Ask HN: Terrified I wont find another job

Honestly open source projects such that you can point to work you did without requiring an interview is super effective.

I'm honestly unconvinced leetcode practice is useful, there's a significant misunderstanding on coding interviews (google, apple, MS-to-an-extent ask questions I've seen labeled "leet code" but generally as a result of people not understanding the goal of such questions). Companies that are doing "real" leetcode questions in the sense of "could produce a solution for this specific weird question? yes/no" are probably not something you'd want to work for in the long term, and general "make sure you can explain what you are doing while writing code, make sure you can come up with test cases, make sure you can come up with solution trade offs" practice will work for leetcode, and be more useful to less questionable companies.

One other big thing is to try to tailor your CV/resume to each job you apply to. For mass application that isn't really feasible, but if you're only applying to 5-20 a little tailoring of your resume to each position (in the order of a couple of sentences on your background and specialities) is helpful. Your CV should also be as short as possible, no more than two pages, ideally one. Don't include irrelevant prior jobs, if you've been working more than a couple of years the jobs are more important than your degrees if you have them, and your school grades do not matter. Of what you keep, prioritize the jobs and qualifications relevant to the specific job. e.g. if the job you're applying to is primarily C++ your CV should put more emphasis on your C++ experience than the JS ones, etc.

Not to be dismissive of people in this position, but speaking as someone with a regular ass boring job outside of the bay area, saying you're "terrified" sounds like you're far more worried than you need to be. The standards at jobs around the country are so low, and people in general are so bad at their jobs.

You might not LIKE the other work that's out there, but you could always find a software dev gig, or IT analyst work, or whatever weird name orgs will come up with for the only thing that matters: A Job You're Qualified To Do.

I've never had a mentor either, and all I've done in my career in the last decade is just cast a very wide net over a major metropolitan area and showed up to whatever got back to me, and it's worked out very well for me despite the fact that I'm frankly very mediocre and dysfunctional in comparison to our country's top talent.

Funny, when I’ve been laid off, I’ve been relieved that there’s no kid depending on me for food and health insurance and no spouse to divorce me. I think I’d have a breakdown if that were the case, but I guess we’re all different.

Just to commiserate, I also had a health issue years ago that really threw my career off track. I managed to land a steady job after some long and stressful months and eventually got some treatment that got me back to 95% health-wise, but the job is way below what I think I'm capable of and it's really hard to get back out there and interview for something better. Unfortunately mentioning any kind of health issue during the interview process (typically when the associated resume gap comes up) seems to be a kiss of death, even with supposedly "enlightened" companies that rattle on about their great culture and acceptance. I recommend not mentioning health issues during the interview process at all if you can help it.

If anyone has a different viewpoint on this or has discovered some better way to approach this touchy topic while job hunting, I am quite open to input.

Fair. I'm not suggesting he should focus on being amusing in interviews - just that soft skills have value and sometimes in surprising places. Time invested in them is unlikely to be wasted. Time spent grinding leetcode not so much.

His milage may vary; my main message is that we're still in the inflationary universe stage of professional computing so despite the current undeniable demoralising blip a career change is unlikely to be a good idea for someone who enjoys it.

I should also add that someone who spent 10 years in a role before taking an extended break is a much more interesting prospect than someone with lots of long gaps. They sound like they should be front of the queue when things warm up again.