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Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#241

Post by desert_rue »

zlg_codes wrote: post #233
Solvitieg wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's normal to leverage your connections to find a job. Arguably it's the preferred way for both employees and employers. "It's not what you know, it's who you know" You too can acquire this "privilege" by building relationships with people.

In what way is it moral to hire someone based on network instead of merit? That practice is itself the problem. It is a privilege because the bar you're meant to reach is lower if you know someone. What relationships would you build? You're coworkers. Friendships require outside-work time and effort, which is already in scant supply. I truly don't know how anyone manages these relationships.

I got my last job by kicking ass at the job before that. When someone left the previous company, she made sure to let me know she was hiring. I wouldn’t say we were friends; we never hung out outside of work. But she knew my capabilities and she knew what my interests were.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#242

Post by [deleted] »

mdekkers wrote: post #239
vaxman wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want you to download Unity, crack open a Safari book and go heads down until you can download and integrate 3D objects and write scripts. Make some tribute to something you like and then market it along side your grey beard. Remember me when you are making $250K next year :)

Whilst i genuinely appreciate your suggestion, you are essentially saying “yes, the career and experience you have built up over the years are gone, beet find something else to do”

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#243

Post by Glawen »

ecshafer wrote: post #102
alexpotato wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>which were FAANG (which everyone believes is a golden ticket into any company). In a past job, I saw a LOT of former FAANG candidates as a hiring manager (SRE @ hedge fund) at a past job. In my experience, FAANG folks have a somewhat barbell distribution where it's either: A. "This person is incredibly talented, well spoken and will probably find a job anywhere" B. "This person spent 5 years at a FAANG and worked on…

> I also distinctly remember learning that Google had 100K+ employees. To me, that is moving into "big bank" size territory and it's clearly impossible for EVERYONE who is former Google to be amazing. Ive worked at 3 places, sizes: I cant even imagine 100k. 100k for Toyota or Walmart, sure, that makes sense. But at tens of thousands of engineers you must have a lot of people not doing anything. Even at 20k, so maybe…

I did places with 300k, 8k, 1k and 150 (industrial companies).

Believe it or not, but the places I slacked the least was (obviously) the 150 employee company and the 300k! It was really well organised, you had no time to spare.

I'm now in the 8k place, and it's crazy the amount of people doing nothing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#244

Post by discordance »

ecshafer wrote: post #102
alexpotato wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>which were FAANG (which everyone believes is a golden ticket into any company). In a past job, I saw a LOT of former FAANG candidates as a hiring manager (SRE @ hedge fund) at a past job. In my experience, FAANG folks have a somewhat barbell distribution where it's either: A. "This person is incredibly talented, well spoken and will probably find a job anywhere" B. "This person spent 5 years at a FAANG and worked on…

> I also distinctly remember learning that Google had 100K+ employees. To me, that is moving into "big bank" size territory and it's clearly impossible for EVERYONE who is former Google to be amazing. Ive worked at 3 places, sizes: I cant even imagine 100k. 100k for Toyota or Walmart, sure, that makes sense. But at tens of thousands of engineers you must have a lot of people not doing anything. Even at 20k, so maybe…

> at tens of thousands of engineers you must have a lot of people not doing anything

Although the org sizes may be large, the smaller subgroups within run like smaller semi-independent companies. They have their own business targets, roadmaps and backlogs just like any start up or mid-sized company. Some of the most productive times I have had have been at >100k companies.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#245

Post by discordance »

rr808 wrote: post #149

Dev wages have to come down. The last 10 years have been crazy. Lots of devs are paid like doctors, without the limited supply or years of expensive training. It wasn't going to last.

Doctors/Health vs Tech isn't a fair comparison. Look at the revenue per employee for large tech companies (2023):

Apple: 2.4m

Google: 1.5m

Meta: 1.5m

Amazon: 300k

Microsoft: 900k

Source: https://fourweekmba.com/revenue-per-employee-in-big-tech/

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#246

Post by vunderba »

rr808 wrote: post #202
grumpy_coder wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wages went up precisely because of the limited supply and years of training needed for devs. You get a really biased view when working in a tech company, but the vast majority of people can't code, and when they try to learn don't get beyond hello world.

> but the vast majority of people can't code, The vast majority of people can't fix their car engine, teach a classroom of kids or cook in a restaurant. Doesn't stop those professions from being 5 figure jobs.

The vast majority of people can't fix their car engine, teach a classroom of kids or cook in a restaurant. Doesn't stop those professions from being 5 figure jobs.

I never found teaching to be an exceptionally difficult task. The vast majority of people don't want to teach young children, because it entails a great deal of stamina, patience, and passion. These are far easier to cultivate than the logical and analytic mind which engineering typically requires.

And your cooking example is so far off base I don't even know how to respond to it. Cooking at an average TGI Fridays requires you to follow a set of prescriptive steps, follow the recipe... and that's it. Unless you're talking about working at a Michelin star restaurant, it's a rote job.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#247

Post by sputr »

verve_rat wrote: post #196
sputr wrote: post #87

Question for the community: we're building a "talent pool" on top of our mass psychometric testing SaaS (hrpotentials.com). Our key thing is testing cognitive ability(ie ability to learn and problem solve) with computer generated tests, remotely. Anyway: would you join such a talent pool (and submit yourself to free testing that takes an hour)? We know it works in less in-demand fields as a way for employers to more…

Isn't psychometric testing voodoo astrology? I think you might have a hard time convincing software engineers to sign up to more bullshit testing that doesn't actually reflect what the job entails.

Often, yes. Far too often. But there is a scientifically sound way to measure some things, and there is very good science that cognitive ability plus unstructured are the most predicitiv (and least bias) way to select employees that we have available right now. Ideally you would also include objective knowledge tests.

We're headed by a professor of organisational psychology and stick strickly to scientifically well supported methods and stick to the ONET and APA guidelines. But we're one of the few since it's not the easiest way of doing business. But we refuse to peddle sudo science.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#248

Post by agumonkey »

jitl wrote: post #44
teirce wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been looking since about February. I've probably sent out at least a hundred apps for positions I was interested in and met qualifications for. I think I've made it to a recruiter screen around ~10 times, and I've had less than 5 actual interviews follow. I have 6+ years in industry, 4 and some change of which were FAANG (which everyone believes is a golden ticket into any company). And I can't even get an interview.…

At this point I’m more hesitant to hire FAANG employees who are used to really strict guardrails both culturally and technically to keep them “on track”. Most startups don’t have the guardrails and need people who make good choices without the bumpers. Hiring a bunch of FB and Google people did not improve Airbnb’s average engineering skill, rather it sank because a substantial part of our population only cared about…

How did you structure your hiring, your teams and project lifecycle ?

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#250

Post by IshKebab »

frfl wrote: post #166
IshKebab wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I also had a good experience with recruiters. I've only got one job through them but it went pretty well. The two best things I found using a recruiter were: 1. They know about all the jobs. Despite searching quite hard I didn't know that some big companies had offices in my city. They are bad at advertising this. 2. They want you to get the job. That's how they get paid. So they are (mostly) on your side and wi…

Where do you find a recruiter or identify a good one? Going on Linkedin and just asking random people who say their a "recruiter" sounds like a bad idea, you'll get a lot of duds and not the type of recruiters you're describing.

They constantly spam me on LinkedIn. When I wanted a job I just replied to a few.

The industry I work in (silicon verification) probably helps. It's quite small in the UK and not a target for beginners like web and app development is.

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