Note: This is part 2 of a series with tips for getting on the short list for an RSE interview.

Your Cover Letter

In the first part of this blog series, I gave some tips on ways to improve your CV. I had made the point that the purpose of a CV is to summarize your experience/education in a way that demonstrates that you are qualified for the position. In other words, a CV talks about what you’ve accomplished. A cover letter is your opportunity to fill in everything else. It’s a huge opportunity that so many applicants waste. The cover letter is literally your only opportunity to write something directly to me (that I will always read) explaining why I should move you to the short list. You can tell me who you are, why you are interested, and why you’d be a good fit. I cannot stress the following enough:

A strong cover letter, tailored to the position can make a massive difference.

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Note: This is part 1 of a series with tips for getting on the short list for an RSE interview.

Your CV

Hiring is one of - if not the - most important part of my job. It’s a priority and I have every incentive to get it right. I want to find someone good. No, I want to find someone great. As a rule I look at each new applicant excited and hopeful. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. However, I’m really busy, so I simply don’t have time to spend 15 minutes on each application. I probably have 2 minutes to skim a CV. So it’s in your best interest to make my review as easy and quick as possible. Remember, the point of a CV is to summarize your experience/education in a way that demonstrates that you are qualified for the position. Once you make the short list, the CV becomes significantly less important; your performance in the subsequent interviews will trump your CV. It might help to consider that the goal of your CV is to get a hiring manager to say “I want to talk to this person.” I’m not going to address how to go about building a quality CV - that’s the topic for another post. Rather, let’s assume you’re already at the application process. There isn’t time to go out and do something to beef up your CV, so instead we’ll work with what you have.

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In an excellent recent US-RSE community call about applying, interviewing, and hiring for RSE positions (a nice recap of the call is available here) the question came up,

“What do hiring managers look for that helps an RSE get on the short list?”

I have some very specific opinions, and after hearing some other RSE hiring managers on the US-RSE call, I don’t think I’m alone. This blog series is in an effort to answer that question in more detail than the call allowed.

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At SC19 I had the privilege of serving on a panel about fostering career paths in HPC. In the days prior, I spent some time preparing for the panel by identifying what I felt were the current gaps and problems facing the career path for RSEs. Because of the response (very positive) I took the ideas from my panel introduction and turned it into this post.

To be honest, I was not expecting the sheer volume of questions and discussion surrounding RSEs and RSE careers during the panel session. I had assumed that the both the term “Research Software Engineer” and the role were too new in the community to generate much interest. I was glad to be wrong. It was encouraging to see how much the landscape had changed, especially in the year since SC18, and given the current momentum and interest, it seems the perfect time to earnestly increase our efforts.

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What is an RSE?

This question has plagued me for months, maybe years. It’s been the subject of surprisingly opinionated discussions and intense debate within the community. I’ve come to the conclusion that, like it or not, definitions are important, perhaps critically important, because they create an identity. You can’t answer the questions “am I an RSE?” or “how do I become an RSE?” without defining the term RSE.

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