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Ask HN: Would you hire me for a junior programming job?
2 points by Karsteski on Feb 5, 2021 | hide | past | favorite | 9 comments
I have a B.Sc. in chemistry, and I've been self-teaching C++, Python and SQL for a while now. I'm currently on my job hunt, and I'm finding quite a number of rejections. Note, that I have had two interviews almost two years ago, even though I knew almost nothing (Guess I still do...). Regardless, would you hire someone like me for a junior position given my resume and GitHub below? Feel free to give honest feedback, I would very much appreciate it :)

Resume: https://imgur.com/jR8iPfE

GitHub: https://github.com/Karsteski



There is an official monthly "Who wants to be hired?" post. Try to post there, and follow the instructions at the top. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25989762

(Also take a look at the other threads https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring )

It's weird the resume as an image in imgur. Do you have a PDF version, perhaps you can post it in github. (Is there an official or unofficial protocol to post resumes in github?)


I've already posted there actually. This is more for feedback as I'm feeling a bit jaded at the moment.

Here's the PDF version:

https://www.pdfhost.net/index.php?Action=Download&File=a31c3...


Just a tiny suggestion: The link to github in the PDF is not clickable.

You cite at the bottom a research project. Is some part of it published?


I'm in a somewhat similar position. Although my degrees are a B.Sc and M.Sc in mechanical engineering. I'm in a programming role at the moment but am looking to move on. I have been facing rejections for about a year and a half.

If you search for the role computational scientist (on LinkedIn for instance) you'll find some that actually look for degrees in biology or chemistry which might be a good place to get your foot in the door.

Good luck!


True, I really should focus more on chemistry/biology related tech startups. I've not been facing rejections for long thankfully, but I don't want to get to that point.

Good luck on your search as well, I hope you get a great job soon


I'd say one major red flag is you're 'self-teaching', should be 'self-learning'.

Little things like that are going to make people reject you, even before they look at your code or resume.


It's somewhat apparent just reading through the python that you are self-taught. Some of the idioms used, especially around file handling, are outdated.

For example: you should open files using the with context handler, or at the very least wrap the file open in a try/except block and put file close in the finally block. Garbage collectors will clean up if you don't properly close, but it's better to be explicit.

I would argue that even if the resume passed through to a hiring manager, they would be reticent to hire based off a single code sample in a language listed as a technical skill where there are red flags like this.

Edit: please note that my comments are for Python only, as I'm not proficient in any of the C family languages. Also, as a Biology major who finally broke into dev myself, I'm completely rooting for you!


> Little things like that are going to make people reject you

You make it sound as if his letter is actually being looked at, much less scrutinized over an MLA nit. No, he will be rejected by a machine long before that could ever happen.


I don't understand, what's the difference exactly? They effectively say the same thing to me...




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