I’ve been looking for a new contract for a little while now, and thought I’d try to improve my chances by responding to some feedback which suggests, based on my CV, it’s not that clear what I can do and why you’d hire me.

I wrote a “little” thing, then asked Bing’s ChatGPT bot to review it. The damned bot culled my chattiness, but certainly made it significantly easier to consume. I mean, you’re probably already getting bored with this human-generated introduction, right?

With that in mind, with no further delay, here is the comparison of an attempt to explain (potentially to recruiters or a huge LinkedIn post or something) what I do, vs the Bingbot summary; me vs chatgpt; human vs robot; meat vs machine:

Intro

👨🏻 Human (me) Generated

Turns out I’m really bad at selling myself, since I’ve had a long career where I continually push myself to do different things (turns out I’m good at doing that), which I think makes it hard to know what exactly you’d hire me for. Hopefully this will help.

🤖 “Improved” by Chat GPT

Introduction

With a diverse and accomplished career, I bring a wealth of experience and a proven track record in various technical roles. My journey has been one of continuous learning and adaptation, making me a valuable asset for any team.

Software Engineering

👨🏻 Human (me) Generated

I’m an experienced Software Engineer

When I was last a hands on developer, I became a Microsoft AI MVP and started the London BotFramework meetup group, due to working at depth on the then-new BotFramework; this shows that I can get knowledgeable for a specific area where necessary (including areas that are too new to rely on StackOverflow/chatgpt for the answers), and share that knowledge with others.

I’ve been a developer for over 2 decades, most of this in the Microsoft stack. This means I could help support, or migrate, your ancient VB or C# webforms – or even classic ASP – websites up to a more recent dotnet or dotnet core setup. (Those of you thinking “who the hell still uses that old stuff?!” should check the tell tale file extensions and URL paths in your bank/ travel/ insurance/ local vet website to see how prevalent this outdated tech stack really is)

Why should you believe me?

My career started in 1999, building classic ASP pages for an executive headhunting company (Remember Visual SourceSafe anyone?..). I know the tech, and how to gradually migrate to a new stack, with all the CI and DevOps sprinkled/heaped over it that you could ever ask for.
Ask any old school ASOS developer who will tell you that it started in VB webforms, went through a combined C#/VB rearchitecture, past a MVP rearchitecture, through MVC, to its current microservice format.

If your company is on a similar outdated tech stack and you’re freaking out about how to update it without having the dreaded “rewrite from scratch” conversation with your manager, or you just want someone who can uplift and up skill your existing engineering team, as the most underrated character from Die Hard would say: Hans, bubby – I’m your white knight.

🤖 “Improved” by Chat GPT

Software Engineering Expertise

As an experienced Software Engineer, I have a deep understanding of the Microsoft stack. My journey began in 1999, building classic ASP pages for an executive headhunting company. Over the years, I have supported and migrated numerous legacy systems to modern architectures, including VB, C#, and classic ASP websites. My expertise was recognized when I became a Microsoft AI MVP and started the London BotFramework meetup group, showcasing my ability to master new technologies and share knowledge with the community.

Solution Architecture

👨🏻 Human (me) Generated

I’m an experienced Solution Architect

While having described my job for years as “drawing boxes and arrows on a whiteboard”, the skill of summarising system complexity into something easily understood by tech and non tech alike mustn’t be underestimated; a lot of delays to feature delivery can be traced back to misunderstandings, uncertainty, and poor communication.

Solution Architecture is fundamentally giving clarity about how something will be built, based on all available boundaries and capabilities (both tech and team), and challenges the solution architect’s technical knowledge (knowing all possible options for a solution) and communication skills.

I’ve done this consistently for over 15 years, in both on prem and in several clouds (for which I’m currently working towards various accreditations); if your team/company need implementation detail clearly communicated to people at all levels, from someone knowledgeable and experienced – as the world’s worst plumber might say: itsa me, Robin!

🤖 “Improved” by Chat GPT

Solution Architecture Skills

For over 15 years, I have excelled as a Solution Architect, summarizing complex systems into easily understood diagrams and plans. My role involves providing clarity on how solutions will be built, considering all technical and team capabilities. I have worked extensively with on-premises systems and various cloud platforms, always ensuring clear communication and effective implementation.

Technical Leadership

👨🏻 Human (me) Generated

I’m an experienced Technical Leader

If the physical aspect of my prior roles has been “boxes and arrows on a whiteboard”, the personal aspect has been to inspire and enable teams to do what they do best. I have repeatedly defined a clear vision for a team, department, or even company and continually cleared any blockers for teams to reach the milestones along the way.

