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After 20 years in recruiting for tech startups I decided to launch a resume writing and career coaching business. In recruiting I was often helping candidates to fix their resumes and teaching them how to get jobs, but I was working on behalf of companies and my incentives weren't always to the benefit of candidates.

Now I focus 100% on helping people get jobs and build careers. Much of my coaching work involves convincing people that they are qualified for roles they felt were beyond their reach, or helping write a resume that will open doors that had previously been closed.

Sometimes my clients come back and send me a thank you note about how they have been offered their dream job or a raise that will change the lives of their family. Sometimes I just see a LinkedIn notification that shows a past client took a new job.

Being a resume writer is an odd career choice. It's not glamorous like writing novels or screenplays. But I can point to thousands of people that have benefitted from my work. That feels meaningful to me.

You could do a search on LinkedIn or just general web search for "career consultant" or the more popular term "career coach". I prefer "consultant" based on what I do and the level of service I provide. There are lots of people calling themselves "career coach" that are more about inspiring people (like a life coach) and less about providing actionable advice and solving real problems.

I do work for clients directly, and typically charge for consults on an hourly basis (which can be broken up into smaller sessions as necessary). My contact info is in my HN profile.

I understand, but is in essence a 'finder's fee' that just works in perpetuity.

When I was a recruiter, if I placed a candidate for a FTE role and get say 20% fee (based on starting salary), I got that same fee whether someone remains in the job for 90 days or 90 years. I don't get additional money for each year they stay. That makes sense, because I'm not really responsible at all for that hire once it's made.

For consultants, recruiters may play some role in maintaining the relationship between the hiring client and the consultant. Not all recruiters do this, but many stay in contact with the consultant (to protect their investment) and with the client (to maintain that relationship, place more consultants, and ensure the client is satisfied with the work).

I'm not trying to defend predatory practices by recruiters, but if a recruiter is able to negotiate a large mark-up for their consultant, that's a skill that they should be rewarded for financially.

To view it another way, if I get a client to pay $130/hr for an open role, and I identify a qualified consultant willing to take that job for $70/hr, that's a combination of A) my skill as a recruiter, and B) the consultant's inability to recognize their own market value or inability to negotiate a higher hourly rate.

I don't think gouging is good for the industry overall, but if the consultant is happy at $70/hr and the client is also happy at $130/hr, what's "wrong" with the recruiter taking that $60/hr?

Everybody is happy, no? At least everybody is happy when there is no transparency as to where that $130 is going.

FYI, I'm playing devil's advocate here. During my career I did very little consulting work and my margins were usually closer to 15-20% of hourly rate, though I once worked for someone who had a 400% mark-up on a consultant for almost 3 years (consultant was paid ~$50/hr and bill rate was over $200).

I'm not sure if I'd be able to provide value or not, but feel free to message me with additional details and I can give you a more informed opinion. My career consulting work is often paired with resume and other services (LinkedIn, cover letters) where it serves to tie everything together, but I also provide 'consult only' packages to people who are trying to navigate unusual circumstances in careers.

There are probably too many ways to respond to this question without making a full post, but a few examples: 1 - Reach out to other freelancers - many freelancers actually have too much work and will refer some leads along to others they trust. 2 - Recruiters - find an agency recruiter who you can trust and tell them to keep an eye out for you. Recruiters love placing contractors, as it is basically an annuity revenue stream. 3 - General outreach - just reach out to people. Founders, meetup leaders, CTOs. Do a little research and send short messages declaring your availability and interest. 4 - Let the work find you - make sure you have a discoverable presence on LinkedIn and elsewhere.

I've been paid by Dzone.com (for both writing and editing) and TechBeacon. I was published a few times by Lifehacker although I don't remember if those were paid (and they aren't what I'd consider a tech site).

Reaching out to site editors with a couple samples of work could find you getting work published. As a freelance software developer, getting paid to write is nice, but just getting published can help increase exposure and lead to more incoming requests for project work and improved reputation.

Based on my knowledge of the market for freelance software gigs, I think you are grossly overestimating the difficulty of finding good work. "Extreme luck" is not necessary, nor is "extremely good networking".

30-40% is also probably a bit of a stretch for the recruiter's take (former recruiter here). Those numbers and higher are certainly possible, but 20% is a bit more likely. Also, if you are getting a competitive rate for your work, it really doesn't matter what the recruiter is taking, does it? If they are able to negotiate a huge finder's fee on top of your competitive rate, that's their skill being rewarded.

