[4bpp]

It sounds like you may be failing some sort of implicit cultural filters - you've been in the same small workplace for 8 years and apparently your circles don't include highly-paid IT/development people. "International-tier" tech is a fairly distinctive and exclusionary culture to anyone who is not fluent in either its own norms or those of a handful of adjacent academic fields, and the boundary may be policed based on shibboleths that even members couldn't articulate explicitly when prompted. Looking at your post, I get enough of a "cultural difference" gut feeling that reinforces this suspicion - I think the most glaring signifiers are the excessive spacing, omission of apostrophes and commas (though I realise this is more common in the UK) and a certain harshness in verbiage like "aggrieved" and the "The problem/s? They won't..." that is at odds with the nonconfrontational style of the modern workplace. (There was actually an opinion piece on this on the HN front page a few days ago: https://goodreason.substack.com/p/on-corpspeak)

Consider befriending some people in your industry who are in a position closer to the type that you would be interested in, and asking them for feedback on your CV or at least absorbing the way they talk and present themselves by osmosis. I'm not in the UK, but at least in the European location I'm in there are many tech people circulating on local meetup (social) apps.

[HelloNurse]

Good advice, but there's a complementary aspect to consider: are the jobs you fail to get actually a good match for your skills and experience? Do potential employers look for what you think they are looking for? Your resumes and job applications could be misaligned, not only unappealing.

For example, a company looking for a rather senior sysadmin might care for familiarity with highly specific tools and cloud platforms more than for the ability to keep a whole company's applications running.

[k099]

I agree with this. I would also consider talking to a recruiter or paying a professional resume writer (one that specializes in tech) to help rewrite your resume and adjust your positioning.

[sshine]

The first time I spoke to a recruiter, I got my first honest opinion about my résumè.

Doing this is free and insightful.

[owow123]

This is an interesting take on my writing style.

I will certainly apply this to my CV, perhaps my personal statement is to "aggressive" (here I am doing it again).

Thank you.

[FabHK]

Agreed with GP.

Your submission appears put together without any care ("NH", "i", "wont", "cant", "circles", "Bad", "dont", and presumably that hyphen is a minus "-" rather than an en-dash "–" or an em-dash "—" (though it's not that important)).

Unless your achievements are stellar, you are not in a position to neglect these details.

Next, don't bring your grievances with you. Your next employer bears no responsibility for whatever happened to you in the past. Why should they want to deal with someone that is grumpy and entitled?

Focus on your achievements and what you can bring to the job.

Next, continue your search and do find an external offer, then evaluate your options. I would not suggest a confrontational approach with your current employer, threatening to leave. Rather, talk to them and say, sincerely, that you'd like to stay with them, but you cannot afford to forego all of the raise that the other company is offering you. (If you can't say that sincerely, because you do want to leave, then: leave.)

Typically, companies like to retain their talent, as it is expensive and risky to hire and train someone new. That is good for you, but it is always easier to negotiate if you do have an alternative at hand, rather than having to bluff.

[v-erne]

>> hyphen is a minus "-" rather than an en-dash "–" or an em-dash "—"

/s

You snob, this is internet, how dare You point out that single dash sign is apparently not enough to convey all this context dependent meaning. Go back to Your fancy books.

s/

Sorry, I could not resist - each time I am remainded that clear communication is not enough and „proper” form is also required because of historical reasons I die a little bit inside. Why we (the people) like to complicate our life so much? Germans somehow could get rid of ß so maybe not all is lost (but Danish people on the other hand brought back Å so maybe it is ;) )

[FabHK]

You are right... I fine-tune (not "fine-tune") the ligatures in my CV for proper form. It might be overkill.

But then, would you rather hire someone who cares about the details or not? (That depends on the job, of course. But insofar as the job is to fulfil the requirements of the job, and a requirement of putting together your CV is generally understood to be to do it carefully without typos, it doesn't bode well.)

[nixgeek]

I looked a bit at your comment history on HN, I get there’s an aspect of “Anonymous on the Internet”, but if your approach here [1] is remotely like your approach in the workplace and I got any signal of that in an interview context you’d be “Strong No Hire” for me.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32313774

[smugma]

“Too” aggressive. While normally not a big deal if there’s a typo, someone else commented and this in attention to detail can put people off as they may think it extends to other areas.

It’s mostly relevant because your comment is about your writing.