Jonathan Ong's Blog

What I don’t like about static resumes is that some employers don’t care for some of your information. For me, I simply have too much I want to write on my resume, so I end up cutting out a lot of information that could have been useful. Thus, I decided to create an interactive resume as a webpage using javascript and CSS. This is a simple break down of how I made my resume assuming you know HTML. Let me know if you want more details on something specific. I recommend reading w3school‘s guide on CSS if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Divisions

Put your whole resume in a single division and center it using margin-left: auto and the same with margin-right. For my webpage, the left side stays the same while the right side scrolls. This is done by creating two divisions inside the main division: menu and main. Just set position: fixed for the menu. I also set each set of text in its own division. For example, I made a division for Work Experience, a division for each job listing such as Student Trainee (Mathematics), and division for its description. This is necessary for hiding and unhiding portions of the resume.

Hiding and Unhiding Text

First, you need to put each set of text you want to hide and unhide in divisions. Then add two CSS classes: .hidden { display: none; } and .unhidden { display: block; }. Then add three javascript functions. The first switches toggles the text from hide to unhide or vice versa:

function toggle_visibility(divID) {
var item = document.getElementById(divID);
if (item) {
item.className=(item.className==’hidden’)?’unhidden’:'hidden’;
}
}

The next shows the text regardless of whether its already showing or not:

function show(divID) {
var item = document.getElementById(divID);
item.className=’unhidden’;
}

The last one does the same except for hiding:

function hide(divID) {

var item = document.getElementById(divID);

item.className=’hidden’;

}

<a href=”javascript:hide(‘resexp’);hide(‘workexp’);hide(‘career’);hide(‘edu’);hide(‘skills’);hide(‘pubs’);show(‘etc’);”>Et Cetera</a>

Google Chart Tools / Image Charts (aka Chart API)

Google’s lesser known contributions to society are their API’s. This API allows you type a link to Google that spits out a graph of your choosing. This is one of the graphs in my resume:

<img src=”http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chxl=0:|MATLAB+|Maple+|R+|C+|FORTRAN+&chxp=0,90,70,50,30,10&chxt=y&chbh=a& chs=600×100&cht=bhs&chco=4D89F9&chd=s:96xPJ&chma=0,5&chtt=Relative+Programming+Expertise” width=”600″ height=”100″ alt=”Relative Programming Expertise” /><br>

I’ve had experience talking with postdocs and professors, and I’ve finally been convinced that I shouldn’t go to graduate school just yet. There are many sides to this, but here is my reasoning.

As a Ph.D., you can’t just work because there are too many external pressures. At a university, you are required to teach and do research. But you don’t actually do any research, your graduate students do. What professors actually do is spend all their time writing grant proposals, submitting them, and defending them if they have to. Not much time is actually devoted the research, the main purpose of a Ph.D.

The same goes for doing research for the government. At The Army Research Laboratory, not only are labs limited by funding from the government, but there is so much bureaucracy that it is difficult to do almost anything. My boss here spends most of his time writing grant proposals and presentations and doesn’t actually do much research. I would suggest working for a private firm like IBM.

As a graduate student, you don’t make much money. If you receive any money from the school or a scholarship, you can expect only $30,000 a year at most. But after you graduate, you can expect to be paid about the same as a postdoc until they decide to hire you full-time, after which you make more, more than $100,000 in technical areas.

But the most difficult part of being a postdoct is the hiring process. Your skills are so specialized that it is actually more difficult for you to find a job. Companies only look for certain areas of expertise, and postdocs tend to be picky with the field they work in. However, getting hired is difficult too. It is very hard to attain a faculty position or gain tenure at a university. Fortunately, government jobs provide tenure after only 3 years. There have been cases where Ph.D’s never hold a job down because they keep jumping from different postdoctoral positions and never find a match.

As a Ph.D., you are expected to conduct research and report your findings. Basically, this means you are expected to publish a paper every year. In my jobs, I’ve read a lot of papers, and boy are they crap. There are usually no fundamentally new ideas, especially since good original ideas are hard to come by. I don’t think I’m up to this pressure of publishing mediocre articles yearly…

The only graduate degrees worth the time and effort are professional degrees and master degrees. Master degrees only take two years max and companies will pay for it if you work for them long enough. This is what I’m planning to do in a few years after I work. Why spend 5 more years trying to prove yourself if you can do it in the real world and get paid more?

1. Font: Helvetica Neue Thin/Medium. I dislike the look of the traditional Serif font; Helvetica is beautiful, elegant, and simple with its Sans Serif font. Some companies dislike the use of more contemporary fonts, but I would never want to work for a company that limits my creative desires.
2. Color: White, Black, and Light Blue. The light blue and bold font points the reader in places I want them to look. These two different types of font provide contrast to the rest of the resume. Again, this avoids companies that would want to limit me.
3. Physical Address: None. The question is, “Why does this matter?” I don’t want anything in the mail, I don’t want all possible employers knowing where I live, and I am willing to relocate to the jobs I am applying for.
4. Project Title. For me, what I’m doing isn’t all that’s important, but to what end. I’m not willing to work for a project that bears no use to society.
5. Research vs. Work Experience. I am willing to work regardless of being paid or not, and my focus of interest is on research, not just working to make money.
6. With Honors. Something that most graduates don’t have.
7. Graduate Courses. Notice that my GPA for the graduate courses I’ve taken is higher than both my major GPA and cumulative GPA. It shows that as details become more profound, I perform better.
8. U.S. Citizenship. Something that a lot of graduates from top tier universities do not have. This makes it much easier for companies to hire me, and since I’m looking at government-funded jobs, a security clearance would be necessary.
9. Detailed Resume Available Online. Who can possibly fit their life on one page?

