If you really care which programming languages I already know or which applications I have used before, I can only assume that you're overlooking my ability to quickly pick up new technologies and adjust to new ways of thinking. I would encourage you to correct this, as it is a mistake.
I know it's tongue in cheek, but my god does the current generation not have any humility at all? This is going to ruin your world view, so brace yourself:
You are not fucking special in any way shape or form. Even if you graduated with the best marks in MIT and have been programming since the womb, guess what? So have people every single graduating year for the past 20 fricken years.
The only constant in your never ending job search is - wait for it - YOU. Get over yourself. You are not entitled to anything. You are the lowest of the low, and have proved nothing to anyone that matters.
Start the journey at the beginning. And Yes, you are at the beginning. Your accomplishments so far are shared by every single person in the work force. Be humble and gracious until you actually distinguish yourself.
You know nothing of his situation and yet are willing to cast aspersions on his character. Before you go tarring a whole generation with the "entitled" label perhaps a little context from the generation that lacks humility might be in order.
Friends of mine are in the same position as this guy. They recently graduated with good degrees from a decent university with no allusions that finding a job was going to be anything but difficult. Rather than feel like they're owed a job the ones I know have spent hours _every_ day applying for jobs for the past (up to) 2 years with no success. Most of the time they get no reply from these companies (fair enough), but the few times they do get an interview someone else with more experience gets the job.
This is clearly a frustrating position to be in. They feel like they've done everything that was expected of them. They went to university and graduated with a good degree. Now they see their friends who left school and started working immediately progressing in their careers and can't help but feel like they should have done the same.
All the while this goes on people from other generations who have jobs harp on about how it's a disgrace that there are so many people on social welfare and these people could find a job if they wanted.
When my friends get asked what they do and they reply that they're unemployed they're treated like plague monkeys. They're villified by members of the media and politicians looking for votes. Still they perservere. Far from feel a sense of entitlement these people feel despair. You think they don't know that they're "not fucking special" as you so eloquently put it?
If after two years of applying for jobs without an end in sight he feels like venting a little bit of frustration at the attitudes of recruiters towards people like him that's not the worst thing in the world. If his situation is even half as bad as some of my friends' I wouldn't dare condescend to him by calling him entitled, far from it.
It's not often I get angry after reading a comment on HN.
I agree with you almost entirely. One tiny exception:
>I know it's tongue in cheek, but my god does the current generation not have any humility at all?
Come on...how many times do we have to go through this "young whippersnappers don't have any humility anymore" nonsense before we recognize that young humans, in general, have less humility than they should? Just because you (perhaps) had more humility than this kid doesn't mean your entire generation did.
Yeah, if I was an employer (and I have been from time to time) I'd probably read this, smile wryly, and move on. But someone else might not.
I don't have a problem with the guy asserting that he can pick up new technologies quickly, as long as he expects he will only be offered entry-level positions. You do not write Python the way Shakespeare wrote prose after six months.
I do however have problem with him not providing anything to back up his assertion. But he probably figures in a tight job market he needs to find a way to stand out, and this is it.
A person who "graduated with the best marks in MIT and has been programming since the womb" is special. The other people doing it "every single graduating year"... they're special too.
"Be humble and gracious until you actually distinguish yourself"
How about:
"Be humble and gracious.(Period)"
I think it is important to understand the tone in which he wrote this. He is not serious, but he is doing this to garner attention. Your response doesn't match his intended tone.
It is like someone being upset at a joke; you are taking it too serious.
Wow... I'm sure no one anyone's heard that kind of attitude before, great to have you get that off your chest...
The funniest thing is you also hear people toss around statistics about 9 out of 10 applications not being able to X...
Well, if a potential employer treats someone as the "the lowest of the low", they might find out the person acts like that, aren't "up to our standards" and they stay with an unfilled position and the frustration of interviewing (and abusing) fifty more people, who are also "the lowest of the low"...
