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

Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 149 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack

#11

Post by cbanek »

Frankly, I think the most important thing is to have a good resume. Apply for jobs where you don't have all the skills, chances are they'd be happy if you knew half of the things they listed, but would be willing to learn the other half. (Don't even get me started on job descriptions asking for skills that don't get used later, this happens too frequently.)

Also, apply for jobs with different frameworks where you have experience solving their type of problems. That knowledge is much more valuable on a long term basis.

Ask questions like "are you actively making contributions to this framework?" If so, you probably want to know it. If not, just remind them that it will most likely take much longer to ramp up on their (non-public) codebase, but your skill is learning things and solving problems. If you're not employee #1, a lot of the framework plumbing is probably already done for you.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack

#12

Post by moron4hire »

tristram_shandy wrote: post #7

Don't write anything on your resume that would indicate "number of years experience" -- list your jobs, explain key achievements, don't distill anything down to a number. Your resume should NOT explain who you are, or go into real specifics -- it's an advertisement for you, as simple as that. If they want details, they'll have to schedule an interview. Once you have the interview, you can talk about your experiences,…

You're focused on the wrong thing. The resume comes way too late in the job acquisition process to really matter. The vast majority of jobs are filled through networking, not applying cold with a great resume.

You need to work on meeting people in your field, at the companies where you want to work. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Go out to meetups. Be a friendly, helpful person. Make friends, lots of them. One of them will make the connection for you at some point.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack

#13

Post by nate_martin »

It's a little annoying when companies put framework names in their job titles. Asking for a "react engineer" or a "boost programmer" will likely turn away a lot of people who would actually be a good fit for the role. My suggestion is to just be open with the company and tell them what you do know and how quickly you can get up to speed. Something like: "I haven't used React on a paid project before, but I have a lot of experience with other frontend frameworks like x/y."

Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack

#15

Post by mathgeek »

koolba wrote: post #4

Lie. Specifically to get your foot in the door enough that they'll hear you out. If you're truly experienced and capable of picking things up quickly, it shows in an interview (at least when I'm the one doing the interviewing).

Unless you're a true gambler, better to omit than to mislead.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack

#16

Post by eli »

A lot of the time "Requires 2 years experience with foo" is just another way of saying "we want someone with intermediate-level knowledge of foo." If you can demonstrate you have that equivalent ability with e.g. a side project on github, that's probably fine.

In general, don't take job d requirements too literally. Research the job & the company and write a nice cover letter and I think you'd do fine. Worst case you don't get the job.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack

#17

Post by jorgemf »

What do you mean to pivot you career? It is not the same moving from front end development to backend development than from front end to data scientist. If the pivot is "highly overlaped" you can try to pivot in your own company, as it probably does both things. If it is something where your past experience means nothing then you will have to start from scratch for the new career. But probably you will progress faster because the way of thinking to solve problems helps a little. Also the experience dealing with people helps, as it is not the same to be a young developer who is eager to eat the world and probably highly unaware of his own skills than someone who knows the limit and how a company works.

When I did a small pivot in my career I basically had to start from scratch. So I sit by myself and start working on a project learning what I wanted to work for. Once I was a bit comfortable I apply to mid-level and junior positions.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack

#18

Post by Swizec »

thegayngler wrote: post #9
Swizec wrote: post #5

I have had great success with saying things like “I have 10 years of web engineering experience and have been looking into X for N years/months”. Engineering skills translate well between stacks and framework/library skills are only good for a couple years. Can you break down a complex problem into estimatable chunks that can potentially be delegated as well? Can you design a system that solves a business problem? Aw…

I guess I'm different in that I care that people understand the pluses and minuses of the various frameworks. I think anyone can pick up a framework or solve a problem. However, can they understand why and when to use x framework to solve a problem and back up why they chose to solve the problem in the way they chose to do it. Additionally I want someone who can be passionate about the tech stack and frameworks they…

>I don't understand why people label others who care about their craft and the tools they use as junior/midlevel.

Because we’ve gone through 10 different frameworks already.

I’m not a jQuery engineer or a Backbone engineer or an Angular engineer or a React engineer or a Redux engineer or a MobX engineer or a Node engineer or a Rails engineer or a PHP engineer or a Python engineer. Yes I’ve used all od those to deliver real world projects that made money for my clients/employers, but they’re just a tool I use. Many such tools have come and gone since I started building stuff for the web in the early 00’s and many more will come and go before I stop. I love building stuff and I have a deep understanding of the web, but tools are just tools, they don’t define me.

Yes you want a carpenter with a good understanding of hammers and nails and you need them to know which to use when, but do you really want to hire a carpenter who identifies themselves as “Expert hammerer of 5 inch nails”?

Ultimately, if you are looking for an expert hammerer of 5 inch nails, I am not a good fit. And that’s okay.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack

#19

Post by JustSomeNobody »

acangiano wrote: post #10

Four suggestions: 1. Don't obsess over the specifics on an ad. See if the role is in line with what you have to offer, but don't worry if you don't have the exact number of years of experience they request or one of the many skills they added to what it's essentially their wishlist. 2. Provided you have a solid foundation with some standard skills like JavaScript, Python or Ruby, etc, specialize in a relatively new s…

Re: #4. I currently live in a city that has virtually no tech scene. I work remote and my office is a thousand miles away. What are some ways to get a similar experience, but online? I don't particularly like social networking online (in person, sure!), so I've never tried looking into tech related social scenes.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack

#20

Post by milofeynman »

jorgemf wrote: post #17

What do you mean to pivot you career? It is not the same moving from front end development to backend development than from front end to data scientist. If the pivot is "highly overlaped" you can try to pivot in your own company, as it probably does both things. If it is something where your past experience means nothing then you will have to start from scratch for the new career. But probably you will progress faste…

I'm at a small, dying startup doing Xamarin mobile development and I'm looking to pivot out of xamarin/mobile and into web and data. I am learning online and doing a side project on github, but I don't have experience making this kind of transition. I've thrown on an infrequent job application not expecting much and gotten 0 responses. So I am curious what others who have made that sort of transition do to get noticed. My previous job I found through a local meetup, but it was a framework/language I was familiar with so they wanted/needed me badly.
Post reply on HN