What does awesome look like on a resume?

Artikel
04/07/2006

I met with a Marketing GM, Keith White, and his recruiter, Allison, this week to discuss putting together an invitational recruiting event for their team, which is responsible for outbound (audience) marketing. Usually, when I end up strategizing a recruiting program for a hiring group, the conversation ends up being about target hiring profiles: what the people are doing right now, what companies they might be at, what schools they may have gone to, etcetera. All the things that are "searchable" on their resumes (effectively, the MBA programs and the previous companies do some of the filtering for us). The things that allow me to target talent pools. You want people that have an MBA from Kellogg, I know just where to find them. You want people who have experience from certain companies, we'll make some phone calls.

Well, the conversation this week didn't go that way. He just wants awesome people. He explained to me that on his team, he has a mixture of people with "pedigree" education (my phrasing, not his) and people without, people that came from large software companies and people that didn't. What they all have in common is some awesomeness. I used to support Keith myself when he ran the embedded product marketing organization and I recall him hiring someone a year out of a non top 20 MBA program that was marketing dairy products. I thought "cool, he's hiring for potential". I love it.

The challenge with hiring on potential is that from a recruiting process standpoint, it's *very* labor intensive. Hiring managers are usually most comfortable hiring on potential when they know the person. It minimizes the risk. I often find with events specifically, the people that the hiring team are most jazzed about aren't necessarily the ones with the "ideal" resume/profile (top MBA, several years software product marketing at a major company, track record of achievement, etc). The event offers the opportunity to get to know the people more than you do just by reviewing the resume. You get the chance to see what is awesome about them.

But...you cannot invite everyone that is interested to the events. You have to make some bets on what is going to work for the team. At a company that gets an incredible number of resumes a week, you have to funnel somehow. So now I am thinking about how, aside from MBAs and competitive companies, awesomeness shows up on the resume. Here are some thoughts we kicked around:

-alumni of the next ten b-schools after the top 20

-leadership in college (fraternity, sorority, organizations)

-recipients of specific kinds of scholarships, other kinds of awards

-scholar athletes

-fast career progression

A lot of the things we discussed were things we felt were "searchable" but specifically they seemed to be the things that people did in college. So now I need to ask you. Aside from working for an awesome company or going to an awesome school, what are the things on a resume that can suggest awesomeness? Of course we will still look at strong MBAs, competitive software marketers, but we want to open it up to other awesome people.

I'm super excited about the flexibility to hire in this way. I'm also thinking that the candidate generation and filtering process is going to be tough if some of our criteria aren't less ambiguous. Help!

PS: I'm skeptical about using GPA. So I'd like to get "outside the classroom" on the criteria. What do you think?

Comments

Anonymous
April 07, 2006
You want to look for things that show initiative. Have they written any books? Magazine articles? Published anything? Do they have any patents? Are they reviewing books for others? Did they start their own company? But the best way to tell if they're awesome is to find out if they still have that shirt (or painter's cap) from the 80's that says "Awesome" and if they wear it occasionally. :-)
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
dwj....oooh, those are good ones! Except for the painters cap ; ) Where's my Wham! t-shirt (OK, I didn't really have one...I was 'alternative')?
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
What do you have against painter's caps?! Those things were rad! Okay... I need to stop. I get pulled into the 80's WAY to easily.
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
trust me, I know the feeling. Never did care for the painters caps though
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
dwj is right on target, but not all "awesome" people have the opportunity to do those things. On a more basic level (and this is probably obvious), I'd try to look for resume keywords like "established" "created" "pioneered" "excelled" and the like. I think there are a lot of hard-working, ambitious people out there who have tried in school or early in their careers to distinguish themselves through creativity but haven't been fortunate enough to get an opportunity with a company where they can turn that movitation into a real career. I'm sure there's a common formula or syntax those people are using on resumes to demonstrate that.
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
I dont like GPA as a factor. I had an interview with a well known company (rhymes with oogle) and they stopped the interview on the spot because I did not have a 3.0 as an undergrad. I said I wouldnt have gotten into an MBA program if I wasnt accomplished and all that. They said it didnt matter if I had a 4.0 in my grad studies, and there was no way around it. They only cared about the undergrad GPA. To me thats like saying stuff from your child hood will come back to haunt you someday. I am not the same person I was at 18 that I am at (insert age here). I found it to be a bit discriminatory. So with that said it should be based on accomplishments. I am all for having an interesting background. The more off the beaten path the better. /end rant :)
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
EBP-that's interesting...appreciate the feedback. Those keywords on a resume don't mean awesome to me. I think truly awesome people find a way to get stuff done. It doesn't have to be a certain kind of education of a type of company but they have to have some kind of success somewhere at something. Awesome people make stuff happen. Anyone can put those words on their resumes. Interesting way to think about it though.

