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

simonwillison.net

71–80 of 396 posts

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

#71

Other comments here mention there's no real time to look through actual code or a GH repo. I agree, however that's why I think it's better to focus on the other markers here - blog, community involvement, and so on. It doesn't have to be grandiose; just list it on your CV! You cover a few things this way. You show that you think beyond the terms of warming a seat, and can highlight particular ways you may fit a speci…

> For kicks and giggles I even have "Certified Log Home Builder" in my CV after taking a course on it.

- Proficient in the use of log aggregation tools

- Experience ensuring systems can stand up under heavy load

- Skilled at operating within strict architectural constraints

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

#72

The act of taking a serious look at people's github repos, blogs, or whatever else, appears fairly unusual. I've asked.

GitHub can be faked by taking work of others. When screening there’s no time to investigate each artifact. It’s nice if someone has a github repo, but it’s by no means the deciding factor.

Yeah. I often look at a candidate’s GitHub profile before an interview to get a sense of what they’re interested in - but mostly so I can ask interesting interview questions. “So, I saw on your GitHub you’ve made a few projects building terminal based UIs. What got you into that?” / “What are the big challenges in making modern terminal UIs? Why don’t more people do it?”

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

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At what point in the job finding/interviewing process are you having trouble with? If you don’t mind me asking?

It could be when they see that https://git.gavinhoward.com/gavin/petty-tyrant-businesses

Instant no hire from me. Too vocal and opinionated, could be a liability later.

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

#74
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be when they see that https://git.gavinhoward.com/gavin/petty-tyrant-businesses

While I disagree with the stance and tone of that repo, I appreciate that someone stops being a corporate lackey even on their personal websites; we've all become sterile, pleasant representations of the ideal worker just hoping for someone to have the decency to pay us for our programming ability and talent. Maybe be a little careful with the conspiracy theories, but I am quite done with the corporate-friendly perso…

Do what everyone does for this: make a side blog under a pseudonym.

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

#75
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be when they see that https://git.gavinhoward.com/gavin/petty-tyrant-businesses

While I disagree with the stance and tone of that repo, I appreciate that someone stops being a corporate lackey even on their personal websites; we've all become sterile, pleasant representations of the ideal worker just hoping for someone to have the decency to pay us for our programming ability and talent. Maybe be a little careful with the conspiracy theories, but I am quite done with the corporate-friendly perso…

[deleted]

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

#76
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

His bio just says "Christian", and doesn't say anything about being a Mormon. Also pretty sure most of the people working on bare metal are not LGBT or furries. Certainly some are, but... what a weird thing to assert.

They mean his blog bio: https://gavinhoward.com/about/

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

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At what point in the job finding/interviewing process are you having trouble with? If you don’t mind me asking?

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 problem hiring bad, asshole human beings, this guy is a legal liability.

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

#78

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 pandemic.

* You're petty enough about the above to post a list of businesses you won't patronize because they require masking.

* You are boycotting Rust because they don't want people bringing guns to their conferences.

* You complain about being banned from lobste.rs for posting transphobic comments. (And yes, despite your protestations, they are indeed transphobic.) And also for claiming that gender dysphoria is essentially a mental illness to be cured.

You clearly think these are all reasonable positions to hold, but the fact of the matter is that these sorts of things will be considered red flags by many recruiters and hiring managers at many tech companies. You may believe that these things should have no bearing on whether or not you get a job, but what matters is the reality, not what you believe.

On the technical side:

* You don't want to work in any language but C.

* You claim that you can't read/understand code written by others, citing a dubious "theory of mind" excuse.

Most tech companies don't use C these days. Certainly there are some, but most that write internet-facing programs don't use it. Even a company that does have C positions might be concerned about your unwillingness to write anything else. And reading, understanding, maintaining, and adding features to other people's code is a huge part of nearly any software development job.

I have no doubt that some of your technical achievements are impressive, but companies consider much more than that when making hiring decisions.

All this is just from a few minutes perusing your website.

> I live in a place where people generally share the same values, so those other posts shouldn't be a problem.

I'm assuming you live in Utah based on some of the things I read on your website; I don't expect there are a ton of tech-company employers there. And of those that are there, I suspect many people who work at them don't share as many of your values as you think they do.

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

#79
post #35

Earlier 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.

You seem like a super intelligent guy in regards to your profession, though (and perhaps it is my own bias) also super contrarian. I'd genuinely always pick the person who is easy to work with than someone who might cause conflict - even if the latter was way smarter. Collaboration is key in teams.

This is what it boils down to. The combination of competent and contrarian often becomes extremely toxic for the workplace.

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

#80

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…

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.

Even then, your job as a developer is reading and comprehending other people's code and your manager's intents; writing your own code should be a detail.
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