16 ms·

Ask HN: About to be homeless, any ideas for a junior dev?

• justplay 12y ago
  Sorry to hear that. I have heard that in big companies resumes are filtered via keywords. Since, your resume is non-keyword based, you are not getting the opportunity which you deserve.
• nhayden 12y ago
  If you can't find any work as a junior web dev at any salary then you're possibly doing something wrong with your resume or interview. It's impossible to give feedback on that without more info.
  • justizin 12y ago
    "you're possibly doing something wrong with your resume or interview" i love this cult of personality viewpoint in favor of conformity.
    • nhayden 12y ago
      I'm not saying I endorse the system, I'm simply stating it's the system we live in.
    • tdicola 12y ago
      I think you're reading too much into the point being made. A resume is to get an HR person or hiring manager interested in you enough to interview you in person. You definitely need to write them towards that audience and their standards.
    • TallGuyShort 12y ago
      If one is about to be homeless, one could probably use some help making the resume more effective.
    • mquander 12y ago
      It's not about conformity, it's about quality. His website at http://resume.patrickcurl.com/ http://resume.patrickcurl.com/ is buggy and doesn't have a consistent look, feel, or writing style. Seeing as building websites for people is the work he wants to be doing, that's a pretty objective kind of metric to look at.
  • eieio 12y ago
    From gremlinsinc's profile, it looks like his resume can be found at http://resume.patrickcurl.com http://resume.patrickcurl.com. From a quick glance the writing/grammar on the page does seem to be a bit off ("I've been designing web pages, back when geocities was popular(circa 1998)."), and as another user mentions having "KICKASS" in the first sentence of your resume is a bit questionable to me.
• remremz 12y ago
  Freelance and stay on Github as others suggested. Also its a good idea to get into some local user groups which can lead to job opportunities in the future.
  • lnanek2 12y ago
    Definitely. I know the NYC iOS meetup has people advertising gigs or looking for work every session, and even more get made just networking in the bars afterwards.
• jcfrei 12y ago
  You could remove the Certificate in Massage Therapy from your CV
  • rbanffy 12y ago
    Don't know why this was downvoted. You should make your resume as to-the-point as possible, even keeping a spreadsheet of different versions of pieces of information to more easily taylor it to the job in question. Unless your intention it to work with something, drop it from the CV. Recruiters don't like anything unexpected. Don't surprise them. Keep it objective. They don't care you think you are a kickass Rails developer and they will not react positively to what they can interpret as a big ego.
  • sosborn 12y ago
    It is even worse when you see that followed by a 3-year gap.
• ThrustVectoring 12y ago
  The number one way you can improve your chances of getting a job is to send out more applications. How many have you sent in the last three months?
• mrinterweb 12y ago
  I realize this advice may not address your immediate needs, but if you don't have paying projects, stay busy. Github is your new resume. Try to stay active on Github when you have downtime.
• seanponeil 12y ago
  I wouldn't say KICKASS in the first sentence of your "About me" blurb
• nsxwolf 12y ago
  Those stars on your skills section... I don't like to see ratings like that in general, but if you're going to put 5 out of 5 on something, be prepared to be called out on it. I'd expect you to have total expert knowledge of Bootstrap and Lavarel and Wordpress. There's nothing I'd give myself a 5 out of 5 on after my 20 years of work.
  • tdicola 12y ago
    Agreed. If I put myself down as an expert on something I would want to be prepared to give a complete run down of the internal workings, important design decisions that drove the implementation, etc. For example if I wanted to say I was an expert in C++ I would have to ask myself, do I really know as much about C++ as Bjarne Stroustrup, Scott Meyers, etc?
• afarrell 12y ago
  You should probably say where you live if you are looking for a job. Also, if they said they would give you a particular portion of some pile of money as compensation, you might consider suing them for wage theft. Also, why are you "evil"?
  • sdegutis 12y ago
    Being an "evil coder" is just an expression that means they do pretty crazy things in their code that others might find questionable, but presumably having the skill to pull it off without causing bugs.
