The following is a strengths and weaknesses assessment by chatGPT of my resume as of Nov 17th, 2024.
The prompt: "I'm hiring for a Sr Engineering Manager / Director of Engineering. Rate this resume and tell me the strengths and weaknesses of this candidate."
Strengths of the Candidate:
1. Experience and Tenure:
• Over 16 years in engineering and leadership roles, including managing teams of 30+ engineers.
• Significant tenure in fintech and SaaS, demonstrating domain expertise.
2. Leadership and Management:
• Extensive experience leading cross-functional teams and optimizing engineering organizations for scalability and reliability.
• Successfully implemented mentorship programs and onboarding processes, reducing time to productivity for new hires.
3. Accomplishments in Technical and Business Strategy:
• Productization of SaaS solutions and driving multi-million dollar revenue growth (e.g., at HopSkipDrive and Credit Karma).
• Effective roadmap execution and team alignment with business goals.
• Expertise in transforming engineering practices, such as migrating to Kubernetes and sharding databases.
4. Diverse Roles Across Companies:
• CTO/COO experience at BXE Capital, demonstrating a mix of technical and operational leadership.
• Founder of Epsilon Eight, showcasing entrepreneurial initiative and holistic business management.
5. Notable Technical Contributions:
• Delivered critical projects like the EU VAT tax integration, improved service uptime, and automated key workflows at Recurly.
• Created scalable MVPs for startups, aligning product-market fit and technical strategy.
6. Soft Skills:
• Strong emphasis on fostering collaboration, mentorship, and culture-building within teams.
• Proven ability to align technical initiatives with broader business objectives.
Weaknesses or Areas for Improvement:
1. Limited Recent Individual Contributor (IC) Role Experience:
• The candidate’s last significant IC-focused role was more than a decade ago, potentially limiting hands-on technical skills in rapidly evolving areas.
2. Gaps in Emerging Technology Focus:
• The resume does not highlight specific expertise in AI/ML, blockchain development (despite BXE Capital’s focus on blockchain), or other cutting-edge technologies that might be critical for modern engineering leadership roles.
3. Potential Focus on Past Achievements:
• While the candidate’s accomplishments are impressive, some of the highlighted projects (e.g., Recurly’s initiatives) may be less relevant to a role emphasizing contemporary technical challenges or innovations.
4. Conciseness and Tailoring:
• The resume spans multiple pages and could benefit from consolidation and emphasis on the most directly relevant experiences.
• Lack of mention of KPIs or quantifiable team improvements (e.g., team productivity gains, revenue impact percentages).
Overall Rating:
8.5/10
This is a strong candidate with extensive leadership and technical experience, making them well-suited for Senior Engineering Manager or Director of Engineering roles. A more concise and targeted resume focusing on recent achievements and emerging technologies could elevate their profile further.