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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?

#741

Post by troebr »

adriand wrote: post #686
evantbyrne wrote: post #657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've started grinding leetcode, reviewing system design, and behavioral questions. You MUST memorize perfect responses to regurgitate as fast as possible on the interview. Again, you cannot afford a single mistake in process right now or they will pass on you. I'm not discounting that it is hard to find tech jobs right now, but have you considered that this attitude of "grinding leetcode" is possibly contributing t…

> I would imagine the most important qualities to have in an interview are going to be charisma and an ability to reason through technical problems. As someone who has interviewed many software developers, I can assure you that charisma is not something that experienced hiring managers in tech are expecting in the candidate pool. For sales positions, sure. For coding, though, competence is often inversely correlated…

> competence is often inversely correlated with charisma

Source needed. I've been working in tech for 15+ years, alongside highly charismatic and competent people, terrible engineers with less charisma than my coffee pot, and everything in between.

You do not need to be charismatic to be a good engineer, but also it certainly doesn't hurt, and friendly teammates make for a better team atmosphere. If I'm considering two candidates otherwise similar, I'm going to go with the one that's more pleasant to work with.

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

#742

Post by slyn »

tough wrote: post #454
blitz_skull wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> whereas everyone else would call that person [with 5 years experience] a junior engineer I’ve met people with 3 years experience who I’d consider more senior than myself (8 years). Some folks just learn really fast and/or don’t do much else other than work. Not sure time is relevant to your skills or title after about 2-3 years.

It's such an old-fashioned way to look at skills and experience. Tbh there should be real ways to measure all this but there aren't. If you can code by your own without handholding, are you a junior at that point anyways?

Roughly speaking:

If you have a hard time contributing to starting on projects or resolving problems, AND you have a hard time contributing to finishing projects or resolving problems, you’re a junior X (where x is programmer, engineer, sysadmin, etc).

If you can contribute to starting on a project/problem but have a hard time finishing it, OR you have a hard time starting on a project/problem but can contribute to finishing it, you’re an X.

If you can contribute to starting on a project/problem, AND you can contribute to finishing a project/problem, you’re a Senior X.

Not sure the current term of art to being able to start and finish projects / solve problems and your work regularly being good and reliable, maybe Architect or something like that.

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

#743

Post by mettamage »

surajrmal wrote: post #735
whaleofatw2022 wrote: post #710

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the bulk of each one of those resumes do not come close to even being in conversation range of the posted JD. Been seeing a lot of this too. Backend specific job, .NET, and we get a bunch of folks who are front-end devs with maybe python or node.

I'm curious why you wouldn't consider those people just because their existing experience doesn't 100% overlap your tech stack? Could they not be trained on how to write backend .net? Wouldn't the diversity of experience be helpful for your team?

Yep they could but companies usually don't do it.

I've done it. OOP is OOP, there are only different flavors.

I wonder to what extent an OOP person would be able to do a Haskell job (or a similar functional language).

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

#744

Post by jimmychoozyx »

hapless wrote: post #662
vsareto wrote: post #590

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exaggerated, we just hired someone and don't give these kinds of tests or expect this level of correctness. I feel like this is fed by anxiety. I really doubt a large amount of ordinary companies have switched to FAANG leetcode + system design interview formats because of a downtown.

Everyone uses the FAANG loop + system design + leetcode design now I don't know when that change happened but it is practically universal

Everyone? Nah that's Hyperbole.

In my experience about 40% do.

I've never had an issue simply showing an open source past project I created, going through my portfolio of other project examples, and my resume.

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

#745

Post by vGPU »

hanselot wrote: post #285
herodotusxviii wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't mind, could you tell me how I should go about finding a recruiter directly on LinkedIn? I've been out of the market for three years now (had to take care of sick family) and it's extra brutal; I've been contacted by a few recruiters but I'd really like to speed up the process of networking with them if possible. Thank you. (I'm in the Inland Empire in Southern California).

This is weird. I've stopped going on LinkedIn because there is a constant barrage of recruiters. If you list the right skills they will find you.

Yeah but it’s all random phone calls from people with an accent so thick i can’t understand them, who obviously haven’t read my resume, and who won’t pick up the phone if I try to call them back anyways.

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

#746

Post by epups »

animuchan wrote: post #353
whiddershins wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, no one calls someone with 5.5 years of experience a junior engineer.

That's exactly what the parent comment says: title inflation. I sometimes get even funnier CVs, where a person with 2-3 years of experience (usually from the Army) is already in a tech lead / architect position.

In my personal experience, devs that "cross-pollinate" in other fields are usually more competent than someone with the same YOE from a purely tech background.

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

#747

Post by zeestar »

jacquesm wrote: post #6
zeestar wrote: post #3

It's really tough for remote jobs. In-person jobs, on the other hand: people are literally reaching out to me (a first in my career) about on-site jobs but it's just not tenable for my lifestyle atm. So yeah I've been unemployed for nearly a year now.

How are you making ends meet then? Or are you freelancing or something?

Occasionally but mostly I'm burning savings. I got pretty used to a low standard of living in the couple of years before I entered software development, so when I started making money, I saved a lot of it. If being confined to one place for work doesn't currently suit me, then neither do many of the material trappings of rooting: accumulation of consumer goods, a nice home, etc.

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

#748

Post by taylodl »

karaterobot wrote: post #620
taylodl wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's never been harder to get a job Were you around for the aftermath of 9/11? What about the crash of 2008? Both times were considerably more difficult for job hunters.

Interpret it as a figure of speech, otherwise there's going to be someone from the great depression who shows up and clicks his tongue at all of us.

True. I'm also trying to provide some perspective to younger job hunters that while now it is more difficult to get a job than anytime since the Obama era, it was much, much harder during the George Bush Jr. era which wasn't all that long ago and I suspect there are a lot of folks here on HN who were working back then.

Personally, I can go further. Things weren't too great during George Bush Sr. era where we had a recession so bad the media started calling it a depression. It resulted in the infamous "jobless recovery." Duly noted that Junior was able to beat his dad in the economy wrecking, job destroying department.

Before that we had the big market crash of 1987, which was really the planting of the recession George Bush Sr. inherited. He just unintentionally nurtured it along until it became a full-on, economy-wrecking recession.

Younger HNers take note of the pattern going on here.

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

#749

Post by [deleted] »

hunterhod wrote: post #712
MentallyRetired wrote: post #652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this tech downturn is all a collusion amongst tech leaders to bring down software developer salaries. How are so many places hiring yet so many are laying off thousands, and most of them in tech/development? Even the places laying people off are still hiring those positions.

How would such a joint-coordinated effort work? Is such collusion possible at this scale?

[deleted]

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

#750

Post by jimmychoozyx »

username_my1 wrote: post #239
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.

Not necesarly the only way as someone who often interviews candidates, if I'm getting bombarded by spam applications, the least you can do for me to take your CV seriously is a cover letter related to the job posting / company. I don't understand any candidate who sends out a letter without researching the company for 30 minutes and taking another 10 to write a thoughtful cover letter. if you're not willing to put th…

I will never do cover letters-- "Hey, spend 30-60 minutes on this so we can slip it into the pile of 500 applicants where it will never see the light of day! Yay!"
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