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It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

simonwillison.net

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Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#161

Post by glimshe »

WJW wrote: post #141
pcthrowaway wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes! https://gavinhoward.com/2023/04/rust-is-dead-to-me/ > Rust the language is dead to me. > why? > Because, quite literally, the Rust Foundation wants to make people like me unwelcome in any Rust event, not just official ones. > Don’t believe me? > Look at the draft Rust Trademark Policy that the Rust Foundation is asking for comments on and go to page 12: > > We will consider requests to use the Marks on a case…

America is such a wild place lol. How dangerous can a Rust conference really be?

Not much. Having lived many years abroad, my theory is that America appears to be such a wild and crazy place because we value everyone having a voice. People in America like to let others know of their opinion as freedom of speech is so celebrated here. You don't see shirts and stickers exposing lifestyles and opinions as often abroad, like "I'm the proud parent of an accelerated learner" or "I love God and Guns".

I bet there are people out there outside the US who think that you should protect your safety in a boring computer conference, but you won't ever hear about it. This notion is too fringe and people won't dare say it.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#162

Post by WJW »

glimshe wrote: post #161
WJW wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is such a wild place lol. How dangerous can a Rust conference really be?

Not much. Having lived many years abroad, my theory is that America appears to be such a wild and crazy place because we value everyone having a voice. People in America like to let others know of their opinion as freedom of speech is so celebrated here. You don't see shirts and stickers exposing lifestyles and opinions as often abroad, like "I'm the proud parent of an accelerated learner" or "I love God and Guns". I…

> I bet there are people out there outside the US who think that you should protect your safety in a boring computer conference,

I think you missed my previous point. Angry men with guns being allowed into a boring computer conference (or anywhere else for that matter) is the reason people think they need to protect their own safety in the first place.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#163

Post by multiplepointer »

kelnos wrote: post #78
gavinhoward wrote: post #6

Unlike another top poster, this doesn't ring true for me. I have a blog with 170-ish posts. About half are technical. Three or four have gone viral on HN. The other half are personal, but I live in a place where people generally share the same values, so those other posts shouldn't be a problem. I've got a personal project. It's used in production and ships as part of the base install with FreeBSD and Mac OSX. It dem…

I'm sure you'll get pissed at this, but assuming hiring managers see your blog and Gitea instance, here are some of my guesses as to why they don't want to hire you: * You call BLM a "terrorist organization". * You explicitly object to the idea that the phenomenon of police killings of black people is rooted in white supremacy. * You give off serious antivaxxer vibes, and refuse to wear a mask during a global pandemi…

[flagged]

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#164

Post by czechdeveloper »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #122
okeuro49 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your blog post: > Got another programming job. Got fired for "performance." I think the reason wasn’t good, but I also have a hard time building a theory of mind, which means I can’t read code written by others. If you can't read code written by others, that's going to be a big concern for companies that require you to read and modify other people's code. Perhaps you need to be a contractor, not an employee.

Yikes! https://gavinhoward.com/2023/04/rust-is-dead-to-me/ > Rust the language is dead to me. > why? > Because, quite literally, the Rust Foundation wants to make people like me unwelcome in any Rust event, not just official ones. > Don’t believe me? > Look at the draft Rust Trademark Policy that the Rust Foundation is asking for comments on and go to page 12: > > We will consider requests to use the Marks on a case…

I have to say that that part in Rust Trademark Policy also gave me a stop. It's just so weird to single it out.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#165

Post by maccard »

nybdty wrote: post #160
maccard wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You made a conscious decision to introduce gender identity into the discussion when nobody else was talking about it. It's not walking on eggshells for getting pulled up on you bringing up your beliefs when nobody asked. > especially when I made it quite clear I have no issues with that. No, you didn't. You pretty much said "just saying" as though that absolves you of what you actually said [0]. [0] https://www.npr.o…

You are the one introducing gender identity into this subthread. The poster you reply to has done no such thing. People increasingly don't even read the posts before the go off on ideological rants and false accusations.

> People increasingly don't even read the posts before the go off on ideological rants and false accusations.

Eh? The comment I replied to said `The only potentially "controversial" idea (as in, corp might not like it but will have to deal with it) that is still accepted in tech is being trans or a furry. I have no issue with either, mind you, just pointing out that anything else is a no-no.`

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#166

Post by Mizoguchi »

I keep reading how bad and competitive the "job market" is today, but I haven't been able to find actual data on it.

It's like people have this gut feeling that due to the recent layoffs at FAANG, no calls for interviews and the number of (likely mediocre) applications showing up in a job post in LinkedIn indicates the job market is extremely competitive. But is it? The entire job market?

