8 ms·

I write resumes and coach job seekers who have difficulty in finding work or navigating career issues (my HN profile has links). My background includes nearly 2

by fecak 10y ago

I write resumes and coach job seekers who have difficulty in finding work or navigating career issues (my HN profile has links). My background includes nearly 20 years in recruiting for east coast startups. You have a few things going 'against' you in most cases. I haven't seen a resume yet, but based on your site and post: 1 - You're relatively junior (at 23). 2 - You now live in France and want either remote work or to come back to the US. (remote junior work isn't easy to get). 3 - You're applying to a million jobs, which likely means you are sending out rather anonymous letters instead of something even remotely targeted. I encourage my clients to apply to less companies, but to make those applications more targeted. Write a cover letter (or just the body of an email) that demonstrates that you've actually read the job spec and maybe even a page of their website. Saying things like "I learn fast" and "I'm a good communicator" don't get a recruiter's attention. The good news is that you have some projects that will look good on a resume. Your messaging should focus on your accomplishments and projects, and not on how hard you'll work or how much you love to code. When you stop talking like a junior dev dying for work, you'll start being treated that way. My guess is that the problem is the resume or the messaging.

larrydag 10y ago
Great analysis. Targeting and messaging is key. Treat the job search like analyzing a problem. What kind of industry do I want? What is my market? How am I marketable in this market? Do my skillsets match? Create lists so you can visualize your opportunity. As far as messaging you need to show accomplishments? Translate to measurables like $ grown, $ saved, % improved, % eliminated, etc. Those pop out that you are goal oriented. I've found the generalizing duties and skills doesn't get much attention.
- fecak 10y ago
  Measuring accomplishments for OP isn't likely to be easy, but for more senior candidates that's the ideal situation. You're correct about generalizing duties and skills. Bullet points on resumes that talk about non-specific day-to-day responsibilities are mostly filler.
  - pmiller2 10y ago
    I agree that it's ideal to have numbers attached to accomplishments, but how many devs actually know those numbers? I've written code that's run literally millions of times, because it's deep in the core of some task execution code, that enables easier debugging of tasks, and I have no idea how much debugging time it's actually saved. I wrote a large part of a couple of important features in a product for the company I work for now, and I have no idea how much revenue these features are going to help bring in or how many sales they'll generate. Do you have any tips on how a dev can quantify his/her work in an easily digestible format like all the resume books suggest?
    - fecak 10y ago
      We all understand that it's often highly complex if not impossible for most devs to quantify an accomplishment. It's easy for some things to be quantified obviously - downloads, traction - though those aren't exclusive to engineering (could be marketing). Scalability numbers and measurable performance improvements are relatively common. So if you built something that is able to handle n requests maybe. The amount of revenue generated by a feature is clearly tough - but you might be able to find out new subscribers since the feature was introduced. Even if you can't, just saying you built a certain feature is probably enough in most cases. It really boils down to unique, one-off accomplishments for me. Specificity. That code that runs millions of times - tell me the product name, what that product does, what your code does, and what tools you used to build it. Even if you can't point to a quantifiable figure, the specificity gives you some credibility.
      - nojvek 10y ago
        I saw your website. It's great. I would advise networking and attending meetups, asking for referrals. Every job I have is mostly due to referrals. Someone putting a good word on behalf of you means a lot. Also don't fire and shoot. Target like a sniper.
        moftz 10y ago
        Exactly. My first real job out of college was due to a referral. Girlfriend's stepdad put in a good word for me a a major engineering firm. I went to the interview open-house and realized quickly the people around me seemed much more accomplished and more knowledgeable about the company and the industry its in. I had some interviews later, they seemed to have gone ok, not awesome but not a disaster. Then the VP of engineering comes up to me and tells me how excited they were to have talked to me. This threw me because it all seemed way out of my league but I didn't see her approach anyone else except for a couple other candidates. I ended up getting an offer a month later. I knew my gf's stepdad definitely put in a good word for me, I just wasn't expecting it to help me that much. If I tried to get an interview from this company through the job fair at my school, I would have most likely not even gotten a phone interview. The only thing, I haven't told any of my coworkers who referred me. I'm not totally sure how prepared I am for this work and I wouldn't want any poor performance to reflect back onto him.
soneca 10y ago
What kinds of projects do you consider that look good on a resume? If you need more context, I just started learning web development and want to start building some interesting projects that could help me get a job.
- fecak 10y ago
