The other day I was about to update my resume, and this crazy question came to my mind: What might my resume look like if I were a computer ?
And This is the result. (Best viewed in Chrome and Firefox).
Well, I am aware that I would not wake up one morning finding out I turned into a computer. Also, I am not sure if one day I turn into a computer, I would look for a job. It is not unexpected that someday robots apply for jobs:
I am an intel-based robot with 128 cores, 2 extra GPUs and lots and lots of storage. Great at multi-tasking, equipped with state of the art AI technologies; can adapt to any environment and a quick learner. I also have teleportation abilities, but the module is missing so you have to buy the module and train me to do that. Originally designed to compose and play music, but I also can cook, clean and do programming.
Here is how I came up with me as a computer resume:
Lets see how a computer do it’s job from inside out. In the heart of the computer, there lays CPU which does most of the hard work and it defines the base characteristics of the system. Frequency, Processing units, Registers, Memory management, and etc. If I were a computer, I would ask myself: What are my core features that are defining my characteristics? In human world, it translates to very basic human characteristics and personality. Being a team player, public speaker, GTD type of person, Introvert, active, passive, and so on. Basically, I question the way I define myself. This will be the core of the system.
In addition, one important part of the computer systems is the memory hierarchy. to simplify things, lets assume memory hierarchy only consists of Hard Drive, RAM and processor caches (L1, L2 and L3) . Each core has access to all these memory elements, and the difference is the time it takes for the core to access each of them. At the very top of the hierarchy we have Level 1 Cache (L1), which has a very fast access time but it comes in very small size. As we move down the hierarchy (L2 -> L3 -> RAM), the access time gets longer and the size of the memory becomes bigger. It means the lower the memory element is in the hierarchy, the more time CPU has to spend to fetch the data from that element.
But how does this all work together? Well there is a concept called temporal locality (also there exists Spatial Locality which is not related to me being a computer !!), it means the most recent data being used at a certain point in time should be closer to the core of the system. Because this data will most probably be used in the near future. So recently used data can be accessed faster, and since most probably it will be accessed in the near future again, it makes the system works faster by removing the accessing cost to that data. For it to work, the CPU moves the data it needs to access at a certain point in time from RAM to each cache level based on recency of the data. So data in L1 is being served at the moment, and data in L3 has been accessed a while ago.
If we look closely, the same concept applies in our lives. In my case, there are skills and programming languages which I am actively using right now in various projects. The cost of accessing those skills for me is almost zero (My L1 cache as a computer). However, there are a couple of programming languages and technologies that I am using along with L1 skills and they are being accessed frequently as well. The cost to activate those skills is very small but not zero. There are also some programming languages I used during the past years, or I have played with them a while ago, and the price of activating them for me will be to read some documents, write some sample programs and it takes time for me to get comfortable with them again. Those stuff fits into my L3 cache. RAM normally holds the data related to the processes running in a CPU, and in human world I translate them to the general skills that are in there and can be loaded to caches anytime. Web development, mobile app development, these are general info that float in my RAM ! I talk about the hard drive in a bit.
Well of course without the mainboard, all of these are nothing. CPU and RAM attach to the mainboard, and the mainboard provides the connectors for various parts. It connects the CPU to RAM, Hard Drive and all other devices. CPU also gets all its power from the mainboard. Mainboard basically provides support for the rest of the system. In human world, we can ask ourselves, which one of our features provides support for what we already put in our CPU and Memory? My answer was: achievements. Achievements can be education, work experiences, projects, and awards. These achievements connects the person who is reviewing our resume to the skills in our memory, or personality in our CPU.
Another device that attaches to the mainboard, is hard drive. Hard drive is for storing a whole bunch of data, and it’s external to the mainboard. Photos, Videos, Documents and programs reside in the Hard Drive. There are various types of data in the hard-drive, but not all are related to the job I (as a computer) am applying for. The whole system has already loaded what is required for a job in the RAM and caches. What left is all other none-related data, which can be loaded at the times I am not applying for jobs or doing a job ! In human world, I say all the interests, hobbies, and activities that are not related to their jobs are stored in the hard drive. Although, this is not related to the job itself, but it can demonstrate how interesting a person is.
I applied the rules above to myself and came up with me as a computer resume. If someone take a look at this resume, by one look they know if they are interested in what I am doing or not. So the real question is not whether one day I turn into a computer or not, it is why in 21st century most resumes are still flat lists and lack a specific hierarchy? I would be bored looking at hundreds of flat listed resumes each having pages and pages of information, I would be happy to hear from other peoples’s point of view? Although there are some really creative resume designs out there, what would be your suggestion to change the way most people present their resume !? What would your resume look like if you wanted to think out of the box!? What type of info helps HR and hiring staff evaluate a resume better? is there any research going on this subject?