Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

921–930 of 1001 posts

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

#921

Post by Alex63 »

dorfsmay wrote: post #903
sigotirandolas wrote: post #843

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am likely not revealing anything new to you (nor I know much about hiring), but: Taking a look at your CV, I notice that you have a lot of very short work stints, averaging at about a position per year. This is probably just the nature of contracting, but I can see this putting off most companies that are looking for someone to dive deeply in the business domain and work on supporting a project long-term. I also fe…

Thank you for taking the time to look at it and commenting. It is indeed the nature of contracting and project work. Note that there are 3 times where I have done contracts back to back for 4 or 5 years for the same company, which should show that I don't just jump ship all the time and am able to commit for a long time. It made more sense to highlight each project individually in an economy with a lot of need for co…

I reviewed your CV as well. I am a former programmer/analyst/architect, now an IT director. I have reviewed a lot of CVs as a hiring manager. I agree with the feedback you have already received. Here are some additional thoughts.

You have listed a lot of experience, mainly focusing on technical skills. When I review a CV I focus more on the last 5 or 10 years than roles from 30 years ago (unless I'm looking for someone to do COBOL maintenance). I suggest providing more information about experience in the last 5 or 10 years. I wouldn't worry too much about listing specific projects/assignments before that.

Your CV emphasizes your technical skills, but doesn't provide much insight into other skills. Perhaps for some of your recent projects you could highlight other ways in which you contributed to a successful outcome. Were you the lead developer? Did you interact with users - maybe in an agile process? What aspects of the software development life cycle were you responsible for?

So, based on your current CV, I might suggest a some entries like these:

Subtlety Communications, April 2022 - December 2022

- Vulnerability Mitigation Project

  Lead developer responsible for analyzing vulnerability reports, identifying appropriate mitigation, implementing and testing mitigation. Reported to CISO.  Javascript, React.
- Live Chat Application

  Senior member of agile application development team responsible for front-end development. Automated generation of Docker config files to improve CI/CD processes. Docker, Typescript, React.

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

#922

Post by Tao3300 »

shakow wrote: post #915
Tao3300 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> still technical problems Namely: - what schemes are still left for us to pull a lot of money into before they get recognized as scams - how do we get out in time to leave someone else holding the bag

I mean... morally speaking, how is it worse than working for Meta or Google?

Asking the important rhetorical questions o7

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

#923

Post by versteegen »

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? :)

Contact recruiting agencies, they have websites. Local ones might hold events (e.g. talks) you can physically go to to meet them.

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

#924

Post by nikau »

jacquesm wrote: post #446
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…

I'd add: * able to take responsibility * able to transfer skills and to guide juniors to productivity

> able to take responsibility

This is the big difference - seniors will track and resolve a roadblock or issue that they could justifiably ignore, in particular where other people in the organization are being difficult or obstructive, giving incorrect guidance, etc.

A junior will just go "We were told it cant be done/will take 5 weeks" whereas a senior will know that's bullshit and escalate it to the right people.

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

#925

Post by Kalpeshbhalekar »

Have you tried freelancing platforms like Upwork, Fiver and other apps?

Sometimes getting started as a contract worker/part time consultant and then transitioning to a full time role would be easier.

(This helps in building confidence for the recruiter)

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

#926

Post by thayne »

cosmojg wrote: post #564
neon_electro wrote: post #559

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. I have been diagnosed with ADHD (and started medication, to be clear) this year. How do I best tell prospective employers I might need some accommodation in this process? I've been at it on and off for 17 months and have had the worst experience…

> I have been diagnosed with ADHD this year. How do I best tell prospective employers I might need some accommodation in this process? You don't. In my experience, any mention of anything resembling mental illness will result in rejection (but obviously they'll cite some other reason to avoid a lawsuit).

I've been told by recruiters that the reason they never give you a reason for rejecting you is so you have less ammunition for any potential lawsuit.

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

#927

Post by slaw »

scarface_74 wrote: post #823
shiftpgdn wrote: post #706

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech leaders colluding with the government by abusing the H1B program and ultra-lax enforcement of anti-trust laws to absolutely crater tech salaries has been the name of the game for 15+ years.

The number of H1B visas in relationship to the entire market is just a drop in the bucket.

600k H1B workers is quite a lot.

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

#928

Post by andrewem »

dorfsmay wrote: post #903
sigotirandolas wrote: post #843

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am likely not revealing anything new to you (nor I know much about hiring), but: Taking a look at your CV, I notice that you have a lot of very short work stints, averaging at about a position per year. This is probably just the nature of contracting, but I can see this putting off most companies that are looking for someone to dive deeply in the business domain and work on supporting a project long-term. I also fe…

Thank you for taking the time to look at it and commenting. It is indeed the nature of contracting and project work. Note that there are 3 times where I have done contracts back to back for 4 or 5 years for the same company, which should show that I don't just jump ship all the time and am able to commit for a long time. It made more sense to highlight each project individually in an economy with a lot of need for co…

Formatting it with the company as the top-level item would make clear at a glance that you’ve been at places for a lot longer.

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

#929

Post by dennis_jeeves1 »

troebr wrote: post #741
adriand wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 t…

>> competence is often inversely correlated with charisma

>Source needed

Experience and observation. When one is deeply involved in solving hard problems, one has less time for pleasantries, superfluous stuff ( but important to people in general) and subtle manipulations of relationships, that make up 'charisma'. Over time that becomes your personality. Not saying that this is the best thing to happen to an engineer, but it's the way things are IMO.

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

#930

Post by komali2 »

How many applications have you sent?

Oh average I send 250 applications in a job hunt to get about three offers, two of which are for positions I actually want.

It's my opinion that in general people don't have a proper expectation for the volume of applications necessary to find a good fitting job. Or dating to find a good partner, for that matter.

Many of my friends often "settle" for the first company that gives them an offer because the job hunt is so tedious and emotionally exhausting. It requires a shifting of a mindset imo: every rejection is not telling you literally that you're not a good fit. First of all, I've met very few people that are good at hiring or evaluating engineering ability, let alone their own engineering needs. So most rejections just come from that lack of skill in that area, they failed to realize or evaluatedthat you would have done a good job for them. Second, it's not a reflection on your ability, it's just that you require 197 rejections to get the three offers. It just takes that. If you settle in for the ride I think it goes better.

I've blogged about this in regards to boot camp grads: https://blog.calebjay.com/posts/bootcamp-job-search/#the-res...

Whenever I mention this people often say that that strategy is too impersonal, that I'm not leveraging warm leads enough, etc. Of course you should also do this. And attend meetups. All the steps, lol. Treat the job search like a full time job.

I will say this round of my job hunt my numbers are off. I'm at 80 resume sends to one call back. I should be at about 20 call backs now. It might be because I'm full remote now though.

Post reply on HN