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Hi, this is not a joke but a question of how demoscene and your real life job cv an mix, what where your experiences with the interviewers, and what to avoid. I am trying to reform a bit my older cv and do some changes here concerning the mentions of demoscene activity and there and I may ask your opinion and your experience.

Ok, my latest cv said something like that in achievement field:



And in other activities field:



There was that pizza application job (not pizza store worker but a java app for pizza management or something), I had two interviews, in the second I also spoke to one of their programmers. From all the text he asked me what Mindlapse is instead of asking me what the whole demoscene is. And he also asked me (which I found funny) "When you say realtime graphics, what do you mean exactly?" and then he asked me if I can hack or something :PPP

Ok, I didn't got that job but not for this reason :)


Now, I change the other activities field to:



Should I mention the nickname Optimus? Or does it sound too "hackerish" for serious programming jobs. My last interviewer said I am more like a hobbyist programmer and maybe they need some serious programmer or something. Not because of the nickname of course but because of the whole different level of programming I am into (languages, graphics, demoscene community). He didn't said my programming sucks, but that they ask for something different. I told him I could easilly manage to work in their team with their style but weeks later they said they prefer a more experienced programmer in their field.

Also, I have nothing else in my other activities field. Should I write trivial stuff like listening to music, joking or anything? I prefer not but... ok I have no life and my life is demoscene I guess :P

Any other suggestions? Any other mistakes I make above? Do you mention the demoscene in your CVs? Is it ok? And how do the interviewers take that?

If the job you're applying to is somewhat computer / art related, you sure should metion demoscene, I guess. :D Nothing wrong with mentioning success :D

what's funny about that? in most worlds, realtime means guaranteed fast reaction to events, or simply "as fast as in the real world". this has nothing to do with whether images are computed from geometric data and all kinds of meta-information or straight from an MPEG stream.

additionally, don't mention nicknames, there's no point. i'd not even mention group names - it's not like they're a company or a real organisation with some important track record, in nearly all cases.

stick to the core. you've created award-winning executable audiovisual presentations on various platforms. this means that you have a high proficiency in programming on limited systems, handling performance requirements, dealing with audio and video and additionally you're an eager learner of new (or old) technologies. that last sentece is the part that's interesting to an employer, not if you gained those skills by coding demos, coding games, frying sausages or reading teenage magazines. that's just the supporting argument, the reason *why* you have those skills.

so focus on the skills, not the scene.

on cv show your skills, your prior jobs and what you've achieved there. maybe summarize some specific programmin skills and be prepared to back them up if need be.

in most job apps i ended up mentioning the demoscene after all during talks, but that was just because i had another one in front of me :)

keep it real.

and wtf, you're doing this "third person" style? :) hehehe

HIS NAME IS NIELS J. DE WIT
HE WAS BORN ON THE 31ST OF DECEMBER 1983
AWESOME LIGHTNING STRUCK THREE SECONDS LATER, RENDERING A CATTLE FARM ONE SMOLDERING MESS

or you'd go for something more multimedia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TmhRDEtiy4&feature=related

and dont forget to mention that you we a key player in the south american contras gang prior to the whole oliver north scam, smuggling cocaine past the us border

that'll do fine too

we->were :)

im done ranting now.

If you've won something, tell about it. I don't bother mentioning my nick - if they're interested, they can read it from my site (url for which is, of course, provided).

How you present things is also a matter of some thought. Consider the following completely fictious examples from a non-sceneers point of view:

"Won 1st place in 64k intro compo at assembly 97"

vs

"Won the 1st place at youth computer festival Assembly 97 in the real-time graphics and size optimization programming contest, with the size limit of 64KB - role was the lead programmer in a team of five."

"youth" ?
:)

"In 2000 a crack cocaine smoker called Optimus was sent to Germany by his parents, for a crime he did commit (ejaculating on his mom's underwear). This man promptly escaped a maximum security stockade to the demoscene underground. Today, still wanted by the CPC scene, he survives as blogger of misfortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can hire Optimus!"

I do mention the demoscene in my CV, but strictly as an artistic activity. It's supposed to show that I'm not only computer nerd but also interested in fine arts and culture and stuff :-)
I do not mention nicknames, I think it doesn't sound mature.

"extra notable skills: i can fart the Greek national anthem using both my two armpits in a very daft polyphonic way"

sol_hsa is right. My old boss used to say 'demoscene does not pay the gas bill'. An employer wants to know whether you are a return on investment and the only way they're going to know that is by what you've already achieved.

The other good thing to do with cv is start each bullet point that states your achievements with a dynamic word. A cv is scanned and not read from start to finish.

The other thing to do to fool recruitment agency systems is to put every industry three letter acronym that interests you in a very small font and hide it so the foreground colour is the same as the background colour and then paste it as many times as it will fit.

There's a job at my place if you fancy work in uk. Let the HR people you know me and I get 10% of your first year salary.

oh and point out that you're a dick.

What for exactly?

Don't use 3rd person. At least where I come from it makes you sound like an arrogant prick. I come from a very small town anyway... very very small.

Hmm, demoscene activity in a CV... now there's a thought.

"i was partially responsable for rush hour 2"

the question is - is it relevant? asm polyfiller skills are pretty far from java db-code.

i wrote about demos in my cv once. but that was mostly because i had nothing else to write :) it was my first job after years of being a lazy student.

but yes. only mention it if its relevant. it was in my case. (and i got the job :))

Depends on the industry i suppose. For i know is that in the webdev mostly concerning Flash, the demoscene is well appreciated. I know one guy who got a job for knowing a 6501 illegal upcode, the job had nothing to do with 8bit however :)
And it has helped me in some job interviews, it's an eye opener for some, can't be too harmful for the rest. Unless the job requires good ppl skills ;)

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