Earlier quoted context omitted.
i do.
I will use you as an excuse to keep working on my portfolio when I should really be whiteboarding out fizzbuzz minesweeper in O(logN) time right now.
glad i could help
Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack
131–140 of 149 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack
#132There are companies like the one I work for that are willing to hire experienced engineers and then train them on their chosen technical stack. The job engineering descriptions on the Rover.com career page include "Rover’s web app is written in Python and built on the Django framework. Nevertheless, we are willing to train people in Python and Django, so first and foremost are looking for good engineers who are eager to learn."
Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "When I'm contracting I always get paid 10 -30% more" From my experience (and quite a few people in a similar situation), as a foreign contractor I am making ~50% less money than FTE are making doing the exactly same job just because of the country I was born in. I am not charging this learning time because I don't want/need to, but I would certainly not work with a company who would require me to do part of the jo…
but I would certainly not work with a company who would require me to do part of the job for free. If I'm hired as a React developer to implement a set of business requirements, they are hiring me to learn and implement the business requirements. They are not hiring me to learn React. If they hired me with the knowledge that I'm not a seasoned React developer, the expectation is that they will not be expecting me to…
I was replying for the situation that you mentioned of full time employees, with contracting I think we both agree.
> If a person is not willing to sacrifice to learn skills on their own time
That's what I mean exactly. They might not have free time! That's why you're supposed to work 40h/week and any extra is a plus, not a requirement. The same argument could be applied to any field, so should someone without free time just not work? That's why it's unfair to require that employees spend large chunks of their free time to learn how to do the company's job.
Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack
#134There are companies like the one I work for that are willing to hire experienced engineers and then train them on their chosen technical stack. The job engineering descriptions on the Rover.com career page include "Rover’s web app is written in Python and built on the Django framework. Nevertheless, we are willing to train people in Python and Django, so first and foremost are looking for good engineers who are eager…
I think there's another aspect...which is that there is the job and the tools to do the job. The framework is the tools...the job is, in Rover's case, building a web site.
Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
I still doubt the "networking" part. I've got my first job in the states because a recruiter called me. Same for the second job. The third one was through being acquired. The fourth one, you could call networking if you call showing up for a recruiting event networking. 5th one? You guessed it, recruiter called. Sixth one? Yep. Exactly. Before that, I worked in Germany. 1st job, applied cold. Second one, applied cold…
I still get recruiters randomly messaging me. However they're all looking for someone to move laterally, not up. This wasn't the case when I was more junior. Much like salary I find myself wondering if there isn't a limit to finding new opportunities without networking.
There might be. I don't know. I've been approached by recruiters, told them point blank "not what I'm looking for, here's what I want", and they just pointed me to those opportunities instead.
So I think part of the answer is clearly saying what you want. I don't know if that holds for positions like Director /VP at large tech companies - these are always somewhat political - but it seems to hold up to pretty much right before that.
YMMV, of course. For all I know, I accidentally have the right magic keywords in my LinkedIn or something. (I don't know. I only update it every few years, so I certainly am not paying enough attention to tell :)
Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
but I would certainly not work with a company who would require me to do part of the job for free. If I'm hired as a React developer to implement a set of business requirements, they are hiring me to learn and implement the business requirements. They are not hiring me to learn React. If they hired me with the knowledge that I'm not a seasoned React developer, the expectation is that they will not be expecting me to…
I was replying for the situation that you mentioned of full time employees, with contracting I think we both agree. > If a person is not willing to sacrifice to learn skills on their own time That's what I mean exactly. They might not have free time! That's why you're supposed to work 40h/week and any extra is a plus, not a requirement. The same argument could be applied to any field, so should someone without free t…
The same argument could be applied to any field, so should someone without free time just not work?
If you don't have free time to learn to keep up your skills in the IT industry, you won't be employable for long. It's not about fairness.
Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you typically rate yourself on these scales? You can't call yourself anything lower than a 9 lest they move on.
I'm not the right person to ask. I've never managed to get a job that involved HR screening phone calls. I usually rate myself from 7 to 8. Probably 9 if I have 5+ years of experience or I would be confident consulting. Once I rated my skills as 10 for a technology I know quite a lot about. I was then told that I was showing off and that I need to work on being more humble.
Ouch. I think I'm starting to see why so many people get jobs through connections rather than cold applying.
Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack
#138What did you do to get a response back from jobs you've submitted an application to? Round an unsolicited job application down to a no-op; this is not how the majority of jobs get filled. Instead, you should find someone with decisionmaking authority in the company, talk to them, and get them interested in you. The "N years of experience" thing not a requirement. It is a polite fiction. It was put there by someone wh…
Hah. Thank you for this post. You have a way with words.
Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was replying for the situation that you mentioned of full time employees, with contracting I think we both agree. > If a person is not willing to sacrifice to learn skills on their own time That's what I mean exactly. They might not have free time! That's why you're supposed to work 40h/week and any extra is a plus, not a requirement. The same argument could be applied to any field, so should someone without free t…
The same argument could be applied to any field, so should someone without free time just not work? If you don't have free time to learn to keep up your skills in the IT industry, you won't be employable for long. It's not about fairness .
There are many companies that do care about their employees and let them learn during work time or even teach them themselves! I believe those are some of the best companies around the globe as well (;
Re: Ask HN: How do you pivot your career when jobs want years of exp in a stack
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
The same argument could be applied to any field, so should someone without free time just not work? If you don't have free time to learn to keep up your skills in the IT industry, you won't be employable for long. It's not about fairness .
There are many companies that do care about their employees and let them learn during work time or even teach them themselves! I believe those are some of the best companies around the globe as well (;
Sure a company that is still writing software that is based on their tech stack would be more than willing to make sure that you know that. But what happens when the tech stack they are using becomes outdated?