This article seems to have an assumption that companies have this huge pool of qualified candidates applying for jobs and you, as an applicant, just need to show that little extra initiative to beat out the other applicants. As someone who has reviewed mountains of resumes for a large company, this assumption doesn't match my experience.<p>In my experience there is this huge pool of unqualified applicants applying for every job no matter what the actual job requirements are. The applicants that got a call for an interview 1) looked at the technologies listed in the job requirements and 2) put their experience with these technologies on their resume.<p>Also important, once you get called in for an interview make sure you can answer the most basic questions about what is on your resume. If you put Linux experience on your resume make sure you can explain how to list the contents of a directory from the command line. If you put MySQL experience on your resume make sure you can explain how to get a count of the total number of rows in a table.<p>Are there really companies out there where the difference between getting an offer and not getting an offer is spending a few hours making a bespoke "please hire me" website?
Boring answer...<p>The only thing that really does stand out is when you get a CV that says the person has done all the things that your org wants to do. (Yes that's bad for recent grads.)<p>Hired a couple of people recently, and guess what. They tick all the boxes. Worked for firms that did low latency cpp, wrote apps that did what we wanted ours to do, and using the tools that we wanted.<p>From the other side I got an offer a few months back, and same deal. I ended up not taking it, but it was just "have you written xyz kind of code for another firm?" And the questions were all geared towards that. And since I ticked all the boxes, everything went forward.<p>If your CVs don't contain that unicorn who's done the exact thing that you need, you have a lot of awkward conversations. Is Minotaur close enough? What about this other language, it's pretty similar, right? Maybe the OS isn't such a big deal for this project. They'll get used to finance, it's not that different from...
Standing out from the applicant pool is best done by knowing someone within the organization. You can create targeted websites or individualized plans for improvement of the business, but in my experience, many companies simply give preference to recommendations from current employees. Does HR really have the expertise to go through all these personalized, technical solutions? Probably not, but if they are told by a current engineer that you have the skills and personality, they will fast track you into an interview. No wonder companies give referral bonuses - they'd much rather do that than wade through a sea of resumes, with hard to replicate and verify information.
What undeniably would stand out, and speak for itself is a large portfolio of open-source contributions to widely-used projects.<p>No personal projects. No libraries no-one-else uses. Real 1K+ stars projects in the niche/ecosystem you are targeting (Elixir? React Native?).<p>Go for breadth rather than depth. Demonstrate you can get 20 PRs merged to 20 different top-tier projects, adapting to their needs, standards, understanding their codebases of course. Interacting with them in a polite, optimal manner.<p>Mental exercise: think of one such contributor. Would you hire her? Of course you would, in a blink. No CV needed.<p>I know it's easier said than done, but executed well, it will be level-up whichever salary you were making previously.<p>(what to PR? Simply solve one of the many issues listed in a given project's tracker)
The reality is that PDF resumes are dead. There are too many applicants for you to stand out that way if you don't already have some kind of "in" like knowing someone at the company.<p>So what can you do? You can create targeted websites like suggested in the article, but that takes a long time and likely isn't worth the effort. I've gotten ignored many times doing this.<p>Here's what has worked best:<p>1.Skip the resume even if the company insists on it.<p>2. Find the hiring manager's email (or anyone involved in hiring)<p>3. Send a well put together cover letter email selling your skills with concrete links to projects you can show. GitHub, Codepen, Blog links work very well here.<p>Here's a blog post focusing on remote jobs that I put together that goes into more depth in case you're interested: <a href="https://remoteleads.io/blog/proposals-that-win-remote-freelance-clients/" rel="nofollow">https://remoteleads.io/blog/proposals-that-win-remote-freela...</a><p>Why does this work? You're reaching an real human and have a higher chance of getting looked at for your skills instead of getting your resume scanned by a resume-reading machine. This works well when you don't already have connections with the company.
Easy - don't play the game.<p>I never apply for a job blind or through an applicant tracking system. I always use local recruiters that I've nurtured relationships with.<p>I also don't negotiate salary. I know my market and tell the recruiters up front how much I want to make. They don't waste my time submitting me to companies where I am above the salary range.
“I also personally look for engineers with a collaborative attitude rather than a competitive one.” -Leah Culver<p>This is a highly underrated attribute. Crucial to getting anything done effectively in a team.
Lot of great insights there I think. I especially like Leah's "When an engineer is a fan of the product, they stand out." That is something I look for in candidates, passion for the work they will be doing.
Seems like a lot of the answers boil down to "build a portfolio". I don't think the people that have the time to build that portfolio have a lot to worry about. Sure, they may not get to work at that one company they want to work at but they're pretty much guaranteed some type of employment.<p>What about the people that don't have that time though? The people that may have spent time in evening classes learning how to program. How do they stand out?
Other than Leah Culver's line "I also personally look for engineers with a collaborative attitude rather than a competitive one", I wouldn't say any of this is good advice.
It's impossible to get past HR screening unless you're an CV expert. They look at things like paper texture, inc, font, formatting, spelling etc, because that's what they are good at. They don't know anything about C++ or Haskel. You need to get around HR and talk directly to someone that can actually tell if you are qualified or not. The best bet is if you have someone on the inside that can voice for you. Or get their attention somehow so that they reach out to you.
HR tries to match the stacks, eg they need someone that knows SQL+JSON+Java+JavaScript+Andoird+Linux+Git+WinAPI+HTML+CSS, but then they get an application who has C++,Haskel,OOP,FP,C,Linux,Sysadmin,DBA,SQL they will throw it away because it doesn't match.<p>Now I did some math and with 1000 techs, in stacks of 10, you would get 2.6 * 10^26 combinations. So it's impossible to find a candidate that will match!
doesn't the answer boil down to marketing?<p>It is talking about expressing shared values (trough open source and mentoring) value (personal accomplishment) and warm fuzzies (being a fan of the company, product, etc.)<p>As to how to do that; learn it or hire someone. As you likely only have your hours to sell I'd say the case for outsourcing becomes compelling.
Stock answers, all of them are expected in any given interview.<p>Want to stand out? Say you are actually interested in earning money for your work, a truly novel idea nowadays.