Wine-Oh- funny, a headhunter called me about a position at that unnamed company (I always take the calls by the way) and we ended up talking about GPA as a requirement and I said I wouldn't work for a company that used GPA to screen out anyone except college hires (because many college students don't have the work experienced to go off of). I've boiled down the whole GPa requirement to this: a company run by technologists who want to hire "mini-me"s. I've got to tell you, I was a bit of a mess in college...undisciplined, partied too much, etc. What can I say, I was a late bloomer. Very different than I am right now. Personally, I think companies that care that much about GPA are missing out. And they'll end up hiring more of the same. I hope they didn't make you come in, in person, for the interview before they stopped it. I hate hearing about stuff like that. When it comes to that kind of stuff, I'm cool with being the un-oogle ; ) I'd rather we hire people that are smart and how to get it done than a bunch of people who even give a toot about their GPA. Sorry, that's just me...ooh, you got me ranting too.
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
A very interesting issue. I'm in marketing with HP. Here's my 2 cents: The people I work with who I really admire have these qualities:

-great instincts
-creative, clever, persistent
-affection for their co-workers, a "bond" with our company's mission, values
-focused, not scattered; a feel for what is "accomplishable"
-Want to suceed by creating a great customer experience

They're not:
-all MBAs
-always from American schools
-as coached as MBAs in resume-writing
-looking for a change

So what does this contribute - not sure! I can say though, I would not know how to locate these people using an algorithm. I suppose it goes back to Heather's assertion that it takes hard work and perhaps referrals.
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
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Anonymous
April 07, 2006
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Anonymous
April 07, 2006
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Anonymous
April 07, 2006
Amen Sister! My point exactly. Who wants to work at a clone factory anyway?

I got into my MBA program based on achievement, not because of GPA. I also didnt have to take the GMATs because of this. Achivement out ranks GPA in my book.

No thankfully it was a phone screen and she actually said to me dont even bother sending a letter or calling corporate HR about this to try and get around it. Its a company wide rule if you are 21 or 61. They want to see your college transcript. I had a minor illness freshman year in college and it was hard to bounce back from missing 6 weeks of school. (fill in years here) have gone by and I am being judged based on that? Yeah ok! It hit a raw nerve. I too am a very different person these days. More mature and more responsible.

I have had interviews in person where the meeting came to a screeching halt talking about salary though. Just this week someone asked me what I was looking for salary wise. No joke she jumped up and went "OMG thats way too much!" Im like well I am 1 semester shy of an MBA, and have this, this and that. She goes I can get someone out of college for this job and pay them $30,000. I said so do it, but they wont have the valuable skills that I have.

Oh I so want to write a book on this. I have lots to say. I did blog it for a bit, but took it down fearing that companies would find it during back ground checks and use it against me. Someday though I will get a resume from someone at oogle and it will be my turn to say no. (insert evil laugh here)
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
H-
I some what agree with EBP, and I somewhat agree with you. Anybody can insert those words into there resume to spice it up. But what about people who have the drive to accomplish all there tasks and then some, but are still young and haven’t had the opportunity to show those skills in there current company for one reason or another? Should they be weeded out because they haven’t published or patent anything? Say for example a person has excellent interpersonal skills short but successful track records that aren’t from a top school? How do they differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack? I love this topic by the way
ACS
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
<p align="left">Heather Hamilton at Microsoft is trying to find some awesome peo
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
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Anonymous
April 07, 2006
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Anonymous
April 07, 2006
PingBack from http://christhames.com/blogs/thames/archive/2006/04/07/6.aspx
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
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Anonymous
April 07, 2006
Speaking as one of your hires, I must say that I truly value your methods. (Hello, waitress from Texas with screenwriting degree!)
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
Wine-Oh..sounds like you are making some smart moves! Now the ear wiggling thing does make a difference if you are interviewing and you don't know the answer to a question. Then just say "look at my ears!" to distract them. ; )

Hey everybody, Sarah is the contract Staffing Associate on our team. If you've sent me your resume, Sarah knows you. She's also being too modest...she has a Masters in screenwriting from a great program. She makes my point well ;) And this is her first comment on my blog!
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
Sorry to be so anonymous Heather....

