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Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?

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Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?

#141

Post by gen220 »

snakedoctor wrote: post #80
dimal wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he's on the verge of being homeless, getting a degree seems like too long of a timeline. A bootcamp seems more reasonable, but even that's a stretch.

One of my former co-workers at IBM went to a bootcamp in SF. She is pretty smart. Though, I feel that bootcamps are kinda scams. Not like colleges though.

I went to college and have many coworkers who went to boot camps, and we’re paid the same!

Look on LinkedIn for people who work at the companies you want to work at, and also went to bootcamps, to build a shortlist.

There are several boot camps today, in every major urban area, that carry major street cred in the local tech communities.

Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?

#142

Post by sombremesa »

georgeecollins wrote: post #115
honkycat wrote: post #88

Your writing is not strong, i can tell you did not attend college. Written communication is important in tech. Your applying to those companies with 0 experience or college degree is unrealistic. The entry level is extremely competitive and you have nothing to make you interesting to hire. They get thousands of applications for those jobs. You are still young, plenty of time to learn, but I recommend taking a step ba…

I agree but I would cut the OP some slack on the writing for a forum post. I know I have dashed off things here that could use some proof reading. But the gist of what you are saying makes sense to me. Going back to college seems like a good idea as a general direction.

The GP has put a "your" instead of "you're" in (almost) the very next sentence, so you don't even need to point to your own mistakes to illustrate your point...

Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?

#143

Post by ocdtrekkie »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #111
honkycat wrote: post #88

Your writing is not strong, i can tell you did not attend college. Written communication is important in tech. Your applying to those companies with 0 experience or college degree is unrealistic. The entry level is extremely competitive and you have nothing to make you interesting to hire. They get thousands of applications for those jobs. You are still young, plenty of time to learn, but I recommend taking a step ba…

> i can tell you did not attend college. I minored in English, and OP writes better than most of the English majors I was in writing workshops with. edit: To elaborate, this was at a local university in a U.S. city where 70% of the population were native English speakers. None of the people in my writing workshops were ESL.

I remember the largest contribution I provided my senior project for my bachelor's degree was correcting group members' usage of there/their/they're. Definitely can confirm college does not mean one can write.

Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?

#144

Post by chillfox »

snakedoctor wrote: post #89
kryogen1c wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'm seeing a therapist. I had an abusive childhood. Not that it justifies anything. I was also homeschooled since the 6th grade, so I didn't really have any IRL friends etc. I hope that I'm not a sociopath... I might be on the high functioning autisim scale. I've never been tested so I don't know.

As someone who was also home schooled and had problems with social interactions in my early twenties the best advice I can give is join several clubs that does things in person.

You MUST learn how to make friends, how to not upset people, how to be comfortable in social situations and empathy.

To do this I would recommend that you force yourself into social situations regularly. Afterwards spend some time thinking about how the interaction went, especially from the other persons viewpoint, practice empathizing (it is a skill that can be learned and will make you a better more considerate person).

So join several clubs that meets and does something in person. You should have two scheduled social events every week.

Try your best to be aware of peoples feelings and groups social structure so that you can try to not trample all over either.

Going straight to upper management as you described is generally not well accepted and most definitely upsets middle management (the people who would actually hire you).

Basically, realize that the problem is who you are and that you need to become someone else to succeed. Changing your own personality is one of the hardest things one can do, so expect it to take a few years.

Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?

#147

Post by snakedoctor »

matt_heimer wrote: post #102
brundolf wrote: post #15

Have you tried talking with a recruiting agency? I notice you've mostly applied at household-name companies, many of which are very competitive. The majority of the tech jobs out there are not at companies you've ever heard of. Recruiters (third-party, not in-house) are motivated to find you something that's a good fit because they get commission (from the company) based on you getting hired. They'll coach you, help…

And OP, ask them to help you find long term positions. It sounds like your resume shows a lack of commitment and it'd be good to show you can stick with something for more than a year.

Yeah, a headhunter might be a good idea. I'll check out some which were mentioned here. I heard of triplebyte but have heard they've done some sketchy stuff (spam emails, exposing PI) etc. But it sounds like they do have incentives to champion applicants.

Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?

#148

Post by _6pvr »

snakedoctor wrote: post #110
void_mint wrote: post #18

Have you tried asking any of the jobs that rejected you're getting rejected? Honestly, just a guess, you're probably giving off bad interpersonal vibes/people don't really like talking to you. Half of interviewing is just being very personable/being able to talk comfortably with other people. Generally in this space (this space meaning those interested in tech/startups/etc) sometimes people struggle in this area but…

I've tried asking companies for feedback. Some respond, and some don't. I think that most don't due to legal reasons. I did move to Austin when I received a lump sum of money, and hanged with some people IRL. Some would ratify that I'm awkward lol. But there was a lot of good vibes while I was in Austin. Now that I'm back where I grew up I find that I'm more depressed, and surly. State goverment here is more Laissez-…

I'm not challenging you on whether or not you're smart. I'm commenting on the fact that you're unable to find employment, which means either you're carrying yourself incorrectly or you're unable to perform the tasks required of an entry-level applicant. You're bringing up this resume, these achievements, which can verify that you're intelligent and capable of critical thinking, so the greatest culprit would be that you're carrying yourself incorrectly, right?

In another post you brought up your longest stint being 2 months, and that you dropped out of college your freshman year. To be blunt, I don't think the achievements you list really count if you didn't actually complete them. There's a lot of "I worked with", "I got accepted to", "I got hired by" in your posts, but pretty much all of those things are followed by quitting almost immediately. When you're competing in a market with college grads and people with lots of previous experience, having gotten accepted to and then dropping out of a good school buys you much?

Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?

#150

Post by bawolff »

hbt wrote: post #113
klyrs wrote: post #42

Brutally candid advice? You sound like a creep. Am I reading it right here, you spoofed your number to talk to executives? In the best case, they'll assume you're a pen-tester; but more likely, you're blacklisted from those companies now. I wish there was, like, short and simple advice that I could give you to not be a creep. I just tried to google that, and I'm not finding a good clear resource. Like most social ski…

you call him a creep, I would call him a go getter. it is immensely frustrating to deal with automated systems, resume keyword matchers, no contact within a company and being ghosted after taking the time to write a proposal and cover letter that is a fit for the job description. so what, he called an executive and got around their spam filter? my advice treat job hunting like a sales process. you're successful based…

> you call him a creep, I would call him a go getter.

Perhaps the difference is how succesful you are at it.

> so what, he called an executive and got around their spam filter?

Pissing off people you need something from is probably a poor tactic. Especially when you're not offering something particularly rare. Doubly so because the executive is not the hiring manager, so its unlikely they could help you, only hurt you.

I agree with most of the rest of your advice fwiw.

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