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Ask HN: Why am I having a hard time finding a new job?

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Ask HN: Why am I having a hard time finding a new job?

#1

Post by taurenk »

For the past few months I have been trying to find a new job and I can’t seem to find the right position one way or another. I have gotten pretty far in the hiring process with some large well known companies, the trend seems to be “we really really like you, we just don’t think your ready” type of deal.

Currently, I work for a healthcare company doing a little of everything in IT/IS. I administer systems, do analytics on large sets of claim, member and provider data, ETL work, SQL development, new system implementation, and now long term IT strategy. I even do a ton of python scripting/dev for analytics and large projects.

On top of working 40+ hours I started to teach myself some new things. I picked up Python/Flask/PostgreSQL about 8 months ago and built out a Geocoding service using Census data. After interviewing for some Java engineer positions and not making the cut, I started to rewrite the geocoding REST service in Java/Spring/Hibernate. I even started to pick up Angular so I could make a decent UI in order to show off my work.

I really would love to become a software engineer – I love solving problems, creating, designing, etc. Trying to switch from what I do now to that type of role has been extremely frustrating. Recruiters seem to think it’s impossible for me to switch and I haven’t gotten much hits for anything close to what I want to be doing.

I’m hoping someone could offer some advice on what to do! I’ve attached a link to my resume and github – maybe I am not marketing myself properly?

https://github.com/taurenk https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77316816/resume.doc

Re: Ask HN: Why am I having a hard time finding a new job?

#2

Post by gamechangr »

small comment:

Sometimes I like to see activity (on Github) for more than the last two months. It makes me wonder if someone is really passionate about building things, or is just looking for easy employment.

You did a good job of addressing that in your HN post, but I would bet that a few companies are holding that (good activity, but only fairly recently) against you.

Good news, that problem will fix itself with another two months or so of activity.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I having a hard time finding a new job?

#3

Post by taurenk »

gamechangr wrote: post #2

small comment: Sometimes I like to see activity (on Github) for more than the last two months. It makes me wonder if someone is really passionate about building things, or is just looking for easy employment. You did a good job of addressing that in your HN post, but I would bet that a few companies are holding that (good activity, but only fairly recently) against you. Good news, that problem will fix itself with an…

Thanks. It's funny, I actually started all of this NOT using Git. I wasn't until I was about 3 months into the Python Geocoder I mentioned about did i start to use Git!

Re: Ask HN: Why am I having a hard time finding a new job?

#4

Post by gamechangr »

taurenk wrote: post #3
gamechangr wrote: post #2

small comment: Sometimes I like to see activity (on Github) for more than the last two months. It makes me wonder if someone is really passionate about building things, or is just looking for easy employment. You did a good job of addressing that in your HN post, but I would bet that a few companies are holding that (good activity, but only fairly recently) against you. Good news, that problem will fix itself with an…

Thanks. It's funny, I actually started all of this NOT using Git. I wasn't until I was about 3 months into the Python Geocoder I mentioned about did i start to use Git!

Yeah man, many people do that. It's just hard because maybe 50 resumes come through and you breeze through twenty githubs before writing down who to call back.

Sometimes -- that's all you get ( a twenty second look), so make sure to explain your story in the cover letter.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I having a hard time finding a new job?

#5

Post by shortlived »

First off - don't listen to recruiters. Second, tailor your resume more towards programming/software engineering vs. IT/sys admin. If you want to get out of healthcare domain then consider dropping some of the references to that tech (Pick, SAP) and focus on more general stuff (python/java, SQL server).

Edit: your resume looks great given that you've been working for 3 years. There are some really solid projects listed. My guess is that for some reason you are not making it past resume screen for the "right" companies or you are applying for jobs way beyond your years of experience.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I having a hard time finding a new job?

#7

Post by lazyant »

If you have sysadmin experience you can apply to (some) DevOps positions as well (you may want to play and get skills with things like AWS, orchestration tools like puppet/chef/ansible/salt, docker etc).

Also for a "generalist" is probably easier to find jobs in smaller companies than in large companies.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I having a hard time finding a new job?

#10

Post by zerr »

gamechangr wrote: post #2

small comment: Sometimes I like to see activity (on Github) for more than the last two months. It makes me wonder if someone is really passionate about building things, or is just looking for easy employment. You did a good job of addressing that in your HN post, but I would bet that a few companies are holding that (good activity, but only fairly recently) against you. Good news, that problem will fix itself with an…

What's wrong with `looking for easy employment`? I mean, we know tech interviews suck. So if there any other way to workaround this thing and show to the prospective employers what you can do (assuming that you're willing to sacrifice your time), why not? Especially, given that `github is your CV` meme, which is fading nowadays.
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