I was just trying to become a homeowner. my first house in new york was about 1/4th to 1/5th the cost of a "starter home" anywhere in california. I was never going to be able to afford that
I am the author of this piece, and i didn't share it to HN, I don't hang out here. I just gotta say wow, tough crowd. i wrote this piece from an emotionally low point after another fruitless day of applying to jobs. I didn't have a particular agenda in mind. I was voicing what i've been through and some of what I was experiencing with no expectations.
you'll notice in the comments section that the population of substackistan is much less FUCKING CYNICAL AND NEGATIVE than you guys, with many commenters saying they are in the same position. I heard from writers, designers, engineers, going through similar times.
my portfolio site is https://shawnfromportland.com, you can find my resume there. if you have leads that you think I might match with you can definitely send them my way, I will even put a false last name on an updated resume for you guys.
for those who are wondering, I legally changed my name to K long ago because my dad's last name starts with K, but I didn't like identifying with his family name everywhere i went because he was not in my life and didnt contribute to shaping me. I thought hard about what other name I could choose but nothing resonated with me. I had already been using Shawn K for years before legally changing it and it was the only thing that felt right.
Not an American, or SE, or homeowner - I can't relate nuch. But just at a human level - good luck. It sounds like you're in a tough spot, and kudos for looking after your mother despite all that.
Fingers crossed for you, good luck finding a way out and up - I'm surely you'll make it.
I thought this piece really spoke to the landscape of software engineering in the present/future. Unfortunately discussions on this site are subject to a truly baffling mix of confirmation biases and messianic complexes.
Wishing you well and best of luck with your search.
Not him, but I started because I searched for a place to find news about software engineering, and HN felt like it was more for professionals which I like. I also visit and contribute to Reddit and read substack and some weekly newsletters too.
Yes, please ignore the cynical and negative folks. They are not doing you any good.
Like what a few other folks in this thread pointed out, your resume and your portfolio looks outdated and fragmented on my first glance. Most recruiters and hiring managers spend 5 seconds max during the first pass, so first impressions matter.
Here are the things you can do to bring your resume up-to-date:
* "Key achievements" does not include numbers to describe impact. For example, "pre-screen and match thousands of patients a day" could be rewritten as "pre-screen n patients per day and match them to m healthcare provider with 99.99% uptime" sounds impactful.
* Self-rating of your skills is not necessary. Nowadays your description of your impact is implicit on how you learn and work. In addition, "expert" for one person may not be the same for others.
On your portfolio:
* Listing your education is no longer necessary after the first job. Putting this in your portfolio site makes you look inexperienced. (Leave education in the resume, however.)
* The screenshots for Nike and LG look outdated, which contradicts "cutting-edge internet experiences".
Tough times. You’re doing everything right (except perhaps reading too many of the comments which is probably not great for your mental health) - your break will come. The night is darkest before the dawn and all that.
This is a really difficult topic to address because it appears you're interesting in venting and commiseration, but it's mixed with pleas for job placement and opportunities. If you want some honest advice:
- Your resume still needs a lot of work. See my other comment with more details. After reading your Substack I see why you're keyword stuffing words like "Vibecoding" as your #1 skill, but I don't think you realize how much this is hurting you.
- I've read your resume and I clicked the link to go to your website. I still don't really understand what you specialize in or what kind of job you're trying to get. In a market like this one, you need to have a resume that tells a story of why you're a great fit for the job, not someone who has a couple years of experience 10 different times at 10 different things. There's a lot of vague claims about "award-winning state-of-the-art web experiences" but then you have everything from AI and Vibecoding to VR apps to teaching classes on your resume. Broad experience can be good, but I think you need to start writing different resumes tailored to different jobs because I can't make heads or tails of your career goals from the way it's all presented.
- I'd separate the Substack from your resume, personal website, and job search as much as possible. To be blunt, the tone is alarmingly cynical in ways that any hiring manager would want to keep away from their team. Phrases like "Generally, it’s the fresh-faced bay area 25 year old with a Steve Jobs complex" ooze a sort of anger with the world that people just do not want to bring into their company. Blaming everything on AI and "the great displacement" falls very flat for anyone who has just read your resume and seen "Vibecoding" as your top skill while trying to figure out what, exactly, you did at your past jobs.
- Consider sprucing up your portfolio a bit. It's a little jarring to read a resume about "award winning state of the art web experiences" and then encounter some centered yellow text on a black background in a quirky font that slowly fades into view. I would also recommend that you include screenshots of your specific work on each site and a short description of what you did for each. Random links and screenshots aren't helpful. Hiring managers aren't going to watch YouTube videos at this point of scanning your resume, either. Try to view your website like a hiring manager who wants to know what they're getting into. Seeing "21 years of experience" and then having the first large link on your website being a link to University of Oregon because that's where you got your degree doesn't make sense.