    • sergiotapia 12y ago
      Doesn't invoke that meaning to me at all. Sounds really off.
    • afarrell 12y ago
      Huh. I've never heard that term before. Now that I know the definition...I'm skeptical I would want to read that person's code.
  • greenyoda 12y ago
    You can only sue for wage theft if you're an employee. He said he "got accepted into a startup accelerator", so that seems to suggest some kind of co-founder relationship. He might be able to sue for breach of contract, but if it was just a verbal agreement it would be hard to prove there was a contract. Since he doesn't have any money, he'd have to find a lawyer who thinks the case is good enough to take on contingency.
• mrbill 12y ago
  Reword your resume (especially this part: "I've Spent a good decade just doing mostly freelance work, and installing apps") - otherwise it sounds like you're really good at installing/configuring stuff other people have written. Also remove the $70K Salary Requirement.
  • TallGuyShort 12y ago
    On your LinkedIn profile you have written the salary requirement as "65,0000" (with four zeros). As others have recommended, I highly recommend having some people proof-read your resume / profiles, and following all the advice you've received here.
    • stevenspasbo 12y ago
      And the (downloadable) resume, it says 60000.
• bequanna 12y ago
  I know plenty of people hate on freelancing sites, and they certainly aren't ideal, but... If you are desperate for cash and have some skills, maybe try to pick up some ~$500-1000 jobs on: Freelancer.com, Guru.com, Elance.com, Odesk, etc.
  • lnanek2 12y ago
    Agreed. It is often a race to the bottom against programmers in a third world country with very little living costs, you are often lucky to get $40/hr until you have references and a good portfolio, but it can bring in enough to eat.
• Total_Meltdown 12y ago
  Please don't be put off by the harsh tone of this essay. It's important information and based on this post and the resume linked in your HN profile (http://resume.patrickcurl.com/ http://resume.patrickcurl.com/), I think you would benefit from reading it: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pro...
  • n0rm 12y ago
    Every time I read how most professionals out there simply make a living by bluffing and cheating, I die a little inside.
    • Total_Meltdown 12y ago
      I'm confused. What part of this is about bluffing or cheating?
• Jugurtha 12y ago
  Hey, gremlinsinc.. There's a book to read "Winning Through Intimidation" by Rbert J. Ringer. It is not a book about how to intimidate people, it's about not being intimidated by people. One of the chapters addresses the issue of "promises". We have an Algerian proverb that says "Ti9a fil wati9a". Meaning: Trust lies in the document. Which means: Make it clear, black on white, on a document.. Meaning: Get a lawyer. Meaning also: The only lawyer you have is the one you pay. (Don't assume the company lawyer is yours). I was a kid when my brother had a company and built buildings based on word. Once he had a deal with some old man, very respectable and well known figure. I asked him why they didn't sign a contract and he said that the man is honorable, and I asked "What if he changes". He smiled to the child I was. He eventually got screwed by this very honorable man. A lawyer also serves as a dissuasive measure taking out the sign on your forehead saying "I'm a pigeon". Also, try oil or oil services companies. The pay is good (you're basically taken care of completely) and you don't need cutting edge tech. They also like to hire Junior people (they're like one of the few who actually massively hire people without experience because turnover is huge).
• thenipper 12y ago
  Pull out stuff like this from your resume webpage: "Am I an expert? Nah - But I know where to get free access to developers, and devops, when I hit the inevitable brick wall(IRC CHAT) and I'm always focused on learning how things work." Don't give people reasons not to hire you. Take that off, make the page about why you're awesome, not why I shouldn't hire you. Also there are grammatical errors on the page, which don't look good. If you want I can proof read it for you. I'm (edit: not) the greatest at that, but I'll see if my wife can help. Also your resume... it looks cool but I found it super confusing to read. Recruiters often times are looking through massive piles of resumes, whatever you can do to make it easier to see why you're awesome you should do. Finally if you are about to be homeless look into any emergency shelters in the area. I used to work in affordable housing it can be a wait sometimes to get into a shelter. I wish I could help more. Let me do some research tonight.
