Consolidated Posts

This is the first post on this blog... a blog that already has 100+ posts.

How?

Like many, I've been using Facebook less and less. I've not deleted my account because I do like the many memories I have on there, and I'm holding out hope that Facebook somehow returns to what it was. Those memories are made up not just of photos - I have those - but also a fair number of longer text-based posts, observations, humorous anecdotes that I don't keep anywhere else.

For example - there's the a post I shared about my daughter, when she was 3:


Without Facebook's Memories, I'd lose those silly little stories about my goofball kids.

Thinking about this made me realize that LinkedIn doesn't have a 'Memories' feature - and it makes sense, given it's a site for professionals, and so there's stronger emphasis on recent events (though, arguably, seeing how one's progressed in their career would be pretty neat.)

Ultimately, it gave me the sad realization that a lot of posts that I'd spent a lot of time and effort on were going to get lost eventually. No one goes on LinkedIn to see what posts you made 4 years ago - and on top of that, retrieving them is not very easy.

So, over the course of a few days I scrolled through my entire post history on LinkedIn and grabbed articles, posts, observations, shares, and all the ones I felt were worth preserving I moved to this blog. Thankfully, Blogger has the ability to let me specify publication dates - and so I could preserve those too.

The tradeoff is, all the views and comments on my most popular posts couldn't be carried over - but that's not a big concern. If the content is still good enough, it'll be found because (and this is the important bit...) blogs aren't a walled-garden.

As I realized this - I thought about some of my Medium articles that I'm proud of, the ones that got added to Magazines, one that even ended up getting published in a book - and I realized that much of that content is behind a pay wall. 

As I copied everything over to this blog, I realized just how much I've written and done in the last few years. It's not all great, but I'm proud that I've stuck with it - and built a pretty large catalog of posts on a variety of topics I'm passionate about.

So - I think, going forward, I'll be taking a new approach to any other social media forms. Blog first, and then I'll share from my blog. Some of my posts are content more suited for LinkedIn, or some other medium like Medium (couldn't avoid the pun) but - by consolidating it here, in one spot, it's never inaccessible, and at less risk of getting lost.

Popular

Work Experience vs Professional Experience

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In reviewing a bunch of resumes this week, I noticed quite a lot of resumes with a  "Work Experience"  section. In each of those resumes, people had de-valuing some very valuable  experience - and I write that with no exaggeration. The problem is people were looking at their experience purely through the "Job Title/Relevancy" lens and had reduced their experience down to a list of discrete, random, disconnected jobs. No interconnectedness, no narrative thread weaving through it all. As much as you may feel some jobs have no way of being connected, the reality is  you   are always the connection . To not connect them on your resume is to lose all that growth, knowledge, skills, impact, value, and trajectory. In other words - you lose the " You " in the resume. I recommended they start with a small change. Reword "Work Experience" to "Professional Experience" because, ultimately, every single job they had was in service of building their ...
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Let's Clear Up The Ambiguity!

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Job seeking is hard - especially when you factor the ambiguity around expectations, the lack of transparency and consistency around process. It's frustrating dealing with the sheer subjectivity of everyone's opinions. Just think of even the basics: How long should your resume really be? Traditional black and white, or modern? Should you include a headshot? Oh - and cover letters - are those needed? Is anyone actually reading the cover letter? What are they looking for? Is there a bias for people with a more traditional background? Worst of all: The dreaded typo  that you catch only after applying to your dream job.  Are typos really going to cost you the opportunity??? To help bring some clarity to the process, I surveyed a bunch of hiring managers. The results were really interesting, and very illuminating.     If you're on the job hunt, I hope this information helps out! One final note: My recent post,  7 Steps to Writing an Amazing Resume , factors a lot of...
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FAQs for a Software Engineering Hiring Manager

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Technical Interviews have evolved a lot since the early I transitioned from being a Software Engineer to an Engineering Manager. Particularly in the post-Covid era, there's been a greater emphasis on the person, which I think is an important and welcome change. Over the decade of interviewing hundreds of coders, I've also had the pleasure of working with various bootcamps, colleges, and hundreds of individual job seekers on LinkedIn. Across all the changes over the past years, across the various locations and mediums, something remained consistent throughout: The questions I get asked.  With that in mind, I thought - why not make a FAQ from my perspective as a hiring manager? While this is my perspective, it's based off years of observation and supporting data. But that being said, advice is not fact. You may disagree with certain points, and that's OK. Opinions we disagree with allow us to better understand our own views. At best, I hope these responses help you...
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7 Steps to Writing an Amazing Resume

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  Since sharing my resume template  I've received plenty of feedback from job seekers, HR and hiring managers - all of whom value its purpose. Two (now former!) jobseekers even shared that as soon as they used my template, they were getting calls. Something about this template works, and given the traction it's getting others, I wanted to share - in more detail - why  this approach works so well.  Before continuing, let me give an important disclaimer: This resume isn't a miracle cure that's going to land anyone their dream job. Unless they're filled with lies, resumes are only as good as the candidate themselves. But they can also be a whole lot worse. This template and approach are all about maximizing the potential candidates have by highlighting and summarizing key areas.  Last point before beginning: If you don't know me, it's worth stating this advice comes from more than a decade of having hiring a broad range of coders: straight out of college, hig...
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7 Steps to Building your Portfolio MVP

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Often when I suggest to coders that they build a portfolio, I'll hear back: "I don't need one..." "With all the effort it takes to apply, where will I find the time?" Simply put, having a portfolio's never going to hurt your chances at landing a job - it can only help. That second question is where a lot of struggle - because applying to jobs can be time consuming. Especially if you're wrapping up a bootcamp, or having to manually type in your resume info after uploading your resume. That's why I made these 7 steps which, when done correctly, can really help you stand out with a hiring manager. And, the best part is, it should only take you 2 days. Being the Agile-Obsessive that I am, it's all about maximizing value while minimizing effort. Fix links to your Resume, GitHub, LinkedIn, etc. at the top where they're always accessible. Link to everything here - and then remove all other links on your Resume except your Portfolio link . It sa...
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