It specifically won’t work for us because we use OCR in our resume parsing, so white text on white backgrounds won’t get picked up.
But even if that wasn’t the case, this tweet plays into the fantasy that the an ATS is offering a straight “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” for every candidate. Even if AI is involved in reviewing resumes, it’s likely looking at skills and years of experience and comparing that to a list of requirements for the job. So maybe listing 100 random programming languages in white-on-white might get you somewhere in another tool, but you could probably accomplish almost the same thing without any subterfuge by just adding a Skills section on your resume.
Any reliable tips for visually structuring a resume so the sections don't get clobbered in OCR? As in, even if I have grouped certain dates, titles, and descriptions together, they often get mismatched.
I really like how you've included images in the resume, it solidifies your skill and is an easy way to make people read what you've done. However, I think it distracts from the text a bit too much (IMO) so maybe you should add a light background behind the names of the places you've worked at / studied, just to make it stand out.
I love this sentiment. I built a beer inventory app exclusively for myself + guests picking a drink to try when when they’re over at my house. I’m up to 26 “users” over the past few years, but most of them just browse on my phone when they need another drink.
When I talk about the app, some people immediately jump to other inventory problems in their own lives: Can you make it work for my wine fridge? Could I keep track of my kids’ ever-changing wardrobe? I’d love to manage my Warhammer collection this way! It certainly seems like there could be a consumer product to help tackle those problems, but it’s not gonna be my app.
Edit: In more of a work context, I think internal tooling for specific users or teams can feel similarly empowering. When you have an intentionally-constrained set of users, finding product-market fit and making sure the solution actually works for their needs becomes the only goal. And with so few users, it’s easy to keep tabs on what is and isn’t working for them.
Is your app open source? If not, have you considered that? You could just say in the readme, "fork it if you want it to do something specific". Sounds like it could be a good starting point for a bunch of things. :)
> In more of a work context, I think internal tooling for specific users or teams can feel similarly empowering. When you have an intentionally-constrained set of users, finding product-market fit and making sure the solution actually works for their needs becomes the only goal. And with so few users, it’s easy to keep tabs on what is and isn’t working for them.
I've seen a few of these and they always fall into (non-)maintenance hell once the dev (it's always just one, because the business can't spare a whole team for something like this) leaves, or until the next re-org (read: almost certainly less than two years from any random point in time) when the responsibilities of the team it was built for are divided among other teams, or outsourced to a body shop like CapGemini that won't use it (because they can replace the functionality with an army of managers with spreadsheets, all of which they can bill for).
In short, I think it's largely a fantasy to develop custom software for small userbases on economic grounds (at least for nontechnical users using typical "real" stacks -- spreadsheets and "programmer tools" are a different story), which is kind of the point of this piece.
> It turns out that bliss — a second-by-second joy + gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious — lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (tax returns, televised golf), and, in waves, a boredom like you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it’s like stepping from back and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Constant bliss in every atom.
I know David Foster Wallace isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but that quote from The Pale King stuck with me for over a decade.
It specifically won’t work for us because we use OCR in our resume parsing, so white text on white backgrounds won’t get picked up.
But even if that wasn’t the case, this tweet plays into the fantasy that the an ATS is offering a straight “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” for every candidate. Even if AI is involved in reviewing resumes, it’s likely looking at skills and years of experience and comparing that to a list of requirements for the job. So maybe listing 100 random programming languages in white-on-white might get you somewhere in another tool, but you could probably accomplish almost the same thing without any subterfuge by just adding a Skills section on your resume.