7 ms·

I see most of those open-position LinkedIn posts as lazy cries for help rather than legitimate job search strategy. People swarm and post good reviews of the p

I see most of those open-position LinkedIn posts as lazy cries for help rather than legitimate job search strategy. People swarm and post good reviews of the person as a coworker/employee, but it’s a waste of time. Sympathy is not worth a damn, no matter how many people tell you that you deserve a great job. Chris Rock said something similar to my attitude: a person waiting on the side of the road with a broken car isn’t getting help. A person pushing their car on an exit ramp will get people to help. Here are better job hunting strategies: * Connect with anyone (just spam connect requests). You can easily have 5,000 connections. This looks good to people who take a cursory glance at your profile. * remove anything on your profile that could be a potential liability for your future employer: no attitude, no rainbow emojis, no flags, no political statements * embellish your resume and work history. If you’ve read a tutorial on a technology, you list it. * start applying for anything you might qualify for. Interviewing is a skill and a process you have to get used to. * Set your status to Open-to-work, open accounts on Monster/Dice/Blind/Indeed and start talking to headhunters/recruiters. Reach out to the big players (TekSystems, Robert Half, etc) as well as the smaller shops and see what they have. * Personally ask or DM your friends for leads and references. * search for “inurl:careers <your role or industry>” and find open positions to apply for anything If you can’t get a job after following this advice, you’re doing something wrong.

