[HN Gopher] Show HN: I wrote a book on writing good developer re...
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: I wrote a book on writing good developer resumes
Author : gregdoesit
Score : 258 points
Date : 2020-10-14 15:28 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (thetechresume.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (thetechresume.com)
| riffic wrote:
| You have a validation error on your Complimentary Copy page:
|
| https://imgur.com/cE29tg3
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Ouch! I do! Fixed now. Thank you!
| [deleted]
| Gehinnn wrote:
| Shouldn't the process of hiring be more like an interactive proof
| system?
|
| Prover (the applicant) and verifier (the hiring manager) are both
| interested in proving the applicant to be a suited candidate. It
| should be in the hiring manager's interest that suited candidates
| can act as valid prover that can convince the verifier!
|
| With this thought, this book should be financed by both the
| hiring manager and the applicant. The hiring manager should help
| applicants to write good resumes. And the applicant should help
| the hiring manager to accept their proof of suitability.
|
| Also, do you think this book will get more people a job (which
| would effectively create jobs and reduce unemployment) or just
| improve the candidate selection?
|
| If it just improves the candidate selection, the rejection rate
| and thus the average happiness of applicants would stay the same
| (or even drop, as they paid money for this book) and the only
| beneficent would be the employer, as better candidates are hired.
| Insanity wrote:
| The website gives me a notification saying "looks like you're
| based in the Netherlands..." regarding VAT. Interesting approach,
| but alas I'm in Belgium (next to NL) and not even close to the
| border.. :)
| brnt wrote:
| The author seems a helpful fellow future proofing his website
| :)
|
| I do live near a border and YouTube thinks I'm in the other
| country all the time. I suspect European borders may have more
| resolution than Californian algorithms.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Sorry about that, I didn't do it on purpose! I use the service
| https://ipstack.com to look up IPs and use their data to
| display discounts based on location. I pay for this, so I was
| hoping it's better quality than it is.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| > Hey looks like you're based in United Kingdom. The below prices
| do not include VAT. Use the code VAT20 to offset the VAT rate of
| 20%, if you want to.
|
| But we don't pay VAT on books do we? And the item doesn't include
| it, as it says. So what's being offset? Is it just a general 20%
| discount?
| gregdoesit wrote:
| I use Gumroad to fulfill orders, and they do not have an
| "e-books" category. They add VAT to everything, then transfer
| it to HMRC who don't complain. I'll work with them if we can
| change it later on.
|
| This is my workaround for you not to have to pay VAT: I lower
| the price by the amount, so the full amount will stay the same
| for you (even though VAT is added).
|
| It's not a generic discount: I add it to all EU countries with
| higher VAT rates. Many of these countries have (e)books without
| VAT, but Gumroad still adds the VAT.
| riantogo wrote:
| The website is fantastic. Did you use a template to create it? Is
| it using some platform for checkout? I would love to know. Also
| if you can share the process of publishing a book like this end-
| to-end (writing, publishing, hosting, marketing etc.) it would be
| an invaluable read. I want to publish a book in my field, but not
| sure how to go about it. Thanks.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Thank you! I bought two Bootstrap templates to build the
| website and tweaked them, the main one being this one[1]. I'll
| share a post about how I self published and tools I used for
| the launch on my blog[2] - you can add it to your reader or
| subscribe to the newsletter to be notified. All those details
| wouldn't fit in this comment!
|
| [1] https://gumroad.com/a/901313651/vBcuK
|
| [2] https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/
| A_Venom_Roll wrote:
| Looks interesting! Would you also recommend it to other roles in
| the tech industry, such as business analysts or product owners? I
| can imagine a lot of the topics your book covers also apply to a
| broader part of the job market.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| As I've not hired other people than developers or engineering
| managers, I would hesitate to recommend it. It might be
| helpful, but that would be more accidental than deliberate.
|
| The hiring pipeline setup is probably similar for other tech
| roles, but I cannot vouch for anything else. I've had a
| technical program manager and a tech writer tell me it helped
| them somewhat. Two product managers read the beta, but when I
| reached out to ask if they found it helpful, I never heard
| back: so I assume it was not that useful for them.
