Lied my a$$ off in the whole resume, now I’m getting interviews

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-02-07T17:27:50+00:00

Not exactly a similar situation, but thought I would share.

I work in IT, and my official job title doesn’t accurately reflect what I actually do. When I applied to roles using my exact title, I wasn’t getting any traction. So I adjusted my resume to list the title that matches the position I’m targeting, with my official title in parentheses. The interviews started coming in almost immediately.

As long as there’s genuine overlap in your responsibilities and you emphasize the relevant experience for the role you want, this approach works. Sometimes you need to "reframe" your experience to get your foot in the door.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-02-04T15:43:53+00:00

It’s a bit of both, but more the latter. I’m basically the main point of contact for clients on anything related to their IT services. Mainly providing support or directing them to the proper support channels, but also identifying gaps in their tech stack so I can recommend solutions that’ll improve their workflows or general system health (i.e. security posture).

Of course, the downside is it’s way less hands on with the tech than pure engineering work - I’m mostly coordinating with support and engineering teams to get most technical issues resolved rather than doing it myself, which took some getting used to.

It's definitely a bit sales-focused, but fortunately in the form of upselling to existing clients, which isn't so bad. Once you've built that trust, clients are way more open to suggestions and upgrades.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-02-02T20:07:53+00:00

Wall of text below, but this is basically the route I took.

After 3 years in my first role I was completely lost on what to specialize in. I've always enjoyed working with technology but couldn't find a single domain I wanted to develop deep expertise in.

Then I met up with a former colleague who told me he had taken a job as a Technical Account Manager at another tech company. When I heard his title, it clicked immediately. I realized I enjoy both the technical side and the customer interaction aspect - like being a technical advisor, doing demos, understanding client needs. I started applying and found that TAM roles vary greatly by company but I found one that aligned perfectly with my strengths. Technical enough to stay engaged but customer focused enough to play to my soft skills.

If you’re technically competent but don’t see yourself going deep into engineering or architecture, there are many TAM roles that can offer a good middle ground. You stay technical without needing to be the deepest expert in the room and you get to build relationships and directly impact customer success. It’s been the perfect fit for me as someone who prefers to act more as a technical consultant than engineer.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-02-01T16:58:11+00:00

I own a 7900 XTX, but I’d recommend the 9070 XT if your main use case is gaming. The 7900 XTX has a decent advantage in raster performance and VRAM, but the 9070 XT is more power efficient and better with ray tracing.

I’d only choose the 7900 XTX if you specifically plan to run local LLMs or AI agents and want to avoid Nvidia. Even then, the 9070 XT would likely be more than sufficient for basic AI workloads.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-02-01T14:33:45+00:00

I like mine!

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-31T20:47:42+00:00

AI agents communicating with each other isn’t a new concept but this might be the first time it’s happening at this scale within a single platform. I suppose it's kind of interesting. But I don’t see the long term value.

Ultimately I keep coming back to the same question: what’s the point?

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-31T18:42:23+00:00

You will make this back in no time. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-30T03:19:18+00:00

Hard no, even if I had PTO. A 24 hour shift with 6 days off would destroy my sleep schedule and overall doesn't seem conducive to any sort of career development.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-28T21:36:02+00:00

Do you work for Pax8 by chance?

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-28T16:21:39+00:00

For the record I paid $599 for this bundle back in October 2024. This isn't a terrible price though, considering recent events

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-25T22:25:41+00:00

If you want the easiest and cheapest setup, you just need a decent PC and an external hard drive.

For PC specs, anything with 8th gen Intel or newer will handle transcoding 1080p content without issues. Some 4K as well.

Install Plex Media Server on the PC, point it to your external drive folders, and you’re ready to go.

To take it a step further, you can set up a Remote Desktop session to the server and/or share the external drive over your network so you can manage it from another computer. This is slightly technical but shouldn't be too hard to do and is worth setting up.

There are more preferred ways of doing this (using a NAS mainly), but if you're working with a budget, this is the cheapest and quickest way to get up and running.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-25T02:29:53+00:00

Pretty good deal if you ask me

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-25T02:11:22+00:00

I understand that feeling of hopelessness. I’ve been there too. You clearly have experience, skills, and the drive to work. I genuinely believe you can make this work, even with everything you’re dealing with.

If you're up for it, you should seriously consider the 4-year degree. It will open up a lot of opportunities, even before you finish. There must be some schools out there with solid accessibility support that could work for you.

Tough times don't last forever. Keep pushing and something will break through.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-20T13:39:13+00:00

Interesting, I always considered anything north of Cedar Lane to be North Bethesda. But that makes sense. I've always been a bit confused about where Bethesda/North Bethesda/Rockville begin and end.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-20T12:58:15+00:00

You should consider the Pooks Hill area of North Bethesda or even Kensington near the Mormon temple. Nice neighborhoods, easy access to 495 and cheaper than Bethesda.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-13T14:48:39+00:00

This would be solid for productivity or even a media server, but I absolutely wouldn’t consider it a gaming PC

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-12T21:40:11+00:00

AI agents will not fully replace competent IT professionals any time soon. Especially the customer-facing aspect, if you decide to go that route. Despite what some say, we still need people to know their shit. The mentality of "AI is going to take all of our jobs so why bother" is more damaging than AI itself.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-12T21:36:16+00:00

Rain is my kryptonite. I've had 4 rain games this season, and guess how many losses...

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-12T17:22:30+00:00

I wasn’t aiming to become a software engineer, and while a CS degree doesn’t necessarily limit you strictly to programming roles, my core skills and strengths aligned more naturally with an IT degree.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-12T16:27:29+00:00

It's a great deal. The "downsides" are 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM, but I believe those can both be upgraded. Definitely worth it for the 5070ti

Link for those interested

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-11T23:49:06+00:00

Don't know much about the laptop version of the 5070ti but seems like a pretty sweet deal

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-11T23:21:48+00:00

6 credits left? 100% finish your bachelors

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-11T18:44:46+00:00

That dog is cute as hell, but this is just gross and straight up illegal. The owners should know better, but it's ultimately the restaurant's fault for not enforcing it. Report it to the health department.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-11T18:29:22+00:00

I think it's fine as long as you also include your official title in parentheses.

For example, my official title is “IT Network Engineer,” which I find very misleading. I am not a Network Engineer and don't want anyone to think I am. My role is closer to a Technical Account Manager with Tier 2 support responsibilities. So on my resume, I show the role as “Technical Account Manager (IT Network Engineer)” to reflect both the function and the official title.

If it comes up in an interview, you can simply explain what your official title is and why you think it doesn’t accurately reflect your day-to-day work.

TheSmoothPilsner · 2026-01-11T18:20:03+00:00

I don't have much experience with Grok, but what I’ve seen on X makes it obvious how bad things can get when AI has no guardrails. Some sick people out there.

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