[SAGE] Call for Volunteers: SAGE resume skills project

[Trey Harris <trey@sage.org>]

The new SAGE Board of Directors is considering a project to create a 
standardized form for the "skills" section of system administrator resumes 
and job postings.

Many technical interviewers and job-seekers, including on this list, have 
noted that online resume databases have led to "keyword-oriented resumes" 
that encourage lengthy skills sections without context.  This in turn has 
led to a dramatic decrease in the usefulness of resumes over time.

At one time, placing a technology on a resume could be considered to mean 
that a candidate claimed a certain skill level with that technology. 
Today, it may mean nothing more than that the candidate wishes to be 
considered for positions which involve a search for that keyword.

A standardized form for skills sections, which allowed for keyword search 
hits while also providing a way for candidates to self-assess and 
contextualize skills, could be invaluable to employers, interviewers and 
job-seekers.  The SAGE Job Descriptions and the strong technical 
background of our membership uniquely places SAGE to spearhead such a 
project.

SAGE is seeking volunteers to help with initial scoping and viability 
assessment for this project.  We're looking for individuals from all 
backgrounds, including hiring managers, technical interviewers, HR and 
recruiters.

Questions we need answered include:
* How such a project might be structured
* What the project's outputs might be (reports, websites, resume
   samples, an XML or database schema, what?)
* Whether there are other organizations we should partner with, and if so,
   which ones
* How the project and outputs could be publicized/disseminated
* How/if the project could be made self-supporting
* Whether the project seems viable now or in the future

Note that we are not, at this time, requesting volunteers to actually help 
specify forms and skills.  This call for volunteers is to help us 
determine whether SAGE should pursue this project.

If you are interested, please subscribe to the mailing list by sending a 
message to resume-interest-request@sage-members.org with the subject line 
"subscribe".  Once subscribed, please wait until you see a message from me 
before posting--I'd like to give people a few days' chance to subscribe 
before we get started.

If you have questions, feel free to email me directly.

Trey Harris
Director, SAGE