UncleOxidant 3y ago
> * embellish your resume and work history. If you’ve read a tutorial on a technology, you list it. This seems like not a great idea.
- itqwertz 3y ago
  It works when you’re being filtered on keywords. A competent C# software engineer who has worked with web tech can list Blazor, ASP.NET MVC, or even PHP if they understand the fundamentals of web dev. Let’s not kid ourselves, most of these frameworks and web languages are very similar. If you’re actually desperate for a job, you’ll take what you get and rise to the challenge.
  - ipaddr 3y ago
    Then you endup with 12 take home tests in a variety of frameworks that all require mental energy needed elsewhere
  - BeetleB 3y ago
    Double edged sword. In every job I've had, there's always been at least one coworker who makes a point of probing items on a person's resume - even if it is irrelevant to the current job. If the person doesn't have more than a bare minimum knowledge of the topic they claim to have experience in, it is an automatic disqualification. A lot of people really don't like resume embellishers.
    - oytis 3y ago
      You don't have to put in your resume though. Still dubious strategy, because you might be getting more irrelevant positions advertised to you because of that
    - ilyt 3y ago
      We send a self assessment form (which is pretty much "here is list of techs we use, judge yourself on how good you are on them" before recruiting and ask candidates near-only of things they say they are good on the resume or that form. Soooooooo many bullshiters
      - BeetleB 3y ago
        Do you make them type a number or is it free flowing text? A scale of 1-5 is really not helpful. A 2 for me maybe a 3 for you, etc. I prefer being explicit and writing text to indicate what/how much I know.
    - bamfly 3y ago
      I list anything I've completed more than a tiny amount of paying work in. Maybe leaving something off if I think it'll hurt my chances, comp-negotiation, or get me shunted to shitty projects. Otherwise, if I got paid to do it, and shipped, it goes on the list. However, I can barely "hello world" without mistakes or consulting references in any language I've gone more than a week without writing. So if I only listed languages & such that I'm ready to take a quiz over at any given moment, the list would always be very short. I'd miss a lot of job opportunities. Guessing that'd get me DQ'd from your process, but taking the alternative approach of only listing the very-small set of things I'm ready to work in right this second at any given time would surely have had very bad consequences for my career.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago
  I think there is a careful balance that needs to be met between what HR wants to see and what hiring manager/peers want to see. I was mostly lucky enough lately that most of my recent positions were direct referrals to hiring manager, which meant I did not have to hunt for keywords or anything silly like that, so I could get away with my resume/linkedin looking understated.
Garrrrrr 3y ago
In my experience, TekSystems (an IT hiring agency) have proven to be a waste of time. Even if you manage to secure a job through them, be prepared to sacrifice a significant portion (10-30%) of your potential salary, as they'll deduct your hourly/salary pay as a finding/employment fee. I'm not sure if this is common practice with other recruitment companies but I find it to be very scummy
- JJMcJ 3y ago
  This is not customary. In fact I've never heard of it for placements. A broker for consulting work might take a finder's fee, but never for regular employment. Way back when, like in the 1950s and 60s, employment agencies might take a percentage. The shift to more contract work, where the percentage is baked into the billed rate vs. what they pay, has ended this.
naillo 3y ago
> just spam connect requests Tons of great tips in this comment
- itqwertz 3y ago
  I have ~5000 connections, I get hit up for jobs and collaborations every week. If you’re not playing the game willingly, you’re still playing the game.
  - bamfly 3y ago
    I'd have assumed spamming requests and accepting all the incomings would mostly just lead to even more recruiter spam, and that anything else coming through a network so-grown (jobs, collaborations) would be extremely low-value (why would people offer high-quality opportunities to people they don't actually know? Unless they're desperate, which is itself not a great sign, right?) Is that incorrect?
    - itqwertz 3y ago
      I have found well-paying freelance and full-time positions recently (~4 months ago) using this exact strategy. I assume that being active daily on LinkedIn will help push your profile to the top (algorithm-based results) over other profiles. I put my LI profile to "open-to-work" on Monday and had three requests for interviews from various companies/entrepreneurs by Sunday. The next week, I had at least 4 inquiries about my job status and interview availability. After the 1st two weeks, my email inbox was full of potential jobs/recruiter spam, which I sorted through and followed up on. I'd agree about most being low-value leads, but getting your resume out there seems to attract all sorts of companies. Sure, I don't want to be a QA or SDET engineer, but my resume helped attract opportunities that I would have followed up on had I been more desperate. You also have to assume that most recruiters are lazy and are doing the shotgun strategy as well.
      - bamfly 3y ago
        Interesting. Thanks for the very-complete response—may have to change up my LI strategy.
jurassic 3y ago
Some of this is good advice, but I definitely wouldn't advocate embellishing your resume in this way. You're going to waste a lot of time on the phone with recruiters exploring roles you probably are not a good fit for. Also if I contact you because I'm looking for a FOO expert and you actually only read a blog post about FOO, you immediately lose credibility with me. Very low chance of it turning into a job. IMO it's better ROI to get as specific as possible about the BAR role you are looking for and then put in the effort to do these things: 1) really workshop all the text on your resume / LinkedIn to make it clear you are seeking BAR opportunities 2) connect with people who are working on BAR or are BAR-adjacent 3) (if needed) think of easy things you can do to bolster your BAR credibility (small side projects, read a book on it, etc). If you can do these things you automatically stand out because most people seem to lack introspection about what they want and also communicate poorly. Doing this also will improve the ROI you get from your own network, because people will be able to more easily understand what you're looking for when thinking about the opportunities they know about. Bottom line though: If I read over your profile, is it obvious you are actually good at X and seeking Y? It's amazing to me how many applications I see that communicate nothing about what the candidate has accomplished or would like to do next. A keyword spam resume is getting the circular file if it hits my desk. If you have no friends, discuss it with ChatGPT.
- ryandrake 3y ago
  > Some of this is good advice, but I definitely wouldn't advocate embellishing your resume in this way. You're going to waste a lot of time on the phone with recruiters exploring roles you probably are not a good fit for. Also if I contact you because I'm looking for a FOO expert and you actually only read a blog post about FOO, you immediately lose credibility with me. Very low chance of it turning into a job. I think it depends on whether you already have a job you're OK with vs. if you're unemployed and have N months until you're living in your car. I've been unemployed with a family and burning through a very small savings account. When you're in that situation, "finding a good fit" is not a priority. Getting an offer letter from any company by any means is the priority. Embellish and spam. Knock on physical doors if you have to. Let the company decide whether you're a good fit. This is one of those unfortunate "don't hate the player, hate the game" realities.
nrub 3y ago
Do what you want with some of those tips, maybe not necessarily good advice. But if you're searching, try these search queries replacing `%s` with your desired role(s): ``` search_strings = [ 'site:boards.greenhouse.io %s', 'site:jobs.smartrecruiters.com %s', 'site:jobs.lever.co %s', 'site:.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com %s', 'site:icims.com inurl:jobs %s', 'site:careers.peopleclick.com %s', 'site:apply.workable.com %s', 'site:jobs.workable.com %s', 'site:apply.workable.com %s', 'site:.taleo.net %s', ] ``` Most of those ATS systems are super annoying. I actually give preference to employers using more modern systems that have up to date user experiences, but regardless, it doesn't hurt to scrape and search all the big ATS players.
