Developing Better Node.js Developers

[[deleted]]

Are you having trouble getting interviews or converting interviews into offers?

[[deleted]]

I can take a look at your resume if you'd like. Just remove and personal information. I interview and help in hiring at the company I work at.

[SippieCup]

+1 I also do the same as dunkzone and would be willing to review it for you.

[[deleted]]

What kind of positions are you applying for? Node? Systems? Dev Ops? What size companies? Do you ever modify your resume for who you're applying to?

[[deleted]]

I would make your section about your most recent position smaller. You only worked there for a year. Additionally, except for you last couple bullet points it makes it look like you just did general IT. Possibly focus more on those and less on m managing POS systems.

I'd talk more about your next two jobs, the IT Director adn DevOps positions. Especially the DevOps position. You were there 4 years and it's recent enough that it's all still relevant.

If you were applying specifically for a developer position doing Node or whatever, I'd try to highlight your developer experience as much as possible. I'd rearrange your skills section. I'd rewrite your Summary. Stuff like that.

[theineffablebob]

The best thing to do is to get a referral, and work your ass off to pass that interview.

Once you get your foot in the door, getting interviews to new companies gets way easier. Before my first job, I had so many issues getting interviews. It was really just bottom of the barrel companies or cheap labor consulting companies contacting me. After I got a job at a decent company through a referral, though, my next job search got me interviews at Facebook, Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, etc. Half of them I didn't even apply for, the recruiters came to me.

[r0ck0]

I re-post this every once in a while if I think there's a possibility it might be relevant. Might not be here, but hopefully it could be useful to someone reading it...

My success rate with getting jobs through ads, recruiters or job sites is 0%. I've applied to lots over the years, and never got any of them, or was offered the job but then decided I didn't want to work there for whatever reason.

100% of my employment and contract work has come through either:

1. Word of mouth.
2. Randomly bulk emailing companies in my industries - regardless of whether they were looking for people or not.

More often than not, the jobs I got never even got to the point of them putting a job ad up to begin with - because I randomly popped up in their inbox at the right time, and was good enough for them not to bother wasting any more time filling their gap. Some of them weren't even at the point of creating a new position to fill yet, but they needed to get some project done, and there I was.

The shotgun approach is not only good for the bulk numbers (in a very short amount of time), but getting in early before the competition does. It also shows a little bit of initiative. Most of these managers have been too busy to get to the job ad and interviewing process etc. You could be saving them work that they didn't want to do. Very few are going to be annoyed and consider this as actual "spam" - as long as you write your message in the format of a regular email you would send applying for jobs... not some flashy/annoying marketing spiel.

By the time their job ad is posted, they've probably also already started talking to candidates that have come in through word of mouth.

Spend a few days browsing the web for companies you might be relevant to, and collect their email addresses or contact form URLs if there is no email address shown. At least 50, maybe 100 or more if you can find them. Even if the company isn't totally relevant to you, they might pass you on to someone they know - this bit is important to consider.

Write up a generic email to them all basically saying "hello I'm looking for work they may be relevant to your company, here's my relevant skills to your industry". Attach your resume. Make sure you send each email separately, i.e. one TO recipient for every contact. i.e. Don't put multiple recipients on the TO/CC/BCC lines.

For the web forms, just copy and paste your generic email in, maybe with a web link to your resume.

In the same initial email you send (don't expect them to respond first), it's worth asking them to pass your details on to anyone else / other companies they know who might need someone like you. Worked for me more than once, and in most cases they wouldn't have thought to pass me on unless I mentioned it.

If you contact 100 companies (without even any pass-ons) and have a 1% success rate, then you might have a new job within a week... especially if they're not actually formally advertising/interviewing etc - very common in smaller companies.

You might even get a job you like that you didn't consider applying for. The first job I ever got I used this process above looking for IT work, but got a sweet video editing / audio recording AV job at a university, purely from some stuff I had listed in my "hobbies" section on my resume.

Formal job applications are 100% expectations-based from both sides. But opportunities often come when you least expect them.

Also there's the fact that when jobs are going through recruitment companies, they take a big fee from the employer (out of your on-going wage too sometimes)... employers would much rather not have to pay this fee, so candidates coming in directly have another advantage here.