[AccessD] On resumes and cover letters

[Arthur Fuller]

Premisses:
a) I am 74 years old and all too aware of the ageism that rules our
industry.
b) I am also aware of the severe shortage of programmers who can actually
program, and the desperation in the industry to find and hire such persons.
c) Certain skills slowly evolve, to keep pace with their underlying
languages. SQL is a case in point. Newish features  have been added to the
core SQL definition, some of which are vendor-specific -- which violates
the pure abstraction that SQL initially offered. Big Data Clusters are one
example, an attempt (IMO) to stave off the onslaughts presented by other
offerings. More importantly, the shift to document storage kicked the knees
out of the traditional SQL religion. Documents, by definition, do not
conform to neat rows and columns, and are more easily described and
expressed in HTML and similar formats. This shift led to a gradual
rethinking of the domain formerly understood as Database Management.
d) It is not easy for a SQL developer to make this shift in domains. It is

. All this can be taken in stride by a competent SQL programmer. And so the
firm (whether large or small, or even indirect -- call them staffing
agencies, lest I use a more insulting term) employs allegedly AI software
to scan the submitted resumés.
I digress. Now that I have managed to survive this many years, I really
don't give a fork about how I am perceived by the headhunters and/or firms
on whose behalf they toil. In fact, what I want to do is disrupt their
algorithms completely. I don't care whether I am considered for an
interview, much less hired or contracted. I can survive without them -- and
that is a degree of freedom almost no one knows. It doesn't mean that I can
thrive; that's another discussion; but it does  mean that I can pay the
rent, feed my two cats and myself, pay the internet and cell providers, so
to that extent I am free.

So I want to craft a resumé that basically says, "I don't need you, but you
need me, and I am willing to discuss terms and conditions, but your offer
better be good or I shall just Walk On By and say Bye Bye."

To put this all another way, I don't need the money. I don't need to be
rich. Enough money to pay the rent and feed the cats and once in a while
pay for a new laptop, that's enough. So money alone is insufficient
incentive. A truly challenging problem, ideally one that could improve the
world at large, now that is an incentive!

So how do I write this up?

-- 
Arthur