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

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

#501

Post by tetrep » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 12:53 PM UTC

mightykipper wrote: post #224

firefoxd wrote: post #63

I hate to say this, stop applying. Find a recruiter on LinkedIn. This is what it has come to. There are thousands of resumes being sent at my company, yet the recruiter can't find anyone. Why? Because no one is applying through her link. The regular resume channel is reserved for bots at this point. Contact a person and you have more chances.

Depending on sector, you may find you only get traction through recruiters. I work in finance, almost everything is through third party recruiters and there are two reasons for this. 1. We are only allowed to hire through either an approved recruiter or the company job portal. The company job portal gets so many applications for each job it's absurd, and we have to sift these ourselves to some degree (HR are meant to…

> (HR are meant to confirm we only see qualified candidates, but they're idiots)

My last job tried to address this by having a small technical test of skill that could be thrown at anyone as a first pass before getting any technical people involved. We got virtually no senior role "spam", so we didn't have to worry about making a challenging technical test, we just needed to weed out junior applicants who basically didn't know how to do anything other than apply for the job.

It worked pretty well for us but we were a relatively small company. I don't remember the exact stats, but I'm pretty sure we hired less than 50 people a year (across a couple offices in the US) for the technical roles we used that test for.

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

#502

Post by mrits » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 12:54 PM UTC

collaborative wrote: post #493

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…

I haven't looked for jobs in nearly 9 years now. Is a LinkedIn profile essential nowadays? I have dropped all social media and LinkedIn is one of the most invasive. I really dislike how it notifies you for everything

It's a primary tool for a recruiter. If you are in a situation where you need recruiters to help you find work I think it would be worth the effort.

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

#503

Post by scarface_74 » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 12:55 PM UTC

collaborative wrote: post #493

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…

I haven't looked for jobs in nearly 9 years now. Is a LinkedIn profile essential nowadays? I have dropped all social media and LinkedIn is one of the most invasive. I really dislike how it notifies you for everything

I have a very bare bones LinkedIn profile. It mostly serves as an address book.

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

#504

Post by philipov » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 12:55 PM UTC

rewmie wrote: post #483

itsoktocry wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some folks just learn really fast and/or don’t do much else other than work. Maybe it's just me, but I don't consider junior/senior to be defined by how "good" you are at programming. Obviously the hope is that senior > junior, but there are other, softer, skills involved with being a senior.

> Maybe it's just me, but I don't consider junior/senior to be defined by how "good" you are at programming. What's your definition of senior?

Someone who's reached their last year of high school. Seriously though, senior just means you're older and have more years of experience. Make sure you help your kouhai when they're in trouble.

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

#505

Post by kasey_junk » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 12:55 PM UTC

This is an unsatisfying answer but if you are depending on your resume going through the hr process cold you are unlikely to have success no matter what it looks like or what experience you have.

A better approach is to find someone at the organization you are applying to who can shepherd you through the process. The best way to do that is via your personal network from prior jobs. But you can also do it by going to meetups, doing open source work etc. Even your non-work network can be helpful. Churches and country clubs were powerful professional tools for a very long time.

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

#506

Post by Cephandrius » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 12:56 PM UTC

collaborative wrote: post #493

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…

I haven't looked for jobs in nearly 9 years now. Is a LinkedIn profile essential nowadays? I have dropped all social media and LinkedIn is one of the most invasive. I really dislike how it notifies you for everything

it's bad when you're not looking for a job, but It's great when you are imo.

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

#507

Post by coldpie » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 12:56 PM UTC

collaborative wrote: post #493

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…

I haven't looked for jobs in nearly 9 years now. Is a LinkedIn profile essential nowadays? I have dropped all social media and LinkedIn is one of the most invasive. I really dislike how it notifies you for everything

It isn't if you have good contacts. It pays to build a lot of bridges at your jobs.

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

#508

Post by bjord » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 12:57 PM UTC

Cephandrius wrote: post #506

collaborative wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't looked for jobs in nearly 9 years now. Is a LinkedIn profile essential nowadays? I have dropped all social media and LinkedIn is one of the most invasive. I really dislike how it notifies you for everything

it's bad when you're not looking for a job, but It's great when you are imo.

why is it bad when you're not looking for a job?

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

#509

Post by jjahdhnmko » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 12:57 PM UTC

ricardobayes wrote: post #158

throwaway14142 wrote: post #143

I tried advertising as a consultancy, after an exceptional career in tech. * Client emails me asking if I can help with his site. I respond. He asks for more details. I respond. He provides a website with an MLM video on how to "be your own boss and sell a product that sells itself". I was talking to a bot. * Try upwork. Spend all day to send 15 proposals, get 3 views, no replies. Upwork wants me to pay money monthly…

Thing is with the freelancer sites, they are almost all looking for cheap talent. You can be anyone, with a perfect score on the site, with huge track record, but the moment you raise your hourly above $30, no one is interested.

[dead]

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

#510

Post by stuaxo » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 12:57 PM UTC

collaborative wrote: post #493

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…

I haven't looked for jobs in nearly 9 years now. Is a LinkedIn profile essential nowadays? I have dropped all social media and LinkedIn is one of the most invasive. I really dislike how it notifies you for everything

A lot more seems to be through it, though other job sites do exist.

I don't really bother with notifications or the app for any social media site.