When I saw the title, what I thought it would be was building a unique, simple OS to use as a resume. So many interviews ask questions about algorithms or want you to solve toy problems. Instead, you show the interviewer the gloom and doom page on OSdev.com about how hard it is to do an OS. You show the list of OS projects focusing on how many are defunct despite simplicity and how most good ones took a whole team. You show yours with feature comparisons to one of the successful, simple ones. You add a feature on the spot whose hardest details you’ve already worked out. What’s left is just coding, testing, and integrating them. You mention you just did what apparently only dozens to hundreds of people have pulled off vs the tens of thousands or more doing vanilla, business apps in language X. You also have a decent, business app in language X with professional-quality code.
What do you all think of an operating system as a resume in and of itself?
I think recruiters would ask whether it was LAMP or WAMP.
Or, more generally, would fail to understand why it was impressive and would not be willing to pass it on to people who would.
As a separate issue, there are some programming jobs for which this sort of thing is relevant experience and some for which it isn’t, and choosing to highlight this experience in such a highly focused way is a choice about what path you want your career to take. Probably a good choice, for anyone who is that interested in systems programming, but still. :)
The first issue I can’t do anything about with this example. For the second, I’m pushing this as evidence of problem-solving skills more than expertise in specific area. I’d encourage anyone trying it to also walk in with a portfolio showing apps done in language or domain of the job. So, you know the required skills and can take on challenging work. What about that?
I think having a portfolio is a great idea in general, especially if a lot of your work history is open-source. A portfolio I used to maintain definitely helped me get at least one job in the past. If your question is for general advice about how to build a portfolio, I wouldn’t presume to guess what’ll work well, but highlighting your strengths and how they’re relevant is certainly the point. :)
Nice effort, and no different from a designer using an unusual layout for their résumé.
Unfortunately, the first line recruiter is going to say, “Do you have this in a DOC file?”. Seriously though, unless they’re applying to a very small organisation the OP will need to get through a few levels of recruiter and HR people before they can get to someone who will appreciate the work (and they’ll certainly need to have a traditional format résumé too).
Then, I embed as much of the OS as possible in a DOC file using VBA and submit that to them. If it works, I’ll offer to do a few tricks after being hired to speed up their “apparently sluggish” computer gratis. If it fails, I have a better story than most about being passed over by a HR person. ;)
Is this even impressive? How is it an OS? There is no program management, no nothing except reading the keyboard and displaying text. The resume itself is can just be NxM character screens.
It’s too bad some of us try to fool ourselves into thinking we are superior by doing lower-level projects.
Oh really? Seems super implied to me. From the title all the way to the code. I quote:
8 years ago, when I was a student, I started a big project – build my own operating system, just for fun. The very basic functionalities are here : multithreading, pagination, text console, interruption, exceptions.
Then I read the post. There is no multithreading. There is no pagination. There are no “exceptions” handling. Then I gave him the benefit of the doubt - maybe he didn’t mention it. Lets see the code.
Nothing relevant in main.c. Nothing relevant in resume.c.
I’m not saying they’re stupid. I’m saying egos make me just shake my head.
But if this is how people are impressed I better go write a “resume viewer” in Game Boy assembly and call it “My resume in a Game Boy”.
So, first of all, English is obviously not their first language. Second of all, you’ve conveniently left out the most important part of the first paragraph, from which you quoted: “From this project, I took only what I need to boot and show my resume on 2 screens.”
If I had to take a guess, I’d say that he’s establishing a time commitment to complete it. It was a “few hour hack” not a full fledged attempt to build a real operating system – he’s done that before. He even talks about the fact that he pulled the boot loader code off of osdev. If anything, he’s saying, “This isn’t impressive, and anyone can do it!”
I think you’re searching for something that’s not there. Can’t you give them the benefit of the doubt, and take it for what it is?
Yes. It’s too bad text sometimes lacks tone or expressiveness for non-native speakers, because then maybe I would’ve interpreted their article entirely different. As I was saying to ac below, I feel like I was a too harsh in my initial comment and I apologize to the author if he is reading.
I have never (and maybe forever) done anything truly, actually impressive. It annoys me to see people try and pull a quick one. People think I’m “trolling” but I’m not trying to instigate anything. Maybe I was too harsh, but absolutely not trolling.
Impressiveness is entirely subjective, I agree its pretty bare bones and have seen some shockingly poor projects get up-voted here and on HN because people do no further investigation and take everything at face value.
Really the issue I had was the level condescension in your post is more than any superiority complex I read from his blog post.
