Ask HN: Approaching 40 and trying to get a foothold into Software Engineering
First of all, I&#x27;m not currently a manager, but I think your website is great; it definitely demonstrates that you have real skills and could be productive as a junior-level developer. So I&#x27;ll focus on the resume, where I see a few things that could be improved:<p>- You mentioned that you&#x27;ve worked automotive jobs with some technical aspects. I would strongly consider listing those jobs, even if they don&#x27;t include any software experience. They still demonstrate a lot of things that managers are looking for: work ethic, conscientousness, general technical ability and intelligence, motivation, and so forth. And for HR screeners, they eliminate resume gap concerns.<p>- More broadly, I&#x27;d try to make sure that your resume tells a clear story of what you&#x27;ve been doing in recent years. A progression of technically oriented automotive work to a UC Berkeley extension program to a portfolio of working software projects is a great story, but someone skimming over your resume for five seconds might not see that story. They might just notice a smattering of disconnected dates and wonder if you&#x27;ve been in prison, or fired from a succession of short-term software jobs, or sitting at home watching TV. (And if any of that does apply to you, I don&#x27;t mean to discourage you. But one way or another, I&#x27;d focus on structuring your resume to tell a clear story.)<p>- I&#x27;d add something below the UC Berkeley heading to make clear that you were enrolled in an extension program rather than a degree-seeking program. Otherwise, someone might think that you enrolled for a semester or dropped out, or that you&#x27;re trying to make an extension course look like something more. And if you <i>completed</i> the program and got some sort of certificate, you might want to make that explicit, to demonstrate persistence and follow-through.<p>- I&#x27;d rewrite the summary statement to focus on your story without anything buzzwordy (like &quot;on time and under budget&quot; and &quot;agile&quot;). The key points I&#x27;d include are: 1) you&#x27;ve done professional, serious work as an adult; 2) you&#x27;re making a transition into software; and 3) you&#x27;ve completed a UC Berkeley extension program and a number of projects and thus have demonstrable knowledge and skills. That tells your story upfront, and every point is something substantive and meaningful.<p>- This is minor, but the fact that the text runs all the way to the bottom of the page with no margin stood out to me. I&#x27;d reformat things so that the resume has nice, even margins all around, even if you have to trim some text to make it fit. You obviously a sense for design, judging from your website, and your resume should demonstrate that too.<p>- You might want to consider trimming your skills section a bit and tailoring it to each position you apply to, if you&#x27;re not doing that already. The embedded C++ and IoT experience stood out to me; it&#x27;s actually impressive if you&#x27;re competent in both C++ and front-end JS, but if you&#x27;re applying to a front-end dev position, the C++ probably isn&#x27;t relevant, and I could imagine a hiring manager being slightly bemused by seeing that mix of skills.<p>The last thing I&#x27;ll say is that I&#x27;ve had some ups and downs in my career and gone from being really discouraged to finding great opportunities through a combination of persistance and chance, so keep your chin up. It seems like you&#x27;re approaching this with the right attitude. Good luck!