All the jobs I failed to get • Hacker News Board

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#21

Post by gnfargbl » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 1:18 PM UTC

Droobfest wrote: post #3

humblebrag, they're all high status positions

Deputy Director jobs in the UK Civil Service aren’t actually that senior. They tend to pay around £75k, or $100k US, which is a pretty decent wage for the general population but not quite at levels.fyi rates.

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#22

Post by ss2003 » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 1:20 PM UTC

imbusy111 wrote: post #20

giantg2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I got out of college, I applied to about 250 jobs and only got 3 calls. Luckily one of those did pan out. I keep hearing how there's a war for technical talent. I guess I don't have any.

Out of hundreds of applicants I screen, very few even have the skill to implement a standard algorithm with recursion in a language of their choice that I explain meticulously.

But is that a skill that is required for lots of positions?

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#23

Post by TheTrotters » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 1:23 PM UTC

Jugurtha wrote: post #13

z33k wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I failed my real analysis II exam, I failed to make progress at the gym, I failed a quiz on agile software development, I guess you could even say I failed to go on a date since I got stood up.

You can check out https://mirtitles.org for books from MIR Publishers. These are amazing books. For analysis, you can check out: - "Problems in Mathematical Analysis" - Demidovich - "Differential and Integral Calculus" - Piskunov - "A Course of Higher Mathematics" - Smirnov Excellent books. [Link edited as I posted in a hurry. Thank you, sedeki]

Soviet era math problem books? Buy a few reams of paper too!

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#24

Post by imbusy111 » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 1:26 PM UTC

ss2003 wrote: post #22

imbusy111 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of hundreds of applicants I screen, very few even have the skill to implement a standard algorithm with recursion in a language of their choice that I explain meticulously.

But is that a skill that is required for lots of positions?

If you are slapping together web templates with a Python back-end, then maybe not, but if you are automating industrial processes, build tools to improve data handling or work on any technical computational stuff, then absolutely yes. I expect someone to be able to reason abstractly.

There are still plenty of jobs that require excellent technical skills.

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#25

Post by Jugurtha » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 1:33 PM UTC

TheTrotters wrote: post #23

Jugurtha wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can check out https://mirtitles.org for books from MIR Publishers. These are amazing books. For analysis, you can check out: - "Problems in Mathematical Analysis" - Demidovich - "Differential and Integral Calculus" - Piskunov - "A Course of Higher Mathematics" - Smirnov Excellent books. [Link edited as I posted in a hurry. Thank you, sedeki]

Soviet era math problem books? Buy a few reams of paper too!

Exactly. I actually did buy reams of paper and quantified my revisions days with how many sheets I had written.

I made booklets folding A4 paper longitudinally in half. Easy to put in my back pocket. Solve problems everywhere. It's more economical, too, a lot of paper is not filled with ink if you leave it in A4, and folding it to make A5 doesn't sole the problem (short lines) an is impractical to carry (can't put in back pocket).

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#26

Post by zxcvbn4038 » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 1:34 PM UTC

I once applied for a position building digital kiosks for American Airlines - I did not get it and in retrospect that is probably better because the company is always on the edge on bankruptcy, doing furloughs and layoffs, etc. I would have had a hard time during numerous financial downturns and world events like mortgage bubble, 9/11, and COVID. I would never have worked for Tumblr which was double plus awesome. But just the same, every time I check in at a kiosk in the airport I think to myself - I could have done this much better - and lament the missed opportunity.

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#27

Post by mettamage » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 1:45 PM UTC

imbusy111 wrote: post #20

giantg2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I got out of college, I applied to about 250 jobs and only got 3 calls. Luckily one of those did pan out. I keep hearing how there's a war for technical talent. I guess I don't have any.

Out of hundreds of applicants I screen, very few even have the skill to implement a standard algorithm with recursion in a language of their choice that I explain meticulously.

Hip(n) {

If n == 0

  Return

Log(“std rec ex ” + n)

n -= 1

Hip(n)

}

On phone (so untested pseudo code), but this is my standard way of thinking about it. I think implementing bfs and dfs also helps to get it a bit more.

And I have needed to do recursion on web dev, because it’s the easiest way to deal with trees on your own.

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#28

Post by ibn_khaldun » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 1:47 PM UTC

The opportunity even to fail at achieving the positions and distinctions listed is a privilege itself. Granted, it isn't the duty of one particular demographic or class to police how another responds to these sort of things because we're all human and have the right to express how we feel about rejection and not meeting the expectations set by ourselves or others.

I can understand and appreciate how this can be a boon to the esteem of their peers. But let's take it a step further.

Is there a way that the authors of these "CV of failures" can bridge the gap between themselves and those who may not even have a "curriculum" to ascribe to their life?

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#29

Post by djhworld » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 1:48 PM UTC

It's amusing looking back at the failed ones, at the time it feels terrible, but as time passes it becomes an footnote of your own personal history.

My favourite one was sitting in a conference room in a hotel basement being interviewed by a FAANG for 5 hours. Completely bombed the interview but it makes me laugh looking back at it

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#30

Post by worldmerge » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

LaFolle wrote: post #12

When I got a job at one of the FAANG companies I told a friend how many rejections I got. The friend said: “it’s easier to narrate your failures once you’ve emerged victorious”. She was right, I realized. Now I’m looking for job again, have been rejected by 4 companies, no offer in hand yet and I’m open about it.

Thank you for this. I recently graduated in May with a bachelors in CS and looking at LinkedIn has been very discouraging. I know it's unhealthy to compare yourself to others but it's hard, especially when you see a lot of other people having success. Before the pandemic I was banking on going to EYEO and SIGGRAPH to network with people in the creative technology space to break into it (my goal is to be a creative technologist like the Google Creative Lab), now I'm just trying to finish a personal project to showcase my skills (can't wait to share it with Hacker News), find a job, and apply for grad school in a program like NYU ITP, or a Human Computer Interaction program.