When I saw the title, what I thought it would be was building a unique, simple OS to use as a resume. So many interviews ask questions about algorithms or want you to solve toy problems. Instead, you show the interviewer the gloom and doom page on OSdev.com about how hard it is to do an OS. You show the list of OS projects focusing on how many are defunct despite simplicity and how most good ones took a whole team. You show yours with feature comparisons to one of the successful, simple ones. You add a feature on the spot whose hardest details you’ve already worked out. What’s left is just coding, testing, and integrating them. You mention you just did what apparently only dozens to hundreds of people have pulled off vs the tens of thousands or more doing vanilla, business apps in language X. You also have a decent, business app in language X with professional-quality code.
What do you all think of an operating system as a resume in and of itself?
I think recruiters would ask whether it was LAMP or WAMP.
Or, more generally, would fail to understand why it was impressive and would not be willing to pass it on to people who would.
As a separate issue, there are some programming jobs for which this sort of thing is relevant experience and some for which it isn’t, and choosing to highlight this experience in such a highly focused way is a choice about what path you want your career to take. Probably a good choice, for anyone who is that interested in systems programming, but still. :)
The first issue I can’t do anything about with this example. For the second, I’m pushing this as evidence of problem-solving skills more than expertise in specific area. I’d encourage anyone trying it to also walk in with a portfolio showing apps done in language or domain of the job. So, you know the required skills and can take on challenging work. What about that?
I think having a portfolio is a great idea in general, especially if a lot of your work history is open-source. A portfolio I used to maintain definitely helped me get at least one job in the past. If your question is for general advice about how to build a portfolio, I wouldn’t presume to guess what’ll work well, but highlighting your strengths and how they’re relevant is certainly the point. :)
Nice effort, and no different from a designer using an unusual layout for their résumé.
Unfortunately, the first line recruiter is going to say, “Do you have this in a DOC file?”. Seriously though, unless they’re applying to a very small organisation the OP will need to get through a few levels of recruiter and HR people before they can get to someone who will appreciate the work (and they’ll certainly need to have a traditional format résumé too).
““Do you have this in a DOC file?””
Then, I embed as much of the OS as possible in a DOC file using VBA and submit that to them. If it works, I’ll offer to do a few tricks after being hired to speed up their “apparently sluggish” computer gratis. If it fails, I have a better story than most about being passed over by a HR person. ;)
Is this even impressive? How is it an OS? There is no program management, no nothing except reading the keyboard and displaying text. The resume itself is can just be NxM character screens.
It’s too bad some of us try to fool ourselves into thinking we are superior by doing lower-level projects.
A few points for originality? Probably a nightmare for HR.
[Edit: I think it is cool nonetheless.]
I see no signs of this person claiming superiority, but I do see a clever little “PR stunt.” I hope they get some interview offers as a result.
Oh really? Seems super implied to me. From the title all the way to the code. I quote:
Then I read the post. There is no multithreading. There is no pagination. There are no “exceptions” handling. Then I gave him the benefit of the doubt - maybe he didn’t mention it. Lets see the code.
Nothing relevant in main.c. Nothing relevant in resume.c.
I’m not saying they’re stupid. I’m saying egos make me just shake my head.
But if this is how people are impressed I better go write a “resume viewer” in Game Boy assembly and call it “My resume in a Game Boy”.
Actually, what this user said in this thread is what would’ve been impressive.
So, first of all, English is obviously not their first language. Second of all, you’ve conveniently left out the most important part of the first paragraph, from which you quoted: “From this project, I took only what I need to boot and show my resume on 2 screens.”
So why mention it at all? Why not just say “I made a (kernel/baremetal) program that shows my resume”?
If I had to take a guess, I’d say that he’s establishing a time commitment to complete it. It was a “few hour hack” not a full fledged attempt to build a real operating system – he’s done that before. He even talks about the fact that he pulled the boot loader code off of osdev. If anything, he’s saying, “This isn’t impressive, and anyone can do it!”
I think you’re searching for something that’s not there. Can’t you give them the benefit of the doubt, and take it for what it is?
Yes. It’s too bad text sometimes lacks tone or expressiveness for non-native speakers, because then maybe I would’ve interpreted their article entirely different. As I was saying to ac below, I feel like I was a too harsh in my initial comment and I apologize to the author if he is reading.
I would say the same is true about some commenters and their comments too.
I have never (and maybe forever) done anything truly, actually impressive. It annoys me to see people try and pull a quick one. People think I’m “trolling” but I’m not trying to instigate anything. Maybe I was too harsh, but absolutely not trolling.
Impressiveness is entirely subjective, I agree its pretty bare bones and have seen some shockingly poor projects get up-voted here and on HN because people do no further investigation and take everything at face value.
Really the issue I had was the level condescension in your post is more than any superiority complex I read from his blog post.
I can accept the last statement in my original post was not necessary. Thank you too for understanding.