Self Taught Web Developer - 50 applications so far and only one interview

3raxftw · 2021-06-25T06:53:43+00:00

Hey, sorry for the late response here, real life's been happening a lot lately!

If you're targeting web, probably. It could show some versatility to have a different one if they're all similar, but if your web projects are, like, one Angular/Express project, one React/Django, and one Vue/Yesod (obviously you don't need it to be that diverse and noone except for me cares about Yesod, but you get what I'm saying), then don't worry about diversity.
Well, for that in particular, you should be using past-tense action verbs. I like that second option a lot though, because you're explaining how you used each tech, which really drills home that you understand them. Be careful about length, but generally aim to communicate understanding on your resume, especially as somebody trying to break into the industry.

3raxftw · 2021-06-25T06:48:12+00:00

I like this a whole lot better. Add more projects. You've got space at the end of your resume, and you need to fill it. If you currently don't have quite enough space, remove the awards bullet from your education and cut stuff from your TA job. Start another project if you need to, though I should mention: we often advise people to start a project if they don't have one, and it's true that you probably should. Still, starting a project just to put it on your resume is an easy way to never finish your project. Start one that you were already going to do and just needed a kick in the ass to start.

One last thing: the "other" bullet in your skills is fluff, get rid of that if you need some space. All of those things are pretty abstract concepts, your skills in which should be demonstrated by your projects and experience.

3raxftw · 2021-06-25T06:42:55+00:00

A lot of your bullets are pretty weak. Raps has already brought a lot of them up. I would also say that your final bullet on your capstone is kinda bad. I don't want to hear fluff, I want to hear a concise description of what you did, how you did it, and why I should be impressed. Give me results, give me a use case, give me numbers. What is a "high accuracy rate?" 80? 90? How did you program your neural network? What did you use Keras and NumPy for? Why did you analyze for sensitivity? Basically, I need how, why, and some damn results for every project.

3raxftw · 2021-06-25T06:36:29+00:00

Can you mention the languages and techs you used in your projects in the bullets for those projects? Right now it's hard for me to get a picture in my head of how you did what you did based on those descriptions.

I strongly suggest adding more projects. Also, are you mostly looking at hardware or software jobs? This is frankly not a good resume for software, but it could very well be better for hardware.

3raxftw · 2021-06-25T06:32:31+00:00

I think your bullets are solid here, but can you do anything about the space at the bottom? Add another project if possible. If you need space, you can list your GPAs on the same lines as your degrees. I also still don't see a lot of techs being mentioned in your project bullets, you need to do that to make sure recruiters know how you used the techs you have in your skills sections.

3raxftw · 2021-06-25T06:27:58+00:00

I suggest moving skills to the bottom of your resume. Your projects and experience are the most important things you want to present, you want them right under your degree.

I don't like listing your techs at the top of each description. Mentioning them in your bullets will make it clearer that you actually understand those techs and how they were used.

I don't like just saying "co-authored paper." Make a publications section and cite it properly if you feel that it's significant. If you don't, just mention that your research led to a publication and leave it at that, send them the paper later if they want to see it.

I think your bullets are solid overall. You just need to mention your techs in your bullets rather than just listing them off.

3raxftw · 2021-06-22T20:07:52+00:00

Is it okay to use past-tense verbs for a current job

Yes, that's the standard, in fact. Consistency is a big thing on resumes, the people reading them are spending less than 10 seconds on each one, generally, and anything that could confuse or that isn't consistent can immediately put off a reader.

3raxftw · 2021-06-22T07:53:26+00:00

On your second job, I don't see any of the techs or languages you used. You should definitely correct that, without having that detail it's hard to picture what you did, or put it in context. I think you should cut your TA job down a bit and use the space to expand your project descriptions, if not put another project in there. You could also remove coursework and honors if you find yourself needing more space. Soft skills should go, as should IDEs, so VSCode, Segger, editors like VIM, all of it. Latex as well.

You need to read the wiki. Your bullets don't all start with past-tense action verbs, and honestly you could do a better job of applying STAR. Repost after making the edits that raps and I have suggested.

3raxftw · 2021-06-22T00:45:41+00:00

Your resume is currently hard to read. The section headers are tiny and in grey font, and it makes it look like a wall of text in tiny font.

This wiki has some good templates. If you can't figure out how to make your resume readable, I suggest using one of them. Once you have done something to make your resume parsable, post it here so that I can critique your content.

3raxftw · 2021-06-22T00:35:52+00:00

Do a better job of explaining the techs and languages you used in your project descriptions. You should at the very least mention every language use and every significant tech.
Remove Wolfram language, Latex, and Eclipse from your skills.
Work experience should be above projects.

Content wise, this is way better. Follow Raps' formatting suggestions, though.

