mattchue

Check out Discord. It's like Slack for gamers, I've been using it with some friends. It's written in React Native, and uses regular 'ol React on the desktop. Feels clean and like a native app.

https://discordapp.com/

With JavaScript and AngularJS as my core competencies, I'm a little intimidated to attend the only meetup I'm aware of in my town, which is for PHP. Are devs of all kinds usually welcome at these sorts of events?

Great note about volunteering, that was something I hadn't otherwise considered.

I'll definitely play around with this. I hadn't considered trying to turn my cover letter into more of a factsheet, or at least formatting information about technical skill. Really appreciate the specific suggestions you're lending.

I am interested to get into a face-to-face conversation with a potential employer, because I sound significantly older on paper and I'm curious how that'll affect the interaction.

Hmmm, interesting! Do you have things related to Java or Scala in your 'Skills' section on LinkedIn? I have it listed under my experience, but I didn't have it added to 'Skills', which might have been what it was. Oh well, it's updated now. I think the rest of my profile does a pretty good job of explaining my capabilities. Thanks for the response!

Honestly, this is kind of what I'm hoping for. I'm a pretty adept writer, and my passion for something tends to come through in my writing. It is definitely good to hear that someone out there is hunting for a stand-out cover letter. Thanks for the responses!

I would absolutely love to attend meetups as Ionic/AngularJS is my core competency (which, as I understand, are big meetup topics), but I am currently seeking a job in Seattle, and I live just far enough away where day tripping on a weeknight doesn't mesh with my work schedule. This sounds like the most direction option for a referral, so taking time away from my current job to attend a meetup may be necessary. The 100% match is a great explanation, I guess if they're getting paid to find people jobs faster money takes a higher priority. Thanks so much for your response!

Cold calling? That's pretty old-school :) My sales background jives with that, though, so I will investigate that option. Thus far, people in the industry that I have been introduced to are extremely helpful, so this definitely sounds like a good approach. It's more so hiring managers at companies I have applied to that I am struggling to get feedback from, but I suppose that's not exactly their job. Thanks for your response!

As a side note, why is it that recruiters seem to be strongly disliked by the HN community? As a new developer, I figured a recruiter would probably be the best person to talk to seeing as they handle a lot of hiring.

Thanks for your response. I'm sitting at about 1 1/2-2 years experience right now. How did your job search go around the time you were talking to the recruiter?

Noted. I imagine systems like Lever or proprietary hiring platforms usually appear more with companies that have HR, whereas a few sentences for a position that only accepts application materials via email will go a lot further than a multi-section cover letter. I've been trying to stay away from making my cover letter feel too much like a form, but because I'm shorter than most on experience, I feel like it's important to explain myself a bit in the cover letter, but, if it never gets read, it's kind of a moot point anyway. I've thought about switching up my resume depending on the position, but I don't really have a big collection of tools to showcase quite yet so I'm thinking its current permutation is more or less complete.

Thanks so much for your feedback!

I will definitely contact them. Thanks for the lead!

My LinkedIn has been updated for quite some time now, and I've yet to hear from anybody. I have a little less than two years experience building SPAs in Angular, and an Associate's degree, so perhaps my profile is not as enticing as others.

Thanks for the response! I've been trying to do a bit of this with my cover letter: the way I have it structured allows me to write a portion of it specific to each application, and I've been including the cover letter even when not required. It sounds like you are suggesting I ditch the letter altogether for a more succinct note explaining why I am interested and why I would be a good fit in situations where it is not required. I will definitely give that a shot.

Doesn't this make it incredibly easy for phishing websites to be created? I suppose such websites would exist anyway, but this would certainly diminish a user's ability to differentiate between a legitimate .gov or another page with malicious intent at a glance.