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Comment by alex_carlill | Hacker News Reader

this is clichéd, obsequious and poorly typeset.

I disagree sir. Pure ambition right there.

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.

That doesn't dispute his points even remotely.

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.

I don't really see how statements like "I learned from Pooh bear that it takes guts to be different but my differences only make me that much more unique." - and indeed the entire "active application" format - can be described as anything but clichéd & obsequious.

It's all open for interpretation, of course, but I think, by this point, these sorts of 'I want to work at X' websites ARE cliched, so I personally would agree there.

I don't particularly find it obsequious, though I probably wouldn't have to look too far to find another word that I could apply disparagingly to reference the points I mentioned before.

Regardless, as I stated, it IS a nice looking website, and if they have openings, they probably would do well to hire somebody so obviously passionate and motivated to work there.

>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.

Even if they're German?

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.

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