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Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

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Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#291

Post by floweronthehill »

mettamage wrote: post #199
culi wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you need to practice leetcode like things for interviews, aren’t you also doing free ‘work’? Only in that case it’s more proof-of-work than something actually useful. This might be true, but at least the skills are easy to show off on a resume and will help you with other interviews. Open-source contributions might vary drastically in nature and might be harder to leverage as experience/proof of skill

Many tech interviews at startups are simply: "talk about a project you once did :)"

Where do you find these startups? My experience with startup interviews is FAANGesque leetcode + system design questions.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#292

Post by JackFr »

jstx1 wrote: post #281
JackFr wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I try to instill in juniors is to make and keep relationships up. Depending on your industry, it’s a very small world. I recall interviewing someone who had just a terrible technical interview, but honestly seemed like a good fit. In the interview it came out he had worked for and with two people who I knew fairly well (and respected and trusted.) Two phone calls later, and based on their experiences with h…

So if two candidates have a terrible technical interview, the person who knows the right people passes to the next round and the other one doesn't? Sounds a lot like nepotism. Okay, maybe that's not a fair argument on my part because you're actually using the positive feedback that you got from the mutual acquiantances and they could have given negative feedback, but it's still the case that some candidates don't get…

The second paragraph is in support of the first, that is, the value of building and maintaining relationships.

In this case it was a benefit both to me and to the candidate.

Does knowing people in a field give someone an advantage

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#293

Post by sage76 »

kristopolous wrote: post #229
sva_ wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like you're suggesting people work for free for the hope of potentially being hired by an employer. I think that is pretty pathetic.

Incorrect. You are making sure your passions align with your work. If you can find motivation beyond a paycheck and do it then you're more confident you'll enjoy it for the long haul. Jobs are easy. Satisfaction is the hard thing. Strictly speaking yes this is uncompensated labor but if that's all you see, let me help a bit. What if the target is NASA, Wikimedia foundation, maybe some software for Doctors without bor…

Why must passion be involved in work? Why can't it just be a profession?

Some people have passions that are not monetizable.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#294

Post by arandomJohn »

jedberg wrote: post #173
arandomJohn wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For companies that do on-campus recruiting it is the busiest hiring time of year. But for experienced devs it might be a weird time to look.

This is true but sort of different. Most of them are hiring out of next year's budgets with start dates in May/June. The last time we had a pull-back in tech, a lot of those offers ended up getting rescinded, so if you're in that boat, don't start spending the money until you actually start...

We’ve got people starting every week and open headcount for seniors.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#295

Post by laurex »

Are people in this boat thinking of working on fun or side projects as they look? Especially non-commercial or for-good work. Curious if we’ll see interesting creative work come out of this period it if people are growing disillusioned enough with the current system to start experimenting with other approaches.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#296

Post by nickm12 »

bartimus wrote: post #232
skeeter2020 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Despite being a staff engineer, managing 12 engineers, So this is actually a warning to me as a hiring manager. Good staff developers absolutely are technical leaders but if they have day-to-day people management skills I'm at best confused, at worst skeptical. Managing 12 engineers is a full time job before you even get to staff developer responsibilities.

I'm also confused. It's my understanding that staff engineers are responsible for taking the software into a certain technical direction. "Upper management" related to engineering. Wouldn't that automatically involve managing those engineers who are involved with the project(s)?

(broad generalizations ahead) Technical management and people management are different jobs. People management involves a lot more focus on hiring, performance evaluation, and performance management. It also tends to have many more meetings, including 1:1 meetings with all of your reports weekly or biweekly. This generally does not leave time for significant individual contributor work.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#297

Post by nowherebeen »

piercebot wrote: post #122

I transitioned from full-time employment to contracting in April 2022. I am currently over-employed and working two gigs simultaneously. All leads have come from my personal network or my reputation as a known entity in a relatively niche field. Only trouble I've had is invoice approval and waiting for money to be moved, but it has always eventually come through. Cashflow remains equivalent to when I was an FTE, but…

Nice to read something positive for once. Happy for you.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#298

Post by dennis_jeeves1 »

throwawaydad12 wrote: post #254

I've been at this for almost 40 years, and it's shocking to me how little urgency there is to hiring over the last 5-10 years. I have a sinecure but still interview from time to time. Compared to (say) 1990, it's intensely time-consuming and unproductive. In principle, I'm likely someone that hiring managers are looking for, and really a pretty good deal. In practice, I'll probably just retire rather than throw my ha…

>it's intensely time-consuming and unproductive.

I think it's this one of the parts that really ticks someone like me off. Most interviewers know almost upfront 10 minutes into into the interview if they are going to reject you, yet they can often drag on for an hour, under the guise of knowing, your 'approach' a problem.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#299

Post by ummonk »

Existenceblinks wrote: post #283
caskstrength wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or software engineer in a 3rd world country. Actually, software engineers in 2nd and 3rd world countries can afford to save a lot.

Definitely not true.

Sotware engineers in developing countries earn significantly more than the average person in their country. By living the same lifestyle as an average person, they can save a lot.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#300

Post by genmud »

sage76 wrote: post #293
kristopolous wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incorrect. You are making sure your passions align with your work. If you can find motivation beyond a paycheck and do it then you're more confident you'll enjoy it for the long haul. Jobs are easy. Satisfaction is the hard thing. Strictly speaking yes this is uncompensated labor but if that's all you see, let me help a bit. What if the target is NASA, Wikimedia foundation, maybe some software for Doctors without bor…

Why must passion be involved in work? Why can't it just be a profession? Some people have passions that are not monetizable.

It doesn’t have to, but there is a good overlap of the vent diagram of engineers who open source their work with engineers who have a passion directly related to that work.

I can see both sides of the argument, some people want to just do their stuff and leave, whereas others might wholly devote themselves to the problem.

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