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I am approaching 20 years at the same company. Nothing I write for work can be taken and posted publicly. If a future employer wants to see examples of my work,

I am approaching 20 years at the same company. Nothing I write for work can be taken and posted publicly. If a future employer wants to see examples of my work, I’d really have nothing to show them for that reason. The only thing I do on LinkedIn is occasionally update my job title, if I get a promotion. I have a GitHub account, but there is nothing of value there and almost no activity. I’ve dabbled in blogging, but nothing if ever point anyone to. If having a strong online brand is required for getting a new job, I just won’t get a new job I guess. Lucky for me, my old manager has told me I have a standing offer wherever he is working, if I ever want to leave where I’m currently at. I’ve had a couple other former co-workers reach out as well. I think those would be the ways I go after a new job at this point. I don’t think it’s realistic for companies to expect everyone have all that stuff online. I’ve only seen that from one person we’ve hired. He had a fancy website as his resume, a bunch of projects on there, and maybe a blog. It honestly didn’t factor into the hiring discussion much, if at all. He was also no better than any of the other hires who didn’t have any of that stuff. Even with my anemic online presence, I’ve had a couple FAANGs reach out looking to bring me in for interviews. One seemed like I scam, so I ignored it. It wasn’t, someone else on my team got the same message, replied, and works there now. The other I replied to and spoke with the recruiter, but I wasn’t willing to relocate, so we ended talks there.

JohnFen 2y ago
> If a future employer wants to see examples of my work, I’d really have nothing to show them for that reason. I am not able to share most of my professional work, so what I do instead is bring in a USB stick with a portfolio of my personal projects.
- al_borland 2y ago
  I don’t have many of those either. Rather than coming up with, and working on, personal projects, I just worked more hours at my job. Most of my ideas have been in the context of the job. I spent the better part of the 10 years before the pandemic working 12-16 hour days. There wasn’t really time for anything else. Even when I was learning stuff on my own for my own reasons, ideas from work would jump into my head, and I’d apply what I learned to that, then show up Monday with something to show the team. Even on vacation, I would rarely work on anything for myself, and would usually return with a big list of ideas I had while away… all work related. I have a couple small things I made, because I needed/wanted them, but nothing i think would be worth showing an employer. Making projects just show potential employers doesn’t interest me. If I end up unemployed at some point, I guess I can cross that bridge when I get there and have the time. I have little interest in using up all my free time building projects I don’t care about for a reason that may never materialize.
  - JohnFen 2y ago
    > I spent the better part of the 10 years before the pandemic working 12-16 hour days. Oh, wow. Then yes, our experiences are too different for mine to be helpful to you.

JohnFen 2y ago

> If a future employer wants to see examples of my work, I’d really have nothing to show them for that reason. I am not able to share most of my professional work, so what I do instead is bring in a USB stick with a portfolio of my personal projects.

al_borland 2y ago
I don’t have many of those either. Rather than coming up with, and working on, personal projects, I just worked more hours at my job. Most of my ideas have been in the context of the job. I spent the better part of the 10 years before the pandemic working 12-16 hour days. There wasn’t really time for anything else. Even when I was learning stuff on my own for my own reasons, ideas from work would jump into my head, and I’d apply what I learned to that, then show up Monday with something to show the team. Even on vacation, I would rarely work on anything for myself, and would usually return with a big list of ideas I had while away… all work related. I have a couple small things I made, because I needed/wanted them, but nothing i think would be worth showing an employer. Making projects just show potential employers doesn’t interest me. If I end up unemployed at some point, I guess I can cross that bridge when I get there and have the time. I have little interest in using up all my free time building projects I don’t care about for a reason that may never materialize.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  > I spent the better part of the 10 years before the pandemic working 12-16 hour days. Oh, wow. Then yes, our experiences are too different for mine to be helpful to you.