|
| What I would assume applies to other tech roles as well is
| this: - Try to get a referral, where you can. This will 10x
| your chances of progressing from the resume screen. - Use a
| clear format that hiring managers can scan easily. - Aim to
| tell a story with your resume. This is your sales pitch. - Be
| specific and use numbers, where you can. Talk about the impact
| you made and the business results you enabled. - Tailor your
| resume to the job description if you cold apply, over sending
| the same one, over and over again.
| rileyt wrote:
| This is a fantastic resource for developers looking for work. I
| run a company that helps people make resumes and even I learned a
| few things!
| lol768 wrote:
| https://thetechresume.com/the-hiring-pipeline.html#typical-h...
|
| 404s
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Thank you - fixed it! It should be [1]. No Show HN is complete
| without issues pointed out :)
|
| [1] https://thetechresume.com/samples/the-hiring-
| pipeline.html#t...
| srtjstjsj wrote:
| Send lol768 a free copy.
| fardeem wrote:
| I have been reading the beta version of the books and it's really
| really good. Highly recommend to anyone looking to up their
| resume game. Great stuff @gregdoesit
| jonpurdy wrote:
| I read the beta and the final copy. Great to see it evolve
| based on real feedback from hiring managers and job seekers.
|
| I used the advice to spruce up my resume a bit and tailor it to
| specific employers. But more importantly, it helped me know
| when I was "done". I had spent a lot of time making small
| optimizations without knowing how effective they were. After
| reading the book, I knew when to stop.
|
| Highly recommended!
| pmg102 wrote:
| "Lost your job during COVID? You could be eligible for a
| complientary copy"
|
| Do I get a complientary copy for proofreading your copy? Like a
| sort of bug bounty if you like :D
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Yes! I've hired a copyeditor, used Grammarly and had a few
| hundred beta readers who all pointed out issues, including
| spelling. But I could use more help - there's usually things
| lingering around.
|
| Ping me at hello@thetechresume.com referencing to this comment
| and I'll hook you up with a copy.
| Slavius wrote:
| I went through some reviewers LinkedIn profiles. Most of them are
| 22-30y old claiming to be senior SW developers, architects or
| team leads. Maybe your problem isn't the resume but an imposter
| syndrome...
| Gehinnn wrote:
| I skimmed through your sample chapters and you do make good
| points!
|
| But wouldn't it be a better approach for an applicant to focus on
| an open source project for showing off rather than reading a 200
| page book?
| returningfory2 wrote:
| The sample "Hiring Pipeline" chapter says that auto-rejections
| from ATS systems are a "myth" and that most/all resumes are
| screened by a human. Is this really true? I'm suspicious.
|
| The next sample chapter even contains an anecdote strongly
| suggesting it's not a myth:
|
| > With how the recruitment industry is going with ATS systems,
| one-touch-tooling, and AI, it's all about optimizing the top of
| the funnel to streamline the workflow. In this setup, it is key
| that you have a resume where a machine can identify that you have
| 80% of what the company is looking for.
| Taylor_OD wrote:
| Worked in recruiting most of my career. I've never seen a
| system that auto rejects anyone. In recent years I have seen
| systems that puts cold applications into some type of qualified
| or less qualified bucket.
|
| Easy solution: Ask your recruiting team/hr department if your
| company has something like this in place. There are only 3-5
| major ATS's that are used by ~80% of companies.
| kaiju0 wrote:
| Had a funny thought. What would happen if I just put tons of
| key words in a hidden area of a document to make keyword
| scanners happy. Old school keyword stuffing. Then the visible
| portion was my actual resume. I bet I could get in the better
| bucket. Could even scrape the job listing to fill the hidden
| stuffing.
| vangelis wrote:
| It can hold that auto rejections don't exist and low scoring
| applications are junked (by hand).
| rileyt wrote:
| It's crazy how widely spread this misunderstanding is.
|
| You can normally find the ATS for a job application by taking a
| quick peak at the source. Most companies are using a handful of
| ATSs and if you check their offerings, they don't include
| automated rejections.
| astura wrote:
| I mean... If the ATS ranks candidates and the company has a
| policy of only looking at/considering high ranking
| candidates, then it's an "auto rejection" in practice. I
| don't know if this sort of thing is common, but it's
| possible.
|
| Ours asks a couple (basic) questions right before submitting
| the application- if anyone answers "no" to any of them we
| don't consider that resume.
