Ade Adesanya wrote:I have not been lucky so far
Sorry if this sounds stupid, but what does
luck have to do with it? Other than the CEO's grandson also needing a job at the exact same time, perhaps? Have you asked any of the places that you were turned down _why_ you got turned down?
I did some hiring at a small firm in Canada, and I've helped with hiring teammates in my current development position near Seattle. Here's why we turned down applicants:
Reject Resumes:
Spelling and grammar errors on the resume. If you didn't proof this REALLY important document, why will I expect you to take more care working for me?Too much experience. If I ask for 2 years of practical experience after a Bachelor's degree, don't apply with a Ph.D and 20 years experience (it happens all the time). I won't be able to afford you.Too little experience. If I ask for 3 years working with Coldfusion, I likely won't accept 6 months of ASP.NET experience.You don't have any relevant experince. I know people need jobs; I need a programmer, and your resume is all about network setup and server maintenance. It happens. All the time.
Reject after First Interview:
You obviously can write a good resume, but you don't really know what you're talking about. Style over substance.You know too much. Not in a good way - you know how to solve all our problems, without actually knowing what they are. Arrogance isn't a quality we want in our team, though the team's been known to be a little arrogant at times collectively.You don't react well to a "gang interview". We usually have 2-5 people asking questions, observing you, and listening to your answers. Not everyone's a developer, but in a small company, we need some "generalists" who can do a lot of things pretty well, rather than deep experts who can do only one thing really well. If you can't handle a group situation cold, you'll be uncomfortable in our work environment.Bad personal appearance/behavior. We're not talking looks here, but things like hygiene, dress, mannerisms, politeness. If you continually swear during the interview, that's probably points off (though we did have one poor candidate get exposed to our network manager's folu-mouthed diatribe as he ran down the hall during a network crash in the middle of an interview. But I digress...). You get one chance to make a first impression - make it a good one.Outrageous salary/benefits expectations. You're not getting signing bonuses, probably no moving allowance (though you can ask), and developers tend not to make high 6-figures here. You can price yourself out of the market. You can low-ball yourself, too, which says to us that you didn't do your homework on what people are making in our area. That means you don't care, or don't know how to find that info. Both situations scare us.
We usually end up with two or three candidates after the first interviews. We've sometimes ended up with our selection after the first round. We get the candidates back in, and we'll likely throw more technical things at them. We've had them involved in a debugging session on some problem code we're facing, or given them a scenario we've recently struggled with and ask them for ideas. Usually our choice gets made from a combination of technical knowledge, perceived fit with the team, and salary expectation.
We've had people call and ask what they could have done differently. Generally, we're brutally honest. If it's something like a perceived fit issue, it gets phrased in a manner that our corporate attorney approves of. We've had that discussion with him. If you smell bad, we'll say it nicely ("you presented a less professional image than our other candidates").
Anyway - it can't hurt to ask why you got passed over. If it's too much experience, you need a different resume that "dumbs down" your capabilities/experience. Then let them see you're a gem in the interview.