Over the last few months, I’ve had the same conversation with multiple developers:
“I’m applying everywhere, but I’m not getting interview calls.”
Almost every time, the assumption is:
- the market is bad
- competition is too high
- skills aren’t enough
And while the market is competitive, that’s not the full story.
What I’ve consistently seen is this:
Many developers don’t get rejected because they lack skill.
They get filtered out because their profile isn’t clear in the first few seconds.
Recruiters don’t read profiles the way we think they do
As engineers, we like detail.
We explain systems.
We list technologies.
We describe everything we’ve worked on.
Recruiters don’t consume profiles like that.
They scan.
In a very short time, they try to answer a few questions:
- What kind of engineer is this?
- What problems have they actually worked on?
- Can I justify shortlisting this profile?
If those answers aren’t obvious quickly, the profile is skipped — even if the person is genuinely strong.
That’s not a judgment on skill.
It’s a signal problem.
The pattern I kept noticing
I started noticing the same pattern again and again:
- Strong resumes, but no clear impact
- LinkedIn profiles that list history, not value
- GitHub accounts that exist, but don’t tell a story
- Good engineers who are “shortlist-ready” on paper, but not “interview-ready” in reality
Most profiles weren’t bad.
They were just unclear.
So I built a simple checklist (not another interview guide)
I didn’t want to create another:
- DSA roadmap
- System design course
- “Crack the interview” guide
Instead, I built a profile readiness checklist that helps answer one question before you apply:
“Is my profile actually ready to convert into interview calls?”
It looks at:
- Resume clarity
- LinkedIn signals
- GitHub and proof of work
- Portfolio (if applicable)
- Job application strategy
- Interview readiness signals
- Final sanity checks most people ignore
You go through it honestly, and it generates a readiness snapshot that shows where the real gaps are.
Not to judge but to guide.
What surprised me
What surprised me wasn’t the scores.
It was the patterns.
Some people had:
- 100% resume and LinkedIn readiness
- but 0% interview readiness
Others had:
- decent experience
- but no proof of impact
In many cases, the issue wasn’t preparation.
It was misplaced effort.
People were optimizing the wrong things.
Why I think this matters
Applying blindly is exhausting.
It kills confidence.
It makes good engineers doubt themselves.
Sometimes, you don’t need more preparation.
You need better signals.
Clarity beats volume.
Signals beat claims.
And small fixes often have a bigger impact than months of grinding.
If you’re currently applying
Before sending another resume, ask yourself:
- Can someone understand my impact in 10 seconds?
- Is it obvious what kind of problems I’ve worked on?
- Do my profile signals match the roles I’m applying for?
If not, pause.
Fix clarity first.
Then apply.
I shared the checklist publicly because I kept seeing the same confusion repeat itself especially among capable engineers.
If it helps you get unstuck, that’s a win.
And if nothing else, I hope this post makes you rethink why profiles get filtered not just how interviews work.
Where this checklist lives
I eventually hosted this checklist on IOCombats, a platform I’m building around real-world interview readiness, not just practice problems.
The idea isn’t to gamify profiles or hand out scores for the sake of it, it’s to help engineers identify what actually blocks progress before spending weeks preparing the wrong things.
If you’re curious, you can find it there.
If not, the core takeaway still stands: clarity beats volume, and signals beat claims.
Built with the same mindset I apply to engineering:
identify the bottleneck before optimizing the system.
— Ghazi
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