| rileyt wrote:
| Sure, automatic ranking is also "possible". The point is
| that it isn't being used in practice.
|
| Those questions aren't related to what is being discussed:
| ATSs filtering people based on the contents of their
| resume.
| albedoa wrote:
| Interesting timing. The Ask a Manager blog just yesterday
| published a guest post by someone who tracked down one of the
| commonly cited statistics that drives the supposed myth. _The
| research does not debunk the claim itself,_ though both the
| author and the blog runner share their own comments about the
| veracity of the claim.
|
| https://www.askamanager.org/2020/10/your-job-application-was...
| vangelis wrote:
| There's no guarantee your low ranked application is looked
| at. Why would they if there's a big enough pool of
| applications the ATS liked? A human just has to pull the
| trigger.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Hey returningfory2, great spot on the comment in the quoted
| section: "With how the recruitment industry is going with ATS
| systems, one-touch-tooling, and AI, it's all about optimizing
| the top of the funnel to streamline the workflow. In this
| setup, it is key that you have a resume where a machine can
| identify that you have 80% of what the company is looking for".
|
| I talked with the recruiter I quoted later on, and while they
| think _eventually_ the industry will go towards having more
| automation, she also confirmed she did not see any automation
| like this, today. I probably should have made that more clear!
| llimos wrote:
| It looks awesome, and very necessary. But isn't it sad that we've
| got to the point that so much effort - and a whole industry - has
| to go into this very meta side of work, time that is not spent
| doing something that actually produces something? All of this
| just to get to the point where you can get an interview to get a
| job to _then_ start doing something productive for the world?
|
| Again, not to take anything away from the book itself, which
| looks great. Just a comment on the work world today, I guess.
| hcarvalhoalves wrote:
| I guess it's due to a relatively new, high-skilled profession,
| but on the other hand, still unregulated. Without a "bar" (like
| in law), a lot of work will go into screening individuals on a
| relative basis.
| mgkimsal wrote:
| There are 'certification' programs in many areas, but they're
| not universally viewed as positives. My experiences getting
| some certifications... gosh - 10 years ago now - I did it,
| but half the hiring folks I talked to didn't care at all.
| Given the time/price, I don't think it was a bad cost/benefit
| ratio. I needed it for a specific job, but outside that
| specific job it didn't help me much. With that said, I
| already had... 12 years of experience and had a moderate-
| sized network of experienced colleagues already. I think
| certs can help less-experienced folks get a foot in the door,
| but again, only at places that place any value on certs in
| the first place...
| MattGaiser wrote:
| Is there any less individual screening in law? Passing the
| bar is the minimal standard for an applicant, but I'm sure
| they still need to demonstrate a lot of other things to get
| hired.
| rurp wrote:
| I'm sure there's plenty of screening for law positions, but
| probably not for the basic knowledge they studied in
| college. Asking a lawyer with 10 years of work experience
| to recite some fundamental law trivia would probably be
| unusual, while it's common for programming interviews to
| ask fizzbuzz and standard algorithm questions.
| ghaff wrote:
| You could, as in the case of much of civil engineering, have
| a more widespread requirement for professional engineer and
| other certifications for people past some minimal level of
| work experience. (There actually is no software engineering
| PE at this point or it's at least being phased out.)
|
| But now you're requiring 4-year degrees and making it very
| difficult for anyone to switch over from another profession.
| Taylor_OD wrote:
| It's sad but this is just one part of the overall very broken
| hiring process. Eventually technology will be able to match
| publicly available data about ones background with open roles
| well but that seems to be a long way off.
|
| The nice part is most of the time your resume just needs to be
| good enough. Not having any major red flags is enough for a
| conversation if you have some experience under your belt.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| As the author: I could not agree more. I wish we had a system
| that's not as dependent on resumes as the current one is. I
| actually dedicated the last chapter (that I'll probably make
| public) on advice on how to make the process better, if and
| when you'll be a hiring manager.
|
| Anyone who feels the pain on how broken the system is: please,
| try to not forget this. And when you'll have the opportunity,
| try to improve it.
|
| I see solutions along not immediately rejecting when the resume
| is not a "fit", but carrying on looking for signals.
|
| As of today - in 2020 - the best way to not have to rely on a
| resume is to have a referral. The first part of the book
| stresses this a lot. A trusted referral "I know this person"
| will probably make a resume redundant, at least for smaller
| places.