Actually I wish I could wiggle my nose a la Bewitched and move the interview along and get the offer. Tired of spinning my wheels and not sealing the deal. Alas I know what the issues are now and am going to fix them.

Im finishing my MBA this summer with a concentration in marketing. Yet I can start working now as the final project is done on my own time. I do feel though that the MBA has filled some gaps in my working experience and made me a bit more well rounded. Coupled with being put on the right track, I am sure I will be fine in the long run.

I am happy to send you the revised resume, (when it is done and if you want to see it), to be considered for marketing positions. Especially ones in Keith White's dept. Sounds like a great place to be. I do have the leadership skills you mention (fraternity, cross functional teams at work, starting new departments, helping with recruiting efforts for my mba program. Which by the way has programs in the top 25 rankings). That and my hidden talent will go far. :)

One thing I like about Microsoft is that even if you have interviewed there before, they are happy to keep meeting with you until there is a match. I have interviewed 2x already, but now am convinced they werent the right positions for me. So I am happy (if that makes sense) that I didnt get them because I would be looking for a new job by now.
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
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Anonymous
April 07, 2006
sketcher....great idea! Thanks!
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
Another idea for you. Ask them to throw something at you, something that they create within the next few weeks/month. Give them some random theme, so that they do indeed have to create something using that theme.

Then look at what they create...its a reflection of their character. Might be anything... a written piece, a song, a painting, a program...anything at all. But it gives you a window into their world.

The ability to create is something that (the much abused word) awesome people have. What they create might be tied to the kind of personality they have...but their passion should show through in the quality of their creation. And truly creative people will surprise you with their creation.
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
A PS. Regarding GPA..there are too many variables that go into it.

So I prefer the positive screen instead of the negative screen. I.e. If your GPA is > 90% (in whatever system you studied in), we'll call you in for an interview/whatever. If it isn't, we'll look at other stuff on your resume.
Anonymous
April 07, 2006
How about people who start/run their own business while in school. That usually shows "awesomeness"
Anonymous
April 08, 2006
bleh-maybe a writing sample would work for that. I like it. i agree with you about GPA being used to rule people into the pool but not out.

Jim-yeah, that is a good one too. Though I wonder how to separate out the ones that were mowing lawns intheir neighborhood (not that there's anything wrong with that) and the ones that employed people. I'm sure we can come up with some screening questions on that. Thanks for another great recommendation!
Anonymous
April 08, 2006
a couple of points that I'll make:

a) having an MBA from a top ten program, I will emphatically confirm that Microsoft is its own MBA. though it's intense, this is a good thing--truly invaluable experience.

b) in terms of what to look for, I've found military service to be a good predictor. folks who have served in the military (and managed some rank progression) tend to do very well in an environment like Microsoft;

-working with precision under deadlines
-gathering intelligence to make good decisions
-making appropriate decisions with less than perfect information
-intangible leadership qualities

c) another thing is participation in community service, civic organizations or individual sports. most folks that I've met who are passionate about these kinds of out-of-work pursuits tend to very driven to get their work done to be able to devote time to these things. they get an AMAZING amount of work done and their energy seems boundless.

my $0.02
Anonymous
April 09, 2006
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Anonymous
April 09, 2006
Lots of people seem to be posting based on their personal qualifications or lack thereof.

For the most part people that maintain amazing GPA WITH various campus/work leadership are solid candidates. It's very difficult to 4.0 at most schools and those that do are exceptional, it's hard to get around that. Not to say that those that don't 4.0 aren't exceptional but it's hard to find too many incompetant 4.0s.

Personally, I would put a greater empahsis on campus leadership and work experience than GPAs. There is just too much random variables in a GPA including difficulty of courses and general luck to make it a sole deciding factor. On the balance, "awesome" people are those that demonstrate ambition, team work and passion.

Scholarship actually are a pretty good indicator, schools/organizations don't tends to pay thousands of dollars without first making sure the recipients are worth recruiting and otherwise would bring something of value of the school or foundation. Now again plenty of great candidates may be overlooked, but someone that wins multiple large scholarships tends to be of "awesomeness."

People are so complex eh?
Anonymous
April 09, 2006
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Anonymous
April 10, 2006
How about this..

