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Comment by istjohn | Hacker News Reader

>> And one side piece of advice - your blog posts, open source contributions, speaking engagements.... those all are commendable. But mean little when it comes to hiring you.

This may very well be true. But I will say, as someone looking to break into the industry, this is very surprising to me. I guess I should focus on acing the technical interview?

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When I interview candidates who mention github contributions or courses they've created/taught or talks they've given I never have time to look at it. I'm literally told we're bringing someone on site maybe a day or two in advance, mostly it's day of. I don't have much time to personally comb over their resume sadly.

If you can bring this up during the interview I'd greatly appreciate it otherwise don't assume these things (open source contributions, blog posts, talks) will help you get interviews. What they may give you is the ability to network with people who are hiring which gets you an onsite.

Focus on both - they just serve different purposes. The items mentioned will get their attention, so they are great. But once you have their attention, you need to switch to proving you can help their business.

Hard disagree. Open source contributions are definitely something EM look at. And a good EM knows to look at blog posts. “Can this person explain technical topics to a technical audience” is a hugely important factor.

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