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Comment by Arch485 | Hacker News Reader

Hey, thanks for taking a look!

> I'm struggling to figure out what you're good at

Can it not be all of them? :p

That's one of my big challenges with resumes. People assume I can only be good at one thing and/or assume that I'm lying about my work experience.

I can get _really good_ references from all of my previous employers (because I am legitimately good at everything on my resume), but I never seem to get to that point.

Historically, if I get a technical interview, I get the job every time. The challenge is getting the technical interview.

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The more broad and general the claim of value the heavier burden there is on trust.

It's the same for products. Products with very narrow niche value props are immediately attractive to the few people with those specific needs. When you sound like everything to everyone, people are naturally less likely to believe you and the only way around that is a strong recommendation/referral. (Not a name you list on resume, but someone the hiring person trusts saying "you should really consider hiring this person, they are exceptional").

The more specifically relevant you can be to their needs, the more you will stand out.

This is as true for products as it is for resumes, especially when considering that people "hire" products.

I agree with the other respondent. I’d go as far as to say your resume is bad. All I got from it is that you went to university and have some backend experience and also game development experience. I would have passed on your resume if it had been submitted to a job I was hiring for. There is not even a GitHub link.

A person should be able to look at your resume and visualise what you have done and what you could do for them. What game(s) did you work on? What PHP frameworks did you work with? What were the internal tools you built?

“We need someone to do x, is this the resume of someone who can do x?”

The job market is tough and fixing your resume might not be a silver bullet but it is at least something actionable :)

If anyone told me that they are good at everything, it would show a lack of self awareness if they have only been working for three three or four years and would be an immediate red flag.

But your real issue is that you have a generic experience that really doesn’t stand out and the software development field is saturated. Yes I know everyone has to start somewhere. The market just really sucks right now and there really isn’t any reason for companies to hire junior developers when they can find their perfect match.

Make multiple versions of your resume, each of which emphasizes a different aspect of your skillset, and use the one that most closely matches the job description when you apply. When I am really interested in a job, I usually make a new version of my resume just for that one job application. It's not as much work as it sounds, because I just include or exclude different bullet points depending on the main skills required in the job description, so that when the person reviewing my resume reads it, they will say "I'm looking for an experienced C# developer... and this is an experienced C# developer! It's a match!". If I include too much info about my other skills, then they wonder if I'm much of a C# developer at all. It's about reducing what the hiring manager would see as "noise" so that they clearly receive the "signal" that they are looking for.

Also, leverage recruiters - give your resume to as many professional recruiters as you can. They're often better than applying directly now. Also apply at staffing companies, that's a good way in.

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