- I will make a decision, either right or wrong and not spend excessive amount of time on it.
Anonymous
April 10, 2006
I've enjoyed reading the comments from this particular post. I also had a (ugh) GPA in undergrad for simliar reasons to Heather's (worked full time, had more fun than was strictly neccessary), and I don't include it on my resume now that I've been out for ten years. I do however include my MBA GPA which I worked hard for, and memberhip in an MBA honor society (thanks, Heather).

Other things I look for when hiring: that passionate streak; ability to communicate (even in email - I know some brilliant people who don't do well socially / in person, but in the right role they can be a great individual contributor); and most importantly, a desire to learn and grow.

Thanks for the discussion, folks.
Anonymous
April 10, 2006
Yeah, this conversation keeps getting better.

Daryll- I appreciate you jumping in since I'm pretty sure you are the one person here actually doing marketing at Microsoft so it is interesting to hear your take. With regard to the military, I might pick your brain further on how to assess the info people include on their resumes re: their military service. Coming from a family higly involved in the Navy (butnot yours truly of course), I can definitely see some excellence that can result from service.

Kat-every recruiter has a story of being burned like that. Looking at the candidate's background more broadly helps, I think. You obviously figured that out early on.

Paul J (gotta love all the Paul's here)- I am considering that fact that participating in blog conversations can be equated to awesomeness : ) Seriously, people will speak from their own perspective. This conversation has made me think about my background and at what point any kind of awesomeness appeared on my resume. Unfortunately, it wasn't resume awesomeness that got me into Microsoft, it was industry experience.I think it's pretty natural for each of us to view this relative to our own experience. Regarding the GPA conversation, we aren't ruling anyone out with it... our goal is to try to rule the great people in. And we want to use any number of potential criteria to do that. And yes, we are very complex! That's what makes my job interesting (and sometimes frustrating) ; )

k9-absolutely feel free to send it to me of course!

Paul K- that doesn't sound like excellence to me. "Go ahead and make wriong decisions but make them quickly"...hmm, I don't think we are going to include that in our criteria ; )

Lisa-MBA honor societies...good one. Yo uare reminding me that now that we are looking at people with different kinds of backgrounds, we need to use different techniques to assess core competencies. Have to tweak our questions regfarding passion, communications, learning to make them not about softtware marketing.
Anonymous
April 10, 2006
A popular thread indeed. I get the feeling that a lot of the people reading and posting are looking for clues as to what you (Heather) think is exceptional.

Through all the comments, it seems the most important things are the subtext. If someone has a GPA > 3.8 (regardless of school), has been nominated to honor societies, went to school on scholarship, has a clear track record of business achievement, has been responsible for financial results (no disguising that), or has taken leadership in community service activities, any of those should get you past the first cut as a potential outstanding candidate.

But the part that distinguishes awesome from good-enough-to-get-an-interview is hard to find in the standard resume form, and I've seen people who have (apparently) great numbers that I wouldn't hire for any role, and I've seen people with lousy numbers who any sane manager would hire in a heartbeat, some who turned out to be awesome.

That's why I personally sweat the little stuff. Awesome people are not ordinary. Often they are downright weird, although they go to great lengths to hide it. If not weird, there is something in their personality that drives them to be different, to excel, to make a difference and to see things differently. If you want to find exceptional, you need to look for exceptions.

I think that's why things like dropping out of school can be a very positive indicator. When you are young, this is a borderline deviant thing to do, yet Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs all fit that category, as do many brilliant and very successful people that I know in the technology business. Yet, most hiring specs deliberately exclude people like this. The key, though, is to ask why.

The clues may be much smaller, but they will always be there. Unfortunately, because you are looking for the exceptions, it is virtually impossible to use automated filters to scan for them, except for big obvious ones, like missing educational credentials.

It's a fascinating subject.

re: being decisive. Although I'm not convinced it is an indicator of awesomeness, I wouldn't discount it either. Personally, I would much rather that someone set a personal time limit for every decision. The best decision makers are wrong 40% or more of the time, and there is little evidence that deciding quickly versus deliberately results in a much higher error rate. If you make the wrong decision quickly, however, you have time to fix it, and if you make the right decision too slowly, you may have lost the opportunity to capitalize on it. Therefore, in general, decisive people do succeed more in life, all things being equal. When scanning resumes, the question is how would you use this as a filter -- I don't believe there is enough there to answer this question, although it certainly is something to probe for during an interview.
Anonymous
April 10, 2006
Wine-Oh-sorry I missed your earlier comment. Of course I'd love to see your resume when you update it. DOn't worry about being anonymous. I totally understand. I'm definitely willing to put your resume in front of Keith's team.
Anonymous
April 10, 2006
The other thing is that some people say one page and some say two pages. I have fenced competitively and gotten pretty fair in competition.

