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Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

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Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#121

Post by bane »

tfg4k wrote: post #100
bane wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure thing. The real advice I have is that you have to figure out what your story is. What is the culmination of your experiences. If you're still doing help-desk - that's a job people effectively right out of high school do with minimal training. It's the fast-food cashier of tech jobs. Are you still doing that same job, or have you learned something in that time? If so, if you've aggregated experience and knowledge…

Right-Right. I don't know what it was in the OP that gave people the idea that I am still working help-desk stuff. It was my first technical job.

Oh right, sorry if I misread it!

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#122

Post by tfg4k »

raincom wrote: post #111
tfg4k wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have worked for large companies before. Defense Contractors and in Operations for very large retail organizations. Am working as a contractor now. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it!

pm me, i can tell u how Indians play the gay. You can play the same game these offshoring companies play to get a contract gig right away.

Cool. I have no idea what that means but, yeah

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#123

Post by dropit_sphere »

david_shaw wrote: post #31

I can't speak for the rest of the industry, but since I'm the CTO of an information security consultancy, I can at least provide an informed opinion. Many, many security companies don't care what your formal education is. The reason for this is simple: there aren't many (or, perhaps, any) undergraduate computer security programs that are cutting-edge and relevant enough to teach the skills needed to be a good hacker.…

This was very helpful to me: people keep suggesting I get into infosec, but I just...don't care enough. I'm happy to leave it to people who do.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#124

Post by dfcarpenter »

Jacqued wrote: post #72
jarcane wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. That is almost exactly my life story right now (three years of cinema studies, had to drop out for financial reasons, now trying to teach myself code and sorta succeeding at it but feel grossly unqualified). Thank you for posting.

Hey ! I kind of did this transition recently from Literature grad to developer. I don't know if you had the same experience but I think for me the key to succeeding in this transition was to try and learn not only to 'code', but also about the engineering, quality, deployment processes surrounding code that most juniors (that I have seen) typically know little-to-nothing about. That way, even if you have a lot to lea…

I am curious how you went from freelancing to working at a firm. I also got into development from a liberal arts background ( I went to a “great books” school ). I started out several years ago, first with a brief internship, and then freelancing with a friend who a more experienced developer, and now I am freelancing solo. I have several sites and apps under my belt but I feel like an impostor and totally unqualified when I look at the requirements for various job listings (Junior/Intermediate JS/Python/PHP)

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#125

Post by jqm »

tfg4k wrote: post #122
raincom wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pm me, i can tell u how Indians play the gay. You can play the same game these offshoring companies play to get a contract gig right away.

Cool. I have no idea what that means but, yeah

That might be one approach to getting a job, but it doesn't really sound so good... depending on ones orientation of course.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#126

Post by Natsu »

miles932 wrote: post #85
Natsu wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My resume is a disaster because I'm bad at writing them. Make it one page. Stick to things they actually care about. Yes, this means tailoring it to each opportunity. This also means leaving things out... that's okay, I remember in my last resume leaving off some ancient Java experience from college that didn't seem relevant at the time. It became a pleasant surprise for them when they discovered that I knew more t…

Strong recommendation from a frequent hirer: for each job, you should state what you accomplished, especially if that can be quantified. Supply the quantities! A list of what your responsibilities are is useless: did you actually do that stuff successfully?

For coding type jobs, I have found that relevant personal projects can also help. In the last interview I did a couple years ago, we spent most of the time discussing a relevant one and that was a good thing. When they ask a question like "What do you know about X?" and you can answer "I made an X and this is how it worked" it puts you in a good place.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#127

Post by tfg4k »

hluska wrote: post #105
tfg4k wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have considered all of this. Most likely, what few interviews or solicitations for resumes, then interviews that I have had have been from companies who are willing to overlook my crappy resume (again, I made it this far and never had to really write one before) to interview me. What happens after that is anyone's guess. I just do my best, follow the processes the company has in place and just haven't had any luck…

Here's some more feedback. Your description on your profile here isn't so good. It reads: about: 31 year old unemployed with 13 years experience. Trying (unsuccessfully) to break in to the IT Sec field. Been hacking and learning security in my free time since I was about sixteen. An enthusiast.. First, remove your age. I can't begin to tell you how unprofessional that makes you look. Second, the entire second sentenc…

It's alright. I don't mean to come across as ungrateful for the advice, I have just never posted here before. I slapped that in there just because I had to put something in. I didn't give it any thought.

Not because I am careless or think that I am somehow the "smartest man in the room". I was really intimidated when writing the OP. I have a lot of respect for this site and the people who are regular contributors.

That being said, I think that those of you who have been critical without being constructive have done so, albeit unintentionally, due to your own preconceived ideas and assumptions. Perhaps due to your own negative experiences in the past with people you didn't like in your own careers.

All I can really say when responding to negative comments: "first time caller, long time listener. Sorry about the sloppy OP. I had no idea that it would get noticed, much less be this active."

My description on the profile doesn't look good because I didn't know what to put in it as I have been lurking here for a long time but never posted.

I appreciate you all taking time from your lives to try to contribute. Had I known this OP was going to generate this kind of activity, I would have actually put some thought in to this stuff. Please, don't take that the wrong way. I mean all of this with respect.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#128

Post by tfg4k »

hluska wrote: post #104
tfg4k wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have considered all of this. Most likely, what few interviews or solicitations for resumes, then interviews that I have had have been from companies who are willing to overlook my crappy resume (again, I made it this far and never had to really write one before) to interview me. What happens after that is anyone's guess. I just do my best, follow the processes the company has in place and just haven't had any luck…

With all due respect, Chainsaw gave you some wonderful advice about your interview ability that you have seemingly chosen to ignore, instead choosing to focus on your resume's shortcomings. Two things: - first, if this is indicative of how you usually behave, you may in fact be more guilty of smartest-man-in-the-room syndrome than you realize. - second, if you do get interviews, your resume is likely not the problem,…

Again, I appreciate you taking the time to comment. It seems though that some of the "tough love" comments are just beating up on me for whatever reason. It's really not necessary or helpful to anyone.

Yes, Chainsaw did give me some good advice. I thanked him for his candor immediately as well.

Why do you assume his advice was ignored and assume that I am one of those "I'm awesome, why won't people hire me?" types?

I understand that, after getting responses assuming I still did low level end user technical support work for example, I should have been more clear about my little back-story.

That's on me. Maybe I am not coming across well. Even so, comments like these that are full of assumptions are making you come across just as badly.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#129

Post by mod »

danellis wrote: post #112
cheetos wrote: post #8

There are three ways to play the game: 1. Play by the "rules": stockpile the degrees, certifications, awards, etc. that we all know are largely useless but are absolute requirements for signaling your way through a standard corporate job interview. If you are after a normal, boring, corporate American desk job (nothing wrong with this depending on your life situation) you must play the game by the rules. If you don't…

There's no sense in getting a college degree just for the sake of having it. They're expensive and take up a lot of time, and they're not needed to get into tech jobs. Yes, some companies will care about this, but many, many companies will not. They care about what you know and what you've shown you can do. Leveraging connections, on the other hand, is a great idea. Most jobs are not actually advertised anywhere, and…

It seems like you chose to selectively ignore what he said the use of a degree was. And he didn't say "just for the sake of having it," he said it's a requirement to get your foot in the door at corporate jobs. It is.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#130

Post by tfg4k »

I want to thank all of you for the great comments and advice.

I had absolutely no idea that this would get so much traction. Some of you have given me invaluable insight and I hope to see more of it. A few comments I have even lifted just to put into a note to use as reference later. I think this is awesome.

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