Have you ever felt that things you build/post/write doesn't get much recognition by recruiters? 🕵️♀️
Hi!
I have noticed that during the process of building things and trying to make the one thing that makes some profit, many of us are working hard on small tasks and small projects that in my opinion doesn't get enough recognition by society.
What is a "Real Recognition"?
Something that will get you a job interview or something is worth to write in your CV.
We are Writing posts / Sharing tips / Writing articles / Building MVPs' / Sharing Ideas and the list go on and on. All that for nothing because at the end of the day most of us will quit their journey and get back to work under someone else.
And then all the effort they put into their indie project will disappear.
I'm not pessimistic - Its statistic!
I personally never felt that things I have done got me any "real recognition"
and it mostly because I didn't find a proper way to write those projects in my LinkedIn/Resume (it's hard to write them down because these things aren't real job or skills).
Have you ever felt that way as well?
Have you ever had the thought - I wish all these like could be translated to something more useful?
I would love to hear your opinion about it!
Naveh
I will say this...
I have had some serious side projects, and some have grown into businesses. I have Medium posts, and LinkedIn posts and videos. My skillset extends very deeply into full stack, product design, and team/project management as a result. Recruiters don't bother looking at side projects or medium posts. However, the people that DO, are the ones that will reach out to you. They're never recruiters, who are matching key words, and scanning, and moving you through the funnel and onto the next candidate as fast as possible. They would be the extremely rare individual who is building their team. This has happened a couple teams to great effect.
On the contrary, I have been REJECTED without an interview over and over and over in the last 2 months for both Full Stack Engineer and Software Dev Manager jobs, both of which I am extremely well qualified for. When you're trying to use your skillset to feed your family, it gets pretty upsetting. You think "WTH is wrong with me that I can't even get an interview?"
The only thing I can think of is that my resume shows too much entrepreneurship on it. Like way too much. I really needed a resume written for Manager jobs, and one for Engineer jobs. Either that, or I'm not fitting the correct diversity profile up front. It's been frustrating.
To make matters worse, there have been times when I do I get the interview, but am so nervous because so much is riding on it, and then I may say something stupid or fumble. No one seems to go back and look at the products I've created and think.. "maybe I read this guy wrong" ;)
Despite having the experience, small mistakes in interviews have cost me offers and result in a lack of confidence in the next one. It's a problem.
Well said and experienced that recently too. My conclusion after getting a new job 2 weeks ago: recruiters are not worth the time unless you speak to the general manager or owner.
Most of them do not really have an idea what they are looking for and actually just match keywords. If you don't manage to get those words right you won't even get a reply. They are not capable to read between the lines.
It even takes way too long with them. One example, I waited for 2 weeks, followed then up asking for an update, just to get the answer that he forgot about it! Meanwhile I kept applying and fixed the new job within a couple of days.
Guess who invited me and signed me? Right, the boss himself.
What I have learned. Don't waste time applying for jobs where you have to b pass a recruiter.
Instead, surf the web and find out the companies that you think are really cool and where you really would like to work.
If they offer jobs, maybe bingo.
If not, send your application. In many cases companies want to fill a new position but haven't announced it yet.
And, your motivational letter will be way better since it's a company where you really would like to work. They will feel it, you have the better arguments than the other candidates that just send their CV to just another job offer.
First goal is to get invited. And your cards are better when the points above apply. Next goal is to win the interview but that's another story.
Bingo! For me, the one guy who reached out directly was the owner of the company, and we're in the process of negotiations. He knew what he was looking for!
Thanks for sharing! I feel you!
Happened to me many times
Might be the type of companies recruiters are working at. Those companies might not value this type of work. Whereas companies with more of a startup culture, one that looks for people to solve problems, could have recruiters who appreciate this more.
I would create a personal site and put together a portfolio. Provide some background on the projects too.
As someone who has hired in the past. If a resume has a personal website with projects, you're going to stand out because most resumes do not have that.
