←back to thread

Ask HN: How to properly show my skills for startup roles?

7 points arabello | 2 comments | 17 Oct 25 07:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.442s | source

I've got ~5 YoE as a Full Stack Engineer in a small software consultancy/house. We build products for external clients, covering everything from requirements gathering to production, with a focus on GenAI for the last two years.

Goal: Land an international role at a startup, preferably in the AI/GenAI field, ideally Founding or Full Stack Eng positions.

Problem: I'm not getting opportunities. I've been looking on and off for 2/3 years but only had 1 offer. My guess is my consultancy background isn't translating well on paper for the startup landscape.

We don't operate like a traditional consulting agency. I function as a Product Engineer (Full Stack and GenAI) including client-facing responsibilities, talking with stakeholders, challenging designers' UX/UI deliverables, partial team management, ownership of the internal AI tooling and some public-facing marketing stuff. I think all of this doesn't show up properly on resume's experiences.

I'm confident in my tech and soft skills. The main thing I lack is ownership of an ongoing production product with a massive user base, as we typically focus on project bootstrapping.

How do I properly showcase my product-oriented skills? I'm usually screened out or rejected after the first interview, suggesting the issue is primarily with my experience presentation or content.

If the issue is actually in my skill set, how can I effectively evolve in that direction while staying in my current position?

1. qrist0ph ◴[18 Oct 25 07:05 UTC] No.45625500[source]▶
Set up a small open-source GitHub repo to showcase your skills, and ask people in your network to give it some stars for added credibility. If you’re not sure what to build, you could create a simple RAG bot using Claude and feed it your resume — that way, employers can literally chat with your “digital twin” and learn about your experience through an AI agent you built yourself. At least thats what I did lLet me know if you need the source code :)
replies(1): >>45626894 #
2. raw_anon_1111 ◴[18 Oct 25 12:40 UTC] No.45626894[source]▶
You aren’t being serious are you? If a company wants to know you can operate at scale - putting source code out on GitHub that you did as a hobby project is just the oposite.