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Ask HN: Did you get a new job in 2024?

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Re: Ask HN: Did you get a new job in 2024?

#31

Post by drakonka »

gunnr15 wrote: post #22
drakonka wrote: post #14

I was laid off last year, but contract ended up getting extended until end of Jan 2024. After talking to a few other companies I decided to take 6 months - 1 year off unless something really interesting came along. A few days after that decision, a company reached out that fit into exactly that category and I ended up joining them. I didn't notice any particular issues with job availability or recruiter outreach, and…

That sounds like an ideal way to find a new job. What specifically about the job made you change your mind re: taking time off?

I just thought a lot about what kind of work I was especially curious about doing and decided that it was autonomous agents. Seemed like a great area to explore in, since I believe agents running in permissive environments _could_ be a really powerful and practical way to leverage AI but have not been "solved" yet. AI is super buzzy though so I was careful with filtering out companies working on legitimate applications vs just ones wanting to hop on the AI train for the sake of it. The company that approached me happened to be working on agents in an area that I've already had significant experience in, so ended up being a great fit!

Re: Ask HN: Did you get a new job in 2024?

#32

Post by mpeg »

austin-cheney wrote: post #16

In late 2023 a recruiter found me for a completely different job than I had ever done before. This was my escape route and I would have taken any exit path from software. They found me from either LinkedIn or Dice. I had a US security clearance in hand and security certifications. I remember years ago on here when developers scoffed with great arrogance and entitlement at the mere thought of professional certificatio…

Infosec is probably one of the only areas of tech where certificates are useful. I would say where possible you should still try to get an employer to pay for them though.

But that's hard these days so I know people who paid for their own OSCP in the hopes of landing a job

Re: Ask HN: Did you get a new job in 2024?

#35

Post by interbased »

iExploder wrote: post #4

not looking, but I noticed recruiters in Europe started to reach out again after more than a half year of radio silence

I get recruitment contacts fairly often as well. Mostly by email (and they don’t look automated) but also some on LinkedIn (these look more automated).

Re: Ask HN: Did you get a new job in 2024?

#36

Post by seattle_spring »

iExploder wrote: post #4

not looking, but I noticed recruiters in Europe started to reach out again after more than a half year of radio silence

I've started getting a lot of outreach again in the US, except it's all such banal "AI" solutions that seem like wrappers on someone's LLM API. They all have 8 figure funding rounds too, which means investors believe there's something there. Is that all it takes right now?

Re: Ask HN: Did you get a new job in 2024?

#38

Post by diggum »

Not a SDE, but I’m actually doing more of that than ever before. 2 years ago, was given the choice to interview for new internal roles or walk away with a severance package after almost two decades in QE and PM for a large, design tools company. Having witnessed the transition from developer-led (“hey, I just invented this cool thing. Let’s give it to users and see if there’s something there?”) to product-led (“hey, let’s keep making our awesome products better for customers!”) to ultimately marketing-led (“hey, McKinsey taught us this method to circle the wagons and protect our brand to the detriment of paying customers!”), I chose to walk away.

I had a bit of cushion, sold some early-purchased crypto and spent most of my savings, to build my skills in launching a startup and writing code. I interviewed with plenty of companies, but felt the same McKinsey cringe from the big FAANG’s, couldn’t believe the skeeviness of the crypto startups, and went pretty far but not far enough with some of the smaller but more interesting companies. My startup got some interest but ultimately, did not hit hard enough to break gravity.

But, it kept me on the radar for some old contacts and when they wanted to explore the areas I had expertise in, reached out. I did some contract work, ultimately building and launching a major new product on their platform which led to getting brought on full time at the beginning of the year.

I love what I’m doing now. I get to play PM and R&D and Developer roles building things now. The things I build directly impact real people and I can experience the results within days, and I have flexibility to decide what I think is important or interesting.

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