  • knicholes 12y ago
    [edited to be less of an asshole] I could help you identify comma splices, sentence fragments, incomplete sentences, unnecessary use of ellipses, introductory clauses, and run-on sentences.
    • thenipper 12y ago
      Wow. That typo made me out to be the biggest dick. I meant I'm not the greatest at that.
• job_advice123 12y ago
  To the point - if you are in real trouble of losing the roof over your head, contact your friends/family immediately to organise either a short term loan to cover costs for a little while or to stay with them for a short while. Remove that concern from the table. Once you have that sorted, your interview approach will probably relax a bit, as I am guessing it might be coming across to potential recruiters/employers as "help - need job now!" - whilst in a perverse kind of way, most employers seem to give preference to those that don't even need the job but are tempted to change. Make sure you play it cool, calm, professional. Next, don't provide any obvious reasons for your resume/application to be quicksorted to /dev/null. Remove any photos, non-related qualifications, make sure all the dates line up, account for any gaps (i.e. training and consulting for example), double and treble check spelling and grammar, and unlike my post here - keep it short and to the point! :-) Ask a trusted friend/colleague to interview you. Ask them to be hard, but fair. Ask them to interview you with an eye on your personal communication skills, and on your technical abilities. Ask them for honest feedback. Do not get down hearted if you hear some constructive comments. Make sure it is constructive, not destructive though! Make points to work on your interview and technical skills, then redo the interview again a few days later to see how it improves. Finally, good luck. Remember - you are selling yourself on how you can solve the business problems and add value. The technical skills are just tools you leverage to achieve that. You are more than a bag of skills, and you need to get that message across.
• was_hellbanned 12y ago
  Resume: * Starting with "Greetings" makes me think of the nerd from The Simpsons. * "KICKASS" really? * Terrible attention to detail: Geocities not capitalized, no space between popular and the open parenthesis, "I've Spent" capitalization, random use of present tense in job descriptions, the first entry under My Services is blank, etc. * Irrelevant information. Massage therapy? Strip all that down and write in a dry, active voice. I want to know what you're good at immediately. I don't want to wade through a wall of conversational text. Why is there a photo at all? If you're going to have a photo, make it look good. If you're going to put on a collared shirt and tie, it should fit close to your neck rather than having a fist-width of space in there.
  • lnanek2 12y ago
    Harsh, but seems like all good advice, honestly. I think the OP would do better cutting the conversation and sticking to the details on that page as well. I had to scroll down to see what you were skilled at and you really want that above the fold.
  • computer 12y ago
    Also, the resume says that you were Marketing Director somewhere, and that you were CTO at a company with 2000 employees. Is that actually true? If not, why are you trying to imply it? That's the type of bullshit on a resume that's very easy to see through, and makes people lose trust immediately.
    • gremlinsinc 12y ago
      Yes, it is true, I handled the entire tech stack for a company with 2000+ insurance agents. I single-handedly did all the networking, pc troubleshooting, wordpress installs/design, sugarCRM integrations, ppc ads, seo, content writing, etc..
      • computer 12y ago
        I personally wouldn't call that position CTO. I prefer to use the C-positions for people who manage others, i.e. who set out the vision and direction, not the ones actually performing all of the lower-level work. But your opinion is, of course, yours. I would suggest being more specific on these jobs either way, so that people like me will not be scared off on their first read of the job titles.
• pnathan 12y ago
  Bluntly, I would say you need to corporateize it up. All the advice here is good. Also, it's cool that you wrote your own framework, but right now, the jobs that map to your skills are Wordpress and Rails jobs. Your framework is an example of your capabilities. You're a Rails/Wordpress developer, X years of Rails experience, Y years in the computer industry. You have Z academic experience relating to the field. Your code examples probably should be on github. Understand that making your representation quirky does you no good unless the hiring manager wants quirky. I've not met one who wants that yet. You need to be precise, clear, lucid, humble, and confident. Clearly express what you're good at, and don't focus on the weak areas. For your resume, take a look at Rands' "A Glimpse and a Hook". Most Rails developers are finding its a VERY hot field, so I would encourage you to introspect as to why that isn't the case with you. Maybe attend Toastmasters or something? Good luck.
