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Mapping Your Current Stack

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Mapping Your Current Stack

Student: Okay Swati, I understand the five layers. Now how do I figure out where I actually stand? You mentioned a self-audit - what does that look like?

Swati: It looks like engineering. When you join a new codebase, what's the first thing you do?

Student: I usually read the docs, look at the architecture, run the tests, see what passes, what's broken.

Swati: Exactly. You assess the current state before you start building. Your discoverability stack is the same. Before we start building your resume, LinkedIn, GitHub, portfolio, and network, we need an honest assessment of where each one stands right now. Not where you think it stands. Not where you wish it stood. Where it actually is, as measured by the people who will evaluate it - recruiters, hiring managers, and your peers.

This lesson is a working session. By the end of it, you'll have a completed discoverability audit - a concrete document that identifies your gaps, your strengths, and your priority order for the rest of this course.

The Discoverability Audit Framework

I'm going to walk you through each of the five layers. For each one, I'll give you the evaluation criteria - the specific things that recruiters and hiring managers look for. Then you'll score yourself honestly. Not aspirationally. Honestly.

graph TD
    A["Discoverability Audit"] --> B["Layer 1: Resume<br/>Format + Content + Targeting"]
    A --> C["Layer 2: LinkedIn<br/>Completeness + Keywords + Activity"]
    A --> D["Layer 3: GitHub<br/>Projects + Documentation + Recency"]
    A --> E["Layer 4: Portfolio<br/>Existence + Quality + Accessibility"]
    A --> F["Layer 5: Network<br/>Size + Relevance + Activation"]

    B --> G["Score 0-10"]
    C --> G
    D --> G
    E --> G
    F --> G

    G --> H["Gap Analysis<br/>Priority Ranking"]
    H --> I["Action Plan"]

    style A fill:#7950f2,color:#fff
    style H fill:#ff6b6b,color:#fff
    style I fill:#51cf66,color:#fff

This diagram shows the discoverability audit framework. The audit evaluates five layers: Resume (format, content, targeting), LinkedIn (completeness, keywords, activity), GitHub (projects, documentation, recency), Portfolio (existence, quality, accessibility), and Network (size, relevance, activation). Each layer receives a score from 0 to 10. The scores feed into a gap analysis that produces a priority ranking, which generates an action plan.

Layer 1: Resume Audit

Your resume is the document that represents you when you're not in the room. Here's how to evaluate it.

Student: I have a resume. I think it's pretty good. I got a few interviews with it last year.

Swati: "Pretty good" and "got a few interviews" are not engineering metrics. Let's be specific. Answer these questions about your current resume:

Format and Structure:

• Is it a single page (for under 10 years of experience) or cleanly organized across two pages (for 10+ years)?
• Is it single-column with no graphics, tables, or sidebar elements?
• Would it parse correctly through an ATS? Have you tested it?
• Can someone understand what you do in 6 seconds by reading the top third?

Content Quality:

• Does every bullet point start with a strong action verb?
• Does every bullet include a quantified impact - a number, a percentage, a scale metric?
• Are your bullets describing outcomes (what changed because of your work) or activities (what you did every day)?
• Is the skills section an accurate reflection of your current abilities, or does it include things you used once in 2019?

Targeting:

• Is your resume tailored for the types of roles you're applying to, or is it a generic one-size-fits-all document?
• Does it contain the keywords that appear in the job descriptions you're targeting?
• Have you updated it in the last 3 months?

Tip: The Resume Litmus Test: Show your resume to an engineer friend who doesn't know your work well. Give them 15 seconds - not 15 minutes, 15 seconds - and then ask: "What do I do? What am I good at? What kind of role am I looking for?" If they can't answer all three clearly, your resume isn't doing its job.

If you don't have a friend to test with, upload your resume to AlgoInsight's AI Resume Builder - it provides an instant assessment of ATS compatibility, keyword coverage, and bullet quality.

Scoring Guide for Resume:

Student: I'd give myself a 5. It has decent formatting and some numbers, but I use the same version everywhere and I've never tested it through an ATS.

Swati: Five is honest. That means there's significant room for improvement, and resume improvement has the highest immediate ROI because it's the universal document. Good. Let's move to Layer 2.

Layer 2: LinkedIn Audit

Student: I have a LinkedIn account. I update it when I change jobs.

Swati: That's the answer I hear from about 70% of engineers. And it's the reason about 70% of engineers never get recruiter InMails. Let's audit what's actually there.

