I'm at a start-up now, but before that I got sick of developing professionally and took a break. Probably because I was one of those people who didn't look good enough on paper, and only got through the resume pile at corporate jobs or body shops, and got fed up with the bs you see there.
So after my break, I honestly listed that as 'funemployment' on the resume, with a brief human understandable explanation. (I actually was working on some of my own non-programming related projects, and explained as much.) In the email cover letter, I basically said "Here's my resume, but I think my website does a better job of explaining my real strengths as a developer."
An interesting thing happened. Without exception, any company with an HR department totally blew me off. And without exception, any company where the owner screened the resumes, I got a phone screen and a real interview.
I also think that's something where having a custom domain for your email really helps. If any tech-savvy person gets a resume from [email protected], they're pretty much going to instantly open up a browser and type http://not-gmail-or-yahoo.com.
So after my break, I honestly listed that as 'funemployment' on the resume, with a brief human understandable explanation. (I actually was working on some of my own non-programming related projects, and explained as much.) In the email cover letter, I basically said "Here's my resume, but I think my website does a better job of explaining my real strengths as a developer."
An interesting thing happened. Without exception, any company with an HR department totally blew me off. And without exception, any company where the owner screened the resumes, I got a phone screen and a real interview.
I also think that's something where having a custom domain for your email really helps. If any tech-savvy person gets a resume from [email protected], they're pretty much going to instantly open up a browser and type http://not-gmail-or-yahoo.com.