All the best advice we could find on how to get a job • Hacker News Board

Re: All the best advice we could find on how to get a job

#91

Post by p4wnc6 » Wed, Jun 08, 2016, 11:30 PM UTC

smilingtom wrote: post #90

p4wnc6 wrote: post #5

I've been unemployed for about 14 months since resigning from my most recent role -- a role which my close family and friends characterized as "destroying me." After becoming unemployed, with enough savings to sustain myself for a long search, I then faced a significant family trauma that required me to move away from Boston (where I had lived and worked for most of the past decade), back home to do basically full-ti…

My advice to you would be to be less self-obsessed. It will be important for you and your happiness to come to terms with how little you matter and how unimportant you are to the world. No one cares what you did in university - that was another life. This should bring you comfort.

I think I already feel that way to a strong degree. As I mentioned in my post, I dislike laurel-resting and want to be judged based on talent and work ethic, aspects that have earned me far more praise through my efforts than anything from my university accomplishments. But at the same time, succeeding and winning fellowships and awards in difficult university programs still is at least some degree of evidence of skill and grit, and it's reasonable to be disappointed if others choose to wholly discount it.

As for not mattering in the grand scheme of things, yes of course, that much has been obvious since I was a teenager. I liked a certain Robin Hanson quote when someone replied to his post called "Impatient Idealism" -- at which point he says, "News flash: you are just one of seven billion, so you aren’t going to personally make much difference. The world will have nearly as many problems worth solving then as now, with or without your help." [0]

That quote has been often on my mind at least since 2012 when I first read it.

[0] http://www.overcomingbias.com/2012/11/a-young-idealist-respo...

Re: All the best advice we could find on how to get a job

#92

Post by p4wnc6 » Wed, Jun 08, 2016, 11:34 PM UTC

enimodas wrote: post #88

p4wnc6 wrote: post #5

I've been unemployed for about 14 months since resigning from my most recent role -- a role which my close family and friends characterized as "destroying me." After becoming unemployed, with enough savings to sustain myself for a long search, I then faced a significant family trauma that required me to move away from Boston (where I had lived and worked for most of the past decade), back home to do basically full-ti…

You reject offers after comparing compensation with your previous job, but forgot to take into account that your old job was 'destroying you' and your new one hopefully wont.

Regardless, the amount of compensation required to eek out a minimal living for myself in the high cost-of-living areas where the jobs are plus send money home to cover the extra labor we'll have to pay for to handle the family situation when I am physically not there add up to something in the range of what I earned before, so it is an amount that is needed, not merely hoped for.

Further, I had two other jobs before the really destructive one, and was paid at the same level in those jobs. In hindsight, choosing to leave those jobs over mild issues was a mistake, but everyone encouraged me to do it at the time. I asked every question under the sun when going through the hiring process with the third place, and absolutely nothing stood out to me as a red flag that would have indicated just how bad it was.

Re: All the best advice we could find on how to get a job

#93

Post by smilingtom » Thu, Jun 09, 2016, 12:07 AM UTC

p4wnc6 wrote: post #91

smilingtom wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My advice to you would be to be less self-obsessed. It will be important for you and your happiness to come to terms with how little you matter and how unimportant you are to the world. No one cares what you did in university - that was another life. This should bring you comfort.

I think I already feel that way to a strong degree. As I mentioned in my post, I dislike laurel-resting and want to be judged based on talent and work ethic, aspects that have earned me far more praise through my efforts than anything from my university accomplishments. But at the same time, succeeding and winning fellowships and awards in difficult university programs still is at least some degree of evidence of ski…

Can I chat with you some time? You are basically who I am going to grow up to be in ~15 years and I'd like to know more about where I'm headed.

Re: All the best advice we could find on how to get a job

#94

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 09, 2016, 12:07 AM UTC

p4wnc6 wrote: post #5

I've been unemployed for about 14 months since resigning from my most recent role -- a role which my close family and friends characterized as "destroying me." After becoming unemployed, with enough savings to sustain myself for a long search, I then faced a significant family trauma that required me to move away from Boston (where I had lived and worked for most of the past decade), back home to do basically full-ti…

[deleted]

Re: All the best advice we could find on how to get a job

#95

Post by wyldfire » Thu, Jun 09, 2016, 12:33 AM UTC

graham1776 wrote: post #69

The one thing I always tell anyone on the job hunt, which few ever seem to take me up on: Informational Interviews. These are informal "can I take you out to coffee?" talks with people in your industry to see what they are working on, what is happening with them, what is going on in the industry. Every job I have ever gotten is through informal meetings with people I have met through my network (whether its the curre…

This sounds like great advice that I never would've heeded when I was younger. I've just found a job but I'll keep this in mind for the next time.

Re: All the best advice we could find on how to get a job

#96

Post by cottonseed » Thu, Jun 09, 2016, 12:50 AM UTC

BenjaminTodd wrote: post #2

Hi everyone, I'm the author of the piece. If you know any other good resources or statistics we should incorporate, I'm keen to hear about them. If you disagree with something, feedback is very welcome.