Completeness:

• Do you have a professional headshot - not a selfie, not a group photo, not a cartoon avatar?
• Is your headline more than just your job title? (Bad: "Software Engineer at CompanyX." Good: "Backend Engineer | Distributed Systems | Java, Go, Kubernetes | Building real-time data pipelines at scale")
• Is your About section written? Does it describe who you are, what you build, and what you're looking for?
• Is every job listed with detailed descriptions - not just company and title, but accomplishments?
• Do you have your skills listed and endorsed?
• Do you have recommendations from colleagues or managers?

Keyword Optimization:

• If a recruiter searched for your top 3 technical skills, would your profile appear?
• Does your headline contain the keywords recruiters search for?
• Do your experience descriptions use the same vocabulary as job descriptions in your target roles?

Activity:

• Have you posted or engaged with content in the last 30 days?
• Do you follow companies you'd want to work at?
• Is your "Open to Work" setting turned on (visible to recruiters only)?

Scoring Guide for LinkedIn:

Student: I think I'm a 3. I have a photo and my jobs listed, but no About section, no keywords in my headline, and I haven't posted anything in... I don't even remember.

Swati: That's a 3, and it explains why recruiters aren't finding you. When we get to Module 04, we'll rebuild this from the ground up. But knowing you're a 3 right now is valuable - it tells you that LinkedIn optimization might give you a bigger boost than spending more time on your resume.

Layer 3: GitHub Audit

Presence:

• Do you have a GitHub account?
• Is your profile README written? (The README that appears on your profile page)
• Do you have pinned repositories?
• Have you committed anything in the last 6 months?

Quality:

• Do your repositories have README files that explain what the project is, how to run it, and what technologies it uses?
• Is your code clean and well-organized? Would you be comfortable if a hiring manager read it?
• Do any projects demonstrate skills relevant to your target roles?
• Are there tests? Documentation? Deployed versions?

Student: I have a GitHub account but it's mostly private repos from work and a couple of tutorial follow-alongs from three years ago.

Swati: Okay, let's score that.

Scoring Guide for GitHub:

Student: I'm probably a 2. The repos exist but they're not impressive or relevant.

Swati: That's fine. GitHub is the layer that varies most by career stage. For a senior engineer with 10 years of experience, a GitHub score of 4 might be completely acceptable because the resume and network carry the weight. For a new grad, a 2 is a serious gap. We'll figure out the right target score for you in Topic 03.

Layer 4: Portfolio Audit

Existence:

• Do you have a portfolio website or equivalent (Notion page, GitHub Pages site, personal blog)?
• Can a hiring manager find it by Googling your name?
• Does it showcase your work with context - not just code, but the story of what you built?

Quality:

• Does each project include the problem statement, your approach, the technologies used, and the outcome?
• Are there screenshots, diagrams, or demos?
• Is the portfolio maintained and up-to-date?

Scoring Guide for Portfolio:

Student: I'm a zero. I don't have a portfolio at all.

Swati: You're not alone. Most engineers don't. But remember the multiplication principle - a zero in any layer collapses your product. Even a basic portfolio - three projects with descriptions - moves you from 0 to 3, and that changes the math dramatically.

Layer 5: Network Audit

This is the most uncomfortable audit for most engineers, but it's also the most impactful.

Size:

• How many professional contacts do you have in the tech industry?
• How many people at your target companies do you know personally?

Relevance:

• Are your contacts in positions to refer you - engineers, hiring managers, recruiters at companies you'd want to work at?
• Do you maintain these relationships, or are they dormant contacts from years ago?

Activation:

• Have you asked for a referral in the last 6 months?
• Have you done a coffee chat or informational interview with someone at a target company?
• If you reached out to 5 contacts right now and asked for help with your job search, would they respond?

graph TD
    A["Your Network"] --> B{"Can you name 5 people<br/>at target companies?"}
    B -->|Yes| C{"Have you spoken<br/>to them this year?"}
    B -->|No| D["Score: 0-2<br/>Network needs building"]
    C -->|Yes| E{"Would they<br/>refer you?"}
    C -->|No| F["Score: 3-4<br/>Network exists but dormant"]
    E -->|Yes| G["Score: 7-10<br/>Network is active"]
    E -->|No| H["Score: 5-6<br/>Network needs deepening"]

    style D fill:#ff6b6b,color:#fff
    style F fill:#fcc419,color:#000
    style H fill:#339af0,color:#fff
    style G fill:#51cf66,color:#fff

This decision tree diagram helps score your network layer. First question: can you name 5 people at target companies? If no, your score is 0 to 2 and your network needs building. If yes, second question: have you spoken to them this year? If no, your score is 3 to 4 and your network is dormant. If yes, third question: would they refer you? If no, your score is 5 to 6 and your network needs deepening. If yes, your score is 7 to 10 and your network is active.

Student: I can probably name two people at companies I'd want to work at. I haven't spoken to either of them in over a year. So... a 2?

