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I need advice in my situation.
I have graduated in 2012. Up to now I have zero employment history, but I wrote a set of meaningful programs.
This is not to demonstrate what I wrote, but to help you judge on the question
- Chat program (many-to-many users, send text, play a little game with peers)
- Reliable Speed reading program with many features.
- Program that uses database.
Etc.

I am thinking in two suggestions. Am I right in any of these suggestions?

  • Don't mention "Employment history" and just put "Programming experience" under which introduce the list of your programs.

  • Mention that you have no "Employment history" and just put "Programming experience" under which introduce the list of your programs.

In general if "Programming experience" is good to insert into my resume, is it OK to add snapshots of my programs either within the resume paper or in a separate paper?

  • What is your suggestions and advice?
gnat
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Saleh Feek
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  • When you say no employment history, do you mean 'no programming employment history' or nothing. Not even fast food service or a paper route'? – atk Jan 26 '14 at 17:07
  • @atk "no programming employment history", I worked unofficially at my father's fish farm and at my uncle's iron workshop, and at flagstones shop. – Saleh Feek Jan 26 '14 at 17:31
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    Hi Saleh. I've removed that aside question. Please keep it to one question per question. You're welecome to ask it as a separate question. –  Jan 26 '14 at 18:38

2 Answers2

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An employer is going to appreciate that as a graduate you're likely to not have any relevant employment history.

Including any work that you have done is still a good idea, as it shows that you're motivated and reliable.

For a 'Employment History' type section you can include:

  • Any work that you have done, even if it isn't relevant to the job you are applying for.
  • Any part time or summer jobs you might have had. You can put these in as a single section under 'Employment history'. Eg. "During my university summer breaks I worked picking apples. I supplemented my income during the year with various one-off odd jobs during the year - gardening, helping people move."
  • Any clubs or interest groups you attended.
  • Any sports you played.
  • Any projects you worked on in your own time.

Essentially you want to show the employer that you're a motivated and reliable individual.

However, this shouldn't be the major component of your CV. Rather focus on the relevant skills and experience you have.

So yes - Do include the jobs you've worked as, they show that you're reliable.

Listing the projects that you've been working sounds like an excellent idea, warranting its own section.

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How many people used those meaningful programs? How well could you have a reference such as a professor discuss your ability to create such programs?

I'd probably leave off the "No employment history" on the resume though I would mention this in a cover letter from the perspective that, "I'm eager to learn about developing software in a commercial environment," or something similar to show where you want to go.

I'd probably suggest having a portfolio of your code that you bring to interviews rather than attaching it to the resume as there is the question of how well could someone that doesn't know the code easily see what it does, which patterns were used, what kinds of trade-offs did you decide in architecting the code the way you did.

While you graduated in 2012, what have you done for the last couple of years? This is somewhat important as well as whether or not there was relevant course work in getting your degree that may be useful to put on the resume.

A curriculum vitae is the same as a resume in an employment context.

JB King
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