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Work Work Work!

One of the reasons I spent so much time researching my ideas and sharing them on this weblog was that I hoped it would eventually lead to getting a job with someone. I assumed that once people read my ideas, they would see that I was passionate about them and would want to hire that passion to work on projects of a similar nature (i.e. building online communities, social software, etc).

Well not only did no one take interest in hiring me but very few took interest in what I had to say, at least as far as I can tell anyways because very few people care to comment on my ideas and thoughts on my site. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m too far out there with my thoughts or what, as I’m usually talking about future thinking stuff. I mean I’ve even considered removing the “comments” link from posts because I mean what’s the fricken point right if barely anyone is commenting? Anyways, I’ll keep them in for now to see if my radical deviation in flight trajectory has peaked anyone’s interest at all.

And finally I’ve decided what the hell, I’ll throw up my resume (ZIP’d PDF 57K) online as well to let people take a look at it. Personally I think it’s crap and doesn’t justify what I’ve done in the past. So why not just change it? Because that’s the hard part. How do I show that I’m more of an idea person than a technological person? Resumes usually focus on showing off your technological skill sets but that isn’t my greatest strength. My greatest ability seems to come from being able to help a company solve problems throughout the entire company (not just with web development work) by coming up with ideas that provide solutions for them. For example, here’s an excerpt I sent to someone in an email about what I did in my last major role within a company.

Now the strange thing to note is that my transition to Senior Web Developer while happening quickly, almost occurred naturally (which is why the official title came later). In addition, as I’ll explain below, it is also why I had so many other official and unofficial titles in the company. You see I became the unofficial team lead first because people naturally seemed to gravitate to me for advice and guidance with regards to problems or doubts they may have been having. It wasn’t like I was looking to be the team lead (or even thinking about it). I instead just focused on helping as many people in the company as I could because that’s what I liked doing. And this is why I later got titles like Usability & Community Architect and also became a Business Advisor for the company as well. Actually management themselves were even having a difficult time because they couldn’t figure out what the hell to give me as a single title because I did so many things for them besides just web work. For example, a typical day for me might be doing my own web work, helping other developers with their own work, making recommendations to the Project Manager on a course of action on an existing project as well as stating the needed requirements of information for upcoming projects, assisting staff with computer/printer problems, setting up computers for new staff members, assisting management with creating a streamlined operations process, doing research on new upcoming web technologies and software, assisting the marketing people in reviewing their client proposals, counselling people with regards frustrations they were having at a company level, and, most importantly of all, helping in guiding the overall direction and goals of the company. And that’s only the stuff I can remember off the top of my head. 🙂

Now the really funny thing in all of this is that people would always tell me that I’m an amazingly talented individual.

Um, whoopdie do! What good is talent if it can’t be utilized?

That’s pretty much how I feel like right now. I’ve got all these ideas in my head and there is no outlet for them.

I would love to work with others on projects but I need to get paid so I can pay the bills.

That pretty much scratches out working with just a few individuals on our own because everyone would have to support themselves till the project came to fruitition.

Therefore, my only real option left is to go work at a company. And again we’re right back where we started.

How do I show my ability and talent on a resume when I have a hard time trying to explain it myself?

I can sit there and tell stories about myself all day which is exactly what I would love to do because those stories help communicate what I did better than a resume ever could.

Grrr, it’s so frustrating. I’m sick of this. Oh well, whatever. Back to getting a part-time job again I guess to tie me over till I can find something better.