As far as leadership is concerned, I have seen people hold title in college organizations and have not done anything at all.

undergraduate GPA --- I had a LOT of fun my first two years but the bell tolls and I realized that my life of carefree abandon came to an end. I did much better with my MBA being older and well....somewhat wiser. :)

What does the recruiter prefers?
One pager versus two pagers?
functional versus chronological?
I was recently given a free look over by a resume writer who said that he hated my functional resume and prefer the one pager.
Anonymous
April 10, 2006
Heather,

I want you to know I wear duck slippers ( used to have penguin slippers! ) into our office, and have a habit of going barefooted and in shorts.

I often tell people here, he ( or she in your case ) laughs the most wins. This is how I choose to live my work life. :-)

about the decision, its simplicity. I often find companies that are stalemating by the fact they are in meetings more than all day instead of doing action.

action makes a company go places, not decisions to do actions ! ;-)
Anonymous
April 10, 2006
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Anonymous
April 10, 2006
Heather-

To tell you the truth I've never thought about pursuing marketing. I’ve mainly been focused in ASP.Net and more recently IT security involving threat mitigation, cryptography, policies, and auditing. However, I do find your blog fascinating and does spark some ideavations (a cross between ideas and innovation).

P.S. You might find “The Undercover Economist” an interesting read where some concepts could be applied to marketing. I’m only on chapter 4 so hopefully the book continues to be interesting. The first two chapters on coffee (Starbucks) and supermarkets are what initially grabbed my attention.
Anonymous
April 10, 2006
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Anonymous
April 11, 2006
We'll see what Ms. Heather says, but here's another recruiter's viewpoint.

Resumes should be as long as they need to be. What peeves recruiters is when each job contains the same info for five jobs in a row. What I like to see is a progression of responsibilities. So the most recent job shouldn't be listing the same accomplishments of the first job. Unless you're a research scientist and are published, your resume shouldn't be 25 pgs, but 2-3 is ok.

Functional resumes are ok if you are changing careers. Generally though, they are often used by someone who is trying to distract from a gap in work history. We want to know where you accomplished these great things, so a chronological one is often better.
Anonymous
April 11, 2006
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Anonymous
April 11, 2006
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Anonymous
April 11, 2006
Mel-glad we could help...thanks for the recap ; )

Brian Toland-how could I disagree with that? I'm not a fan of functional resumes. It really makes it hard to get to what the person did and where.

Brian- so given that I don't recruit based on GPA, I don't think I have the answer. Anyone else know?
Anonymous
April 11, 2006
Oh man, I skipped over a bunch of comments. I'm a little out of it today. Sorry.

TC Loy-I agree with Brian Toland. Use as many pages as you need but fill them with valuable content. Don't feel like you need to stretch it to fill in.

Paul K-I agree with that. I guess I'd consider that a screening criteria.
Anonymous
April 11, 2006
Whine-O,

Actually its very clean place, we have a swimming pool, a creek out front, and varies from 3-10 german shepards here. We keep it clean, the shepards are all out in the back. The company moved from urban flordia to a rural area to get away from the 2 hour commutes. The CEO is very active in german shepard rescue, we all love dogs here. Its a very great place to work at. I simply love it.

We are a science/radio software company. ;-)

Toodles!
Anonymous
April 11, 2006
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Anonymous
April 12, 2006
Heather Leigh of Microsoft has an interesting few words to say regarding hiring for potential. Well, most of the article isn't directly about hiring for potential, but it's the bit that caught my eye. When recruiting for my team, I've...
Anonymous
April 12, 2006
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Anonymous
April 13, 2006
Dear Advertiser-Seriously? According to technorati, there's nobody linking to your site. You are offering me traffic? I'm sorry, this really touches a nerve for me. You should do some research so you know who you are approaching. You should not post off-topic comments on other peoples' blogs. And if you address people, please take the time to address them by name. My name is all over this blog. This approach will give people the impression that you dont get blogging. I'm not interested in any contest and I'll be hosting my blog posts right here, where my readers know where to find me. And I am removing your link from your comment. Seriously, you need to re-think approaching successful bloggers in theis way. Sheesh.
Anonymous
April 13, 2006
Two snaps in a Z formation girlfriend.