- To be more blunt: There are some major red flags that you need to clean up. Your portfolio links to the live nike.com/running website, but your resume says you last worked on a Nike website over a decade ago. This is the kind of thing I expect to see from fake applicants, not a real person. I would go so far as to suggest leaving your portfolio off of your resume until it can be cleaned up and modernized with specific information about your work. Use a template if you have to, but the site clashes with your headline claim of being an award winning web developer.
- Finally: Try to create a cohesive narrative in your resume and application process. If you're applying for full-stack web-dev jobs, your resume should show a career trajectory of starting with small websites and working up to more and more complex projects. Right now the top job entry lists "tens of thousands of MRR" as an achievement but a decade ago you were working on Nike.com. You need to find a way to tell the opposite story, that you've been working your way up. Unfortunately the substack article makes this even worse with talk of being a Doordasher now. It's okay to vent on Substack, but don't cross the streams with your application process.
thank you for taking the time. If i was petty i could share the past 5 versions of my website and resume i created in the last year which precisely followed most of what you recommended here. I had a completely vanilla narrative resume by version 3, and was getting nowhere. analytics and my own vibe check was making me think that all of that was too verbose and it wasn't being read. I was feeling unseen and began retargeting things to create an impression in 2 seconds, enough to hopefully hook someone to want to talk to me to learn more.
the latest strategy was to try to emphasize within 2 seconds the point that im all about ai coding, while having a conventional cs/agency background at the same time.
Because you have taken the time to review this stuff and make these same recommendations that everyone else has here, i am going to refactor the site and resume yet again according to these recommendations.
I would love it if my career arc had one through-line narrative that made sense, but I'm afraid it doesnt necessarily. I started as a data architect and backend developer for the first many years, never touching front-end. I had to expand to tackle front-end to meet the changing market demands. in later years, the distinction of what were primarily front end vs back end tasks or roles has become a lot more fuzzy, as things have turned into "all-js-all-ts-everything-everywhere!" I've adapted, and been working full stack ts roles.
I often feel my data architecture / problem-solving skills are overlooked when my last few roles show that i've been developing with a vue ecosystem, pigeonholing me as a front-end dev, something i have never identified with.
It might be good to expand on your data architecture work more in your CV. Write a paragraph about the data architecture work you did at your last company. You could remove some of the older jobs to free up space.
This is the best advise here. OP, I'm sure that life is hitting you hard, but there's some valid criticisms. When we're in angst it subconsciously gets into everything we write, including resumes.
You need to sober up. Tailor your resume to each application, Cut excesses. Write simpler and make sure your experience covers what the position asks.
Also, consider talking to friends or doing therapy. Opening up with someone you trust helps a lot. Avoid doomscrolling. Things can look bad right now, but they can get better. Good luck.
Not PP, but I'd remove year counts. They can do the math if they need to. The main question for the hiring manager should be: can you do the work?
I would probably rephrase your professional summary to focus on you (e.g. Full Stack Engineer specializing in..., Engineering Team Leader for ..., ), and perhaps active verb phrases describing your most significant activities and accomplishments.
I'd move education/degree to the bottom. Recent achievements, experience and skills are more important.
Experience section should provide evidence to support your claims when possible.
Also I haven't looked at your linkedin page but it should be comparable. Best of luck!!
ignore those addicted to negativity. for most people, their life is just reducing awareness to fit into their adlib structured arguments to assuage their insecurities. “Im so smart, i can ignore possibilities and unknowns and frame a thought construct that boosts my sense of ego and importance!”
i have spent the last couple days responding to hundreds of comments on the substack piece. no new pieces of advice came up on this thread which were not already covered on the substack comments. advice which i have acknowledged. i was already about to do most of the pieces of advice anyways on my own as the next step, such as applying with a normie pseudonym. you don't know me. im not a victim and i don't have victim mindset. i am survivor.
I haven’t read most of the comments here and none on substack, but looking at your resume, I’d spend some time making it look slightly warmer, throw some color in there.
I’d also consider re-working your job history, it “looks like a lot of bouncing around” which shouldn’t be a bad thing, but it can be if framed poorly.
Finally, I’d spend a few weeks with c++/java and slap it on the resume as a competency. Can’t hurt, and you’re just learning some syntax at this point.
Best of luck to you. Market is tough, and there are a lot of sw folks looking around right now.
1. First line is "Using Cursor, Claude 3.7, and OpenAI every day". You can't win with this. You don't take weekends off? Red flag. You do take weekends off? Then the first line of your resume is a lie and I wonder what else isn't honest.
2. #1 skill is Vibecoding? Red flag. Your resume would look better without the left column of skills. None of your experience backs up those skills.