bojo 3y ago
> embellish your resume and work history. If you’ve read a tutorial on a technology, you list it. I'm going through a huge pile of resumes for a role I have open this week and these are getting thrown out immediately. I have no interest in reading through 6 pages of bullet points with keywords bolded. It's tacky, too information dense, and doesn't call out what you are actually good at nor how you've applied it.
- throwaway202351 3y ago
  I think the 'correct' (from the perspective of getting an interview) approach would be to personalize your resume to include skills that are called out in the listing, even if you've just read a tutorial on it. Not to list a ton of irrelevant skills. An example would be if you had 5 years of experience in AWS and only a few tutorials of GCP for experience, but the listing specifically wants GCP skills, you list it. Not a case where you have 5 years of backend experience and start applying to senior frontend positions because you went through a React tutorial.
heartbreak 3y ago
This is an ironic post about what not to do, right?
- itqwertz 3y ago
  Offer better advice, then. We live in a world where you can either compete or wonder why no companies want anything to do with you. “Fake it till you make it” is a good strategy when you have to pay bills.
  - heartbreak 3y ago
    * Don’t spam people with LinkedIn connection requests. No one cares about the size of your network. Maybe if you know someone they know they’ll ask them about you, but that doesn’t work if it was connection spam in the first place. * Be human. If you’re posting toxic stuff online, you’re going to have a bad time regardless. Rainbow emojis aren’t toxic. Flags aren’t toxic. * Do not embellish your resume and work history. You’ll only be wasting your own time when you get rejected after every screener. * Do start apply for anything you might qualify for. Interviewing is a skill and a process you have to get used to. * Do not reach out to TEKSystems and Robert Half. Those are garbage recruitment firms. If you want to work with a recruiter, at least use a good one (ask your network or not-fake LinkedIn connections for recommendations if you must). * Personally ask or DM your friends for leads and references. Be careful not to spam people you don’t actually know.
throwaway202351 3y ago
> no rainbow emojis So it's not possible to be openly gay and hire-able? I mean, sure, that must be true for some companies but I wouldn't want to work at those anyway. edit: on second read, this might come off as more aggressive than I wanted, and the rest of the post is pretty good, but this part just stood out to me
- itqwertz 3y ago
  No, the point is to look like a good candidate who won’t start a Slack pronoun campaign while delivering garbage code. For some companies, that outward presentation of identity and politics will be a deterrent. Do that stuff on your own time. My advice is how to get a job when you need one.
  - EatingWithForks 3y ago
    How do you be gay "on your own time"? How do you be a they/them nonbinary "on your own time"? My co-workers sometimes have a picture of them with their opposite-gender life partner in their profile pictures... they are clearly bringing that heterosexuality to work. One of my most productive team-mates is a man who keeps an image of his wife and kids on his desk, even! Why did you bring up the garbage code thing? The poster and the original poster said nothing about your actual capacities as an engineer.
    - Solvency 3y ago
      People bringing any aspect of their weird home lives, hetero or not, on LinkedIn is just embarrassingly unnecessary at best. The idea of me declaring my heterosexuality while postering my CV with a photo of my wife and I embracing on the beach would never cross my mind, but inexplicably it happens all of the time. This has nothing to do with your individual sexuality. Everyone looks ridiculous being overtly personal on LinkedIn.
      - DaftTomatoes 3y ago
        I hear what you're saying, and the issue is that the photo you're describing would not be considered controversial for most people, even on LinkedIn. Lots of people have wedding photos, or photos with them and their spouses, and people don't bat an eye. But, for someone who is gay, by mearly showing a picture of themselves with their husband they'd be "declaring their sexuality", and being "overt"; They don't have to say anything more. Their _existence_ is politicized, and that's the problem. And when we say "don't show rainbows", or don't show anything that can be linked to LGBTQIA, we're really saying, "You can't do these otherwise non-political things, because just being who you are is still politically charged". We're better than that HN.
btheunissen 3y ago
Some good points but 3) is terrible advice. If you list a technology and I use it frequently, and if I can tell you added it for the sake of padding your resume, that is going to weigh on my decision pretty heavily. I value honestly over bullshit.
gtirloni 3y ago
This is the shotgun approach, right? In our field, you will quickly be participating in 10+ hiring process and it'll be a nightmare.
mooreds 3y ago
> * embellish your resume and work history. If you’ve read a tutorial on a technology, you list it. I've learned through experience to never list something on your resume you don't want to get asked about in an interview. If you're comfortable saying "I put down C++ because I read a tutorial" that's fine. As a former hiring manager, my reaction would depend on how much I needed you to know C++. If it was a C++ job, it'd be an immediate no. If it was tangentially related, maybe it's okay. > * start applying for anything you might qualify for. Interviewing is a skill and a process you have to get used to. Sure, but get used to no replies or no interviews. That's not a bad thing to get used to, but playing the numbers game isn't usually successful. Here are some ways to stand out, esp if you are a new dev: https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2022/09/19/ways-to-stand-out/ https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2022/09/19/ways-to-stand-...
- tayo42 3y ago
  How is someone suppsed to be able to make any slight career changes then. Go all the way back to being a junior developer becasue they happened to have python or java jobs instead of cpp?
  - mellosouls 3y ago
    It's not really a "slight" career change to switch languages (especially if you're transferring to a new company) though there seems to be an unfortunate trope that it's quite trivial. The effort involved also depends on framework, business knowledge, stack side and a whole lot of other factors, it's not always (or often?) the case you're just swapping in one language for another, and even this latter "simple" case is often a significant undertaking. That doesn't mean you've got to drop a rank, but it does mean you have to be prepared for the possibility or be able to explain what exactly you are bringing to the table that justifies the money over a competitor applicant who can hit the ground running. Or learn the new language in your own time and contribute to open source to establish competence you can demonstrate if you don't have the opportunity on the job.
  - mooreds 3y ago
    Here's how I'd do it, in increasing order of difficulty (using C++ as an example): * make the career change internally. Shift to a different department or help with a project using C++. Gain skills without changing companies. You're a known quantity and should have some social capital to make such a move without taking a salary hit. * target companies/jobs using <tech you use> + C++. Leverage your <tech you use> skills. * contribute to something non-trivial built in C++; this is the open source path. Start with low hanging fruit (documentation is great!) but build up your C++ muscles. Then you can point to that during interviews. * do a startup and select C++ because it is the best fit for the job. I did this with rails and a startup. I had minimal experience in rails, but after evaluation, it was one of the best tools for the job (SaaS webapp). Afterwards, I was a lot better at rails. (This is hugely risky and can also lead to 'expert beginner' status, but is an option.)