| ekanes wrote:
| We're working really hard on solving this specific problem.
| Resumes show you surface/hard facts, but not the "soft stuff"
| that really matters for whether or not people will be happy
| in their new role. Things like shared values, ideal work
| culture, priorities, etc. Our efforts have been well-received
| so far - 90k people have signed up to be matched with
| companies this way.
|
| Editing to add that we're at http://www.happymonday.com/ &
| feedback is always welcome.
| willbudd wrote:
| Just curious: how many companies have signed up to be with
| people that way?
| ekanes wrote:
| The company numbers are smaller as initially we were
| functioning more like recruiters. Now adding more
| scaleable and self-serve options.
| ghaff wrote:
| Companies do depend a lot on referrals and I personally have
| basically not needed a resume except for pro-forma purposes
| for 20 years. One downside of that though is that companies
| hire solely from what would be called the old boys network,
| which probably wouldn't sound so ideal in other contexts.
| xondono wrote:
| Is it sad though? I mean, in the end this is the obvious
| consequence of an increase in the supply of devs.
|
| If anything gives me hope is a world with more devs!
| piercebot wrote:
| I think you bring up a great point, and I think especially with
| the advent of more advanced AIs (like GPT-3), there will be a
| lot more noise in the system, and the gap between signal and
| noise will be much smaller.
|
| Therefore, As a society, I think we've reached the point of
| needing to add extra weight to our real-life connections. They
| say making deals in business has always hinged on "who you
| know," and going forward, I think being anonymous is going to
| actively count _against_ people, rather than personal
| connections being a plus.
|
| Maybe that'll mean having less "meta-work" to deal with,
| because your real work will stand on its own, and you'll have
| professional connections who can back you up. This change will
| make it harder to break into the system, though, and will make
| it harder for under-performers to succeed.
| faizshah wrote:
| On the pricing page, it's difficult to scan and see the
| difference between the two packages. You could do "everything in
| basic plus:" or change colors or something else to add contrast.
|
| Also you should charge more for this book, I think it's worth at
| least $30. The extra value added package could be $50 and include
| the templates and case studies or a personal resume review. See
| Rock and Roll with Ember.js: https://www.balinterdi.com/rock-and-
| roll-with-emberjs/
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Thanks for the feedback and suggestion!
|
| For the contrast: you have a good point. I'm seeing if I can do
| something, but I am seeing a good variety of sales across
| packages. I might just leave it for today, come back to it
| later.
|
| For pricing: I'm aiming to optimize for reach over revenue for
| this one. I'd like to keep the book affordable, and give people
| a good deal. But by people paying, I'm hoping to target those
| who will actually read it, over just download numbers. I
| especially would not want to overcharge as resume advice is...
| a subjective field, and no one can guarantee results (maybe
| some gurus say they can, but I don't want to be that guru).
|
| Originally, the whole book was supposed to be two pages in the
| next book I'm (still) writing on growing as a software
| engineer, in the job search section [1]. I just hope the other
| parts won't expand as much as this one has :)
|
| [1] https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/book/
| legerdemain wrote:
| How did you validate that applicants that use your resume advice
| get more interviews and responses? What success metrics can you
| share?
| gregdoesit wrote:
| I both asked beta readers to share if they are seeing a change
| in application rates, and reached out to a few of them.
|
| I have a small sample size - about 15 responses - and everyone
| reported getting higher response rates. Some said it was much
| much higher, some said it was somewhat higher.
|
| I will add that almost everyone who has responded are people
| with 2+ years experience, many of them having 5+. So I cannot
| vouch if the advice here significantly helps people with less
| experience, where the market is more competitive and it's
| harder to stand out.
|
| All of this is anecdotal, though. I have a few people who
| agreed to share their names on the site, with reviews. And I
| have more emails in my inbox saying thanks for seeing higher
| success in going through the resume screen. There are also
| people who got more recruiter calls, but still have not been
| able to get an offer, struggling on the later parts of the
| process.
| legerdemain wrote:
| This is already pretty informative! Thanks for validating
| your approach!
| aladine wrote:
| Is there anyone using gitconnected.com? I use it to build my own
| resume in a technical way. At the same time, I could show my
| notable projects on Github.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| I'm excited to share The Tech Resume Inside Out: a guide on how
| to write a developer (or engineering manager) resume that
| represents you fairly. The book is free for any developer
| currently out of a job [1].
