Casey Kinsey; Co-Founder, HeapSort

Got a job interview coming up and want to make sure you don’t make it past the first round? The following are my top 5 tips to fail with flying colors based on my experience on both sides of the table.

1. Believe that resumes should be machine readable

That template from Resume.com will do. It’s in an organized format. Just hydrate all the data structures and POST it to all the endpoints.

Your first fuck-up begins before you ever walk in the room, in a word processor tucked sneakily behind windows arranged to make you look busy at your current job.

A web developer’s resume should not be in a format compatible with a sales manager’s resume.

Using a generic catch-all resume format or template is going to leave you with some big holes in your CV. You work in an industry that changes by the second, and you have to demonstrate your ability to...

Casey Kinsey; Co-founder, HeapSort

Last month we launched StackSplit, our in-house scoring algorithm that measures the level of responsibilities that a HeapSort job listing requires across the entire web development stack. After testing it with both employers and our early adopter candidates, we knew it was a hit.

I’m excited to announce that this week we’ve extended the same feature to our candidate profiles. Now when you create a HeapSort account or edit your profile, you can list the various skills you want to showcase on your resume. We’ll take that data and generate a StackSplit score and graph for your profile. And, if you link your HeapSort account to LinkedIn, we’ll import your LinkedIn skills endorsements to get you started.

We also redesigned the profile slightly to feature your StackSplit score front and center. It’s the first thing potential employers will see on...

Casey Kinsey, Co-Founder, HeapSort

Update: We’re thrilled with the overwhelming response to this article, both complimentary and critical. If you’d like to weigh in, there’s a fervent and (mostly) civil ongoing discussion on Reddit.

Considering the background of HeapSort’s founding team and the goals of our product, it’s only fitting that the first post to our blog should tackle this topic head on.

I’ve been building web based software for just shy of a decade now, but my entry to it was probably a bit different than most engineers. I didn’t graduate with a CS degree and go to work for a software company. Instead, I took a job as a web designer (with a hobbyist’s understanding of programming and a year of 1000 level Computer Science courses under my belt) for a tiny newspaper in a small Arkansas college town.

I’ve gone on to work in the news/media industry for the better part of...