raw forms into spreadsheets if the people asking for the data want to take it away and play with it.

There has to be a better way. There has to be a more productive way for me to do this. A more developer focussed tool for doing this, that allows you to achieve with scripting/programming what you would achieve in Excel by mucking around with excessively user friendly wizards and obscure dialogue screens.

John Udell thinks the answer might look something like Resolver, which is a new spreadsheet application written in Python that allows you to use Python directly in cells and to have full access to .NET and IronPython through the whole application.

This just seems to be the wrong solution to me. With Excel we have a spreadsheet product that is so good it’s destroyed all competition that non-programmers use and love. It can be extended by programmers with add-ins and macros. You can write .NET code or VBA code (easy for non-programmers to learn) in the Macros etc. However, the formulae are restricted to the old style “icky” functions. Stick=if(condition,forumlae,formulae) in, which just makes programmers recoil from the keyboard in horror.

The right answer to the question is to have a simple option to enable direct access to the .NET runtime in cells. Then people can code formulae in any .NET enabled language they choose, including IronPython.

Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Popularity: 71% [?]

Having said only the other week that there is no correct answer to the question of what should go in your résumé, Steve Yegge has chimed in with his article ten tips for a (slightly )less awful resume.

Steve starts out, much like I did by pointing out that what he says only relates to recruiting people for the kinds of places he works, and may not apply outside of the recruitment of technical people for companies that produce their own software, and even within that niche, may not apply to everyone:

I’m just talking about software engineer resumes today, and specifically just the subset intended for applying to companies that build their own software. I have no idea how much (if at all) this stuff applies to resumes for other kinds of positions, or companies. Maybe not much. Sorry!

It seems the companies he’s worked for take a different approach to reviewing CVs to any company I’ve ever worked for. It seems they have a large CV screening panel, phone screens (possibly multiples) and multiple panel interview sessions. We do it differently.

Steve’s first point is right, in bullet form, no-one cares about you yet, but he also suggest stripping out anything with personality in it. Which I disagree with strongly. I do want to know what you’re like other than as a professional software engineer. I recently came across a candidate who was a Reiki healer and psychic reader. Who offered his services for £25 an hour over MSN or email. This information was gleaned from “personal interests” on his CV and listing his personal webpage address. Valuable information saving me from interviewing a total fruit-cake.

Steve’s point 2 asks for unformatted ASCII CVs. This is because where he works they pump them through automated manglers. That is not true anywhere I’ve applied for a job or worked in my life. It’s true that Pimps screw them up, something I was planning on writing about soon, but, in general I’d prefer to see a nicely formatted word doc, that has had some care and attention lavished on it than a nasty plain .txt file.

Points 3, 4 and 5 have merit. Don’t set off my bullshit detector with too much weasel and wank talk. Make sure it’s spelling and grammar checked, if it’s a word doc, and a UK install f Word has put a red squiggle under anything other than an obscure techie term, you’re a moron. But, don’t rely on the spell checked, I’ve seen far too many CVs with spell-checking mistakes.

However, my biggest contention is point 6, certified looser. If you are a contractor, get certifications, do them in your own time, it shows your skill, gives me more confidence you have at least a basic level of understanding of the subject and technology. A safety net. it’s also quite common for UK companies to put people through certification courses to ensure their staff have that rounded skillset, that they know the right way of doing things, and to give the employee something back to move their career on. Certification is great.

But, just a few things there, the certifications, the format of the cv, the lack of personal information. Submit a “perfect for Steve” CV to me and I’ll reject you. Submit a perfect for CV to Steve and he’ll reject you. It’s impossible to get this right. The single best tip in Steve’s article?

You can apply for 18 jobs, but you should send 18 different resumes, each targeted at that job, and you shouldn’t send them all at once.

Tailor it for the job. It’s web development? Emphasis your experience in that area, and trim down the references to the Linux Device Driver work you’ve done. And try and get a feel for the company you’re applying for. If it’s a Big One, like IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Google etc, there is plenty you can find out about what the recruiters are looking for. Talk to the Pimp, ask them what kind of CV the recruiting managers like to see.

Do your research first, it really helps.

Popularity: 60% [?]

A very popular question people ask is “what should I put in my C.V?”, the problem is, there is no correct answer to that question. There are a few consistent formats I see to the documents I see, but no set pattern I can figure out behind what has caused people to use that pattern.

Two of the guys I’ve worked with in the past and have equally successful careers, following similar tracks, who are of similar age and position in their career, have totally different approaches. Clive goes for the “everything in a good level of detail” approach. Pete’s CV is two sides, and he thinks it needs trimming down.

I think Pete’s CV comes from the approach that it seems a number of managers take, they want to get the details quickly and don’t want to wade their way through a load of self-promoting rubbish to get to them. Clive’s approach comes from the desire to give all the information so that every base is covered and people won’t miss any of your brilliant skills.

