Spending some time on facebook last night I noticed one of my programming friend’s status was “Learning Objective-C to develop an iPhone app. You know one programming language you DO NOT know them all.”

I always promote growth and diversifying your resume however, when recruiting do we not always look for someone who is currently focused and has been focused on a primary technology or skill set that the client is looking for? Do we pass over or account managers reject resumes because the candidate has swayed from his general technology / skill set?

Now I have seen and have been highly impressed with his work but told him while looking over his resume that his resume would have been passed over. Why? Well it looked like he had only several months of experience with each technology and you couldn’t tell when or where he last used it. Here is a professional learning new programming languages on his own time to benefit his company but will be looked at as someone who is inexperienced by the recruitment industry.

This has changed my way of thinking when looking at resumes of people who are not the typical “laser beam” focused skill set. Those “soft skills” and personality traits that my friend has are a large part of what companies look for in individuals and on a close look were written in between the lines on the resume. He has helped me identify people’s personalities in their resumes, I’ll return the favour by helping him with displaying his primary skill sets that hiring managers use to identify potential candidates.