|
| COVID was what triggered me writing this book. At the beginning
| of the year, I was in the middle of writing a book on growing as
| a software engineer. However, as COVID started and the tech the
| layoffs followed in April and May, I found myself wanting to help
| people impacted. I've been a hiring manager for a few years, so I
| offered to do resume reviews for those laid off or applying for
| positions[2]. I had more than 300 developers take me up on this
| offer in a few days.
|
| I did in-depth reviews for the first few dozen people, then
| copied-and-pasted common observations for the next batch, and
| finally sent over a 15-page PDF with the most common advice, with
| a few pointers for the bulk of the people. Here's an early
| version of this PDF[3] - which also was the basis of this book.
|
| I wasn't that happy with how little backup I had for the advice
| in that guide, so I started to reach out to tech recruiters and
| hiring managers for more feedback. I also asked people to share
| back how their improved resumes worked out, applying the
| suggestions, and started adding this into a growing guide.
|
| Four months and 55,000 words later, the book is ready. I tried to
| give level-headed, but practical advice, with lots of examples
| from actual resumes (that are all anonymized). Happy to answer
| any questions here.
|
| [1] https://thetechresume.com/complimentary-copy
|
| [2] https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1263855589861580800
|
| [3] https://thetechresume.com/A_Good_Tech_Resume.pdf
| ekanes wrote:
| This is fantastic. Thanks for making it. I sent you a dm on
| Linkedin about licensing it.
| shadowoflight wrote:
| I have a few friends who were unfortunate to graduate either
| right before or during the pandemic, and have had trouble
| finding jobs since. Would they be eligible for your free copy
| offer? I know one of the criteria is "lost job due to
| COVID-19", but perhaps that could be extended to "...or have
| been unable to find a job due to COVID-19"?
|
| Just a friendly suggestion/question - wanted to get that
| clarified before I link those friends to the complimentary copy
| page.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Yes, please have them send it through. Anyone who has
| graduated qualifies.
|
| I just clarified it on the site as well: "Lost your job
| during COVID-19 and are actively looking for your next
| position OR you have already graduated and are actively
| looking for your first job."
| shadowoflight wrote:
| You're awesome. Thanks for updating the site!
|
| P.S. I plan to buy this book when the student version goes
| live, as I'm a bit away from graduating still.
| Jefro118 wrote:
| What do you think about digital/interactive resumes?
|
| I've been building out a tool to make resumes that let you zoom
| in to different topics, would love to get your thoughts on
| whether you'd like to see something like this:
| https://prototype.profiled.app
|
| Looking forward to reading this in any case! I lost my
| contracting role due to Covid and I think it's great that
| you're giving away those extra copies to those in need.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Most companies use an ATS to organize inbound applications
| and ask job seekers to upload their resume. Here,
| recruiters/hiring managers later view this resume.
|
| You need a PDF or Word doc here (PDF preferred). When
| applying for larger tech companies, this is the use case 90%
| of the time.
|
| As a hiring manager, I want to see details quickly. The less
| "fanciness", the better. I can scan traditional resumes much
| easier than this one. So my view is the same as when choosing
| a fancy template: you make the job of the hiring manager more
| difficult, thus lowering your chances.
|
| With software developers, boring and simple format is good.
| Your resume content should sell you, not the presentation.
| Groxx wrote:
| As further anecdata: where I work, the interviewing system
| doesn't support random urls to stuff, and only shows the
| uploaded doc (if any). So unless we checked the linkedin
| link (almost never provided) and clicked through to
| projects (or followed links in docs, neither of which I or
| any I've talked to have ever done AFAIR), we'd never see
| it.
|
| It might be workable for last-round or very small + "high
| contact" interview pipelines, but it's probably useless
| earlier or at larger companies.
| dtnewman wrote:
| Great job. I didn't read everything, but skimmed some of your
| materials online and most of this seems to be right on point in
| my view (having done hundreds of interviews and looked at
| thousands of resumes).
|
| A few points you touch on that I really like:
|
| * Leave out extraneous stuff... photos, references, etc. I
| don't need to know where you went to high school (assuming you
| are a college grad). I'll ask for references after I hire you.
