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Ask HN: Would you hire me (passionate hobbyist programmer) to a dev position?

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Re: Ask HN: Would you hire me (passionate hobbyist programmer) to a dev position?

#31

Post by k-mcgrady »

scrapcode wrote: post #7

I've wanted to ask something similar for a long time. I have a government job that has decent pay, but the schedule sucks, and I'm not challenged at all. I have freelance full-stack experience, just nothing black-and-white professional wise other than sysadmin & electronics experience in the military. I recently moved to what could be considered an "up-and-coming" startup city and I've been tossing around the idea of…

The salary is probably highly dependent upon the city you want hired in. From what I've seen for example salaries in the bay area tend to be much higher than anywhere else - even other cities that have a high cost of living.

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire me (passionate hobbyist programmer) to a dev position?

#32

Post by chc »

gr3yh47 wrote: post #17
jchendy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To put it more bluntly, this resume is really just not very visually pleasing. I definitely wouldn't recommend drawing so much attention to your HTML/CSS skills unless they're really outstanding. And even then, going through Codepen is unnecessary because anybody who's going to be evaluating your front end code knows how to open the console and look at your code anyway.

isn't there a distinction to be made between design skills and coding ability though?

To some degree, yes. When you're talking about CSS skills, the distinction is somewhat blurred, because getting things to look right is a big part of front-end programming. Creating things that look bad reads as sloppiness. When you're working for a client and faithfully implementing the client's designs, this is particularly unfair, but it's still the case even then.

At any rate, the ability to make a rudimentary web page with HTML and CSS is not exactly impressive. I assume that's why jchendy said "… unless they're really impressive." Like, cool tech demos with HTML and CSS probably would help get you hired, but making a '90s-tastic resume is not even in the same neighborhood.

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire me (passionate hobbyist programmer) to a dev position?

#33

Post by midnightmonster »

Summary: If your goal is a software development position, I would move "Highlights" above "Experience", move "Professional Skills" to the bottom of "Highlights" (who doesn't say they have excellent communication and teamwork skills?), and use either a nice resume template or a more favorable creative presentation.

I had to look at it three or four times before I could get past the presentation to actually read the resume.

The codepen presentation shows me that you are able to write basic HTML and CSS. These are useful skills, but not enough to get you in any door that I might be operating. If the design was good, this method of presenting might work to your advantage, but it's neither pretty nor easy to read and it shows mainly that you have not yet developed valuable design sense or taste. There are lots of jobs (development and otherwise) you can have without those, but it hurts your resume to draw attention to your probably-irrelevant weak points.

Alternatively, if you'd written it all in JavaScript using some trendy framework, I would at least see you as a programmer. If the code was clever or elegant, I would be interested even if the output wasn't very pretty.

I had to look back yet again to get past the experience section. The experience section made me think of you only as a sysadmin/network admin. I've looked at this five or six times now before I got to anything that would make me think of you as a possible developer.

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire me (passionate hobbyist programmer) to a dev position?

#34

Post by scalesolved »

japesinator wrote: post #21

Piggybacking off of this, if anyone would be so kind as to give me their opinion on my resume at http://writes.co.de/resume.pdf , I would be very appreciative. For what it's worth, I'm looking for an internship over the summer

Nice and neat but I'd still include some detail about what your passions are and a little bit more about yourself. The list of interests is too packed and nothing lets me know why you dig these particular areas. Overall it feels high quality and is a lot better than a lot of resumes I've seen from developers with years in the field. Good luck with your search!

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire me (passionate hobbyist programmer) to a dev position?

#35

Post by fecak »

The resume isn't good, but you appear to be employable. I definitely wouldn't lead off the resume with the word "Expert", unless you want to invite senior level engineers to try and take you down a notch with some difficult interview questions. The words "expert" and "entry-level" don't belong in the same sentence.

Some of the phrasing is sloppy - "start to finish" might be said better as "full lifecycle".

If you got a HS degree in 2004, you don't need to tell us you had summer jobs 10+ years ago. It doesn't add to the narrative.

