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Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

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Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#351

Post by wildrhythms »

c16 wrote: post #310

This advice won't help you right now, but when you do find your next role, try take an active role in tech interviewing. It's something I pushed hard to take part in two jobs ago, and it's shown me what good candidates and bad candidates look like, how to interview and how not to bomb the interview in the first few minutes. It's also helped me massively as a candidate.

I am registered as an interviewer at my workplace ($big tech company) and in the past 2 years I've been assigned just one interview. In the past year I've been assigned zero. Interviews are randomly assigned. Front-end web developer. Internally I can see they are hiring countless full-time PMs, PgMs, directors... but developers being hired are here on 6 month vendor contracts, and not full time employees, which is a change. Something is happening.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#352

Post by omgmajk »

hanselot wrote: post #285
herodotusxviii wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't mind, could you tell me how I should go about finding a recruiter directly on LinkedIn? I've been out of the market for three years now (had to take care of sick family) and it's extra brutal; I've been contacted by a few recruiters but I'd really like to speed up the process of networking with them if possible. Thank you. (I'm in the Inland Empire in Southern California).

This is weird. I've stopped going on LinkedIn because there is a constant barrage of recruiters. If you list the right skills they will find you.

It flops from side to side, six months/a year ago I got about one-three per week, now zero for several months and only bot adds.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#353

Post by animuchan »

whiddershins wrote: post #287
rsynnott wrote: post #282

It's not a good job market, but it doesn't seem normal to spend six months applying and only get _one_ interview. It might be worth asking friends or former colleagues, ideally people who actually are involved in recruiting (hiring managers etc) to take a look at your resume and LinkedIn profile and see if there's anything glaringly wrong with them. Is your resume in a weird format, or is it structurally weird/overde…

No, no one calls someone with 5.5 years of experience a junior engineer.

That's exactly what the parent comment says: title inflation.

I sometimes get even funnier CVs, where a person with 2-3 years of experience (usually from the Army) is already in a tech lead / architect position.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#354

Post by misja111 »

ramraj07 wrote: post #215
misja111 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do you use it as a major factor when choosing candidates? If you do, why? Definitely. Motivation is of major importance in whether a new employee will be successful or not. And if a candidate obviously has put a lot of effort in preparing for the interview, then this indicates that he/she is motivated to get the job. Ofc it is not the only factor to take into consideration, but surely an important one.

I beg to differ by a mile and more. If all you have to choose from are mediocre candidates then choosing the ones who hustle by preparing for inane interviews is maybe a barely acceptable option. But you instantly discount any great candidate who doesn’t interview well. A great candidate who also interviews well will have the pick of the lot and unless your org is OpenAI I doubt they’ll come to you. So it’s probably…

> But you instantly discount any great candidate who doesn’t interview well.

I never said that. I said it's a very important factor, but there are other factors as well. Also, not interviewing well doesn't necessarily mean that you didn't prepare anything. Preparing also means reading up about the company, putting some effort in your CV etc. What I'm looking for, again just as one of the indicators, is that the candidate has put some effort.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#355

Post by herbst »

icemelt8 wrote: post #343
herbst wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be totally weird out if some of my past co-workers suddenly reaches out to me with bullshit smalltalk to ask for a job. Or random people from my past sending me happy birthday ever year. I am probably not social enough to understand that, but that sounds like a lot of work just to stand out as kinda weird.

Yes you are not social enough to understand this, I regularly get mails or messages from past colleagues who I've never talked to in years suddenly ask me that they are looking for a job and if I know an open position. I absolutely understand their quandary and go out of my way to help them out, cuz we're humans.

Well ok that's one thing. But op was suggesting to cold reach sales people, vendors and anything you had contact with plus basically creating a list of 'humans you might have use for in future' and their birthdays for your personal benefit.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#356

Post by Roark66 »

noitpmeder wrote: post #111
Varriount wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had the best luck with recruiters that have contacted me directly on LinkedIn. Conversely, I've had zero luck with the recruiters that contact me via phone call. My assumption is that this is because many of the latter are operating under the "if we get you hired we get XX% percent of your salary" model, and are thus inclined to submit as many applications as they can.

I think this is only really an option for some sub-spaces of tech. As someone in a middling HFT shop my linkedin inbox is flooded with recruiter spam. But most of my friends in frontend work don't get any of this.

There is definitely truth in this. I see lots of ads for senior full stack devs (and devops). Not so much for front end. I wonder why that is.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#357

Post by Oras »

Paul-Craft wrote: post #93
throwaway2037 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, definitely update your LinkedIn profile. Put something catchy in there. And post something once a week to generate some activity. It is totally influencer bullshit, but this war -- getting a job. You can also flag your profile in LinkedIn as looking for opportunities.

What do you mean "put something catchy in there?"

1. Skills, add as many skills as you have.

2. You have 2500 words limit in the About section. Write about all the projects you were involved in. Instead of just writing: "Experience in Mongo", it could be "Improved the system's performance by 30% by optimizing Mongo."

3. Again, add skills to each of your working history.

4. you can add the training courses or what you're learning for hot skills in the market.

5. Professional quality photo. You don't need to spend on getting a professional photographer. You can use AI tools to improve a selfie from your phone to look professional.

These will not get you the job, but will increase your appearance in search results.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#358

Post by fnordpiglet »

herbst wrote: post #335
jameshush wrote: post #46

Reach out to people you've worked with in the past. After having five years of experience, you should have worked with at least a handful of people who need someone to fix another broken website. These could be managers, people on your team, people on OTHER teams, vendors, salespeople you've spoken to, anyone. Ideally, you should ALWAYS keep in contact with people you've worked with, even if it's just emailing them "…

I would be totally weird out if some of my past co-workers suddenly reaches out to me with bullshit smalltalk to ask for a job. Or random people from my past sending me happy birthday ever year. I am probably not social enough to understand that, but that sounds like a lot of work just to stand out as kinda weird.

This is literally how I got every job I’ve had over the last 30 years. You ought to give it a try. People who know you and you know them are the best way to get good jobs. You can ask frank questions, they can give frank advice, and they will talk you up with the hiring manager. I’m about as antisocial as humans get, but it sure beats beating pavement and cold calling.

Re: Ask HN: Is the market bad, or am I having the worst luck job hunting?

#360

Post by ZephyrBlu »

cientifico wrote: post #341
whiddershins wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, no one calls someone with 5.5 years of experience a junior engineer.

I do, and quite frequently. After more than a 2 decades in software development (rails/web/...), for me to consider a developer to be a senior it needs to: * Communicate: For example: can explain tech concepts to non tech people, or inform on Monday that the sprint will be unlikely to be done in time. * Can estimate and adapt to changes. Be boring and predictable. * Can work/collaborate/teach with other devs. I got t…

You think it takes 5+ years to acquire those skills?! Man, I would be driven insane in an environment like that. Such a long time and a relatively low bar.
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