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Ask HN: I’ve been applying to a million jobs
211–220 of 259 posts
Re: Ask HN: I’ve been applying to a million jobs
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, providing information regarding age and nationality works against you. I wouldn't mention "based in Paris" either. The only point that may matter is if you have the legal ability to work in the US, and you can wait until they are interested to get into that. In fact, if you're an American citizen, use an American postal address -- it signals "you won't have to deal with immigration issues".
> providing information regarding age and nationality While I believe it is common overseas, in the US it is considered a no-no. We like to think we live in a meritocracy.
If you have any information about your physical body on a resume they'll throw it out because it's a huge legal liability opening them up to discrimination lawsuits.
Re: Ask HN: I’ve been applying to a million jobs
#213I would highly consider revising your js/time.js if you want to be consider for a javascript development position, there are some painful issues here.
please see
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...
Re: Ask HN: I’ve been applying to a million jobs
#214I write resumes and coach job seekers who have difficulty in finding work or navigating career issues (my HN profile has links). My background includes nearly 20 years in recruiting for east coast startups. You have a few things going 'against' you in most cases. I haven't seen a resume yet, but based on your site and post: 1 - You're relatively junior (at 23). 2 - You now live in France and want either remote work o…
What kinds of projects do you consider that look good on a resume? If you need more context, I just started learning web development and want to start building some interesting projects that could help me get a job.
Generally it's not so much what you build, but how it's built. If I look at your project, I'll be asking myself these kinds of questions:
1) Do you understand databases, or did you choose an easy project that lets you avoid knowledge of databases?
2) Do you understand how to write code on the serverside (either PHP, or Node, or Java, or Django, or something like that)?
3) Do you understand CSS/HTML/Javascript, or did you choose a project that makes it easy to avoid these things? Bonus points for React or similar framework.
4) If you are looking for work as a frontend developer, I would also include things like, "is the website attractive? Is it easy to use/user friendly?"
5) Do you know processes......git, Jenkins, AWS deployment, etc?
You don't have to be perfect in all those categories, of course, but the higher you score in each of them, the better.
Re: Ask HN: I’ve been applying to a million jobs
#215I write resumes and coach job seekers who have difficulty in finding work or navigating career issues (my HN profile has links). My background includes nearly 20 years in recruiting for east coast startups. You have a few things going 'against' you in most cases. I haven't seen a resume yet, but based on your site and post: 1 - You're relatively junior (at 23). 2 - You now live in France and want either remote work o…
Saying things like "I learn fast" and "I'm a good communicator" don't get a recruiter's attention. Right. You don't impress people by saying "I'm a good communicator." You impress them by... communicating well.
"Show don't tell" is a pretty basic (but incredibly important) writing concept that many people never learn.
Re: Ask HN: I’ve been applying to a million jobs
#216I write resumes and coach job seekers who have difficulty in finding work or navigating career issues (my HN profile has links). My background includes nearly 20 years in recruiting for east coast startups. You have a few things going 'against' you in most cases. I haven't seen a resume yet, but based on your site and post: 1 - You're relatively junior (at 23). 2 - You now live in France and want either remote work o…
Related to (3) and the messaging, OP's post here reads to me like he's positioning himself as a generalist. Companies simply do not hire generalists other than very narrow corner cases. He should figure out what speciality a company is looking for and showing the side of your experience that best fits what they're looking for.
> Companies simply do not hire generalists other than very narrow corner cases
Then he ought to be spending 90% of his effort finding those narrow corner cases instead of sending out 1,000,000 applications.
Re: Ask HN: I’ve been applying to a million jobs
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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?
Generalists don't get hired to traditional "jobs" within orgs. Being a generalist is great if you're starting projects or companies yourself, or have personal connections to people who start such things and are looking for 1-3 generalist types when they first start hiring. But companies hire specialists, plain and simple.
Bollocks. Full Stack Developer is just a formal title for generalist.
Re: Ask HN: I’ve been applying to a million jobs
#218I write resumes and coach job seekers who have difficulty in finding work or navigating career issues (my HN profile has links). My background includes nearly 20 years in recruiting for east coast startups. You have a few things going 'against' you in most cases. I haven't seen a resume yet, but based on your site and post: 1 - You're relatively junior (at 23). 2 - You now live in France and want either remote work o…
> I encourage my clients to apply to less companies, but to make those applications more targeted. Write a cover letter (or just the body of an email) that demonstrates that you've actually read the job spec and maybe even a page of their website.
That's exactly what I always did and I can tell you the conclusion of that experiment is that precisely 0% of recruiters/HR/bosses did read my cover letter.
Re: Ask HN: I’ve been applying to a million jobs
#219I would highly consider revising your js/time.js if you want to be consider for a javascript development position, there are some painful issues here. http://o23.io/js/time.js please see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...
I am aware of toLocaleTimeString() but I chose to do it manually because I wanted to display time in this particular format, regardless of the user's locale, and because of oddities like this one for Safari users: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5471508/javascript-on-mac...
Re: Ask HN: I’ve been applying to a million jobs
#220Have you considered learning a valuable skilled trade? There's plenty of opportunity in construction, welding, plumbing, electrical work, etc.
You could still make mobile apps as a hobby.