The Myth of the great CV

I’m a technology guy and I like to write about technology, also I like to blog about other things like social issues, education, innovation and any non-technical  ideas, this is why I started this new blog where I will write about my ideas and my point of views. It will be no scientific or fancy posts just some thoughts and some point of  views that I can change them over the time.

In my first post I would like to talk about the famous CV or curriculum vitae that everyone trying so hard to make, we have all different point of views about the format and the content, everyone have its own suggestion about the bad, the good and the great cv but let’s take an example of what most people consider as a great cv(Technology guy).

Mr John Smith

Graduated from great school let’s say MIT

Have many technology certifications

Speaks 3 languages (English, French and Japanese) perfectly

Have 10 years of software developing experience and he worked 5 years as project manager

What great guy what a cv what a man, well I don’t think so, this is  just a good typical cv that doesn’t make anyone special, great or impressive… let’s analyse the matter:

Graduated from great school: Good job John you  just proved that you spent more time than others solving problems that interest no one, also you proved that you are a great robot that follows orders (nothing impressive in that but this is not your fault is the fault of a corrupted education system).

Having many technology certifications: So John will spend less time on Google looking for problem solutions, well this is good and it can be productive but again not impressive  anyone can do it is jut googling.

Speaking 3 languages: ok great good nice but everyone speaks English now and anyone who doesn’t must start learning.

Having 10 years of experience: that what I like to call the hamster phenomenon, a hamster spend most of his days rolling on his wheel, walking hundreds of kilometres but no one can say that Mr hamster has visited the world and saw many things. It is just repeating  the same thing every day. I have a little experience in the software industry and after a while things become pretty typical and all you do is repeating things.

Don’t get me wrong I still think that it is a good cv and can get John a job with a very good company maybe Microsoft or Google with a very decent salary but that doesn’t make John special or impressive, that doesn’t make John the one who will make decisions about the future of technology. John will be another wheel in the big machine of industry but John will never be the one who creates this machine or decide what are the new parts to add.

But what is the great cv for me??? Ok will give you examples (technology world)

 Richard Stallman: Open source licence

Steve jobs: Apple

Dennis Richie: C and Unix

Bill Gates: Microsoft

Linus Torvalds: Linux

All the great cv are composed of few words only few, most of those guys didn’t even graduated from school, speaking very basic English and have no certifications, but what make them special and impressive is their own projects, their own ideas and the innovation side that they all share, what’s a great cv, a great cv is a cv that contains the name of your own  project that you started and make it works, that very special project  will talk about you, it will present you and give you privileges to join the league of technology creators and decision makers.

Finally is up to you and what you want if you like a regular job and a regular life make the good typical cv, but if you like to be impressive you have to start your own project and make a great cv, you can start by contributing in open source projects, you can create your own startup(you have nothing to lose)you can also join a good research group or movement... My final world is to try making projects that solve problems you like.