Resume Questions?

I'm graduating this quarter so I'm updating my resume with some of my recent web development projects and I have a few questions.

First, I read that I should avoid abbreviations in my resume, but should I abbreviate certain things like mysql/php? Can I use LAMP instead? Will employerers understand those acronyms? What about cascading style-sheets? Can I use CSS?
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Second, I have my personal site: Mgan which is mostly built, but not yet completed. I've been working on it here and there for a few months, however I haven't finished it yet because between School, Work, and my Freelance-job I haven't had much time. Anyways, can i list it on my resume? Should I just list it as work experience? Or maybe list it with my contact info? Or should I not list it at all? My original intention was to list it as work experience inbetween two of my free-lance web jobs because there is a 2-3 month gap between two of my web-jobs in whcih I did the majority of the work on my personal site. It was the first site I created using web-standards (completely created with style-sheets) and as a result it took me a few months to get a good concrete grasp of positioning.

Lastly, when I breakdown into the bullet points discussing key accomplishments for the websites how should I structure it? As the designer/coder of the site I have a great deal to say. Also, I created all the custom CMS to maintain the page. Should I break the bullets into categories: Design & Development, and within Development have a sub-category of CMS? Can I use the CMS? Or should I say content-management system? (refer to point one).

All feedback appreciated, oh and if you have a resume I could look at that would be great!

Thanks!

If you're applying for a web / computer job, I would hope the HR folks know what to look for, so using CSS and PHP would be okay. However, I probably wouldn't use LAMP. Some might disagree here and say you should use the full "cascading style sheets", but IMO, if the employer doesn't know what CSS is, spelling it out isn't going to give them any more information.

I'm inclined not to include personal web sites on your resume.

If you have a lot to say, don't use bullet points, just go straight for glory and write paragraphs.

Since most resumes are searched electronically, I suggest you spell it out AND put in the acronym (eg cascading style sheets (CSS)). That gives you the best chance to get picked up by the key word searching.

WRT your experience on your web site. I strongly recommend against listing personal experience in any fashion that may be confused with paid experience, no matter how great you think the work is. The vast majority of employers only care about paid experience, though if they actually read your resume having a link to your web site and a couple of sentances about what they can expect to find is OK. Key to getting an interview is either personal references or getting picked up in keyword searches AND having the desired number of years of paid experience. Once in an interview the interesting things you did in your goof off time may help you win the job, but add little to your resume.

WRT talking up your experience, most hiring managers (those beyond the HR guys) will read through your entire resume if it is two or maybe three pages, but beyond that you are luck if they will get past the first page. Be prepared, if you are so lucky to get an interview, to be in front of someone who hasn't even looked at your resume, let alone visited your personal site you have invested so much energy into. The interview is when to impress with what you can do in the future, the resume talks about what you have done in the past, so be prepared to talk about the great things you can do and be prepared to support those assertions with references to your resume.

to the question in the lounge version of this tread about "what are some weeknesses" i ussualy say somethign like "im a bit of a perfectioninst and sometimes it makes me spend to much time on a project" or something like that.. it could be a weekness... but its also a strength

Ummm. You' seen "Trainspotting"? I guess no

I once said ambitious in an interview. The key is to always find a response that is a strength as much as a weakness.

yup, not recently... why?

Because Spud says something about him being a perfectionist in his job interview. Remember the scene? Later he's leaving kissing everybody on the cheeks and such...

M.

Hirsch: wrt pips, it sure seems to me I had a few more a couple of days ago!

Hmmm. Odd. I don't know of any recent changes in the rep system. You can check in the UserCP if you got any bad rep from somebody, this would explain it.

I see 15 green ones, only 1 red one and 3 grey ones with 68 points total. I haven't investigated it very much, dunno what all of that means.

Hey Mitakeet,
You can learn more about Reputation and the green bars in the lounge (here is the thread http://forums.devshed.com/t244984/s.html)

Hope this helps you out,
Mike