I have the dubious honour of being one of the people, at my place of work, charged with interviewing technical applicants. Without giving the game away too much, I thought I might give a few hints for things I look for in a CV, and in the wider world, when considering and interviewing a candidate.

First a little context - I tend to interview candidates who are applying for higher-level technical roles in the company, and I have a particular focus on those who claim on their CV to have a lot of experience. I start by reading the cover letter and CV looking for hints of F/LOSS projects the applicant has worked with; either as a user or a developer. I like it when an applicant provides a bitbucket, github or gitlab URL for their personal work if they have any; but I really like it when they provide a URL for their own Git server (as you might imagine).

Once I have identified places on the Internet where I might find someone, I look to dig out their internet ghosts and find out what they are up to in the wider F/LOSS world. The best candidates show up in plenty of places, are easily found making nice commits which show their capability, and seem well spoken on mailing lists, fora, et al. Of course, if someone doesn't show up on Internet searches then that doesn't count against them because to have the privilege of being able to work on F/LOSS is not something afforded to all; but if you do show up and you look awful it will count against you.

Also remember, there's more ways to contribute than writing code. I love it when I find candidates have made positive contributions to projects outside of just coding for them. Help a project's documentation, or be part of mentoring or guide groups, and I'll likely be very pleased to talk with you.

Beyond the Internet Stalking, I like to get my candidates to demonstrate an ability to compare and contrast technologies; so a good way to get on my good side is to mention two similar but conflicting capabilities (such as Subversion and Git) be prepared to express a preference between them, and be able to defend that preference.

Finally a few basic tips -- don't lie, dissemble, or over-inflate in your CV or cover-letter (I will likely find out) and don't let your cover letter be more than a single side of A4, nor your CV more than 2 sides of A4.

If I ever interview you, and I find out you read this article, I will be most pleased indeed. (Assuming you take on my recommendations at least )