"In 5 years, CVs won’t matter. Build online proof of work"
"Every post, product, or project you share is future-you getting hired."
The article title is quoted directly, as it is taken from a popular LinkedIn Post by Timothy Armoo.
I figured this out years ago and have been proactively building my online proof of work ever since.
Started developing my first software product, TestWise, in 2007, followed by SiteWise, ClinicWise, BuildWise, WhenWise, and TestWisely.
Published my first book, Practical Web Test Automation, in 2009—now the author and co-author of 14 books.
Spoke at international software testing conferences from 2011 to 2023.
Won 2nd prize in the 2018 Ruby International Award for my BuildWise Continuous Testing server.
Delivered many training sessions on E2E Test Automation and Continuous Testing.
Started blogging on Medium (later Substack) in 2021—now with 600+ articles, many featured in software testing newsletters.
Every now and then, recruiters reach out to me for a role. I still take only short (very short) contracts, with no renewals, and I’m highly selective. On the rare occasion I express interest, recruiters ask for my CV. Frankly, I find it unnecessary—shouldn't proven work carry more weight than a document?
Perhaps, as Timothy Armoo predicts, in five years, CVs will become mostly irrelevant, for high achievers.
I'm not currently looking for jobs. As for my daughter, while she is quite happy with her job at FAANG, she will almost certainly consider other opportunities in the future. I've been guiding her in building an online portfolio of her work, as demonstrated below:
Began blogging on Medium on E2E test automation in 2022 and consistently published one article per week
(with 20 articles featured in leading software testing newsletters)Published a book, Selenium WebDriver Recipes in C#, with Apress.
(In fact, her writing on Medium played a key role in securing this book contract.)Authored the Discover Ruby Programming Through Fun Examples (2024) course on Eduactive.io.
Built the prototype of BookPhysio.com (as a high school project), which later AgileWay commercialized to be WhenWise.
Courtney is currently writing two other ebooks (working title): “A Practical Guide to Continuous Testing with Selenium WebDriver in RSpec” and “Practical Mobile Test Automation”
Please note that the above is entirely unrelated to Courtney’s job as a back-end software development engineer. In other words, without following my guidance, she would have little online proof of her work and would have to rely solely on her CV when job hunting.
Imagine you are a wise executive at a software company, recognizing the critical need for E2E test automation in software development and maintenance. Would you rely on costly and time-consuming job advertisements to find the right talent (mostly getting fake ones), or would you directly connect with a proven young expert like Courtney Zhan?
I also made a prediction: foreign languages, especially Chinese, will be extremely valuable in the near future. I realized this a bit late, but better late than never—I started (~2017) teaching her Chinese for about 15 minutes every night for 2 years. (Yes, I came up with a highly effective teaching method, see below)
In January 2020, Courtney passed the HSK 5 (Chinese Proficiency Test, where level 6 is the highest) with near-perfect scores in both the listening and reading sections. For someone born in Australia and starting to learn Chinese at the age of 14 (she learned Selenium WebDriver before that), achieving such a high score in Chinese reading comprehension is a rare achievement.
Some might say, "That's just because you speak Chinese." However, as a preferred work destination for Courtney, I lean toward Japan. That’s why I’m learning Japanese in my fifties. Maybe one day, I can offer her some guidance if she decides to learn Japanese.
In conclusion, if you want to fast-track your career or open up better job opportunities in the future, focus on preparation and building a strong online portfolio that showcases your work and talents. For me, as a hirer, I value software professionals who pursue self-education in their free time above all other attributes."