I do career consulting (and resume writing) mostly for clients from tech. I think some arrangement where you had multiple forms of income (or potential income) might be a good solution for you. What might that look like?

- Freelance software development - This would give you some control over what types of projects you work on, and you could focus on areas that really interest you. Maybe it would be projects that enable you to learn a new language. You also can typically work from home, and you will be able to balance your time between different work.

- Freelance writing - If your writing is good you can certainly pick up some $$ here and there by writing articles for tech sites. I've done that for tech sites as a writer on career topics, and many of these sites are always seeking new content. The amount of money may not be a game changer, but if you enjoy the work you can probably make this 10% of your overall income.

Personal projects - Perhaps some of them can be monetized and you just haven't come up with the correct concept. Or perhaps you can come up with some ideas for projects that are both interesting and able to be monetized.

Working for yourself is quite motivating. I've done it for several years, and when failure isn't an option you will find ways to stay motivated. I spent 20 years in recruiting before transitioning fully to my current job (resume writing, content writing, career consulting, other freelance writing projects), and I've really enjoyed the change.

Some people aren't cut out for a 9-5. I certainly am not, and it doesn't sound like you are either.

Professional resume writer here that comes with 20 years of experience in recruiting and hiring for tech startups. I have no fear of being replaced by AI anytime soon, and I don't have any knowledge of this company but can certainly vouch for their statement about other resume firms trying to upsell a service based on a shoddy review.

I often have clients that come to me with perfectly good resumes that tell me some online rating system said it was terrible. A resume can be somewhat accurately 'scored' for fit based on matching keywords, but the tech isn't mature enough yet to say if something is simply good or bad.

Not to mention the different tastes from different companies. I write a bit differently depending on who the target audience is for a resume. I don't know if these review companies account for that at all, but they don't seem to.

I write resumes and consult to job seekers on search strategy topics. I've worked with several clients this year who have transitioned from more traditional IT/admin roles into security - for experienced pros I'd say that IT/admin types are the most common background (as opposed to software dev) for those seeking to enter infosec.

The value of certs depends a bit on the cert, and to be honest I don't typically see the SANS certs. CISSP is much more common, Certified Ethical Hacker is also pretty common, and Comp TIA Security + is one that most junior level IT folks start with (in my experience).

Saying you make 6 figures without saying where you live makes it pretty tough to figure out what you might make in your market. 100K is a ton of money in some areas and peanuts in others.

The amount of recruiter spam being sent to people in fly-over country (or anywhere outside the handful of major hubs by companies within those hubs) is based on the fact that there is almost no cost to sending those messages, and if one in 10,000 pays off the ROI is still probably fantastic for the recruiting firm.

This article is mostly about COL differences and why people may not choose to move, but the premise about the reasons for the volume of recruiting spam is flawed. It's not because "recruiting is hard" (though it is) so much as it can be explained by "sending spam is easy and free".

I’ve had a few, but I don’t always hear how they did after we work together so I couldn’t provide a metric.

I'm a professional resume writer and job search strategy consultant (20 years of tech recruiting experience), and I'd be open to taking a look to see what the issue might be (see my profile for contact info). It might not even be the resume, but instead your approach to how you're applying. If you're just sending resumes through Indeed and hoping for responses, you're doing it wrong.

The age thing may be an issue of course. If it's abundantly obvious from your resume that you are 60 or older, a reader may make assumptions about you that aren't true. Once a client reaches 40 I typically start to at least address the possibility of ageism and options to mitigate the risk if they are interested.

There are even some simple things such as resume formatting that could be at play. For examples, resumes with tables and images can be more difficult for ATS systems to parse.

Dozens of possibilities. I'm happy to take a look if you'd like.

46, and not a software developer, but I recruited for 20 years for startups and now I'm a resume writer and career consultant that works with lots of older engineers. The ones that are happy seem to not stay in one place too long (either moving internally to different projects or changing jobs), so they are always learning new things and often meeting new people.

I think a lot of 40+ engineers are unnecessarily skeptical about startups and smaller companies. Sure, the chances of any individual startup going under are pretty obvious, but once you're in that ecosystem it's not hard to get picked up by others in the ecosystem. Everyone from that startup is going to find work at another, and they'll bring along some friends, and your network gets pretty spread out pretty quickly which provides more and more opportunities.

