#JobSearch #CareerAdvice #TechSkills #ProprietaryTech #InterviewTips
Have you ever found yourself in a dilemma when it comes to showcasing your skills and experience on your resume? Well, my buddy is facing a similar situation, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!
## The Dilemma
My buddy is currently working in an insurance company where they extensively use proprietary tech. He’s involved in full-stack programming, but the technologies he works with, such as “Guidewire Jutro” for frontend and “Guidewire PolicyCenter” for backend, are quite niche and specific to the insurance industry.
## The Conflict
When it comes to updating his resume and applying for jobs outside the insurance sector, my advice to him was to list more widely recognized technologies like React, JavaScript, HTML, SCSS, and Java instead of the proprietary ones. I believe this would make his resume more appealing to potential employers in the tech industry.
## The Debate
However, my buddy is hesitant about this approach as he feels it might come across as dishonest or misleading. He’s worried that by not listing the exact technologies he works with, he would be misrepresenting his skills and experience.
## The Resolution
In my opinion, I see this more as a strategic marketing move rather than outright lying. By highlighting more universal tech skills on his resume, my buddy can increase his chances of landing interviews at tech companies. After all, he isn’t fabricating his experience; he’s simply tailoring his skills to align with the job market.
## Practical Tips
Here are some practical solutions that my buddy can consider when updating his resume:
### 1. Highlight Transferable Skills
– Emphasize the transferable skills gained from working with proprietary tech that are applicable to the role he’s applying for.
– Showcase problem-solving abilities, critical thinking, and adaptability in dealing with unique technologies.
### 2. Invest in Upgrading Skills
– Take some time to brush up on widely used technologies like React, JavaScript, HTML, SCSS, and Java to bridge the gap between his current skill set and market demands.
### 3. Tailor the Resume to the Job
– Customize the resume for each job application by aligning the listed technologies with the requirements of the role.
– Emphasize relevant skills that showcase his ability to learn and adapt to new technologies quickly.
### Final Thoughts
Ultimately, the decision lies with my buddy on how he wants to navigate this situation. It’s essential to strike a balance between accurately representing your skills and appealing to potential employers. By approaching this with honesty, integrity, and strategic marketing, he can showcase his expertise effectively while maximizing his job prospects in the tech industry.
What are your thoughts on this dilemma? Do you believe it’s acceptable to tweak your skills on a resume for better marketability? Share your insights and experiences in the comments below! 🤔💼🚀
Compromise. Put both.
Hopefully there’s some other company out there that REALLY needs someone with expertise in Guidewire Jutro, whatever the fuck that is.
I think it’s cool your friend is a principled guy but if I was looking at a resume for a frontend position and someone’s application makes no mention of HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc. I wouldn’t really have any reason to select their application.
You are correct. He is wrong.
The resume gets you past HR. The technical interview gets you the job.
HR isn’t going to green light the resume unless it matches the skills listed on the job description. So when he applies to other insurance companies, he should use the modified framework. When he applies to other companies, he should use the generic framework.
By “legitimate programming”, I understand that he is not just changing the settings and he is doing real stuff which should be in the core parts of the proprietary tech as you mentioned. So, no it is not a lie. Actually even for proving the proprietary tech work, he is required to write down some details which encompass the languages used.
Guidewire Jutro is only used by insurance companies, and a bottom of the barrel type dev job. Low entry pay, no career paths outside insurance, and using a proprietary IDK when the entire web has realized open source tech is superior by miles.
I don’t really know what to tell “your friend”: resumes are crafted to attract attention from specific audiences. If they want another insurance job, put Jutro. If they want to go into other fields, they should write Java/React, but only after using it for projects. If you want to be language agnostic, you have to have a very good understanding of fundementals, so whether or not your friend can pull off putting “Java/React” is really up to them.
If it’s based on react, it’s not lying to put react. That’s the marketable skill.
One word of advice:
Do not *just* put Java.
Core Java is rarely used alone when it comes to backend engineering. You’ll likely see Spring Boot being used with it in the real world.
If you write just “Java” and say you did full-stack programming, it will be an eye raiser to any developer who actually knows anything.