  • mrbill 12y ago
    As far as I can tell, he didn't write his own framework. By "my framework" he means "the one I know".
• patio11 12y ago
  You say you have been attempting to get a job for the past 3 months. Over the past week, what activities, specifically, have you done to get a job? Have you been to interviews? How many? How did they go? Were there any questions you were unable to answer? Was there any particularly difficult part of the interview? Did you not attend interviews in the last week? In the alternative, have you lined up interviews? How many? Did you not line up any interviews in the last week? In the alternative, have you identified people with the authority to hire Ruby on Rails engineers? How many? By what process are you identifying them? After identifying them, what compelling offer are you making them? Since most people with hiring authority are in the toughest market ever for people attempting to hire developers with experience shipping applications, they should be willing to take coffee dates with you. You will not get most of your leads for coffee dates through your resume. In fact, if you could take your resume off the Internet, that would probably be in your favor. It does not currently suggest that you are going to be a successful candidate for a white collar position. You should not put your resume back on the Internet until it highlights your professional accomplishments. When put your resume back on the Internet, it will be absolutely devoid of errors in spelling, punctuation, word choice, professional tone, and grammar. You mention that you have previous experience with SEO, social media, and shipping applications. You should be comfortable with discussing specific successes which you have had with this. If you do not have specific successes which you can talk about, do not mention SEO/social media/etc, and instead focus on the fact that you have successfully shipped applications. In the current environment, years of experience with successfully shipping commercial applications makes you substantially more experienced than the bar for junior developers. If you actually have made people money with SEO and you can also code, you should know that your skill set is white hot right now. You should be contacting people whose businesses would benefit from that combination of skills, tell them how they would benefit in a similar fashion as other people you have worked with by having you implement brief sketch goes here, and then attempting to convince them to hire you. When you are speaking to people in the industry, do not mention the words "homeless", "inexperienced", "spaghetti", or anything else which suggests that you are desperate for a job. You are not desperate for a job. You are a white collar professional with a skillset which is in incredible demand at the moment. You should carry yourself like that.
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• deleted 12y ago
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  • justplay 12y ago
    > $70k is a lot for a junior developer Really? i guess that is an average salary.
    • TallGuyShort 12y ago
      It depends a lot on location. He's currently in Utah. $70k there is a relatively generous salary for a junior developer.
• hncomment 12y ago
  If you're on the brink of homelessness, there's something amiss that's deeper than will be fixed by a "startup accelerator" gig, "crowdfunding campaign", or desperation lowball contract to build an "app MVP". Your resume is scattered in tone and content, and inconsistently formatted: it's a bad audition for a detail-oriented solo-web-dev project. Your prior HN posts suggest a roller coaster of cash problems plus unrealistic hopes over just the last 30 days. This suggests to me you're a bit too panicked to be planning properly. You may need someone friendly or professional to talk to, locally, as much or more than a job. You should be seeking stability in your living and working situation above all else, so that you can regain perspective. That means avoiding solo freelancing, long-shot startup ideas, or quick money-raisers. Seek a simpler job, where you go into an office and are surrounded by a larger collaborating team, and your minimal basic needs are met. Do that for at least 6 months to a year to regain a non-panicked perspective.
  • gremlinsinc 12y ago
    That's my end goal--especially since I have tons of solo experience, and less of a structured office /team environment where you learn different workflows, and more agile ways of doing business. I know how to create milestones and a roadmap for an MVP, and do sprints, but teams that have been doing it longer and follow better practices could help me learn a lot--and I'm WAY more interested in LEARNING and becoming an awesome dev than I am in payment--I need to pay the bills, but I'd settle for 40k in order to get more experience under my belt --especially inside a team, some sort of apprenticeship/internship.
