Category Archives: life

career

LinkedIn Skills Match

So I’ve recently been using LinkedIn to apply to jobs a lot. On the job posts, it has this very useful feature that lists the skills that are important to them then how they match up to yours. So you’ll see something along the lines of “this is a good match for you, you match 8 out of 10 skills”.

The problem is that I’ve noticed a lot of the ones that I’m highly matched for are not positions I’d consider myself very qualified for. Now I know your first thought might be, could that be your impostor syndrome talking? While it’s possible, I don’t think it is as some of the skills it was saying I was proficient in were not ones I would consider myself proficient in to any degree. In fact several were ones I had zero proficiency in. So obviously there was something going on somewhere and it got me curious. If for no other reason than the fact that I like to live by “underpromise, overdeliver” rather than the inverse. 

My first assumption was – obviously I had been recommended for skills by others that I don’t have or aren’t confident in my ability and hadn’t noticed. So I looked and the handful that had stood out to me recently weren’t there. Digging into the feature at the bottom of job posts, I found LinkedIn offers an article into how it determines the skills you have and how well you match. There I found my answer. It uses two sets of skills. First the ones listed under your skills section. The second is what they call “implicit skills” which they define as:

Implicit skills: Skills that are extracted from text within any section of your profile, such as the summary, position description, title, and headline. Implicit skills are extra skills that are not directly editable. Any skills on the matched list that were not added by you are considered “implicit skills.” 

I’m not certain if it’s bad descriptions by me or inferences from job titles I’ve had – which the way companies make up and assign job titles is a whole topic on its own that I have some opinions on. But either way, this feels like a code smell. 

I understand the value of automated screening systems. But if it’s making bad inferences, it’s hurting both sides. Candidates seeing jobs that aren’t a good match, and possibly not seeing ones that are because they’re further down the list as a result. Companies potentially getting candidates that don’t really match what they’re looking for, and missing out on ones that do because they’re further down the list.

It’s possible it’s still a me problem. Maybe I just need to rewrite my resume again, making it more succinct and focused. Maybe I need to omit some of my job titles that may have poorly described my talents, but I had no control over.

But to me it still feels like a code smell or possibly even a bug. If nothing else, I feel it’s a problem others might have been feeling but were unclear why. So if this isn’t just me having a “senior moment” and you’ve encountered this issue as well, hopefully this sheds some light on why and possible ways for you to alleviate it.

life

Be not afraid

Be not afraid to…
…live your life on your own morals.
…let others live their life on theirs, so long as they do not harm others.
…be alone.
…share your heart.
…show compassion and empathy.
…speak your mind.
…let others speak theirs and, more importantly, to listen when they do.
…make decisions that scare you and force you to grow.
…forgive yourself, most especially when you don’t think you can or should.
…show your love to those you care about, openly and earnestly.
…pick someone up when they are down.
…let someone else pick you up.
…help when you can, how you can, with no expectation beyond the recipient paying it forward – if they so choose to.
…be yourself and, as a result, keep only those around that accept you.
…live, love, embrace and share joy, laugh, and burn fiercely in your passion, because we never know when the ride will end but it will always be before we are ready.
life

On Guilt

I haven’t posted in a long time. I’m going to try posting interesting essays / thoughts I find in my “On This Day” on Facebook. We’ll see how well they do and/or how long I bother.

With no further ado, on guilt:

Guilt is a powerful emotion. It’s a form of self evaluation in which we introspectively criticize ourselves for past actions. Guilt is interesting in that it’s self applied. While others can influence our movement towards in inherently we must assign it to ourselves for it to have meaning.

So what is the meaning of Guilt? It’s a learning tool. When we feel Guilty about something mainly it’s because we feel that a past action was not handled in a way which we are proud of. We feel that we could have done something more or different and changed the course that we’re on now. It’s Potential – we feel Guilt because we surmise that by changing that action we’d be on a better course than we are now or a better person for doing more – even if it didn’t change the eventual outcome.

The main problem with Guilt is that although it is a learning mechanism it is also potentially crippling. It’s hard to release Guilt, hard to move past it. That same Guilt which we should learn from can cloud future Decisions and cascade into further Guilt.

So how do we handle Guilt? We don’t shy from it – we learn from it. We don’t let drive us – we let it guide us. We forgive ourselves – even if we don’t want to. Even if it’s seemingly impossible. Because in the end though we can learn and though we can made different Decisions in the future we can’t change the Past – it’s inherently immutable. The longer we hold Guilt the more powerful and damaging it becomes. As disheartening as it is we must remember that we are not perfect – for if we were, what a boring would it would be. Our mistakes, follies, misjudgments and failings make this World someplace that’s worth residing it. It’s the payment we must make, Guilt, sometimes for being imperfect.

In the end Forgiving ourselves might be our greatest act of Charity.

family, Helium.com, life

Life happens

I have not blogged in a long time. Mostly this is due to a combination of procrastination and a sense that anything I did wish to say about the industry – HTML5, CSS3, vendor prefixes, progressive enhancement, responsive design, etc – was being said better by someone with far more reason to listen to then myself.

I’ve come to two realizations. One is that even if I reiterate some points that others make – specifically by attributing them – that it’s beneficial as it shows and builds my understanding of the issue as well as – by attribution and, therefore, SEO – strengthens the views expressed by the “giants” of my industry. Second is that sometimes it’s ok to “remove the mask” and show the human side. Reading the blogs of my peers and mentors has shown that they have a willingness to showcase not just industry knowledge. Through this I’ve gained an appreciation for both the person and their skill as well as a better understanding of them as a whole.

This second realization is what I wish to touch on today as the last year saw two life defining moments for me.

The first was one many here in the US felt. For almost 5 years I was the sole and principal UI developer for Helium. My code still exists everywhere on their site. Last July I lost my position with Helium.

For many, especially myself, we are defined by our jobs. First because in having a career it validates us to have a job. It shows that a company trusts our skill enough to validate us by paying us to do something we love. Something we do on our own – often without compensation. Second because it gives us purpose. Having a job is a responsibility – a reason to get up every morning, get in our car, and drive to an office. We have responsibilities to our fellow developers and to our users – something that all (good) developers feel and are motivated by.

Fortunately, in my case, this was actually a good thing. At the end of my time with Helium I was spending a good portion of my week working from home and sleeping very little. This was because I was spending most of my hours as the primary caretaker for my dad who was under hospice care. On August 3, 2011 we lost Dad.

Dad had suffered a stroke and heart attack back in 2004 and almost died then. He was never the same after the stroke but he was living and happy – and that was good enough. For the year or so before he passed Dad had been acting erratically. We didn’t realize how serious it was until he ended up going into the hospital in May and they told us. We had a scare in June and then in the beginning of July, after much cajoling – as Dad was always stubborn – we convinced him to move in with me so I could take care of him.

Losing Dad was difficult. However, in the eulogy I talked about something my Faith has taught me – seeing the blessing even in the bad. Losing someone I was close to changed my perspective on life. Different things are important to me now. I don’t worry so much about things that aren’t worth worrying about. While I falter sometimes – as we all do – for the most part I know to focus on what is really important and not to let the small things in life get me down. I’ve learned to count my blessings. For that part of it, I’m thankful.