I guess I ought to apologize to my friend Jay Zimmerman, whose company puts on the popular "No Fluff Just Stuff" series of conferences and events for programmers, but the kind of information that Spolsky said he likes to see on a resume is exactly the stuff Zimmerman and his team bring to bear: real programming experience.

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Spolsky said as an employer of programmers he sees far too many resumes that attempt to puff up the applicant's management qualifications and experience in other aspects of the business of developing software.

Particularly for developers applying to smaller companies and startups, Spolsky said:

Here's a tip from someone who has read thousands of resumes. When you're applying to a startup or a software company with less than, say, 100 employees, you may want to highlight the Banging Out Code parts of your experience, while deemphasizing the Middle Management parts of your experience.