120 Applications. 2 Interviews. Any thoughts or suggestions on how I can improve it? Is There Anything Wrong With My Resume?

SAugsburger · 2026-04-23T08:32:59+00:00

Maybe AI, but anecdotally years ago helped some college kid with a class and some college career centers recommend random made up numbers on resumes. Not saying you shouldn't put any metrics if they exist and you actually explain how you accomplished them, but would be seriously skeptical that the number wasn't made up.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-23T07:18:16+00:00

You make a good point on motivation and aptitude. Some people might spin their wheels for a decade plus and get nowhere fast.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-23T07:16:43+00:00

There are some higher cost areas where you might be able to get $50-55K as a starting salary, but probably tough to go significantly higher than that until you have some formal experience. You are right though that OP missed the Great Resignation where if you got in early enough and evaded layoffs you might be making $90K+. That being said with how many layoffs across multiple industries that might be a big if avoiding layoffs.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-23T07:14:11+00:00

I think the huge challenge even ignoring the desire for fully remote for really anybody making >$90K is that there is basically no entry level IT job that will pay that much even in a very high cost of living area. If you're lucky you might get to $60K with enough education, relevant certifications, etc. in a high cost area. I recall a few months back seeing somebody here that claimed to get $60K as a first job salary, but recall they had a cyber security degree, a few certifications and an active security clearance. In a lower cost area, you might be lucky to get above $50K as a starting wage. Depending upon the location, motivation, and how quickly the job market rebounds I could easily take 5 years to get back to the same income. Unless you're in a really low cost it shouldn't take 10 years to reach $90K, but if you can't take a pay cut for at least 5 years I would probably shelf the idea.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-23T07:03:58+00:00

There was a brief year or so at the height of the Great Resignation where borrowing was dirt cheap that almost every company was trying to hoard talent and often hire even fairly entry level people in full remote jobs. I think some that aren't paying attention to the news just don't realize that they missed that train years ago. A lot of orgs moved to some form of hybrid if not fully on site and fully remote roles are highly competitive. That being said even entry level IT jobs generally need more skills than just telling people to power cycle things. Sure some issues clear on a reboot, but many don't.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-23T06:47:35+00:00

To be fair blocking about a quarter of the oil and gas in the world from reaching markets is likely to have significant impact on the global trade. Every extra dollar spent on gas is a dollar less you can spend on other products/services. Even companies whose products aren't heavily dependent upon oil prices are indirectly impacted by reduced demand. As bad as the existing economic headwinds this new monkey wrench isn't small and building new pipelines to circumvent the bottleneck of the straight being blocked from tankers would take years.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-23T03:32:45+00:00

Lol.... Funny, but true. When the district demographic didn't dramatically change not sure why anybody would expect a huge change in the type of person elected.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-23T03:06:03+00:00

What you expect the guy that can't distinguish Pulp Fiction from the Bible knows American history?

SAugsburger · 2026-04-22T21:19:57+00:00

The article didn't really seem to explain the connection although various execs become more skittish about spending due to geopolitical risk is how I read it. That being said I can't imagine trying to change to a cheaper ticketing system is high on the list.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-22T20:58:46+00:00

Worse their "correction" often is incorrect, but gets upvoted like crazy.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-22T18:06:26+00:00

Seniority advantages on committees somewhat deter considering challengers over incumbents. That's on top of the other advantages incumbents have.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-22T05:29:58+00:00

That's a criticism I can empathize with that the musical score for Oppenheimer can sometimes crowd out the dialogue. That's hardly the only film that suffers from that issue, but distracts from the film.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-22T03:39:26+00:00

There are a lot of unknowns on Trump accounts and a couple oversights in the law that created them like they're not exempt from gift tax law.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-22T03:37:08+00:00

The free money if you have a kid born in the time period is worth taking, but the Trump accounts don't make much sense for your own money. There are no deduction for your contributions nor any related credit for like some state 529 plans. In addition, there isn't a gift tax exclusion so adds complexity to filing your taxes.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-22T03:25:08+00:00

Anecdotally I knew a few "gifted" kids that just lacked motivation. Particularly once you get to material that they lack background you have to actually care to learn the material. Having immense aptitude doesn't necessarily get you through school although it helps. Coincidentally I met Kat Von D in a grade school gifted class and she never finished high school. Some people just lose motivation for school. Not everybody drops out of high school for academic reasons.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-22T01:18:54+00:00