Swati: A 2 is honest. And here's the thing - moving from a 2 to a 5 in the network layer doesn't require becoming a different person. It requires sending five LinkedIn messages, having three coffee chats, and asking one person for a referral. That's a weekend of effort that changes your job search trajectory. We'll cover exactly how to do all of that in Module 06.

Your Complete Audit

Student: Okay, let me put it all together. Resume: 5. LinkedIn: 3. GitHub: 2. Portfolio: 0. Network: 2.

Swati: Let's calculate your discoverability product. In the previous lesson I said the formula is multiplicative, and that's the principle - but for a practical audit, let's use a scoring model that's more forgiving while still capturing the key insight.

Your raw scores: 5, 3, 2, 0, 2.

The zero kills you. Even if everything else were perfect - 10, 10, 10, 0, 10 - the portfolio gap means hiring managers who Google you find nothing. Now, in practice a zero in portfolio doesn't literally prevent you from getting hired - many engineers don't have one. But it means one of your five signals is sending silence, and silence is a negative signal.

Here's how I'd visualize your stack health:

Student: That's not what I expected. I thought the resume should be first priority since it's the most important document.

Swati: This is a common instinct, and it's wrong for your specific situation. Your resume is already a 5 - it's not great, but it's not broken. Going from 5 to 8 on your resume gives you incremental improvement. Going from 0 to 3 on your portfolio eliminates a zero from the equation. Eliminating zeros has the highest marginal return.

Important: Priority Rule: Eliminate zeros before improving strengths. Your lowest-scoring layer is always your highest priority. A zero in any layer cancels out strength in the others. Fix the zeros first, get everything to at least a 3, then optimize your strongest layers.

The exception: if you need to apply to jobs immediately (financial urgency, visa timeline, etc.), start with the resume because that's the document you submit. Then fix the other layers in parallel.

The Action Plan Template

Here's the template I want you to fill out after completing your audit. This becomes your roadmap for the rest of the course.

Student: Can you show me what a completed version looks like?

Swati: Sure. Here's an example based on your scores - adjusted with specific actions tied to the modules we'll cover:

Notice something? The target scores are not 10 across the board. They're realistic targets - getting everything to a 5 or above. Perfectionism in one layer at the expense of zeros in another is the wrong optimization.

Student: This is way more structured than I expected. I came in thinking "I need a better resume" and now I realize the resume isn't even my biggest problem.

Swati: That's the value of the audit. Without it, you'd spend the next three weeks perfecting a resume while four other layers sit at zero. The audit gives you the engineering data to allocate your time correctly.

Warning: Don't skip the audit. I know it's tempting to jump straight to Module 02 and start building your resume. Resist that urge. Spend 30 minutes right now doing the honest self-assessment. The information you get from the audit determines how you prioritize the rest of the course. Without it, you're optimizing blindly - exactly the mistake you were making before you started this course.

Interview: The Self-Audit as Interview Evidence

Many behavioral interview questions boil down to: "Can you assess a situation objectively, identify the real problem versus the obvious one, and prioritize your effort correctly?" Your discoverability audit is a concrete example of exactly that skill. You assessed five layers, identified that the obvious priority (resume) was not the highest-leverage fix, and reallocated effort to the actual bottleneck.

"I realized I was spending all my time on my resume, which was already a 5 out of 10, while my LinkedIn and network - which drive 10x more interview conversions - were both sitting at 2. I shifted my effort to the actual bottleneck." That's a behavioral interview answer about prioritization, data-driven decision-making, and intellectual honesty.

Exercise: Starter: Complete your own discoverability audit. Score each layer 0 to 10 using the scoring guides above. Write down your scores. Identify which layer is your zero (or lowest score).

Intermediate: Create your action plan table using the template above. For each layer, set a realistic target score and identify the specific actions needed to get there. Map each action to the module in this course that covers it. This becomes your personal roadmap.

Advanced: Do the audit for a friend or colleague - with their permission. Often, evaluating someone else's stack reveals blind spots in your own. Compare your audit of them with their self-audit. Where do the scores differ? The gaps between self-assessment and external assessment are the most valuable insights. If you don't have someone to audit, post your self-assessment in the AlgoInsight Discord and ask for peer feedback.

Student: Alright, I have my scores. I know my gaps. But one thing I'm wondering - do these priorities change depending on where I am in my career? Like, should a new grad prioritize differently than someone with 10 years of experience?

Swati: That's exactly what we're covering next. The discoverability stack looks different at every career stage. I'm bringing in Arun for the new grad perspective and Olena for the career switcher perspective - because the advice I just gave you might be completely wrong for someone who graduated six months ago or someone who just made a career switch from finance.

Let's go.

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