Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#171

Post by mattigames » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 7:59 AM UTC

a_t48 wrote: post #67

jameshush wrote: post #46

Reach out to people you've worked with in the past. After having five years of experience, you should have worked with at least a handful of people who need someone to fix another broken website. These could be managers, people on your team, people on OTHER teams, vendors, salespeople you've spoken to, anyone. Ideally, you should ALWAYS keep in contact with people you've worked with, even if it's just emailing them "…

So much this - nearly every job I’ve gotten in tech has been due to knowing someone working there, or knowing someone who knows someone.

I have around 13 years in the business but I suck at socializing and I'm thankful this hasn't been the case for me, I would be broke if I depended on acquaintances to find work, instead I just have landed positions by applying to offers found at LinkedIn and elsewhere.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#172

Post by oreally » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 8:02 AM UTC

physicsguy wrote: post #106

Tao3300 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Big gaps in employment Really curious what you suggest as a remedy for this one. It seems to boil down to "sorry, you're screwed now" or "lie but don't get caught"

If you've got 300 CVs to review, much of them with similar experience, do you interview the people who've had 2 years off, or the people that haven't?

On one hand you're saying you want evidence of the candidate's work in recent years, but on the other hand you're also saying fuck people who take breaks to recharge, they should be on the rat race like the rest of us.

I'd interview both of them so long as they pass the requirements. The second guy I'd want to see recent projects, not employment.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#173

Post by Traubenfuchs » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 8:03 AM UTC

mighmi wrote: post #130

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #71

Have you considered moving to Europe? Germany, Switzerland, Austria? With my senior salary and depending on frugality I can save between 1000 and 2000 € a month in Austria and have a very pleasant life. If you ask if there is gonna be leetcode bullshit in the interviews, most people laugh in your face because the idea is so alien to us. People want to hear about your authentic experiences and see you solve real world…

How do you find these positions? I speak German and did my studies there but always worked in other places.

> worked in other places

...like what? And where did you get/find your jobs? I found a lot of jobs just by checking out all the big name companies directly (banks, insurances, BRZ, ...) of Austria, via recruiters from LinkedIn, I can also HIGHLY recommend contacting the company "ePunkt", they are supportive, almost pushy and forceful in getting you into in person job interviews. IT rat catcher consulting companies like Accenture and CapGemini are probably always hiring. Big 4 is always looking for IT consultants. BRZ, Kapsch, willhaben, Raiffeisenbank Software Gmbh, Raiffeisenbank International, Erste Bank, those are just VERY few that immediately come to mind and none of those are secrets.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#174

Post by SCUSKU » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 8:04 AM UTC

Dylan16807 wrote: post #140

SCUSKU wrote: post #101

I was laid off in August 2022, and it took me 6 months to find a new job. I was able to land a decent number of interviews but I interviewed poorly and didn't get any offers. Doing interview prep actually helped a lot -- now having been on the other side it is very apparent when someone hasn't prepared and practiced interviewing. It really is a skill in and of itself. I found my current job through the January HN Who…

> now having been on the other side it is very apparent when someone hasn't prepared and practiced interviewing. It really is a skill in and of itself. And now that you can recognize that skill in isolation, do you use it as a major factor when choosing candidates? If you do, why? Do you think the people interviewing you could recognize that you were specifically bad at interviewing, and not at everything?

You'll have to forgive me here, I was only drawing on one experience when talking about being on the other side of things. So I am generalizing based only on one experience, however, with that said, I think the unfortunate reality is just that we as humans do bias toward wanting to hire people who are in fact able to communicate well and demonstrate their abilities to you.

Even if someone is really smart, you have no way of knowing if they are if they can't communicate that with you. Not to mention working on a team is all about communication.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#175

Post by pSYoniK » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 8:05 AM UTC

mrcnkoba wrote: post #150

SCUSKU wrote: post #101

I was laid off in August 2022, and it took me 6 months to find a new job. I was able to land a decent number of interviews but I interviewed poorly and didn't get any offers. Doing interview prep actually helped a lot -- now having been on the other side it is very apparent when someone hasn't prepared and practiced interviewing. It really is a skill in and of itself. I found my current job through the January HN Who…

Could you describe the process of learning the skill of being interviewed?

I had 7 jobs in the last 9 years. I've quit all of them. I interviewed at probably 50-60 places during this time and I'm currently moving to my next role, so I'll begin the 8th job in 9 years.

To practice interviewing you need to firat get details about the job and company and develop a list of questions. If I really wanted a job I'd get 30-40 questions prepared, from job specific to behavioral ("tell me of a time you had to deal with a difficult stakeholder"). Then add variations of the question so you get used to being asked the same thing different ways.