3. The experiences listed are all 1-2 years, with the longest one being your self-employed one. Why are they all so short?
thanks for the invite! i had to leave portland in 2020 due to the cost of housing and the humanitarian disaster of homelessness. I'm in New York state now which is also not great for other reasons. I hope Portland can improve things for itself.
>you'll notice in the comments section that the population of substackistan is much less FUCKING CYNICAL AND NEGATIVE than you guys
I still visit the site daily and comment often enough because it really can be interesting as hell right along with many of the comments..
But yeah, the common trend here is to have more than a few grossly humorless, pedantic, self-absorbed, bubble-dwelling, neckbeards shit all over anything they don't find precisely honed to their self-absorbed preferences and fetishes.
And don't even get me started on the blatantly idiotic system of letting any random asshole flag a post they don't like for whatever childish or ideological reason of their own, or perhaps worse in a more insidious way: the downvoting thing, and how it slowly erases often perfectly decent differences of opinion.
Rant over, thanks for reading.
Also, liked your piece, and sincerely wish you luck.
Fishing is sending out applications all over the place. This is casting your reel. Changing your CV over and over is changing your bait. Reaching out to your network without a specific request to recommend you for a specific job is fishing.
Work backwards a bit. Find a job at a company you want. Look up the recruiters and hiring managers. Send them a note. Look up people in your network, or people connected to your network, and ask them to recommend you for the specific role. Companies incentivize this. They’ll want spend 2 minutes to possibly win a few thousand dollars by getting you in. Incentives align.
Lastly there’s a lot of independent head hunters out there. Hire them like you’d a trail guide.
Great posts and helpful. It's about specialization. It always is. And a focused resume and communication that brings forward the skillset or personality that particular employer is likely to need.
I am heeding and already doing all of the advice that has come up here and on the original thread, with the exception of 'move to where there are in-office jobs and try to get an in-office job' because that's not really feasible at this time
I read the post knowing it would likely remind me about all the times I read the handwriting on the wall and decided it was a message for someone else.
I hope you find a good place to land. I know it has been a while for you but you are still motivated and focused on the right outcomes. You will find a niche, maybe not the one you expected but you will drop into a groove and realize that things are looking up for you and your Mom.
I understand the whole home ownership angle where you could liquidate an asset but would have to absorb a loss in the process since the place needs some work and you can't afford to do it yet. Hang on to the houses, all of them. They can be your landing zone or safe spot.
We have a home that we have leased out for around 30 years. It has always been the best in the neighborhood because I did the work of maintaining and upgrading it myself, along with my wife and part of my family. I would sell it now but it needs siding and the bids for that are way out of my price range so that is one of the next DIY projects for me. I just need to get a tenant into it ASAP and that will allow me to make it happen. The materials to do it cost under $10k but like your property, we have had years where we made money on the house and years where we barely covered or lost money due to maintenance items or other ownership costs.
Leverage any opportunity to work with local contractors swinging a hammer bending nails or using a saw to shorten boards. That can be a path to obtaining scrap materials or unusable items that would go to a dumpster. Contractors have to pay disposal fees so anything that allows them to reduce the size of the load saves them money when the job is done. Warped or curled dimensional lumber can be straightened at home. Half sheets of plywood or siding nail up as tightly as full sheets. There is a place for all that if you examine your needs and keep an eye out for things that can be made to work.
My grandfather built a business as a home-builder by first building a home for himself and my grandmother to move into as soon as they married. He got the materials by asking around with locals who were working on their own places and inquiring about whether he could have the scraps and cutoffs. He ended up needing to buy nails and a few other small items but he built a house with materials that cost him the labor to clean up building sites. Once he finished the house a local man who had been watching the process offered to buy it from him. He sold that house and took the money and built a new house with new materials and moved in with my grandmother to a much larger, much nicer place than they would've had. Others who knew him and watched the process approached him about building things for them and in no time he was building houses, church buildings, sheds, etc all over the region. He built custom homes until he passed away about 60-65 years later.
Since it appears you may be up around Syracuse, Ft. Drum is right down the road. One of my brothers got the money to start his own business by driving for Pizza Hut. If you can get established as the pizza guy on a base like that you're on your way up. Soldiers tip well. Pizza is a huge seller. You do need a base pass but I think the pizza outfit sets you up. He would always bake the order and then bake several extra pizzas and carry it all onto base. By the time he had dropped off the pizza that had actually been ordered he had a line of soldiers hoping to get one of the extras. Pizza is great food option. Many of those guys became regular customers. He made great tips and sold lots of pizzas that otherwise wouldn't have been ordered. After a couple years of pie-hawking during which he was also mowing yards and trimming trees with a friend who had a local tree service, he took money he had earned and bought himself a new mower and chainsaw. That was 10 years ago now and he grossed $300k last year with one employee doing nothing but tree service. He has a bro-dozer truck with large dump trailer to handle the wood and debris and he rents other equipment as he needs it.