That 'site' is appearing in the comments section of just about every blog I see. They definitely don't seem to understand the medium. What a way to turn off your audience all at once...

Hey, Ms. H, I smell a posting about bad marketing coming on...call it the "Top Ten ways NOT to connect with your audience"
Anonymous
April 13, 2006
You are on to something Toland. How about this"Top ten ways not to connect with your audience if your audience is me" Yeah there's defnitely a blog post there.
Anonymous
April 14, 2006
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Anonymous
April 15, 2006
Thanks Neal!
Anonymous
April 16, 2006
Someone who was traveled all over the world (business trips don't count)
Anonymous
April 17, 2006
Kim-I think international exposure experience in business could be a positive thing on resume too. But different than leisure travel. I'm not sure many people would put their vacation destinations on their resume...I never have. I need ot think about that one. I might be more interested in overseas work than averseas vacations. ; )
Anonymous
April 17, 2006
Very interesting blog and question. I'm agreeing with the earlier suggestion on 'caring.' As we continue to understand the complexities of humans working in groups, one thing that shows a constant direct correlation with leadership and managerial success is caring for one's co-workers and teammates.

I suspect this will continue to be more and more so as our workplace(s) demographics change - Boomers, Gen-X and Y'er's are said to have more of an expectation of this than those born during WWII or the Great Depression.

In terms of searchable resume criteria - how about volunteer organizations and awards? Those who both care and can balance their life in a way to be successful in their careers and have time to volunteer must surely be awesome...

(Truth in advertising as others before me - I must confess to being Big Sister of the Year for Wa. State, so clearly I suffer from self-identification on the awesome issue and my suggested criteria as well. I appear to be in good company on this, tho...grin)
Anonymous
April 17, 2006
Someone said it earlier... but I totally agree. For a younger person, if they have "tutor" listed on their resume... thats a big plus.
A) they knew the material well enough to teach it to others
(and they were screened by their peers and instructors before getting the job)
B) They cared enough to want to help others with their passion.
Anonymous
April 18, 2006
Wow, this list could go on and on about what consitutes "awesomeness". =)

There's some great ideas and insights here and they're all so different. This leads me to conclude that you may have to dig deeper and go beyond surface expectations to find great people. There's no easy way to go about it as evidenced by all the different suggestions mentioned. As Heather mentioned earlier, finding awesome people is labor-intensive, and I suspect it will always be so.

Btw, next time I update my resume, I'm going to include personal accomplishments that I've never really thought of as indicators of "awesomeness" until hearing it from y'all. But maybe it'll help me connect with an awesome company and career. ;-)
Anonymous
April 20, 2006
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Anonymous
April 20, 2006
Mobias-I agreee. In fact, I think that people are more credible when they comment on something they have first hand experience in (see, look at that, I somehow tied in the credibility meme too...how "awesome" of me). Of course, this is exactly why I asked my blog readers. I didn't expect them to be experts in resume reading but it's clear that they are experts in personal awesomeness....ew, is that too self-serving?

Good points about the MBA space. For me, one of my few personal brushes with awesomeness is that I was the president of my alumni association.

And now that I started talking about my own personal experience, I think I have brought this comment post full-circle.
Anonymous
April 20, 2006
Heather, you were pondering (way up) what it was that made musicians tend to be excellent people in technology companies. I thought about that many years ago when I noticed it showing up again and again.

I think there are several "happy factors" that combine to favor musicians:

* Being a strong musician is just like gaining complete fluency in another language, right down to the subtleties like slang and idiomatic forms (which, like humor, are the things that most baffle foreign language learners). If you can be fluent in multiple languages, you can certainly learn or understand another (i.e. programming). You've wired the neural networks, and it is relatively analagous to map software technology on top.

* Music is a highly disciplined form of creative expression. It requires years of learning, training yourself in the skills and patterns and the ability to hear, follow multiple threads and to improvise. Most people that do that have an inner drive, and an ability to make the complex simple. Whether you are on the technical side or the marketing side, making the inherent complexity of technology simple is a tremendous asset. Isn't that why we all love iPODs?

