Sorry to hear that. I have heard that in big companies resumes are filtered via keywords. Since, your resume is non-keyword based, you are not getting the opportunity which you deserve.
Ask HN: About to be homeless, any ideas for a junior dev?
21–30 of 82 posts
Re: Ask HN: About to be homeless, any ideas for a junior dev?
#22Freelance and stay on Github as others suggested. Also its a good idea to get into some local user groups which can lead to job opportunities in the future.
Re: Ask HN: About to be homeless, any ideas for a junior dev?
#23If you can't find any work as a junior web dev at any salary then you're possibly doing something wrong with your resume or interview. It's impossible to give feedback on that without more info.
"you're possibly doing something wrong with your resume or interview" i love this cult of personality viewpoint in favor of conformity.
If one is about to be homeless, one could probably use some help making the resume more effective.
Re: Ask HN: About to be homeless, any ideas for a junior dev?
#24If you can't find any work as a junior web dev at any salary then you're possibly doing something wrong with your resume or interview. It's impossible to give feedback on that without more info.
"you're possibly doing something wrong with your resume or interview" i love this cult of personality viewpoint in favor of conformity.
It's not about conformity, it's about quality. His website at http://resume.patrickcurl.com/ is buggy and doesn't have a consistent look, feel, or writing style. Seeing as building websites for people is the work he wants to be doing, that's a pretty objective kind of metric to look at.
Re: Ask HN: About to be homeless, any ideas for a junior dev?
#25To the point - if you are in real trouble of losing the roof over your head, contact your friends/family immediately to organise either a short term loan to cover costs for a little while or to stay with them for a short while. Remove that concern from the table.
Once you have that sorted, your interview approach will probably relax a bit, as I am guessing it might be coming across to potential recruiters/employers as "help - need job now!" - whilst in a perverse kind of way, most employers seem to give preference to those that don't even need the job but are tempted to change. Make sure you play it cool, calm, professional.
Next, don't provide any obvious reasons for your resume/application to be quicksorted to /dev/null. Remove any photos, non-related qualifications, make sure all the dates line up, account for any gaps (i.e. training and consulting for example), double and treble check spelling and grammar, and unlike my post here - keep it short and to the point! :-)
Ask a trusted friend/colleague to interview you. Ask them to be hard, but fair. Ask them to interview you with an eye on your personal communication skills, and on your technical abilities. Ask them for honest feedback. Do not get down hearted if you hear some constructive comments. Make sure it is constructive, not destructive though! Make points to work on your interview and technical skills, then redo the interview again a few days later to see how it improves.
Finally, good luck. Remember - you are selling yourself on how you can solve the business problems and add value. The technical skills are just tools you leverage to achieve that. You are more than a bag of skills, and you need to get that message across.
Re: Ask HN: About to be homeless, any ideas for a junior dev?
#26Resume:
* Starting with "Greetings" makes me think of the nerd from The Simpsons.
* "KICKASS" really?
* Terrible attention to detail: Geocities not capitalized, no space between popular and the open parenthesis, "I've Spent" capitalization, random use of present tense in job descriptions, the first entry under My Services is blank, etc.
* Irrelevant information. Massage therapy?
Strip all that down and write in a dry, active voice. I want to know what you're good at immediately. I don't want to wade through a wall of conversational text.
Why is there a photo at all? If you're going to have a photo, make it look good. If you're going to put on a collared shirt and tie, it should fit close to your neck rather than having a fist-width of space in there.
Re: Ask HN: About to be homeless, any ideas for a junior dev?
#27Resume: * Starting with "Greetings" makes me think of the nerd from The Simpsons. * "KICKASS" really? * Terrible attention to detail: Geocities not capitalized, no space between popular and the open parenthesis, "I've Spent" capitalization, random use of present tense in job descriptions, the first entry under My Services is blank, etc. * Irrelevant information. Massage therapy? Strip all that down and write in a dry…
Harsh, but seems like all good advice, honestly. I think the OP would do better cutting the conversation and sticking to the details on that page as well. I had to scroll down to see what you were skilled at and you really want that above the fold.
Re: Ask HN: About to be homeless, any ideas for a junior dev?
#28I know plenty of people hate on freelancing sites, and they certainly aren't ideal, but... If you are desperate for cash and have some skills, maybe try to pick up some ~$500-1000 jobs on: Freelancer.com, Guru.com, Elance.com, Odesk, etc.
Agreed. It is often a race to the bottom against programmers in a third world country with very little living costs, you are often lucky to get $40/hr until you have references and a good portfolio, but it can bring in enough to eat.
Re: Ask HN: About to be homeless, any ideas for a junior dev?
#29Pull out stuff like this from your resume webpage: "Am I an expert? Nah - But I know where to get free access to developers, and devops, when I hit the inevitable brick wall(IRC CHAT) and I'm always focused on learning how things work." Don't give people reasons not to hire you. Take that off, make the page about why you're awesome, not why I shouldn't hire you. Also there are grammatical errors on the page, which do…
[edited to be less of an asshole]
I could help you identify comma splices, sentence fragments, incomplete sentences, unnecessary use of ellipses, introductory clauses, and run-on sentences.
Re: Ask HN: About to be homeless, any ideas for a junior dev?
#30Freelance and stay on Github as others suggested. Also its a good idea to get into some local user groups which can lead to job opportunities in the future.
Definitely. I know the NYC iOS meetup has people advertising gigs or looking for work every session, and even more get made just networking in the bars afterwards.