[tnones]

Well.

You've only graduated 2.5 years ago, so trying to push yourself as a Product Designer is probably out of your reach, and comes across as unrealistic. This is a senior-level role where experience is more important than ticking off skills. In combination with the breadth you listed this doesn't make you seem like a genius, it makes you seem like a generalist who lacks focus and probably has a touch of ADHD.

Personally your website also doesn't impress me, nor do any of the projects shown. They all have the same blank slate look of plain sans-serif fonts on white backgrounds with little or no colors and virtually no iconography. That might be good to sell consumer goods, but it doesn't demonstrate your skill and it contradicts that you're "passionate about all things visual". There are no illustrations, no flourishes, the artistry and aesthetics are absent.

In fact, what seems to be your "showpiece" for product design is IMO a self-sabotaging demo. Instead of showing off the creative process and focusing on the creative possibility space, it's a long-winded and visually dull story of navel gazing about details, interspersed with random code screenshots and programmer art. The end result, buried at the very bottom instead of pulled out at the start, is an ugly neon monospace table view with only an out of place Mario coin for graphics.

The golden rule is show, don't tell, and to not force people to do the heavy lifting for you. Also, drop phrases like wanting to work "at your cool startup", it screams try-hard. You don't want to join the startup because _it_ is cool, you want the startup to hire you because _you_ are cool.

Don't talk about writing witty copy or designing mesmerizing colors and dazzling typography, just make me laugh, mesmerize me, dazzle me.

[joshstrange]

I read this comment and was ready to jump to the OPs defense and chide you for being overly-negative but then I looked at the website...

None of the products look like something I'd expect from a "Product Designer" and even less so from someone who is "passionate about all things visual". I am not a designer but I've worked with a number of highly talented designers and none of these designs really impress me, in fact almost all of them nibble at something in the back of my head proclaiming them as slightly "off". I can't exactly put my finger on it but they just look out of place for some reason. I can get past the style of the main website (though I think it's in the style of a programmer and less of designer) but the things the OP has worked on just don't seem that... good. The "quirky equipment" with text inputs is confusing on a number of levels: What is this trying to show? Why is it listed at all? How is this innovative/interesting/or even cool? A tiny bit of JS strung together with some CSS animations doesn't strike me as worth sharing. Lastly, and a tiny thing at that, o23.io works find for a dev/designer name Olivier that is 23 years old but.... Did he buy o24.io-o100.io as well? Just seems like an odd choice of domain.

[vmasto]

I believe you guys are being overly harsh and strict, you probably don't realize it but to me you sound like you're criticizing for the next Jony Ive position.

I find OP's work impressive and his design skills are great, he handles minimalism with grace, and that's not something a programmer could achieve without previous design principles.

His website's concept is exactly what it should be (being a T shaped professional), his grasp on typography is very good (a far better skill to have than the ability of making a million animations to impress), his Skyler app is extremely well designed and overly his work is above average in every way.

I'm not sure why OP is having trouble finding work, but it certainly is not his skills. Perhaps it's the way he presents himself, or sounding needy, or he aims for positions that require much greater experience.

He is absolutely fit for a junior to mid level front end developer or UI engineer job in my books.

Edit: His name is Olivier, just goes to show how much attention you paid when reviewing his work. (edit 2: parent edited their post where they originally referred to OP as "she" and "Olivia")

[hluska]

In general, I'd agree with you, but here's the sad truth...

Olivier is having difficulty finding a job, despite applying for 'millions' of positions. That screams that there is something wrong. At this point, we could pat him on the head and tell him that everything will be fine, or we can put our critical hats on and try to find things that be blocking his dreams.

I'll agree that some of the feedback has been harsh, but the poor man ended his plea with the word 'help'. Sometimes the most helpful advice is the hardest to hear.

[globuous]

He says he needs help, he doesn't need everyone telling him how disapointing his entire resume is.

He needs people to let him know what they like and dislike about his profile. But that does also include mentioning what is attractive about his resume. Otherwise we might as well tell him "yo bro, tech isn't for you honestly" if there's nothing likable about what he's done.

He needs to find where his profile adds value and concentrate on that. Conversely, he needs people to let him know about what they think is his profile's weaker points so he can adapt. But asking for help and having everyone tell him the same thing that his interviewers have told him isn't what he's asking for. Is it ?

Some answers have been very helpful it seems (as simple as "well maybe you're applying for senior positions instead of junior ones" or "maybe it's your personality rather than your achievements"). But saying "yeah man; I'm sorry but none of your projects impress me, they're all at best avg" does seem kinda harsh to me. To the point where it might be detrimental to OP's motivation.

Back to the main question:

I think your resume is great, you clearly have valuable skills. Assuming you're applying to entry level positions (you're only 23), I would guess that it's everything besides your resume that isn't working out. Maybe it's your cover letter, it might not be transmitting what people want to read. You should be able to get interviews with your resume, I'm surprised you're not. Have you tried to contact people directly ? I mean as opposed to responding to job ads ?

