To me, blogging for a better chance at being hired seems as good as “work for exposure”.
It’s not all bad, and I see how it could be helpful and fun; still, it feels like something that shouldn’t be necessary.
It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate
211–220 of 396 posts
Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate
#212To me, blogging for a better chance at being hired seems as good as “work for exposure”. It’s not all bad, and I see how it could be helpful and fun; still, it feels like something that shouldn’t be necessary.
Why? How else are people going to get to know you?
Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
It could be when they see that https://git.gavinhoward.com/gavin/petty-tyrant-businesses
It gets worse. His website has subscribe links to Gab and Parler accounts, and a rant whining about lobste.rs banning him for being transphobic that is completely un-introspective. https://gavinhoward.com/2022/07/lobste.rs-will-become-an-ech... I don't care how good of a C whiz this person is, if I see that crap associated with an applicant their application is going straight to the incinerator. Even if I had no prob…
From reading through that blog post, he's not wrong is he?
The moderation of lobste.rs is nowhere near as even-handed as HN, as his example (and many others) demonstrates.
Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even discounting finding his opinions objectionable (which, in my opinion, any reasonable person would), I'd pass on someone who posts this kind of content purely because they're a ticking time bomb. I don't want them to piss off a big client or explode because of a work disagreement while they're packing heat. I wouldn't want to hire them knowing that I might have to fear for my life even a little if I need to fire…
I know this, by the way. But it's a good thing that companies find this out because I'm not a good fit for a sterile work environment. My original post was not asking why; it was refuting the article that said it was a good thing in its face.
The original post is titled "it doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate"
Not that I necessarily agree with that, but how are you refuting it?
The posts that make you stand out the most don't really demonstrate creativity, nor do they make you stand out in a positive way (to most employers; perhaps not to any employers, since you're so publicly opinionated on a variety of things that are largely unrelated and yet also largely unaligned with the majority of tech workers)
I'm not refuting that you have technical writing that could make you stand out in a positive way, but it's overshadowed by all the other stuff.
It's like if someone posted "You only have to write one operating system from scratch to stand out as a candidate", and then Terry Davis (author of TempleOS) comes in and says "not true, I wrote an operating system and no one will hire me"
Well sure, but if you look at the comments in the source code for that or any of his writing or videos, they're riddled with racial slurs.
Obviously the OS itself is impressive, but no one wants to hire a liability
Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
There might be people outside of the conference targeting attendees.
Let me be completely clear with you: you are the danger to others when you bring a concealed firearm to a conference. There might be people outside of the conference targeting attendees? That is the talk of someone who walks around life haunted by fear.
No, it's the talk of someone who lived in a dangerous neighborhood.
Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate
#216This sounds like good advice. My current employer does not allow me to write technical blogs or have public git repos even if they’re unrelated to work and when done on my own time with my own resources. Sigh.
Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> do not doubt that what you are saying is true
You should doubt it, because it’s wildly exaggerated. The overwhelming majority of software engineers in America are not speaking at conferences, blogging, or maintaining open-source software beyond possibly toy projects.
Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
It can be any part. Usually, the problem is that companies find out that I'm not good as a cog in a machine. That can happen at any time, but once they do, they're not interested.
Looking at your blog, I think you're such a specialist that it's going to be hard to find a good fit. (For example, only being willing to write code in C.) Most people are more flexible.
Oh, I know. I never wondered why. I merely said that I can't get a job to refute the article.
Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate
#219Unlike 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 don't see a contradiction. The article only talks about standing out from the crowd. You probably do. But in your case it probably causes people to not want to hire you.
I know. I merely refuted the article. I know why I can't get a job.
Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate
#220This is great advice. The best evidence you can perform a job is demonstrating that you’ve done it in the past.