The generalist's hiring problem
I know too many things. Apparently that's a problem. I started with PHP. Then spent years in the JVM world — Scala, Java, building distributed systems. Did backend, DevOps, CI/CD, built frontends with React and Vue. Now I'm deep into TypeScript, serverless, and cloud infrastructure. I could pick up Go or Python on any project — learning new tools has never been the hard part. The hard part is convincing someone to let you in the door. But try explaining that to an ATS. <!-- excerpt --> ## What actually happens You find a great position. You read the description and think — I've done this. The architecture, the scale, the kind of problems they're solving. You've been there. Maybe not in this exact language, but you know how to build this. But the listing says "Go required." Your last two years say TypeScript. You apply anyway. You don't get the call. I get it — recruiters have 200 resumes to review. They need filters. But the filters are keyword-shaped, and people aren't. ## I think the system rewards narrow specialists and punishes curiosity. You're either "a Go developer" or "a React developer." If you're both — you're neither. And if you've been five things over fifteen years — good luck fitting that into a keyword match. The irony is — the best engineers I've worked with were exactly like this. Curious, cross-functional, able to jump between layers of the stack. But that profile doesn't survive a 6-second resume scan. I can't change the system. But I can engineer my way around it. That's exactly what I'm building.
I know too many things. Apparently that’s a problem.
I started with PHP. Then spent years in the JVM world — Scala, Java, building distributed systems. Did backend, DevOps, CI/CD, built frontends with React and Vue. Now I’m deep into TypeScript, serverless, and cloud infrastructure.
I could pick up Go or Python on any project — learning new tools has never been the hard part. The hard part is convincing someone to let you in the door.
But try explaining that to an ATS.
What actually happens
Section titled “What actually happens”You find a great position. You read the description and think — I’ve done this. The architecture, the scale, the kind of problems they’re solving. You’ve been there. Maybe not in this exact language, but you know how to build this.
But the listing says “Go required.” Your last two years say TypeScript. You apply anyway. You don’t get the call.
I get it — recruiters have 200 resumes to review. They need filters. But the filters are keyword-shaped, and people aren’t.
I think the system rewards narrow specialists and punishes curiosity.
Section titled “I think the system rewards narrow specialists and punishes curiosity.”You’re either “a Go developer” or “a React developer.” If you’re both — you’re neither. And if you’ve been five things over fifteen years — good luck fitting that into a keyword match.
The irony is — the best engineers I’ve worked with were exactly like this. Curious, cross-functional, able to jump between layers of the stack. But that profile doesn’t survive a 6-second resume scan.
I can’t change the system. But I can engineer my way around it. That’s exactly what I’m building.