Personally, as a recruiting manager, I like to see a good level of detail on a CV. I want enough to really know whether it’s worth seeing the candidate or no. I want to get a feel for the candidate in advance. I want a chance for them to make mistakes.

But not all managers want that. They follow the Pimp Path, they want to find a few keywords, such as 10+ Years C++ experience on Windows Drivers. Or whatever. If they can’t get this information, they’ll reject the C.V.

The big problem is you don’t know what kind of manager your C.V. is going to.

I’m starting to come down in favour of a hybrid approach. The first page of the C.V. should be a totally lightweight highlights and basic facts page. With detail to follow.

Something that is also important to understand is what information you do need on the C.V., what order and level of detail to present it, and unfortunately that changes based on where you are in your career. For a graduate, clearly education history should come first, it’s the most relevant information. For an experienced engineer, the education history gradually becomes less and less important. But I still feel it’s necessary to include that information.

I think a front page should probably detail personal details, in a small contained area, current role and a brief statement of what you’re looking to achieve in your career. If there is room, a brief summary of key technical skills. Brief please, and the key ones. Not an exhaustive list of everything you’ve ever worked with.

Then, follow this with a career history, education history and some personal stuff.

With the later part, people are rather conflicted on too. Some people think a bit of “personal interests” adds something to a CV, others think it’s a no-no. Which seems odd, because technical skills are not everything, you also need to know if that person is going to fit in with your team and company. Are they going to have the right attitude to work? All information that can be indicated very roughly from the information given there.

So, summary, and then a set of detail. Attempting to keep as many people happy as possible. Really, an example would help. But I don’t have one to hand. And this is the worst article I’ve written ever. I’ll try and come back to it when I’m more alert.

Popularity: 73% [?]

I don’t know what it’s like round the rest of the world, but, in the UK most recruitment is done by asking recruitment companies to find candidates. The recruitment companies place the adverts, find CVs that are relevant and submit them to the hiring company.

This makes them salesmen. A typical recruitment company will charge anything from 15% to 40% of the candidates starting salary as a finding fee. That can be a lot of money. The role tends to attract younger people. It’s very high pressure as well as high margin. Very competitive. This all means that your recruitment consultant is worse than a double-glazing salesman.

They are much more like Pimps.

So, that is how they are referred to in my world. I deal with a lot of different agents. They all give you the same spiel, they’re different from the other agencies. They work this way and that way. Not like the others. Which is always a lie. They are all the same at the base of it, they are salespeople. They all work in much the same way. Their ethical boundary is slightly off from most peoples.

That is not to say they are all the same. Some agencies are better than others. Some agents are better than others. The larger agencies tend to work on volume. They want me to give them half a dozen keywords, some as “essentials” some as “Nice to haves”. They plug this into a propriatory keyword search engine and blast you everything they find without speaking with the candidate. Other’s actually take time to understand what you are looking for and try harder to find them.

But, once you’ve shown interest in a candidate, nearly all of them will do anything to close the sale. They’ll miss-represent me to you and you to me. They can see the sale just out of reach and go for it.

Take a little while to read up on hard-sales techniques. Then see how many you spot after an interview where the company was interested, but you weren’t. It’s shocking really.

You must remember, this is your career, the wrong job for you could send you down a dead-end, or a path you don’t want to take. Of course, you might not be too bothered about switching technologies or career path. But if you were then you wouldn’t be reading this.

Popularity: 33% [?]

The single most important document you will ever write is your Résumé or Curriculum Vitae (C.V.) . That bears saying twice. The single most important document you will ever write.

Ok, maybe your Will seems more important to you as a family person. But I’m not convinced. Your CV gets you the next job. The next step up. It enables you to be in a position to write a better will.

There will always be people who never ever need to write a CV. That just network from role to role. But that’s an edge case.

I’m talking about applying for software engineering jobs. So hopefully you reading this are a software engineer. I’m sure you therefore understand the importance of accurate, complete and up-to-date documentation for any software you are working on.

And if you don’t, go away and find out and don’t look for a job until you do.

Your CV is the same, only the accuracy and attention to detail of your CV is far more important to you. Forget to update the entry for your previous role so the “to date” says “present” and things like “My current job is” in a job 4 jobs back, then you look like a Muppet and won’t get an interview for any role that needs attention to detail on documentation or otherwise. i.e. a job as a software engineer.

Get a collegue, ex-colleague or friend who is a software engineer to read it through and make sure you’ve not messed anything up. I’ve seen CVs where people are proud of working on three tire systems (that would be tier then), sequel server and various other blatantly stupid things.

Your CV is the only tool you have to get you through the door. Sometimes there is a covering letter, an email to send it in, an online application form to attach it to. Make sure that what you write there has the same level of attention as the main document. Don’t let your CV down with a poor submission of the CV.

Pay attention to detail.

Pay attention to detail.

Popularity: 32% [?]