[geeks] Opinions - Outdated technologies on Resume

[Kurt Huhn]

As a hiring manager I would always look for folks that listed new AND
old stuff on their resume.  I saw that as someone who possessed lots of
experience and typically would have a well developed ability to
troubleshoot, diagnose, and fix problems before they cropped up.

As someone who was looking for a job about 4 years ago, I tended to
pare back my resume and tailor them to the employer with whom I was
hoping to score an interview.  At that point the job market was in the
toilet, even moreso than today, but it seemed to work.  My full resume
is 5 pages long, so there's plenty to work with.

At the end of my job hunt I did get tired of making all those changes,
and put stuff in like "infosec SWAT team, Linux ninja, and MacGyver
rolled into one".  I don't actually suggest anyone do that unless you're
getting desperate (I was), but it did work for me.  I landed the
interview that got me my current job.

--Kurt


On Mon, 04 Jun 2012 19:34:47 -0700, Rick Hamell <hamellr at gmail.com>
wrote:
> I was just curious how you all feel about adding outdated technologies 
> to a Resume?
> 
> I'm not talking stuff that is still in use, but rare. But stuff that has 
> fallen off the radar:
> 
> MFM Hard drives
> IBM PS/2 hardware
> Lantastic
> BeOS
> Commodore/Amiga
> 
> Or even ancient versions of software:
> Windows 2.0
> Office 2.0
> Novel 3.22
> Solaris 2
> 386BSD
> 
> I've been struggling with this for years. On one hand my area is pretty 
> full of generalists, so I've always wanted to show off the breadth and 
> depth of my knowledge to differentiate me from the crowd. "Sure you know 
> Windows and Mac. But do you also know Solaris, Linux, *BSD, BeOS, AND 
> AIX?" On the other hand I run the risk of making HR people's eyes glaze 
> over, or hiring managers feel that I'm a "Jack of all trades, Master of 
> none."
> 
> Of course every once in a while it's nice to get the IT manager who's 
> been around the block to reminiscence together. :)

-- 
Kurt Huhn
artisan at k-huhn.com