[x______________]

>rather than poisoning the whole thread and dissuading people from being interested/looking more?

I partially disagree, offering public advice on how to improve can start a conversation, get the aspects fixed, and give an opportunity for op to show his abilities and come out on top. Other people can also chime in or in my case, appreciate general advice and learn from it.

What dissuades me more is another poster in the thread getting more upvotes than op by saying, oh that's cool, check out my unrelated project.. and then having to dig to find replies related to the original post.

[keepamovin]

If you treat a person's livelihood like an academic code review in public, that's not a great way to start a conversation, it just attaches negative keywords to their job application. That ain't mentoring: it's sabotage.