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I recently discovered that Stack Overflow has a section for jobs and it also builds your resume so you can download it. Since I was in school I was told to be concise and put only the necessary stuff on the resume. When Stack Overflow builds your resume, it also includes things like:

Tools:

  • First Computer: Intel Pentium 3 with Windows 98
  • Favorite Editor: VSC, IntelliJ, Xcode, iTerm

or

Technical Skills

  • Likes: swift swiftui python django java amazon-web-services cloudflare docker sql nginx
  • Dislikes: php c ruby c++

and I was wondering, is this good to include in the resume? Or should I go with a more traditional approach of just Education, Experience, etc.? My background is in programming.

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  • What industry or type of company you have in mind? what kind of job you seek?
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 23:09
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    @DarkCygnus Industry Any honestly... Should I be more specific? I thought whoever reviews my resume would have some programming background. The job type would be software engineering
    – Arturo
    Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 23:10
  • I think yes it matters. It's very different a software engineering position in a small company versus a big one. On a, say, healthcare industry or one in agriculture... differences can be great. Working on an answer
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 23:19
  • @DarkCygnus by the way does this stack section provide help/feedback on building resumes? Like if I show my resume can someone review it here?
    – Arturo
    Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 23:19
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    I'm afraid that would be off-topic, as it would be very opinion-based and specific to a single instance (see how to ask). We have however many questions under the resume tag that could be a good reading. Or, you could come by to chat and see if someone is willing to give you their opinion
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 23:21

3 Answers 3

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is this good to include in the resume?

No, it's ridiculous, unless you're applying for a job at Stack Overflow.

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and I was wondering, is this good to include in the resume? Or should I go with a more traditional approach of just Education, Experience, etc.?

As a "rule of thumb", if you tailor your resume for the specific job you seek or found, you have higher chances that if you try to make a more "universal" but perhaps more generic resume.

This will greatly depend on the industry and company you have in mind.

You say in comments that you would like something on the software engineering topic, regardless of industry.

In that case you have a good starting point, and can now try perhaps focus on some specific branch, or trade, trying to narrow down your options a bit before starting to fire your shot.

It can be very different a software opening on the Healthcare industry than one on the Agriculture or Entertainment, so do try to narrow your aim.

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    Honestly the question was mainly if First Computer or Favorite Editor sounds off topic on a resume
    – Arturo
    Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 23:39
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    @Arturo well, if you ask my opinion, "First computer" does not make much sense to me. "Favorite editor" or IDE can be on topic. Several openings frequently require knowledge on specific tools or IDEs. The word "Favorite" is not that professional IMHO. I would put it, if any, something like "IDE/Editors Used: etc, etc."
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 23:43
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    I'm thinking the exact same thing, I don't know why stackoverflow is putting there but... Anyway, thanks you
    – Arturo
    Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 23:46
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Maybe at a technology driven company

You have to remember the kind of company Stack Overflow is. Stack Overflow is a software engineering company absolutely filled with software engineers and other technical people. It sells products and services almost exclusively to other technical people. Even on The Workplace, 80% of people here are software engineers, devops, DBAs, etc. The community is heavily built around technical people. I write for the Stack Overflow blog on occasion and when I first did it, I was surprised that the blog editor Ryan Donovan knew what Lombok (a Java tool) was. Even the editors and blog managers are technical at Stack Overflow.

So at a company where technical culture is part of everything from development to sales to the blog, things like "first computer" and "favorite editor" give pretty much most people there some insights into who you are.

It is basically a culture evaluation on paper.

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  • yep SO isn't a résumé development company
    – Kilisi
    Commented Jun 19, 2020 at 8:38
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    What is the insight from the first computer? How well off my parents are? Or how much they are interested in computers?
    – guest
    Commented Jun 19, 2020 at 9:17
  • @guest interest in computers, how long you have been programming, whether you even know, etc. I can see it being used as a proxy for whether a person actually geeks out when it comes to tech.
    – Matthew Gaiser
    Commented Jun 19, 2020 at 16:02
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    I am sure I got my first computer before I got interested in programming, so I can't see why it is useful. Maybe it could be useful in connection with the age of the person.
    – guest
    Commented Jun 19, 2020 at 17:22
  • How well off my parents are? @guest Even that assumes that someone's first computer was a gift from a parent/relative as a kid and/or they had access to computers at school. Some people wouldn't have gotten a computer before they left home. Even age and parental income can't be guessed from this question.
    – BSMP
    Commented Jun 20, 2020 at 1:14

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