

Ask HN: Is There Something Wrong with My CV or Skillset? - bespoke_engnr

Hi there,<p>I&#x27;m a software developer (former sysadmin) who&#x27;s just getting into the field. This summer, I finished my first large solo freelance project (a web application pulling data from a network of remote sensors, which I also set up and programmed).<p>My programmer friends have been telling me to &quot;just apply for a job, you&#x27;re better than you think&quot; for a long time now, but after this project I finally feel competent enough to call myself a programmer.<p>Just a few weeks ago, I moved to a new country, where the job market is kind of crappy. I applied for some local sysadmin gigs because the few programming jobs I see here all revolve around Java, C#, or PHP. I had one interview but nothing came of it.<p>I&#x27;ve been applying to remote jobs for about 3 months now (Ruby&#x2F;Rails, some Python&#x2F;flask), mainly by sending out my resume&#x2F;cover letter on Cybercoders, StackOverflow, etc. This hasn&#x27;t gotten much in the way of results.<p>A few days ago, I posted a &#x27;hire me!&#x27;[0] on HN, but it was buried within minutes. I did get some good feedback, though, pointing out that most companies aren&#x27;t eager to give out non-senior dev positions to remote people.<p>I&#x27;m starting to suspect that something is terribly wrong with my CV. As a sysadmin, I was used to being hired within 3 weeks of starting to send out applications in a new city. What am I doing wrong?<p>I&#x27;ve posted my resume[1] -- if you&#x27;ve got a minute, could you look over it and tell me what critical flaw I&#x27;m not seeing? This seems like the best time in the history of humanity to be a programmer; why am I having so much trouble finding a job?<p>I can&#x27;t offer much in return, except this: I travel a lot; if you help me and I&#x27;m ever in your city, I&#x27;ll get in touch with you and buy you a beer.<p>Thanks!<p>[0] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=8366690
[1] project768.com&#x2F;files&#x2F;cv_programming.pdf
======
tptacek
Your CV doesn't matter. What matters is your approach. Pick companies you want
to work for. Research them to death. Imagine a dream role at that company, one
where you're generating enormous value for that company while enjoying
yourself immensely. Find hiring managers at that company. Pitch them. Listen
carefully, refine your pitch. BE PERSISTENT. Until you have a job you love,
hit everyone once a month.

Your resume plays virtually zero role in this whole process.

~~~
bespoke_engnr
First, thanks for this comment. You're right -- reframing the problem is
exactly what I need to do.

I'm now improving my CV as a second strategy _while_ searching for a company I
really want to work for. This, as you can imagine, is the hard-yet-necessary
part that I've been avoiding.

At this point I'm just posting on a dead thread, but I just wanted to say
thanks to everyone. You really helped me.

~~~
tptacek
Sure. Just be careful you're not ratholing. I'm a hiring manager who's
unusually bearish about the value of resumes, but even before I was: they were
the least important part of our screening process.

A good cover letter is much more important than a resume.

~~~
bespoke_engnr
Sorry, could you define 'ratholing'? I'm having trouble imagining my job
search as

a. covertly taking my chips off the table during a Poker game, or b. living in
a small, messy room.

Thanks again!

------
shock
Hi David,

Your CV is bottom heavy: much of the interesting stuff is buried in the
experience section below the fold, so to speak.

In the experience section, the line spacing is too big for me to be able to
easily and quickly form a mental picture of your experience. I should be able
to do this in a quick glance. I wouldn't extend the experience section above 2
pages.

The bottom line is that I cannot quickly determine what you're about. Unable
to determining that quickly, and by extension your 'fitability' to the
position I'm recruiting for would make me put your CV at the bottom of the
pile to focus on if I don't find any suitable candidates in the easy-to-
categorize pile of CVs.

I would:

\- start with the Experience section (no longer than 2 pages)

\- move everything I can from the Experience section to the Skills section
(tech used, etc); if I wouldn't want to list some tech I used just for one
job, in the Skills section, I would make it a one-liner at that particular job
description: "Technologies used: PostGIS, LDAP, etc"

\- switch the focus of the Experience section from what I did, to what I
accomplished. There's plenty of opportunity for the company to ask me about
what I did at the interview; remember: the only purpose of the CV is to get
you an interview, not to tell the story of your life. This doesn't mean you
shouldn't list things you did that you feel proud of or feel that are very
important/relevant.

\- get rid of the Objective. It doesn't serve the purpose of a CV. I don't
think a recruiter wouldn't select you for an interview because your CV doesn't
contain an Objective, so it's more noise at best, at worst it makes the
recruiter not select you because of something you've written in the Objective.

\- add some color to the CV. Use different fonts. Experiment with different
layouts. Make it memorable!

Finally, you are better that you give yourself credit for!

