Putting Go on my resume...should I?

[Dazz]

I would remove the bullet about tournament wins...

I disagree. I think the only part I would keep on your resume under the heading of Go is the tournament wins. It is an impressive accomplishment and I think would even catch the eye of someone unfamiliar with the game. A prospective employer may recognize it as an accomplishment and a sign of ambition.

[Joaz Banbeck]

Sol,

I've owned a business with multiple employees for over 25 years now. I've interviewed more people than I can count.

My comments may seem brutal, but they are made in the hope that you will go out there with the best possible resume, and get the job you want.

Joaz

Give me one name, not two. Yes, I can see that you are Korean, because you are sitting on the other side of the desk, but I probably don't care.
If I am curious about your Korean name, I'll ask. But otherwise, keep it simple for me. Use one name, preferably one that I can pronounce. Don't give me a chance to embarrass myself by trying to pronounce your name and doing it badly. I'll irrationally resent you for my failing.

Switch the employer heading and job heading. Make the job the more prominent of the two. My primary concern is what you did, not where you did it, because I am wondering what you can do for me.
Unless you worked for something really prestigious, like the Rand corp, don't feature it. Remember, to me, my company is the most important one in the world. I don't care about the others. I have a limited attention span. Don't bury me in details that I don't need.

Get rid of the Asian characters ( unless the job requires knowing another language. ) One of my biggest problems with employees – after those who drink/drug on the job, and those who steal – is those who cannot communicate. Don't leave me wondering if you think that writing in foreign characters is a way to communicate with me.

Skip the paragraph about go. I've never heard of it, and I have no idea how complex it is, so I won't be suitably impressed by your accomplishments. All this tells me is that you play games. Games are for kids. I already have employees who play games, and they do it on company time, and I hate that.

GPA?? Unless is it really high, get rid of it. If you mean 3.0 on a 4.0 scale, I'm not impressed. Lots of your competitors will have numbers better than that. Don't give me an easy way to compare you to them unless you will come out ahead in the comparison.

Kifu? WTF is a kifu? Again, show me that you can communicate. Either I have to admit that I don't know something - which makes me look bad, or I have to assume that you are a poor communicator. Both are bad for you.
Label it 'board game recognition program', and tell me that it 'Generates a digital game record from a scanned image.' If I care about board games like go or chess, I'll ask which game.

About the visual layout: remember that my eyes are NOT like a 20-something's eyes. I need more white space. And I resent the fact that you youngsters can see better than I, so when I have trouble reading your resume, I'll resent you for making me feel old. Use the room saved by eliminating the paragraph about teaching go, and spread it between the other sections.
Also, as I said, I want people who can communicate, and sometimes that will mean communicating in writing.

Lastly, keep in mind that I have at least twenty applicants for every position – maybe several hundred. I can't possibly consider them all in depth. Therefore, my first pass through the pile will be an elimination pass. I will want to get rid of 80% to 90% of them so I can get a manageable pile. I'll use simple criteria: this guy can't spell, that person had a low GPA, this guy will play games at work, etc.
So don't give me simple ways to make a trivial negative judgement about you.

[Joaz Banbeck]

And before someones says: "Jeez, Joaz! Are you really that simple-minded and trite?", I should mention that the quote above is a composite generated from an amalgam of managers and owners in my and other's businesses over the years.

[Phelan]

I haven't fully read the thread, so I'll just add my personal experience:
I got some curious questions about the game, and interesting conversation at interviews, but I don't feel it served to get me a job. In fact, the last job I got, there was some ribbing about me having that in the resume. My next resume will focus more on the community organising I do with Go, instead of Go as a hobby.

[Lamp]

And before someones says: "Jeez, Joaz! Are you really that simple-minded and trite?", I should mention that the quote above is a composite generated from an amalgam of managers and owners in my and other's businesses over the years.

going to agree with everything you said, based on my own experiences hiring / interviewing people. There are many things a person is proud of which an employer won't give a flippety flip about, and could end up hurting you.

Even though I agree with pretty much all of Joaz's points, in my own personal opinion, the most important two are the name (just put Solomon Choe), and getting rid of Chinese characters.

Ok, I lied. Three. DEFINITELY lose the GPA. Do not even think about putting your GPA on a resume unless it's 3.7 or higher. Probably even 3.8.