|
| * Check typos and formatting. I know some hiring managers who
| will let typos, formatting issues and grammar mistakes slip.
| Personally, I look for them and will likely disqualify you if I
| see them (I'll be more lenient if English isn't your first
| language). If you can't keep bugs out of your resume, which is
| a one to two page document, how can I expect you'll keep them
| out of your code? Also pro tip: always PDF resumes so
| formatting is consistent and doesn't show the squiggly lines
| that word document spell checkers show.
|
| I general, I'm always surprised by resumes that try to stick
| out with gimmicks like charts or color, or whatnot. I've looked
| over high hundreds (or low thousands) of resumes and the ones
| that stick out are usually black and white, well formatted,
| straight to the point, brief and don't have glaring errors.
| sandeep1998 wrote:
| Hello, I found out about the "Purchasing Power Parity" thing on
| your site and I want to thank you for that consideration, it
| helps. Also thanks to all the people who think and then act on
| such ideas.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Thanks! I added Purchasing Power Parity the day before
| yesterday [1]. I'm originally from Hungary, and $15 there
| feels closer to $30 in the US.
|
| I am now thinking of building a service to enable integrating
| PPP easier for creators [2], as I had to build everything
| from scratch, including calculating the "right" amount of
| discounts for 140 countries.
|
| [1]
| https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1315699026445074434
|
| [2]
| https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1315768527895302144
| satysin wrote:
| It is a shame the complimentary copy for those out of work
| requires having a LinkedIn profile.
|
| What exactly do you hope such a requirement is going to
| achieve? Surely not to prevent piracy as I found a working PDF
| link to the final release in seconds.
|
| I assume you have some other motive for the LinkedIn
| requirement and am genuinely interested in what it is.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| This was the easiest way I came up with validating people who
| are actively looking for jobs. As a software engineer,
| LinkedIn is a place you can also get a bunch of inbound
| interest (I got my last 3 jobs on this platform, from inbound
| messages). I don't use it for anything else: the data is
| deleted after I manually validate them.
|
| But you raise a good point, thank you. I updated
| instructions, so anyone with no LinkedIn profile can email me
| directly with some other proof of their online presence.
|
| Originally, I got a lot of spam requests from throwaway
| emails that I could not validate.
|
| People who get the book this way also get access to updates:
| which will be fixes, corrections, and additional content.
| satysin wrote:
| Just my opinion but it sounds like you're making _a lot_ of
| additional manual work for yourself with little to no
| benefit.
|
| I could understand if you were able to maybe monetise the
| contact information you collect but as you said you delete
| everything once you validate it seems you are validating
| just for the sake of validating?
|
| For example how would you deal with someone out of work due
| to COVID and wanting to use this time to retrain and get
| into the software engineer field? I can't imagine they
| would care about (or even know about) having a LinkedIn
| profile with zero related employment, no contacts to
| network with, etc.
|
| I know I am being a little 'difficult' with my question and
| I am not criticising I am just interested on your thought
| process more than anything.
|
| -----
|
| Update: Just realised you edited your original reply so my
| reply doesn't make quite as much sense now :)
|
| I think your direct email option is good. If it were me I
| would automate the direct email with a _little bit_ of weak
| validation such as "please explain in one or two sentences
| your situation" then anyone who emails with a few words are
| automatically validated and any blank or one word emails
| are either auto-deleted or put aside for manual validation.
|
| Just an idea though. I figure posting to HN means you
| wanted a little feedback :)
|
| Best of luck with your book. I don't have a need for it
| right now (thankfully) but I hope it helps others as it
| appears you have a put a lot of thought and work into it.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| I love the auto-replying-to-the-email suggestion. I
| didn't think of this: I might do this next time!
|
| My goal with the form was to have people explicitly
| confirm details (like their role and employment status).
| Beforehand, I got a few requests for free copies from
| non-developers, and some people outside tech. This book
| is not really helpful for them, and I wanted to reduce
| this kind of support burden, by adding an automated
| message with the form (you can see it in action).
|
| But finally, let me admit that I was just excited to
| build (what I thought was) a sensible dynamic form,
| automate storing the data in DynamoDB, then deleting it
| when the validation script runs, running the backend on
| Lambda that I played with for the first time. Trying out
| new tools: any opportunity is a good opportunity!