Cool. A portfolio website could be a great solution! Thanks for your input
You got a point. I need to think about it because I feel there is a problem but I cant find the right way to define her
I guess you right. The problem is quite complicated.
The simple solution is - Just write about it in your CV
However every time I tried so it just doesn't seem right.
Exactly what I wanted to write.
I think you have a point. I think one big problem is that recruiters are the ones seeking out candidates, not actual devs. Recruiters are searching for keywords, looking at "professional" experience, and so on. They're not looking at your blog posts or your side projects.
They probably spend at most a minute glancing at someone's LinkedIn or CV, so they're not going to see the depth of your experiences. I know this has to be true because so many recruiters contact me for jobs that have nothing to do with my interests or current role. Hiring is just a numbers game, unfortunately.
If you do get your foot in the door and have interviews lined up, be sure to bring up your projects and the challenges involved in them. Although even then, the interview process itself is flawed, as we all know. The interviewer is going to spend most of the time asking you to solve some coding problem.
And they're looking for the canned answers! I was ignorant of this until recently, when I discovered that people are commonly using a few different coding exercises with well-travelled answers. Different approaches are dinged.
Yeah, it's not really fair to the candidate. The way to look at it is that interviewers just want to get the interview over with and get back to work. When the interview is over, they have to put together notes that say Hire or No Hire to share with others, so what they're looking for are a few key things that will put you over the edge on either decision. A complicated answer or complicated candidate will muddy the waters in the decision-making, so it's human nature to look for shortcuts to make the decision. The canned answers or canned approaches to problem-solving is the shortcut.
You want to have the cake and eat it too. Working as an entrepreneur is a red flag for most companies and I dont blame them, why should they care about your projects? You are doing things the wrong way, if you want a job prepare for a job. Working on your own startup or writing posts have very lousy return if getting a job is your objective.
There is definitely some awkward truth to this.
I'd be careful when saying things like "most companies". That's just your opinion. And you have no idea what most companies want!
In the context of "companies with recruiters", I'd probably side with the "most companies". There are plenty of companies that aren't big enough to bother with recruiters in the first place. However, if a company is big enough to justify the expense and process of recruiters (external or internal), you're dealing with companies that want to find people to fit their requirements. You may still be able to get jobs at companies like that, but the hacker/entrepreneur types will most likely get hired via personal network connections, or perhaps via acquihire.
I must disagree
Working on your own can reveal many different skills.
I prefer to hire former entrepreneur than someone else.
Me too! For some, it's risky. I know what I like, and seek aptitude, hustle, and grit. Those are stars!
Most of the time, hiring/recruiting is kind of a game.
In order to be excellent at it, not only do you need to have the actual experience to get hired, you also need some tricks along the way to make yourself stand out from the rest.
Have you tried improving your resume or interviewing skills? For example, many tech companies won't even consider you, no matter how great your experiences are, if your resume isn't relevant to the job description.
Companies like Amazon altogether emphasize certain frameworks like the STAR method. Maybe these frameworks can help you frame your experiences better.
As a content creator myself, your content won't matter, unless you've made its worth apparent to them. It sucks but it's true.
They don't care. Just want to hire as much people as possible to get the commission.
Perhaps 10% of the salary of the person they hire.
I think this is why it's good to put a hacky frontend on whatever I work on. A link a demo is infinitely better after you put in a ton of work. I've seen presentations of projects, and I don't know about anyone else, but I don't care about the fluff, I just wanna see the damn thing!
Also, last time I was looking for a job, I asked recruiters to review my resume which was great. This could also be a strategy to probably covertly do some info gathering in the recruiter space XD.
I just recently start my indie journey.
I must say that I have the exact same feeling!
I already published few articles on medium and more and honestly - I cant see how that will make any impact in the future.
I think that if you stick to one thing so i will be something big - for instance, If you stick to writing you probably will be able to write about it in your CV
However as IndieHacker I feel that we most of the time will build many different things to in order to have different ways to succeed
I glad to hear you start your journey. I know I said the statistic is against you but don't give up!
Can you share with me your articles? I would love to read them!