[Solomon]

Wow, so much feedback! Thanks everyone so far, and hoping for more . I'll need some time to re-consider how I'll update the Go tidbit, but I've updated my resume based on feedback regarding general critique...hopefully it's better: http://ywchoe.com/SolomonChoe_Resume.pdf (might have to hard refresh)

[Solomon]

One question: For "Studied professionally in China under Liu Yuanbo, pro-certified by the Chinese Go Association," (my underline),
what does "studied professionally" mean? Do you mean you studied with pros?
It seems ambiguous? Another way to parse it is something like a "professional student" --
-- like you were paid ("professionally") to study "as a student of Go" -- maybe you were? As a Go teacher?
If there's a way to rephrase it and avoid that ambiguity, it's probably better.

I'll try to rephrase it, but yes I studied with him and paid him to be my teacher, rather than me getting paid (I wish...).

[cata]

I help hire people and look at resumes pretty much like you and yours for a medium-sized software startup.

I think it's weird to include basically recreational stuff under your "employment history" (even given that you're a recent student, so you don't have a long history of actual employment.) I would get a slightly negative sense that you are just applying padding.

I'd just leave it at the part that is actually employment -- the teaching. Anyone who cares about Go will understand that you are a strong player, without having to read about your tournament wins. I think you can get away with a little more modesty.

And I would indeed leave it on, at least if you're interviewing with tech companies, where you can assume there's a good chance someone will know the game (and almost zero chance that anyone will look down at you for having a "niche" or "intellectual" hobby as an earlier poster suggested.) It's both inherently impressive to some people and a respectable-sounding kind of thing for you to have been doing part-time during school.

Joaz's advice on most of the rest seems pretty good but given your skillset, you presumably aren't applying for a job where there are twenty or a hundred hard-to-distinguish qualified applicants for every position. So I don't think you need to worry as much about people making some snap judgement based on the words "playing teaching games" or something.

Incidentally, it's more typical to put the "languages and technologies" section on top instead of on the bottom, although when it's all on one page I suppose the order isn't as important. And you should rephrase the sentence starting with "Graph model" to be consistent with the verb-first structure of the "Built regression model" sentence above it.

[Phelan]

Hmm, having just looked at the resume, you seem to be tailoring it towards working with a software/math focus.

In that case, I would move Go to a hobby section, even if you used to teach for money.
That is, unless the place you're applying to would like teaching experience in some form or another.

Then again, my culture is very different, so I'd listen more to those closer to your country/desired area of employment.

[judicata]

[..]

I can't imagine an employer wanting that information. [..]

FWIW, in Germany it is quite usual to list hobbies, as well as voluntary work. I’ve learnt that good employers should be interested in their employees being healthy humans with more than just work-related interests.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” This is not a German proverb … who’d want a dull person among their other employees?

If you read my post again, I completely agree. I was referring to the number of hours spent on go.

[Bonobo]

If you read my post again, I completely agree. I was referring to the number of hours spent on go.

Oh. Yes. I also missed your former post :-! Sorry.

[SmoothOper]

I would leave it off, then again I was never quite cool enough to get your basic entry level position , so I had to go to grad school to learn how to be a grumpy and take my career too seriously .

[Solomon]

I would leave it off, then again I was never quite cool enough to get your basic entry level position , so I had to go to grad school to learn how to be a grumpy and take my career too seriously .

Seeing how many job openings of interest I'm seeing require/prefer an MS/PhD, I'm tempted to make a U-turn and go to grad school myself...

[SmoothOper]

I would leave it off, then again I was never quite cool enough to get your basic entry level position , so I had to go to grad school to learn how to be a grumpy and take my career too seriously .

Seeing how many job openings of interest I'm seeing require/prefer an MS/PhD, I'm tempted to make a U-turn and go to grad school myself...

It is better to have a flexible resume, that you can tailor to each position, and a general resume that you can pass around to friends and relatives. If you apply for a job listing make it say pretty much whatever is in the listing if possible, since people in HR will be doing the sifting and winnowing, on behalf of hiring managers. Feel free to give the one with Go on it to your mom.

[Kirby]

...Seeing how many job openings of interest I'm seeing require/prefer an MS/PhD, I'm tempted to make a U-turn and go to grad school myself...

In general I'd recommend this, but from what I gather of your personality, I feel even more strongly that grad school is a good fit for you.