This is a nice idea, with one big BUT. Not to rain on the parade here, but you've been unemployed for two years and all you have to show for it is a funny reverse job application. Sadly, it doesn't show what your actual skills are, nor whether you have ever produced something of value for anyone. These are more or less prerequisites to getting a good job.
Go look at http://jacquesmattheij.com/My+list+of+ideas+for+when+you+are... and pick one. Or come up with another idea. Then build a website that does it. Find some freelance work on the back of that. Something small that can show off your talents. Rinse, repeat. Either you'll start applying to jobs again and get accepted on the basis of your demonstratable skill, someone will give you a job (which you'll have earned,) or you'll be one of the cool consultant-entrpreneur-successes.
As you know, rejection sucks, but the worst thing is the social proof it is against you. I'm thinking to myself "there must be something wrong with this guy, so many people didn't hire him, there must be a reason." Do some things that prove you are a success and people will hire you. You've been unlucky, but sometimes you gotta make your own luck. This is an admirable attempt, but if you want me to believe you are the kind of creative achiever you say you are, you need to do more than say it. You can do it!
EDIT: Damm. As halaric points out, his personal web page does list these things. It still needs at least a direct link and preferably a mention on the application page though.
I dunno. I was out of work for a year once and then settled for a few years of staggering underemployment. I even came to believe that I would never again be hired as a developer, that no company would look at me, that my resume was too weak and I'd never get past human resources. It got really depressing.
Then I met a guy who knew a guy, and they got me back on track. Now I have a very nice job with a very nice company where I do amazing work (if I may say so). So anyhow, there are eight million stories in the naked city. This guy's story sounds like my story. I wish him luck.
I'd add another BUT... The real reverse application should show how you will bring value to the company. Why should they hire you, how will you make the company better, what do you bring to the table?
You have to understand that it has to pay to hire you, you are just not entitled to a job because you have a degree.
Some constructive criticism:
Thats a lot of ink to print that out, drop the black and grey banners. Try using a resume theme from Pages or Word for a start and just use black fonts on a white background. Use Myriad Pro or something more modern than Arial. Make it one page. Your first entry shouldn't be that you can use OSX and WinXP, my mom can do that.
Drop "Proficient in...", it sounds like you just know enough to get by. I would also drop your high school info to be more concise. Your HS GPA says "4.58 (weighted out of 4.0)" Either its bad math or its not out of 4. And I would switch up your order of things - employment, education, skills & projects combined.
I love it.
Sincerely, i can say this, that if i was in a position to, i'd definitely hire you.
But i have something of interest to impart to you.
Im from a background of arranged marriages (yes, im ok with it) and my parents are currently looking for a suitor for me.
I've been rejected by ALOT of girls, and have been through almost the exact same thought process as you.
I'd gotten to the point of grovelling, being content with anything that comes my way, but now i'm realising and very quickly that i actually have a lot to offer, and the girls should be begging to come to me.
So henceforth begins my reverse marriage proposal! ;-)
> So henceforth begins my reverse marriage proposal!
Careful, that might be confused with "arrogant douchebag". What you look for in a for-profit company aimed at maximizing profits is not necessarily what you'd want in a husband. For example, you probably wouldn't want to "work with a team" to solve intimate marital issues.
Which raises the larger point about this article, and hundreds of other charmingly idiosyncratic applications -- they certainly are refreshing, but may not always be received in the best way. Sometimes professionalism goes a long way. This isn't your college application essay.
Not trying to be mean, but looking at the resume, I went straight to the 'projects' section.
Everything else can be so much hot air - but projects speak for themselves.
The first project promises an online development blog - but the link to the blog is dead, and google doesn't find it.
The second project claims he architected and implemented a full game engine. Having a quick play of the game (http://www.andrewhorner.com/sds/ ) reveals it doesn't really work.
It looks pretty, but it doesn't really do anything, its not playable, its not finished, even though the resume implies it is.
That doesn't look good.
The reverse job application was a great pitch to get people to look at your resume, but then you have to make sure they've got something to see. Its great to be able to get attention, but you need to capitalise on it when you do.
