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My Mid-Career Job-Hunt: A Data Point for Job-Seeking Devs

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Re: My Mid-Career Job-Hunt: A Data Point for Job-Seeking Devs

#11

Post by marcinzm »

meddlepal wrote: post #6
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #2

This is terribly useless for anyone else. I’d go so far as to say it is not, in fact, a data point for anyone. - 65 days is a very very short time to be on the market - the coding interview experience of this applicant and requirements of the companies appears to be far more lax than most experiences in tech hiring - it took place right around the pandemic / unemployment / layoff time period which is a nasty confound…

> 65 days is a very very short time to be on the market Wait what? Is this just an SF/Valley thing? 60 days on the market is a long time IMO. Long enough that my experience with east coast recruiting is that by the time you hit 30 days offers start evaporating so it makes it difficult to play them off of each other for negotiating purposes.

If you're not good at modern interviews then it can take some time to find a company that either you get lucky on or that uses a different process.

Re: My Mid-Career Job-Hunt: A Data Point for Job-Seeking Devs

#12

Post by soneca »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #2

This is terribly useless for anyone else. I’d go so far as to say it is not, in fact, a data point for anyone. - 65 days is a very very short time to be on the market - the coding interview experience of this applicant and requirements of the companies appears to be far more lax than most experiences in tech hiring - it took place right around the pandemic / unemployment / layoff time period which is a nasty confound…

The title says ”a data point”. This kind of nullify all of your rant for me.

You can’t say ”it’s not a data point”, it makes no sense. You could argue it’s an outlier, but it is a data point.

I am actually glad that it is not someone pretending to have good advice that might fool me into thinking it is actually good advice. It is refreshing to read just one account that I learn what I want from, without been tricked in to believe it’s anything more than that.

Re: My Mid-Career Job-Hunt: A Data Point for Job-Seeking Devs

#13

Post by wuunderbar »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #2

This is terribly useless for anyone else. I’d go so far as to say it is not, in fact, a data point for anyone. - 65 days is a very very short time to be on the market - the coding interview experience of this applicant and requirements of the companies appears to be far more lax than most experiences in tech hiring - it took place right around the pandemic / unemployment / layoff time period which is a nasty confound…

> 65 days is a very very short time to be on the market

Is it though? For software engineering?

> the coding interview experience of this applicant and requirements of the companies appears to be far more lax than most experiences in tech hiring

I'm not sure. Difficult LeetCode type questions are less common (based on numerous anecdotal accounts online) everywhere other than with SF Bay Area & NYC based companies than anywhere else.

Re: My Mid-Career Job-Hunt: A Data Point for Job-Seeking Devs

#14

Post by soneca »

lynchdt wrote: post #10

Some perhaps unsolicited advice from a hiring manager in a company very similar to the great ones in which this writer was unsuccessful. - Rare programmers won’t identify themselves as such. - Most great companies hire for humility as a trait.

I think I am not understanding your advice (or the post). I didn’t see where the author claims to be a ”rare programmer” or does not show humility.

Re: My Mid-Career Job-Hunt: A Data Point for Job-Seeking Devs

#15

Post by marcinzm »

lynchdt wrote: post #10

Some perhaps unsolicited advice from a hiring manager in a company very similar to the great ones in which this writer was unsuccessful. - Rare programmers won’t identify themselves as such. - Most great companies hire for humility as a trait.

So true, excessive ego is really problematic on an engineering team. There's a thin but very real line between confidant and egoistical. And most hiring managers err on the side of caution when seeing potential red flags.

Re: My Mid-Career Job-Hunt: A Data Point for Job-Seeking Devs

#16

Post by soneca »

ganstyles wrote: post #3

Note this is for a PM role. This isn't mentioned for a long time into the article. I found that slightly annoying personally, as most people on HN seem to be engineers. But I don't think the experience generalizes, as someone who has received eng and pm offers from FAANG companies.

To add to the other sibling comments, the author mentions several times ”coding challenges “. This is not for a PM role.

Re: My Mid-Career Job-Hunt: A Data Point for Job-Seeking Devs

#17

Post by marcinzm »

soneca wrote: post #14
lynchdt wrote: post #10

Some perhaps unsolicited advice from a hiring manager in a company very similar to the great ones in which this writer was unsuccessful. - Rare programmers won’t identify themselves as such. - Most great companies hire for humility as a trait.

I think I am not understanding your advice (or the post). I didn’t see where the author claims to be a ”rare programmer” or does not show humility.

It's in the cover letter.

Re: My Mid-Career Job-Hunt: A Data Point for Job-Seeking Devs

#18

Post by JSavageOne »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #2

This is terribly useless for anyone else. I’d go so far as to say it is not, in fact, a data point for anyone. - 65 days is a very very short time to be on the market - the coding interview experience of this applicant and requirements of the companies appears to be far more lax than most experiences in tech hiring - it took place right around the pandemic / unemployment / layoff time period which is a nasty confound…

Sorry I'm going to be blunt here, what an incredibly stupid comment. OP applied to well-known companies like Square and Reddit, shared his resume, interview experiences, and outcomes, and you're here on an anonymous internet forum telling him that this information is completely useless because he didn't mention salary details?

I personally found it interesting and helpful as an engineer interested in potentially working for some of these companies. You are incredibly out of touch and socially challenged to tell him his post is utterly useless because it focuses on startups and there's a pandemic. I hope I never have to work at a company alongside you.

Re: My Mid-Career Job-Hunt: A Data Point for Job-Seeking Devs

#20

Post by troughway »

Should "mid-career" software developers still be focused on low-balling themselves with having to do "career growth" things like this fellow, or should they plan their exit strategy to get out of that career trajectory entirely?

Assuming mid-career is actually mid-career and not the ageist SV type of mid-career.

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