UncleOxidant 3y ago

> * embellish your resume and work history. If you’ve read a tutorial on a technology, you list it. This seems like not a great idea.

itqwertz 3y ago
It works when you’re being filtered on keywords. A competent C# software engineer who has worked with web tech can list Blazor, ASP.NET MVC, or even PHP if they understand the fundamentals of web dev. Let’s not kid ourselves, most of these frameworks and web languages are very similar. If you’re actually desperate for a job, you’ll take what you get and rise to the challenge.
- ipaddr 3y ago
  Then you endup with 12 take home tests in a variety of frameworks that all require mental energy needed elsewhere
- BeetleB 3y ago
  Double edged sword. In every job I've had, there's always been at least one coworker who makes a point of probing items on a person's resume - even if it is irrelevant to the current job. If the person doesn't have more than a bare minimum knowledge of the topic they claim to have experience in, it is an automatic disqualification. A lot of people really don't like resume embellishers.
  - oytis 3y ago
    You don't have to put in your resume though. Still dubious strategy, because you might be getting more irrelevant positions advertised to you because of that
  - ilyt 3y ago
    We send a self assessment form (which is pretty much "here is list of techs we use, judge yourself on how good you are on them" before recruiting and ask candidates near-only of things they say they are good on the resume or that form. Soooooooo many bullshiters
    - BeetleB 3y ago
      Do you make them type a number or is it free flowing text? A scale of 1-5 is really not helpful. A 2 for me maybe a 3 for you, etc. I prefer being explicit and writing text to indicate what/how much I know.
  - bamfly 3y ago
    I list anything I've completed more than a tiny amount of paying work in. Maybe leaving something off if I think it'll hurt my chances, comp-negotiation, or get me shunted to shitty projects. Otherwise, if I got paid to do it, and shipped, it goes on the list. However, I can barely "hello world" without mistakes or consulting references in any language I've gone more than a week without writing. So if I only listed languages & such that I'm ready to take a quiz over at any given moment, the list would always be very short. I'd miss a lot of job opportunities. Guessing that'd get me DQ'd from your process, but taking the alternative approach of only listing the very-small set of things I'm ready to work in right this second at any given time would surely have had very bad consequences for my career.
A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago
I think there is a careful balance that needs to be met between what HR wants to see and what hiring manager/peers want to see. I was mostly lucky enough lately that most of my recent positions were direct referrals to hiring manager, which meant I did not have to hunt for keywords or anything silly like that, so I could get away with my resume/linkedin looking understated.