And if you are going to be unemployed for 2 years, at least get a finished project to put on your resume, that'd go down a lot better.
matlab skills are highly desired for some jobs, If you know it well enough to put it on your resume, you should just lump it in with the other languages. same with latex(if you're possibly looking for anything academic/research lab)
While I appreciate the ingenuity of reverse job application, by looking at his resume I'm not surprised that he hasn't been hired. You're right, he needs to make it one page. I would put an objective, and I don't mean some BS objective, but a real heartfelt objective. Also, experience needs to go first. Each piece of 'experience' should detail what he did and MOST IMPORTANTLY its impact.
I agree about changing the layout to make it fit on one page. But I wouldn't remove high school. He's done IB, which is way more challenging than regular high school. It's a straight admissions ticket to many top universities, some even let you skip the freshman year entirely based on what you took with IB.
It's unfortunately not as widely recognized in the US than elsewhere in the world.
I hate to be That Guy, but HTML Tidy tells me his page has 26 errors, mostly related to proper nesting of elements. It's just too easy to make sure your HTML is valid to let his "Attention to Detail" commitment slide.
True, on the other hand, including a doctype still makes sense to avoid quirks mode. (There'd be less errors if he'd use html5 doctype though.) And as long as it renders properly in A-grade browsers you're good to go.
It's one thing to not want to list buzzwords. It's something else entirely to make no mention at all of what kind of a job you're looking for, or even what kind of a job you'd be good at. I assumed he wasn't a developer of any kind until I got to his list of "I won't."
(I followed his link at the bottom to his real page and confirmed there that he is a software developer.)
I sympathize. It's horrible being in this position when you first graduate, rest assured - somebody will give you a break, I assure you that. Some advice
1. Clean up your CV, make it look more for professional and less arty.
2. Stress the open source project and dev blog in interviews along with any books/resources and interesting language features/features you're currently using at the moment.
3. Don't wait for somebody to come to you. A good approach is to approach employers directly rather than using recruitment agents or middlemen. You will find somebody who will give a break. Recruitment agents are the scum of the earth, but sometimes very useful - I didn't find them so useful when starting out.
4. You weren't unemployed for two years - I can't stress this enough. You worked on open source projects during that time and learned a whole bunch. Right?
This is one of those things that will work once because of the novelty, but not again. Who really is willing to hire someone based off of nothing but speak? Maybe if he attached this to his work (cool things he has built?) maybe it would work, but all I know about this guy after reading his site is:
- He went to college
- He can't find a job
- He is a programmer
beyond that I know nothing, why would I hire him? Sure this might work this once because it's a ballsy "viral" idea (it's here, if that's proof enough) but it isn't sustainable which is what some people seem to see it as.
Submitter here: This is not my site! I am not the person doing the reverse job application. I stumbled upon the site and thought the mindset was something HN would like and possibly get inspiration from.
I do think that you will need links to some technologies you've built. If you don't have anything built yet, why not get started? Since you're out of work why not start with something simple (a "facemash" clone for pokemon?? wait, don't do that, I want that one now. oh who am I kidding? the market can bear a dozen facemash for pokemon clones)
I went to see the social network the other day and there was one line that knocked my socks off (wish I'd known it when I was fresh out of uni) "We encourage students to create their jobs rather than find them"
Instead of looking for work, why not get started on making your own work?
Will code for food.
:)
Good luck! Let us know when you've found something!
"We encourage students to create their jobs rather than find them" - i agree it was one of the better lines in the movie, but i am not sure i believe harvard actually possesses that mentality. stanford? probably. hardvard? probably not.
i've heard a number of times (and believe) that the most successful entrepreneurs are often the B-student rebels that manage to hire the A+ students for their startups.
I wouldn't hire the guy. He does not communicate well what he does and what kind of position he is looking for, he spends a couple of paragraphs telling the world how useless he is, and he did not show any initiative to start something himself while he was unemployed. Nice try, but it's not sufficient to convince me.
