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Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

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Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#51
post #36

Do not listen to these CV nazis too much, your resume is fine. I am having the exact similar experience to you. Star employee for a decade and suddenly unemployable (a year now). I am pretty sure a lot of us are out there, they just do not want to expose their unemployment status publicly like you and me (and I understand that). The answer by ath3nd might sound "conspiracy theory" but it is closer to the truth. The t…

I really don't want this to come across as snarky, and things are very tough out there right now, but if you think the OP's CV is fine and yours is similar to his then that might explain some of your own difficulties.

It's no good being a "star" employee if you can't communicate that fact to other people.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#52
No way you are the author of Hapland, thank you I had lot of fun.

I don't have anything more to say than what has already been said in this thread, I would just recommend modernizing your CV by using Canva [1] , the site has lots of free themes and they are generally well done.

[1] - https://www.canva.com/

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#53
post #2

I am looking at your CV and have some feedback: - You missed your work goals objective paragraph! Why are you looking to a job? What is your interest? LinkedIn and Internet in general are full of examples. Why do I need to hire you beyond your specific skills? How are you as a human? as a team player? How do you contribute to organizations beyond your formal work? - I will not separate between full time work and inde…

> - You missed your work goals objective paragraph! Why are you looking to a job? What is your interest? LinkedIn and Internet in general are full of examples. Why do I need to hire you beyond your specific skills? How are you as a human? as a team player? How do you contribute to organizations beyond your formal work? This generally doesn't exist on UK CVs

Things have definitely changed and I would expect to see something on CVs that come across my desk now.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#54
post #24
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! Github is at the top-right but could be more prominent. How did you manage to find non-UK companies that will hire UK people? I find most remote US roles say "remote (US only)", and similar for other countries.

There are opportunities, but you have to spend the whole day looking; a good start is the monthly hacker news who's hiring thread.

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Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#55

It's possible the University of Bedfordshire role at the top makes it look like you're a student - to a lazy recruiter who doesn't read. The first bullet point "as part of a research project" again suggests you might be back in college - again to a recruiter who doesn't read. I may be wrong - just a suggestion.

I think is partly because he's omitted any job titles.

And partly because he omitted education. I recognize that aging yourself or revealing a lack of technical degree (despite work history) may do you a disfavor under some circumstances, but it's also one of the first things a non-technical (read: HR) reviewer is going to look for and round-file if not found.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#57

Your CV doesn't tell me anything you accomplished, it just lists things you did. Hiring managers want to know the impact of your work, not a page of bullets that all say: "I did a thing." Picking one at random: "Worked on frontend and backend systems for this health tech company." OK... and what impact did your work have? Can you cite a qualitative improvement on the business due to your work? If not, can you at leas…

This is the best advice here. You want to be able to say, “during the time I worked here, I did X and the company’s revenue increased by Y.” Swap in whatever metrics are particularly relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Not saying you are wrong, but when does management even know exactly which specific X caused how much increase in revenue, let alone a software developer.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#58
post #13

You have an impressing background! I think folks reading this are seeing that you are too technical and lack of business acumen (while maybe not true). For the work that you have done in each company they may be interested in the results of you creating these not that you created those. Did you ever find out what was the impact of your software development on the actual business? Make sure to include numbers, people…

Thanks for the reply! I'm definitely guilty of thinking like a dev. Built what the PM wanted, they liked it, I did good, right? D'oh. I guess I should have been keeping notes of those business figures all this time. I'll definitely do that when I find a job again. Of course, even if sales improved while I was there, I'd feel a bit silly claiming it was because of me, but maybe I should anyway. Thank you! About summar…

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Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the best advice here. You want to be able to say, “during the time I worked here, I did X and the company’s revenue increased by Y.” Swap in whatever metrics are particularly relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Not saying you are wrong, but when does management even know exactly which specific X caused how much increase in revenue, let alone a software developer.

It's not about saying you directly caused the specific increase in revenue, it's more about highlighting the value you can bring to a future organization – at least so you can talk about it in an interview. Remember, this game is not about determining if that increase was purely attributable to your work, it's about convincing an employer that you can add value.

For example: you coded and launched a new feature, and that feature brought in 20% more users over the following year. Sure, there were probably other factors that helped, but when you can point at specific things and back them up with metrics, it's 100% better than just listing a bunch of skills and jobs.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#60
Lots of folks will have opinions on this; adding mine just to give you an additional data point. Specifically not looking at other comments so that I can give you my direct take; I'm sure others may disagree and that's fine. :) I'm a hiring manager at a small company that recently hired two .NET developers.

* You're not alone. There are a lot of people looking for work right now, and less work to go around, it seems. I recently had 60+ applications for 2 developer roles without using a recruiter or anything but word of mouth through communities I participate in. From a pure numbers standpoint, this means applicants have to work harder to stand out, which sucks for applicants and also because it leads to people gaming the system.

* So much of the hiring process has been enshittified. Tools doing keyword scans have replaced a lot of human judgment, and resumes have started to adapt to keep up. I abhor the practice, but: you may want to have a separate resume for places that may use these products, so that you get past auto-screening.

* Your resume is nicely laid out. However, I fear it will likely get you auto-rejected as lots of screening tools can't parse it for roles. You may want to have a version that avoids the multi-column layout. Again, this will be a guess as to whether companies are using that kind of software or not.

* I highly recommend adding your role or the equivalent role to the subtitle, e.g. "Senior Developer (Contract)" or ".NET Developer (Contract)" . It gives a quick overview of what type of work you've been doing, which is helpful when I'm scanning 60 resumes. I would go so far as to suggest You make the role a part of the heading and keep the employer & date below. E.g. "Senior .NET Developer" up top and "Technically Creative (contract) | Oct 2021 - Dev 2023" below.

* Suggest adding start/end dates including Month & Year (e.g. "Oct 2021 - Dec 2022"). It gives a sense of timing.

* There's another tough choice you face: whether to share unemployment status. It's a double-edged sword for candidates. For me, people who state their situation get respect for the authenticity, and those who try to hide it make me suspicious. But I also respect that people are biased against unemployed people even though they shouldn't be, so I would suggest making that a per-application decision.

* I already get a decent sense of this, but you may want to tweak your bullet points to reflect accomplishments/impact some more. Shows that you understand business value (which I believe you do).

* Technology under each bullet point makes me as a reviewer do extra work. Some kind of summary of technology you're proficient in will be a good addition. Should you have to? Probably not. Would I still read this CV? Of course. Will lots of folks glaze over and move on when they have to do extra work while reviewing hundreds of applicants? Yes.

* I like that you include your GitHub. I definitely look at those and it never counts against an applicant (for me. Again, double-edged sword).

* I think the one-page resume is working against you here. With your experience since '05 I think moving to 2 pages and expanding on some of the suggestions above will work in your favor.

* The title at the top of your resume, "Software Developer", could probably do with a tweak. It's one of the first things I see. "Senior Software Developer", "[Stack of Job You're Targeting] Developer", etc. may go a long way. I recently gave someone an interview because they had "Systems Integration Developer" in their title and I was looking for integration work. It would be an effective technique IMO.

* Find your local & global communities on Twitter, Mastodon, Slack, LinkedIn, Discord, etc. -- many often times have jobs channels where things will pop up. Coming from a community comes across as a sort of implicit reference in terms of places you may participate. And there's usually little downside as you learn things, participate in discussions, and build relationships there that are nice either way.

I wish you the best of luck finding your next opportunity!

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