🧵 “I thought I had done everything right, but still... no calls.”

Tomás Duro — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 22:35:31 +0000

I think many of us – maybe all of us – have felt this way at some point.

We work hard on our portfolios, polish our CVs, build cool projects, write posts on LinkedIn...
And yet, we don’t even make it past the first interview — if we get one.

That’s where I found myself.
And I asked: “What else can I possibly do?”

To be honest, I wasn’t feeling bad about myself.
I had several conversations with industry folks, and they often told me:

“You’re doing great. It’s just a matter of time.”

But when time drags on, it starts to weigh you down.
Frustration creeps in. You go into auto-pilot. You stop enjoying the process.
There’s no room left to ask why you’re even doing it.

⚡ The Shift

That’s when I decided to change how I present myself.
Not by adding more noise, but by refining what I already had.

🔗 LinkedIn

I started by reviewing my profile.

I found outdated descriptions, text that no longer represented who I am, and a general lack of personality.
So I gave myself permission to make it look better, but without pretending.
Just clearer language, cleaner layout, a couple icons — and suddenly, it felt more like me.

The image below shows how my LinkedIn looked before.It had outdated descriptions and didn’t feel like me

I dropped the mindset that LinkedIn is just “Instagram for jobs”.
It’s not. At least, it shouldn’t be.

💻 Portfolio

Here I made mostly visual changes.

I picked 3 projects that represent me best — React, Angular, Python, Telegram bots.
The rest? You’ll find them on my GitHub.
I focused on projects that show my flexibility and my real-world thinking.

I also improved the UX with smoother scroll — something I’d been meaning to do for months.
Now it’s done, and I’m proud of it.

🐙 GitHub

This part took the most effort.

My GitHub had been neglected.
I focused on my best projects, gave them proper README files, screenshots, clear descriptions, and what I learned in each case.

✨ The result?

This process gave me energy again.
It was more motivating than writing 10 more lines of code.
I felt something shift.

Now I’ll keep building, but with a different mindset.

Soon I’ll go back to older projects, clean them up, and apply what I’ve learned since.
Because I’ve grown. A lot.

💬 And for you, if you made it this far:

Have you felt this too?
Do you relate to that moment of burnout and doubt?