| hrsymmiffp wrote:
| I'm hesitant to spend money on something that may be useful
| but probably won't save me from homelessness (I'm so
| unemployable that glowing internal referrals don't even get
| me a 15-minute phone call), but I don't qualify for your
| complimentary copy and I really, reallly don't want to out
| myself (because this will destroy even the tiny bit of
| employability I might have remaining).
|
| So I bought it. Sure hope it's useful.
| srtjstjsj wrote:
| You might benefit most from speaking to a counselor to
| work on your self-image.
| nostromo wrote:
| I've seen first hand that offering something for free for
| people experiencing hard times is rarely abused so long as
| you require someone to ask for it.
|
| "Email me if you are unable to afford this book and would
| like a free copy" for example, will rarely be abused. (And
| if it is, it isn't a lost sale, because they wouldn't have
| purchased it anyway.)
|
| I suspect it might actually increase overall conversion
| rate, because it may trigger many people to consider that
| they actually can afford the product, and it shows that the
| merchant has a heart.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| I originally had this message up. However, after the
| first 30 requests - a few which had no information, and
| seemed like one-time emails - I opted for something I can
| automate easier.
|
| I now added the email option for people who don't have a
| LinkedIn account (or don't want to share it), thanks to
| the original suggestion. I love the Show HN crowd!
| quicklyfrozen wrote:
| One question I always have regarding the 2 page suggested limit
| -- should I just drop old positions? At some point in a long
| enough career, just listing company, position, and dates will
| push it out past 2 pages.
| Supermancho wrote:
| > should I just drop old positions
|
| Yes. If there is work that you would like to specifically
| highlight, group your achievement(s) into your summary. If
| someone says not put a summary in your resume (beginning or
| end) you are making a mistake. Having an (albeit brief)
| identity helps you remain memorable in a sea of similarity. No
| need to list jobs 10 years ago, but saying you have written
| forum software or worked on a banking app is relevant to your
| career.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| You should think of your resume as a sales pitch. The only goal
| of it is to get a callback from a recruiter.
|
| In Europe, I've had a hiring manager tell me he actually reads
| longer resumes. Another recruiter in the UK told me for exec
| profiles he's seen 3-4 pages long ones that were not great, but
| passable. The other 23 recruiters and hiring managers all
| suggested to fit it into 2 pages.
|
| I would say, make sure everything important is on the first 2
| pages. The book has an example of a person with 20+ years'
| experience refactoring their resume to a 2-page one, cutting
| off 10 years of less relevant experience, and getting a lot
| more callbacks.
| ksk wrote:
| Do you have any feedback/results/data to share from people who've
| applied this knowledge? I'm thinking that would be a great way to
| sell the book.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| I do, but it seems to be hidden more down on the page[1], if
| you missed it. I've added a link to it on the top, with the
| text "Read book success stories & reviews" to make it easier to
| find. Thank you for the suggestion!
|
| [1] https://thetechresume.com/#reviews-section
| jumarm wrote:
| Thanks for sharing this! Going through applications for
| internships right now and hopefully this will help.
|
| Also, Amy Miller's twitter has an errant h at the beginning of
| the url.
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Great catch! And 3 other links had this as well. Fixed them
| all.
|
| Hope you'll be able to use the advice and good luck!
| ProAm wrote:
| I'll be honest there are too many contributing experts from Uber,
| they have/had systemic problems in hiring and culture I would
| find it hard to accept the book.
| lxe wrote:
| > When you interact with people, be mindful of these roles and
| their constraints. When a recruiter messages or calls you about a
| rejection, know that they are often a messenger. They are as
| invested in you getting the job as you are! As much as both the
| resume screening and the interview process can seem like a black
| box, it's run by people who try and do their best.
|
| Thank you. I think it's important to understand and empathise
| with everyone involved.
| kervantas wrote:
| Looks cool, I think I'm gonna buy one. Szep munka. ;)
| kervantas wrote:
| Looks good, I think I'm gonna buy a copy. Koszi a kedveskedo
| kedvezmenyt :D
| gregdoesit wrote:
| Szivesen :)
| mlent wrote:
| Just started reading this and it's refreshing to see a highly
| practical take on resumes, written by people who actually read
| and make decisions on them. As a former hiring manager, I've
| found myself nodding my head A LOT so far.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2020-10-14 23:00 UTC)