Pressure washing can be a real winner too. That's one thing my brother has mentioned branching into. Staining fences and decks. Cleaning gutters. Washing windows. Caulking siding and painting.
There are lots of services that people need that don't take much investment. Door hang flyers with contact info and let people know you are available. Visit a t-shirt printer or embroidery place and have them make a few shirts with a reasonably memorable logo or slogan and your name and contact info. Wear them to the grocery store and home improvement store and let people call you.
I have several gardens I built to help manage food costs. It is unbelievably easy and satisfying to be able to open my door and select a few herbs from my pizza garden while my pizza stone warms up. We have a wide selection of all the things we enjoy eating and some we want to try. Fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs, berries. So many things are easy to grow. That can help you manage your food costs and improve the quality of your food at the same time.
Good luck to you. I don't think you need it though. Your heart is in the right place. All the other things will fall in line behind it.
Not to be rude, but unless your portfolio site is nothing short of spectacular you shouldn't include one. In all likelihood, its doing you more harm than good.
Keep your head up. These are interesting times. Things will get back to normal at some point.
As I mentioned in my previous comment on this post, my overall sense is that HN commenters often struggle with fear. It's a scary time to be a professional in this industry, and to be a human on Earth more generally. Sometimes, one of the ways people here try to manage their fear is through skepticism of, and/or hostility toward, accounts where someone has suffered through no fault of their own, which I believe is your case.
Without anger or judgment, I think our industry's culture has room to grow.
I wonder what happens now to workers, who never really thought of themselves as workers, discover themselves as such. 'Individual Contributor' just means _worker_. It's like calling the barista a Customer Happiness Officer.
When we remember how to be on each other's side, this will change; but for now, I'm afraid, we self-perceive, as Cory Doctorow put it, as 'temporarily embarrassed founders'. And we act accordingly.
While there are scepticism and hostility as a result of fear, I think HN is often so focused on trying to understand the world that it neglects to consider the people. I read most of the scepticism as being more about reconciling two conflicting bits of information. It's an impulse towards risk management, not fear management.
I've been helping a friend interview, as well as casually keeping an eye out for a new job myself, and we've noticed that the market is down, but we're still employed, still seeing messages from LinkedIn recruiters and positions on job boards, and my friend is still getting interviews. I got this job a year ago, got an interview for every position I applied to, and this was the top of my list. Meanwhile, Shawn K has applied to nearly a thousand jobs and is driving for DoorDash. What's different? Have things changed in the last 12 months? Are my friend and I also going to be in trouble? How do our resumes differ? What lessons can I learn? Am I safe?
The unfortunate reality of seeing a car crash is that the first thing we do is slow down our speed, tighten up our driving, search for hazards on the road ahead, and look to our own safety. Only after all that do we think "I hope they're okay".
+1 My airplane convo with CD really reinforced what a visionary and near-future-predictor Cory is. Great person, and he sees through the usual social norms we've established to excuse these behaviors. Totally agree with your point people act accordingly, even to their own detriment.
Don't worry about the HN crowd. It's a leftist cesspool over here, combined with an overwhelming amount of knowitalls who will armchair criticise ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING under the sun.
You can take ANY ultra successful company, product, idea or piece of software out there and you will 100% find a HN thread where the smart alecs ripped it to shreds - only to be proven wrong by reality.
However, there are a lot of actually smart people here as well, so the top voted posts usually give great extra insights into the topic at discussion.
The concerning thing about hacker news is that, despite being a leftist cesspool, its refreshingly centrist vs my other it news options. I think maybe its the failed idea of libertarianism making the failed ideas of leftism appear more centrist when its actually a failure doubledown.
i was just describing the all around comfort level of my lifestyle. if you drive a couple states away for a camping trip for a week, get a couple motels maybe, eat out, etc, it can be 2k$ pretty easily
just to offer a minor correction, the ratio was more like 800 applications for multi round interviews with ~10 companies (so maybe about 25 interviews). probably 25% of applications received a "no" response, while the rest ghosted
by 'advanced', i simply meant complex web apps that are more than CRUD / more than wordpress. to take one that comes to mind, i built this server job that synced with an old school phone center CRM for a home security corp, and it coordinated all these events and updates to happen at scheduled times for customers getting home security systems installed
while i have a BACKGROUND in php, i have not been seeking php work and havent been working fulltime in php since like 2017. Since then i've been fullstack in typescript. i've been seeking typescript roles in apps & vr.
i have not been trying the same thing over and over. I have been continually trying something new every month or two of the search, seeing what works.
I have landed some interviews which was hard as hell, making it as far as fourth rounds, but no offers. I think you did not read the article but its ok.
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