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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?

#521

Post by collaborative »

willsmith72 wrote: post #498
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

You can turn off any notification settings

It just bothers me that people get notified whenever I'd do anything on it. As for myself, I simply make notifications go to my spam folder

I prefer to share my information when I want and with whom I want, but LinkedIn feels like a meat market. If FB was personal marketing 101 (only sharing what makes you attractive), linkedIn feels like an advanced course on being fake. It kind if disgusts me

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

#522

Post by scarface_74 »

abathur wrote: post #430
nelsonic wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonic I will help you fast-track this.

I have a parallel-universe version of the question--from a universe where I've ~idealistically refused to create a LinkedIn account. How would you go about finding a recruiter sans LinkedIn? :)

Last time I checked, I can’t exchange pride or whatever is keeping you from creating a LinkedIn profile for goods and services.

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

#523

Post by pc86 »

ryanbrunner wrote: post #442
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…

5 years for junior for better or worse is well out of step with the industry - while you're right that you can get some massively inflated titles that are out of step with the norm, the norm is that you're an intermediate developer at a minimum and most likely a senior after 5 years. It's dumb, but it is the standard nowadays.

Intermediate/mid for sure, but if I get a resume from someone whose first programming job was 2018 and they're calling themselves senior, I'm throwing that in the trash unless like you said they're from VC-funded startups that are going to have massive title inflation and they're applying for a realistic (mid-level) role.

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

#524

Post by chx »

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?

> What's your definition of senior?

I have already made the mistake you are about to make.

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

#525

Post by digitalsushi »

Oras wrote: post #357
Paul-Craft wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Prof…

I agree with 100% of this.

But if I get my next job because I used an AI face fixer to get past the first hurdle of the culture fit, I just don't want to exist in this century anymore.

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

#526

Post by LargeTomato »

sosodev wrote: post #65
LargeTomato wrote: post #13

Yes, it's awful. I applied to 60 companies and got 3 responses. I have a background in big tech and applied to mostly large and medium sized tech companies.

That ratio isn’t bad tho

I'm used to >80% callbacks. Before the pandemic that was standard.

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

#527

Post by pc86 »

collaborative wrote: post #521
willsmith72 wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can turn off any notification settings

It just bothers me that people get notified whenever I'd do anything on it. As for myself, I simply make notifications go to my spam folder I prefer to share my information when I want and with whom I want, but LinkedIn feels like a meat market. If FB was personal marketing 101 (only sharing what makes you attractive), linkedIn feels like an advanced course on being fake. It kind if disgusts me

If you're looking for work (at least in programming, in the US), respectfully you need to get over it. This mindset is well in the minority and will actively hurt you while job searching.

Not saying you won't find stuff without it, but why make it harder than it needs to be?

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

#528

Post by stcroixx »

ivanhoe wrote: post #411
cientifico wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What you're discussing has little to do with seniority - those are some personality traits that are great to have, but you either have it in you or not - people who are bad at explaining stuff will usually stay bad at it for the rest of life (but can still be fantastic in e.g. architecting things). Being a senior dev is IMHO much simpler. It's all about being able to solve problems independently, without needing supe…

That's about how I think about it as well. You either need babysitting and mentoring or not.

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

#529

Post by 7thaccount »

bartislartfast wrote: post #512
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

> LinkedIn is one of the most invasive surprised to read this, I don't find it invasive in the slightest. I've turned off notifications for most things but its the only "social" app I have on my device. I will say it's gotten a lot more content focussed lately, with everyone and their mom sharing their thoughts on jobs and employment. Personally I just use it as a profile for recruiters to hit and a way for me to tal…

My observations are the same. It's good for some networking and industry news articles, but anyone in an HR or managerial role is posting a story meant to farm likes, so there is more noise than usual.

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

#530

Post by ryanbrunner »

pc86 wrote: post #523
ryanbrunner wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 years for junior for better or worse is well out of step with the industry - while you're right that you can get some massively inflated titles that are out of step with the norm, the norm is that you're an intermediate developer at a minimum and most likely a senior after 5 years. It's dumb, but it is the standard nowadays.

Intermediate/mid for sure, but if I get a resume from someone whose first programming job was 2018 and they're calling themselves senior, I'm throwing that in the trash unless like you said they're from VC-funded startups that are going to have massive title inflation and they're applying for a realistic (mid-level) role.

Sure, I guess my point is to consider the context of the person applying. If they are coming from a place with title inflation, it's not their fault that the company they worked for inflated titles. If you're exclusively hiring seniors and they are an inflated "senior", for sure you're under no obligation to hire them, but if you're open to intermediates, I think it's worth explaining how your titles might differ from their experiences and that intermediate is a better fit.
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