[AccessD] On resumes and cover letters

[Bill Benson]

Rocky, I won’t speak  for Arthur but it is a sound question to ask oneself
as they get to an age where they need less to satisfy materially but
perhaps don’t have large extended families who hold them in any regard
whatever. We like to use our minds and skills to earn us the only things
that still matters, and that some of us will ever have:  accomplishment,
and if possible, respect and appreciation.

Recently I had to go through a soul searching exercise. My cornea damage
had gotten to the point where at almost 57, work has become much harder. I
got the surgeon who messed up one of my eyes to help me go on disability.
So I would get 60 percent of my current pay (adjusted for CPI annually but
never again a raise, no opportunity for increasing one’s 401K- and no
mental stimulation. OTOH, the disability income isn’t taxed, and there is
no FICA so I think it works out to about 80 percent of net pay. And if not
medicare eligible, then not having company paid benefits would be another
rub. But any way if we handled our finances decently along the way it might
not be about the money. For now I am going with partial disability since I
can see for part of the workday.

 One thing I find most frustrating in the modern workplace is that younger
generation grudgingly accepts being mentored by older more seasoned
professionals, but they never give back. I don’t know what is wrong with
younger workers, they have little sense of loyalty or giving back to those
who helped them.


On Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 11:48 PM Rocky Smolin <rockysmolin2 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> "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."
>
> So what's your motivation for doing this exercise?  If you were offered a
> job,would you take it?  You say you have everything you want at the
> moment.  SO economics is not the motivator. Do you want to go to work every
> day, put in 40 hours of programming, in a corporate environment? (Even if
> you get to work from home, you aren't shielded from corporate culture.)
>
> So what is the point of this exercise?
>
> r
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 8:43 PM Bill Benson <bensonforums at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Arthur, the solution for your MAIN problem is simple. Leave off dates of
> > graduation, and only show the last 10 years of work you have done and for
> > whom. You include all the technologies you know in the Experience
> section,
> > that ticks enough boxes for AI to get your resume matched to jobs.
> >
> > No one can legally ask your age or when you graduated or started uour
> > career. In fact with many application processes they don’t even want you
> to
> > give them dates because then they can get audited by EEOC and he shown to
> > have rejected more older people than younger, as a percent of age strata,
> > so you are doing the employer and yourself to nix that sh-  er,
> > shenanigans.
> >
> > But do list the projects where you came on the scene, saved the day,
> worked
> > well with teams, brought projects across the goal line.
> >
> > And don’t say things like “30 years later my solution is still in place”,
> > for obvious reasons.
> >
> > And I totally agree with Susan, lose the preemptive scorn!
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 5:12 PM Arthur Fuller <fuller.artful at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > 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
> > > --
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