It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate • Hacker News Board

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

#241

Post by loeg » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 2:41 PM UTC

_mh56 wrote: post #155

I have 50+ public projects on Github. Some of them are live, have screenshots, proper documentation and such. Some of them gets stars or people reach out for support on these projects. Some of them I've advertised on Reddit etc and reached 100K+ views and a lot of upvotes in their respective Communities. I also have a substack which has reached top of HackerNews once. All this has netted me exactly ZERO opportunities…

If you want to come across better, consider grouping multiple sentences into a single paragraph.

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

#242

Post by pcthrowaway » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 2:41 PM UTC

gavinhoward wrote: post #231

pcthrowaway wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 la…

I know this. The article had an implicit bent that standing out was good . When you're like me, it's not. That's what I was refuting.

The article didn't expressly say that in the title because it was clear from the context.

The author is clearly talking about blogging to demonstrate expertise and creativity in the technical domain, in order to stand out positively.

The author did not make the claim that ranting about your fringe opinions online will make you stand out positively. In fact, they didn't mention the impact that would have at all.

You are fighting a straw man.

> When you're like me, it's not

It has nothing to do with being like you. You're not standing out positively because you're choosing to post things that make you stand out negatively, and the author made no claim about how that would impact you as a candidate.

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

#243

Post by Ylpertnodi » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 2:41 PM UTC

otoburb wrote: post #230

wiseowise wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All in all, it still doesn't make it right. Sure it does. It may suck from a perspective of a candidate, but it’s a fair business position to value cohesion in a team.

>> Sure it does. I can't comment on other jurisdictions, but the United States has a section of legislation called the Civil Rights Act Title VII[1] codifying that discrimination on the basis of a variety of factors (age included) is actually not (legally) right. I think this is hard to enforce in practice, but just to be clear -- it's not (technically) "right" to be ageist in one's hiring practices in the US. [1] ht…

We have similar anti-discriminatory rules in the various parts of eu. The answer is always: 'prove the discrimination'. Candidates can rarely afford to even consider bringing a case.

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

#244

Post by benzible » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 2:41 PM UTC

_mh56 wrote: post #155

I have 50+ public projects on Github. Some of them are live, have screenshots, proper documentation and such. Some of them gets stars or people reach out for support on these projects. Some of them I've advertised on Reddit etc and reached 100K+ views and a lot of upvotes in their respective Communities. I also have a substack which has reached top of HackerNews once. All this has netted me exactly ZERO opportunities…

I actively seek out open source maintainers when hiring. I recently hired an engineer (who happens to be Indian) I found via a popular package he maintains. I don't know how common it is to do this but, somewhat self-servingly, I think that employers who select for open source contributions may offer a better environment than those who don't.

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

#245

Post by agentultra » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 2:44 PM UTC

It does work to build professional connections. A good number of my jobs came through people recognizing me from talks I've given, my writing, meetups, and working on open source projects.

However it didn't help much in the interview process. I've never been in an interview where the interviewer looked at my profiles on various code hosting platforms, reviewed some of my pull requests before hand, and came into the room with a good idea of what I do and how I work. They will still ask the same pre-canned questions they are forced to ask and we're back to reversing linked lists and memoizing tree walking algorithms.

It's good for getting to know folks which can help in finding places to apply to where you might already know some people.

But I doubt it's going to make you stand out in the interview process itself.

Update: That being said, I've been on the other side of the table and when I was the one setting up the interview process I made sure candidates knew that they could send over recent PRs they've made for us to review in order to bypass any coding exercises. I find it much easier to discuss the problem they were working on and seeing their solution is really helpful.

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

#246

Post by horsawlarway » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 2:45 PM UTC

melenaboija wrote: post #232

I love all these blog posts that will take you to the heaven of the $500K jobs with three easy steps. It is hard, period. Otherwise everybody would be there, and if the advice works then you will have to find something else as in any other market, gaps close.

It's also just a different type of work. Some people enjoy it more than others.

Putting out public consumption content shows you're the type of developer that enjoys putting out public consumption content. That can be a useful role for companies to fill, but it's hardly the only role needed.

It's a little flashy for interviews, and that can help get a foot in the door sometimes - but like the author mentions... Interviewers aren't stupid, we know that some of our best hires don't do any blogging/public content at all. It's not going to move the needle much either way for most of the hiring I've been involved in.

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

#247

Post by loeg » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 2:45 PM UTC

gavinhoward wrote: post #227

wiseowise wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Standing out doesn't mean you'll get a job. Judging by your description and comment you certainly stand out, but is that enough to get a job? I can't tell unless I have an interview with you.

It's not enough to get a job, no. I am not a good fit for companies, and I know it. I was just refuting the article.

This isn't what "refute" means! Your situation does not contradict the article's claim. It's orthogonal.

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

#248

Post by schumpeter » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 2:48 PM UTC

wiseowise wrote: post #124

dvt wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's funny, because posting that list of businesses is... also pretty petty. People boycott things all the time for all kinds of reasons. Some people boycott Israeli businesses due to the Israel/Palestine conflict, other people boycott MyPillow, and others boycott Chik-Fil-A, or more recently Budweiser. The outrage here on HN is a bit annoying, considering this used to be a fairly balanced platform. As a consumer,…

They’re boycotting business for complying with government regulations. It’s petty and it’s stupid.

Would you have felt that way when people were boycotting buses in the Jim Crow south?

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

#249

Post by JohnFen » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 2:48 PM UTC

melenaboija wrote: post #232

I love all these blog posts that will take you to the heaven of the $500K jobs with three easy steps. It is hard, period. Otherwise everybody would be there, and if the advice works then you will have to find something else as in any other market, gaps close.

> Otherwise everybody would be there

There are tons of devs who have little interest in those $500k jobs. But regardless, applying for any position at any company is a sales and marketing task. The advice in this article applies well to them all.

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

#250

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 2:49 PM UTC

gavinhoward wrote: post #215

emptysongglass wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]