Also, little tip, rather than saying you're the best at what you do and that's why someone should employ you, I would also add to my cover letter why you want to work for who ever you're applying it. Is it because you're in love with drones, with sports, with lingerie, with whatever you're gonna be working on if you get the job. Because employers are looking for devs that love the product they're coding. I'd rather code with someone avg but passionate about what he does than someone super good but that doesn't give a shit.

Anyway, don't give up bro, you're young and you're clearly not dumb, so it'll work out. Good luck !

[icoder]

Well, although I don't want to be harsh and strict on someone who just asks us for some advice, I must be honest that my opinion of his design skills match more closely to the posts above than to yours.

The designs shown are not compelling enough for me to recommend, hire or work with OP if it were for his design skills. And somehow that is in fact what he communicates as his biggest skills.

Then again, maybe my opinion, or the amount of attention I paid when reviewing his work, is not representative of (even a part of) the companies OP is applying to.

[magic_beans]

I think the OP's design skills are great for a developer, but not necessarily for a product designer. He should market himself as a web developer instead of a product designer.

[wehere1]

yea i read these comments and was ready for a terrible site, but it's totally fine. whenever HN has a 'show your personal website thread' the designs are all awful '65 year old combinatorics professor' designs. these old fucks would probably have a hernia if they looked at brutalistwebsites.com

[fusiongyro]

We "old fucks" are usually in charge of hiring. If I have two applicants and one gives me a hernia, which one am I going to hire?

[rajathagasthya]

> In combination with the breadth you listed this doesn't make you seem like a genius, it makes you seem like a generalist who lacks focus and probably has a touch of ADHD.

Slightly off topic, but is being a generalist considered a bad thing?

[manarth]

  is being a generalist considered a bad thing?

I would argue that having a general knowledge of the related fields is a very positive thing. That said, if the knowledge is at a fairly basic level, it'd be hard to find much more than a junior role. Senior roles generally require more advanced knowledge/understanding, and that's a lot easier to achieve by focusing on one specific skill/niche.

Most senior people I've worked with are the archetype T-shape: a good general knowledge of a number of related fields, and a deep speciality in one area.

Wikipedia has an interesting (although uncited) comparison of Versatilist (T-shape) vs Generalist [1]:

  Think of a person having some level of knowledge/experience in 15 knowledge areas.

  That person may have a very high competency (score 5) in 3 areas,
  a medium level of competency (score 3) in 5 areas,
  an introductory level of competency (score 1) in 4 areas,
  and no competency (score 0) in 3 areas.
 
  This creates an area under the curve of 34.
  This is different from a generalist who may score a 1 or 3 in every area.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versatilist

[PeterisP]

Being generalist is a good thing in the sense that is good to have many skills at a reasonable level. Unless you're truly exceptional, it simply doesn't happen without lots of experience. At 20 years of experience, you can have e.g. 5 "secondary" skills (in addition to whatever key specialization you might have) where you have a reasonable knowledge and "exposure" from having applied them multiple times.

At 3 years of work experience, most people have just started to understand 1-2 things. It may be that you have gotten a great, wide experience at a young age, because you started to do hard things really early - if a junior person claims that they "know" many diverse skills, maybe they truly are a generalist, but it is so much more likely that this simply shows a so big gap in knowledge/understanding that they don't even understand how little they know about all these 'secondary' skills.

This is true at least personally - there are certain skills where 15 years ago I believed that I had them, however now I know that I don't and never did so, simply because now I have seen people who actually do have that skill and can evaluate my knowledge in appropriate context.

[djrogers]

No, but you do need to focus your resume to the job you're trying to get. If you're a Product Designer then your resume should focus on that, and if you want a junior developer position, your resume should reflect that.

And it should go without saying, but if you're applying for both jobs, for heaven's sake - have 2 different versions of your resume...

[hkmurakami]

Generalists don't get hired to traditional "jobs" within orgs. Being a generalist is great if you're starting projects or companies yourself, or have personal connections to people who start such things and are looking for 1-3 generalist types when they first start hiring.

But companies hire specialists, plain and simple.

[collyw]

Bollocks. Full Stack Developer is just a formal title for generalist.

[jacquesm]

It's great when you're 50, tends to message 'thin' rather than 'deep' when you're 23.

[edblarney]

Don't take this guys negative position to heart - personally, I think he's basically wrong.

Your portfolio is actually pretty decent - especially for someone so young.

You're only 2.5 years out of school and you clearly are a multi-skilled individual with a solid ability to 'get things done' (the best skill ever) - especially wherein you've clearly required a number of different skills.

I'd suggest that being young and wanting to work remotely, or go to 'a foreign country' is hard. Immigration laws are real, and they are a barrier.

Try searching for something closer to home, or facilitating your career by getting some kind of 'status' in the US so that employers there can hire you. (Easier said than done, I know).

Keep your chin up, I would hire you in an instant if I had a role for you.