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Yes, please ignore the cynical and negative folks. They are not doing you any good. Like what a few other folks in this thread pointed out, your resume and you

Yes, please ignore the cynical and negative folks. They are not doing you any good. Like what a few other folks in this thread pointed out, your resume and your portfolio looks outdated and fragmented on my first glance. Most recruiters and hiring managers spend 5 seconds max during the first pass, so first impressions matter. Here are the things you can do to bring your resume up-to-date: * "Key achievements" does not include numbers to describe impact. For example, "pre-screen and match thousands of patients a day" could be rewritten as "pre-screen n patients per day and match them to m healthcare provider with 99.99% uptime" sounds impactful. * Self-rating of your skills is not necessary. Nowadays your description of your impact is implicit on how you learn and work. In addition, "expert" for one person may not be the same for others. On your portfolio: * Listing your education is no longer necessary after the first job. Putting this in your portfolio site makes you look inexperienced. (Leave education in the resume, however.) * The screenshots for Nike and LG look outdated, which contradicts "cutting-edge internet experiences".

odie5533 1y ago
Putting his education on his portfolio is not why 900 companies didn't hire him.
- threatofrain 1y ago
  It's not because AI automated his job either.
motorest 1y ago
> Like what a few other folks in this thread pointed out, your resume and your portfolio looks outdated and fragmented on my first glance. Most recruiters and hiring managers spend 5 seconds max during the first pass, so first impressions matter. From the blog post, it seems the author already received that feedback multiple times, but somehow failed to act upon it. It is also baffling how, after receiving feedback to showcase his skills in places like substack and YouTube, the blogger somehow opted to post self-comisorating content and even lambast anyone who ever interviewed him for the audacity if picking someone else. The blogger's knee jerk reaction of attacking anyone expressing anything but support as being "cynical" and "negative" also conveys the idea of someone being unable to receive feedback and even handle feedback well without lashing back. Handling feedback is a fundamental skill to work in a team environment. Attacking those who give it with ad-hominems such as "fresh-faced bay area 25 year old with a Steve Jobs complex" screams out toxic personality. And those are the good aspects the blogger cherry-picked expecting to portray himself as the victim. God knows what's the actual impression their peers got from him.
- Juliate 1y ago
  > such as "fresh-faced bay area 25 year old with a Steve Jobs complex" screams out toxic personality. Well... that may as well be a very clinical observation; I've lost count of how many I've met in interviewing rounds, on either side of the table or in my own teams. It wouldn't surprise me a lot of tech people go through such a phase, at some (hopefully as shortest as possible) point of their early career. I probably have.
  - MichaelZuo 1y ago
    It reveals a mediocre mindset and likely self undermining too… since most of those types are in fact smarter than the ~80th-90th percentile. So it would have even worse implications for anyone complaining against them, who isn’t clearly way beyond that threshold.
    - Juliate 1y ago
      > It reveals a mediocre mindset and likely self undermining too It could. > since most of those types are in fact smarter than the ~80th-90th percentile. But you’re skipping the very issue of this mindset. Being smarter along a very specific scale of evaluation doesn’t make one de facto « smarter » in general, neither properly adjusted to work and collaborate in an organisation. Denouncing arrogance might not be the best move in some context, but it is not a show of weakness.
      - MichaelZuo 1y ago
        How would this matter to a random passing reader? They’re not going to assume the author is any more virtuous/wise/etc… than the complained against, without some compelling evidence.
        Juliate 1y ago
        Why should people refrain from stating what they see? It's his blog, why should he refrain to express himself? Why should you decide in his stead, what does matter or not to him to express? A minor signal is still a signal, that may, or may not, accrue to other converging ones.
CM30 1y ago
