8 ms·

I "worked" at the Xingda Hongye PCB factory in Zhongshan for a month. They let me stay in the factory dormitory and eat in the cafeteria for free, but didn't pa

I "worked" at the Xingda Hongye PCB factory in Zhongshan for a month. They let me stay in the factory dormitory and eat in the cafeteria for free, but didn't pay me. It was good! Afterwards I got a job in Shenzhen that paid, so I moved. But the Xingda workers were from all over China, each with fascinating stories, and very happy to meet a foreigner. I wish I could go back there now. I just finished 4 years working at a microSD card company in Taiwan. I've been trying to find a job since March; unemployed since August. I've given up on my dreams, and I'll take anything. I don't even know how to apply for jobs now. The only two interviews I had were from people who already worked in the company telling their HR to talk to me. Recruiters are ignoring me. Prayer hasn't worked. Sharing side projects on HN hasn't worked. Please tell me the email address of someone who can give me food and shelter.

jacquesm 8y ago
> Please tell me the email address of someone who can give me food and shelter. In China or anywhere?
gufle 8y ago
Just looking at your website in your bio, you seem to have a good amount of experience, interests, side projects. However your resume looks awful. Remove all of the side images and links, remove the objective section, format your experience to make it cleaner and more readable (at least put blank lines in between jobs). Start your resume with a section summarizing your skills. Remove the 2 month or less duration jobs and round the other ones to fill the gaps. Good luck.
- r_singh 8y ago
  I feel like the bigger issue could be that the most recent work experience listed is from 2014
  - phs318u 8y ago
    Not sure why you’re being downvoted. A big resume hole is a huge red flag to recruiters.
    - checkyoursudo 8y ago
      Why?
      - r_singh 8y ago
        I think it's a bigger issue because there's no mention of anything beyond that year; even if you didn't work past that year, the resume should have something mentioned about more recent years. Also, if I was hiring someone in tech and they took a break for 4 years without coding in between, that would definitely be an issue since any skill, experience, knowledge, etc could be rendered useless if not consistently practiced or used.
      - CydeWeys 8y ago
        https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/18616/why-is-a-gap-in-employment-dates-considered-bad https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/18616/why-is-a...
      - thelasthuman 8y ago
        There was a HN article posted recently about taking a long sabbatical from work (2 yearsish) that had a lot of insightful comments.
      - phs318u 8y ago
        A hole in the resume indicates that you're not prepared to volunteer an answer to the question "what were you doing?". You'd be better off adding an entry to honestly say, "Backpacked through Asia", or "Recuperated from significant physical health issue", or "Caregiver for unwell family member" or "Mental health break following death of partner" or "Citizen journalist and volunteer" or whatever. That at least shows, 1) you're not hiding something, 2) you may have broader horizons than your peer applicants. At least, it would kick off a conversation (which ideally, you're prepared to have) around this thing you've done. If you can highlight how it may have strengthened the qualities you bring to the role, then it may end up as a net positive.
  - miranda_rights 8y ago
    FWIW, that link is old. Their personal website has a link to a newer resume, which includes another eng position from 2014 to very recently.
  - FabHK 8y ago
    Maybe Peter has updated it recently, but the current CV lists August 2014 to August 2018 as latest work experience.
aerovistae 8y ago
I don't understand how an experienced technical contributor who can speak five languages ends up sleeping on a factory floor unpaid in China. I don't mean to demean your story, I only mean very literally that I don't understand it. How did you end up in such a situation? You were in California, Switzerland, Vancouver....how did it get to this point?
- r_singh 8y ago
  Exactly, I would never think something like what the OP above said could be true
- bmn__ 8y ago
  > I don't understand it. How did you end up in such a situation? mental illness
  - hitekker 8y ago
    I would have disagreed with you, if I hadn't read the top-level comment author's posting history. Yikes.
    - r_singh 8y ago
      I went through the above OP's comment history as well, very peculiar.
    - aerovistae 8y ago
      I don't see what you're seeing. Nearly all the comments and submissions I see are discussing technical matters, or policy. There's some portions that are a bit whiny, argumentative, or ungrateful, but I don't see anything implying mental illness. Can you point out what I'm missing? I'm really interested.
    - peterburkimsher 8y ago
      Perhaps there's some emotional issues I have right now. But please don't mistake cause and effect. I didn't lose my job due to mental illness. I feel very discouraged because I've failed to find a job, and now I'm physically separated from my girlfriend and other friend groups. I'm trying to make new friends, but my parents keep moving me around (Geneva, now UK, next Germany). Instead of teaching me how to get a job, people just tell me my résumé is awful, as if that would help.
choochooaboard 8y ago
> Prayer hasn't worked Well this is surprising.
chaostheory 8y ago
Is moving back to the west out of the question?
- peterburkimsher 8y ago
  That's where I am now, following my parents like a parasite.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - lllthrowaway 8y ago