I consider myself a combo of technical polyfilla – wherever there’s a gap, I’ll fill it until a permanent solution can be found – and a snow plough – I’ll clear blockers before it impacts the team.

Being a Tech Lead in a department where engineers were unclear on their value and mistrusted others, I developed a clear and unanimously supported evaluation framework, which gave clarity, and a foundation for the department to build upon.

Being a VP Engineering at a start-up mostly meant clearly communicating expectations, defining development processes, supporting individual engineers and globally distributed teams.

If you need someone to gather team members around a clear vision and strategy, supporting and enabling them to do their best, then look no further: signs point to Robin🎱

🤖 “Improved” by Chat GPT

Technical Leadership

In my leadership roles, I have inspired and enabled teams to achieve their best. As a Tech Lead, I developed a clear and unanimously supported evaluation framework, providing clarity and a foundation for growth. As a VP Engineering at a start-up, I defined development processes, supported individual engineers, and managed globally distributed teams. My approach combines technical expertise with a focus on team cohesion and vision.

Technical Specialist

👨🏻 Human (me) Generated

I’m an experienced Technical Specialist

Being “technical polyfilla” for decades means I’ve had to gain experience is so many areas of tech, team leadership, management, process, and more, that it can be hard to define my key skills.

Need a continuous delivery framework defined and set up in whatever tech you have? I can do that.

Need some help with test automation? On real devices? As a quality gate? In various languages? I can do that.

Need to represent your infrastructure as code and be able to easily and repeatedly automatically destroy and rebuild it with confidence? Look no further.

Need an in-depth Performance Strategy for testing and reporting to know if a change might impact customer experience? I’m your guy.

Need an Observability Strategy defined and implemented that gives clarity on the health and success of your systems using any vendor you prefer or develop in just using open standards? Hello.

🤖 “Improved” by Chat GPT

Technical Specialization

My extensive experience across so many environments has equipped me with a broad skill set. Whether it’s defining a continuous delivery framework, setting up test automation, representing infrastructure as code, or developing performance and observability strategies, I have the knowledge and experience to deliver results.

Ending

👨🏻 Human (me) Generated

Hi, I’m Robin

Maybe this will help me find my next contract. I do a lot of things, so if you need a lead/staff engineer, solution architect, DevOps engineer, Performance or Observability specialist, or Technical leader – ping me, you won’t regret it 🙂

🤖 “Improved” by Chat GPT

Conclusion

Hi, I’m Robin. If you’re looking for a lead/staff engineer, solution architect, DevOps engineer, performance or observability specialist, or technical leader, let’s connect. With my diverse skill set and proven track record, I’m confident I can help your team achieve its goals. Ping me, you won’t regret it 🙂

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I mean. Based on this I’d hire the chatbot and go to the pub with the human.

That being said – it’s clear from both that the humble author of this article, Robin of the Osborne clan, has had a varied career, and tends to fill whatever gap a company has, helping the teams to do what they do as well as they can. (And make that company more money, hopefully.)

It’s at this point that I’d suggest you get in contact via Twitter, but I left that trash fire a while ago and am now fragmented across the various apps of the socialmediaverse.

How about this, to share your feedback/thoughts/favourite minor Die Hard character (we all know it’s Al Leong’s candy bar munching crony though):

Banter: mastodon – @[email protected]
Work: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinosborne/

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Side by side comparison, just for fun:

