{
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  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.jacky.wtf//essays/2024/on-the-tech-resume-inside-out",
  "description": "After getting a free copy of the book for laid off folks, I decided to write about what I learned, my findings and\nwhat I managed to take away from the book.\n",
  "path": "/essays/2024/on-the-tech-resume-inside-out",
  "publishedAt": "2024-08-05T20:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:e2ctbutx6kya6si4if5ngjmm/site.standard.publication/3mniussyp2d2g",
  "tags": "essay",
  "textContent": "After [posting a request][1] for [Gergely][3]'s book on [the tech resume][2], I decided to try to write what I learned\nfrom it to both demonstrate what it's helped me with and to help other folks who are in a similar position as me:\nhitting that wall of at least 3 automated rejections on a good day, usually on Monday or Sunday evening (if it's from\nIndeed) and wanting to [eject from the industry][4] as a whole. I'll go through this via its major parts; the hiring\nprocess, writing the resume and reflecting on examples and inspiration.\n\nPart I: The Hiring Process\nOff rip, what I've known to be true is mentioned earlier, that \"the average recruiter spends around _7 seconds_ to scan\na resume and decide if it’s a reject, or if they'll read further\". This knowledge made me _not want_ to spend so much\ntime on something that's treated very cheaply. It continues noting the differences between a journeyman, good and\ngreat resume. The resume I had prior to this book could definitely be classed as that of a journeyman; listing the\nthings I've done at different organizations, not explicitly signaling any sort of growth outside of job title-based\npromotions through company transferals. What I do appreciate mentioned is something that only a few folks and friends\nthat I've spoke to about this process can admit to be a factor; one I think that contributes the most to it: _luck_. I\ngot _lucky_ to get a job at Lyft while living in the Bay during its phase of high growth. Having visibility in the scene\nas well helped me nudge past my skillset as I wasn't the strongest Python developer _before_ joining but working\nthere shot my aptitude up because of the ability to both see more production use of the language _and_ being able to\nwork with folks who contributed heavily to that. Luck also means that there's no precise formula behind this; it's being\nat the right place at the right time. Something that I found interesting was his note that \"as much as both the\nresume screening and the interview process can seem like a black box, it’s run by people who try and do their best\".\nThis is something that I've noticed to _not_ be true in some very few cases.\n\n<figure>\n    <img src=\"/images/read-the-tech-resume/app-funnel.jpg\" alt=\"\" />\n    <figcaption>At times, I wonder if it's a toilet and everyone's application just get clogged in the queue.</figcaption>\n</figure>\n\nWhat I did find refreshing was this graphic of the application funnel. But it also reminds me of the chances to just\nmake it to an offer reflect the _difficulty_ of landing a job _anywhere_. The chances of getting a job here are lower\nthan being killed by a car in the United States, though coming from a smaller sample size. That aside, apparently\nthe notion that ATSs are _not_ automatically rejecting folks is true. Perhaps the use of mainly four of five of them by\nmany of the companies I applied and [the lack of the change of language in rejection messages][4] has contributed to the\nmass idea of this.\n\nPart II: Writing the (Damned) Resume\nSo, the thing to challenge is making sure that we as job hunters pass \"the first glance\". Remember, we're only given\nless than 25% of a minute to determine if we're worthy of a callback. Keeping skill-based relevancy after tenures is\nimportant as these are seemingly the two things that can make or break it for a candidate. Outside of that, everything\nelse fights against me; a lack of an academic background, no _huge_ open source contributions of note, for example.\nOne thing I'm calling _bullshit_ on is this advice that a recruiter mentioned that says:\n\n> I’d stress how what really makes you stand out is having a tailored CV for the position. If you are applying for 20\n> different jobs, you should have _20 different CVs_. Each one should be different and specific for that role. And while\n> this might sound a “bad” thing to do, it’s not. It’s a necessary thing to do.\n\nWhat I've done instead is lean on soft \"keyword stuffing\" with skills adjusted to be the most relevant to that role.\nHaving to rewrite _each_ region after optimizing it runs the high risk of making my resume sound less useful and wastes\nthe effort of editing that I've gotten from many people. I asked folks on Mastodon about this:\n\n<iframe \n    src=\"https://todon.eu/@jalcine/112904701881211814/embed\" class=\"mastodon-embed\" \n    style=\"max-width: 100%; border: 0\" width=\"400\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"></iframe>\n\n<script src=\"https://todon.eu/embed.js\" async=\"async\"></script>\n\nThe methods that felt the most sustainable were the following:\n\n<iframe \n    src=\"https://hachyderm.io/@haydencodes/112904730560839292/embed\" class=\"mastodon-embed\" \n    style=\"max-width: 100%; border: 0\" width=\"400\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"></iframe>\n\n<iframe \n    src=\"https://stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/112904718907055886/embed\" class=\"mastodon-embed\" \n    style=\"max-width: 100%; border: 0\" width=\"400\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"></iframe>\n\nThis recruiter's advice makes _even less_ sense if I'm only applying for the same _class_ of role across different\ncompanies. I can see the need to adjust the technologies, perhaps, but a _different_ resume? 