Is my CV part readable?

[Ursus Spelaeus]

Hi All!

I'm russian speaking and currently I'm writing my CV in english. Could you folks please take a short look at it and tell me is it readable for native english speakers and how bad is it?
Thanks in advance!

===========
As a senior software engineer I’m the one of key players of a team developing mission critical C and C++ software for telecom industry tasks with active using of the full software development life cycle. My duties include – customer requirements analysis in the context of a project, analysis of customer hardware through the H/W specifications, schematics and datasheets; designing software architecture according to the requirements and H/W specifications, implementing software solutions, debugging and deploying the software either remotely or on-site in the customers’ laboratories; communicating with customers engineers, testers, project and sales managers either by e-mail or by phone during the conference calls. In particular, I worked on-site in such laboratories as: Intel, Parsippany, USA; Alcatel-Lucent, Lannion, France; Elma Electronic, Bedford, UK.
Participating in XXX project for Monterey Linux Embedded – proprietary platform management software implementing IPMI 1.5 and 2.0 specifications used for monitoring the health of the system temperatures, voltages, fans, power supplies, bus errors, system’s physical security, etc. For this project designed and implemented such important parts of the IPMI specification as: System Event Log – supporting ZLIB compression and journaling; Firmware Firewall – protecting IPMI commands and functions from being accessed from any given interface unintentionally or maliciously; RMCP+ – a secure and reliable enhanced protocol for transferring IPMI messages and other types of payload over IP using authentication, encryption and discovery functions.
In the context of the XXX project I’m designing and developing software solutions in the form of Linux drivers, multithreaded applications and libraries for the wide spectrum of IPMB/I2C sensors and I/O devices such as multiplexors, analog and digital sensors, integrated circuits and controllers. At the same time I’m developing multi-OS (Windows and Linux) cross-platform (big- and little-endian compatible) software for the architectures we use – ARM7, MIPS, PowerPC and Intel x86, relying on IEEE Std 1003.1.
Investigated project’s performance issues and as a result created <specific> flash chip life time estimation formula which I’ve used to created optimized and reliable XXX’s System Event Log implementation using journaling. This allowed us to increase flash life time in tens of times.
Participated in YYY for Windows 2000 project (CompactPCI boards hot swapping support under Windows 2000) – performed YYY drivers code review, bugs fixing, debugging with WinDbg; worked on improving YYY installation package - designed and implemented YYY Co-Installer libraries using Windows Setup API and integrated them into the InstallShield’s installation package.
Designed and implemented Windows XP/2003 Embedded proprietary crash dump driver to support crash dump information on Windows XP/2003 Embedded systems with Enhanced Write Filter protection enabled.
===============

[Ursus Spelaeus]

150 viewers, thank you for your opinion! =)

[PJG]

Hi Ursus,
It is very wordy! I would look at trying to break it down into a series of shorter paragraphs and maybe use bullet points. I have had a go at doing this for you, but since I know nothing about the subjects you speak about, I don't know if I've kept the right context - see below,

From an outsider, it certainly seems like an impressive CV so I guess you must be a fair way up the career ladder and have had some experience reading CVs and short listing for interview. Think about what you look for in a CV.

I would try to avoid using abbreviations such as "I'm" and use "I am" instead. Also, try and decide upon the tense you want to use and only chage it once. i.e. You can start by saying "I have been involved with..." and go onto to describe your previous projects, and then go on to say "currently I am..." to describe what you presently involved with, but try not to change back to the past tense if you can help it as it can get confusing.

As a senior software engineer I am the one of the key players in a team developing mission critical C and C++ software for telecom industry tasks with active use of the full software development life cycle.

My duties include:
· Customer requirement analysis in the context of a project
· Analysis of customer hardware through the H/W specifications
· Schematics and datasheets
· Designing software architecture according to the requirements and H/W specifications Implementing software solutions
· Debugging and deploying the software either remotely or on-site in the customers’ laboratories
· Communicating with customers’ engineers, testers, project and sales managers either by e-mail or by phone during conference calls.

In particular, I have worked on-site in laboratories such as: Intel and Parsippany in the USA, Alcatel-Lucent and Lannion in France and Elma Electronic in Bedford, UK.

I have also participated in the XXX project for Monterey Linux Embedded which involved proprietary platform management software and implementation of IPMI 1.5 and 2.0 specifications used for monitoring the health of the system temperatures, voltages, fans, power supplies, bus errors, system’s physical security etc.

For this project I designed and implemented such components of the IPMI specification as:
· System Event Log – supporting ZLIB compression and journaling;
· Firmware Firewall – protecting IPMI commands and functions from being accessed from any given interface unintentionally or maliciously;
· RMCP+ – a secure and reliable enhanced protocol for transferring IPMI messages and other types of payload over IP using authentication, encryption and discovery functions.

