31–40 of 82 posts
Please don't be put off by the harsh tone of this essay. It's important information and based on this post and the resume linked in your HN profile ( http://resume.patrickcurl.com/ ), I think you would benefit from reading it: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pro...
All the advice here is good.
Also, it's cool that you wrote your own framework, but right now, the jobs that map to your skills are Wordpress and Rails jobs. Your framework is an example of your capabilities.
You're a Rails/Wordpress developer, X years of Rails experience, Y years in the computer industry. You have Z academic experience relating to the field.
Your code examples probably should be on github.
Understand that making your representation quirky does you no good unless the hiring manager wants quirky. I've not met one who wants that yet.
You need to be precise, clear, lucid, humble, and confident. Clearly express what you're good at, and don't focus on the weak areas.
For your resume, take a look at Rands' "A Glimpse and a Hook".
Most Rails developers are finding its a VERY hot field, so I would encourage you to introspect as to why that isn't the case with you. Maybe attend Toastmasters or something?
Good luck.
Did you not attend interviews in the last week? In the alternative, have you lined up interviews? How many?
Did you not line up any interviews in the last week? In the alternative, have you identified people with the authority to hire Ruby on Rails engineers? How many? By what process are you identifying them? After identifying them, what compelling offer are you making them? Since most people with hiring authority are in the toughest market ever for people attempting to hire developers with experience shipping applications, they should be willing to take coffee dates with you.
You will not get most of your leads for coffee dates through your resume. In fact, if you could take your resume off the Internet, that would probably be in your favor. It does not currently suggest that you are going to be a successful candidate for a white collar position. You should not put your resume back on the Internet until it highlights your professional accomplishments. When put your resume back on the Internet, it will be absolutely devoid of errors in spelling, punctuation, word choice, professional tone, and grammar.
You mention that you have previous experience with SEO, social media, and shipping applications. You should be comfortable with discussing specific successes which you have had with this. If you do not have specific successes which you can talk about, do not mention SEO/social media/etc, and instead focus on the fact that you have successfully shipped applications. In the current environment, years of experience with successfully shipping commercial applications makes you substantially more experienced than the bar for junior developers.
If you actually have made people money with SEO and you can also code, you should know that your skill set is white hot right now. You should be contacting people whose businesses would benefit from that combination of skills, tell them how they would benefit in a similar fashion as other people you have worked with by having you implement brief sketch goes here, and then attempting to convince them to hire you.
When you are speaking to people in the industry, do not mention the words "homeless", "inexperienced", "spaghetti", or anything else which suggests that you are desperate for a job. You are not desperate for a job. You are a white collar professional with a skillset which is in incredible demand at the moment. You should carry yourself like that.
Those stars on your skills section... I don't like to see ratings like that in general, but if you're going to put 5 out of 5 on something, be prepared to be called out on it. I'd expect you to have total expert knowledge of Bootstrap and Lavarel and Wordpress. There's nothing I'd give myself a 5 out of 5 on after my 20 years of work.
Please don't be put off by the harsh tone of this essay. It's important information and based on this post and the resume linked in your HN profile ( http://resume.patrickcurl.com/ ), I think you would benefit from reading it: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pro...
Every time I read how most professionals out there simply make a living by bluffing and cheating, I die a little inside.
Pull 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.
You say you have been attempting to get a job for the past 3 months. Over the past week, what activities, specifically, have you done to get a job? Have you been to interviews? How many? How did they go? Were there any questions you were unable to answer? Was there any particularly difficult part of the interview? Did you not attend interviews in the last week? In the alternative, have you lined up interviews? How ma…
Please seriously consider taking down your personal website as well. In five minutes of glancing through your blog entries I found too many glaring "do not hire" flags to mention here. You seem like a decent sort of person, and I mean this with all due respect. Good luck in your search.
Your resume is scattered in tone and content, and inconsistently formatted: it's a bad audition for a detail-oriented solo-web-dev project. Your prior HN posts suggest a roller coaster of cash problems plus unrealistic hopes over just the last 30 days.
This suggests to me you're a bit too panicked to be planning properly. You may need someone friendly or professional to talk to, locally, as much or more than a job.
You should be seeking stability in your living and working situation above all else, so that you can regain perspective. That means avoiding solo freelancing, long-shot startup ideas, or quick money-raisers. Seek a simpler job, where you go into an office and are surrounded by a larger collaborating team, and your minimal basic needs are met. Do that for at least 6 months to a year to regain a non-panicked perspective.
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Really? i guess that is an average salary.