Ask HN: I’ve been applying to a million jobs

great feedback. I think this is the most important comment made so far. Morale is key to success in any challenging endeavour and the best thing this young man can do is take a break.

He says he needs help, he doesn't need everyone telling him how disapointing his entire resume is.

He needs people to let him know what they like and dislike about his profile. But that does also include mentioning what is attractive about his resume. Otherwise we might as well tell him "yo bro, tech isn't for you honestly" if there's nothing likable about what he's done.

He needs to find where his profile adds value and concentrate on that. Conversely, he needs people to let him know about what they think is his profile's weaker points so he can adapt. But asking for help and having everyone tell him the same thing that his interviewers have told him isn't what he's asking for. Is it ?

Some answers have been very helpful it seems (as simple as "well maybe you're applying for senior positions instead of junior ones" or "maybe it's your personality rather than your achievements"). But saying "yeah man; I'm sorry but none of your projects impress me, they're all at best avg" does seem kinda harsh to me. To the point where it might be detrimental to OP's motivation.

Back to the main question:

I think your resume is great, you clearly have valuable skills. Assuming you're applying to entry level positions (you're only 23), I would guess that it's everything besides your resume that isn't working out. Maybe it's your cover letter, it might not be transmitting what people want to read. You should be able to get interviews with your resume, I'm surprised you're not. Have you tried to contact people directly ? I mean as opposed to responding to job ads ?

Also, little tip, rather than saying you're the best at what you do and that's why someone should employ you, I would also add to my cover letter why you want to work for who ever you're applying it. Is it because you're in love with drones, with sports, with lingerie, with whatever you're gonna be working on if you get the job. Because employers are looking for devs that love the product they're coding. I'd rather code with someone avg but passionate about what he does than someone super good but that doesn't give a shit.

Anyway, don't give up bro, you're young and you're clearly not dumb, so it'll work out. Good luck !

> In combination with the breadth you listed this doesn't make you seem like a genius, it makes you seem like a generalist who lacks focus and probably has a touch of ADHD.

Slightly off topic, but is being a generalist considered a bad thing?

> Bullet points on resumes that talk about non-specific day-to-day responsibilities are mostly filler.

This. A co-worker interviewed a guy last week who had 3 pages full of bullet points and when he asked him about his experience with any of them, he gave us some generic response like, "We used Java on project X that did Y". List 6-7 core skills; or better yet, list projects you worked on, the stack you built it on, and a very brief summary of how you kicked ass on it.

He has example projects on his site, which is great; most people don't even have that.

When I go into an interview as a developer, I always go in with a running example of a project that I built, with source code. Towards the end of the interview I'll bring it up: "I brought along a project I built; I'd love to go through it quick with you." At which point I go through the UI to show what it does and then open up the code to review the architecture and anything clever I did within the code itself.

Note that this all happens in about 5 minutes; no one wants to sit through a 30 minute demo.

Just to add: make a priority list.

I don't mean to engage in discussion with myself, at least not in public.

If New York is what you want, make that happen. But make clear this is your priority, and that what you get, you won't take personally: we all need to make decisions that involve our future, and they aren't always the pretty ones.

If you want your technical knowledge to be the priority, make that happen. If you do it right, you can possibly move to New York, if you still want that.

I don't think age is the issue - and honestly, everyone asks for experience, which you can convince people you have: you need to point out the relevant aspects of what you have done.

If you feel, as you say, that you could be incredibly useful, then surely you must have some opinion about where you want to apply this: for yourself, for others, for love, for money, for recognition, for the lulz?