The Memo: #28 (170+ remote roles)

Dec 18, 2019

Hey folks,

This will be the final newsletter for the year and we’ll get back at it after this in January. Instead of including all the job links in the email, I've added them to a publicly accessible Google Sheet (link below). I may revert back to including all the job links in the email moving forward.

Thank you to everyone that’s subscribed, shared this newsletter, and written in over the past few months to offer praise and feedback for this weird community of remote workers and makers that I’m building. And big thank you to everyone that’s supported the newsletter & community financially.

#Sponsor

Are you thinking about levelling-up your skill set by learning how to code? Codeworks offers immersive courses to master Software Engineering. Ranked as one of the best coding academies, it provides remote and on-site programs, with campuses in Europe and Americas.

Special offer for The Memo readers: get a discount of up to $500! Browse Codeworks courses through their website and apply through this link to get the discount (offer valid until January 31, 2020, for students who choose the upfront payment option)

Submit your project!

As previously mentioned, I’m taking all of the funds from the Codeworks sponsorship and putting it towards someone in the community building a side-project. While it’s not a whole lot – $100 – if you’re project is chosen you can use the funds however you see fit to advancing your side-project. Details:

Friends, family, and anyone else with a personal connection to me or anyone working on the newsletter will be ineligible.
The only thing I’ll ask of the selected project is to either Tweet regularly over the course of a month about the progress that they’re making, or, alternatively, write a short blog post at the end of the month about their progress and next steps.
I’ll pick a project in early January and anyone is open to submit their project for consideration here:
I’ll announce the selected project here and on Twitter. Follow me on Twitter to keep an eye out.
Have a look at the Codeworks website, if you’re thinking about picking up coding, use this link to sign up.

This whole newsletter and community has been an experiment, and so my hope is that since we’re member-funded, we can use sponsorship funds to test out a way of supporting side projects.

Questions, comments, concerns: email me.

Tips on writing a better CV

I’ve seen dozens of CVs at this point, and so I thought I’d share some thoughts about what to look out for. I plan on fleshing these points out a little more for a blog post.

Use a standard design format. If you’re not designer, don’t try to reinvent the wheel.
Make sure that there aren’t design inconsistencies. Bullet points with dashes in some places and dots in others is just one example.
Grammar. Can be a deal breaker.
Demonstrate the impact that you’ve had in each bullet point with numbers. This is a big one. Instead of simply saying oversaw this function of the business, your bullet points should demonstrate the impact that you’ve had with tangible numbers. Increased revenue by X% because of X, Y, Z strategies.
Less is (almost always) more. Fight the need to pack every inch of the CV with information; it makes very difficult to read for someone that’s just scanning.
Have someone else read it. There are things that you’re not going to see. As a perk for our paying members, I offer to review their CVs and cover letters. But I would suggest to just find someone that will do it.
Read other people’s CVs. In the new year, I may look to pair people up in the community so that you can read each other’s CVs.
Aim for brevity with your mission statement/overview, if you include one.
Skills. This doesn’t have to be too long and you should omit things that are obvious.
Your photo is probably unnecessary.

Your CV is a landing page and you’re trying to move a prospective customer down the funnel. For me, that’s a helpful way to think about the goal of a CV.

Ok, that’s kind of the easy stuff. Here’s the hard stuff:

Get good at telling your story or get someone else to help you tell it.
Know the outcome you’re driving towards.
Identify the weaknesses in your narrative.

Telling your career story in your CV is hard because you’re in current role but you’re also the narrator that needs to tell a compelling story and sell yourself.

Demonstrating impact seems to be somewhat difficult for a number of people. It seems that most people, myself included, only really take time to think about the impact that they’ve had in their roles when they’re revamping their CVs.

The process of updating your CV with impact points might be made easier if we all took 5-10 minutes every week to answer a few questions:

What did I do this week?
What impact did I have?
How did I achieve that impact?

It’s difficult to outsource the writing of your CV to someone else because if you give them a CV with bullet points that say “Implemented the plan/Oversaw a team” they have no way of coming up with anything else to put in its place.

Anyways, if you find it difficult to tell your story in your CV, I’m thinking about sending out a short survey every Friday afternoon, with three questions from above, starting in January. We’ll collect your answers and you can review whenever you want or more likely every few months.

If there’s some record of the work that you’ve done, you can look back at it and craft a better story, or think differently about the impact you’re having while you’re in your current role. Additionally, other people – friends, colleagues, whoever – will be able to help craft your CV story with this additional aide.

If you’re interested, you can drop your email in this form.

Louis Valenzuela, OG community-member and multi-faceted designer, currently has some space in his calendar for some design work, consultation, or potentially a full-time role. Check out Louis’ revamped website here and reach out to him directly to discuss your next project.
If you’re interested in supporting the community with a lifetime membership (one-time fee) for $79, send me an email with a couple lines about yourself. Or you can support the community with either a monthly or annual membership via the button below:

The Nonlinear Project

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