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Showing posts from June, 2026

What's XML anyway?

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There was a time when, despite knowing how to code, I had no idea what XML was. That may seem an odd and embarrassing admission until you realize there was a time when XML was new. (In fact, HTML predates XML by several years...) Not knowing XML and, wanting to store data, I came up with a simple system that didn't look too different: I used square brackets and instead of closing slash, I just wrote the word END. I didn't realize I was reinventing the wheel until a much more seasoned engineer saw my code and asked "Why don't you just use XML?" (Which I promptly looked up and made a terrible non-face-saving excuse to save face). My early career was filled with similar examples: hacking a workaround to related database rows until I learned about how to set up proper database relationships, implementing weird architecture until I learned about different patterns like the factory pattern... But over time I learned more and more until I got better at looking out for th...
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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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Where is MySpace Headed?

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MySpace seems to be trying to condense the internet under a single domain name. Pearl Jam has a MySpace account. Weezer has one. Just about every band has a MySpace account to host their music, and operate as a fan club. Their own websites used to do this, but with MySpace their websites have become redundant.  I'm thinking this will cause MySpace to collapse. It's trying to offer too much while not offering much. It's trying to BE the internet, but by simplifying it down to what the majority of users want on a website. Thinking back to websites of 1997, 1998, the more personalize websites which may have had a lot of dancing hamsters, midi songs playing in the background, silly scripts that changed your mouse icon and had stars that followed the mouse, and yet offered no real content. That feels like what MySpace is today, only now it's even easier to set up, and even less likely to house meaningful content (he wrote on his all important website; I get the irony.) Many ...
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