~~~
bespoke_engnr
That is _so_ helpful; thank you! E-mail me your city and I'll put you on my
beer list :-D.

~~~
shock
I've had some more thoughts in the meantime:

\- switch from using a word processor to a typesetting system (latex or lout);
this is important because of signalling[0]. There are numerous CV templates on
writelatex and sharelatex. Email me if you need help with this. I use Gummi on
Ubuntu with a template I exported from writelatex.

\- recruiters want to avoid risk. this means that the CV they present to the
hiring managers needs have a good chance of being liked and selected by the
hiring manager but it doesn't need to be the best in the batch of CVs that
were submitted to the recruiter. a recruiter will get flak if he gives the
hiring manager ill-fitting CVs but is unlikely to get flak for not giving the
hiring manager the best CV in the bunch (simply because no one else will go
through all the CVs)

\- recruiters and hiring managers also want the candidate that gets hired to
be able to get the job done because otherwise it reflects poorly on them. keep
this in mind always. you know you can get the job done, now you need to signal
it to them too. if you see they are undecided, propose to them to give you a
2-week trial project at no monetary cost to them: this tells them you are
committed to get the job (and that if they hire you, you'll probably do a good
job because employees that are interested in the job do it better than
uninterested ones)

[0] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_theory)

------
aswerty
So it looks like you're looking for work in Galway - often called an overgrown
village. Galway definitely does have a software development industry but it is
not exactly a hackers Mecca. Just be aware that you are not in a big market.
In Ireland Dublin is by far the best place to be getting work.

As others have said; get your CV to within 2 pages.

Other local knowledge:

\- The objective section of the CV is pretty common in Ireland as an
alternative to a cover page.

\- Recruitment agencies dominate the market. If you are avoiding them this
will seriously hurt your prospects.

\- I'd strike out the Austria address if you still have it in there, as an
island anything hinting that you are not based in the country will put people
off. Also you should get an Irish mobile number, the +43 says "I'm not based
here" to me.

\- Work histroy is generally the top section (after an objective/about section
if you have one). Make sure work history highlights competency for the roles
you are going for.

\- Don't include a photo, it is the done thing in a lot of europe but is not
done in Ireland.

------
jardaroh
What shock says is correct.

Some of my thoughts: You list education and interests before experience, in my
circles experience is the first thing an employer looks at and it should be
listed first.

Your layout lacks style or flair, you being a sysadmin and programmer, things
like typography probably didn't even cross your mind but as it turns out,
employers love CVs that looks like some effort was put into it.

The CV is too long, your font is too big and too much spacing between lines
and sections. Also sections have different spacing between them that makes it
look unprofessional. It used to be that fonts should be large for readability,
but that is not the case anymore especially if you can send the CV in as a
PDF. If you have to send a printed CV, take font sizes more into account.

There is too much detail on your projects, if an employer is interested in the
tech and projects you list they will ask questions. It is true that it is
better to leave something to be desired. Entice them, do not force feed them.

I will include my CV in english version (not final version as I got a job in
Norway :p) Not to brag but my CV got praised and hung on a wall in a design
firm where I worked for a while. I hope you can take some inspiration, but
also, research how CVs are expected to look in the region where you apply for
jobs, this varies from place to place, sometimes drastically.

Also, if you think you have made a new and better CV and application, it is
absolutely allowed to apply for jobs somewhere you applied before, even the
same position. This might even boost your image as a person very interested in
the job.

[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4815187/cv_en.pdf](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4815187/cv_en.pdf)

~~~
bespoke_engnr
Thanks for this advice, I really liked your CV. I'll take some inspiration
from it!

------
MalcolmDiggs
I think your CV is fine. My advice is to just make yourself more visible. It's
been a long time since I got a job by applying for it; these days you're in
the best bargaining position if _they_ approach you, not the other way around.

My top 5 strategies are:

1\. Be active on LinkedIn, make sure your specialties/skillsets are all filled
out. Comment in the group-forums regularly.

2\. Be active on Angellist, fill out a hiring profile completely.

3\. Make as many of your Github repos public as you can. Add more projects in
your spare time.

4\. Be active on stackoverflow (and careers.stackoverflow)

5\. Be active here! (HN). You'd be surprised who is reading these threads.

No actual 'applying to jobs' should be necessary. Just being visible should be
enough; you'll be beating them off with a stick in no time.

Normally 'attending meetups' would be near the top of my list, but I have no
idea if there is an active meetup community in your locale. If there is, go to
as many as you can stomach!

~~~
bespoke_engnr
Thanks for the advice! I just showed LinkedIn some love last week; I'll go
over it again and make sure it's complete and contains all the relevant
keywords. I've never posted in a group; I guess I'll start doing that.

No meetups here, I checked when I moved. I miss Vienna, they had a great
hacklab scene full of smart people doing interesting things.

Anyway, I'll implement the rest of your list in the next few days.

Thank you!

------
dleskov
The section on résumés in Butterick's Practical Typography book has some
decent advice, not just typography-related:

[http://practicaltypography.com/resumes.html](http://practicaltypography.com/resumes.html)

Have your CV edited by a professional editor. I have seen this working wonders
- from no responses to competing offers from two top companies in the field.
Editing is so cheap compared to its potential effect on your entire lifetime
income that it has a good chance of being your best ever investment.

------
Chetane
Your CV is too long. Maybe not in terms of content, but the layout makes it 6
pages which is very unusual - Most interviewers look at a lot of resume, and
don't have time to "extract & filter" out what matters most from the 6 pages:
that's your task. I would suggest reducing it to 1-2 pages, only keeping what
is most pertinent (caveat: things like 1500 subscribers from your Youtube
channel is pertinent, as it shows passion about what you do, being pro-active
in it, and giving back to community). That being said, sounds like you've got
a lot of experience, and definitely sounds like you're better than you think
:) Just make it easier to notice via you CV.