    I meant to write a quick answer but there are so many issues with your resume that it turned into an essay. After I saw you have not updated your current country, I felt like I should not have spent so much energy. It makes sense if you intended to send out your resume after fixing that, yet still. I am replying as this is already written and hope it can be useful: I have an academic mindset so resume advice of others who know your line of work would be better than mine. I am not a psychologist. But I felt that you could have a hard time finding helpful criticism. If I am mistaken in the following, only take the bits that are right. So it is a cognitive issue. If it is from stress, meditate. For me, I learnt meditation slowly, if that is actually what I am doing. If your issues are from mental health and medication, here's what may help. Your cognitive state is obvious from your resume. Whatever mindset led you to adding those images on the second page, that mindset is working against you in social matters. Even if perfect resume is sent out, you may give unwanted impressions willingly or unwillingly during your interview. Shutting down such thought processes is important. As for looking for work, I am not the best person to give advice, but here's my two cents. Think of what categories of jobs you want. In your case pick just one or two categories given you must be under time constraint. Have a plan to land those jobs. Make your resume so it will help you in that plan. Remove unprofessional things, one or two could work, but couchsurfing is not something I could imagine, in my wildest dreams, on a technical resume. Adding your references to your resume is absolutely unnecessary. If they asked you for references, which is unlikely, provide. Remove all those programming languages from your personal interests section. If you know them, add them somewhere else. Remove most personal matters, but one or two, if you wish. Ideally they'd show some skills, soft or hard, that are not seen or inferred from other parts of your resume. Remove religious matters unless you are applying for a religious organization. Adding religion can backfire in some scenarios, and will not help your resume stand out among other applicants. People reading your resume want to see relevant details. Current extracurricular activities should be removed. Your language section is very impressive. If it can placed on first page, that's a big help. You speak and understand French, English and Asian languages. Look into job postings in Ottawa (bilingual requirements are common) and Montreal. More than a few companies in Montreal, not speaking of multinational companies, ideally want a French speaking candidate. So you're suddenly ahead of the curve. And the cost of living in Montreal is not high. Your education section does not, whatsoever, convey what you have studied except your M Eng degree. Write the full degree name. Master of Engineering. Your education at Geneva doesn't seem right. You were there for 15 years? If there was a gap, write what is reasonable and not shocking. Perhaps only write your graduation year. Convey what you studied in Geneva and Santa Barbara. If it is irrelevant to your line of work and presentation of yourself, remove it all together. Do not use parathesis in your professional experience descriptions. Shorten your volunteer experience significantly. Use bullet points. Find some resume examples, from some university websites, or from people who work in your ideal field. Write it that way but convey what you have. Remove very short experiences unless they are very important to avoid looking like a job hopper. If you must include your GRE (I do not know if you should), put it in the same paragraph as your Master's degree. Remove your education from under your name. If you are capable as your resume suggests, you should be able of figure out a good part of what I have suggested, and add to it, and find a way to get a job. Perhaps make a one page resume to have your languages be seen by the recruiters. Otherwise, seriously spend sometime and improve the professional experience section. You are not entirely desperate at the moment if you are with your family, have food and shelter. But you are mentally desperate as you suggest. When expressing such levels of desperation, contradicting yourself can make it tough for others to want to spend the time to be helpful, such as this comment of yours that I am replying to. I am sorry if this sounds harsh but it seems true and it seems to me that I should state it nevertheless. Good luck.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
NicoJuicy 8y ago
Send me an email at nico at sapico dot me, if this is still correct. > https://github.com/peterburk/pagefish https://github.com/peterburk/pagefish - Now I have 3 years continuous relevant work experience, I’m looking for a suitable job in New Zealand so I can get the Skilled Migrant Category visa. (Canada’s Express Entry and Australia are also options). I'll install Skype if you have it. PS. I'm not gonna ask for a resumé change and i can give you an introduction to a software development opportunity in Canada. I know they are looking hard for employees and experience with electronics could be a big +
- peterburkimsher 8y ago
  Thank you! I'll send you 4 versions of my résumé, take your pick. My Skype username is peterburkimsher.
  - NicoJuicy 8y ago
    Replied to email, added on Skype.
toomanybeersies 8y ago
I see from your comment history that you've been looking for a job in New Zealand, and have been applying for jobs through Seek and TradeMe. I'm from New Zealand myself (although I've now moved to Australia). I wish I could give you some positive advice on finding a job in New Zealand, but all I can say is don't be disheartened that you haven't had any success in finding a job applying from overseas. Most recruiters in NZ will as a blanket rule just trash any resumes they receive from people not in New Zealand. A lot won't even take resumes from people in different cities. You really need to be in the country and ready to start work, most recruiters will require you to actually turn up in person for interviews, which isn't so bad if you only need to fly from one city to another for a day, but isn't practical if you're overseas. It's just not worth recruiters time to work with international candidates. Often they aren't actually serious about moving countries and are just fishing.
read_forgetnot 8y ago
Consider reading Herman Hesse (Siddhartha) or Jiddu Krishnamurti (Think on These Things), and questioning your belief of an omnipotent god deciding things for you, as you mention in your blog. Begin making decisions for yourself and following your own will. Don't be afraid of getting help from your parents or friends. You are a valuable individual in the world with a finite life. You are loved. Enjoy your life and do your best to make a living without harming others, but do what it takes to survive comfortably.

