Blitz on a CV

I'm in the process of updating my woefully antique CV and was just wondering whether to put Blitz on there.

I mainly use it (B+) for GUI applications and have used it repeatedly in my current day job.

What do people think?

Will it be viewed as a + or a -?

Depends on what the job is for and how snooty the interviewers are. I put Blitz on mine, but I've also got Delphi, C++, assembly etc so it's just another language. Maybe what's more important is they type of apps you've used it for...

I don't put blitz on my CV, it's far from recognised. That said, if you're going for a computer game job then it might be. In your interests put you write computer games as a hobby and if they're interested in the interview you can talk about it.

I don't think it's going to swing the balance between getting an interview and not getting an interview though.

Didn't think it would swing the balance, just dusting off the old CV and thought whether to include it.

Done some pretty nice apps in Blitz & quickly to boot.

Hi, can you send me your CV when its done Yeshu, what type of work are you looking for?

No problem.

Is your email address in your sig valid?

yes (the one in my profile is)

I would put Blitz in my CV, I would put it in as BlitzBasic. if they're going to drop you for having BlitzBasic in your CV then you probably wouldn't like the job anyway.

Put it in. It'll show that you are interested in things beyond the surface of business requirements and buzz words. You might even have something interesting to talk about in your next interview when they ask you what it is.

..Blitz3D is a just plain okay to have in CV...

Just have a well-rehearsed speech ready for when the interviewer asks you what it is. Because they almost certainly will.

Personally, unless your CV is really thin and you need something to pad it with I wouldn't do it. It's just going to look unprofessional and make you look like a less serious candidate. If you feel you must include it then add it to hobbies/interests, your wasting your time talking to an interviewer about a hobby language. Now if they bring something like that up with you, that's a different story.

Darkheart

..I remember that Prince of Persia (DOS), motion capture was done with plain text editor, so my point is that if you have something quite cool done with B3D what will not be easy task for C++ for example, why not put it in?

I think I agree with Darkheart. No one has really heard of B3D and most people will probably see basic as a negative thing for game dev. And adding blitz to basic just makes the whole thing sound less.

Your probably better off leaving it off of the CV if you have a bunch of industry standard skills and just showing blitz runtime versions or a demo reel of your blitz projects without stating what they were done with unless asked.

Your probably better off having flash game dev experience in your CV in the end.

Well, I included BlitzMax in my CV recently (as well as other languages I used) and in cover letter I said something like: I used to program in C++ but decided to use BlitzMax for the sake of productivity. That and the fact that I completed over 5 commercial games in Blitz should do the trick unless your next employer is more interested in geeks that know how to do tricks in C/C++ instead of getting stuff done.

For experienced programmer switching to another language takes about a week (that's my experience and that's what I hear from other programmers).

Generaly you should focus on what you achieved instead of how (though it might be good to say how you did it too).

cheers
Roman

Did you get the job anawiki?

when I use to apply for work in Sony, i have included my work I use to complete with use of PowerBasic (some hardware control stuff and mux)...funny part is that my progy in Powerbasic was faster than anything done in C++ at that time...I got job...

Well I've put it in.

CV has plenty in there, been working as a programmer for 16 years in a variety of fields - assembly, c /c++ - mostly embedded.

It sits in personal projects - as I used B+ to write a small GUI app to go with the hardware I designed, it allowed my client to easily secure his software to my design.

And I'm off to the states tomorrow with regards to a new project, it's all go.

Anyone live in Buffalo?

I sent it last Friday so I don't know yet.

cheers
Roman

Yeah exactly. Results count. It's the targets you can hit not how many strings you have on your bow...(although if you can hit targets AND have many strings, then bonus!)

I think the How is massively important.

What: I managed to reduce costs by 90%

Impressive statement until

How: By kidnapping around 500 children and enslaving them to work all day and night with regular beatings, the ones that died were fed to the others.

I accept this example may be somewhat extreme unless you're a running shoe manufacturer. However, the same principle applies for anything, the how IS important. Writing a killer app in some obsure language is fine until it needs maintenance. etc etc etc.... I'm boring myself now... you get the point.

I put BlitzMax on my CV for my current job. I also included three demos written in Max on CD (and a couple of Java applets and a C++/OpenGL demo). I'd only put it on if it was vaguely related to what you're applying for though.

To be more clear: I put BlitzMax on my CV because I was applying for casual game dev position. And everything else I said I said from employers point of view: I hired number of people and they used different languages before and had to switch to BMX, but it wasn't a problem for them and for me.

cheers
Roman

To be honest, it is what you do with the languages you use which makes the impression, unless you are going to look for a C++ job which requires C++ I wouldn't mention BMax, just your products and the services you are capable of offering. But don't forget those production capabilities which come with game design and produciton too.

IPete2.

Put it on and when you get the interview explain how you used it to prototype :)

Id put it on (in fact i do) you never know, the interviewer might be one of us or has used it before so you will have a nice ice breaker if it comes up.

Ive got a RYA Yachtmaster & Dayskipper certificates, nothing to do with computers or IT but its on my CV under 'Other certificates' It just happened my boss is a keen sailor so 15 minutes of the interview was spent talking about sailing, which was great to break the ice and get relaxed!

Putting "hobbies: fictional writing" on my CV landed me my dream job with a compiler manufacturer back in 1998. The only problem was that the company went bankrupt 2.5 years later, but that's another story.