Not trying to be mean, but looking at the resume, I went straight to the 'projects' section.

Everything else can be so much hot air - but projects speak for themselves.

The first project promises an online development blog - but the link to the blog is dead, and google doesn't find it.

The second project claims he architected and implemented a full game engine. Having a quick play of the game (http://www.andrewhorner.com/sds/ ) reveals it doesn't really work.

It looks pretty, but it doesn't really do anything, its not playable, its not finished, even though the resume implies it is.

That doesn't look good.

The reverse job application was a great pitch to get people to look at your resume, but then you have to make sure they've got something to see. Its great to be able to get attention, but you need to capitalise on it when you do.

And if you are going to be unemployed for 2 years, at least get a finished project to put on your resume, that'd go down a lot better.

matlab skills are highly desired for some jobs, If you know it well enough to put it on your resume, you should just lump it in with the other languages. same with latex(if you're possibly looking for anything academic/research lab)

Hmm, yes, but MATLAB is only a useful skill when combined with domain knowledge, e.g. DSP, control, whatever. No-one is using MATLAB to write websites.

I agree. I know many smart people in engineering who only use existing engineering tools supplemented by Matlab for data analysis.

While I appreciate the ingenuity of reverse job application, by looking at his resume I'm not surprised that he hasn't been hired. You're right, he needs to make it one page. I would put an objective, and I don't mean some BS objective, but a real heartfelt objective. Also, experience needs to go first. Each piece of 'experience' should detail what he did and MOST IMPORTANTLY its impact.

I agree about changing the layout to make it fit on one page. But I wouldn't remove high school. He's done IB, which is way more challenging than regular high school. It's a straight admissions ticket to many top universities, some even let you skip the freshman year entirely based on what you took with IB.

It's unfortunately not as widely recognized in the US than elsewhere in the world.

But he's looking for jobs after college. High school, for this guy, was 5-6 years ago! Even if he took IB or AP courses...so what? Tons of people have taken IB/AP courses.

A company won't decide to hire you based on your high school marks.

I did admission at a liberal arts college, and IB didn't even impress us. It certainly wouldn't impress me in trying to hire someone. I want someone with enough sense to know that high school doesn't belong on the C.V.