"How to Make HR Dump a Programmer's Resume," by Esther Schindler of JavaWorld was the most fascinating post I read about HR this month and surprising it wasn't from an HR blog at all - it was from a blog for Java developers. It serves up some extremely valuable information about the relationship between programmers and tech recruiters. The post made a huge splash on the Net... it's been reposted in countless forums because it's just so on-the-nose. Schindler followed up a few days later with the other side of the coin: "What HR Professionals Look For in a Programmer's Resume." The two pieces together create a whole, and are not-to-be-missed. For more job search advice, check out JobConcierge.com

In the first article Schindler discusses the difference in audience between an HR professional and a technical manager. According to him applicants don't know who is reading the resume first. It's a real problem for techies, whose resumes are often markedly different from those of other types of applicants. Some other topics covered to make sure programmers don't get their resumes dumped are: The topics discussed to make sure the resumes don't get dumped were, using business language instead of technical jargon. Know when to leave out irrelevant or obsolete skills. Use the "in vogue" terms. Show discipline in editing the resume for length.

Schindler pointed out after her interactions with HR people that three things most often overlooked by programmers in their self-marketing are 1) specific achievements, 2) metrics, and 3) an introductory summary. This introductory summary idea is important: a lot of software people jump straight into a list of technologies or achievements without giving the reader a context of what kind of person they're dealing with. She penned What HR Professionals Look For in a Programmer's Resume" to show her programming colleagues the DOs as well as the DO NOT Dos.

According to her if you are at all involved in recruiting tech personnel she recommends you read the following articles making the world a better place: covering work on open-source endeavors. She also emphasis on the fact that instead of describing the organization it makes much more sense to describe what you did there. Include a self-rating of Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert for each technology.

The cartoon by Steve Hanov, a software developer who also creates tech-related cartoons is the first thing that comes to my mind after reading the article. It's a little harsh on HR - so you've been warned going in - but it's quite funny in its description of how an HR professional and a programmer will read the same resume completely differently. Instead of taking the digs in the cartoon badly, I choose to take them as a sincere comment from a techie as to what is really important to them - which is truly worth knowing. I remain confident that organizations with open communication and a commitment to great technical recruiting can value the input of both programmers and HR when it comes to building the software team. You can find the best industry job boards and best recruiters and headhunters in each industry at JobConcierge.com