But if he puts Spring Boot on his resume, then that is legitimate lying and would be easy to see he has no experience in it. It’s a pretty massive web framework with lots of caveats and a gigantic eco-system.
So at least for the backend portion, I think he is stuck.. but can mention Gosu and Java together, and explain in an interview more about Gosu and how it’s Java-based.
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This is the big downside of working in proprietary tech. It’s great if you plan on staying in that niche, but not so much if you don’t want to.
“It depends”; If the tools are close enough to the industry standard tools. He should list both. If they aren’t he shouldn’t.
If he doesn’t understand basic react and basic Java, he’ll get killed in interviews.
I don’t list all the C compilers I use, or what exact version of python… No need. But when you get into edge cases, be honest.
Is this Statefarm? I have an interview with them soon with exactly this stack and I was wondering if I would pigeon hole myself into insurance only companies. I’d say that Gosu and Java are close enough for you to list both of them.
Lying on your CV is never a good idea. If you’re not sure whether it actually **is** lying chances are very high that someone else (who will be reading your CV at some point in time) will judge it a lie. Don’t get there.
This is a moot conversation. Does your friend know how to use React? if yes then they should put it in the CV, If not then no they shouldn’t.
Fake it til you make it. Got my first real dev job by immensely exaggerating what I did in my prior jobs
He should list them as key words, absolutely. He will never get an interview otherwise.
Every major tech company uses a lot of proprietary, niche stuff. People get that. You are right, he should list the meta software he’s working with, not the niche bits. It isn’t a lie. It’s sharing info in terms everyone can relate to.
You are absolutely correct. Jutro is just the marketing term for their platform which is built off of React, and includes a library of custom components and an SDK, but otherwise the work is no different than any other React project. Gosu is a bit different, that would be beneficial to list in addition to Java, especially if he’s applying to other insurance carriers.
Unless the job description specifically calls for that software, I’d leave it out.
Just put the languages he can code in , or what frameworks he has worked with, and any generic tools and IDE environments like visual studio, cLion… power shell …things people in the industry have heard of…
Nothing to be ashamed of for using proprietary tech. Everyone at FAANG uses proprietary tech, and they are considered to be the most desirable talent on the market.
When I applied, I put
Proprietary tech 1 (HTML, JavaScript, CSS)
Proprietary tech 2 (SQL)
Just put “GuideWire D” on the resume. When they ask what it is he can respond “GuideWire Deez Nuts, baby”.
Personally I would phase something like full stack software developer at GuideWire working on internal and external facing projects using GuideWire mumbojumbo which utilizes React, Web apis, scss, etc.
Don’t lie but he can stretch the truth. Also I used to work in the backend sector of one of the larger insurance companies and have never heard of guide wire in my life.
You are right, he should put generic name. Easy to understand from recruiter PoV.
I hate lying, but this doesn’t seem like a lie. On projects that have some React wrapper, I’ve put both: ([Wrapper], React, JavaScript…)
I never knew anyone actually used Gosu in production.
If I were your friend, I would just fake my way through it with the latest tech. I would build small projects by watching some YouTube videos so that I know enough about it in case I need to talk in interviews and apply. I’ve done this before and I’ve been fine with it.
My rule of thumb is when, I have to ask myself do I lie or tell the truth? I pick lying from now on. What’s the wrose that can happen? Are they going to make me in my late 30’s, still living with my parents, about to be unemployed, etc? It’s too late for that now.
I really have nothing to lose and employers lie to me all the time without a bat of na eye so I have no problems doing it to them .
“Worked with <Framework>, a React-based framework building full stack applications”
You can just put the name of the very specific framework and explain what it’s based on to give some context. No need to just throw names without context.
Everyone lies. Anything you can do or easily learn goes on the CV
I always tell people to focus on the problems they solve instead of the tech that they use to solve them. If you understand the problems you’re solving well, you can figure out how to do it in any particular framework. The experience really should focus on the class of problems, though mentioning the tech used is helpful for some keyword searches, it doesn’t tell anybody much.
Put the real one then (based on …)