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The reverse job applicant

reversejobapplication.com

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Re: The reverse job applicant

#281

Post by zszabo »

mirkules wrote: post #241
randomtask wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know nothing of his situation and yet are willing to cast aspersions on his character. Before you go tarring a whole generation with the "entitled" label perhaps a little context from the generation that lacks humility might be in order. Friends of mine are in the same position as this guy. They recently graduated with good degrees from a decent university with no allusions that finding a job was going to be anyt…

In addition to all the comments to your post, I wanted to highlight this sentence: "Most of the time they get no reply from these companies (fair enough)" I don't agree that it's "fair enough". Rejection letters used to be actual letters in the mail -- it was someone's job to fill in the applicant's name, put their address on an envelope and stick it in the mailbox. The point being, these used to cost the worker's wa…

The short answer to your question: liability. In an age where anti-discrimination laws give people ample ammunition to sue for not being hired, it's financially prudent for companies to be rude.

And yes, I too find it frustrating, given that I'm currently looking for a job as well.

Re: The reverse job applicant

#282

Post by heimidal »

I'm 25 and didn't go to school, but I spend most of my time around those who did. I have many, many friends who are unemployed artists or are business types working less than full-time who would kill for a decent full-time position.

That said, I cannot understand how a young, motivated programmer has trouble finding a job. The company I work for in Denver has been looking for Ruby and front-end web developers of all levels, and from all over the country, for months.

First priority: make writing code a lifestyle choice. Need a better resume? Write some code -- anything -- and put it on Github. Bored? Write some code and put it on Github. Sick of sending out resumes? Write some code and... you get the idea. Strong candidates love the craft, not just the paycheck. Show pride in your code and prove you'll want to write code at work and at home.

Programmers who work at companies that you should actually want to work for are not hired because they have great resumes or went to great colleges. They are hired because they are capable of solving real problems while writing maintainable code. If you can do that, you're an easy hire.

This goes for anyone. Want a serious, no-bullshit interview for a job in beautiful Denver (we can help relocate) with fantastic benefits and doing work for amazing clients? Write some decent code (Ruby or Javascript), put it on Github, and comment with a link.

Re: The reverse job applicant

#283

Post by impeachgod »

noarchy wrote: post #274
Kadrith wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Join Toast Masters. It is a public speaking and leadership organization; which looks great on resumes. Besides looking good on resumes it will help you learn how to think quickly on your feet in a conversation and be more comfortable with random conversations. http://www.toastmasters.org/ edit: It is also good for networking.

I was never in Toast Masters, but I'll definitely second the value of good speaking abilities. The problem, of course, is that you have to make it past the HR barrier, and land an interview to show those skills. But the HR barrier is less of an issue if you look at smaller companies, where they may not even have HR people getting in the way.

This is what I don't get about Americans - they have no toasting tradition. I grew up in Ukraine, and I remember being required to give toasts at dinners ever since I was a little kid. They didn't have to be long or complex, but original and from the heart. This taught you to speak in public in front of groups.

I also sat at the table with the adults (there never really was a separate kiddie table) and I learned to behave myself and talk like an adult.

Re: The reverse job applicant

#284

Post by krolley »

jemfinch wrote: post #109
hop wrote: post #77

Your resume could be part of the problem - http://www.andrewhorner.com/documents/AndrewHorner.Resume.pd... Some constructive criticism: Thats a lot of ink to print that out, drop the black and grey banners. Try using a resume theme from Pages or Word for a start and just use black fonts on a white background. Use Myriad Pro or something more modern than Arial. Make it one page. Your first entry shouldn't be that you…

Maybe I'm just prejudiced, but I look at snazzified, graphical resumes like that I think, "This person wastes time on things that aren't important." Go grab a LaTeX template, replace the filler with your own information, and get it down to one page.

Hopefully you're not representative of people normally judging resumes. When you're unemployed, finding a job is probably the most important thing you can do. Making something pleasing to the eye can only help your efforts, as long as all the information is there.

There are so many posts on HN about A/B testing. I'd A/B test my resume if it were possible.

Re: The reverse job applicant

#285

Post by zackattack »

bsk wrote: post #74
xpaulbettsx wrote: post #52

If he was really clever he'd have a Google Analytics link in there so he can track who's visiting :-/

He can get that more reliably (ad blockers stop GA) from his web server logs.

give me a break. the vast majority of personal sites are on shared webhosts who don't give clean access to access_log files (etc.) moreover, it's a pain to parse files anyway.

Re: The reverse job applicant

#286

Post by SeamusBrady »

run4yourlives wrote: post #72

If you really care which programming languages I already know or which applications I have used before, I can only assume that you're overlooking my ability to quickly pick up new technologies and adjust to new ways of thinking. I would encourage you to correct this, as it is a mistake. I know it's tongue in cheek, but my god does the current generation not have any humility at all? This is going to ruin your world v…

Jeese - this is a tough crowd. I can think of several Irish businesses that I have worked for that would grab this guy straight away to train him. He may not be the worlds greatest programmer (he does not claim to be) but his attitude is great, he is creative and resourceful for thinking of this idea and he does not take himself too seriously.

I have trained several hundred people in software development when working as a contract trainer and it was always attitude that allowed me to guess who would be the more competent programmer.

I would prefer to hire a well rounded competent young person who could become a solid competent developer that some rockstar programmer with no personality. Fair play to this guy, he is doing something original instead of feeling sorry for himself.

Re: The reverse job applicant

#288

Post by forgottenpaswrd »

run4yourlives wrote: post #72

If you really care which programming languages I already know or which applications I have used before, I can only assume that you're overlooking my ability to quickly pick up new technologies and adjust to new ways of thinking. I would encourage you to correct this, as it is a mistake. I know it's tongue in cheek, but my god does the current generation not have any humility at all? This is going to ruin your world v…

"I know it's tongue in cheek, but my god does the current generation not have any humility at all?"

My god does people from older generations not label an entire group taking solely one sample?

Re: The reverse job applicant

#289

Post by shrikant »

codyrobbins wrote: post #232
maxawaytoolong wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good post, but society did kinda lie. From your mom to Mr. T to the President of the United States, the school-is-cool, just stay in school and you'll get a job meme has been pretty prevalent since I was a child, and I'm old.

I think you, and a lot of other people in our generation, have misinterpreted the generalization ‘You need to go to college to get a good job’ as ‘You will get a good job if you go to college.’ These two are not the same thing. College may generally be a requirement for a good job, but college alone does not entail a good job.

i.e. the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions.

Re: The reverse job applicant

#290

Post by shrikant »

brown9-2 wrote: post #150
hop wrote: post #77

Your resume could be part of the problem - http://www.andrewhorner.com/documents/AndrewHorner.Resume.pd... Some constructive criticism: Thats a lot of ink to print that out, drop the black and grey banners. Try using a resume theme from Pages or Word for a start and just use black fonts on a white background. Use Myriad Pro or something more modern than Arial. Make it one page. Your first entry shouldn't be that you…

His website now seems to link to a different version of the resume, which would seem to have incorporated this type of feedback: http://www.andrewhorner.com/documents/ahorner.resume.pdf

Almost. While in a LaTeX-y format, it was still made in MS Word! :-)
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