    • kevinskii 12y ago
      Lots of people have offered you specific and constructive advice, both in this thread and in a similar one from a couple of months ago [1]. You could have incorporated most of the suggestions in only a couple of hours. Yet as of this writing, your resume remains just as sloppy and unprofessional as before. Your personal website still broadcasts blatant dishonesty to anyone who cares to look. Unless you're fortunate enough to stumble upon a web development shop with no internet connection, it's unlikely that you're going to be hired in the role you're hoping for. Since panhandling doesn't quite seem to be working out either [2], you may want to start thinking about taking any honest work you can find. Your opportunities will surely improve once you have grown up a bit. Good luck. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7588059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7588059 [2] https://twitter.com/patrickcurl https://twitter.com/patrickcurl
• deleted 12y ago
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• divoxx 12y ago
  A lot of people already mentioned the problems with your resume, so I won't mention that again. Where are you located? I haven't worked w/ PHP for 8 years and I'm really not sure what the market looks like but learning other newer technologies such as Rails could potentially make a much big market available to you. I know in the Bay Area, Jr Rails engineers are in super high demand.
  • __xtrimsky 12y ago
    He's located near Salt Lake City, Utah. He's also a Ruby on rails developer looking at his resume: resume.patrickcurl.com I am a PHP developer currently, and I don't mind switch over between languages (Java/Python/Ruby), but I do think that the market is bigger for PHP developers vs Ruby. (not sure about the bay area although, it could be different there).
• Mz 12y ago
  I can't figure out where you are. Will post this link in case it is at all relevant: http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/ http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/
• deleted 12y ago
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• 6d0debc071 12y ago
  A resume is what jobs you've had and how well you've done them. Reading yours it looks like you've had a lot of short term jobs - and a long stretch of unemployment between 03 and 06. There's nothing on there about what you've achieved, what your responsibilities were in any of them. Nada. And the guesses that can be made about why you've had so many jobs, and how you've been working for multiple companies at the same time, are unlikely to be complimentary.
• klinskyc 12y ago
  As a lot of people have already commented on your website, I'm going to focus on the resume you have to download (which I assume is the one you submit to potential jobs). First, it's incredibly confusing. You have useless information and the relevant information is spread out into a dozen boxes. 1. You don't need to list that you're a male. (I'd also argue you don't need your d.o.b) 2. You don't need the professional area. If you're submitting the resume, the employer already knows what sector you're in. If someone stumbles across the resume, your experience and skills should make it clear what you can do. The box takes up space and it typecasts you. 3. If they see your resume, you're definitely looking for a job. You don't need a whole box to say it. 4. Don't put a salary requirement. Forgetting some people's taboo about explicitly discussing salary, it can only hurt you. Why would any one pay you 80k if you're telling them that they can pay you 60k. 5. The timeline is useless. First, it stops you from providing extra context (I have no idea what Sherman Curl LLC is.) Second, it highlights the 3.5 year gap between Massage Therapist and the rest of your work. It's better to elaborate on a few relevant jobs then to list every thing you've ever done. 6. You don't use the legend on the bottom of the timeline, it just tells me you used resumup. I'm beating a dead horse, but your website should have the visual resume, not the downloadable pdf. Your downloaded resume should just be your relevant information. 7. You say you have a diploma but you do not say what you got it in or where it's from. That whole box is useless. 8. Hobbies in general are extraneous, yours are especially since none of them are close to notable or unique (although they're a lot of fun.) I also have no idea what electronic hobbies are. 9. The language box has nothing in it. 10. Personality traits aren't binary and, as an employer, I'd probably want to make those judgements myself. Your skills and experience are more important. 11. The skills graphs are confusing. I don't want to spend time trying to understand things that could be put in a list format. Finally, you don't fill all of the form boxes in the skill chart. 12. Your url is your resume, which has the same information I'm looking at. I normally would reccomend linking to your homepage, but since you're doing multi-level-marketing on it, I'm not sure where you want the link to point, maybe github. I think this is harsher then I intended, but it's important for your first impression (your resume) to be a good one. TL:DR: Your downloadable resume, even more then your digital one, should strictly be relevant information about your name, email, skills and experience.
• izolate 12y ago
  I've got nothing more to add to the fantastic advice given here, but can I just say a huge congrats on your weight loss! Keep it up!
