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Is just a tough market or am I unhireable now?

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Re: Is just a tough market or am I unhireable now?

#21

Post by mightymosquito »

tensility wrote: post #18

I sincerely hope that the attempt to obscure your identity in the resume wan't intended to be serious, A.C. The fact that you left all your former employers' names other than the current one made you a trivial single-hit search on LinkedIn, for whatever it's worth. If you were serious with your attempt at operational privacy, tighten up your information hiding because you're an easy match right now. If you weren't se…

Nope, not trying to be super private!!

Thanks for looking me up though!

Re: Is just a tough market or am I unhireable now?

#22

Post by paulcole »

tensility wrote: post #19
dakiol wrote: post #15

I think it’s mainly because of the year gap. Try lying about it. I had a 5 month gap in my resume (I quit my last job without having something new) and I got rejected a couple of times without having a single interview. As soon as I put that I’m still working, I got the interviews again on track. I don’t think it’s unethical to lie about that: if I pass their (shitty) interview, that means I “fit” their “culture”.

A lie is far worse than a gap. I'd much rather see someone simply be honest about the fact that they've taken a year off to focus on their personal health due to a serious medical condition. Further, if the lie is uncovered at any point, trust is likely broken forever. This is awful advice, in my opinion, and I certainly don't want to hire anyone who agrees with it ... ever.

> A lie is far worse than a gap

It's only a lie if it's found out.

Just say you were working on your own project or freelancing or something.

Think of all the lies you've been told in your life where you never found out the truth!

Re: Is just a tough market or am I unhireable now?

#23

Post by quietmonkey »

tensility wrote: post #19
dakiol wrote: post #15

I think it’s mainly because of the year gap. Try lying about it. I had a 5 month gap in my resume (I quit my last job without having something new) and I got rejected a couple of times without having a single interview. As soon as I put that I’m still working, I got the interviews again on track. I don’t think it’s unethical to lie about that: if I pass their (shitty) interview, that means I “fit” their “culture”.

A lie is far worse than a gap. I'd much rather see someone simply be honest about the fact that they've taken a year off to focus on their personal health due to a serious medical condition. Further, if the lie is uncovered at any point, trust is likely broken forever. This is awful advice, in my opinion, and I certainly don't want to hire anyone who agrees with it ... ever.

Why would a company that is filtering resumes based on whether there’s a gap be worthy of trust?

Re: Is just a tough market or am I unhireable now?

#24

Post by GoldenMonkey »

It is a very tough job market. I have been looking for 11 months myself with zero interviews. And 500+ applications to jobs I am qualified for.

The summary of your resume is very dense. Opening it felt like a wall of text, I wanted to immediately close.

Have chatgpt rewrite it.

Because of ATS resume systems, your resume may be getting screened out. After chatgpt has rewritten it.

Throw it into an ATS resume checker like https://www.jobscan.co to see how it is performing for ATS filters.

I particularly like https://simplify.jobs that can tailor your resume and autofill for applications. Will save a lot of time if you do not have this already.

Best of luck. It is extremely tough and unusual. Apply for jobs in your immediate city or a place you could relocate to, as a priority... as the remote ones are extremely competitive.

Re: Is just a tough market or am I unhireable now?

#25

Post by JustExAWS »

Your resume is way too long. I have 30 years of experience across ten jobs and my current resume - that I keep updated quarterly - is a page and half with decent spaces and margins and a 10 point font I believe.

Second, it just seems to be a hodgepodge of technologies and numbers. Despite the advice you see on the internet, no hiring manager for developers pays any credence to numbers as far as how much you made or save a company. It doesn’t really tell a story.

Why are responsibilities and achievements separate? Why would I care about your responsibilities? I care about your results?

Honestly, if I were looking at your resume, I would throw in the trash. It would make me mad just because you were wasting my time making me look through three pages of word salad instead of getting to the point.

Are you developer? Are you DevOps? Redo your entire resume. Make it shorter and briefly describe your major accomplishments - not responsibilities - in STAR format.

I usually have bullet points like “Did $x using $y technologies”. I don’t list technologies separately

I work in cloud consulting now specializing in app dev + cloud architecture. So if I squint I can see what type of positions you would be qualified for. But you would make me work way too hard to figure that out.

For context: From what it looks like, you have a similar combination of experience that I did in 2020 when I did interview for AWS ProServe. I just emphasized leadership and accomplishments more than technology. Now I’m a staff architect at a 3rd party company.