* Music employs many of the same mental processes that creating new technology does. That makes musicianship a strongly correlated indicator of potential software skills, even you don't have any knowledge of coding already.

* Music employs a formal abstraction very similar to writing code.

Although we think of musicians as creative, and programmers as technical, the opposite is also true. Musicians have mastered a highly technical skill, and great programmers are very creative. They are different ways of looking at the same thing.

This notion was explored by Douglas Hofstader in the 1979 Pulitzer-prize winning book "Godel, Escher, Bach". Although he was comtemplating artificial intelligence and metaphysical ideas, the basic conclusion is that logic, music, and art are three variations of the same thing, or in Hofstader's words, "I realized that Godel, Escher and Bach were only shadows cast in different directions by some central solid essence." I also believe that poetic expression like Hofstader's words are another shadow cast by a different light source, which is why people who have exceptional command of the language also tend to be awesome.

And, all that is besides the fact that being a musician usually makes you more interesting as a person.
Anonymous
May 23, 2006
I have had a couple of phone screening interviews and 1 full time interview with Microsoft so far. One thing disappointed me was that the hiring managers tended to look for 'exact' or 'closer' match for their positions and ignored my potential. Honestly if I were a 'closer' match I would most likely be very bored of that job. What I look for in a position are challenges and opportunities for learning new thing, besides my contribution to the employer.

One suggestion I have for Microsoft is to consider a candidate with strong resume even with slightly 'un-matching' work experience as long as the candidate demonstrates his/her ability to learn and adapt. Some people are more comfortable stay in areas where they have lots of expertise but some are the opposite.
Anonymous
May 24, 2006
Hi Margaret,

A lot of times, what we find is that people will join Microsoft working on something similar to what they have done in the past (marketing a similar technology, for example) and then once they are here, they move around within the company to other groups.

Obviously, I am very supportive of hiring for potential but I will conceded that it's not right for every group, every time. Sometimes a group needs someone that can come in and hit the ground running. And sometimes that domain space has some complexities that should be handled by someone with previous experience in that domain.

I came to Microsoft on a role similar to what I had been doing before and there was nothing boring about it. Working at a different company, learning their business, understanding how they do things, made everything feel new for me for quite a while. And when it stopped feeling new, that is when my job changed.

Obviously I cannot comment about your specific interview experience, but it may just be that the hiring manager felt that there was another candidate he was more interested in moving forward with. There could be any number of reasons things did not progress with your candidacy. Often times, a hiring manager will ask questions about their specific domain to understand how much you prepared for the interview so it's not about the experience, it's about the preparation. I'm not saying that we hire for potential all the time, or even most of the time, but it does happen.

Sorry you weren't happy with the outcome of your interview experience though. I know it's a big time investment to speak with us and of couse, we appreciate that people are willing to take the time.
Anonymous
June 13, 2006
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
June 13, 2006
Mike-don't worry about posting on an old thread....it still gets traffic. I definitely think that professional associations are a good option for you. Given that people in other geographies may not be away of your school, networking locally might be the way to go (though I'd still keep options open).

Also, maybe try to find some of the 16 people that used to be on your team and network with them (maybe try LinkedIn). I'm sure they will remember great things about you based on your description. Because you don't have some of the things that appear as greatness on a resume, as you mentioned, networking is going to be more important for you than ever.

Also, though I know that this is not what people want to hear, sometimes a lateral move to another company opens up opportunities. Think about what companies would look at your resume and immediate get and value what you do. Think about companies along the supply chain (vendors, suppliers, clients) and possibly applying there.

I'm not sure if this helps at all. I can definitely sense your frustration (though you seem incredibly nice and productive about it...good for you).
Anonymous
June 13, 2006
Thank you Heather for the quick reply. I really appreciate that.

As for the lateral move, that is pretty much my option right now. Although the issue with organizations within the industry is that there are none in this area. It's pretty much a monopoly which obviously gives away who the company is.

I truly enjoy the technology that broadband is bringing to the world but I have decided that I want to have more of a hands on position.

I have been exploring my options and obviously Microsoft and some other local tech companies are on the list to look into.

I have definitely started to push the networking angle as I have profiles started on a few of the free sites like LinkedIn. I am asking for friends, associates, managers, etc. to give their input.

I realize that there are probably threads somewhere in this massive monster that is jobsblogs and MSDN that cover how someone can approach the companies like Microsoft without a programming background. I guess what I would like to know is how likely is it that someone with the education background and work experience that I have would be considered for a position? I know that there are other groups such as marketing, business development, etc. How far do the degrees go towards those groups?

