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

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

philosophicalhacker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 272 posts

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

#141

Post by michaelt »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #32
georgeburdell wrote: post #29

I look at that resume and I wonder if it didn't hurt more than it helped; it's form over function, and a bit corny. The fact that he got multiple offers in two months shows how strong the software job market is. I'm several years younger, but a staff-level hardware engineer at a second tier company (top tier being FAANG). I've had an incredibly difficult time jumping companies --- 2 years and counting. Despite being…

> I wish I knew what the successful candidates had that I didn't It's not what they had, it's what they didn't... unless you're going heavy into research, I would recommend NOT getting the PhD until you hit 45+.

Much lower opportunity cost to a PhD if you're foregoing 4 years of a 20-year-old's wages, and you're used to the student lifestyle, than when you're foregoing a 45-year-old's wages and you've got a house and family.

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

#142

Post by davedx »

Thorentis wrote: post #25

Is it true you still need an "open source coding resume" by mid-career stage? I can understand using that to give you an advantage for entry-level roles, but by "mid-career" shouldn't your experience and achievements in past roles speak for itself? Or do companies still want to see engineers spending their spare time doing unpaid coding? By mid-career, many people have families to support, that they also would like t…

I've done a fair bit of technical screening of candidates at various levels. In my experience, unless you have a big open source project that people actually recognise, it's not worth mentioning. All the companies I helped interview candidates for were much more interested in

1) Experience

2) Proven programming ability, almost always measured with tests

Companies all in the Netherlands in the last ~8 years, from smaller to international.

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

#143

Post by Apocryphon »

smt88 wrote: post #97
wolco wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you hit the nail on the head. The various random things that can be thrown at you is incredible. Add that to different personality requirements. Most want extroverts during the interview process but introverted after hired.

You can be a good communicator and an introvert and nail a job interview. The hurdle for introverts is usually that they feel anxiety (some of which is normal for a job interview!) and may not come across as well as they would in a more comfortable setting.

Extroverts feel anxiety too. A job interview is a situation with an inherent power asymmetry, which is no more comforting to extroverts.

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

#144

Post by mister_hn »

dehrmann wrote: post #96
mister_hn wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you know? Do you ask a plumber to show you how to connect tubes, before hiring him? Whiteboard interviews aren't even real life situations.

I wasn't trying to have another instance of the whiteboard interview debate. My point was about arrogance and how we should give it more attention as a bad signal than we do.

definitively. Arrogance is a major red flag

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

#145

Post by Nextgrid »

Maybe it's just me but I think that "branded" CVs come across as desperate and could be considered red flags that either the candidate is trying to make up for something else (lack of skills, etc) or is unaware of the performance of the job market (I guess if the market is really bad you might try a branded CV out of desperation, but software engineering is still very much a seller's market).

Branded CV is something I could see coming from someone fresh out of high school that is working off poor advice they've been given and to try and make up for the fact they basically have zero experience to show, but for someone with experience I'd expect that experience to speak for them instead of their word processor skills, and if that experience is not good enough then the branding wouldn't save it (unless you happen to be interviewing for designing print documents?).

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

#146

Post by bradleyjg »

rikroots wrote: post #132
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your resume is a "yes" at first read, your GitHub projects won't matter. Likewise, if your resume experience is a "no", they're not going to visit GitHub to change their minds. Where it starts to matter is if your resume is a "maybe" on first read. If they're not quite sure if your experience is what they're looking for, they might make an effort to probe around your GitHub profile for extra information. Having ev…

> Realistically, most companies are never going to check your GitHub profile in the first place This is, in my personal experience, a sad truth. I've been seriously looking for work for the past 6 months (thank you, Covid-19, for your disruption) and I'm surprised by the number of times I've started a phone interview with questions like: "tell me about your skills" ... has the interviewer not looked at my CV with its…

If it’s worth it for me to spend time on a phone screen, it’s worth it to re-read the resume and click on a github link. When I have, it’s mostly been junked—-forked repos with no changes or trivial college assignments.

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

#147

Post by say_it_as_it_is »

It's alarming that there's an idea among a people -- possibly bay area -- that mid-career is six years of experience. You are your own worst enemy with that kind of belief. People reinvent themselves and their careers many times over a lifetime. It's hard to return to certain types of technical work but never impossible, especially for those who are sufficiently motivated. You will reach the limit of a pay scale, but everyone eventually does, in all professions.

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

#148

Post by brmorris »

rikroots wrote: post #132
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your resume is a "yes" at first read, your GitHub projects won't matter. Likewise, if your resume experience is a "no", they're not going to visit GitHub to change their minds. Where it starts to matter is if your resume is a "maybe" on first read. If they're not quite sure if your experience is what they're looking for, they might make an effort to probe around your GitHub profile for extra information. Having ev…

> Realistically, most companies are never going to check your GitHub profile in the first place This is, in my personal experience, a sad truth. I've been seriously looking for work for the past 6 months (thank you, Covid-19, for your disruption) and I'm surprised by the number of times I've started a phone interview with questions like: "tell me about your skills" ... has the interviewer not looked at my CV with its…

To be fair, how the candidate responds to "tell me about your skills" during a verbal interview is often a lot more telling than the same information on the written CV.

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

#149

Post by borplk »

Nextgrid wrote: post #145

Maybe it's just me but I think that "branded" CVs come across as desperate and could be considered red flags that either the candidate is trying to make up for something else (lack of skills, etc) or is unaware of the performance of the job market (I guess if the market is really bad you might try a branded CV out of desperation, but software engineering is still very much a seller's market). Branded CV is something…

I largely agree with you. However one thing to note is that different people are different. Some are easily impressed and not all have the level of sophistication you may expect in their decision making. If such a person is present in your way as hurdle it pays to give them what they want.

That's a big part of the difficulty of job hunting and hiring. Whatever advice you try to implement is a terrible idea for some subset of opportunities/people.

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

#150

Post by eru »

rubidium wrote: post #138
eru wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making lots of money is how society tells you what contributions it realy values. A big part of the rest is empty talk. It's easy to say that we value eg teachers or nurses or janitors. Doesn't make us pay them more.

No. It’s how the economy tells you what is valuable. Economy != society. In fact (in the US) we have a terrible economic system right now for our society, but it seems to be better than anything else that’s been tried for large modern nation states.

Oh, far from it.

There are much more successful economic systems around than the US one.

America oddities like government mortgage guarantees, or federal deposit insurance, or licensing for interior designers are not necessary, and in fact not good for the economy. Neither are pervasive price controls.

The US would do better, if they moved to a more market based economy.

Post reply on HN