Ask HN: How do you go about finding a job?

Thirty-five is not when age discrimination kicks in. Age-wise it is the sweet spot. People have had enough time to master their craft, and enough experience to hit the ground running without requiring too much management.

I'd suggest asking people who know you and who have worked with you for their honest assessment of working with you.

In 2019, I submitted 400+ applications and had only 4 or 5 responses which eventually converted into 1 job. I hear the market was hot then.

In 2021, I submitted around 40 applications with 3 responses where I had 2 interviews, and 1 job offer (through HN whoishiring!) that I accepted; stopping the process with the 3rd company at that point.

Now I've been looking for 2 months, and have so far sent around 15 or so applications with 1 interview that I did not pass.

I understand that networking and referrals are basically key nowadays, but I won't do that based on my values - I think it's unfair to be prioritized based on who you know over skills - this is a hill I will die on (or at least leave my profession over).

Furthermore, I do have a solid work profile (open source, personal site, blog with mostly technical posts, etc.) but am not willing to associate my real life identity. Not because it's inappropriate, but because I value privacy.

Might do some advertising this year. But mostly word of mouth goes harder than advertising or tendering for work. Legit have gotten consult for gov work bypassing tender just by word of mouth. Do your job well and the work will come. Also get out of conglomo megacorps. Doesnt matter how bright you shine you will still get lost in the sea of shit that they are. Making future work harder to find.

Remember, do a good enough job and other people will sell your services better than you can. Also register a company. Plenty of work where folks don't want you for the whole season just a game or two. It's easier to get thrown small bits and pieces as a contractor than having a company sign up to your services for a year. Get multiple companies throwing small bits and pieces.

Firstly, it's unlikely that your definition of 'best" and my definition of "best" co-incide. Being a developer encompasses a wide range of skills, technical skills like writing code, writing helpful documentation, interacting with colleagues, architecting for the future, fixing other peoples bugs and more. Unless your priority order is the same as mine, knowing you're good at one thing can get a hindrance.

But leaving that aside, being very good at something (and more importantly knowing it) seldom makes for a good team mate. It comes with an attitude that is less likely to conform with what we do here, less likely to admit when you're wrong, less likely to adapt when we have priorities other than yours.

I'll also point out that your additude to non-developer topics should be one of privacy. I don't really want to know your political views, or your views on crypto, or your brushes with race, ethnicity and so on. If you vered into any of those topics in an interview I'd be alarmed. Even if asked your answers in those areas should be non-committal. And if I did ask about something like crypto (I dont) I'd be looking for a measured answer that showed you can understand both sides of an argument, that you can admit when a position is controversial, that while there are positives there are also negatives and so on.

I say this not to negate you, but perhaps to help you grow in your interviewing skills. It's just fine to be white, libertarian, into crypto, 35 years old, whatever. But interviewing is about getting to know someone, and TMI can be, well, too much.

I get where you're coming from, I really do, and you may be a great developer, but unfortunately you may not be a great employee just yet. And ultimately they're hiring an employee first, a developer second.