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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

#181

Post by throwawaythekey »

onetimeuse92304 wrote: post #44

People don't realise how easy it is to get to top 1% in most fields, if you are sufficiently intelligent (say 110-120). Most intelligent people don't get there because they are either not willing to do the work or don't know how honest work looks like or they put artificial barriers before themselves. And even if you are less intelligent you still can get there, you will just have to put in more work. I think of thos…

There's a classic blog covering this that has done the rounds here a few times. I recommend giving it a read if you don't think becoming a top achiever is possible through non-heroic amounts of sustained practice.

https://danluu.com/p95-skill/

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

#182

Post by maximus-decimus »

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?

Especially bringing up defending his wife. Do people bring their wives to Rust conferences? Or maybe the reason people don't is because it's too dangerous.

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

#183

Post by wildrhythms »

TheRoque wrote: post #32
exitb wrote: post #22

As a person involved in hiring in my company, one of my goals is to remove biases for things that are not really related to the thing I'm evaluating, which is the ability to do a given job. There are valid reasons not to have an interest in publishing your coding or writing work, there are lots of great developers that don't do that, so I don't feel like this should make a difference.

The shouldn't in an ideal world, but on the other hand, it's obvious that it can. If you're looking for someone to perform a specific task, and you stumble on a blog post from him, or a project that showcases his passion and skill, it would be (IMO) pretty stupid to "remove the bias" and ignore this. At this point it's not even bias, it's just proof in front of your eyes that this guy has some knowledge and might be…

It's because information exposed in blog posts can be used to bias or discriminate, either intentionally or unintentionally. Consider a hiring manager finding a blog post from a month ago about the candidate having a newborn child; now the hiring manager has been exposed to information that can be used to justify discrimination.

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

#184

Post by rmuratov »

_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 thought the same. But now I'm looking for a job, and I regret that I don't have a polished project on GitHub that I could show. You don't have to code for another three hours after work, but doing one or two projects on GitHub doesn't hurt. It's relatively easy and adds many points when looking for a job.

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

#185

Post by sph »

xena wrote: post #174
sph wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought about it but no. I am OK with who I am, and I don't have any hate speech to share that I need to hide my identity. I just want to show the Internet world a side of me that is not only the stereotypical software engineer, because I'm not. No one is, is the point I'm making. We all have our quirks, and we should celebrate them. I know your blog, I can't say I understand where you're coming from or that I rela…

Yes but really, having a pseudonym that is wholly unrelated to you and letting you get things out on that side blog that way can be invaluable. I have at least two such side blogs. Statistically you've probably read one of those side blog articles without knowing.

Yes you might be right. Also the hacker culture has always been centered around pseudonyms and fake identities. My quest might be a bit quixotic in this day and age.

Thanks for the level headed conversation

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

#186

Post by sph »

maccard wrote: post #165
nybdty wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.`

I should be able to mention it en passant without having to dive deep into my opinions of the matter which are wholly unrelated and just a way to entrap me.

The discussion is around identity, and mentioning that these days only gender identity is a corporate-acceptable struggle. I claim that identity in general should be celebrated. I shan't be afraid to say, on my blog I'm an anarchist, or, for argument's sake, I'm a satanist, I am trans, I vote Trump, Google is a shitty company, or Star Wars is a terrible franchise.

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

#187

Post by sph »

wiseowise wrote: post #130
raincole wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My gender and race are me too, and I don't want to live in a world where my gender and race can significantly affect the chance that I get hired. Actually my gender and race are much more "me" than my blog, cause I might change my opinions and my blog no longer reflects my internal "states".

That’s a different matter. What I meant is your blog is an extension of your personality. You can’t discriminate based on sex or race, you can based on personality.

You're allowed to discriminate based on personality by law, but socially, if you do it with anyone you don't agree with completely:

1. You probably don't have many friends or

2. Your friends are not very diverse

Outside, in the real world, I can sit and have a very pleasant conversation on TV shows or Lisp interpreters with someone with terrible ideas or belief which are inconsequential to the matter at hand and are not part of the conversation. I can sit for a beer with childhood acquaintances that I know are racist, bigots or generally idiots, because we're talking about something else than the things I know we don't see eye to eye. And that's fine.

It is frightening that we're forgetting how real people outside the Internet are, behave and can get along in all their complexity.

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

#188

Post by somsak2 »

the bar for public creativity may be relatively low, but in my experience as a candidate, interviewer, and hiring manager, it really does not actually make a difference. i'm generally too busy to be looking into this kind of stuff. hell, i rarely read your whole resume.

let's talk and see if there's something. outside of that it's just wasting time.

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

#189

Post by gavinhoward »

prawn wrote: post #96
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…

Is it possible that employers could think that your political aspirations may outweigh your commitment to working consistently for them into the future? Links from your site: https://gavinhoward.com/2020/06/i-am-running-for-office/ https://gab.com/gavinhoward

You didn't read far enough. My campaign has been terminated and will stay terminated.

I lost the motivation to continue.

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

#190

Post by raincole »

wiseowise wrote: post #130
raincole wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My gender and race are me too, and I don't want to live in a world where my gender and race can significantly affect the chance that I get hired. Actually my gender and race are much more "me" than my blog, cause I might change my opinions and my blog no longer reflects my internal "states".

That’s a different matter. What I meant is your blog is an extension of your personality. You can’t discriminate based on sex or race, you can based on personality.

Yeah, but it's a bit like to refuse to work with someone who follows a different religion than you, or someone who is into astrology a bit too much.

Again I know it's not black and white and everyone has different red lines. If someone treats killing baby mammals as their favorite form of entertainment I probably can't work with them.

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