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Comment by scott_s | Hacker News Reader

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.)

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To me, it seems like he's looking more for personal fit than a specific job. On his personal site he says he wants to be a jack-of-all-trades. As one myself, I know he'll have a tough time finding a job using the traditional approach. It's rare to see a job posting for a generalist but, everywhere I've worked had one.

But a generalist in what area. My first thought was he was looking for a job in the advertising industry, based on the page itself. He gives no indication what he wants to do. Even saying "I design things" eliminates, say, accounting.

Violent agreement. Focusing on one thing dramatically increases your chance of success, and makes it easier for folks looking for that specific thing to identify you.

Mr. Horner's site seems even more reverse than a reverse application - does that make sense? He seems to be saying, "First, decide if you like ME. Then, decide if you have a job for me."

EDIT: I should have said "industry" instead of "thing" in my second sentence. He's stated he wants to be a generalist, not a specialist. He would fare better by targeting a specific industry.

That I certainly agree with - the industry point. He probably has an industry in mind, but he has not communicated that at all.

Generalists should go for smaller companies, like small web development shops. Those jobs are always, "Programming, plus some simple web design, which means a grasp of SEO, probably Photoshop, occasionally sysadmin work, knowledge of Apache, and you'll have to set up your own version control."

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