Then always use STAR (situation/task/action/result) to answer the question. This will help the interviewer remember you a lot better and it will also highlight what YOU did.

Practice going through your CV/resume back to front and front to back. Be prepared to highlight what you learned at each role and why you left from it/got made redundant.

With sufficient grind you will become proficient at this and it will make a world of a difference. I can now confidently say "I wont get this role because I messed up X, so if they were paying attention they will reduce my score for this". You will still get rejected (sometimes there is just someone better than you) but the goal is to improve your odds at being the one that gets the job.

Hope this helps!

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#176

Post by dumpsterdiver » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 8:06 AM UTC

rewmie wrote: post #77

firefoxd wrote: post #63

I hate to say this, stop applying. Find a recruiter on LinkedIn. This is what it has come to. There are thousands of resumes being sent at my company, yet the recruiter can't find anyone. Why? Because no one is applying through her link. The regular resume channel is reserved for bots at this point. Contact a person and you have more chances.

> This is what it has come to. There are thousands of resumes being sent at my company, yet the recruiter can't find anyone. Why? Because no one is applying through her link. It sounds like your recruiter is purposely ignoring any resume that is not explicitly sent to her personally. It sounds like a job security move at the expense of both the company and candidate's best interests.

> It sounds like your recruiter is purposely ignoring any resume that is not explicitly sent to her personally.

Curious, how does one ignore something that is never actually sent to them, explicitly or not?

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#177

Post by mattigames » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 8:06 AM UTC

rewmie wrote: post #78

jacknews wrote: post #51

Rejection email? You were lucky to get a rejection! Or an email. We used have to lick the bosses boots clean, applying for a job paying penny a year, an' if we were lucky we might get a thrashing to within an inch of our lives, and a rejection screamed in our ear. Luxury.... . Yes sure, I'm in the same boat, but probably with worse prospects (took a 'career break' to work on side projects, etc), and it feels like I'm…

> - 90%+ of applications are just ignored, not even a rejection. I recall being at that position. I firmly believe those 90% of applications are actually fake job ads to trawl for personal data. The most suspicious cases come from recruiters who post the most generic job ad over and over and over again.

Yep, I also noticed those fake positions usually promise a very high wage, higher than similar positions.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#178

Post by SCUSKU » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 8:07 AM UTC

InvOfSmallC wrote: post #161

SCUSKU wrote: post #101

I was laid off in August 2022, and it took me 6 months to find a new job. I was able to land a decent number of interviews but I interviewed poorly and didn't get any offers. Doing interview prep actually helped a lot -- now having been on the other side it is very apparent when someone hasn't prepared and practiced interviewing. It really is a skill in and of itself. I found my current job through the January HN Who…

Hey, I tried your website, it selected 314 jobs. Doesn't look like is matching correctly. Or I am a jack of all trades.

Hey would be happy to look more into it -- my email is in my HN profile, would appreciate if you sent me your resume there.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#179

Post by kioleanu » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 8:07 AM UTC

iExploder wrote: post #110

how its suppose to be done and how it worked for me in past in order of the most effective to least: 1. social circle 2. attend conferences, exchange business cards, contact info 3. apply to companies through their own job portal or direct hr email 4. don't go for shiny companies (either location or business must suck, less competition this way) anything else such as random recruiter agencies, linkedin, job portals i…

Good advice about attending conferences. At the last Java conference I went to, most large and good employers had booths trying to catch people. It’s a perfect “demand meets supply” situation

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#180

Post by withinboredom » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 8:08 AM UTC

Dylan16807 wrote: post #140

SCUSKU wrote: post #101

I was laid off in August 2022, and it took me 6 months to find a new job. I was able to land a decent number of interviews but I interviewed poorly and didn't get any offers. Doing interview prep actually helped a lot -- now having been on the other side it is very apparent when someone hasn't prepared and practiced interviewing. It really is a skill in and of itself. I found my current job through the January HN Who…

> now having been on the other side it is very apparent when someone hasn't prepared and practiced interviewing. It really is a skill in and of itself. And now that you can recognize that skill in isolation, do you use it as a major factor when choosing candidates? If you do, why? Do you think the people interviewing you could recognize that you were specifically bad at interviewing, and not at everything?

> do you use it as a major factor when choosing candidates? If you do, why?

I do, yes. IME, candidates that take the time to learn the skill will take the time to learn other skills required for the job. If a candidate can't be bothered to learn a skill to get a job, why should I hire them for a senior position? If it's entry-level, that's a different story.