I wonder what kind of vetting process the couple went through in the US as well. The story may over-simplify the process.
In Canada, my family knew a couple who tried to adopt a child in the decades ago because of infertility. The vetting process and the paperwork from the government agency was "audacious". They said the amount of red tape was so much to the point that the fertile couples would not adopt locally.
Back in the day, adopting a child from China and Romania was easier than adopting locally.
Plenty of adopted folks have been curious about birth parents as teens and adults. Not sure elsewhere around the world. In Canada, the adoption records used to be closed but have been gradually. There have been cases that the birth parents did not reply.
Agree! The metric, even if it's an intelligent guess, justify why you did such tasks. It helps to bring a coherent story about your professional work. The tasks are not for vanity.
Yes, please ignore the cynical and negative folks. They are not doing you any good.
Like what a few other folks in this thread pointed out, your resume and your portfolio looks outdated and fragmented on my first glance. Most recruiters and hiring managers spend 5 seconds max during the first pass, so first impressions matter.
Here are the things you can do to bring your resume up-to-date:
* "Key achievements" does not include numbers to describe impact. For example, "pre-screen and match thousands of patients a day" could be rewritten as "pre-screen n patients per day and match them to m healthcare provider with 99.99% uptime" sounds impactful.
* Self-rating of your skills is not necessary. Nowadays your description of your impact is implicit on how you learn and work. In addition, "expert" for one person may not be the same for others.
On your portfolio:
* Listing your education is no longer necessary after the first job. Putting this in your portfolio site makes you look inexperienced. (Leave education in the resume, however.)
* The screenshots for Nike and LG look outdated, which contradicts "cutting-edge internet experiences".
I never put my real headshot on LinkedIn even before it was scrapped for AI training. LinkedIn still bugs me to put a picture to "increase engagement".
Putting headshot in resumes is not expected and even cringe in my country, but some countries expect headshots and other highly personal info. No thanks.
...for most people. Even if the company got sold or had an IPO, only the very early employees made life-changing money. There's no guarantee if the company will be at those stages.
The news bias towards people who made life-changing money, but does not tend to report the "invisible force".
On news: I'd say read from high-quality, responsible news sources. Lots of outlets create click bait, even if the stories are true, to direct readers to their sites.
I was in the area around 2010 working for someone else. Adding to your bullet points:
- The pool business near the single-digit RIM buildings had more business than they could do. Many folks wanted swimming pools at their homes.
- Various eateries such as the sandwich shop mentioned in the article made decent money during the height of Blackberry.
- People skipped starter homes and bought single houses as their first homes. Some real estate agents waited outside of some buildings during bonus was announced.
I had the reverse. My younger self wanted to do something to benefit the humanity, but hated see the old me having no money and out-to-date skills (See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41716772). At the end of the days, the people at the top wanted the money. I didn't even have handcuffs, let alone golden ones.
There are jobs you like in this world, but you may not like the salary.
Yes, but the fact that people don't respond to unsolicited door-knocking and pick up cold calls anymore prompt that I need social media as a way to stay in touch with others.
My Facebook account is only for the messenger and some local buy-and-sell groups.
My (private) Instagram account is for my friends.
My LinkedIn is for recruiters reaching out to me and contact my former managers for references. Former manager could've changed jobs so the old work email isn't any good anymore. A side effect is to research the companies and teams for my job interviews: Some recruiters did send me the LinkedIn profile of the interview panels.
Long lost friends and colleagues still have some way to contact me without knowing my phone and email. I don't have to proof myself through posting what I eat today and how excited about my work.
Picking what you'll do specifically without starting the degree does not sit well with me. I am in CS and not in EE, but believe a degree gives you a breath understanding of the subject to let you choose wiser.
In my days, lots of students started CS because they would "like to put up websites" or "work for this specific employers in town". Those goals were determined based on what they could see around them at the time. Then the field shifted (like AI coming) and the company's trajectory shifted. They were disappointed on either the school didn't teach them skills specific to the job or didn't graduate before the downturn. The specific type of job or the field could also be saturated with folks with years of experience on their job: Entry-level positions could be hard to come by.