jacquesm 8y ago

> Please tell me the email address of someone who can give me food and shelter. In China or anywhere?

gufle 8y ago

Just looking at your website in your bio, you seem to have a good amount of experience, interests, side projects. However your resume looks awful. Remove all of the side images and links, remove the objective section, format your experience to make it cleaner and more readable (at least put blank lines in between jobs). Start your resume with a section summarizing your skills. Remove the 2 month or less duration jobs and round the other ones to fill the gaps. Good luck.

r_singh 8y ago
I feel like the bigger issue could be that the most recent work experience listed is from 2014
- phs318u 8y ago
  Not sure why you’re being downvoted. A big resume hole is a huge red flag to recruiters.
  - checkyoursudo 8y ago
    Why?
    - r_singh 8y ago
      I think it's a bigger issue because there's no mention of anything beyond that year; even if you didn't work past that year, the resume should have something mentioned about more recent years. Also, if I was hiring someone in tech and they took a break for 4 years without coding in between, that would definitely be an issue since any skill, experience, knowledge, etc could be rendered useless if not consistently practiced or used.
    - CydeWeys 8y ago
      https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/18616/why-is-a-gap-in-employment-dates-considered-bad https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/18616/why-is-a...
    - thelasthuman 8y ago
      There was a HN article posted recently about taking a long sabbatical from work (2 yearsish) that had a lot of insightful comments.
    - phs318u 8y ago
      A hole in the resume indicates that you're not prepared to volunteer an answer to the question "what were you doing?". You'd be better off adding an entry to honestly say, "Backpacked through Asia", or "Recuperated from significant physical health issue", or "Caregiver for unwell family member" or "Mental health break following death of partner" or "Citizen journalist and volunteer" or whatever. That at least shows, 1) you're not hiding something, 2) you may have broader horizons than your peer applicants. At least, it would kick off a conversation (which ideally, you're prepared to have) around this thing you've done. If you can highlight how it may have strengthened the qualities you bring to the role, then it may end up as a net positive.
- miranda_rights 8y ago
  FWIW, that link is old. Their personal website has a link to a newer resume, which includes another eng position from 2014 to very recently.
- FabHK 8y ago
  Maybe Peter has updated it recently, but the current CV lists August 2014 to August 2018 as latest work experience.

