10 years experience, 200 resumes, almost zero responses. Do I give up?

Question

No idea what I'm doing wrong. Nobody is even calling me.I've had a hard time finding a good long term job. Employment lengths:1 year 3 years 3.5 years 6 month contract 13 months 3 monthsI think that is what's screwing me despite the fact that I actually am a good developer. I asked a recruiter if I had anything obviously wrong on my resume and he said no. He also said software developer hiring has been relatively unaffected by coronavirus.I've applied locally and for remote positions. I'm getting totally ignored. I'm about to give up and start doing something blue collar.I'm stuck doing gig work. I could be doing so much more for society than this. I have a product I want to sell but can't scrape up a thousand dollars to get it to market. So instead of innovating or working as a software developer I'm delivering fast food all day long just to survive.I have experience as a professional full stack developer. I have a bachelor's degree in software development. I'm being ignored by almost everyone.Do I give up software development? Where else can I go that is better than finding some random blue collar thing on Craigslist?

mmanulis · Accepted Answer

- What kind of software dev do you do and what kind of job are you looking for? - What industries are you looking to work in? - Which part of the world are you looking for a job? - Can you share a link to your resume so people can review it? - Have you tried sites like Vettery or Hired? My xp with them was neutral at best, but doesn't hurt. - Have you done anything on HackerRank? Yes, it sucks with all the algo crud, but that's where things are with the industry.

dstik · Answer

Have you tried reaching out to former colleagues? Often times, many of these companies have internal referral programs and incentives for employee referrals.

giantg2 · Answer

"I could be doing so much more for society than this."
I'm curious how one measures this. Personally, I don't see my job as a software developer any more beneficial to society than the blue collar jobs I've had (janitor, Lowes, warehouse, etc). If anything, I felt more of an impact and appreciation from dealing with customers directly. Being able to solve a customer's problem and make their lives easier was a great reward.
Posting PM/email on your profile here might also get some responses. What area are you looking in? Open to relocation?

austincheney · Answer

I feel like there are some details missing here.
* Do you have negative things in your social media?
* How are your soft skills?
* Can you solve problems without superficial tools or frameworks?
* How are your writing skills?

st1x7 · Answer

You mentioned being ignored so the obvious question is - how are you applying for these positions? If it's through something like LinkedIn's EasyApply or a similar system, not getting responses is fairly common especially if your CV is missing some of they key terms in the ad and it gets filtered out before it even reaches a person. Even recruiters do this if they aren't technical - I've had words like "statistics", "forecasting" and "machine learning" in my CV and a recruiter turned me down because I don't have experience with "predictive modeling".

msadowski · Answer

I&rsquo;m not involved in any hiring at the moment but feel free to send me your CV with identifiable information redacted and I&rsquo;ll provide you with some honest feedback. You&rsquo;ll find my email in my profile

fortunajs · Answer

Just upload the CV and ask HN for help :) Usually people have very limited attention span so may be you're missing a short summary with your experience and the current goal?

bigbassroller · Answer

Write blog posts about skills you specialize in with a contact form at the bottom and wait for hiring managers to come to you. This gives you much more leverage and self esteem.

ApolloRising · Answer

This may help you (not my site) https://www.resumeviking.com/samples/front-end-developer/
A quick glance this seemed to be something you could adapt to your resume.
Get rid of the video, clean up the formatting, and say what you actually achieved at the job not what you did.

antoineMoPa · Answer

Do you know about /r/cscareerquestions? https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/I'm sure you will find a lot of helpful advice there.

dyeje · Answer

You should be at least getting some callbacks. What's your email? Happy to help.

trade_unionist · Answer

For anyone that's interested here's a link to my resume. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Td1sMpgE53fQn5LIhCA77Hix...

10 years experience, 200 resumes, almost zero responses. Do I give up?

Have you tried reaching out to former colleagues? Often times, many of these companies have internal referral programs and incentives for employee referrals.

I feel like there are some details missing here.
* Do you have negative things in your social media?
* How are your soft skills?
* Can you solve problems without superficial tools or frameworks?
* How are your writing skills?

I’m not involved in any hiring at the moment but feel free to send me your CV with identifiable information redacted and I’ll provide you with some honest feedback. You’ll find my email in my profile

Just upload the CV and ask HN for help :) Usually people have very limited attention span so may be you're missing a short summary with your experience and the current goal?

Write blog posts about skills you specialize in with a contact form at the bottom and wait for hiring managers to come to you. This gives you much more leverage and self esteem.

This may help you (not my site) https://www.resumeviking.com/samples/front-end-developer/
A quick glance this seemed to be something you could adapt to your resume.
Get rid of the video, clean up the formatting, and say what you actually achieved at the job not what you did.

Do you know about /r/cscareerquestions? https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/
I'm sure you will find a lot of helpful advice there.

You should be at least getting some callbacks. What's your email? Happy to help.

For anyone that's interested here's a link to my resume. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Td1sMpgE53fQn5LIhCA77Hix...

10 years experience, 200 resumes, almost zero responses. Do I give up?

Have you tried reaching out to former colleagues? Often times, many of these companies have internal referral programs and incentives for employee referrals.

I feel like there are some details missing here.* Do you have negative things in your social media?* How are your soft skills?* Can you solve problems without superficial tools or frameworks?* How are your writing skills?

I’m not involved in any hiring at the moment but feel free to send me your CV with identifiable information redacted and I’ll provide you with some honest feedback. You’ll find my email in my profile

Just upload the CV and ask HN for help :) Usually people have very limited attention span so may be you're missing a short summary with your experience and the current goal?

Write blog posts about skills you specialize in with a contact form at the bottom and wait for hiring managers to come to you. This gives you much more leverage and self esteem.

This may help you (not my site) https://www.resumeviking.com/samples/front-end-developer/A quick glance this seemed to be something you could adapt to your resume.Get rid of the video, clean up the formatting, and say what you actually achieved at the job not what you did.

Do you know about /r/cscareerquestions? https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/I'm sure you will find a lot of helpful advice there.

You should be at least getting some callbacks. What's your email? Happy to help.

For anyone that's interested here's a link to my resume. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Td1sMpgE53fQn5LIhCA77Hix...

I feel like there are some details missing here.
* Do you have negative things in your social media?
* How are your soft skills?
* Can you solve problems without superficial tools or frameworks?
* How are your writing skills?

This may help you (not my site) https://www.resumeviking.com/samples/front-end-developer/
A quick glance this seemed to be something you could adapt to your resume.
Get rid of the video, clean up the formatting, and say what you actually achieved at the job not what you did.

Do you know about /r/cscareerquestions? https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/
I'm sure you will find a lot of helpful advice there.