I disagree with your disagreement ;). We see one of these every week; Some kid lacks the qualifications for a job, so they make an uncreative boilerplate web page bullshitting about how much they love the company they're applying to work at.
They usually work, but that doesn't make it any more ambitious or creative than the last 20,000 of them.
It's a two-hour webpage that says "I wanna work at Instragram", but doesn't answer the important questions. Why do you want to work at Instagram? How are you uniquely qualified to work at Instagram?
I feel sorry for companies that fall for this sort of thing.
How are they falling for something if they reach out to her? You can call it a "two hour website" but that only means that she sent about 1 hour and 57 minutes more "applying" for this job than the average schmoe who visits Monster.com, checks a few boxes and clicks "Submit Resume."
That, IMO, shows a fairly meaningful level of initiative and ambition. It shouldn't guarantee somebody a job, but if somebody applied to my company that way, I'd definitely give them a meaningful look and consider reaching out to them. But I want people who are passionate about their work.
Hell, I'll go so far as to say that passion and attitude trump raw talent.
As for 'poorly typeset', I have no choice to agree, if only because her portfolio page implies that her name is "Netta & Design".
Her customer work looks good though, so if, as I assume, she's seeking a design-oriented role, she'd likely do well in a team (where somebody else can say 'Hey, what's up with this bolding?') The fonts in her personality chart are barely there.
Completely offtopic, I'm always wary of people who tell me how funny they are. If you're funny, I'll almost certainly figure that out organically.
I was addressing this part of said comment: "clichéd, obsequious". I do agree with your last point. Most people who tell me how funny they are turn out to be the exact opposite.
ambition isn't posting a mediocre and derivative personal website, replete w/ trite copy, on Hacker News in a (hopefully quixotic) attempt to get a job at a small startup.
mtogo|15 years ago
They usually work, but that doesn't make it any more ambitious or creative than the last 20,000 of them.
blehn|15 years ago
I feel sorry for companies that fall for this sort of thing.
mindcrime|15 years ago
That, IMO, shows a fairly meaningful level of initiative and ambition. It shouldn't guarantee somebody a job, but if somebody applied to my company that way, I'd definitely give them a meaningful look and consider reaching out to them. But I want people who are passionate about their work.
Hell, I'll go so far as to say that passion and attitude trump raw talent.
bmelton|15 years ago
As for 'poorly typeset', I have no choice to agree, if only because her portfolio page implies that her name is "Netta & Design".
Her customer work looks good though, so if, as I assume, she's seeking a design-oriented role, she'd likely do well in a team (where somebody else can say 'Hey, what's up with this bolding?') The fonts in her personality chart are barely there.
Completely offtopic, I'm always wary of people who tell me how funny they are. If you're funny, I'll almost certainly figure that out organically.
tsuipen|15 years ago
Even if they're German?
jewgonewild|15 years ago
alex_carlill|15 years ago