  The biggest thing with projects is that they're 'finished'. Most young devs have 20 sloppy repos or apps/sites with incomplete functionality that sends the message that the person is not able to finish something. Of course you can go back and refactor old code (which you probably will if you keep repos public as your career advances), but have at least a few completed and fully functional projects to show.
- nameless912 10y ago
  As someone who does some technical recruiting, things that look good: 1) Work experience. Let's face it, this always looks good to everyone looking over your resume. We all know that people hiring for an office have a bias for work you do in an office. I'm as guilty of it as the next guy. 2) Side projects. For me at least, starting stuff from the ground up (no matter how silly or niche) shows me the kind of code you write in your free time, which is a much better measure of your ability (but possibly a less rigorous measure of your success) than what you do at work, where you're constrained by deadlines, code reviews, and "best practices". 3) Open source contributions. This one is trickier; usually when you contribute to Open Source projects, you're doing small pieces of the big work that needs doing, and there isn't much decision making/architecting going on. Speaking as someone who's currently trying (and failing....) to get into Linux kernel contributions, 90% of the issues you're going to come across that are within your abilities to fix are the kind of thing that a more experienced dev could do in 20 minutes, but doesn't have the patience to sit down and do it (due to being busy with more important/pressing work). So, the vast majority of the work you'll do (especially early in your career) is going to be bound in scope by your lack of experience, and won't be as impressive as engineering something from scratch. In general, WRITE CODE. WRITE LOTS OF CODE. And show off whatever you can. And try to follow best practices, e.g. using CI/CD, writing good tests, using proper style, designing and documenting your architecture, etc.
- 10y ago
zzzcpan 10y ago
You can also test those things out and gain some confidence in the game. Make a bunch of fake persons with similar skills, try many different ways to present them and see which ones get the most responses.
fosco 10y ago
-->3 - You're applying to a million jobs, which likely means you are sending out rather anonymous letters instead of something even remotely targeted. I think this is important, in a sense personalizing it for the company, and also the specific position you are aiming for. rather than aim for the entire goal net aim for a specific cross stitch within the net. on a side note, all of the comments of others offering help I find absolutely beautiful and it makes me happy to have found this community of incredible people!
- FussyZeus 10y ago
  Can speak from experience: If your application was submitted by a robot (or feels that way) I don't look at it. If you can't be bothered to apply in person, I can't be bothered to read it. ;) I'm a huge advocate for automation but there is such a thing as too much.
kafkaesq 10y ago
Saying things like "I learn fast" and "I'm a good communicator" don't get a recruiter's attention. Right. You don't impress people by saying "I'm a good communicator." You impress them by... communicating well.
- Bartweiss 10y ago
  It's an excessive theory for an idea this simple, but "honest signaling" is a hell of an insight. If anyone who wants a job can send a given signal, it's a poor signal. If only people with a certain trait can send it, it's a good one - hence personality interviews for communication, hence technical interviews for programming languages.
- paulcole 10y ago
  "Show don't tell" is a pretty basic (but incredibly important) writing concept that many people never learn.
- KanyeBest 10y ago
  Contrarian opinion: Saying "I'm a good communicator" is the most succinct and clear way of communicating that one is a good communicator. The recipient needs only read 4 words to get the message.
  - enigmango 10y ago
    But what about the three-word sentence "I communicate well"? More seriously, the most that reading "I'm a good communicator" tells me is that the writer can form sentences reasonably. Succinct? Sure, but it's still so broad. When I'm working with someone, I would appreciate a troubleshooting message of "The Flob server is saying clients don't have the right Gruffin anymore." instead of "Flob isn't working." Obviously this depends on context, but choosing where to be succinct is key. My project manager would much rather hear "Flob is down for half the users - we'll have a patch tested and deployed by tomorrow afternoon" than "Flob broke, and we're fixing it". "I have a proven history of writing clear and efficient end-user documentation" and "I'm someone people enjoy bouncing ideas off of" give me more confidence in someone's communication skills than "I'm a good communicator".
hkmurakami 10y ago
Related to (3) and the messaging, OP's post here reads to me like he's positioning himself as a generalist. Companies simply do not hire generalists other than very narrow corner cases. He should figure out what speciality a company is looking for and showing the side of your experience that best fits what they're looking for.
- paulcole 10y ago
  > Companies simply do not hire generalists other than very narrow corner cases Then he ought to be spending 90% of his effort finding those narrow corner cases instead of sending out 1,000,000 applications.
wott 10y ago
> I encourage my clients to apply to less companies, but to make those applications more targeted. Write a cover letter (or just the body of an email) that demonstrates that you've actually read the job spec and maybe even a page of their website. That's exactly what I always did and I can tell you the conclusion of that experiment is that precisely 0% of recruiters/HR/bosses did read my cover letter.

