Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Self Employed CV

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 42 posts

Re: Self Employed CV

#31

Post by reboog711 »

I'm not self employed; I am a small business owner. Start a formal business for consulting [or whatever].

That way you aren't self employed; you were employed at Sudorank LLC or something similar.

I haven't maintained a personal resume/CV is years; and have no plans to do so again. I do not share past client names with other potential clients. Recruiters don't know how to handle me, however it hasn't hurt my business.

For proof of skill people can review my books, articles, blog posts, or StackOverflow profile.

I assume my first meetings with clients are very different than interviews [although a few have had an interview-like feel].

Re: Self Employed CV

#32

Post by keithalexander »

been dealing with this for a long long time. Until I learned how to fudge a resume or CV correctly(doesn't take much effort), I really struggled and lost out to what I called the, "certified stupid", or "the Educated/indoctrinated incompetents". Take a google search through people busted for fake CV's, many of whom held VERY high positions at prestigious Universities yet it took decades and decades to catch the few who've been caught. And we have a commander in chief who's 'cv' is either false, or the biggest joke in history. So my friend, plan ahead, purchase a number of throwaway cellphones(TracPhones are less than $5!) and label each with a name, company, gender, etc. and use those for your 'references'. Depending on what kind of work you seek you may also want to research what people who left jobs under a NDA have to do when trying to list previous work experience.

Re: Self Employed CV

#33

Post by rak »

Tloewald wrote: post #2

Build your CV around projects not employers (I was taught this style of CV writing when I worked at Andersen Consulting (aka Accenture) and it's one of a handful of things from that time that stuck with me). Also try to state clearly and concisely what the project was and what your role was. AC also suggested anonymizing employers -- e.g. "medium sized construction company" which is a wise thing to do if the work is…

Does anyone have an example of making a CV like this? It sounds like something I could benefit from.

Re: Self Employed CV

#34

Post by joeyspn »

I've been intern, employed, freelance, self-employed, founder, consultant, and I haven't had any problem marketing myself. In fact, I had an online profile in one of those job seeking sites, and I had to take it off cos recruiters and headhunters were continuously calling me with job offers (but I was happily self-employed as stated in the CV!).

I think it is more about your achieved goals, projects and skills, and less about who have you been working for. If I were you, I'd just concentrate my efforts in building projects where you show off your skills (blog/portfolio, github, etc...). IMO this can be more powerful than a CV.

Re: Self Employed CV

#35

Post by Iftheshoefits »

onion2k wrote: post #8

Anecdotally, I've found it difficult to persuade potential employers that I won't just quit after six months and start another business. It's a legitimate concern on their part - if you're someone who likes the challenge and (potential) reward of running your own business then you're less likely to stay in a salaried job for as long as someone else. Employing someone should really be a long term commitment from both…

If "employing someone should really be a long term commitment from both parties," then employers need to start treating it as such again. Right now this is simply one among many, many imbalances between employees and employers: the loyalty demand is, in my view, a one-way street.

Employees are not to expect long-term loyalty style commitments from employers these days. Training, retirement investment packages, career paths and other intangibles that make a long-term commitment at a single employer potentially a good move don't exist anymore (at least not in any significant numbers).

Long-term investment with a single employer carries risks for the employees: opportunity costs, skill stagnation or over-specialization, far lower long-term compensation without internal "job hopping" up the management ladder (and even then it's not nearly the risk-free move it was even 20 years ago, let alone 30 or 40), etc. Employers don't acknowledge these risks the employees take, though, and simply demand loyalty without wanting to make an investment of their own other than a begrudgingly given compensation package (that is often below the actual value an employee provides).

Of course it's not fair; and that's just the way it is--it's something serial entrepreneurs and "job hoppers" should just be prepared to deal with.

Re: Self Employed CV

#36

Post by rupert_murdaaa »

graeme wrote: post #6

Which forums? Not everyone uses the term the same way. I stopped saying "self-employed" and started calling myself "entrepreneur". When I said self employed, people either heard "unemployed" or "marginal freelance person, barely made ends meet". When I switched to entrepreneur, people heard "successful businessman". The change was uncanny. Now, my activities didn't change. So the questions to ask are: 1. How did the…

This is solely my opinion, but whenever I hear people call themselves "entrepreneur" I immediately think "C student in high school with few tangible skills but is sick of working as a cook at Denny's and thinks calling themselves an entrepreneur will lend them some weird street cred because they heard Dre call himself an entrepreneur".

At least being simply self-employed is easily explained away by just wanting to do some freelance work or consulting for a few months or whatever.

Re: Self Employed CV

#37

Post by Avalaxy »

Of course I added it to my resume! All the companies I interviewed at (all small companies of That's how I did it; I just demo'd them the coolest apps I built and explained why they were cool (google tweeted about it, won the imagine cup with it, got covered by major news sites, etc.).

Re: Self Employed CV

#38

Post by Avalaxy »

graeme wrote: post #6

Which forums? Not everyone uses the term the same way. I stopped saying "self-employed" and started calling myself "entrepreneur". When I said self employed, people either heard "unemployed" or "marginal freelance person, barely made ends meet". When I switched to entrepreneur, people heard "successful businessman". The change was uncanny. Now, my activities didn't change. So the questions to ask are: 1. How did the…

I just say "I run my own company". It's technically true (I even hired someone) and it is looked upon much more highly than when I just say "I'm a freelancer".

Re: Self Employed CV

#39

Post by Tloewald »

thenipper wrote: post #27
sudorank wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, I did read about more "functional cv" types where you talked about your roles and responsibilities. Sounds like a possible plan. To be honest it's quite frightening writing a CV again! Haven't had to do it for a while!

Be careful with functional resumes. A lot of recruiters/hiring managers don't care for them. Myself included. They can work, but I also sometimes they can be used to 'hide' inexperience. Disclaimer: I don't do tech recruiting so take all of this with a grain of salt. I have reviewed resumes for technical/'social innovation' positions but I tend to focus more on non computery roles. That being said, having a nice list…

There's an enormous tension between CVs that are short and to-the-point and CVs that pass some kind of idiotic "weight" test. The solution is:

a) To be brief and to the point (and honest), and b) to put your stuff in reverse chronological order -- so the recent (and hopefully relevant) stuff is up top.

The rest of it is there in case there's a weight test, or for when the CV has been shortlisted and is being given a closer look.

Finally, you need to exercise judgment in how fine-grained you get with "projects". You don't want to give the impression you're padding or claiming credit for projects you had little hand in. (And consider tailoring your CV for the job. I do not always do this, but I always do it for jobs I really care about.)

Re: Self Employed CV

#40

Post by graeme »

rupert_murdaaa wrote: post #36
graeme wrote: post #6

Which forums? Not everyone uses the term the same way. I stopped saying "self-employed" and started calling myself "entrepreneur". When I said self employed, people either heard "unemployed" or "marginal freelance person, barely made ends meet". When I switched to entrepreneur, people heard "successful businessman". The change was uncanny. Now, my activities didn't change. So the questions to ask are: 1. How did the…

This is solely my opinion, but whenever I hear people call themselves "entrepreneur" I immediately think "C student in high school with few tangible skills but is sick of working as a cook at Denny's and thinks calling themselves an entrepreneur will lend them some weird street cred because they heard Dre call himself an entrepreneur". At least being simply self-employed is easily explained away by just wanting to do…

I think a lot depends on how the person says it too. If I had said "entrepreneur" when I just started out, and things were shaky, people would have had a different reaction.
Post reply on HN