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Comment by throwmeaway32 | Hacker News Reader

1000 applications and 20 interviews in around ~3 years?

I don't have stats to back up my opinion but that to me is crazy crazy low (unless you were applying for completely unsuitable jobs).

- Do you alter your resume per applications?

- Is there a common theme amongst positions you're applying for? (i.e. 'junior' or 'senior' etc) or are you applying for just every dev role you see?

- Do you do any networking (i.e. meetups?)

- Would you be willing to share your resume? (perhaps remove identifiable things if you are concerned).

- Can you share some links to recent job postings you've applied for?

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I don't alter my resume on a per-application basis, but I have a web development focused resume for web dev jobs, and a more general software engineering one for non web jobs. I make changes to both of them every month or two.

I apply to very few junior or senior jobs. Mostly mid level jobs or other SWE jobs that have no title modifiers. Most of the feedback leads me to the conclusion that I have too many years to be considered for a junior role, but lacking the experience for a senior one.

That lead me to ask about jobs that are more lenient with ramp up time. I'm the career version of the student that repeats the same grade. I've had poor opportunities to follow industry trends.

I am going to meetups more often this year. Trying to do at least two a month. This is the only way I talked to developers BTW. I don't have any Facebook friends who are SWE's or even know a SWE.

Can't share a resume, at least not now, as I'm typing from my phone. And I cannot use the laptop for internet at the moment. My resume docs are in my laptop.

No links now, but recent companies I've applied to: Akuna Capital, Braintree, Vokal, Cloudflare, DialogTech, BMW, ParkWhiz, Enova, Power Reviews, Vivid Seats, Uptake, Amazon, Morningstar, Rocketmiles, Nerdery, Sprout Social. I am willing to move if relocation is paid for. Most rejected me at submitting my resume. I bombed first tech interview with Amazon. But I'm in the interviewing stages with Cloudflare and Akuna Capital.

Please share your resume, your cover letter / emails to one of these jobs, and an overview of how a typical interview goes. You're could be screwing up one of these on a regular basis. Alternatively, a lot of employers may be dismissing you out of hand due to the long gap, which may need some explanation.

Here's my resume (with most names redacted): https://www.dropbox.com/s/6290viuyjbr09jc/web_resume_swe.pdf...

I have also a short freelance job that at least shortens the gap of time.

Your resume is still identifiable via your Github link.

The gaps in your employment history are probably a bit concerning. Have you considered just using years instead of months and years? Since they're gaps below one year, it would make it less obvious that there are employment gaps at all.

I would also expand upon your freelance work if there's anything else you can fill in there. Were you on a marketplace with a feedback page? Link to it if the feedback is good.

Otherwise not bad. How are you applying to jobs? Are you writing a custom cover letter for each application?

Besides Upwork, what places do you suggest for freelance work? And the freelance work wasn't on an online marketplace. It was from an ex-boss that gave me side projects that his employees didn't want/have the time to work on.

I don't write cover letters unless it's required. Almost all my jobs I apply as a total stranger.. I hardly know any software engineers, and none of my friends on Facebook know of anybody looking to hire one.

I only had one friend refer me to a job in 2015. She knew the CEO of a small company. After two onsite interviews I didn't get an offer. It an was odd reason. They changed their mind on giving me a technical assessment because they already concluded that I wasn't fit to do the assessment.

Finally, I can show my resume (with most names redacted)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6290viuyjbr09jc/web_resume_swe.pdf...

So I'm going to be honest. Your resume is not very compelling. The impression I get is that you've got perhaps an internship or two worth of actual experience on there. The short stints are not helping your case and are in stark contrast to how you started this post: "I'm an experienced web developer". Just based on reading your resume, I just don't see that statement being qualified.

Even the details of the short stints are not compelling. Things like "Documented over a hundred logical and syntax errors for the storefront's legacy PHP framework" or "Assisted in improving UX workflow for a new storefront design, collaborating with a QA tester" just feels like empty experience.