Garrrrrr 3y ago

In my experience, TekSystems (an IT hiring agency) have proven to be a waste of time. Even if you manage to secure a job through them, be prepared to sacrifice a significant portion (10-30%) of your potential salary, as they'll deduct your hourly/salary pay as a finding/employment fee. I'm not sure if this is common practice with other recruitment companies but I find it to be very scummy

JJMcJ 3y ago
This is not customary. In fact I've never heard of it for placements. A broker for consulting work might take a finder's fee, but never for regular employment. Way back when, like in the 1950s and 60s, employment agencies might take a percentage. The shift to more contract work, where the percentage is baked into the billed rate vs. what they pay, has ended this.

naillo 3y ago

> just spam connect requests Tons of great tips in this comment

itqwertz 3y ago
I have ~5000 connections, I get hit up for jobs and collaborations every week. If you’re not playing the game willingly, you’re still playing the game.
- bamfly 3y ago
  I'd have assumed spamming requests and accepting all the incomings would mostly just lead to even more recruiter spam, and that anything else coming through a network so-grown (jobs, collaborations) would be extremely low-value (why would people offer high-quality opportunities to people they don't actually know? Unless they're desperate, which is itself not a great sign, right?) Is that incorrect?
  - itqwertz 3y ago
    I have found well-paying freelance and full-time positions recently (~4 months ago) using this exact strategy. I assume that being active daily on LinkedIn will help push your profile to the top (algorithm-based results) over other profiles. I put my LI profile to "open-to-work" on Monday and had three requests for interviews from various companies/entrepreneurs by Sunday. The next week, I had at least 4 inquiries about my job status and interview availability. After the 1st two weeks, my email inbox was full of potential jobs/recruiter spam, which I sorted through and followed up on. I'd agree about most being low-value leads, but getting your resume out there seems to attract all sorts of companies. Sure, I don't want to be a QA or SDET engineer, but my resume helped attract opportunities that I would have followed up on had I been more desperate. You also have to assume that most recruiters are lazy and are doing the shotgun strategy as well.
    - bamfly 3y ago
      Interesting. Thanks for the very-complete response—may have to change up my LI strategy.

jurassic 3y ago

Some of this is good advice, but I definitely wouldn't advocate embellishing your resume in this way. You're going to waste a lot of time on the phone with recruiters exploring roles you probably are not a good fit for. Also if I contact you because I'm looking for a FOO expert and you actually only read a blog post about FOO, you immediately lose credibility with me. Very low chance of it turning into a job. IMO it's better ROI to get as specific as possible about the BAR role you are looking for and then put in the effort to do these things: 1) really workshop all the text on your resume / LinkedIn to make it clear you are seeking BAR opportunities 2) connect with people who are working on BAR or are BAR-adjacent 3) (if needed) think of easy things you can do to bolster your BAR credibility (small side projects, read a book on it, etc). If you can do these things you automatically stand out because most people seem to lack introspection about what they want and also communicate poorly. Doing this also will improve the ROI you get from your own network, because people will be able to more easily understand what you're looking for when thinking about the opportunities they know about. Bottom line though: If I read over your profile, is it obvious you are actually good at X and seeking Y? It's amazing to me how many applications I see that communicate nothing about what the candidate has accomplished or would like to do next. A keyword spam resume is getting the circular file if it hits my desk. If you have no friends, discuss it with ChatGPT.