🚫 Tangentially, this makes\nme feel like I don't have _much_ to say that doesn't seem applicable in a super-specialized context. I keep work\njournals and those help contribute to my resume building. One thing that people have mentioned is the split of a resume\nacross industries or roles. Gergely links to [Charity Majors' blog about the topic][6] and this makes way more sense\nthan generating a new resume per role, especially if the roles are the same.\n\nSomething that stuck out to me was the suggestion to _always_ have a \"current\" position even if you're not employed\nfull-time. That led me to changing my LinkedIn profile to the such because not having it apparently [reduces your\nranking in its algorithm][7], which seems so counter-intuitive. That's until I considered that companies are more\nwilling to attempt to poach talent than work on nurturing talent. I've decided to use that to be more candid about\nthe \"side projects\" I'm working on now, which will put some fire under my butt to even consider turning parts of it into\na product somehow (we'll see). You'll see [my projects page][8] linked from my LinkedIn now as my \"current position\".\n\nApparently, since cover letters are _so rare_ in the space, I've resigned myself to begin writing them for roles that I\nhave a stronger sense of attachment to. It seems to be a chance to bolster things but I'm also treating it like buying a\ndollar scratcher; nothing's guaranteed and at worst, I lose ten minutes writing one. Ten minutes for a chance to gain\nstability sounds pretty cheap to me.\n\nPart III: Inspiration\nMy resume's format follows the recommended structure (as monochromatic as possible, top-to-bottom reading and\nprioritization of content) so I didn't have to make too many changes there. What I did do is make some parts more\nadjustable for editing so I can generate more refined forms of my resume for particular roles. This didn't take too much\ntime and was easier for me in the application process from editing a \"primary resume\" and adjusting it accordingly. I\ndid adjust some of the styling to make it more lean when it's as a PDF. One thing I'm not happy to do but willing to is\nchanging my email address to _not_ be my vanity on, because of the chance of someone who's reviewing this resume to be\nmore reserved.\n\nWhat I've Taken Away\nAfter reading this book, I'm realizing that I _have_ been engaging in a bit of a scatter-shot approach to job hunting.\nMy hope/anchor was that by optimizing my resume to be generic but focusing on my teamwork skills and productivity as a\nautonomous full-stack developer that I could apply at more places. It's a naive approach that I think I took for granted\nduring the \"hot\" period of the market prior to COVID; although I don't like to blame it solely on COVID, I still managed\nto find roles. However, one of those were secured via a referral (to Code for America via a former coworker) and another\nthrough discovery (on the Fediverse). In both cases, my resume wasn't as important for the hot screen. Some changes I\nmade to my resume that you can see now:\n\n  Clear time windows of how long I've worked with a particular skillset: I get asked this _a lot_ by recruiters and\n   this seems to be something that non-technical recruiters want to know as well.\n  Explicitly having multiple resumes: for sake of optimizing my chances, I have a resume for full-stack and back-end\n   development. Those are the two spaces I thrive in the most.\n\nHere's a link to the [new resume][9] versus the [old one][10]. A bit more confidence in my skills, formatting to make it\nmore friendly for scanning and the like. I spent _a lot of time_ waddling it down and adjusting the type, reviewing my\nnotes from my time at each company and the like to adjust the copy.\n\nThat said, I'm open to having more conversations with folks who can't say that they have an immediate open role at their\norganization but is [willing to talk to me for 30 minutes][11] over tea virtually, just to get a better sense of connection.\nWithout conferences being a binding factor for this kind of networking, this is as good as it gets for me; especially\nsince the cost of travel, lodging and ticketing for conferences have _never_ been cheap. \n\n[1]: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jacky-alcine_the-tech-resume-inside-out-activity-7219807326927519744-h-gx\n[2]: https://thetechresume.com/\n[3]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gergelyorosz/\n[4]: /essays/2024/the-hunt-driving-me-mad/\n[5]: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/car-accident-statistics/\n[6]: https://charity.wtf/2017/05/11/the-engineer-manager-pendulum/\n[7]: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unemployed-create-current-role-linkedin-kathy-bernard/\n[8]: /projects/\n[9]: /files/Jacky_Alcine-resume.pdf\n[10]: /files/old-resume.pdf\n[11]: https://cal.com/jackyalcine/",
  "title": "I Read 'The Tech Resume Inside Out' and Updated My Resume"
}