aerovistae 8y ago

I don't understand how an experienced technical contributor who can speak five languages ends up sleeping on a factory floor unpaid in China. I don't mean to demean your story, I only mean very literally that I don't understand it. How did you end up in such a situation? You were in California, Switzerland, Vancouver....how did it get to this point?

r_singh 8y ago
Exactly, I would never think something like what the OP above said could be true
bmn__ 8y ago
> I don't understand it. How did you end up in such a situation? mental illness
- hitekker 8y ago
  I would have disagreed with you, if I hadn't read the top-level comment author's posting history. Yikes.
  - r_singh 8y ago
    I went through the above OP's comment history as well, very peculiar.
  - aerovistae 8y ago
    I don't see what you're seeing. Nearly all the comments and submissions I see are discussing technical matters, or policy. There's some portions that are a bit whiny, argumentative, or ungrateful, but I don't see anything implying mental illness. Can you point out what I'm missing? I'm really interested.
  - peterburkimsher 8y ago
    Perhaps there's some emotional issues I have right now. But please don't mistake cause and effect. I didn't lose my job due to mental illness. I feel very discouraged because I've failed to find a job, and now I'm physically separated from my girlfriend and other friend groups. I'm trying to make new friends, but my parents keep moving me around (Geneva, now UK, next Germany). Instead of teaching me how to get a job, people just tell me my résumé is awful, as if that would help.

choochooaboard 8y ago

> Prayer hasn't worked Well this is surprising.

chaostheory 8y ago

Is moving back to the west out of the question?