Have you read Nick Corcodilos's Reinventing the Interview? There is a lot of overlap with your advice (understand the employer's problems, explain your value, etc.) Related to "Do free work", something I always liked, he recommends you actually do the work you're being hired for in the interview. How better to demonstrate how capable you are?

Re: All the best advice we could find on how to get a job

#97

Post by taurath » Thu, Jun 09, 2016, 12:56 AM UTC

p4wnc6 wrote: post #10

merpnderp wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure there is another way. But if you are in IT, and don't mind working with recruiters, LinkedIn is an incredibly efficient way to hook up with tons of recruiters willing to find you jobs doing exactly what you're looking (and qualified) for. We just lost a guy with barely 2 years experience on a lark response to a recruiter on LinkedIn. He made some ridiculous requests and the recruiter hooked him up.

This is not how it works. Recruiters generally spam everyone based on an inventory of jobs they have, and half the time, the recruiter is more interested in pumping you for information about where you currently work or where else you've applied. When recruiters do put you forward for a job, they require you to give up all negotiation power in advance, and generally they are paid bonuses on top of their commission if…

After pouring through your comments throughout this thread I'm kinda left with the following conclusion (take it for what its worth, a random person on the internet): you have a mindset problem, and you're generalizing to the point that you wouldn't be able to accept nearly any job, or be happy in one.

You've determined: Most companies are bad/wrong/awful/burnout machines All recruiters are either spambots or leeches

If you have this mindset, you've set the bar way too high. You say you've turned down many positions, and yet are in a big financial struggle now. Take a job that doesn't sound quite as bad as the others, before you're forced to take ANY job. I'll bet this rubs off on anyone who's interviewing you as well. You obviously have the skills and experience necessary to be a good engineer from what you've said, but engineers are in higher demand now than just about ever. If you can't find a job to your liking, the problem is you, not the industry.

Re: All the best advice we could find on how to get a job

#98

Post by Mandatum » Thu, Jun 09, 2016, 1:28 AM UTC

kirykl wrote: post #71

graham1776 wrote: post #69

The one thing I always tell anyone on the job hunt, which few ever seem to take me up on: Informational Interviews. These are informal "can I take you out to coffee?" talks with people in your industry to see what they are working on, what is happening with them, what is going on in the industry. Every job I have ever gotten is through informal meetings with people I have met through my network (whether its the curre…

I've tried advice like this before, and always results in rejection to even talk or after talking a nice referral to a frustratingly useless Taleo application portal. Maybe i'm not asking the right people but in my experience talking to people and hoping for a job goes nowhere.

Attend meetups, cold emails don't do much for me when I receive them. If I've already spoken with you, or I've met you - that's a different story.

Re: All the best advice we could find on how to get a job

#99

Post by snark42 » Thu, Jun 09, 2016, 1:37 AM UTC

p4wnc6 wrote: post #10

merpnderp wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure there is another way. But if you are in IT, and don't mind working with recruiters, LinkedIn is an incredibly efficient way to hook up with tons of recruiters willing to find you jobs doing exactly what you're looking (and qualified) for. We just lost a guy with barely 2 years experience on a lark response to a recruiter on LinkedIn. He made some ridiculous requests and the recruiter hooked him up.

This is not how it works. Recruiters generally spam everyone based on an inventory of jobs they have, and half the time, the recruiter is more interested in pumping you for information about where you currently work or where else you've applied. When recruiters do put you forward for a job, they require you to give up all negotiation power in advance, and generally they are paid bonuses on top of their commission if…

> When recruiters do put you forward for a job, they require you to give up all negotiation power in advance, and generally they are paid bonuses on top of their commission if they can ensure a candidate accepts a low salary. When they say "my commission is based on the salary you get so I'm trying to get you the most that I can" it is, truly, complete bullshit.

You are dealing with some really bad recruiters (the type that spam everyone) if they force you to give up any/all negotiation power. I've found a number of jobs through recruiters and I always got a 10-20% increase total cash compensation and full negotiating power to say no or ask for more before saying yes.

Re: All the best advice we could find on how to get a job

#100

Post by wtracy » Thu, Jun 09, 2016, 1:40 AM UTC

p4wnc6 wrote: post #5

I've been unemployed for about 14 months since resigning from my most recent role -- a role which my close family and friends characterized as "destroying me." After becoming unemployed, with enough savings to sustain myself for a long search, I then faced a significant family trauma that required me to move away from Boston (where I had lived and worked for most of the past decade), back home to do basically full-ti…

First, I'm impressed that you were brave enough to post that under your regular account. Kudos.

Second, here's an idea for you off the top of my head, so take it for what its worth:

You are in the middle of an area that most techies consider "flyover country" and that is therefore grossly underserved by the tech industry. I would bet dollars to donuts that there are industries in your backyard with unmet needs you could fill that are worth lots and lots of money.

My suggestion would be to find someone local to you who knows a local industry inside and out, and try to start a company together serving that industry.

If you do consider going down this route, Patrick McKenzie's articles are a gold mine of advice: http://www.kalzumeus.com/