• jcmurrayii 12y ago
  Red flag for me. You have been doing this for a decade...and still consider yourself junior?
  • jcmurrayii 12y ago
    I realized I should have expounded a bit to actually make why this is a red flag a little more apparent. A 'normal' year of work nets you 2080 hours of work. Thats 52 40 hours weeks. Mastery of a given topic matter is considered to be around 10,000 hours of work. At that rate, if you have worked a 40 hour job doing something, for 5 years, you should have mastered most of the skills. When I see 'junior' developer, I am used to it being a developer with less than 3 years of experience. I hire people like this, but only for specific needs. My expectations are inline with their experience, and I look at their past work history to get an idea of what level I should expect them to perform at. Not all people doing technical hiring are that fair minded though. There are many that will see junior, and will move on, because they need someone with more team skills, or skills in architecture, large application development, etc, that they do not expect to see from 'junior' developers. If someone tells me they have been working on web development related tasks for ten years, but consider themselves junior, then I worry that they have not applied themselves, or stuck to the same job long enough to actually improve their skills, etc. THESE worries...are why I wouldn't hire them. I would have concerns around their ability to grow and learn within my organization, and whether or not the time and money I would pour into their training would pay off in the future with a well skilled and well rounded member on my team, rather than another trip to the well of talent for another junior developer to try to help 'level up' to a different role.
    • petervandijck 12y ago
      That's a huge red flag for me too. You've been doing spaghetti code for years and now you're trying to quit? Don't say that.
• rglover 12y ago
  Simplify and get to the point. Here's a template: http://cl.ly/Vvjx http://cl.ly/Vvjx.
  • justplay 12y ago
    thanks for sharing, love the simplicity.
• languagenerd 12y ago
  "Certificate in Massage Therapy Utah College of Massage Therapy" This is the very first line of your resume ??!!! Are you trolling ?
• __xtrimsky 12y ago
  "Am I an expert? Nah" Don't tell that on your resume.
• illumen 12y ago
  Most of the other advice here is shit. This advice will get you a job. Serious. It works. 1. Make a list of local places you might want to work. 2. Print out resumes. 3. Go to the office, and hand resume over to front desk. In person say - "I would like to apply for a job. Here is my resume." Top of your resume, put evidence you can do the job. "These projects prove that I can do the job: 1. Launched project using php. http://1.example.com/ 2. Made Y for client doing X. http://2.example.com/ 3. Shipped X. http://3.example.com/ I am a very hard worker. " -- You will get call backs, and interviews on the spot at some of the places. No one else is doing this. -- I'm not going to wish you luck. Since I know after reading this, you will get off your arse and make it happen. Now. Get going!
• seannaM 12y ago
  I would like to say this in the nicest, most hopeful-for-your-future-potential way possible: Everybody can see through your bullshit. I think most people aren't sure what you're being dishonest about, but they can tell that there's something up. Real software employers will generally not hire anyone that they can smell a lot of dishonesty on, because they have to put a lot of trust in you. Besides your impact on their company through your contributions, you're usually given access to a lot of sensitive information. I can empathize with you because I'm pretty sure you came from a poor background, and that's the only culture you're really aware of. I did too, and I would like it if it was a lot easier for poor people to make a living in tech. Unfortunately you can't make a successful career as a bullshitter. Some people can, but that isn't your strong point. You have to understand someone's culture better than they understand it to be a good bullshitter, and you don't understand buisness culture well enough to do it.
• mrbill 12y ago
  You say "I was willing to interview/learn more Rails" - yet your resume has the cringe-worthy statement "If you made it to this page, it probably means you need a KICKASS Ruby on Rails developer"? You need to edit/improve your "online presence" IMMEDIATELY - the longer these bad examples of your work stay online, the more chance is that someone will see them. Start going through the suggestions already provided here for edits and improvements and make changes as soon as possible. As someone else already said, people can see through your BS. Honesty about your experience and actual skill level will make a bigger impression than anything else.
• jdthomps214 12y ago
  reach out to me at jdthomp13@gmail.com