peterburkimsher 8y ago
That's where I am now, following my parents like a parasite.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- lllthrowaway 8y ago
  I meant to write a quick answer but there are so many issues with your resume that it turned into an essay. After I saw you have not updated your current country, I felt like I should not have spent so much energy. It makes sense if you intended to send out your resume after fixing that, yet still. I am replying as this is already written and hope it can be useful: I have an academic mindset so resume advice of others who know your line of work would be better than mine. I am not a psychologist. But I felt that you could have a hard time finding helpful criticism. If I am mistaken in the following, only take the bits that are right. So it is a cognitive issue. If it is from stress, meditate. For me, I learnt meditation slowly, if that is actually what I am doing. If your issues are from mental health and medication, here's what may help. Your cognitive state is obvious from your resume. Whatever mindset led you to adding those images on the second page, that mindset is working against you in social matters. Even if perfect resume is sent out, you may give unwanted impressions willingly or unwillingly during your interview. Shutting down such thought processes is important. As for looking for work, I am not the best person to give advice, but here's my two cents. Think of what categories of jobs you want. In your case pick just one or two categories given you must be under time constraint. Have a plan to land those jobs. Make your resume so it will help you in that plan. Remove unprofessional things, one or two could work, but couchsurfing is not something I could imagine, in my wildest dreams, on a technical resume. Adding your references to your resume is absolutely unnecessary. If they asked you for references, which is unlikely, provide. Remove all those programming languages from your personal interests section. If you know them, add them somewhere else. Remove most personal matters, but one or two, if you wish. Ideally they'd show some skills, soft or hard, that are not seen or inferred from other parts of your resume. Remove religious matters unless you are applying for a religious organization. Adding religion can backfire in some scenarios, and will not help your resume stand out among other applicants. People reading your resume want to see relevant details. Current extracurricular activities should be removed. Your language section is very impressive. If it can placed on first page, that's a big help. You speak and understand French, English and Asian languages. Look into job postings in Ottawa (bilingual requirements are common) and Montreal. More than a few companies in Montreal, not speaking of multinational companies, ideally want a French speaking candidate. So you're suddenly ahead of the curve. And the cost of living in Montreal is not high. Your education section does not, whatsoever, convey what you have studied except your M Eng degree. Write the full degree name. Master of Engineering. Your education at Geneva doesn't seem right. You were there for 15 years? If there was a gap, write what is reasonable and not shocking. Perhaps only write your graduation year. Convey what you studied in Geneva and Santa Barbara. If it is irrelevant to your line of work and presentation of yourself, remove it all together. Do not use parathesis in your professional experience descriptions. Shorten your volunteer experience significantly. Use bullet points. Find some resume examples, from some university websites, or from people who work in your ideal field. Write it that way but convey what you have. Remove very short experiences unless they are very important to avoid looking like a job hopper. If you must include your GRE (I do not know if you should), put it in the same paragraph as your Master's degree. Remove your education from under your name. If you are capable as your resume suggests, you should be able of figure out a good part of what I have suggested, and add to it, and find a way to get a job. Perhaps make a one page resume to have your languages be seen by the recruiters. Otherwise, seriously spend sometime and improve the professional experience section. You are not entirely desperate at the moment if you are with your family, have food and shelter. But you are mentally desperate as you suggest. When expressing such levels of desperation, contradicting yourself can make it tough for others to want to spend the time to be helpful, such as this comment of yours that I am replying to. I am sorry if this sounds harsh but it seems true and it seems to me that I should state it nevertheless. Good luck.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

NicoJuicy 8y ago

Send me an email at nico at sapico dot me, if this is still correct. > https://github.com/peterburk/pagefish https://github.com/peterburk/pagefish - Now I have 3 years continuous relevant work experience, I’m looking for a suitable job in New Zealand so I can get the Skilled Migrant Category visa. (Canada’s Express Entry and Australia are also options). I'll install Skype if you have it. PS. I'm not gonna ask for a resumé change and i can give you an introduction to a software development opportunity in Canada. I know they are looking hard for employees and experience with electronics could be a big +

peterburkimsher 8y ago
Thank you! I'll send you 4 versions of my résumé, take your pick. My Skype username is peterburkimsher.
- NicoJuicy 8y ago
  Replied to email, added on Skype.

toomanybeersies 8y ago

I see from your comment history that you've been looking for a job in New Zealand, and have been applying for jobs through Seek and TradeMe. I'm from New Zealand myself (although I've now moved to Australia). I wish I could give you some positive advice on finding a job in New Zealand, but all I can say is don't be disheartened that you haven't had any success in finding a job applying from overseas. Most recruiters in NZ will as a blanket rule just trash any resumes they receive from people not in New Zealand. A lot won't even take resumes from people in different cities. You really need to be in the country and ready to start work, most recruiters will require you to actually turn up in person for interviews, which isn't so bad if you only need to fly from one city to another for a day, but isn't practical if you're overseas. It's just not worth recruiters time to work with international candidates. Often they aren't actually serious about moving countries and are just fishing.

read_forgetnot 8y ago

Consider reading Herman Hesse (Siddhartha) or Jiddu Krishnamurti (Think on These Things), and questioning your belief of an omnipotent god deciding things for you, as you mention in your blog. Begin making decisions for yourself and following your own will. Don't be afraid of getting help from your parents or friends. You are a valuable individual in the world with a finite life. You are loved. Enjoy your life and do your best to make a living without harming others, but do what it takes to survive comfortably.