I had a phone interview this morning for a Strategist position at Goldman Sachs which I regrettably failed. As you may have known, my car’s engine blew, causing the ride back from Berkeley to take an extra three hours and I ended up not sleeping before the phone interview to take care of my car ASAP. Thus, I was incapable of any profound thought process.

The interviewer asked me these three technical questions, all of which I did not solve until after I slept. These are actually good questions, much better than questions given to me in interviews pertaining to similar positions. Let’s see if you can solve them.

1. Which is larger, the expectation of the exponential of x or the exponential of the expectation of x? In other terms, which one is larger: E[e^x] or e^(E[x])?
2. What is the expectation of the exponential of a normally distributed random variable? Find E(e^x) where x ~ N(0,1).
3. What is the expected number of flips until you flip two heads in a row?

Let me know if you would like the answers.

People’s choice to not live to their full potential disheartens me, but this feeling amplifies among fellow Christians. I [try to] live my life based on the Protestant Work Ethic and feel it is a Christian’s moral imperative. The main premises of the Protestant Work Ethic is that Christians are inclined to become successful in the world. This ethic is one of the main reasons Christians are generally Republicans – they seek a government which helps those who help themselves. Worldly success generally implies strong character and significant contribution to society unless you somehow control a significant portion of the market and/or lack moral and/or ethical character. My issue with Christians these days is that most do not seem to follow the Protestant Work Ethic.

What is the definition of worldly success? For me, it means wisely using all your talents to its full potential. This doesn’t mean that every Christian has to be a CEO of a company or can’t be a humble social worker, but one should make sure that is where he or she belongs. Worldly success doesn’t mean you should make as much money as possible, but donating money to various causes helps people much more than most things your hands could do. The problem with Christians is their false sense of purpose; many believe that to live a purpose driven life, they must find a career within ministry or something else related to religion. Look at most small churches around you and you will find that their leadership is inefficient and ineffective. The only pastors I actually learn from lead large churches, not small ones. For this reason I usually prefer large churches, though its more difficult to obtain a sense of community.

To me, the main purpose of Christianity in our generation is its sense of community. Christianity teaches us to steer away from temptation, so Christians create a community that minimizes any sort of temptation and sin. The result is a deeply sheltered community disconnected from the world, a community that votes against gay marriage but has never grown close to a homosexual, a community that votes against abortion but has never experienced one, a community that votes for war but has never seen a bullet kill another human being. To become successful in the world, one must understand the world and be able to withstand all of its temptations. To me one who avoids temptation is a coward because one knows that he or she will fall if faced with temptation, but one who confronts temptation and overcomes is of strong character. What is the purpose of religion but to choose those of strongest character?

One concept that many Christians, especially my mom, doesn’t understand is the concept of authority. Everyone talks, but how do we know which person to listen to? You choose to listen to those who have some sort of authority in that field. A doctor is an authority in medicine, a math professor is an authority in math, Warren Buffett is an authority on business. If you want people to listen to what you say, you need to be an authority, and to become one you need some degree of worldly success. Without worldly success, it is difficult for a Christian to change the minds of anyone. The problem with many small churches is that they are founded or led by a pastor without authority. I don’t like the Seventh Day Adventist church that much, but what I do like is that every pastor I’ve encountered has a pastoral degree and is sent from headquarters to the church. Be careful from whom you receive your information.

I hate fundraisers. I believe it is much more efficient if  instead of contributing one’s time to the fundraiser one contributes to society by finding a job and donate their wages to the cause. Fundraising is only efficient when rich people are involved since they are inclined to donate for tax reasons. Think Arrested Development. This is another reason I don’t believe pastors should ever receive a salary unless they are spectacular. A man of God should never have to rely on other people for money and instead should make his own income. My mom for example works as a dentist and spends all her extra time using her own money to pastor. Due to her own steady income, she faces no difficulties, especially since as a Dentist with a pastoral degree she has some sort of authority. Another issue with pastors receiving an income and position is the abuse of power such as in the Catholic Church, but that’s a whole other topic.

Christianity is about character growth, not about shaping one’s personality. To me it’s not about how we should think and act, but how we may change the world (though to do so requires some changes in the way we think and act). Usually when one is a young Christian he or she seeks leadership, but be wary of who you want to become. Just because he is your leader does not mean the way he lives his life is best for you. To grow in character and personality you must know who you are and become yourself, not some idealistic concept of the perfect Christian, and to do requires conflict, which I find by exploring, fighting, and learning the sinful world by becoming successful in it.

Walnut and its vicinity are considered relatively wealthy cities and [relatively] has a very low proportion of residents that are considered poor nationally. I don’t consider any of my friends poor, though some are extremely frugal, but that’s usually because they don’t have a job. Thus, I generally consider anyone who lives in this area blessed. At our age, much of the time spent together as Christians are usually to help us grow as Christians. However, we must remember that there are those less fortunate as us and when we mature as Christians we must shift our priorities from ourselves and each other to those less fortunate than us, and the most effective way to help out the needy is with money.