I like this one better than the OP, because the front page gets straight to the point: “Hi. I'm Susan. My superpower is getting things done. It's an exceedingly rare and critical superpower. I battle the agent of chaos. I overdeliver. I delight. I amaze. And I'm looking for a place in need of a superhero like me.” That’s a 30-second elevator speech in 10 seconds.
By comparison, I have to scroll halfway through the original posting to get to an “About Me” section to find out what the author thinks his qualifications are, and they include stuff like “perfectly capable of obtaining my own snacks and beverages” and “usually wearing clothes”. Har har har. Now tell me, as a potential employer, why I should pay you money.
The form validation error messages are interesting, too :-)
In case Andrew Horner reads this: yes, I'm one of the people (assuming there are more such curious folks) that filled in junk info to take a peek at those error messages. Sorry!
If you have been unemployed for 2 years, I would expect you to have an acronym list on your resume longer than anyone with an actual job.
Being unemployed can offer HUGE advantages in terms of being completely up to date on the latest and greatest, something most employed people simply don't have the time for.
You don't need a job to tech you the tools of the trade so make sure you walk in with those already in your back pocket.
There have been plenty of crafty people on HN who have built up a resume with experience by simply offering free services in order to prove they can do something. I would suggest you do the same at this point.
All of you saying "this is a waste of time", "you wouldn't take a second glance", etc. are contradicting yourselves. If you "wouldn't waste your time reading it" why did you? And why are you taking the time to comment? You're giving this site the exact thing it was meant to get...ATTENTION. It obviously was written with humor and meant to attract attention. I am sure he would give a potential employer his qualifications (and experience) once he got their attention and they asked. If you're taking this THAT seriously (cough, cough, run4yourlives) you're obviously the exact kind of person no one would want to work for! I understand that you're upset you don't quite meet the qualifications. ;)
While I agree that stating he's been rejected for 2 years isn't the best opener, many commenters are missing the point. He may not have impressed you specifically, but the fact that this is polarizing is an indicator that it'll probably succeed.
Having people love and hate you is a big plus whether or not you're marketing yourself, your product or your company. Much worse if people shrug and move on.
Other polarizing examples: Harleys, cruise vacations, the iPad, Crocs sandals and of course avocados.
Quite literally, he only needs to impress one person with this.
I'm 25 and didn't go to school, but I spend most of my time around those who did. I have many, many friends who are unemployed artists or are business types working less than full-time who would kill for a decent full-time position.
That said, I cannot understand how a young, motivated programmer has trouble finding a job. The company I work for in Denver has been looking for Ruby and front-end web developers of all levels, and from all over the country, for months.
First priority: make writing code a lifestyle choice. Need a better resume? Write some code -- anything -- and put it on Github. Bored? Write some code and put it on Github. Sick of sending out resumes? Write some code and... you get the idea. Strong candidates love the craft, not just the paycheck. Show pride in your code and prove you'll want to write code at work and at home.
Programmers who work at companies that you should actually want to work for are not hired because they have great resumes or went to great colleges. They are hired because they are capable of solving real problems while writing maintainable code. If you can do that, you're an easy hire.
This goes for anyone. Want a serious, no-bullshit interview for a job in beautiful Denver (we can help relocate) with fantastic benefits and doing work for amazing clients? Write some decent code (Ruby or Javascript), put it on Github, and comment with a link.
[+] [-] run4yourlives|15 years ago|reply
I know it's tongue in cheek, but my god does the current generation not have any humility at all? This is going to ruin your world view, so brace yourself:
You are not fucking special in any way shape or form. Even if you graduated with the best marks in MIT and have been programming since the womb, guess what? So have people every single graduating year for the past 20 fricken years.
The only constant in your never ending job search is - wait for it - YOU. Get over yourself. You are not entitled to anything. You are the lowest of the low, and have proved nothing to anyone that matters.
Start the journey at the beginning. And Yes, you are at the beginning. Your accomplishments so far are shared by every single person in the work force. Be humble and gracious until you actually distinguish yourself.