As a part of the XXX project I have designed and developed software solutions in the form of Linux drivers, multithreaded applications and libraries for the wide spectrum of IPMB/I2C sensors and I/O devices. These include multiplexors, analog and digital sensors, integrated circuits and controllers. At the same time I have developed multi-OS (Windows and Linux) cross-platform (big- and little-endian compatible) software for the architectures we use: ARM7, MIPS, PowerPC and Intel x86, relying on IEEE Std 1003.1. – I have changed this to past tense as you previously used the past tense to describe your work on the XXX project

I have Investigated project performance issues and as a result created <specific> flash chip life time estimation formula which I’ve used to create and optimise a reliable XXX’s System Event Log implementation using journaling. This allowed us to increase flash life time by X%. – If you know how by what percentage you increased the flash life, put it in!

I have also Participated in YYY for Windows 2000 project (CompactPCI boards hot swapping support under Windows 2000) and carried out a YYY drivers code review, bug fixing, debugging with WinDbg and worked on improving the YYY installation package. I designed and implemented the YYY Co-Installer libraries using Windows Setup API and integrated them into the InstallShield’s installation package.
I was also responsible for the design and implementation of Windows XP/2003 embedded proprietary crash dump driver to support crash dump information on Windows XP/2003 Embedded systems with Enhanced Write Filter protection enabled.

[Ursus Spelaeus]

Hello PJG!

Thank you very much for your comments! This is very important for me.
I have some questions to you:

- you said my CV is very wordy and I'm not sure what did you mean by saying this. did you man boasting? Is this beacuse of my very first sentence about the "key player"? I just was trying to be as short as possible when describing my regular work and achievements for the last 5 years in the company. And I didn't embellish my experience and my duties. This all is true and can be confirmed by my chief. But probably you are right and I have to remove such thing as "key player" because it may sound as a boasting.

- other question is about my language mistakes. could you please tell me how critical they are for the first impression about me? do they just killing the CV at all or knowing that I'm not a native english speaker those mistakes are (could be) acceptable?

Thank you in advance!

[Suenneil]

Originally Posted by Ursus Spelaeus

Hello PJG!

Thank you very much for your comments! This is very important for me.
I have some questions to you:

- you said my CV is very wordy and I'm not sure what did you mean by saying this. did you man boasting? Is this beacuse of my very first sentence about the "key player"? I just was trying to be as short as possible when describing my regular work and achievements for the last 5 years in the company. And I didn't embellish my experience and my duties. This all is true and can be confirmed by my chief. But probably you are right and I have to remove such thing as "key player" because it may sound as a boasting.

- other question is about my language mistakes. could you please tell me how critical they are for the first impression about me? do they just killing the CV at all or knowing that I'm not a native english speaker those mistakes are (could be) acceptable?

Thank you in advance!

Hi Ursus

I dont believe PJG was suggesting that you were boasting. "Wordy" usually means that you have written too much!

Of course in a CV it is important to promote yourself and your achievements / skills. But sometimes a very lengthy CV can put people off reading it. I havent lived in the UK now for 5 years, so maybe CV presentation has changed a little But in the past I would have almost written a bullet point CV with a more comprehensive CV (wordy !!) as a second attachment in case the prospective employer wanted to know more about me / my previous experience etc.

Best of luck!
Sue

[PJG]

Hi Ursus,
Sorry for the mis-understanding, I did not mean that you where boasting at all. Thats' what CVs are all about! If you don't sell yourself, no-one else will!!!

Phrases like "key player" are important as they show you have the confidence to recognise your roll in the team.

I didn't necessarily mean that you have written too much either, just that the way it was written made it hard to read through and identify the important bits. Like I said, just try and split it down into paragraphs a bit. Imagine that your who ever is reading it also has possibly dozens of other applications to read. You need to get their attention and make your CV stand out as one that is worth more than a quick scan through. If they are faced with one long paragraph, unfortunately they are likely to cast it to one side even if it contains information that makes you the best candidate.

Bullet points are great because they offer a short sharp overview of what you have achieved. You don't need to give them every little detail as anything they want more detailed information on they will ask in the interview (this also gives you a way of second guessing what some of your interview questions might be and ensure you have prepared answers)!

Because English is not your first language, then you will be forgiven a few errors. But, if you iron out all these errors then it shows diligence and care on your part and makes the reader believe you really care about putting yourself across in the best possible light. I have read CVs from English natives that make me cringe when I see their use of the language and to be honest it puts me off. I just think, well if this person couldn't be bothered to have their CV proof read then what else won't they be bothered to do if I give them a job! Like I say, you will be forgiven a lot more, but on the other hand you will stand out a lot more if, even as a non-native English speaker, your CV is one of the best written.

