I wanna work at Instagram • Hacker News Board

Re: I wanna work at Instagram

#121

Post by kmfrk » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:43 PM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #97

kmfrk wrote: post #60

Kudos to her for putting herself out there, but she's misunderstood what the point of this kind of application is. When you make a grab for a job like this, you underscore the fact that employers don't always know that there is something that can be improved - and that someone should be hired to do it. I vaguely recall someone writing an application for 37signals, where he made some redesigns for the site that he tho…

Her article/resume is her "show" not "tell". The medium is the message... that's UX.

But what can she contribute to the Instagram team? Is their UX in dire need of a UX designer?

It's fine as a resumé and general job application for everyone who reads the story, but she directs her application to Instagram - but it might as well not have been.

It's not a lack of display of talent that I think is what she misses (although she tells a lot of things about herself that she doesn't show); it's that she doesn't show how she can help Instagram, and why Instagram would need her.

Maybe they have an available UX job position that I am unaware of, but she'd improve her chances if she directed her application to Instagram specifically.

Here is an exercise (for everyone): replace all instances of "Instagram" in the application with any arbitrary start-up name. There is little to underscore her passion and usefulness for Instagram (specifically) - she might as well have made the same website with five other domains with "Twitter", "Tumblr", etc. instead of "Instagram" in the URL and design. (She has that "No high heels" part, but that could be a variable to be replaced in every instance.)

This doesn't mean that I believe that she's done this(!), but a specifically directed application should be much harder to arbitrarily change to work for another start-up.

(I don't write all this to hate on her, as I've said in other comments in this thread, but there are some great, important lessons to be learnt. This is, after all, a great way to land yourself a job - if you pull it off.

Again, this will only help her career. It's just that it could be improved.)

Re: I wanna work at Instagram

#122

Post by geoffw8 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:43 PM UTC

mrshoe wrote: post #111

To write an effective resume you need to keep the audience in mind. The hiring manager will base about 95% of the decision on the answer to one question: What have you built? Answers to questions such as "What are your skills?", "What is your philosophy?", and "What is your passion?" mostly just get in the way and waste the reader's time. A flashy appeal for a job like this one might get the attention of Instagram, b…

Maybe for developers this is the case, all sorts of things count, i.e. salary level.

Re: I wanna work at Instagram

#123

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:44 PM UTC

Lewisham wrote: post #9

While I like the initiative, I'm a little worried that someone who says she's a UX designer wouldn't have considered that most Mac users do not run their browsers full-screen, so there's a horizontal scroll bar for anything less than a 1024 width (I think it's 1024). That's not a good UX!

[deleted]

Re: I wanna work at Instagram

#124

Post by estel » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:46 PM UTC

aw3c2 wrote: post #107

kmfrk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks fine in Opera. (Well, I would prefer Georgia, but I'm boring like that.) Maybe you are using a browser with a duller font-rendering? EDIT: On Windows 7. Should have included that.

Opera 11 on Linux looks like this for me: http://upurs.us/image/24755.jpeg Maybe I don't have the proper font. It looks awful.

Nope, that's the correct font; but I disagree with you about it looking awful.

Re: I wanna work at Instagram

#125

Post by crasshopper » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:46 PM UTC

random42 wrote: post #36

pavel_lishin wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She sounds like a lady who's at least 78% unique.

You mean probability of her being unique is atleast 0.78, dont you? As being unique would be rather a binary state, either one is unique of not.

Not in fuzzy logic. One can have 78% membership in the set of unique things.

Re: I wanna work at Instagram

#126

Post by dchest » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:47 PM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #119

dchest wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you want to look at my site? Will this somehow make my points invalid? :-) Oh, this guy can't design, so no, kerning is right. I'm not a designer, and although I design everything for my products myself, I don't pretend that my design work is good; hell, I know that I lack attention to detail, and I'll be the first person to criticize my work. If you insist, here you go: http://www.codingrobots.com/ (the most…

Why do you want to look at my site? Will this somehow make my points invalid? :-) Oh, this guy can't design, so no, kerning is right. No, it doesn't make it any more invalid. BUT I looked a the lens and didn't see a problem with it, and overall thought the design seemed pretty good. With your critique I was hoping to see what someone with a very sharp eye for design would actually put in production.

Thanks for explaining. It's sure easier to criticize than to create.

Re: I wanna work at Instagram

#127

Post by brown9-2 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:48 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #86

I never wear high heels. So I can crawl into cracks and crevices to snap awesome pics... AFAIC, automatic interview line. It says so much: - She understands the ugly stuff needed to get to the pretty stuff. - She's willing to do the ugly stuff. - Her work is more important than her ego (I think). - She "gets it". (Somehow I don't imagine a poser would have ever thought of putting it quite this way.)

Don't you think it's also possible for someone to know exactly what an employer would like to hear, and then say exactly that?

Re: I wanna work at Instagram

#128

Post by sukuriant » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:50 PM UTC

crasshopper wrote: post #116

mrshoe wrote: post #111

To write an effective resume you need to keep the audience in mind. The hiring manager will base about 95% of the decision on the answer to one question: What have you built? Answers to questions such as "What are your skills?", "What is your philosophy?", and "What is your passion?" mostly just get in the way and waste the reader's time. A flashy appeal for a job like this one might get the attention of Instagram, b…

What about recent grads? Or career-switchers?

Disclaimer: I'm not HR

I would say that recent grads still have the same issue. In college, you write a lot of large projects; and, if you felt so inclined outside of your regular curriculum (if it was bored, or you wanted to go the next step in a project you liked, etc), you may want to do projects in your spare time. All of those large [curricular or not] activities you did can be put on your resume!

I certainly don't have the end-all-be-all resume, but alongside my college work experience, my resume contained such things as: * a neural network (NEAT) based, othello game board evaluator (done for a grad project); and, * a back-propagation based neural network project, also done as a grad project for a different class.

I had quite an obsession with NNs in school (still do).

My point is: even projects you've done in school can count as things you've done that are worth considering.

As for career switchers, if they're going to go into a higher level position, I would encourage them to show that they can do what the higher-level job is asking of them, and saying "I've done this on my own!" through projects is one way to do that.

Re: I wanna work at Instagram

#129

Post by kmfrk » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:52 PM UTC

brown9-2 wrote: post #127

edw519 wrote: post #86

I never wear high heels. So I can crawl into cracks and crevices to snap awesome pics... AFAIC, automatic interview line. It says so much: - She understands the ugly stuff needed to get to the pretty stuff. - She's willing to do the ugly stuff. - Her work is more important than her ego (I think). - She "gets it". (Somehow I don't imagine a poser would have ever thought of putting it quite this way.)

Don't you think it's also possible for someone to know exactly what an employer would like to hear, and then say exactly that?

If she can win over edw519, I'm sure it doesn't hurt to put it in your application. Regardless of what can be construed from it. :)

Telling an employer what they want to hear without the employer noticing is still a skill, no less.

Re: I wanna work at Instagram

#130

Post by geekfactor » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:52 PM UTC

dchest wrote: post #40

Don't want to sound rude, but the lens ("I made this") has pretty bad type work. Kerning is off, the curve is not right ( http://i.imgur.com/tpDqv.png ). The drop shadow is also strange. Overall, there's not enough attention to detail.

I didn't notice this at first glance but I definitely see it and agree now that you mention it. Not only is the type off but when I look very carefully at the lens the overall construction feels off-balance to me. It feels like the lens is being looked at slightly off center, e.g. the individual lens elements (circles) are off center.

All that said, I still think this is a totally awesome site and I hope she gets the job!