I'm not even sure what "making it big at 40+" means - if you mean building something technically significant, many won't hit that goal. If it means having a good paycheck and lifestyle, that's attainable for most skilled devs it seems.

I write resumes for a living and coach on job search strategy (former recruiter as well), so I talk to several people a day who dislike their jobs enough to be looking for new ones.

In your 20s everything is new and most people are learning all the time, and wages are consistently increasing. Often you are working to pay off debt, doing things you'd rather not be doing because you have to. You're too busy hustling to realize whether or not you are doing what you truly want to do.

There comes a time where wages tend to plateau - in tech I think 35-45 is probably about the right window for that plateau to happen.

By 35 you might be lucky enough to have figured out what you'd rather be doing, and at that age some people probably feel trapped in their career and may lack the confidence to retool. So now you have flattened wages and know what you'd like to do, but either lack the courage or feel helpless to make any changes. That can be a pretty upsetting realization for people at that stage in life.

I've seen many people make major successful career changes at 35 and older. You certainly aren't stuck at that age, but the retooling process requires a strategy that might be anywhere from 3 months to 2 years depending on your starting point.

If you hate your job, start planning for what's next as soon as you make that realization.

Create a brand for yourself and for your company - logo, website, portfolio, LinkedIn company page with logo, etc. That makes you appear legitimate to anyone who finds you.

I see too many freelancers or independent 'studios' not spending any time to create any kind of branding for their companies, and people assume that it's not a legitimate operation.

There is a fairly large difference psychologically between seeing a LinkedIn profile that says "Freelance iOS Developer, Self-employed" with no logo and someone who says "Principal, $COMPANY" with a shiny logo. First impressions matter.

I have advised hundreds of clients that have made this same transition, and it's not as complex as you might think. Much of the problem is how you talk about that enterprise experience, which includes both on a resume and in an interview. The company name and size are not really an issue if you position your experience properly and understand your brand and value.

That's just it. It's really rare to find a 25 year old with a stagnant set of skills. I don't know if stagnation is the best word, but I also think there are other elements. Complacency in some cases, or getting too comfortable.

Most of the successful tech people I know that are 50+ never overstayed their welcome at companies where they stopped learning, or they were always being recruited by other firms and moved around. Recruiters generally aren't knocking on doors of someone who has been at the same company for 20 years, and that's for a variety of reasons.

I assure you it is a standard practice, but why would recruiters discard resumes without exact dates 'by default'? Because the assumption is that those people are 'old'?

That may answer the question for you, but ageism is a legal concern and disqualifying candidates because they didn't tell you when they graduated isn't dissimilar to asking someone how old they are in a job interview and refusing to hire them if they don't.

Good points, but also keep in mind that if your employer is giving you a steady diet of interesting projects using technologies that are highly relevant, you don't have any need to go home and do personal projects at night.

When I advise clients on career topics like this, I usually weigh whether the day job provides the client with a marketable skill set. If not, that person needs to consider doing things outside of work to maintain marketability. If the day job provides challenges and the proper set of tech, no real need to invest much additional time to learning.

Former recruiter and current professional resume writer. As the other respondent said, the quick formula a recruiter might use to guess your birth year is "college graduation date - 22" or "date of first job - 22".

You should keep this fact in mind as you write a resume and decide which jobs to include, which jobs to perhaps delete, and whether you want to include your graduation date. It isn't necessary to include a graduation year or all of your jobs, so you can usually shave some years off your age "on paper" without being considered as deceptive.

Sometimes I'll add a line "Previous experience included..." to indicate that there is prior work experience, but I don't list the years.

I'd hate to think that readers over 50 feel the need to consider leaving the tech workforce, and I know perhaps hundreds of successful engineers over 50.

Those that have a hard time getting back in are often a victim of discrimination not truly based on age, but on stagnation. A 50 year old who has worked on five interesting diverse projects in the last 10 years will find work. A 50 year old who spent the last 20 years working for the same company using old tech may struggle, and by the time you realize you need to retool it can be too late.

My current job is incredibly fulfilling on many levels, because I make a direct and positive impact on individuals on a daily basis, meet lots of interesting people from all over the world, and get to do it all from home. I have two daughters with autism and having freedom to pitch in at home during the day has been great as they grow up.

I'm a former tech recruiter and now I'm a resume writer and career consultant, and I've written for many here on HN as well as clients all over the world. Most of my work over the years has been with tech professionals, but right now my clients include a mobile developer in Australia, an engineer in Japan, an entertainment professional in LA, a product manager in SF, a nurse in Seattle, and about a dozen software engineers. I've written in the past few months for award-winning human rights advocates, film directors, journalists, doctors, and countless other professions.