Your professional skills section is all self-assessed things (critical thinker, team player, etc.) that add no real value. This type of fluff content takes away from the overall resume.

I wouldn't send this to an employer as a resume, but I do think you would get some response to a cleaned version of this. You do appear to be someone a company would at least interview.

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire me (passionate hobbyist programmer) to a dev position?

#36

Post by delluminatus »

japesinator wrote: post #21

Piggybacking off of this, if anyone would be so kind as to give me their opinion on my resume at http://writes.co.de/resume.pdf , I would be very appreciative. For what it's worth, I'm looking for an internship over the summer

It seems quite attractive overall, but I think the dark background header and the partially colored text are a little gratuitous. What matters in a resume is the content -- the experience and skills -- not the title or the headings. I would consider moving the emphasis away from the headings and title to the actual content as much as possible.

Also, it is odd that the job experience descriptions are italicized where the education and projects descriptions are not.

Finally, (and you may know this already, but I am just mentioning it for completeness' sake), you should adjust your resume depending on the position you're seeking. So for instance if you are looking for an internship at a company that is not very interested in functional programming, you might want to change or reorder your interests, as well as reword the descriptions if needed.

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire me (passionate hobbyist programmer) to a dev position?

#37

Post by adrianpike »

gr3yh47 wrote: post #3
coreymaass wrote: post #2

Since you present your resume in code, I would have to take that into consideration. Your front-end skills are a good start, but I wouldn't hire you based on them alone. I honestly think you're putting yourself at risk but giving a potential employer the code of your resume to judge you by. The outcome is not as pretty as if you just created a standard resume, and I don't know that most people hiring would get that.

thanks. Front end skills are obviously not my highlight as can be seen from the content of the resume, but I wanted to demonstrate that I have at least good coding style/organization and have some front end chops to complement my other skills. What of the general content of my resume?

At the same time showing off your chops can be a liability this early in the game. In the interest of full transparency, the first typo colored the rest of the read for me - I also noticed and got a bad taste from the inconsistent spacing and indenting in your code.

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire me (passionate hobbyist programmer) to a dev position?

#38

Post by exelius »

scrapcode wrote: post #7

I've wanted to ask something similar for a long time. I have a government job that has decent pay, but the schedule sucks, and I'm not challenged at all. I have freelance full-stack experience, just nothing black-and-white professional wise other than sysadmin & electronics experience in the military. I recently moved to what could be considered an "up-and-coming" startup city and I've been tossing around the idea of…

$80k is actually about right for an entry-level developer at a startup since you have some experience. Hell, most places will pay a kid fresh out of college $60-70k. I'd say go for it; what do you have to lose?

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire me (passionate hobbyist programmer) to a dev position?

#39

Post by chrisparsons »

gr3yh47 wrote: post #17
jchendy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To put it more bluntly, this resume is really just not very visually pleasing. I definitely wouldn't recommend drawing so much attention to your HTML/CSS skills unless they're really outstanding. And even then, going through Codepen is unnecessary because anybody who's going to be evaluating your front end code knows how to open the console and look at your code anyway.

isn't there a distinction to be made between design skills and coding ability though?

Yes, but the problem is you hit that no-mans-land between "I'm going to just format text in a readable way" and "I'm going to try to make this look nice", and missed both.

If you're going to start styling it (and in resumes, once background color enters into the picture, that's styling it), you really need to clean it up and make it look nice. Otherwise, going for a simple resume that's just text is probably going to serve you better.

I'd admittedly probably toss this resume as-is.

(Also, what about a DL for your experience rather than header/list?)

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire me (passionate hobbyist programmer) to a dev position?

#40

Post by pcsanwald »

scrapcode wrote: post #7

I've wanted to ask something similar for a long time. I have a government job that has decent pay, but the schedule sucks, and I'm not challenged at all. I have freelance full-stack experience, just nothing black-and-white professional wise other than sysadmin & electronics experience in the military. I recently moved to what could be considered an "up-and-coming" startup city and I've been tossing around the idea of…

it depends on the city. In NYC, this is a reasonable expectation. If you're in baltimore, you should let me know, I might have a job for you.
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