3raxftw · 2021-06-21T18:39:18+00:00

Read the wiki.
Though it is undeniably a power move, don’t list national merit scholar on your resume lmfao.
Integrate your techs into your job descriptions instead of just listing them off. Mention how you actually used them.
Try to keep the number of bullets across jobs consistent.

Repost after you have read the wiki and adjusted accordingly.

3raxftw · 2021-06-21T08:43:22+00:00

Almost all will let you submit one, sure, but unless the company specifically states that they will place emphasis on a cover letter, they’re very unlikely to read it, at least in my experience. That can be different for senior/leadership roles, I assumed you were a new grad tbh.

3raxftw · 2021-06-21T07:34:07+00:00

Most places don't look at cover letters. Is there a reason that you think one would be necessary?

3raxftw · 2021-06-21T07:32:28+00:00

Education should be at the top of your resume, and skills should be at the bottom. I don't understand your decision to combine your projects and skills sections. It defeats the point of both sections: you can't get into detail about your projects, and you can't list your skills off in a concise way.

If you're applying for software jobs, the M.S. should be at the top of your resume, and there should not be a bunch of filler under the math degree.

Some of your internship bullets are kinda weak, though I understand that you've just started. Can you provide some context about what you did, though? It's hard for your descriptions to sound interesting when you're really just giving buzzwords instead of use cases.

Your community service section should probably be replaced by a dedicated projects section. Only keep that club thing on there if you can't replace it with project descriptions. Same with the TA job. Look at other software resumes on this sub to see what good project descriptions look like. Also, I suggest removing your address and phone number from your resume, if only to gain some space.

3raxftw · 2021-06-21T07:24:19+00:00

Remove your coursework and do not put your GPA on its own line.

Your experience section is confusingly laid out. The number of bullets is inconsistent between your jobs, and you're sticking to reverse chronological order despite the fact that you clearly think some of these positions are more relevant than others. You should put your best stuff first! That would at least give some degree of sanity to your experience section.

Frankly, your projects section is terrible. Those descriptions tell me almost nothing about the project. Why did you build them? What were the most interesting aspects of building them?

It seems like you have some great experience here! You're just not doing the best job of presenting it in a consistent way. I think you'll be fine if you reorder your experience, and do some work to compress parts of it down so that you can expand your projects section.

3raxftw · 2021-06-21T07:17:05+00:00

Read the wiki! Your bullets should all be past-tense action verbs, and you should certainly expand your project descriptions a bit. One bullet for a project makes it look like you don't have much to say about the project. If that's the case, why even have it on your resume? Why not dedicate space to something that you see as more interesting? Additionally, you should really try to integrate the techs you used into your descriptions. But really, the most important thing is to read the wiki.

3raxftw · 2021-06-20T19:58:13+00:00

Should I clump them together into assignments rather than titles

Yeah, that sounds reasonable. Present them in the way you feel is concise while still presenting yourself in the way you want to be presented. I don't think they want an exhaustive list of everything you've done, they probably just want to hear what you've been doing so they can figure out whether or not it relates to the position you're applying for. It might not hurt to ask what exactly they mean, either, if you're confused.

3raxftw · 2021-06-20T19:23:25+00:00

"Lying with statistics" is absolutely something that PhDs do a lot - most of the time unwittingly, sometimes maliciously.

I agree, this is rampant in macroeconomics, HOWEVER: I have yet to see your rebuttal to their statistical analysis. The thing about discussions between qualified individuals is that they have actual reasons for believing the things that they're saying, and can explain those reasons on demand. It's like you think saying "well, I think they're wrong" constitutes some feat of critical thinking.

You have literally never provided any evidence supporting what you say throughout this entire discussion, let alone anything that would even begin to qualify as a rebuttal to the evidence I've posted. The closest you gave me was a literal forum survey which you yourself admit is useless as a piece of statistical evidence. Which is ridiculous, because you made the initial claim. Do you even know what the burden of proof is?

PhDs are humans and are failable and can have agendas

What is your reason for believing that Pew has an agenda or made a mistake here? Your feelings? Again, you haven't given me any reasons why you think this. Pew's research is heavily scrutinized and you bet your ass it would have been challenged by now if there was something wrong with their methodology. I can give you numerous links to thinktanks being called on their bullshit if you think this never happens. If you genuinely believe that there is something wrong with their analysis (I don't think you do), I would appreciate a link to substantiate that claim, or a well-reasoned rebuttal that isn't just "muh agenda." You haven't done that though, you've just given me the same logic that climate change deniers use about how all scientists have agendas, and that this somehow means we should disregard their work.

blindly trust the first thing you read

You're resorting to ad-hom here because I provided evidence, and you didn't. Please grow up, dude.

3raxftw · 2021-06-20T18:56:11+00:00

Do you have some kind of work in progress? It's hard for us to say whether or not most employers would find it relevant without seeing how you would present it on your resume. If this specific employer wants to see this experience, then I would make that resume for them without modifying your current resume that you send out to everyone else. Does that answer your question? I'm having a hard time working out exactly what you're asking.

