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

Ask HN: Those who have recently undertaken a job hunt, what was your experience?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 76 posts

Re: Ask HN: Those who have recently undertaken a job hunt, what was your experience?

#21

Post by thaumaturgy »

gosub100 wrote: post #9

I got sacked at a W2 contract position at the end of December. It took me 2 full months to secure something. I have 20 years experience in C++. Lots of time-wasting overseas recruiters using scammy tactics, had 3 interviews total, and got one offer. It was scary because I couldn't tell if the slowness was due to my resume (I appear as a job hopper), normal wintertime slowdown in hiring, or a depression in the market.…

FWIW being a "job hopper" doesn't seem to be a negative anymore, and may even be seen as a positive now. From what I've read, if your application makes it to human eyeballs at all, they're more likely to view a long role at one company as stagnation.

Re: Ask HN: Those who have recently undertaken a job hunt, what was your experience?

#22

Post by codingdave »

Pretty freaking terrible. I've never before had to send out more than a handful of resumes to get a new job... but right now I'm getting nothing back. Well, not quite nothing - I've gotten a few recruiters asking me to commute 2 hours for hourly body shop gigs. But nothing realistic.

My advice is to just keep working on it - send out resumes, write cover letters for the ones that look promising, A/B test different resume formats, and just keep at it. Something will work eventually.

Re: Ask HN: Those who have recently undertaken a job hunt, what was your experience?

#23

Post by zero-sharp »

pksebben wrote: post #20
r9295 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you include your race and gender in your application?

This is a fair point. Including them is a little weird in the first place and totally a red flag.

I can find plenty of Indeed postings that won't let you submit the application without specifying ...

Re: Ask HN: Those who have recently undertaken a job hunt, what was your experience?

#25

Post by dghlsakjg »

chrisdinn wrote: post #18

In Canada, it seems like there’s a large and growing number of remote jobs available at US software firms through employer-of-record startups like Deel and Remote. Canadian software engineers are surprisingly cheap, relatively speaking, especially when you hire outside the Toronto area. Economic realities mean there’s quite a bit of downward pressure on CAD right now, so this is likely to continue to be a good deal o…

I'm a Canadian resident already working for a US company. I've been out of the job-hopping game since COVID so curious what recruiters and platforms to start poking around on? LinkedIn, etc?

Re: Ask HN: Those who have recently undertaken a job hunt, what was your experience?

#26

Post by 999900000999 »

Mixed bag.

2020 was my best year ever job wise, I was making a stupid amount of money. In 2023 I took a massive pay cut, we're talking over 50k, but it's still better than nothing.

Now I'm somewhat close to my peak, fully remote. Not the most I've ever earned, but in very comfortable.

Re: Ask HN: Those who have recently undertaken a job hunt, what was your experience?

#27

Post by devgoth »

I started about two months ago and it has been....slower. I am searching for Engineering Manager/Sr. Engineering Manager positions. I have noticed that larger companies take (if at all) longer to respond to and found that smaller/mid-size companies respond faster.

I'm optimistic that the closer we get to summer, the better the response rates will be.

TL;DR: Mixed bag

Re: Ask HN: Those who have recently undertaken a job hunt, what was your experience?

#28

Post by chrisdinn »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #25
chrisdinn wrote: post #18

In Canada, it seems like there’s a large and growing number of remote jobs available at US software firms through employer-of-record startups like Deel and Remote. Canadian software engineers are surprisingly cheap, relatively speaking, especially when you hire outside the Toronto area. Economic realities mean there’s quite a bit of downward pressure on CAD right now, so this is likely to continue to be a good deal o…

I'm a Canadian resident already working for a US company. I've been out of the job-hopping game since COVID so curious what recruiters and platforms to start poking around on? LinkedIn, etc?

My advice is to check LinkedIn for listings but don’t apply that way. “Easy Apply” lowers application friction so effectively that every posting gets ~1000 applicants of which few are actually qualified. I don’t think I ever heard back on a LinkedIn-submitted application even for jobs where I had rare and directly applicable experience.

In the last six months I’ve been hired once after applying (on the website of the company itself) to s job posting I first saw on LinkedIn. I was poached shortly after via inbound from recruiter on LinkedIn

Re: Ask HN: Those who have recently undertaken a job hunt, what was your experience?

#30

Post by bongodongobob »

probably_wrong wrote: post #24

> For those that have gone remote, any specific insights? Make sure that your contract specifically mentions that you'll work remotely. Otherwise your boss can always change their mind down the line.

Yeah, if they say "remote opportunities" or "hybrid" it's just a carrot that they can take away at any time. Has happened to me more than once.
Post reply on HN