3 ms·

I get hired all day, people bang down my door after im hired, and all I do is explain the tools I used each year. I never graduated high school, never went to c

I get hired all day, people bang down my door after im hired, and all I do is explain the tools I used each year. I never graduated high school, never went to college, never really built anything that I can show off. I just talk about the tools I use. thats it. www.markentingh.com

willvarfar 10y ago
Yeap a list of tools, the longer the list the better. I'm completely agreeing with you, but I cry a little tiny bit inside. Sad that its this way. PS don't think it fair that you are being downvoted. You are giving sound advice.
- dualogy 10y ago
  > Yeap a list of tools, the longer the list the better. > I'm completely agreeing with you, but I cry a little tiny bit inside. Sad that its this way. Me too. When did tool jockeying and lib/api wrestling become equivalent to "skilled techie/engineer"? Oh you're into algorithms, programming languages, realtime performance? Pooh-pooh on that, tell me your decades-long "experience" as a [cloud stack X] / [reactive framework Y] / [agile scrum devops continuous integration yadda-yadda Z] .. "engineer". Yeap that's what we call nowadays what you old grumpy neckbeard geek (rather than fashionista bespectacled over-groomed metro "geek") still call inane trivial "habits/rituals not skills". Rant over =)
- apolymath 10y ago
  It's okay, I don't mind being downvoted. Haters hate.
warcode 10y ago
Your page breaks/is not responsive for widths greater than 1920. I'd probably still hire you, but might be a good year to fix that.
- apolymath 10y ago
  Hmmm... I'm using a Surface Book Pro, 3000x2000 resolution, and the site looks fine for me. How does it break?
usgroup 10y ago
I don't understand why you've been down-voted. At least from an experimental perspective I find you statement and CV fascinating. Had you asked me if this approach would work, I'd have said 'no', so I appreciate the learning.
monodeldiablo 10y ago
Not sure why people downvoted this. It's depressing, but it's reality. I A/B tested applications a few years back, when I was doing the whole interviewing circus, and the ones that were just a list of tools and adjectives were by far the most successful. Recruiters don't do nuance.
- danesparza 10y ago
  +1 for 'Recruiters don't do nuance'. I completely agree. Job seekers should also understand that once you're past the front door, you should definitely be skilled in nuance as part of the interview process.
grayclhn 10y ago
Your link to rennder.com doesn't work :)
- apolymath 10y ago
  yea that project is dead... i should fix that. Thanks for the input!
rch 10y ago
Same. Only I recently noticed that I've had to list fewer tools per year over time. I've started to look for this trend in others.
- apolymath 10y ago
  Yea now that Microsoft is on board with open source, my list of tools have stagnated as well. Visual Studio, C#, Javascript, LESS, Gulp, SQL Server, Git. That's about all I need... No front-end Javascript frameworks, no React, no Angular, no Knockout... just beautiful, clean, vanilla Javascript... and C#.
Radiant 10y ago
This post is sarcastic and the site is some kind of a parody, right? RIGHT?!
- apolymath 10y ago
  Lol, no that is actually a mugshot of my ugly face. I swear. And the post is legit. I really did not graduate high school because back in 1999, the internet was exciting and school books were just a waste of my time. And then I got my first job as a web developer, building Flash websites. Exciting times.
BigChiefSmokem 10y ago
I have a similar experience and I attribute it to the fact that when you are really an expert at something, others can pick up on it quick, maybe even before you yourself realize it. For many years I thought I was a dummy for dropping out of college and just having a bad time with school and never getting good grades. Turns out I'm actually very good at math and I just had chronic depression from a bad upbringing. I taught myself calculus and then later, quantum mechanics, out of sheer interest and boredom after I was able to stabilize myself financially.
- apolymath 10y ago
  I can't believe you taught yourself quantum mechanics! I thought for sure that was something only a serious physicist could do. Now that gives me hope in my own potential :)
orbifold 10y ago
There is a spelling error in the page you linked to, second to last paragraph "implimenting"

willvarfar 10y ago

Yeap a list of tools, the longer the list the better. I'm completely agreeing with you, but I cry a little tiny bit inside. Sad that its this way. PS don't think it fair that you are being downvoted. You are giving sound advice.

dualogy 10y ago
> Yeap a list of tools, the longer the list the better. > I'm completely agreeing with you, but I cry a little tiny bit inside. Sad that its this way. Me too. When did tool jockeying and lib/api wrestling become equivalent to "skilled techie/engineer"? Oh you're into algorithms, programming languages, realtime performance? Pooh-pooh on that, tell me your decades-long "experience" as a [cloud stack X] / [reactive framework Y] / [agile scrum devops continuous integration yadda-yadda Z] .. "engineer". Yeap that's what we call nowadays what you old grumpy neckbeard geek (rather than fashionista bespectacled over-groomed metro "geek") still call inane trivial "habits/rituals not skills". Rant over =)
apolymath 10y ago
It's okay, I don't mind being downvoted. Haters hate.

warcode 10y ago

Your page breaks/is not responsive for widths greater than 1920. I'd probably still hire you, but might be a good year to fix that.

apolymath 10y ago
Hmmm... I'm using a Surface Book Pro, 3000x2000 resolution, and the site looks fine for me. How does it break?

usgroup 10y ago

I don't understand why you've been down-voted. At least from an experimental perspective I find you statement and CV fascinating. Had you asked me if this approach would work, I'd have said 'no', so I appreciate the learning.

monodeldiablo 10y ago

Not sure why people downvoted this. It's depressing, but it's reality. I A/B tested applications a few years back, when I was doing the whole interviewing circus, and the ones that were just a list of tools and adjectives were by far the most successful. Recruiters don't do nuance.

danesparza 10y ago
+1 for 'Recruiters don't do nuance'. I completely agree. Job seekers should also understand that once you're past the front door, you should definitely be skilled in nuance as part of the interview process.

grayclhn 10y ago

Your link to rennder.com doesn't work :)

apolymath 10y ago
yea that project is dead... i should fix that. Thanks for the input!

rch 10y ago

Same. Only I recently noticed that I've had to list fewer tools per year over time. I've started to look for this trend in others.

apolymath 10y ago
Yea now that Microsoft is on board with open source, my list of tools have stagnated as well. Visual Studio, C#, Javascript, LESS, Gulp, SQL Server, Git. That's about all I need... No front-end Javascript frameworks, no React, no Angular, no Knockout... just beautiful, clean, vanilla Javascript... and C#.

Radiant 10y ago

This post is sarcastic and the site is some kind of a parody, right? RIGHT?!

apolymath 10y ago
Lol, no that is actually a mugshot of my ugly face. I swear. And the post is legit. I really did not graduate high school because back in 1999, the internet was exciting and school books were just a waste of my time. And then I got my first job as a web developer, building Flash websites. Exciting times.

BigChiefSmokem 10y ago

I have a similar experience and I attribute it to the fact that when you are really an expert at something, others can pick up on it quick, maybe even before you yourself realize it. For many years I thought I was a dummy for dropping out of college and just having a bad time with school and never getting good grades. Turns out I'm actually very good at math and I just had chronic depression from a bad upbringing. I taught myself calculus and then later, quantum mechanics, out of sheer interest and boredom after I was able to stabilize myself financially.

apolymath 10y ago
I can't believe you taught yourself quantum mechanics! I thought for sure that was something only a serious physicist could do. Now that gives me hope in my own potential :)

orbifold 10y ago

There is a spelling error in the page you linked to, second to last paragraph "implimenting"