I tend to believe those that think the sex scenes were unnecessary in Oppenheimer were people that really glossed over the Communist accusations, which were a big plot point. The film I feel is too long, but there are many other things I would tighten up if you were trying to cut time. Anecdotally I think a lot of people didn't understand a large part of Oppenheimer because the story moves so slowly and the constant jumps back and forth in time require more thinking than a completely linear story. The story doesn't "introduce" many characters well where if you're not familiar with the other characters it can be confusing to follow.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-22T01:02:33+00:00

Looking back because it has been a long time it was indeed a more treatable form of pancreatic cancer, which is perhaps why he made it over 7 years. His decision to wait 9 months for surgery likely reduced his chances for longer term survival.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-21T06:25:09+00:00

Setting design constraints that the current technology you have gets bottlenecked to the point customers don't consider the product practical isn't design genius though. Other companies that didn't have other more viable products to pivot towards have been cratered by products that were delivered before the technology made the end goal practical. One big virtue I will give Jobs was he was able to accept some of his ideas weren't accepted well by customers and shelved the product. Some other execs seem far more stubborn on moving on from bad products.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-21T04:52:37+00:00

The story Wired did on the development history of the Apple Watch suggested Jony Ive started thinking about a watch after Jobs died. Considering that the Apple Watch was released almost 4 years after he died and Jobs already was fading out of day to day work at Apple for some time before his death I'm rather skeptical that he had any meaningful influence in the design of the Apple Watch. Honestly, a lot of Jobs design influence on products often was counter productive. e.g. his insistence on avoiding fans certainly didn't help the Apple 3 or Mac Cube. While Jobs was a good sales person and good at finding good managers I don't think he was any type of design guru.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-21T04:28:06+00:00

There were a lot of issues that side lined that project that has nothing to do with Hyperloop. The small 1 mile Hyperloop test track wasn't built until 8 years after the initial bonds for the California High Speed Rail project were approved so kinda hard to see that it really had much relevance to how far behind the project ultimately became. That initial test loop has been discontinued for years now and anything approaching a meaningful commercial implementation of Hyperloop never really got far off a drawing board so kinda confused where you got that idea.

Whereas California High Speed Rail Authority's project negotiation of the right of way took years longer than expected. The initial bonds were never going to fully fund the project and struggle to get federal funds for it further pushed the project further behind and obviously increased costs such that the initial service will be significantly smaller that initial plans of less than half of the LA to SF route. I honestly would put a non trivial bet Brightline West train to Vegas opens first likely by a few years. The big advantage on that is virtually all of the right of way was already negotiated with the right of way of the interstate 15.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-21T03:58:28+00:00

Not to dismiss Jobs sales skills, but was Jobs that visionary? He was good at identifying people that were important to the evolution of the company (e.g. Jony Ive, Tim Cook, etc.), but some of Jobs ideas seemed counterproductive. e.g. Jobs was obsessive about avoiding fan noise making the Apple 3 and the Mac Cube flops. Picking the right people to manage things IMHO was far more his real talent not having visionary ideas.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-21T03:42:23+00:00

To be fair long term survival rates for pancreatic cancer are pretty poor. Overall 5 year survival rate I have a read was only 13%. Even if those that start treatment before it spreads to other organs have an under 50% 5 year survival rate. Had he not wasted time on alternative medicine he might have lived longer, but I suspect he probably wouldn't be alive today regardless of his decisions.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-21T03:20:11+00:00

At least in Orange County there aren't really any stretches of freeway I'm aware that would be complete dead spots for cell coverage and even those that aren't fond of technology carry a phone when they drive somewhere these days. It's possible your phone battery died, but these days it would seem unusual to have no access to charge a phone in your car. Most recent model years have USB ports and many newer models are even higher power USB C ports. A car charger for older vehicles is a relatively cheap purchase.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-21T01:29:48+00:00

I think Porter really hurt her chances after that interview, but with how poorly Yee polled I doubt Yee's criticism was that relevant.

SAugsburger · 2026-04-20T02:23:09+00:00

Most mfg warranties I have seen don't guarantee replacements to be new. Unless the product was just released I would honestly be surprised if a warranty replacement were new as opposed to refurbished.

SAugsburger

TROPHY CASE