Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 161 posts

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#131

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

bilsbie wrote: post #86
moneywoes wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you use linkedin effectively? i’ve been sending 3-4 line connection attempts based on their profile but have not had luck is there a playbook to market onesself?

Does a linked in premium membership if some kind help with that?

I tried premium when I really needed a job. As far as I can see it gave you access to a community of people who spent far too much time posting about getting a job and not enough time actually trying to get one. I found a job outside of linked in, as usual, and cancelled premium.

Maybe others have a more positive experience.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#132

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

commandlinefan wrote: post #101
kemiller2002 wrote: post #13

I'll let you in on the secret to finding a job. It's not about your skills really (maybe some), it's about who you know. If you're relying on only your skill to carry you through to finding a job, you're going to have a rough time. It's about who you know. You're looking for a job? Go to meetups, code and coffees, free tech seminars by companies etc. That's your job now. Connect with people on LinkedIn. There are ver…

> It's not about your skills really, it's about who you know I've been hearing people give this advice my entire life, which is about a half century now. It's never been true for me. Roughly half the jobs I've had in my life I've gotten through a referral and the other half I've gotten "cold" by just applying to an open req and being the best candidate that applied. By FAR the best jobs I've had were the ones where I…

Same here, and it has almost never been true for me either.

I've had maybe two jobs in my life on the basis of who I knew, and they were both kinda crap. The best ones I got cold on the basis of my ability and presentation.

I get that for some people networking feels like their best shot. I'm socially awkward and find networking stressful. Just shows there are multiple ways to get a good job, but you have to play to your own strengths.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#133

Post by tommychillfiger »

threatofrain wrote: post #116
kemiller2002 wrote: post #13

I'll let you in on the secret to finding a job. It's not about your skills really (maybe some), it's about who you know. If you're relying on only your skill to carry you through to finding a job, you're going to have a rough time. It's about who you know. You're looking for a job? Go to meetups, code and coffees, free tech seminars by companies etc. That's your job now. Connect with people on LinkedIn. There are ver…

> There are very very few people that are good enough that someone will just hire them on their skills alone. IMO this is wrong, but it's hard to know precisely how wrong, just that people shouldn't be setting their expectations this low. There are tons of college kids entering in from the front of the pipeline who don't have connections or experience. Also I've just known a good number of non-traditional candidates…

I have no idea how strong (or not) this trend is, but I broke into tech from a nontraditional path without knowing anyone. First job at a local company, so possibly some hometown advantage, but my projects and willingness to learn / being personable / general competence conveyed seemed to be what got me hired there. Second job - different company in a different state, no connections at all. I was hired even though I was fully remote until I moved (I had wanted to move to that city to begin with). Wasn't a huge deal as they are fairly remote friendly and I only go to the office once a week now that I live here, but it was still a disadvantage compared to local applicants.

It is certainly possible that I'm just lucky or good at interviewing, but even if this trend is largely true, I hope that people won't be discouraged from applying to roles they find interesting and think they could be a good fit for just because they don't have any connections.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#134

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

paulcole wrote: post #129
commandlinefan wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not about your skills really, it's about who you know I've been hearing people give this advice my entire life, which is about a half century now. It's never been true for me. Roughly half the jobs I've had in my life I've gotten through a referral and the other half I've gotten "cold" by just applying to an open req and being the best candidate that applied. By FAR the best jobs I've had were the ones where I…

> being the best candidate that applied. Not to burst your bubble but there’s a near 100% chance you’re wrong about this. Remember that the goal of hiring isn’t to hire the best person who applies. The goal is to hire somebody who can do the job at the wage that’s offered. The best person might reject an offer or not even get one in the first place.

The goal is definitely to try to hire the best person who applies. A company might not succeed in that and take the second best, or even worse.

If you get a job offer it means that you were the best candidate that was available to the company. I'm cool with that personally, I don't agonise that some rock star may have rejected the role.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#135

Post by aiisjustanif »

gaws wrote: post #121
commandlinefan wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not about your skills really, it's about who you know I've been hearing people give this advice my entire life, which is about a half century now. It's never been true for me. Roughly half the jobs I've had in my life I've gotten through a referral and the other half I've gotten "cold" by just applying to an open req and being the best candidate that applied. By FAR the best jobs I've had were the ones where I…

> It's never been true for me. > Roughly half the jobs I've had in my life I've gotten through a referral Someone needed to know you well enough to make the referral.

> Someone needed to know you well enough to make the referral.

Not true, many companies give incentives to employees if they hire their referral. Why would I need that employee need to know them.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#136

Post by aiisjustanif »

I’ve dealt with it by never being just a developer.

IT infrastructure, cloud, cyber security, privacy and risk, customer success, QA, SRE.

Add a dash of doing stuff that not everyone else wants to do and that gets me or has kept me with a high paying job in IT.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#137

Post by coldtrait »

kemiller2002 wrote: post #13

I'll let you in on the secret to finding a job. It's not about your skills really (maybe some), it's about who you know. If you're relying on only your skill to carry you through to finding a job, you're going to have a rough time. It's about who you know. You're looking for a job? Go to meetups, code and coffees, free tech seminars by companies etc. That's your job now. Connect with people on LinkedIn. There are ver…

How does this help if you're a terrivle interviewer (like me)? IMO interviewing is the #1 skill to have and yes, networking is important too.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#138

Post by coldtrait »

Poorly. Got laid off in the end of May, haven't been interviewing very well because I'm not good at it. I struggled to get a few initially and the ones I got later I didn't get through because I didn't do well on them. 1-2 times I realy choked and got flustered. Some jobs were leetcode focused. Some jobs were Java focused. The latter I was able to navigate but not perfectly and I couldn't handle some of the questions. I'm honestly questioning my abilities at this point and doubting the career choice I made.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#139

Post by janalsncm »

Progression at my current company has stagnated. Management is a lot more stingy with promotions lately. It stinks because I’m the kind of person that gets excited about work even if it might seem boring to others, and without a path forward it’s pretty deflating. I’m not complaining though, at least I’m still employed.

So I’ve been spending my free time working on a project that’s turned into a startup idea. I found a cofounder and we intend to apply to YC. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll use it as resume material and start interviewing next year. I really wish I could quit my job now but I need the money.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#140

Post by paulcole »

MattPalmer1086 wrote: post #134
paulcole wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> being the best candidate that applied. Not to burst your bubble but there’s a near 100% chance you’re wrong about this. Remember that the goal of hiring isn’t to hire the best person who applies. The goal is to hire somebody who can do the job at the wage that’s offered. The best person might reject an offer or not even get one in the first place.

The goal is definitely to try to hire the best person who applies. A company might not succeed in that and take the second best, or even worse. If you get a job offer it means that you were the best candidate that was available to the company. I'm cool with that personally, I don't agonise that some rock star may have rejected the role.

Well to be fair, there’s no objective measure of “best” which makes this debate pretty pointless.

But also, why would I want to hire the best? Wouldn’t that mean that I can’t make a decision until I’ve seen all the candidates? Why don’t I simply look for the first that meets the requirements of the job?

> If you get a job offer it means that you were the best candidate that was available to the company

Again, I’ll disagree here. If you get an offer from the company it means that you got an offer from the company. You can tell yourself it was because you were the best available, but probably not true.

Post reply on HN