[+] [-] randomtask|15 years ago|reply
Friends of mine are in the same position as this guy. They recently graduated with good degrees from a decent university with no allusions that finding a job was going to be anything but difficult. Rather than feel like they're owed a job the ones I know have spent hours _every_ day applying for jobs for the past (up to) 2 years with no success. Most of the time they get no reply from these companies (fair enough), but the few times they do get an interview someone else with more experience gets the job.
This is clearly a frustrating position to be in. They feel like they've done everything that was expected of them. They went to university and graduated with a good degree. Now they see their friends who left school and started working immediately progressing in their careers and can't help but feel like they should have done the same.
All the while this goes on people from other generations who have jobs harp on about how it's a disgrace that there are so many people on social welfare and these people could find a job if they wanted.
When my friends get asked what they do and they reply that they're unemployed they're treated like plague monkeys. They're villified by members of the media and politicians looking for votes. Still they perservere. Far from feel a sense of entitlement these people feel despair. You think they don't know that they're "not fucking special" as you so eloquently put it?
If after two years of applying for jobs without an end in sight he feels like venting a little bit of frustration at the attitudes of recruiters towards people like him that's not the worst thing in the world. If his situation is even half as bad as some of my friends' I wouldn't dare condescend to him by calling him entitled, far from it.
It's not often I get angry after reading a comment on HN.
[+] [-] treeface|15 years ago|reply
>I know it's tongue in cheek, but my god does the current generation not have any humility at all?
Come on...how many times do we have to go through this "young whippersnappers don't have any humility anymore" nonsense before we recognize that young humans, in general, have less humility than they should? Just because you (perhaps) had more humility than this kid doesn't mean your entire generation did.
[+] [-] flipper|15 years ago|reply
I don't have a problem with the guy asserting that he can pick up new technologies quickly, as long as he expects he will only be offered entry-level positions. You do not write Python the way Shakespeare wrote prose after six months.
I do however have problem with him not providing anything to back up his assertion. But he probably figures in a tight job market he needs to find a way to stand out, and this is it.
[+] [-] KeithMajhor|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chegra|15 years ago|reply
How about: "Be humble and gracious.(Period)"
I think it is important to understand the tone in which he wrote this. He is not serious, but he is doing this to garner attention. Your response doesn't match his intended tone.
It is like someone being upset at a joke; you are taking it too serious.
[+] [-] ajaimk|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SkyMarshal|15 years ago|reply
And even moreso afterwards.
[+] [-] joe_the_user|15 years ago|reply
The funniest thing is you also hear people toss around statistics about 9 out of 10 applications not being able to X...
Well, if a potential employer treats someone as the "the lowest of the low", they might find out the person acts like that, aren't "up to our standards" and they stay with an unfilled position and the frustration of interviewing (and abusing) fifty more people, who are also "the lowest of the low"...
[+] [-] scott_s|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Robin_Message|15 years ago|reply
Go look at http://jacquesmattheij.com/My+list+of+ideas+for+when+you+are... and pick one. Or come up with another idea. Then build a website that does it. Find some freelance work on the back of that. Something small that can show off your talents. Rinse, repeat. Either you'll start applying to jobs again and get accepted on the basis of your demonstratable skill, someone will give you a job (which you'll have earned,) or you'll be one of the cool consultant-entrpreneur-successes.
As you know, rejection sucks, but the worst thing is the social proof it is against you. I'm thinking to myself "there must be something wrong with this guy, so many people didn't hire him, there must be a reason." Do some things that prove you are a success and people will hire you. You've been unlucky, but sometimes you gotta make your own luck. This is an admirable attempt, but if you want me to believe you are the kind of creative achiever you say you are, you need to do more than say it. You can do it!
EDIT: Damm. As halaric points out, his personal web page does list these things. It still needs at least a direct link and preferably a mention on the application page though.
[+] [-] jstraszheim|15 years ago|reply
Then I met a guy who knew a guy, and they got me back on track. Now I have a very nice job with a very nice company where I do amazing work (if I may say so). So anyhow, there are eight million stories in the naked city. This guy's story sounds like my story. I wish him luck.
