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64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

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Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#181

Post by austincheney »

dev1n wrote: post #171
austincheney wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The presumption about the junior level role is accurate but for reasons different than what you are thinking. It’s less about the work and more about the people. Some junior developers have the potential to be great senior developers. They listen to mentorship and independently weigh decision criteria. Many juniors don’t have this potential and some shouldn’t even be there in the first place. The need for recognition…

When you put “sensitive people make me sad” In your HN profile it debases your point of view.

I am ok with that for reasons sensitive people cannot accept.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#182

Post by jrumbut »

fecak wrote: post #177

Professional resume writer and career consultant here, approaching 50, and I’ve helped rehabilitate careers of many clients in similar situations. The line that caught my eye was his quote “I have been unemployed for a long time." I believe the stigma of extended unemployment is worse than ageism. What I do is a mix of marketing (maximize assets, minimize liabilities, optimize everything), strategy for job search (be…

I'd like to believe this but I've seen some really great contributors just get unlucky for 6 months or more, and then all of a sudden it's been a year and things are starting to look strange.

It's a great market for developers to get hired, but it's still possible to fall through the cracks especially if you aren't good at the specific skill of job searching.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#183

Post by ericb »

snotrockets wrote: post #98
burtonator wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Link to your resume and I'll take a look. All this bullshit about inclusivity. What we SHOULD be doing is blinding the candidate and interviewer. No name. Just the last 2 years of job history. That's it. You don't know their gender. Don't know their age. Don't know their race. Just complete meritocracy.

It won't be, because different groups answer questions differently. One famous result ( http://web.pdx.edu/~mev/pdf/PS471_Readings_2012/Lizotte_Sidm... ) is that woman hold themselves to a higher threshold of certainty before claiming to know something. An interesting solution would be to score differently based on known biases; but that would be a can of worms in itself. Meritocracy is a lie used by the privileged.…

> Meritocracy is a lie used by the privileged.

I don't understand this point of view. It sounds like, by calling it a lie, your real complaint is the ways attempts at meritocracy have fallen short of being an actual meritocracy. That being the case, isn't meritocracy still the correct ideal that we should be doing a better job of striving for?

If this is not how you feel, what is the word for the appropriate assignment strategy that we should be strive to use to decide who gets jobs and promotions?

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#184

Post by Washuu »

scarface74 wrote: post #74
myresume wrote: post #16

I have experienced this myself. I am going on 50. I am actually looking for work now. And I have kept up and I am using modern tech stacks. http://geoffreycallaghan.com

I don’t know where you are. But with that skillset, recruiters should be throwing jobs at you in most major American cities. I know for a fact that recruiters in Atlanta would be salivating at the chance to placd you. As I said before, I am in my mid 40s.

The place I work for will be hiring within the next six months, budget approval pending, and this is basically a resume that would put someone towards the top of the stack.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#188

Post by democracy »

4thaccount wrote: post #3

Heartbreaking. I'm only partially in what could be considered tech, but I constantly try to move groups in my industry every few years to constantly pick up new skills. I honestly think I have enough random skills now: databases, programming, systems integration, mastery of a variety of common industry tools, project leadership, specific domain theory and understanding of the math that underlays my industry. However,…

Our client was impressed with your skills and you are a perfect fit for the team, however your Angular 3.46 knowledge was not enough to consider you for this role at this moment. Please, feel free to re-apply! :)

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#189

Post by DenisM »

sephoric wrote: post #66
towaway1138 wrote: post #15

I'm only in my 50s, but this is very relateable. Did a couple dozen interviews a year or two ago before finally getting a bite. Somewhat amazingly, even passed the hiring committee at a FANG, only to get swatted down by a rare strike from the executive level. In one interview, was asked to produce a class that could serialize and deserialize a list of numbers, to/from a string of chars. Sure, it's not that hard. Took…

We're at that point too. My solution is a combination of downsizing our life and making my own app business. So far the only app I released (Autumn) was a bust because I stupidly released it on New Year's Eve so practically nobody knew about it, also it's too niche. But everyone loves the quality, so I figure I'll just keep writing more apps. I've got a lot of ideas and a lot of energy. I may have to work at Walmart…

This is going to be harsh but it’s for your own good.

You have no idea what you’re doing and you are blindly digging yourself deeper into the hole by writing more apps. I wrote a couple of quality apps and I had seen some success financial success with them, you are not moving in the right direction.

You can’t write an app and think up a marketing plan afterwards as an extension, it’s the other way around - you find an audience with a need you can satisfy and a loudspeaker to reach them about it, only then you add an app as an extension to that.

If you want to write quality apps as a hobby then go for it, but don’t expect financial stability from that or you will face emotional ruin on the heals of financial struggle. Just don’t.

If you’re looking to make a living then go be a consultant to small-medium businesses. Fire bad clients asap, make unexpected treats for good clients. Repeat business accumulated over a few years will set you up for life.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#190

Post by ValleyOfTheMtns »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #158
snotrockets wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won't be, because different groups answer questions differently. One famous result ( http://web.pdx.edu/~mev/pdf/PS471_Readings_2012/Lizotte_Sidm... ) is that woman hold themselves to a higher threshold of certainty before claiming to know something. An interesting solution would be to score differently based on known biases; but that would be a can of worms in itself. Meritocracy is a lie used by the privileged.…

> Meritocracy is a lie used by the privileged. There is no such thing in the real world. I remember an essay by a black female engineer. She said what helped her were three things, her dad had a union job, disability payments from the uncle who came home from Korea with no legs. These meant they could fake a middle class lifestyle. And her mother teaching her how to dress and talk like a white person. Seriously a lot…

Seems like that's conflating actual meritocracy with an exploited/fake form of meritocracy.

Actual meritocracies are rare, but that doesn't mean we should redefine "meritocracy" to be the the distorted (and more common) version of it.

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