> Here are the things you can do to bring your resume up-to-date: * "Key achievements" does not include numbers to describe impact. For example, "pre-screen and match thousands of patients a day" could be rewritten as "pre-screen n patients per day and match them to m healthcare provider with 99.99% uptime" sounds impactful. * Self-rating of your skills is not necessary. Nowadays your description of your impact is implicit on how you learn and work. In addition, "expert" for one person may not be the same for others. I've seen this a lot online, but as someone who struggled to add this sort of data to my CV before, where exactly are people getting these stats? Every company I've worked for either didn't know how changes affected things like uptime or conversion rate or page views or didn't share the information with the engineering team. Do most people just make up these stats? Guess and hope it's somewhat correct? Work for companies that just happen to tell their engineering teams everything about the impact of their work? Actually go out and measure it themselves somehow, like throgh Google Analytics? Just feels like it may be difficult for the author to show this sort of data, since they may not have access to it at all.
- npinsker 1y ago
  In the cases of uptime and conversion rate, might you only implement the change after looking at the desired metrics and verifying that they've improved? re GP comment: it's more about the tone -- one should seem confident and well-acquainted with what they choose to show -- than the actual numbers. If you told me that you improved conversion rates by 2%, or 20%, I would barely know the difference, but I would see both of those very differently than just "improved conversion rates". If you don't have numbers, I would try to be specific in some other area instead (e.g. technologies used, names of big clients). Similarly, phrases like "had creative input across the full stack" might give me pause -- what does that mean? It implies a low amount of impact; why not say something more attractive, like "contributed and assisted others across the full stack"?
- exe34 1y ago
  > where exactly are people getting these stats? You can basically make them up - just make up something plausible for your field. It's not like everybody else isn't rounding up anyway.
- 1y ago
nl 1y ago
Do not put in the key metrics unless you can stand behind them. Most AI resume review services tell people to do this and it's the first thing I ask about. When the people can't explain how they are measured it's an instant no.
- shalmanese 1y ago
  1000 times this! When I see a number in a resume, I don't care if the number is big or small, I care why they picked this number over any other. If they can give me a coherent explanation, that moves them highly up in my rankings. If it's clear they're bullshitting (and you really can't bullshit as well as you think you can), it's an instant no despite anything else they might have.
- cloudedcordial 1y ago
  Agree! The metric, even if it's an intelligent guess, justify why you did such tasks. It helps to bring a coherent story about your professional work. The tasks are not for vanity.
- pclmulqdq 1y ago
  100% this. I interview a lot of people for "performance engineering" roles, and ~50-80% of performance engineering is measurement. If you have a number on your resume, how you measured that number is often a lot more interesting to me than how you achieved that result. A lot of people have bad answers.
  - collingreen 1y ago
    I also always ask how it was measured and if they published that anywhere. It's also informative to ask how it compares to other similar projects at similar companies and how (when applicable) it compares to state of the art in academia. Company size matters of course but it is nice to see how a decision got made and how the results compared to expectations. Was this done thoughtfully and rigorously? If it's just made up that comes through really really quickly as well. My advice for all getting hired is to try to skip the recruiting pipeline. Yes it's hard and there is no silver bullet but the standard pipeline is a brutal gauntlet to go through and I'd rather spend the time building rapport with a hiring manager or future peer instead.
Juliate 1y ago
> "Key achievements" does not include numbers to describe impact. And that's perfectly fine too. Don't make up numbers just to satisfy the quantitative-obsessed people/recruiters, who won't make satisfying customers/bosses anyway. Not only does it make no sense to make up numbers, but straight numbers are definitely suspect, depending on how they are put forward. Both quanti and quali are important, and in some jobs, even engineering ones (especially in the glue/soft/transverse positions) quali is much more relevant than quanti. If you have precise numbers, and it matches the discourse you want to put through, go ahead. If you don't, if your strength is not in this particular corner, there is no requirement to bend yourself into a box that does not fit.

