Something to avoid during a job interview is getting too carried away talking about how much you HATE your current job/boss/role etc. You may not have done that, but it's something to check for which can cause you to sound demotivated/negative etc.
Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?
101–110 of 249 posts
Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?
#102Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?
#103I work in a different job role than you but I can relate to your lengthy search. I was in a senior leadership position prior to taking about a year off. When I wanted to go back to work I did a lot of interviews. I was starting to think that I should apply for more junior positions or take a pay cut, but I went back and hit the books pretty hard and really reviewed all of the interview prep stuff for my field, like s…
Can you get into more detail re interview prep?
Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
"If the companies are worth their salt, they should be giving (or willing to give) you detailed feedback. _Especially_ if you got to a face-to-face interview. If they don't, then I'd consider that a lucky miss." Really? It's been my experience that companies will not give feedback, at least anything that could be considered detailed feedback, as a blanket policy. The perception at least is that giving feedback opens…
I take your point, but I've seen this from a few sides of the fence and I really believe it to be true. i.e. If they're not willing to give feedback, then they're not worth their salt. An interview process is a huge investment for a person, especially if it's face to face. We're talking hours, maybe days. Not giving feedback is really an insult. A poor interview experience is a massive miss for a company. If they don…
> Word will get around, and on Glassdoor. That's a very real risk, significantly more than the threat of litigation. This is expecially true in creative, engineering, etc roles.
Companies that have declined to give me feedback after an interview include Google, Facebook, small startups and medium sized places. I have not seen any evidence that you are correct.
Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> This is terrible advice. As soon as you start the job, the people who interviewed you will wonder why your accent is totally different That's not quite how accent reduction works. I think the goal is to be clear and understandable in the interview. The accent would have no weight on his professional capabilities.
Is being clear and understandable not an important professional capability? If not, then why does the interview require it?
> A: Please take a seat. As you know, we hired you because you did great on your interview. But we recently noticed that you speak with an Indian accent. Did you attempted to hide your accent during the interview?
> B: Uh, maybe a little? I've been taking accent reduction classes and learned to speak without one, but can't keep it up 24/7.
> A: Thanks for your honestly. Unfortunately we'll have to let you go. Please pack your desk.
Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?
#106I've got ~20 years of recruiting for startups, write resumes (and profiles, etc), and coach job seekers. 50 apps and 15 interviews isn't a bad result in most cases, so you seem relatively effective in getting interviews. Whatever you are doing to get in is working. Sometimes the resume "oversells" the applicant. I wonder if they are expecting someone a bit more knowledgeable and skilled based on how you present yours…
> Sometimes the resume "oversells" the applicant. I wonder if they are expecting someone a bit more knowledgeable and skilled based on how you present yourself.
I ran into this problem myself. One of the headhunting services rated me as an excellent programmer (I managed to get a sneak peek at the sheet that got sent to the places I recruited at). I think I'm a decent programmer - I wrote a DSL that converts Julia to verilog - but not having any real industry experience, my whiteboarding sucks and I don't do things like "default to hash" even though I actually do that when I program.
Consequently, I got no offers and repeatedly got told they were "looking for someone more senior". Probably for OP, being Asian also totally hurts, because as an overrepresented minority, hirers are looking for any reason to not take him.
I'd tell the OP, try to get hired by a friend.
Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?
#107The lack of feedback from interviews is definitely one of the most frustrating parts. But remember that the success rate for onsite interviews is around 20-50% depending on company (companies don't publish this stat, but see for instance https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-who-take-the-Google-on...). Even if you had a success rate of around 50%, you would fail 7 onsite interviews around 1% of the time - which is unlikely, but unlikely things do happen. So my advice would be to keep trying - getting 7 onsite interviews is a good sign. Also try to figure out what areas of interviewing did not go well and improve on those areas.
Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
We don't do this but it might appear that way to a candidate. We're hiring people of all levels and if someone comes in who we feel we like but at a lower level we'll offer them that level instead.
My experience inside and out of companies has been that this tactic is employed quite a bit. I really dislike it but it's the truth. Everyone wants a top notch team and sometimes the only way to get amazing people in less amazing roles is to bait and switch them. You are getting someone who is likely zero risk and will be highly successful in a lower role. And if you ever actually need someone in the higher level rol…
That'd be fine with me as long as I'm overcompensated.
Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?
#109As an Asian male (overrepresented minority) remember that hirers are often looking for any legal reason to not hire you. The standard employment narrative does not apply to you.
You may have to beat it statistically (more interviews) or go with the "unspoken" employment narratives - get hired by a friend, figure out how to get someone to make a position for you.
Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?
#110Hope it's not due to https://qz.com/918834/indians-around-the-world-are-realizing...