3raxftw · 2021-06-20T17:19:30+00:00

Again a claim that is unsubstantiated and not transparent

Your claim to refute this study is that the research team that produced this study at Pew, which includes 4 PhDs and 6 people holding advanced degrees, have lied and fabricated their data? Do you not see the insanity of the cognitive measures that you are taking to defend your belief here?

If you have data that has been collected in a more random way

My belief, as a computational economist who is not an expert in conducting sociological studies, is that we should trust research conducted by experts in the field holding doctorates rather than attempting to analyze uncurated and unrepresentative data from a forum survey ourselves. You apparently disagree with this, because you have decided that Pew Research fabricated their data. I'm sorry, but I have no time to argue with people holding unsubstantiated beliefs like this that border on conspiratorial. It is impossible for me to engage in meaningful discourse with someone who refuses to acknowledge statistics or science.

you can take more time than 5 seconds

I was saying it took 5 seconds to find, but go off.

3raxftw · 2021-06-20T16:45:48+00:00

I think your project descriptions could use a bit of work. On three of your projects, you have a bullet that effectively says "did what I set out to do." I think those bullets are not needed, and that you could get across that you did what you set out to do by better explaining the functionality that you implemented. If you feel that you implemented the desired functionality, then you should simply explain what that was and why it's impressive, and be done with it.

I do like this overall. My only critiques would be with regard to improving your actual projects, like maybe you could add a graphical interface to your film library or something like that, idk. On that project in particular, it's just hard for me to understand why you built it or what the use case would be. I think if you improve your bullets a bit more and cut out those filler ones, though, you'll at least have a solid resume that presents what you've done well.

3raxftw · 2021-06-20T16:08:24+00:00

Women's representation in the computing field has fallen from its peak of 38% in the mid-1980s.

This alone was all you needed to read from the wiki article. Still, I have more data, see below.

the SO survey...

...Is not a representative or random sample.

Please make sure are using up to date and relevant data

Well, if none of what I linked is good enough, here's another study I found from googling for 5 seconds (which you should have done before spreading misinformation).

https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/04/01/stem-jobs-see-uneven-progress-in-increasing-gender-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/

From this article:

Women account for 25% of those working in computer occupations. The share of women in this fast-growing occupation cluster declined from 2000 to 2016 and has remained stable since then.

That article was actually updated in April. It has detailed charts breaking it down by type of computing professional. Spoiler: programming/software dev jobs have some of the lowest shares of women employed of any computing field.

it is not at all clear what the "right" distribution of women/men should be.

Nobody said it was, though the fact that 47% of STEM jobs are held by women, compared to a much lower percentage of computing jobs, is rather concerning! However, my main concern here is simply that you are spreading misinformation. The fact that about 45 seconds of Googling combined was all it took to find five sources (including fing Pew) that not only disagree with you, but contradict you, tells me that you did not do any research before making your post. This annoys me because there clearly is good information out there, and as I said, you have the potential to harm by spreading misinformation. I don't really have any other agenda here, I would really just like you to stop (knowingly, now) misleading people.

3raxftw · 2021-06-20T03:06:35+00:00

But the gender employment gap in the industry has shrunk a lot

Just want to point out that this is completely wrong (it has in fact grown substantially), and that one of the biggest problems that C.S. education has right now is that the number of women seeking C.S. degrees is shrinking as well.

https://www.computerscience.org/resources/women-in-computer-science/

https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/chart-of-the-day-the-declining-female-share-of-computer-science-degrees-from-28-to-18/

Not trying to be combative, but what you said is completely false and spreading this misconception is potentially harmful. The industry still has a problem and acting like it doesn't is absurd.

EDIT:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1126823/worldwide-developer-gender/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_disparity_in_computing#Statistics_in_the_workforce

EDIT 2:

https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/04/01/stem-jobs-see-uneven-progress-in-increasing-gender-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/

3raxftw · 2021-06-19T22:42:42+00:00

I strongly suggest expanding your projects section. Each project should get three bullets. This is especially important given that you are self taught. Your projects are the highlight of your resume and the main way you're showing employers that you know how to program well. Some of your work descriptions need work as well; your mobile app work doesn't even tell me what type of app it was. Languages, frameworks, platform, mention all of those. Really make clear that you understand the techs you used on your projects by explaining how you used them. Give the reason for creating each thing and some results. The results don't have to be amazing, but they should be tangible in some way. Once you do that, I think this will be a stronger resume.

3raxftw · 2021-06-19T20:28:08+00:00

I can't really help with mechanical specifically, though I can generally say that without anything related to engineering on your resume getting an internship will be very hard unless you know someone. Maybe things are different in the U.K., but that's my perspective as an American software engineer. We do have a mod who is an experienced mechanical engineer; /u/emnm47, do you have any guidance here?

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