For example, I would consider moving into an organization in one area as long as they encouraged education and growth towards the technical end of the business. Growth opportunities are going to be one of the biggest factors that will influence any career change decision I make. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to get my pinky toe in the door. :)

For now I will definitely encourage people to join my network and to express what they think of me as a person as well as a co-worker. To me both are of equal importance.

Again, I thank you for the quick reply and for your advice.

I'll keep reading on throughout the blogs and maybe I'll find another subject matter that hits close to home.

Have a great day!

Mike
Anonymous
June 13, 2006
Well, the different categories discussed in the blog post could apply. I'd be happy to get your resume into the right hands, though if I were in your position, I'd be focused on roles that most closely resemble your current role. so I would focus on tech positions (maybe IT ops).
Anonymous
June 14, 2006
It's me again Heather. I just want to check to see if you received my email. I went through the blog's email link. I have yet to ever receive any form of confirmation from anyone while trying their email link on their blogs. So I am hoping I am doing it right.

Let me know if you received my email. If not then I guess we'll have to figure out another way to do this.

Thanks once again for what you do here with this site. I am digging further and further back and finding great nuggets of wisdom here and there. I also want to give a big thanks to everyone who contributes as well. That's what makes it work.

Best regards,

Mike
Anonymous
June 15, 2006
It's me again Heather.

I just realized something and I apologize for this. I spaced the fact that I started out looking through the blogs on the tech site and ended up here. I started reading many of the subjects that you had started and found that they pertained a great deal to what my situation currently is. It just blew by me that you are a "marketing" recruiter and not a tech recruiter.

I apologize for that. I should have been focusing on the tech blogs. It's just that most of the subjects here hit home so I was compelled to finally speak up. I didn't mean to get you to receive my resume so that you had to pass it on.

Anyway, I'm still catching up on the reading and still learning quite a bit.

Here's to wishing you a great day!

Mike
Anonymous
June 15, 2006
Mike-don't worry about it. I don't mind.
Anonymous
June 19, 2006
Hi Heather! This is a great thread; tons of good stuff. I'm also stoked as I will be joining Keith White's team this August. Does this mean I'm awesome?! :)

One thing I believe that you can look for is a passion outside of work, family, friends or the other aspects of life that can be considered more or less universal. Whatever it is ... painting, writing, cooking, skiing (mine!), collecting stamps, jump roping, volunteering (another of mine!), etc ... you can find it, as the people that are truly passionate about those one or two things will put it on their resumes AND they'll love to talk about them. It always seems that these people bring balance, energy and new perspectives wherever they go and whatever they do.

kp
Anonymous
June 20, 2006
Keith-congrats and yes, I do believe that the evidence suggests that you are awesome.

Good point about the passion outside of work.
Anonymous
June 22, 2006
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
June 28, 2006
Remember when I blogged about what awesome looks like on a resume? Well our invitational event with the...
Anonymous
September 07, 2006
Would you ever give constructive critisism to an applicant?
Anonymous
June 13, 2007
Marc Andreessen blogs about how to hire the best for a start-up and uses Microsoft and Google as models.
Anonymous
July 15, 2007
PingBack from http://www.rightattitudes.com/2007/07/15/the-one-page-resume-rule/
Anonymous
January 03, 2008
It is not the 8 hours that people see that make us awesome, but rather it is the 16 hours that people do not see that really shows who we are.
Anonymous
January 06, 2008
PingBack from http://www.RightAttitudes.com/2008/01/06/resume-references-not-necessary/
Anonymous
March 09, 2008
PingBack from http://top-mba-programs.mbastudentlife.com/2006/04/07/what-does-awesome-look-like-on-a-resume/
Anonymous
April 19, 2009
Awesome on a resume....I have been a nurse for 23 years. I applied for a rapid response position and was told I DIDN'T have enough experience. I was an LPN for 19 years (16 of those years were in a critical care block, ICU, ER, CVICU and CVSD). The recruiter wanted a Registered Nurse of 5 years and I had 4 and 1/2 years. So...she can have a RN who has been setting up the collagen injections in a Dermatologists office for 5 years or she could have me...the girl who has been out in the field and has an AWESOME resume by my knowledge, practice, work ethic, and meaningful know how!

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What does awesome look like on a resume?

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