by fecak 10y ago

larrydag 10y ago

Great analysis. Targeting and messaging is key. Treat the job search like analyzing a problem. What kind of industry do I want? What is my market? How am I marketable in this market? Do my skillsets match? Create lists so you can visualize your opportunity. As far as messaging you need to show accomplishments? Translate to measurables like $ grown, $ saved, % improved, % eliminated, etc. Those pop out that you are goal oriented. I've found the generalizing duties and skills doesn't get much attention.

fecak 10y ago
Measuring accomplishments for OP isn't likely to be easy, but for more senior candidates that's the ideal situation. You're correct about generalizing duties and skills. Bullet points on resumes that talk about non-specific day-to-day responsibilities are mostly filler.
- pmiller2 10y ago
  I agree that it's ideal to have numbers attached to accomplishments, but how many devs actually know those numbers? I've written code that's run literally millions of times, because it's deep in the core of some task execution code, that enables easier debugging of tasks, and I have no idea how much debugging time it's actually saved. I wrote a large part of a couple of important features in a product for the company I work for now, and I have no idea how much revenue these features are going to help bring in or how many sales they'll generate. Do you have any tips on how a dev can quantify his/her work in an easily digestible format like all the resume books suggest?
  - fecak 10y ago
    We all understand that it's often highly complex if not impossible for most devs to quantify an accomplishment. It's easy for some things to be quantified obviously - downloads, traction - though those aren't exclusive to engineering (could be marketing). Scalability numbers and measurable performance improvements are relatively common. So if you built something that is able to handle n requests maybe. The amount of revenue generated by a feature is clearly tough - but you might be able to find out new subscribers since the feature was introduced. Even if you can't, just saying you built a certain feature is probably enough in most cases. It really boils down to unique, one-off accomplishments for me. Specificity. That code that runs millions of times - tell me the product name, what that product does, what your code does, and what tools you used to build it. Even if you can't point to a quantifiable figure, the specificity gives you some credibility.
    - nojvek 10y ago
      I saw your website. It's great. I would advise networking and attending meetups, asking for referrals. Every job I have is mostly due to referrals. Someone putting a good word on behalf of you means a lot. Also don't fire and shoot. Target like a sniper.
      - moftz 10y ago
        Exactly. My first real job out of college was due to a referral. Girlfriend's stepdad put in a good word for me a a major engineering firm. I went to the interview open-house and realized quickly the people around me seemed much more accomplished and more knowledgeable about the company and the industry its in. I had some interviews later, they seemed to have gone ok, not awesome but not a disaster. Then the VP of engineering comes up to me and tells me how excited they were to have talked to me. This threw me because it all seemed way out of my league but I didn't see her approach anyone else except for a couple other candidates. I ended up getting an offer a month later. I knew my gf's stepdad definitely put in a good word for me, I just wasn't expecting it to help me that much. If I tried to get an interview from this company through the job fair at my school, I would have most likely not even gotten a phone interview. The only thing, I haven't told any of my coworkers who referred me. I'm not totally sure how prepared I am for this work and I wouldn't want any poor performance to reflect back onto him.

soneca 10y ago

What kinds of projects do you consider that look good on a resume? If you need more context, I just started learning web development and want to start building some interesting projects that could help me get a job.

