I think part of the problem was the use of "cover letter/resume" language in the context of a blog posting. On a job application, it's ordinary to praise your

I think part of the problem was the use of "cover letter/resume" language in the context of a blog posting. On a job application, it's ordinary to praise your own accomplishments and abilities. So you declare things like "excellent writing skills", and nobody really bats an eye [1]. However, if you were at a dinner party, and you praised your own "excellent cooking skills", it would probably rub people the wrong way. Blogs fall more into the second category, I think, which may account for some of the reaction. All in all, this was a clever approach that worked out well, and maybe it should be more of a norm. Unlike Andrew, I've been in the workforce for well over a decade, but I think that I may have a skill set that doesn't match up neatly with a most job descriptions. As a result, want ads don't do much for me. I always figured that this is just because really good jobs are never listed on recruitment sites - they're the jobs you create and grow into. But who knows, a reverse job application might be a good way to see if there's one out there. If I try it, I'll make sure to heed the lessons I learned from this first go-around, which is when many of the mistakes are first made. [1] Watch out, though. In the tech world, describing yourself as an expert in a programming language may be a bit like waving a red flag in front of a bull.