I was unemployed for six months in 2023. Some of that duration was self-induced. My wife did not want to relocate across the country and I did not want to go back to being a junior web developer, or senior positions that sounded very junior, as I have 20 years experience. Fortunately, I landed two opportunities unrelated to writing JavaScript at once and I took the lower paying one because it was fully remote.
Here is a list of things not to do:
* Don't waste time using employer online career portals. These only continue to exist to satisfy EEO legal requirements. Most employers don't respond to these.
* Don't pad your resume. Make every line of your resume count as if it were being read by a human. With AI tools now filtering resumes they are getting better at bullshit detection.
Things to do:
* Upload your resume to places like Indeed, Zip Recruiter, Dice.
* Be very specific on your resume. Yes, you should state something about your tech stack in the fewest possible words, but anything related to competences should be expressed in quantifiable terms only. For example you saved the company billions of dollars, or shipped 200 features to production, or reduced execution speed by 50%
* Be clear about your experience and what you are looking for.
* Have external credentials like PMP, CISSP, security clearance, and more. These open doors for you that you currently don't realize are closed to you and likely pay more.
Pick a place you want to work at and get any job you qualify to do and once there work your way into the job you want. 2 advantages, you get a paycheck and you prove that you are a good employee. Plus you can continue your search too.We are at a strange time in tech. Companies are being very cautious about who they hire and even if they want to hire anyone at all.
Had a look at your resume: https://resume.kurtisknodel.com/. I'm struggling to figure out what you're good at; is it C#, is it PHP, is it React, or is it something else. I'm suspicious of the 7-years programming exp as well; the freelancing gigs with little specifics seem to do the heavy lifting for that statement.
Are you going for junior dev roles? If you're not getting them, maybe consider applying to tech adjacent roles (IT, customer support at tech companies, etc)?
> I'm struggling to figure out what you're good at
Can it not be all of them? :p
That's one of my big challenges with resumes. People assume I can only be good at one thing and/or assume that I'm lying about my work experience.
I can get _really good_ references from all of my previous employers (because I am legitimately good at everything on my resume), but I never seem to get to that point.
Historically, if I get a technical interview, I get the job every time. The challenge is getting the technical interview.
I was unemployed for six months in 2023. Some of that duration was self-induced. My wife did not want to relocate across the country and I did not want to go back to being a junior web developer, or senior positions that sounded very junior, as I have 20 years experience. Fortunately, I landed two opportunities unrelated to writing JavaScript at once and I took the lower paying one because it was fully remote.
Here is a list of things not to do:
* Don't waste time using employer online career portals. These only continue to exist to satisfy EEO legal requirements. Most employers don't respond to these.
* Don't pad your resume. Make every line of your resume count as if it were being read by a human. With AI tools now filtering resumes they are getting better at bullshit detection.
Things to do:
* Upload your resume to places like Indeed, Zip Recruiter, Dice.
* Be very specific on your resume. Yes, you should state something about your tech stack in the fewest possible words, but anything related to competences should be expressed in quantifiable terms only. For example you saved the company billions of dollars, or shipped 200 features to production, or reduced execution speed by 50%
* Be clear about your experience and what you are looking for.
* Have external credentials like PMP, CISSP, security clearance, and more. These open doors for you that you currently don't realize are closed to you and likely pay more.
Pick a place you want to work at and get any job you qualify to do and once there work your way into the job you want. 2 advantages, you get a paycheck and you prove that you are a good employee. Plus you can continue your search too.We are at a strange time in tech. Companies are being very cautious about who they hire and even if they want to hire anyone at all.
Had a look at your resume: https://resume.kurtisknodel.com/. I'm struggling to figure out what you're good at; is it C#, is it PHP, is it React, or is it something else. I'm suspicious of the 7-years programming exp as well; the freelancing gigs with little specifics seem to do the heavy lifting for that statement.
Are you going for junior dev roles? If you're not getting them, maybe consider applying to tech adjacent roles (IT, customer support at tech companies, etc)?
Hey, thanks for taking a look!
> I'm struggling to figure out what you're good at
Can it not be all of them? :p
That's one of my big challenges with resumes. People assume I can only be good at one thing and/or assume that I'm lying about my work experience.
I can get _really good_ references from all of my previous employers (because I am legitimately good at everything on my resume), but I never seem to get to that point.
Historically, if I get a technical interview, I get the job every time. The challenge is getting the technical interview.