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Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

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Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

#161
post #156
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. The last company I worked for interviewed some founder of a Czech IT agency for a lead dev position and his resume seemed awesome. He worked over 15 years in IT, founded a company that had 10 employees etc. But the first thing he said in the interview was "What job do you have? I only accept CTO" whelp.

Unless he knew exactly what he wanted, and simply asked for that :)

Unless he had not applied for a CTO role

Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

#162
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few of your remarks are solid in an ideological sense, but sadly the bulk of your comment comes across as "white dude mansplaining to an indian dude why he doesn't have to worry about racism". Racism is alive and well, and a real problem that people have to deal with. Advice like "embrace your proud geek culture and be your own person learning and pursuing the things that interest you" is generic feel good woowoo t…

10x Especially the American name thing. You can only know the disadvantages of having a non-western name if you've actually used one. There's a reason why so many ethnic (particularly Asian, from what I understand) lawyers use American "professional names".

I have a non-western name, and I get no problems. More curiosity and questions, rather than outright discrimination or anything of that sort.

The other advice really is solid: Don't fit the stereotype when you meet new individuals, and they won't treat you like one. First impressions count a lot, so you can't change someone's mind after the fact without a lot of work.

Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

#163
post #6

I've noticed a definite increase in companies doing bait and switches. They list higher level positions to attract good people and then try to offer them lower level positions. That's been my experience.

Well, if you've got "hiring" people on staff already, then it really isn't that much of a cost to do this. You're basically throwing stuff onto the wall to see what sticks. Essentially for free as I'd imagine most "internal recruiters" really don't do all that much other than that anyways. Might as well spam more.

Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

#164
post #158
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few of your remarks are solid in an ideological sense, but sadly the bulk of your comment comes across as "white dude mansplaining to an indian dude why he doesn't have to worry about racism". Racism is alive and well, and a real problem that people have to deal with. Advice like "embrace your proud geek culture and be your own person learning and pursuing the things that interest you" is generic feel good woowoo t…

I could counterpoint his/her entire comment, but I'll just briefly say that citing the success of certain ethnicities (backgrounds of the CEOs of Microsoft and Google) is like implying racism/sexism is over because Obama was President and a woman almost became President.

CEO is just publicly visible example, but at every level in Microsoft there're Indian, VP, managers, product managers, principal developers, regular developers. I think you can just browse/search Microsoft product managers thru linkedin to verify that. I'd be very surprised to see any bias towards any nationality at MS, given >50% of employees are foreign.

Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

#165
post #112

What are you willing to sacrifice? I can give you an answer, but you won't like it. As an Indian man you'll be discriminated against. Period. Lots of empirical proof for that, not just job wise but in lots of other cases (dating, etc). While folks here will give you lots of tips on the professional side, here are a few actionable things you can do to minimize racial bias: - Change your name to an americanized version…

No offence, some of this is dubious and degrading advice at best. Don't mean to be mean below in deconstructing the above, only clear. Current heritage CEO of Google and Microsoft prove some things. You don't choose things like the family you're born into or the colour of your skin. It's humiliating to be treated in a way to try to cover it up like you made a mistake of choosing those things. Americanized name - If p…

>Sadly, sometimes salespeople in a store won't greet me unless I say hi first.

That sounds fantastic. I wish this was my experience when shopping because I hate being harassed by salespeople looking to make a commission.

Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with posting as throwaway. Probably the author of the post want to avoid racial bias over his name ?

An up vote on a throwaway doesn't earn your main account any internet points, so it's be a thrown away up vote.

Who cares about points? I'll sell you some cheap

Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

#167

What are you willing to sacrifice? I can give you an answer, but you won't like it. As an Indian man you'll be discriminated against. Period. Lots of empirical proof for that, not just job wise but in lots of other cases (dating, etc). While folks here will give you lots of tips on the professional side, here are a few actionable things you can do to minimize racial bias: - Change your name to an americanized version…

Amen. There are very strong racial stereotypes. They also vary by who holds them. I'm a 40+ yo Russian system programmer, moved to States when I was 25, worked in a bunch of places from smaller startups to Fortune-500 shops. Here are my stereotypes: * Russians are frustrated know-it-alls with strong NIH syndrom wanting to redo everything from scratch. The language barrier often makes it hard for them to clearly expre…

That's interesting. Are you aware of any stereotype about/against italians?

Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

#168
post #29

Just curious what's your visa situation?

This is what I'm curious about too. It's not clear if this is a factor in your case. The Visa process can be an expensive and very long process, and I have seen companies turning down great candidates because they can't afford to wait a year to MAYBE get the candidate a visa.

Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

#169

Taking your description at face value, something is incongruous between how you present yourself in person vs. on your resumé. I can't see how otherwise despite your qualifications on paper and in your phone conversation why a company would spend their time bringing you onsite for a specific position, and then find you unfit but still want to consider you for something else. There seems to be a disconnect that doesn'…

I agree with lr4444lr: there is something going on that apparently only comes out when they meet you face to face.

We do not know you so I will have to work on the little you put on the OP... maybe during the on-site interview you come out as a bit too desperate about changing job? or too whiney about the current job? Or both?

Try to consider if this could actually be a factor: I am sure that "what do you think of your current position" is pretty much a criteria in considering a new hire, even if it is not necessarily prominent during the interview.

Re: Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

#170
Pretty much all of these other posters appear to agree that it's some form of "here's what's wrong with you", when in fact, none of us can know if that's the case.

But let's look at the numbers. Pretend every onsite interview had a random 10% chance of resulting in an offer. 10% offends certain people's sensibilities, but in this crazy bubble, I'd say for some businesses, it's on the high side. Management is a political game, and it's rigged, often against high performers. One interviewer may have made their employer pass on you because they felt you'd jeopardize their cushy monday-morning work habits, despite the fact the project is months behind schedule and falling further behind.

If you were to publish your experiences to a peer-reviewed scientific publication, everybody would tell you "need more data". 50 job applications is simply not enough, and 7 onsites nowhere near enough. If the search is grueling and bumming you out, maybe let up a bit, take a month or two breather, and try to focus on higher quality at the beginning of the funnel (if you're not thrilled about the job, don't waste any time on it).

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