There's no doubt some companies and markets are beaten up but other are actually doing great and growing.

So rather than invest time on blogging and creating repos why not focus on researching, identifying and learning about the industries that are actually hiring and acquiring new skills so that you can target them?

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#167

Post by sjducb »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #122
okeuro49 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your blog post: > Got another programming job. Got fired for "performance." I think the reason wasn’t good, but I also have a hard time building a theory of mind, which means I can’t read code written by others. If you can't read code written by others, that's going to be a big concern for companies that require you to read and modify other people's code. Perhaps you need to be a contractor, not an employee.

Yikes! https://gavinhoward.com/2023/04/rust-is-dead-to-me/ > Rust the language is dead to me. > why? > Because, quite literally, the Rust Foundation wants to make people like me unwelcome in any Rust event, not just official ones. > Don’t believe me? > Look at the draft Rust Trademark Policy that the Rust Foundation is asking for comments on and go to page 12: > > We will consider requests to use the Marks on a case…

Probably a good idea to take the blog offline and see if the job search situation improves.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#168

Post by rewmie »

BaculumMeumEst wrote: post #152
rewmie wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (...) my experience is that a good blog or a good Github doesn't account to anything more than a few pleasant sentences at the beginning of the interview. A few years ago I was offered a job explicitly because I had a github account where I hosted a public project that used a framework. Later, I was the recruiter in a few hiring rounds, and public source code repos was my primary source of data to assess q candidat…

There are exceptionally talented, successful, high-profile software developers with incomplete & unpolished exploratory projects on their GitHub. It's surprising that you would take pride in using this as a basis to disqualify.

> There are exceptionally talented, successful, high-profile software developers with incomplete & unpolished exploratory projects on their GitHub.

If you intentionally put up your GitHub page in your resume and all you have is "incomplete and unpolished exploratory projects", that's how you're choosing to present yourself.

Also, the degree of "unpolished ness" actually attests to the skillet you bring to the table. If the "exploratory projects" you choose to showcase as your portfolio are ungodly messes, you should not be surprised they reflect poorly on you.

> It's surprising that you would take pride in using this as a basis to disqualify.

I know for a fact that public GitHub repositories explicitly presented by candidates as their technical portfolio is an accurate reflection of their skillet. I am certain of this fact because I never used personal source code repos to exclude candidates but to guide the interview, and each and every single candidate I interviewed that published crap in their portfolio was lacking absolute basic competencies in the domain they showcased.

Do you have any data to refute this?

I really don't understand how anyone in this day and age is surprised that the way you present yourself in a CV or even online, specially in professional venues, has an impact on your hireability.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#169

Post by rewmie »

thom wrote: post #142
rewmie wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (...) my experience is that a good blog or a good Github doesn't account to anything more than a few pleasant sentences at the beginning of the interview. A few years ago I was offered a job explicitly because I had a github account where I hosted a public project that used a framework. Later, I was the recruiter in a few hiring rounds, and public source code repos was my primary source of data to assess q candidat…

As in, not even #pragma once, or you consider nonstandard stuff disqualifying?

Not even a #pragma once.

It was a bundle of declarations that included duplicate definitions on each source file. The candidate then expected stuff to remain consistent by updating all declarations.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#170

Post by honzabe »

_sojh wrote: post #126
intellectronica wrote: post #33

100%. Especially in a tough, competitive job market like today's, having a credible portfolio of work, published content, and external validation makes a huge difference. It can take a good candidate to the top of the list, and when that list is a few dozen great applications, that's critical. As a hiring manager I weigh a candidate's public presence at 10~15% of my initial decision, even more if it's exceptionally i…

This may be the uncommon opinion, but hell no. Companies already want us working an amount of hours well beyond what our salaries should cover, being on-call, and often working well into the night for deadlines, and sometimes the entire night into the next work day when incidents arise. Then, when we need a job, we need to custom write a compelling “cover letter” that sucks the dick of some corporate entity in order…

I hear something like that from other Americans as well and do not doubt that what you are saying is true, but why is it like that? Isn't the unemployment rate in the US low (around 3.5%) right now?

I live in a country where the unemployment rate is pretty low (2.5%) and the situation is kind of the reverse of what you are describing. Companies are trying to entice potential employees, not the other way around. Give me 6 weeks of paid vacations and do not even think about over-times; you look at me funny and I am gone... there are 10 other companies where I can start tomorrow.

I am now trying to relocate to Spain and it is not like that there - but I get why; because their unemployment rate is really high so employers have the power over employees. But in the US? I am sorry if that is a naive question - I've not been to the US since 2002. A lot has changed, apparently.

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