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Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

#21

Post by copywrong2 »

I only have a very small set of companies I would ever want to work for which is a huge plus, because I just check their career pages. Small local security/pentest companies. Worked twice so far. I'm just lucky tho and I know it.

What I think helps a bit is: I'm very personal in my emails and brutally honest, like I'll tell them all the bad things explicitly in the first 5 sentences (bad education, dropout). No formal greeting "Hey, my name is X and I...". I also do have some work public (code + vuln diclosures) which has helped.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

#22

Post by boingo »

delbronski wrote: post #12

Personally, I'm not interested in a FAANG or hot startup job. So not sure if my "classic" strategy works for those positions. I also got 15+ years experience(in my late 30s). I use the exact same approach today as I did 15 years ago. When I'm in job hunting mode I search through job postings every morning. If I find an opening that stands out I write the company a short email stating my interest and why I think I'd b…

Same age, same strategy, same results. The "searching and applying" time cost every morning is usually 1-2 hours the first few days, but ends up taking 20-30 minutes after you've tweaked the signal-to-noise ratio effectively with adjustments to your bookmarked "newest" job postings with filters applied.

You'll also have at the ready your "copy paste" document for those fields the application portals tend to screw up at scraping from your resume after upload. You will undoubtedly run across postings mentioning products or technology that you have not personally used. I take those opportunities to watch a quick YT video in my second monitor on the topic to gain a nugget of understanding while I continue my search.

I often walk away each morning having learned a little something new, and it doesn't feel like such a grind.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

#23

Post by the_law »

I've had to look for a few internships during my CS masters, the tip I always found most useful is to look up companies that look good in your area, search their website for a number, pick up the phone and call. I introduce myself and what I'm looking for, I know if they're interested in under a minute, write down the contact, and move on to the next.

Using this improved my experience tenfold compared to: researching the recruiter, sending an email + cover letter, waiting for a response, having 2-3 email exchanges, etc... I don't think I ever got a job/internship by applying for a job opening. I did get lucky with linkedin maybe once, when a tech lead sent me a message directly.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

#24

Post by jongjong »

keyle wrote: post #6

The older I get, the worse I find the experience. I've had so many poor experiences with recruiters over the years, I think I'm becoming allergic. It's getting harder to pierce through the BS layers with all that new meat on the market, and to make the matter worse, recruiters are even less skilled than they ever were and are often offshored now. It's insane today. When I'm on the hiring side, we can't find candidate…

Age discrimination is real... I'm 35 and I could feel it kicking in big time. It's particularly obvious in my case because my resume is excellent. I don't say that to brag. Speaking to recruiters and prospective employers is cringe because, for most of them, I'm the best developer they'll meet this year but they can't hire me because of my age, race and sexual orientation. Can you guess them?

I think also in my case, my libertarian views on social media and cryptocurrency background have hindered me.

My last employer was basically mainstream establishment finance but they still hired me anyway because of my skills and also maybe because the founder was a Christian... But I could feel my crypto libertarian background made them tense.

One time (before that job), I interviewed for a position for a major tech company and I cheekily marked my race as 'Ethnic Caribbean' which is partly true since my ancestors have been in the Caribbean for over 500 years... You'd think 500 years is native enough? Apparently not if you look white. First interview, they dangled a MASSIVE offer. They gave me tech tests, I passed them all with flying colours. They set up a meeting with the head of engineering... A formality, they said... Guess what? The fucker never showed up. He sent his sidekick to pretend to be giving me a fair shot. I could see that the guy I spoke with was used to the switcheroo.

I can read the mainland whiteboi like a book... With his shifty, guilty, wandering eyes. Always taking advantage from afar. Hands soft as cotton but fanged as a snake.

He spoke down to me as if I was a typical whiteboi like him who never got his hands dirty. Oh my friend, I plough the dirt with my bare hands.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

#25

Post by dheera »

keyle wrote: post #6

The older I get, the worse I find the experience. I've had so many poor experiences with recruiters over the years, I think I'm becoming allergic. It's getting harder to pierce through the BS layers with all that new meat on the market, and to make the matter worse, recruiters are even less skilled than they ever were and are often offshored now. It's insane today. When I'm on the hiring side, we can't find candidate…

That works for startups, but most larger companies still won't hire you without an interview, your old collegaues can only refer you to hiring.

Very often that's where I screw up. I code computers, not goddamn CoderPads. I run my shit to know if it works, not pretend I'm an interpreter and go through line by line. I cut and paste boilerplate and edit it, not write the boilerplate.