ryandrake 3y ago
> Some of this is good advice, but I definitely wouldn't advocate embellishing your resume in this way. You're going to waste a lot of time on the phone with recruiters exploring roles you probably are not a good fit for. Also if I contact you because I'm looking for a FOO expert and you actually only read a blog post about FOO, you immediately lose credibility with me. Very low chance of it turning into a job. I think it depends on whether you already have a job you're OK with vs. if you're unemployed and have N months until you're living in your car. I've been unemployed with a family and burning through a very small savings account. When you're in that situation, "finding a good fit" is not a priority. Getting an offer letter from any company by any means is the priority. Embellish and spam. Knock on physical doors if you have to. Let the company decide whether you're a good fit. This is one of those unfortunate "don't hate the player, hate the game" realities.

nrub 3y ago

Do what you want with some of those tips, maybe not necessarily good advice. But if you're searching, try these search queries replacing `%s` with your desired role(s): ``` search_strings = [ 'site:boards.greenhouse.io %s', 'site:jobs.smartrecruiters.com %s', 'site:jobs.lever.co %s', 'site:.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com %s', 'site:icims.com inurl:jobs %s', 'site:careers.peopleclick.com %s', 'site:apply.workable.com %s', 'site:jobs.workable.com %s', 'site:apply.workable.com %s', 'site:.taleo.net %s', ] ``` Most of those ATS systems are super annoying. I actually give preference to employers using more modern systems that have up to date user experiences, but regardless, it doesn't hurt to scrape and search all the big ATS players.

bojo 3y ago

> embellish your resume and work history. If you’ve read a tutorial on a technology, you list it. I'm going through a huge pile of resumes for a role I have open this week and these are getting thrown out immediately. I have no interest in reading through 6 pages of bullet points with keywords bolded. It's tacky, too information dense, and doesn't call out what you are actually good at nor how you've applied it.

throwaway202351 3y ago
I think the 'correct' (from the perspective of getting an interview) approach would be to personalize your resume to include skills that are called out in the listing, even if you've just read a tutorial on it. Not to list a ton of irrelevant skills. An example would be if you had 5 years of experience in AWS and only a few tutorials of GCP for experience, but the listing specifically wants GCP skills, you list it. Not a case where you have 5 years of backend experience and start applying to senior frontend positions because you went through a React tutorial.

heartbreak 3y ago

This is an ironic post about what not to do, right?

itqwertz 3y ago
Offer better advice, then. We live in a world where you can either compete or wonder why no companies want anything to do with you. “Fake it till you make it” is a good strategy when you have to pay bills.
- heartbreak 3y ago
  * Don’t spam people with LinkedIn connection requests. No one cares about the size of your network. Maybe if you know someone they know they’ll ask them about you, but that doesn’t work if it was connection spam in the first place. * Be human. If you’re posting toxic stuff online, you’re going to have a bad time regardless. Rainbow emojis aren’t toxic. Flags aren’t toxic. * Do not embellish your resume and work history. You’ll only be wasting your own time when you get rejected after every screener. * Do start apply for anything you might qualify for. Interviewing is a skill and a process you have to get used to. * Do not reach out to TEKSystems and Robert Half. Those are garbage recruitment firms. If you want to work with a recruiter, at least use a good one (ask your network or not-fake LinkedIn connections for recommendations if you must). * Personally ask or DM your friends for leads and references. Be careful not to spam people you don’t actually know.

