All the jobs I failed to get • Hacker News Board

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#141

Post by rikroots » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 8:53 PM UTC

gnfargbl wrote: post #21

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.

1. Deputy Director posts are the bottom rung in the Senior Civil Service. Any SCS post is, by definition, senior. The SCS accounts for 1% of the entire Civil Service head count[1].

2. Why mention the pay rate? Civil Service jobs have never been well paid - especially in comparison to private sector equivalent job roles. People go into these jobs for a lot of reasons beyond remuneration - behind-the-scenes power, for instance, or social cachet, or even in the belief that they can help make things work better.

3. The key level in the average UK central government department is the Grade 7 Team Leader. They're the ones with (wide) responsibility for a specific policy area, and/or running a specific government programme. They're also the ones who get hammered when anything goes wrong. (Deputy) Directors will be responsible for managing a Division of such Teams in a related area. Above them are the Director Generals (C-suite folks for each Department, though far more limited in numbers) and the Permanent Secretary (the CEO, if you like).

Running a country is not the same as running a business.

[1] - https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/grade-s...

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#142

Post by nullsense » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

soneca wrote: post #77

My list of recent jobs I failed to get is about 200 unglamorous mid-level roles in small unknown companies that I applied through the last 2 months. 90% of them I was rejected on the resume filter. About 5 rejections after an intro interview. About more 5 or more rejections after a technical interview/coding challenge. Only 2 places on a final interview with chances of offers as of now (luckily in companies that I be…

I seem to apply to a about 3 to 5 places and get an offer within that. I can't imagine 200.

Though I work on a team with a guy who told me he had to apply to about 80 places. I've read his CV and it doesn't have a lot of signals that scream hire me. His pathway into software engineering is very non-typical. Despite that he's a decent developer and a great colleague.

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#143

Post by letstryagain2 » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

andi999 wrote: post #137

letstryagain2 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I learned recursive programming decades ago in high school. (Solve the Towers of Babylon with recursive algo). So, yes. Somebody calling himself a programmer or engineer should be able to produce this.

To me this seems similiar to if you want to call yourself a physician, you need to be able to speak latin. Its true (at least need to pass an exam), but it is only signaling, and no just having a few latin derived labels.

I am not a programmer. But a guy not being able to program a simple recursive function? Really? In a programming language of his or her choice?

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#144

Post by giantg2 » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 9:14 PM UTC

juniper_strong wrote: post #128

andi999 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I think recursion is overrated. Does anyone here really write recursive functions in production? I mean it takes up stack space (which on some systems is a systemparameter), creates functioncall overhead and has rarely advantages. Trees have more natural recursive structures, but then you basically always have cache misses making your program orders of magnitude slower than if you can fit the data in a linea…

I think I've used it twice in production code over the last 20 years. The first was to traverse a directory tree. I wouldn't write it that way now since there is now a standard library to do what I was doing then. The second was to traverse an object's children logging certain pieces of data from the sub-objects. I didn't design that one, I just wrote it so I don't know if there was a library that would have done it…

I guess it also weeds out the smart-asses like me who would question why I need to reinvent the wheel.

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#145

Post by nullsense » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 9:15 PM UTC

bradlys wrote: post #103

rco8786 wrote: post #62

I remember getting rejected by Google because I completely blanked on a binary search question. All my other rounds were great, but you can’t miss the search question at the search company.

I mean, you can’t miss any question at the big companies. There are endless candidates who have done 1000+ problems on leetcode in the waiting.

Its less an interview more an exam where the only acceptable mark is about 95% to 100%

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#146

Post by giantg2 » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 9:18 PM UTC

bradlys wrote: post #106

giantg2 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't get the data loaded for my personal project, I didn't get my story completed at work, and I can't think of anything that I actually accomplished this week.

You’re not alone. I planned on my two week “vacation” being a mix of a week long getaway and then with vigorous leetcode studying in prep to get a new job. Instead, my partner decided this was the time to have a mental breakdown and question everything. So, didn’t get any time or energy to do any of it... plus the fires everywhere. Can’t get much more insufferable in this 400sqft inlaw unit I’ve been trapped in for y…

My vacation time is used for home projects/chores, medical problems, and legal problems.

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#147

Post by nullsense » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 9:20 PM UTC

PunchTornado wrote: post #131

simsla wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point still stands. UK software engineer median wages are above UK national median wages.

not by much. software salaries in the uk are not that great. 75k is top top bracket for uk.

75k USD is high end of the Senior Developer bracket in NZ too. It's depressing seeing levels.fyi. Though it's still double the national average, and it's equivalent to the median household income.

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#148

Post by nullsense » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 9:33 PM UTC

letstryagain2 wrote: post #31

ss2003 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I learned recursive programming decades ago in high school. (Solve the Towers of Babylon with recursive algo). So, yes. Somebody calling himself a programmer or engineer should be able to produce this.

Someone calling themselves a programmer or engineer really only needs to be able to take the requirements they're asked to implement by their employer and implement them in an agreeable timeframe.

No more, no less. Doing so will get you paid for the activity of programming.

Along the way if you don't know anything, because you can't know or remember everything, you just look it up.

The end.

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#149

Post by vanusa » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 9:40 PM UTC

dominotw wrote: post #96

hoytschermerhrn wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attitudes like yours are why tech recruiters are notoriously inconsiderate and difficult to work with. It’s not a good look and not something to be proud of.

> Attitudes like yours Why the personal attacks? I am merely telling you what goes on. Its not my personal policy or my personal preference. I hated being a recruiter and pivoted out of it. Do you think FB engineers personally set the policy to ignore rumours against muslims in India from spreading on their platform.

It wasn't an attack. They're just stating a fact from their own experience.

I hated being a recruiter and pivoted out of it.

That's definitely helpful to know. Thanks for clarifying.

Re: All the jobs I failed to get

#150

Post by soneca » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 9:51 PM UTC

nullsense wrote: post #142

soneca wrote: post #77

My list of recent jobs I failed to get is about 200 unglamorous mid-level roles in small unknown companies that I applied through the last 2 months. 90% of them I was rejected on the resume filter. About 5 rejections after an intro interview. About more 5 or more rejections after a technical interview/coding challenge. Only 2 places on a final interview with chances of offers as of now (luckily in companies that I be…

I seem to apply to a about 3 to 5 places and get an offer within that. I can't imagine 200. Though I work on a team with a guy who told me he had to apply to about 80 places. I've read his CV and it doesn't have a lot of signals that scream hire me. His pathway into software engineering is very non-typical. Despite that he's a decent developer and a great colleague.

The reasons I believe impact my poor performance:

- Graduated in Brazil (nobody knows my university)

- Graduated in non-CS degree

- Self-taught developer after careeer change with 37 yo (used freeCodeCamp.org, not even a known boot camp)

- No famous (in the US) companies in my resume

Probably more things that I don’t know. I have a similar numbers of interviews coming from my “Who wants to be hired” post [0] and from these ~200 applications

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24343085