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Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

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Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#411

Post by tedk-42 »

godsmokescrack wrote: post #369

I think I'd rather die. Go get a shitty job, temp job, remind yourself what life is actually like for everyone else.

I can't help but feel like a lot of commenters would benefit from such things.

Working in an Amazon warehouse for example, being a labourer of some kind (removalist for example). It really is a luxury to sit in front of a keyboard and monitor and think and solve problems and get paid for it.

I've been in my current job for 6 years but I'm on leave at the moment and look to take a few months off next year caring for our newborn.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#412

Post by jalapenos »

it_is_beautiful wrote: post #186

Throwaway, to do away with the polite fiction that I usually present. Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown / Waiting for someone or something to show you the way At 11 I started writing software, with entrepreneurial aspirations helped by my parents. Over my teen years I must have designed a dozen sites I never published. I did alright in school, but I was never on time. At 18, out of high school, I g…

It seems like the problem is the home and your parents.

Think about it logically, if you had a kid would you let them end up like you?

You need like some complete psychological and lifestyle reset. Consider joining the military, volunteering in Africa, working on an oilrig, anything as long as it's extreme. Like, whatever most firmly cuts off your whole thread of lived experience and mindset so far but which has structure you can hang on to.

Also find an aggressive therapist who'll get in there and work out what's going on and clean it up, and pay them whatever they ask.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#413

Post by jjav »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #155
com2kid wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having LinkedIn is ruining your chances. Candidates without a LinkedIn are going to come across as a scam in the very least, 90% of the time your application will just get tossed if you can't be found on LI.

I don’t have a LinkedIn and it has impaired my job hunts in the past but I always worry that creating one now (without the references of colleagues from decades of past work) would look worse than not having one?

As I take a break on friday night from reading through an endless pile of resumes for a role I'm hiring...

I would suggest creating the linkedin profile but be sure to fully populate the job descriptions for each job (or as far back as you care to go) and spend some time looking up past colleagues from each one and send them invites to connect.

I'm finding that a completely blank linkedin profile (listing only companies but zero detail) is a bigger red flag than not having a linkedin profile.

But having a profile with job description info and a network of connections from each job adds credibility. When a resume looks borderline suspicious, I dig through the persons connections in linkedin to see if it looks like they really worked at each of those places. Even better if I find any shared connections, which is a stronger signal that I'm looking at a real person not an AI bot.

Also, building that network of connections can be a source of job leads on its own.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#414

Post by uxcolumbo »

no_nobud wrote: post #308
apsurd wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a nurse is not the janitor of healthcare jobs. Your first hand experience with how brutal the job market is is real. And it definitely feels like zero sum when it comes down to "a woman gets hired for reasons over me" but i must call out how dangerous this line of thinking becomes. Also obviously not anyone can become an engineer. please don't be so dismissive of others. if you're willing to put in the learning to be…

>nurse is not the janitor of healthcare jobs. I don't know but among healthcare practitioner apparently it's seen like that. It's brutal, but out of all white collar jobs, only engineering is suffering, and especially males, yes, women are hired for 'reasons' over males, you can check any unemployment rate between males/females, now it's called he-cession https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-08-05/us-job..…

My friend, don’t swallow the red pill and definitely avoid the black pill.

Janitors and cleaners of all kinds are essential workers. And nurses keep you alive. Both type of workers add more value to society than I do (working on products to make numbers go up).

Your evidence is all anecdotal. Go om LinkedIn and you see plenty of posts by women who are also struggling.

If you want to be mad at someone then be mad at the Epstein class not at your fellow class mates.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#415

Post by jalapenos »

unretiring wrote: post #232

Thirteen years. Maybe not what you were expecting to hear. It's hard to remember beyond vignettes, but around when I left my last regular job it felt like my world was collapsing. I'd drifted out of a relationship, I was struggling with mental health just as my physical health was improving, my social and political environment started feeling uncomfortable, the small startup I worked for was struggling to pay me (at…

Who let you not work for thirteen years? That's abuse

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#416

Post by pillefitz »

Aurornis wrote: post #209
yodsanklai wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought caffeine was actually good https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/is-coffee-good-or-bad-for-your...

It's neither good nor bad in absolute terms. It can be misused, abused, and overdone like any substance. In my experience, the people who benefit from quitting caffeine were either using far too much of it, were drinking it too late in the day (interferes with sleep), or were using it to cover up other problems like poor sleep habits. The person drinking a cup or two of green tea in the mornings after going to bed on…

For those who can't metabolize it it's a net negative. Even a sip in the morning keeps me on edge the whole day and delays my sleep onset by around an hour.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#417

Post by pillefitz »

aantix wrote: post #61
MengerSponge wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dose makes the poison.

And genetics. Caffeine is a net negative for slow metabolizers.

And other environmental factors that affect enzyme levels, as seems to be the case for me.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#418

Post by jalapenos »

Uptrenda wrote: post #239

I've been unemployed since 2013 and honestly... the whole thing has been beneficial. I went through a long period of trying to find work initially, and ended up self-sabotaging offers due to intense stress. Then after that I kind of felt worthless and depressed. Took some introspection to realize I was being ridiculous and that I was more than a job. I would say even before this all went down things were going badly…

So explain this, it means you're a trust fund kid?

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#419

Post by lazyasciiart »

mgh95 wrote: post #175
richardlblair wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Canadian, living shoulder to shoulder with the very folks who used to frequently travel to the US (and being one myself). I firmly disagree.

Ok; all I can say is what the statistics indicate. It seems like at least some Canadians accept assignments which result in business travel to the US. As with the OC, this may result in more desirable employees to Canadian employers who wish to continue to do business with the US, hence the original question.

In other words, Canadians aren’t going to the US unless someone pays them for it. That’s pretty negative sentiment.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#420

Post by jjav »

ethbr1 wrote: post #264
craftkiller wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do people still do endorsements on LinkedIn? There was an initial flurry when that "feature" launched but I haven't been endorsed for anything for I think the past decade. Really the only things I do on LinkedIn are update my job history and accept connections from coworkers.

Imho, anything past where you've worked on LinkedIn is a waste of time. And arguably even a negative signal. Productive people have jobs to do instead of grinding Monopoly karma. Yes, this absolutely includes LinkedIn thought leadership. I know MS and recruiters love to push the 'it matters' line, but I'd ask the reader -- who would you rather hire: someone who wow'd in an interview or someone with LinkedIn flair?

> who would you rather hire: someone who wow'd in an interview or someone with LinkedIn flair?

Wrong question. This is not about the hiring stage.

Who would I rather move on to a phone screen: someone with an empty or nonexistent linkedin profile, or someone with a profile which matches their resume and has many connections to other people who worked at the same companies?

While I hate to have to say it is the latter, that's where we are today with AI-generated fake resumes.

I have 344 resumes left to review tonight. Those that don't match their linkedin profile history have no chance (unless they are a direct colleague referral).

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