Some dude in an interview at a very well known AI company was staring at me on a video call and grilling me about the max value of a loss function whose formula was written in an image, and I didn't have a whiteboard to do the math on. TF do I care? I usually minimize losses, not maximize them.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

#26

Post by withinboredom »

jongjong wrote: post #24
keyle wrote: post #6

The older I get, the worse I find the experience. I've had so many poor experiences with recruiters over the years, I think I'm becoming allergic. It's getting harder to pierce through the BS layers with all that new meat on the market, and to make the matter worse, recruiters are even less skilled than they ever were and are often offshored now. It's insane today. When I'm on the hiring side, we can't find candidate…

Age discrimination is real... I'm 35 and I could feel it kicking in big time. It's particularly obvious in my case because my resume is excellent. I don't say that to brag. Speaking to recruiters and prospective employers is cringe because, for most of them, I'm the best developer they'll meet this year but they can't hire me because of my age, race and sexual orientation. Can you guess them? I think also in my case,…

My number one issue is that people can't afford my experience. I often have to dumb down my resume to look like a cog in a machine. Once they hire me, I end up getting 15-50% raises because they don't want me to leave.

I don't change jobs often.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

#27

Post by degosuke »

jongjong wrote: post #24
keyle wrote: post #6

The older I get, the worse I find the experience. I've had so many poor experiences with recruiters over the years, I think I'm becoming allergic. It's getting harder to pierce through the BS layers with all that new meat on the market, and to make the matter worse, recruiters are even less skilled than they ever were and are often offshored now. It's insane today. When I'm on the hiring side, we can't find candidate…

Age discrimination is real... I'm 35 and I could feel it kicking in big time. It's particularly obvious in my case because my resume is excellent. I don't say that to brag. Speaking to recruiters and prospective employers is cringe because, for most of them, I'm the best developer they'll meet this year but they can't hire me because of my age, race and sexual orientation. Can you guess them? I think also in my case,…

Do you think it might be a good idea to keep or your social accounts private? Or it's mandatory to reveal it during recruiting?

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

#28

Post by delbronski »

boingo wrote: post #22
delbronski wrote: post #12

Personally, I'm not interested in a FAANG or hot startup job. So not sure if my "classic" strategy works for those positions. I also got 15+ years experience(in my late 30s). I use the exact same approach today as I did 15 years ago. When I'm in job hunting mode I search through job postings every morning. If I find an opening that stands out I write the company a short email stating my interest and why I think I'd b…

Same age, same strategy, same results. The "searching and applying" time cost every morning is usually 1-2 hours the first few days, but ends up taking 20-30 minutes after you've tweaked the signal-to-noise ratio effectively with adjustments to your bookmarked "newest" job postings with filters applied. You'll also have at the ready your "copy paste" document for those fields the application portals tend to screw up…

This YT video thing sounds very familiar. I do the same thing whenever I run into a job application in an industry/niche market I never heard of. It does makes the whole process less of a grind for me.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

#29

Post by delbronski »

abdussamit wrote: post #16
delbronski wrote: post #12

Personally, I'm not interested in a FAANG or hot startup job. So not sure if my "classic" strategy works for those positions. I also got 15+ years experience(in my late 30s). I use the exact same approach today as I did 15 years ago. When I'm in job hunting mode I search through job postings every morning. If I find an opening that stands out I write the company a short email stating my interest and why I think I'd b…

That is crazy! Is it true that behind your 100% success rate, your portfolio looks great?

I don't really have a portfolio. There is nothing impressive in my Github. I don't have my own website/blog. I do have a good track record in my previous companies and plenty of old colleagues willing to give a good reference if needed.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

#30

Post by blipvert »

jongjong wrote: post #24
keyle wrote: post #6

The older I get, the worse I find the experience. I've had so many poor experiences with recruiters over the years, I think I'm becoming allergic. It's getting harder to pierce through the BS layers with all that new meat on the market, and to make the matter worse, recruiters are even less skilled than they ever were and are often offshored now. It's insane today. When I'm on the hiring side, we can't find candidate…

Age discrimination is real... I'm 35 and I could feel it kicking in big time. It's particularly obvious in my case because my resume is excellent. I don't say that to brag. Speaking to recruiters and prospective employers is cringe because, for most of them, I'm the best developer they'll meet this year but they can't hire me because of my age, race and sexual orientation. Can you guess them? I think also in my case,…

> I'm the best developer they'll meet this year but they can't hire me because of my age, race and sexual orientation. Can you guess them?

I already know that I wouldn’t want to work with you - not due to your characteristics. I suspect that I share them - but because you come across as such a whiny ass.

> I think also in my case, my libertarian views on social media and cryptocurrency background have hindered me.

Confirmed.

Maybe work on your attitude.

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