Ask HN: Can't get hired – what's next?

And if you're gunning for senior positions, you'll have to suffer the system designs as well.

Keep practicing and don't let a single day slip by without training. If you need a change of pace, code something on the side that's genuinely fun and zero stakes. It will all come together eventually.

I'm really torn, TBH. Plenty of people do, indeed, get on with F/MAANG/whatever out of college and make that 150. Plenty don't. It's jut bleh

You are arrogant and entitled. You are not as great as you think you are. If you were, you would have what you want. But you don't. And even if you were great, you (or anyone for that matter) shouldn't be arrogant or entitled. It's a terrible way to live. Insulting those who are trying to help you by calling their advice "boomer cope" is beyond asinine and just the topping on the cake.

Your problem is that you think you deserve something. You don't. In the strictest sense what you "deserve" is exactly what you have right now, which is nothing. "Deserve" is meaningless word anyway. As if there is some universal objective truth about what the state of your life "should" be.

If you want to get out of this rut, humble yourself, get whatever software job you can get (assuming you want to stay in this industry), and slowly work your way up over the coming decades. That's reality.

It's also clear that you have no true sense of ownership or responsibility. You have a victim mindset. It oozes out of everything you say. Some examples:

Q: "Why can you not pass tech screens? You mean leetcode questions?"

> I don't really know, none of this was a problem when I got my last job in tech (as a non-founder).

Who cares what the state of the world was when you got your last job? Clearly you're not cutting it today. Does living in the glory days of your past put food on your table now?

> My best guess is they thought my skills weren't advanced enough for my age or found it weird I was bald.

No hiring manager cares that you're bald. That's just you blaming them for your lack of skills.

> I'm legitimately going to just move to another country if one more boomer tells me I just have to "wait for the stars to align" one more time.

You won't have to wait until another "boomer" tells you that (how do you even know who is a boomer, and why does it matter if they are?). Your current crappy attitude will all but ensure you will fail and be forced into such a situation.

All that aside, I hope you fix your attitude and improve your life. Good luck.

It really sounds like you just need to brush up on your interviewing skills, maybe some leetcode practice, maybe you just need someone to stare at you while you solve problems to get over the nerves of the situation.

I used to practice in an environment without even basic autocomplete because I felt like it was more effective, maybe something like that would help you.