Also the job market is tough now. Even with my experience and credentials, when I was randomly submitting my resume to ATS’s as a Plan B while I was waiting to hear back from my Plan A - my network and targeted outreach where I had a specialized set of skills they were looking for, I heard crickets. I found a job quickly (within two weeks) based on my network - not my resume.

Your experience looks solid from what I can tell your resume is horrible though.

Edit; I take it back about the numbers. I saw the shorter version someone posted. It looks like you were a team lead and did some more strategic stuff? It’s hard to tell from your original resume.

When you were a “director” were you a real director - a manager of managers? Did you have a budget you controlled? Were you involved with strategy initiatives? How many people reported to you?

Re: Is just a tough market or am I unhireable now?

#26

Post by JustExAWS »

neuralkoi wrote: post #20

Your resume is too long. Try to fit it to a single page. When I worked at a FAANG I was once sent a list of 80 resumes to review. I didn't spend more than 30-60s per resume (recruiters often spend way less) and yours would take at least 5 minutes to read completely. This is what your resume could look like if shortened: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lt9zJF119f2G-XDcyBKUOxj6o2X... Also reach out to every single con…

Wow, that might be a little too short. But as much as I critiqued his resume in another comment and said I would trash it just because I would be mad that he thought I should read a three page resume, I would definitely call him in for an interview based on your shortened version. I would do it out of curiosity to ask deeper questions.

Re: Is just a tough market or am I unhireable now?

#27

Post by JustExAWS »

GoldenMonkey wrote: post #24

It is a very tough job market. I have been looking for 11 months myself with zero interviews. And 500+ applications to jobs I am qualified for. The summary of your resume is very dense. Opening it felt like a wall of text, I wanted to immediately close. Have chatgpt rewrite it. Because of ATS resume systems, your resume may be getting screened out. After chatgpt has rewritten it. Throw it into an ATS resume checker l…

FWIW: I just used Job scan and put the job description of the closest I could find to my current job at my current company - it’s actually a level below my current position - and my resume and it showed only a 63% match. I was just hired a year ago based on an internal recruiter reaching out to me.

Re: Is just a tough market or am I unhireable now?

#28

Post by mightymosquito »

neuralkoi wrote: post #20

Your resume is too long. Try to fit it to a single page. When I worked at a FAANG I was once sent a list of 80 resumes to review. I didn't spend more than 30-60s per resume (recruiters often spend way less) and yours would take at least 5 minutes to read completely. This is what your resume could look like if shortened: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lt9zJF119f2G-XDcyBKUOxj6o2X... Also reach out to every single con…

Thanks for this!

Re: Is just a tough market or am I unhireable now?

#29

Post by muzani »

neuralkoi wrote: post #20

Your resume is too long. Try to fit it to a single page. When I worked at a FAANG I was once sent a list of 80 resumes to review. I didn't spend more than 30-60s per resume (recruiters often spend way less) and yours would take at least 5 minutes to read completely. This is what your resume could look like if shortened: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lt9zJF119f2G-XDcyBKUOxj6o2X... Also reach out to every single con…

I have about 12 years of exp too. I was given a lot of advice to just increase it to two pages, especially when most jobs lasted less than a year.

Agreed that they have to be read in about 30s. It's important to have the major points clear - a summary of the person in 3 words, best jobs, and so on. Someone who worked at Apple 6 years ago, sure, put it up there on the first page even though it's not chronological. The purpose is to get the interview or at least past the first round of resume skimming. The facts can come on a second page.

Re: Is just a tough market or am I unhireable now?

#30

Post by muzani »

tensility wrote: post #19
dakiol wrote: post #15

I think it’s mainly because of the year gap. Try lying about it. I had a 5 month gap in my resume (I quit my last job without having something new) and I got rejected a couple of times without having a single interview. As soon as I put that I’m still working, I got the interviews again on track. I don’t think it’s unethical to lie about that: if I pass their (shitty) interview, that means I “fit” their “culture”.

A lie is far worse than a gap. I'd much rather see someone simply be honest about the fact that they've taken a year off to focus on their personal health due to a serious medical condition. Further, if the lie is uncovered at any point, trust is likely broken forever. This is awful advice, in my opinion, and I certainly don't want to hire anyone who agrees with it ... ever.

I think the only thing applicants should hide is whether they have a mental illness of some form. It's probably legally best to hide medical information anyway; it puts interviewers in a tough spot.

I've never had an issue with a gap. Sometimes relatives get sick. Sometimes they go on a 3 month road trip on a bike, or a pilgrimage. Sometimes they try to start a business. None of these are negative things. Sure, some guy might be in prison or rehab, but that might not really matter.

Whenever we see catch a lie on a resume, the interview is over.

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