[+] [-] middlegeek|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] halaric|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] steveaz98|15 years ago|reply
You have to understand that it has to pay to hire you, you are just not entitled to a job because you have a degree.
[+] [-] hop|15 years ago|reply
Some constructive criticism: Thats a lot of ink to print that out, drop the black and grey banners. Try using a resume theme from Pages or Word for a start and just use black fonts on a white background. Use Myriad Pro or something more modern than Arial. Make it one page. Your first entry shouldn't be that you can use OSX and WinXP, my mom can do that.
Drop "Proficient in...", it sounds like you just know enough to get by. I would also drop your high school info to be more concise. Your HS GPA says "4.58 (weighted out of 4.0)" Either its bad math or its not out of 4. And I would switch up your order of things - employment, education, skills & projects combined.
Good luck!
[+] [-] krmmalik|15 years ago|reply
But i have something of interest to impart to you.
Im from a background of arranged marriages (yes, im ok with it) and my parents are currently looking for a suitor for me.
I've been rejected by ALOT of girls, and have been through almost the exact same thought process as you.
I'd gotten to the point of grovelling, being content with anything that comes my way, but now i'm realising and very quickly that i actually have a lot to offer, and the girls should be begging to come to me.
So henceforth begins my reverse marriage proposal! ;-)
Maybe i should do a blog post!
[+] [-] chegra|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mayank|15 years ago|reply
Careful, that might be confused with "arrogant douchebag". What you look for in a for-profit company aimed at maximizing profits is not necessarily what you'd want in a husband. For example, you probably wouldn't want to "work with a team" to solve intimate marital issues.
Which raises the larger point about this article, and hundreds of other charmingly idiosyncratic applications -- they certainly are refreshing, but may not always be received in the best way. Sometimes professionalism goes a long way. This isn't your college application essay.
[+] [-] middlegeek|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] chegra|15 years ago|reply
* For your level of experience, Everything should fit on a page.
* Take out the operating system part. They can infer them by the languages you use.
* Take out high school
* Create a section for awards and list them there
* Take out familiar with MatLab and Latex
* For each project give a link to a screen-shot or working project and ensure those links work
* Take out techniques, they should be able to infer them from the projects you did.
*The main point is show what you have done
[+] [-] feral|15 years ago|reply
Everything else can be so much hot air - but projects speak for themselves.
The first project promises an online development blog - but the link to the blog is dead, and google doesn't find it.
The second project claims he architected and implemented a full game engine. Having a quick play of the game (http://www.andrewhorner.com/sds/ ) reveals it doesn't really work.
It looks pretty, but it doesn't really do anything, its not playable, its not finished, even though the resume implies it is.
That doesn't look good.
The reverse job application was a great pitch to get people to look at your resume, but then you have to make sure they've got something to see. Its great to be able to get attention, but you need to capitalise on it when you do.
And if you are going to be unemployed for 2 years, at least get a finished project to put on your resume, that'd go down a lot better.
[+] [-] hogu|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonpaul|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cemregr|15 years ago|reply
It's unfortunately not as widely recognized in the US than elsewhere in the world.
[+] [-] RyanMcGreal|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 3ds|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scott_s|15 years ago|reply
(I followed his link at the bottom to his real page and confirmed there that he is a software developer.)
[+] [-] jph98|15 years ago|reply
1. Clean up your CV, make it look more for professional and less arty.
2. Stress the open source project and dev blog in interviews along with any books/resources and interesting language features/features you're currently using at the moment.
3. Don't wait for somebody to come to you. A good approach is to approach employers directly rather than using recruitment agents or middlemen. You will find somebody who will give a break. Recruitment agents are the scum of the earth, but sometimes very useful - I didn't find them so useful when starting out.
4. You weren't unemployed for two years - I can't stress this enough. You worked on open source projects during that time and learned a whole bunch. Right?