odie5533 1y ago

Putting his education on his portfolio is not why 900 companies didn't hire him.

threatofrain 1y ago
It's not because AI automated his job either.

motorest 1y ago

> Like what a few other folks in this thread pointed out, your resume and your portfolio looks outdated and fragmented on my first glance. Most recruiters and hiring managers spend 5 seconds max during the first pass, so first impressions matter. From the blog post, it seems the author already received that feedback multiple times, but somehow failed to act upon it. It is also baffling how, after receiving feedback to showcase his skills in places like substack and YouTube, the blogger somehow opted to post self-comisorating content and even lambast anyone who ever interviewed him for the audacity if picking someone else. The blogger's knee jerk reaction of attacking anyone expressing anything but support as being "cynical" and "negative" also conveys the idea of someone being unable to receive feedback and even handle feedback well without lashing back. Handling feedback is a fundamental skill to work in a team environment. Attacking those who give it with ad-hominems such as "fresh-faced bay area 25 year old with a Steve Jobs complex" screams out toxic personality. And those are the good aspects the blogger cherry-picked expecting to portray himself as the victim. God knows what's the actual impression their peers got from him.

Juliate 1y ago
> such as "fresh-faced bay area 25 year old with a Steve Jobs complex" screams out toxic personality. Well... that may as well be a very clinical observation; I've lost count of how many I've met in interviewing rounds, on either side of the table or in my own teams. It wouldn't surprise me a lot of tech people go through such a phase, at some (hopefully as shortest as possible) point of their early career. I probably have.
- MichaelZuo 1y ago
  It reveals a mediocre mindset and likely self undermining too… since most of those types are in fact smarter than the ~80th-90th percentile. So it would have even worse implications for anyone complaining against them, who isn’t clearly way beyond that threshold.
  - Juliate 1y ago
    > It reveals a mediocre mindset and likely self undermining too It could. > since most of those types are in fact smarter than the ~80th-90th percentile. But you’re skipping the very issue of this mindset. Being smarter along a very specific scale of evaluation doesn’t make one de facto « smarter » in general, neither properly adjusted to work and collaborate in an organisation. Denouncing arrogance might not be the best move in some context, but it is not a show of weakness.
    - MichaelZuo 1y ago
      How would this matter to a random passing reader? They’re not going to assume the author is any more virtuous/wise/etc… than the complained against, without some compelling evidence.
      - Juliate 1y ago
        Why should people refrain from stating what they see? It's his blog, why should he refrain to express himself? Why should you decide in his stead, what does matter or not to him to express? A minor signal is still a signal, that may, or may not, accrue to other converging ones.

CM30 1y ago

> Here are the things you can do to bring your resume up-to-date: * "Key achievements" does not include numbers to describe impact. For example, "pre-screen and match thousands of patients a day" could be rewritten as "pre-screen n patients per day and match them to m healthcare provider with 99.99% uptime" sounds impactful. * Self-rating of your skills is not necessary. Nowadays your description of your impact is implicit on how you learn and work. In addition, "expert" for one person may not be the same for others. I've seen this a lot online, but as someone who struggled to add this sort of data to my CV before, where exactly are people getting these stats? Every company I've worked for either didn't know how changes affected things like uptime or conversion rate or page views or didn't share the information with the engineering team. Do most people just make up these stats? Guess and hope it's somewhat correct? Work for companies that just happen to tell their engineering teams everything about the impact of their work? Actually go out and measure it themselves somehow, like throgh Google Analytics? Just feels like it may be difficult for the author to show this sort of data, since they may not have access to it at all.

npinsker 1y ago
In the cases of uptime and conversion rate, might you only implement the change after looking at the desired metrics and verifying that they've improved? re GP comment: it's more about the tone -- one should seem confident and well-acquainted with what they choose to show -- than the actual numbers. If you told me that you improved conversion rates by 2%, or 20%, I would barely know the difference, but I would see both of those very differently than just "improved conversion rates". If you don't have numbers, I would try to be specific in some other area instead (e.g. technologies used, names of big clients). Similarly, phrases like "had creative input across the full stack" might give me pause -- what does that mean? It implies a low amount of impact; why not say something more attractive, like "contributed and assisted others across the full stack"?
exe34 1y ago
> where exactly are people getting these stats? You can basically make them up - just make up something plausible for your field. It's not like everybody else isn't rounding up anyway.
1y ago

nl 1y ago

Do not put in the key metrics unless you can stand behind them. Most AI resume review services tell people to do this and it's the first thing I ask about. When the people can't explain how they are measured it's an instant no.

shalmanese 1y ago
1000 times this! When I see a number in a resume, I don't care if the number is big or small, I care why they picked this number over any other. If they can give me a coherent explanation, that moves them highly up in my rankings. If it's clear they're bullshitting (and you really can't bullshit as well as you think you can), it's an instant no despite anything else they might have.
cloudedcordial 1y ago
Agree! The metric, even if it's an intelligent guess, justify why you did such tasks. It helps to bring a coherent story about your professional work. The tasks are not for vanity.
pclmulqdq 1y ago
100% this. I interview a lot of people for "performance engineering" roles, and ~50-80% of performance engineering is measurement. If you have a number on your resume, how you measured that number is often a lot more interesting to me than how you achieved that result. A lot of people have bad answers.
- collingreen 1y ago
  I also always ask how it was measured and if they published that anywhere. It's also informative to ask how it compares to other similar projects at similar companies and how (when applicable) it compares to state of the art in academia. Company size matters of course but it is nice to see how a decision got made and how the results compared to expectations. Was this done thoughtfully and rigorously? If it's just made up that comes through really really quickly as well. My advice for all getting hired is to try to skip the recruiting pipeline. Yes it's hard and there is no silver bullet but the standard pipeline is a brutal gauntlet to go through and I'd rather spend the time building rapport with a hiring manager or future peer instead.

Juliate 1y ago

> "Key achievements" does not include numbers to describe impact. And that's perfectly fine too. Don't make up numbers just to satisfy the quantitative-obsessed people/recruiters, who won't make satisfying customers/bosses anyway. Not only does it make no sense to make up numbers, but straight numbers are definitely suspect, depending on how they are put forward. Both quanti and quali are important, and in some jobs, even engineering ones (especially in the glue/soft/transverse positions) quali is much more relevant than quanti. If you have precise numbers, and it matches the discourse you want to put through, go ahead. If you don't, if your strength is not in this particular corner, there is no requirement to bend yourself into a box that does not fit.