👨🏻 Human (me) Generated	🤖 “Improved” by Chat GPT
Turns out I’m really bad at selling myself, since I’ve had a long career where I continually push myself to do different things (turns out I’m good at doing that), which I think makes it hard to know what exactly you’d hire me for. Hopefully this will help.	Introduction With a diverse and accomplished career, I bring a wealth of experience and a proven track record in various technical roles. My journey has been one of continuous learning and adaptation, making me a valuable asset for any team.
I’m an experienced Software Engineer When I was last a hands on developer, I became a Microsoft AI MVP and started the London BotFramework meetup group, due to working at depth on the then-new BotFramework; this shows that I can get knowledgeable for a specific area where necessary (including areas that are too new to rely on StackOverflow/chatgpt for the answers), and share that knowledge with others. I’ve been a developer for over 2 decades, most of this in the Microsoft stack. This means I could help support, or migrate, your ancient VB or C# webforms – or even classic ASP – websites up to a more recent dotnet or dotnet core setup. (Those of you thinking “who the hell still uses that old stuff?!” should check the tell tale file extensions and URL paths in your bank/ travel/ insurance/ local vet website to see how prevalent this outdated tech stack really is) Why should you believe me? My career started in 1999, building classic ASP pages for an executive headhunting company (Remember Visual SourceSafe anyone?..). I know the tech, and how to gradually migrate to a new stack, with all the CI and DevOps sprinkled/heaped over it that you could ever ask for. Ask any old school ASOS developer who will tell you that it started in VB webforms, went through a combined C#/VB rearchitecture, past a MVP rearchitecture, through MVC, to its current microservice format. If your company is on a similar outdated tech stack and you’re freaking out about how to update it without having the dreaded “rewrite from scratch” conversation with your manager, or you just want someone who can uplift and up skill your existing engineering team, as the most underrated character from Die Hard would say: Hans, bubby – I’m your white knight.	Software Engineering Expertise As an experienced Software Engineer, I have a deep understanding of the Microsoft stack. My journey began in 1999, building classic ASP pages for an executive headhunting company. Over the years, I have supported and migrated numerous legacy systems to modern architectures, including VB, C#, and classic ASP websites. My expertise was recognized when I became a Microsoft AI MVP and started the London BotFramework meetup group, showcasing my ability to master new technologies and share knowledge with the community.
I’m an experienced Solution Architect While having described my job for years as “drawing boxes and arrows on a whiteboard”, the skill of summarising system complexity into something easily understood by tech and non tech alike mustn’t be underestimated; a lot of delays to feature delivery can be traced back to misunderstandings, uncertainty, and poor communication. Solution Architecture is fundamentally giving clarity about how something will be built, based on all available boundaries and capabilities (both tech and team), and challenges the solution architect’s technical knowledge (knowing all possible options for a solution) and communication skills. I’ve done this consistently for over 15 years, in both on prem and in several clouds (for which I’m currently working towards various accreditations); if your team/company need implementation detail clearly communicated to people at all levels, from someone knowledgeable and experienced – as the world’s worst plumber might say: itsa me, Robin!	Solution Architecture Skills For over 15 years, I have excelled as a Solution Architect, summarizing complex systems into easily understood diagrams and plans. My role involves providing clarity on how solutions will be built, considering all technical and team capabilities. I have worked extensively with on-premises systems and various cloud platforms, always ensuring clear communication and effective implementation.
I’m an experienced Technical Leader If the physical aspect of my prior roles has been “boxes and arrows on a whiteboard”, the personal aspect has been to inspire and enable teams to do what they do best. I have repeatedly defined a clear vision for a team, department, or even company and continually cleared any blockers for teams to reach the milestones along the way. I consider myself a combo of technical polyfilla – wherever there’s a gap, I’ll fill it until a permanent solution can be found – and a snow plough – I’ll clear blockers before it impacts the team. Being a Tech Lead in a department where engineers were unclear on their value and mistrusted others, I developed a clear and unanimously supported evaluation framework, which gave clarity, and a foundation for the department to build upon. Being a VP Engineering at a start-up mostly meant clearly communicating expectations, defining development processes, supporting individual engineers and globally distributed teams. If you need someone to gather team members around a clear vision and strategy, supporting and enabling them to do their best, then look no further: signs point to Robin.	Technical Leadership In my leadership roles, I have inspired and enabled teams to achieve their best. As a Tech Lead, I developed a clear and unanimously supported evaluation framework, providing clarity and a foundation for growth. As a VP Engineering at a start-up, I defined development processes, supported individual engineers, and managed globally distributed teams. My approach combines technical expertise with a focus on team cohesion and vision.
I’m an experienced Technical Specialist Being “technical polyfilla” for decades means I’ve had to gain experience is so many areas of tech, team leadership, management, process, and more, that it can be hard to define my key skills. Need a continuous delivery framework defined and set up in whatever tech you have? I can do that. Need some help with test automation? On real devices? As a quality gate? In various languages? I can do that. Need to represent your infrastructure as code and be able to easily and repeatedly automatically destroy and rebuild it with confidence? Look no further. Need an in-depth Performance Strategy for testing and reporting to know if a change might impact customer experience? I’m your guy. Need an Observability Strategy defined and implemented that gives clarity on the health and success of your systems using any vendor you prefer or develop in just using open standards? Hello.	Technical Specialization My extensive experience across so many environments has equipped me with a broad skill set. Whether it’s defining a continuous delivery framework, setting up test automation, representing infrastructure as code, or developing performance and observability strategies, I have the knowledge and experience to deliver results.
Hi, I’m Robin Maybe this will help me find my next contract. I do a lot of things, so if you need a lead/staff engineer, solution architect, DevOps engineer, Performance or Observability specialist, or Technical leader – ping me, you won’t regret it 🙂	Conclusion Hi, I’m Robin. If you’re looking for a lead/staff engineer, solution architect, DevOps engineer, performance or observability specialist, or technical leader, let’s connect. With my diverse skill set and proven track record, I’m confident I can help your team achieve its goals. Ping me, you won’t regret it 🙂