there’s an art to spamming buzzwords , this is really really bad though
#Not getting any responses
eternal badge
there’s an art to spamming buzzwords , this is really really bad though
so too cluttered ot?
or*
echo flint
redo all your bullet points, only reading the first section - everything you’ve mentioned is suspect to say the least
scaled baggage handling system from 25k to 150k bags
Pause, first red flag ⏸️
typically you speak of systems in terms of metrics related to the system - like 10k to 50k videos per hour or 100million impressions per day - these make sense (or users/day)
when you say Bags - what does it mean
what does the system do?? is it inventory management or is it batch/streaming analytics , etc.
whatever- moving on, maybe you just forgot to mention what type of system it is or how number of bags r relevant
through parallel processing and SQL query optimization
red flag 🚩
so you arbitrarily mention bags, and throw around 2 big buzzwords in a vague way
how is SQL used here? you say reducing processing time by 30%, imagine an interviewer asks you a 2 part question - “how did you measure the reduction in processing time?” and then asks “explain how you decided this was an important task to work on? Explain how you achieved this from noticing it up to obtaining the improved statistics?”
that was like point 1 on ur resume and it had 20 red flags, I’d re do everything tbh
how do number of bags increase by 5x , that’s atypical
eternal badge
good point, but we do airport bags. So literally the airport bags. We refactored plc devices and integrated sql queries for a system that did nt use our software
echo flint
what’s a cross VM
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so before I we coded the system it was 25k because the manual labor needed to move
cross vm like. from one virtual machien to another probably bad wording though
yoru write, I guess I just do not know how to fix my resume at all
do you have any suggestions onw here to go lol we did measure processing time by literally timing airport bag transfer throughput before and after
we implemented the system
but you are right
echo flint
as a hypothetical HM, I get the sense that you don’t know how lots of the stuff actually works or have done it actually
like I’m playing out what a random HM/eng with experience probably thinks after going over your resume, don’t take it personally just to be clear
eternal badge
like I’m playing out what a random HM/eng with experience probably thinks after ...
no thats good
echo flint
do you have any suggestions onw here to go lol we did measure processing time by...
I think you’re going deeper into an already bad setup
eternal badge
I think you’re going deeper into an already bad setup
got it so just redo my current job
echo flint
you’re probably overplaying your experience/resume here
eternal badge
for the bullet points
echo flint
yeah
focus on what you know super well
another big red flag by the way - once you’re in an interview and the interviewer asks you for details on something
and you suddenly change the phrasing to “we” - it’s a big red flag
echo flint
they don’t care about how you solved the overall problem - they just want to evaluate exactly what you did and how much you understand
it depends on how you want to approach this entire thing , depends on you
I prefer to mainly use personal accomplishments
like “I did X thing while being on a team that does Y thing”
or for ex mention “team handles data pipeline for N tb’s of data” etc
I’d avoid all the numbers
Increased accuracy by 90% , it doesn’t make sense too but it’s best to just not include random metrics
eternal badge
for example when developing the messaging queues, we recieved data on a particular bag or multiple bags at once from different terminals and process them asyncrnousley through rabbiqMQ. After doing the metrics thats where the 25k to 150k increase in processing came from
it might look crazy but its not random
like the bag stats have to meet a criteria of 95% by tsa
we were able to simulate running 150k% bags and the logs for 90% of those bags were processed
Should I still not include that
I also agree my bullet points make no sense after reading it
@echo flint
yeah I will just do what you say
thank you for the input seriously
echo flint
for example when developing the messaging queues, we recieved data on a particul...
so you mentioned you scaled capacity from 25k to 125k and then it reduced processing time by 30%
what do you mean by processing time
you were able to simulate running 150k bags? so did this bag processing app not exist before
eternal badge
two things: so to show that our software works at airports there is a well known software that simulates running bags on a particular system. The arport we fixed this up for is manual.
The simulating bag softwqare works in conunction with our software and plc devices
we have control peoples who only do the plc on site
but I am responsible for connecting lower level or plc information to upper level stats, information, and products on our end
processing time was increased by 30% because they had two plc's, the controls team added two more and the reading of those plc's from my side along with the loggign software wedevloped helped reduced the time it took for a bag to be fully processed or logged into the system
It usually took 15 min for a bag to be logged by the person at the front and logged into their system, but we cut it down by 5 min
echo flint
I asked you this because it didn’t make sense to me what exactly was done here - you say you scaled a service - then mentioned simulating 150k bags
you scale a system when it’s doing poorly - if it was doing poorly you’d rewrite it and there wouldn’t be a need to simulate anything
if it’s a new service - then sure , but then why would the other person (you) mention “scaling a service from 25k-150k bags”
^^ thats what I’m wondering before probing u further - because i want to again gauge your ability and skillset
given that context - again remember me (the HM) - does not care at all about how airports work, or how your team was designed, or how your work is structured - so when the response is with tangential info, that further raises more questions instead of clarifying my initial questions - most interviews will end right there
if you EVER get a clarifying/specifics related question and answer with “okay so let me first explain to u 5 other things and then the initial thing will make sense” -> you know it’s a bad sign
there’s a reason STAR exists
eternal badge
good point, but this field i am in is client based
so different things get built for different reasosn 😦
maybe like you said just literally only say what I did
and why I did it? or should i not include it
echo flint
so that sounds good, now explain how this system works technically
imagine the question “could I run this on my own computer?”