So I think you need to lower your targets a bit and get real, consistent experience. You need to prioritize career growth over all else in your new job search. That means you need a position where you can make significant contributions over a long period of time (~2 years or so). That will allow you to have some meaty experience to go off of for future job search and hopefully get you out of the career rut that you're in now.

Others here have offered some good advice. Reach out to them and take them up on their offers to chat. It's going to be a grind but you also need to be honest with yourself about where you are and realize it's going to take some work to get to where you want to be. Just cold applying with that resume isn't going to cut it.

Also FYI, a link to your github is in your resume which links to your full name. I believe you were trying to obfuscate that so you should rip that out.

As far as experience goes, I call myself experienced only in the sense that I held a few paid jobs in this career. It would be splitting hairs to redefine "experienced" in some other way.

The oldest job in my resume was indeed a hard one to put much detail in it, given my short time there. I wasn't even allowed to write code in that job at the time I was working there. It literally was just look over these source code files, document possible errors in Excel- all without having to run the code- and send it over to the team lead. (code analyst would be a better title, then?)

The second job was mostly CMS/WordPress type setup of websites, and occasional custom backend work like the essay reviewing system and the CRM application for the cleaning company. These applications were for my company's clients, and did not directly contribute money for the company. It's a web dev agency, and in these places, it's the salespeople that make the company money, not the programmers.

Most of my career has been job hopping from small company to small company with little mentorship or guidance for good development practices. Lowering my targets would invariably lower the quality of companies I'd be able to go at, or can it not be that way? I need to improve myself by positioning myself as a junior hire, and surrounding myself by employees much better than me.

So work at a place where I can experience better career growth, while juggling the task of lowering my target. I think that is where you're referring to, when you said go some place where I can make significant contributions.

So looks like a reset in my career is in order then. Would it be fine removing my oldest job from the resume?

As far as my name on Github goes, I'm okay with it showing up, just didn't want to post a very direct connection to personal info.

I agree with another poster regarding the 'not very compelling' and that I would classify you in the junior range of experience.

Honest feedback coming up..

Initial advice:-

- Remove 'professional' from the experience subtitle, it immediately frames your resume to me that there will be non-professional experience later on and therefore you might not have much professional experience.

- Remove the professional and personal experiences programming languages/tools parts, merge them into one. Rank them in order of your overall experience, splitting them makes it look amateurish.

- If you've been unemployed for 2 years, then I would expect your github profile to be way more active if you're really looking and planning to get a job.

- A lot of your experience descriptions don't really mention much tech and come across as vague; reading your resume fills me with doubtful questions about you rather than answers that make me picture you clearly in your head and what your capabilities are.

i.e. 'Migration of [startup's] corporate websites and blogs to a new host' - what tech were they running on?, what tech did you move them to?

'Addressed the needs of dozens of business and non-profit clients to improve their online presence via CMS websites' - what does this even mean? You made some wordpress sites? You wrote your own framework?

- Have you been practising for interviews? (phone and onsite), P.S. This advice is given based on the variable state of interviews that are given.....buy a whiteboard and pen and practise coding and explaining your thoughts whilst writing, revise for the interview ('Cracking the coding interview' etc).

Regarding interviews I hardly get any algorithm questions that are found in CTCI.

Most of the technical interviews ask me practical knowledge on languages or tools, like how would I write a query for some problem, build a simple splash page with X set of features, etc.

It may be more of a west coast thing to ask CTCI questions. Interview styles might be like hip hop or food styles...it probably varies by reason. Local companies don't ask them much. The only companies that asked me those are Amazon and TripleByte.

I don't know of any resources for mock interviews.. my friends and family aren't familiar enough with my work to do a proper one. There doesn't seem to be much of a market for professionals to do mock interviews, which I find interesting.

Also, looking into the future, when I get my next job, what can I do on the job that will keep my interview skills fresh?

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