throwaway202351 3y ago

> no rainbow emojis So it's not possible to be openly gay and hire-able? I mean, sure, that must be true for some companies but I wouldn't want to work at those anyway. edit: on second read, this might come off as more aggressive than I wanted, and the rest of the post is pretty good, but this part just stood out to me

itqwertz 3y ago
No, the point is to look like a good candidate who won’t start a Slack pronoun campaign while delivering garbage code. For some companies, that outward presentation of identity and politics will be a deterrent. Do that stuff on your own time. My advice is how to get a job when you need one.
- EatingWithForks 3y ago
  How do you be gay "on your own time"? How do you be a they/them nonbinary "on your own time"? My co-workers sometimes have a picture of them with their opposite-gender life partner in their profile pictures... they are clearly bringing that heterosexuality to work. One of my most productive team-mates is a man who keeps an image of his wife and kids on his desk, even! Why did you bring up the garbage code thing? The poster and the original poster said nothing about your actual capacities as an engineer.
  - Solvency 3y ago
    People bringing any aspect of their weird home lives, hetero or not, on LinkedIn is just embarrassingly unnecessary at best. The idea of me declaring my heterosexuality while postering my CV with a photo of my wife and I embracing on the beach would never cross my mind, but inexplicably it happens all of the time. This has nothing to do with your individual sexuality. Everyone looks ridiculous being overtly personal on LinkedIn.
    - DaftTomatoes 3y ago
      I hear what you're saying, and the issue is that the photo you're describing would not be considered controversial for most people, even on LinkedIn. Lots of people have wedding photos, or photos with them and their spouses, and people don't bat an eye. But, for someone who is gay, by mearly showing a picture of themselves with their husband they'd be "declaring their sexuality", and being "overt"; They don't have to say anything more. Their _existence_ is politicized, and that's the problem. And when we say "don't show rainbows", or don't show anything that can be linked to LGBTQIA, we're really saying, "You can't do these otherwise non-political things, because just being who you are is still politically charged". We're better than that HN.

btheunissen 3y ago

Some good points but 3) is terrible advice. If you list a technology and I use it frequently, and if I can tell you added it for the sake of padding your resume, that is going to weigh on my decision pretty heavily. I value honestly over bullshit.

gtirloni 3y ago

This is the shotgun approach, right? In our field, you will quickly be participating in 10+ hiring process and it'll be a nightmare.

mooreds 3y ago

> * embellish your resume and work history. If you’ve read a tutorial on a technology, you list it. I've learned through experience to never list something on your resume you don't want to get asked about in an interview. If you're comfortable saying "I put down C++ because I read a tutorial" that's fine. As a former hiring manager, my reaction would depend on how much I needed you to know C++. If it was a C++ job, it'd be an immediate no. If it was tangentially related, maybe it's okay. > * start applying for anything you might qualify for. Interviewing is a skill and a process you have to get used to. Sure, but get used to no replies or no interviews. That's not a bad thing to get used to, but playing the numbers game isn't usually successful. Here are some ways to stand out, esp if you are a new dev: https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2022/09/19/ways-to-stand-out/ https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2022/09/19/ways-to-stand-...

tayo42 3y ago
How is someone suppsed to be able to make any slight career changes then. Go all the way back to being a junior developer becasue they happened to have python or java jobs instead of cpp?
- mellosouls 3y ago
  It's not really a "slight" career change to switch languages (especially if you're transferring to a new company) though there seems to be an unfortunate trope that it's quite trivial. The effort involved also depends on framework, business knowledge, stack side and a whole lot of other factors, it's not always (or often?) the case you're just swapping in one language for another, and even this latter "simple" case is often a significant undertaking. That doesn't mean you've got to drop a rank, but it does mean you have to be prepared for the possibility or be able to explain what exactly you are bringing to the table that justifies the money over a competitor applicant who can hit the ground running. Or learn the new language in your own time and contribute to open source to establish competence you can demonstrate if you don't have the opportunity on the job.
- mooreds 3y ago
  Here's how I'd do it, in increasing order of difficulty (using C++ as an example): * make the career change internally. Shift to a different department or help with a project using C++. Gain skills without changing companies. You're a known quantity and should have some social capital to make such a move without taking a salary hit. * target companies/jobs using <tech you use> + C++. Leverage your <tech you use> skills. * contribute to something non-trivial built in C++; this is the open source path. Start with low hanging fruit (documentation is great!) but build up your C++ muscles. Then you can point to that during interviews. * do a startup and select C++ because it is the best fit for the job. I did this with rails and a startup. I had minimal experience in rails, but after evaluation, it was one of the best tools for the job (SaaS webapp). Afterwards, I was a lot better at rails. (This is hugely risky and can also lead to 'expert beginner' status, but is an option.)