eternal badge
no
you couldnt
thats what I mean like there is a lot of little things that have to be done in order to run things. acertain way
but for example
in my case, built new oop classes for particular bags at this airport, processed alarms, statistical information (structured in sql we have a template for how we desing this). The queues form rabbit mq had to made in a aprticular way where we keep track of things called alarms (faults in a system), bag information, and statistics on plc or airport device data
thos ewere made in c# ad has to be done asyncronously because people on the airport line have to know when a particular conveyer or device is faulted and for what reason.
i can keep going
but does this make sense? @echo flint
like in an interview there is not enough time to talk like that
echo flint
okay, so I’ll explain to you why I’m asking this
eternal badge
so i just dont know how to put what I did in an impactful way
without includign the metrics that the team contributed to i guess
like my job we dont use any advanced tech that people are searching for
so I cant stand out
echo flint
If I was an HM and I got your resume I’d read the first 2 lines and be doubtful this person has experience doing these things or is actively working as a swe shipping code
but someone insists we should interview them - so I’m probably going to ask you questions to get a sense into what YOU actually know how to do (or have a good understanding of) and try to get a sense of what you actually do day to day
so each time I ask you stuff, I’m hoping for specifics - like exacts
like the other person - they’ve spent years building all this software and have a basic sense of what you do to get the stuff done
so all your answers were vague
none went into specifics
your answers were all defensive or word salady - basically you left me more confused than I was before I asked you any questions
metrics are the last thing tbh you should be worried about
eternal badge
diddnt mean for it to come off defensive
alright ill get to work and just redo it
thanks for the feedback/advice
echo flint
I think reevaluate your strategy too
make it a lot more focused
do you want to say you’re a backend dev or fullstack dev etc it’s not clear too - you’re kinda claiming everything
eternal badge
i am not anything at htis company
i am literally like a puzzle solver
code when new airports need new features
so that includes updating or coding new class files, and stored procedures
for certain devices
maybe I am bad at explaining, but maybe I should just make a backend resume
?
alsof i understand the bags portion was vague, but would you mind showing me a good bullet point that shows exactly what someone did without being vague
not tryna sound weird just curious
cuz i am trying to think about it now and just a lil stuck
echo flint
in my case, built new oop classes for particular bags at this airport, processed...
for ex the kind of answer I was looking for is -
our system runs on an on premise server rack/cloud/managed
our code lives in a git repo, we have dev/staging/prod. for this change I was using a feature branch, with another dev
we have a deployment pipeline that runs security scans, etc. builds stuff that runs on Jenkins job
whenever I write code I make sure it passes against these tests, this is how I test that
the rabbitMQ service runs in an autoscaling group, we have a service that maintains connections with it thru HTTP, etc. etc.
instead u answer it with basically stuff that in theory is the right stuff to do, but it’s how an observer would answer it (vs someone doing the stuff themselves)
vagueness is bad yeah
Like besides the point , are you not getting any interviews or failing them
I was trying to make a different point tbh than go through what to do or not do during an interview haha
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no not even screening
echo flint
that makes sense for sure
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LOL
echo flint
the main point was your resume doesn’t paint a cohesive picture
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yeah i agree
but like i cant make up fals ethings on past experiences ;/
like i was a data anlyst guy first, then ta'd then di software at previous internship
now this company is very different
echo flint
I was trying to simulate how it would go down even if you did get an interview, like the person reading your resume probably thinks its best for both ppl if they didn’t proceed with this
eternal badge
not traditional in a sense that I just do what needs to be done, but the system is not complex
echo flint
yeah are you doing devops
echo flint
whats the job title
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most of the infra is setup
software devloper but its really qa
at the root of it
but like you see why i am trying to leave lol
echo flint
yeah true I feel you
eternal badge
like i think i am actually screwed lol
echo flint
you won’t get swe rn
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i wont get swe at all
echo flint
with some experience you will
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thats why i have to include the results we did as a group
my last internship was pure swe
did coding, devops, etc
i regressed, but had no other choice
echo flint
it’s chill, just have a realistic plan
like
you can learn how to be an swe on your own too or you can do swe/dev stuff at this role too
eternal badge
i mean thats the thing, i got the most swe stff because we worked on a new airport that needed configuration
it wont happen for a while, i got "lucky"
i dont know man I am cooked
but thanks for the help
echo flint
just be confident, you can make stuff happen yourself too, that’s a big part of swe too
echo flint
like there’s always problems you can solve with software in a corporate environment
yeah because you haven’t gone through like the basics
just be more convincing haha, but imo it’s hard to fake it from 0 to 100
but 10-100 is doable
the hardest part is getting from 0-10
eternal badge
but what do you mean though, because my resume is not faked
its literally, just using group sats for the current company
eternal badge
just not talking about the important stuff
like I should be more specific on the technical reasoning, and approaches that we took
you mean?
echo flint
yeah
like what I mentioned before
exacts
exacts that meet the bar too or exceed it
basically stuff that other software engineers are out there doing every single day
eternal badge
okay so for the bullet points i should say I built this feature, it did x, and i did it with this technology?
and when i say it did x, for now i wont include any metrics lol
ill just stick to the basics
echo flint
I’m not sure what to tell you tbh, if your goal is to get a job specifically as a SWE - or is your goal to just improve your resume in general
Focus on 1 thing ur good at and keep it the theme
for context
data engineers do SQL stuff, backend engs will do c#/rabbitmq stuff, infra/devops work involves some of the CICD stuff u mentioned
it’s possible for ppl to know it all but for ppl with years of startup experience, typically not ppl working for large companies or fresh out of college - so I’d make it more focused
u want to convince someone you’re a swe who specializes in X - decide what X is