Someone (with a lot of experience in hiring people) once told me an interview for a job begins the minute the employer starts reading the covering letter: If the covering letter is not inspiring (or worse still, there's no covering letter at all), they wouldn't bother to do more than glance over the CV. If the CV looks like it is going to take half an hour to go through with a fine tooth comb to pick out the bits that may be of interest then they probably won't bother.

It sounds harsh but if it was me reading a CV and someone didn't present the information in a readable fashion, I would wonder what their reports would be like once they start work and how much they would care about presenting information in a way that their colleagues could understand it!

One last thing, you don't need to put in every aspect of every project you have been involved with if many of them are simmilar. Just enough to give the reader an idea of the various tasks. With your CV I have no idea what the things you have included are so you may well have done this. Again, if they want to know more, they'll invite you for an interview and ask you, then you can really go to town and show you level of understanding.

These are basically the rules I followed when I was last applying for jobs (up until about 18 months ago) and out of three jobs I applied for I had two interviews. One interview I messed up horrendously and the other interview got me my current job. Ok, that might be 66% failure rate, but I've ended up with one hell of a job that changed my life, which in my opinion is a 100% success!!

Best of Luck Ursus, be confident, sell your self and don't worry too much about not being a native English speaker.

Regards

PJ

[Ursus Spelaeus]

Hello PJ!

Thank you very much for your notes!
Wish you all the best!
Regards!

[Penny-Louise]

I'm no longer part of the career structure, I've gone my own way, but making the content of the CV is important, and as someone else pointed out, bullet point might help to break down this fairly dry information. But titles or headings may be better.

As far as I know, the Career Record / Education / Person style is out of date, but something that breaks down personal qualities, personal interests and work achievements would make it easier on the eye.

And remember, tell everyone just how good you are, then make it a bit stronger, then do it again!

Penny x

[Fatbrit]

Originally Posted by Ursus Spelaeus

Hi All!

I'm russian speaking and currently I'm writing my CV in english. Could you folks please take a short look at it and tell me is it readable for native english speakers and how bad is it?
Thanks in advance!

===========
As a senior software engineer I’m the one of key players of a team developing mission critical C and C++ software for telecom industry tasks with active using of the full software development life cycle. My duties include – customer requirements analysis in the context of a project, analysis of customer hardware through the H/W specifications, schematics and datasheets; designing software architecture according to the requirements and H/W specifications, implementing software solutions, debugging and deploying the software either remotely or on-site in the customers’ laboratories; communicating with customers engineers, testers, project and sales managers either by e-mail or by phone during the conference calls. In particular, I worked on-site in such laboratories as: Intel, Parsippany, USA; Alcatel-Lucent, Lannion, France; Elma Electronic, Bedford, UK.
Participating in XXX project for Monterey Linux Embedded – proprietary platform management software implementing IPMI 1.5 and 2.0 specifications used for monitoring the health of the system temperatures, voltages, fans, power supplies, bus errors, system’s physical security, etc. For this project designed and implemented such important parts of the IPMI specification as: System Event Log – supporting ZLIB compression and journaling; Firmware Firewall – protecting IPMI commands and functions from being accessed from any given interface unintentionally or maliciously; RMCP+ – a secure and reliable enhanced protocol for transferring IPMI messages and other types of payload over IP using authentication, encryption and discovery functions.
In the context of the XXX project I’m designing and developing software solutions in the form of Linux drivers, multithreaded applications and libraries for the wide spectrum of IPMB/I2C sensors and I/O devices such as multiplexors, analog and digital sensors, integrated circuits and controllers. At the same time I’m developing multi-OS (Windows and Linux) cross-platform (big- and little-endian compatible) software for the architectures we use – ARM7, MIPS, PowerPC and Intel x86, relying on IEEE Std 1003.1.
Investigated project’s performance issues and as a result created <specific> flash chip life time estimation formula which I’ve used to created optimized and reliable XXX’s System Event Log implementation using journaling. This allowed us to increase flash life time in tens of times.
Participated in YYY for Windows 2000 project (CompactPCI boards hot swapping support under Windows 2000) – performed YYY drivers code review, bugs fixing, debugging with WinDbg; worked on improving YYY installation package - designed and implemented YYY Co-Installer libraries using Windows Setup API and integrated them into the InstallShield’s installation package.
Designed and implemented Windows XP/2003 Embedded proprietary crash dump driver to support crash dump information on Windows XP/2003 Embedded systems with Enhanced Write Filter protection enabled.
===============

Used to read these CVs all the time when I lived in Slovakia......and your CV is perfect for all the countries of the former Comecon The only facts missing are that you father was a tractor driver and you were born in a small village under High Tatras Mountains!

But for the UK, it just ain't gonna work. Try a site such as CV writing to get some ideas together for a total rehash of the style and layout.