I make a good living and at least a few times a week I get a note from a past client saying they got an interview at their dream company or just landed a job they really wanted. Getting paid to help people and make a measurable impact on their lives is a big difference from how I felt about recruiting, as there is no conflicting alignment of incentives as a writer. The opportunity to meet people around the world and learn about different jobs is a bonus.

I am the stepfather of a 14YO girl with rather severe autism (non-verbal, significant self-stimulation or "stimming/stims", multiple comorbidities like OCD behaviors), and about a month ago our adopted 3YO daughter was also diagnosed based on interviews with us and a couple/few hours with a doctor.

The diagnosis of the 3YO will provide access to several services where I live (NY state), and she's already been enrolled in an early education class with others on the spectrum. Before turning 3 she was receiving about 2 hours of in-home speech and therapy per week.

Get her to a doctor for diagnosis, as early services can be very helpful in long-term outcomes. We also had early services for the 14YO that unfortunately were not entirely effective due to the seriousness of her condition, but we're optimistic that the 3YO could be in general education classes by elementary school.

Let the work find you. One method is to turn on the "notify recruiters you are open" on LinkedIn (a toggle under Jobs) and write a note saying you want contract work. The setting is about a year old, and it notifies recruiters that are searching for candidates that you are open to listening.

You can also set filters for location, contract vs perm, size of company, and set a personal note on what you are open to.

Thanks, and I absolutely do feel valued here. I was a bit surprised by this reply as it was a bit out of left field given what I wrote and the question asked. Identifying as a recruiter (now former recruiter) here was always interesting based on the reputation of the industry, but I haven't had any real issues with the audience.

Thanks, I appreciate your comment.

I expect most users of hacker news aren't creating any businesses at all ("tie shops" or otherwise) but are here for interesting stories and dialogue with others.

YC's portfolio and team may be creating new tech, but HN is a bit of a bigger umbrella from what I've seen, and in my several years commenting here your comment is the closest thing to a "you don't belong here" or "stay in your lane" signal that I think I've heard.

OP's question was pretty open and didn't mention anything about developing technology. I wouldn't offer expertise where I didn't have it, but if someone asks how I started my business I think I'm qualified to answer.

I had been a recruiter for several years, starting off out of college with a ~200 person international firm for a couple years and then a founding member of a small boutique recruiting firm for about seven years. I eventually figured out that I wasn't getting any value from my partner, so I started my own recruiting firm.

During my recruiting career I was always writing/editing resumes and giving job search advice to my candidates, but the job search advice was always awkward because I had "skin in the game" (potential fees). I never became comfortable with that process.

On the side I started a resume writing and career consulting business, and I decided a couple years ago to make that my full-time focus. At first I wasn't sure if I'd be able to maintain my income from recruiting (wife and 2 kids in an expensive area, special needs kids), but so far it looks like I'm on schedule to actually earn more.

Beyond the compensation, I find the work far more fulfilling. I'm working more hours than I used to, but I feel I'm actually helping people much more effectively. Hearing stories about how a resume and advice got someone their dream job feels good, and I'm also writing for some interesting people both in and out of tech.

GitHub profiles are incredibly useful for college grads, bootcampers, and self-taught devs that typically can't speak of professional accomplishments.

As your professional accomplishments increase, the value of GitHub profiles (for most) as a marketing tool diminishes dramatically, but can still be helpful.

For developers at any level, repos are a good conversation piece for interviews. The interviewer can ask why choices were made, what the candidate might do differently now (shows growth), and start interesting technical debates.

I always ask my clients (I'm a resume writer and career consultant) if they have a GitHub profile if I don't see one listed, but I don't always include it on the resume. New entrants to the industry are not exactly punished for not having one, but it's becoming an expectation. This is different than expecting an older adult that may have life responsibilities that prevent (or simply no interest in) coding outside work.

Not a lot of people do that. As mentioned, it's a service idea I kicked around a bit and wrote an article about that still gets me inquiries years later. 1-5% might make it worthwhile depending on how high ticket an item you are.

The work required by an agent to place a 200K engineer isn't too much different than that of a 50K engineer, other than the 200K engineer likely being more marketable.

And the difference between 1% and 5% is substantial. I don't think I'd offer agent services for 1K, but for 5K I would.