Good luck with the job search : )
[+] [-] citricsquid|15 years ago|reply
- He went to college - He can't find a job - He is a programmer
beyond that I know nothing, why would I hire him? Sure this might work this once because it's a ballsy "viral" idea (it's here, if that's proof enough) but it isn't sustainable which is what some people seem to see it as.
[+] [-] andrew1|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] middlegeek|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thirdstation|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomedme|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AlexC04|15 years ago|reply
I do think that you will need links to some technologies you've built. If you don't have anything built yet, why not get started? Since you're out of work why not start with something simple (a "facemash" clone for pokemon?? wait, don't do that, I want that one now. oh who am I kidding? the market can bear a dozen facemash for pokemon clones)
I went to see the social network the other day and there was one line that knocked my socks off (wish I'd known it when I was fresh out of uni) "We encourage students to create their jobs rather than find them"
Instead of looking for work, why not get started on making your own work?
Will code for food.
:)
Good luck! Let us know when you've found something!
[+] [-] thewordpainter|15 years ago|reply
i've heard a number of times (and believe) that the most successful entrepreneurs are often the B-student rebels that manage to hire the A+ students for their startups.
[+] [-] MartinCron|15 years ago|reply
Clearly what's needed is a comprehensive registry of facemash-for-pokemon clones. I would suggest that he get on that project.
[+] [-] middlegeek|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] MtL|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sachitgupta|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sethg|15 years ago|reply
By comparison, I have to scroll halfway through the original posting to get to an “About Me” section to find out what the author thinks his qualifications are, and they include stuff like “perfectly capable of obtaining my own snacks and beverages” and “usually wearing clothes”. Har har har. Now tell me, as a potential employer, why I should pay you money.
[+] [-] shrikant|15 years ago|reply
In case Andrew Horner reads this: yes, I'm one of the people (assuming there are more such curious folks) that filled in junk info to take a peek at those error messages. Sorry!
[+] [-] blaines|15 years ago|reply
* Oh, you're unemployed too?
* Not sure how you expect me to respond without this.
* Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but that doesn't seem like an actual e-mail address.
* Let's not take any chances here.
* You're either a terrible typist or a poor listener. Make sure your email address matches in both fields.
* Hey, if you don't know what to call the job, I'm not sure I want to be doing it.
* SOUNDS INTERESTING. Wait, you didn't write anything here.
[+] [-] loup-vaillant|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] canterburry|15 years ago|reply
Being unemployed can offer HUGE advantages in terms of being completely up to date on the latest and greatest, something most employed people simply don't have the time for.
You don't need a job to tech you the tools of the trade so make sure you walk in with those already in your back pocket.
There have been plenty of crafty people on HN who have built up a resume with experience by simply offering free services in order to prove they can do something. I would suggest you do the same at this point.
[+] [-] yeahisaidit|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fara|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eru|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ekanes|15 years ago|reply
Having people love and hate you is a big plus whether or not you're marketing yourself, your product or your company. Much worse if people shrug and move on.
Other polarizing examples: Harleys, cruise vacations, the iPad, Crocs sandals and of course avocados.
Quite literally, he only needs to impress one person with this.
[+] [-] heimidal|15 years ago|reply
That said, I cannot understand how a young, motivated programmer has trouble finding a job. The company I work for in Denver has been looking for Ruby and front-end web developers of all levels, and from all over the country, for months.
First priority: make writing code a lifestyle choice. Need a better resume? Write some code -- anything -- and put it on Github. Bored? Write some code and put it on Github. Sick of sending out resumes? Write some code and... you get the idea. Strong candidates love the craft, not just the paycheck. Show pride in your code and prove you'll want to write code at work and at home.
Programmers who work at companies that you should actually want to work for are not hired because they have great resumes or went to great colleges. They are hired because they are capable of solving real problems while writing maintainable code. If you can do that, you're an easy hire.
This goes for anyone. Want a serious, no-bullshit interview for a job in beautiful Denver (we can help relocate) with fantastic benefits and doing work for amazing clients? Write some decent code (Ruby or Javascript), put it on Github, and comment with a link.