fecak 10y ago
The biggest thing with projects is that they're 'finished'. Most young devs have 20 sloppy repos or apps/sites with incomplete functionality that sends the message that the person is not able to finish something. Of course you can go back and refactor old code (which you probably will if you keep repos public as your career advances), but have at least a few completed and fully functional projects to show.
nameless912 10y ago
As someone who does some technical recruiting, things that look good: 1) Work experience. Let's face it, this always looks good to everyone looking over your resume. We all know that people hiring for an office have a bias for work you do in an office. I'm as guilty of it as the next guy. 2) Side projects. For me at least, starting stuff from the ground up (no matter how silly or niche) shows me the kind of code you write in your free time, which is a much better measure of your ability (but possibly a less rigorous measure of your success) than what you do at work, where you're constrained by deadlines, code reviews, and "best practices". 3) Open source contributions. This one is trickier; usually when you contribute to Open Source projects, you're doing small pieces of the big work that needs doing, and there isn't much decision making/architecting going on. Speaking as someone who's currently trying (and failing....) to get into Linux kernel contributions, 90% of the issues you're going to come across that are within your abilities to fix are the kind of thing that a more experienced dev could do in 20 minutes, but doesn't have the patience to sit down and do it (due to being busy with more important/pressing work). So, the vast majority of the work you'll do (especially early in your career) is going to be bound in scope by your lack of experience, and won't be as impressive as engineering something from scratch. In general, WRITE CODE. WRITE LOTS OF CODE. And show off whatever you can. And try to follow best practices, e.g. using CI/CD, writing good tests, using proper style, designing and documenting your architecture, etc.
10y ago

zzzcpan 10y ago

You can also test those things out and gain some confidence in the game. Make a bunch of fake persons with similar skills, try many different ways to present them and see which ones get the most responses.

fosco 10y ago

-->3 - You're applying to a million jobs, which likely means you are sending out rather anonymous letters instead of something even remotely targeted. I think this is important, in a sense personalizing it for the company, and also the specific position you are aiming for. rather than aim for the entire goal net aim for a specific cross stitch within the net. on a side note, all of the comments of others offering help I find absolutely beautiful and it makes me happy to have found this community of incredible people!

FussyZeus 10y ago
Can speak from experience: If your application was submitted by a robot (or feels that way) I don't look at it. If you can't be bothered to apply in person, I can't be bothered to read it. ;) I'm a huge advocate for automation but there is such a thing as too much.

kafkaesq 10y ago

Saying things like "I learn fast" and "I'm a good communicator" don't get a recruiter's attention. Right. You don't impress people by saying "I'm a good communicator." You impress them by... communicating well.

Bartweiss 10y ago
It's an excessive theory for an idea this simple, but "honest signaling" is a hell of an insight. If anyone who wants a job can send a given signal, it's a poor signal. If only people with a certain trait can send it, it's a good one - hence personality interviews for communication, hence technical interviews for programming languages.
paulcole 10y ago
"Show don't tell" is a pretty basic (but incredibly important) writing concept that many people never learn.
KanyeBest 10y ago
Contrarian opinion: Saying "I'm a good communicator" is the most succinct and clear way of communicating that one is a good communicator. The recipient needs only read 4 words to get the message.
- enigmango 10y ago
  But what about the three-word sentence "I communicate well"? More seriously, the most that reading "I'm a good communicator" tells me is that the writer can form sentences reasonably. Succinct? Sure, but it's still so broad. When I'm working with someone, I would appreciate a troubleshooting message of "The Flob server is saying clients don't have the right Gruffin anymore." instead of "Flob isn't working." Obviously this depends on context, but choosing where to be succinct is key. My project manager would much rather hear "Flob is down for half the users - we'll have a patch tested and deployed by tomorrow afternoon" than "Flob broke, and we're fixing it". "I have a proven history of writing clear and efficient end-user documentation" and "I'm someone people enjoy bouncing ideas off of" give me more confidence in someone's communication skills than "I'm a good communicator".

hkmurakami 10y ago

Related to (3) and the messaging, OP's post here reads to me like he's positioning himself as a generalist. Companies simply do not hire generalists other than very narrow corner cases. He should figure out what speciality a company is looking for and showing the side of your experience that best fits what they're looking for.

paulcole 10y ago
> Companies simply do not hire generalists other than very narrow corner cases Then he ought to be spending 90% of his effort finding those narrow corner cases instead of sending out 1,000,000 applications.

wott 10y ago

> I encourage my clients to apply to less companies, but to make those applications more targeted. Write a cover letter (or just the body of an email) that demonstrates that you've actually read the job spec and maybe even a page of their website. That's exactly what I always did and I can tell you the conclusion of that experiment is that precisely 0% of recruiters/HR/bosses did read my cover letter.