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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?

#181

Post by taabcd »

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.

I've had struggles too. I'm now in a much better place.

If you want some FANG interviewing advice or just a general career/life sounding board, feel free to email me at the email on my profile.

this goes for anyone else struggling.

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

#182

Post by xpe »

hinkley wrote: post #120
hbt wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. I've not had terribly good luck with people who use the term 'go getter.' Quite a few of them have been creeps. Smooth and slick, definitely, but at the end of the day, manipulative people who I avoid making eye contact with at public events, hoping that they don't remember me. Creeps.

I get the impression it is common for technically oriented people to think of salespeople, marketers, and recruiters as manipulative.

In your view, what are some ways you think about the difference between persuasion and manipulation?

I've been reading about this very topic in the context of media persuasion.

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

#183

Post by nl »

snakedoctor wrote: post #166
chillfox wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ab…

I've tried out meetup.com and went to one meetup. It was ok. I felt a little uncomfortable though. They solicited for my name, and email to be added to the Slack. There was a lot of recreational clubs etc at my college. I tried rock climbing, and liked it. There wasn't a lot of social interaction with rock climbing though. I went to a party in Austin. Chatted with strangers etc. Wasn't really sure what else to talk a…

> They solicited for my name, and email to be added to the Slack.

Your terminology here says a lot, right?

If you are going to a meetup to meet people, then the whole point is to get to know people. And yes, that will involve them knowing your name, and communicating with you.

To open up your job prospects: realize this is normal and desirable.

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

#184

Post by kyawzazaw »

dcolkitt wrote: post #109
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…

> Your writing is not strong, I don't know. I think he has pretty decent writing. Kinda reminds me of William Gibson. It may be stylistically unusual, but it's definitely better than the median SWE. At least in terms of clearly conveying his thoughts.

I don't have much experience but that begs me the question, how bad were the SWEs you were working with that had even poorer communication tone than this person.

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

#185

Post by ipnon »

20 percent of the programmers get 80 percent of the jobs. You don't have an Ivy League nor any degree at all. You don't have any experience working at a FAANG or a startup with name recognition. You have clearly have low self esteem, which is a red flag in interviews. There are enough people with none of these issues to fill every job in Silicon Valley.

You are losing the game you are trying to play, so try playing a different one. You could play the making enough to support yourself game. After you get good at that you can play the start your own business game, or the make websites for friends and locals game.

Your ego is getting in the way of you feeding yourself and putting a roof over your head. It's not worth it. I can't think off the top of my head anything that is.

There is no shame in not fitting into Silicon Valley. Consider moving on.

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

#186

Post by culopatin »

snakedoctor wrote: post #166
chillfox wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ab…

I've tried out meetup.com and went to one meetup. It was ok. I felt a little uncomfortable though. They solicited for my name, and email to be added to the Slack. There was a lot of recreational clubs etc at my college. I tried rock climbing, and liked it. There wasn't a lot of social interaction with rock climbing though. I went to a party in Austin. Chatted with strangers etc. Wasn't really sure what else to talk a…

Sounds like you have Aspergers or something like that. At most. But you probably were handicapped by homeschooling, unless you were homeschooled because of these social issues.

Obviously it’s not your technical qualifications but something in the way you approach people in interviews. The fact that you say you had to read how to talk to people at a party and couldn’t figure out how to diverge from doing exactly what you read over and over is what tipped me off to think you may be weirding people out.

Honestly, if you were to say “hey I know I have some weirdness but I have the best intentions”... I personally would appreciate that. The first step is acknowledging that and trying to convince the people you’ll work with that it won’t get in the way.

Also in the future, don’t quit a job if you don’t have a backup just because you wanted to get paid more.

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

#187

Post by baremetal »

I think you fail to understand corporate culture. Going around bosses because you found a vuln is not conducive to the corporate environment. they frown on stuff like that. Id suggest you learn to play by the rules or start your own thing. The thing with corporate culture is that it isn't hacker culture. I think you fail to realize that and it has been your undoing. Cheers bud.

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

#188

Post by inopinatus »

fooblitzky wrote: post #74
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…

Many companies large enough to have HR and/or legal departments have rules specifically against providing feedback to candidates on why they were rejected.

I've been a FAANG hiring manager and those rules were not rigidly enforced. There are other deterrents, however. As a younger manager I was keen to respond to such requests, but a significant proportion of unsuccessful candidates would then argue, sometimes quite vehemently, about the validity of the feedback. This curtailed my enthusiasm, and I've been rather selective since.

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

#189

Post by kyawzazaw »

issa wrote: post #170
snakedoctor wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've thought about it. Community College, Deep Springs etc. I think autodidacticism is a better way to learn vs academic path. Though I didn't want to finish high school but I did.. So, it might be just one of those things that I'll have to suck up and just do. I disliked that I would have to take 2 years of core curriculum stuff before even being allowed to take major related courses. I had to reach out to instructo…

Without completely dismissing the idea of going to school, it might be more your speed to work on an open source project of some sort. If you can build something and launch it, that is cheaper, faster, and (potentially) a lot more fun than going to school. For someone who doesn't like playing the "games" involved in office work or interviews, setting yourself up for consulting work might be a good move too.

Yeah but that open source rarely leads to a job. Yes, many here on HN and open-source may have achieved that but it is extremely rare.

I don't think this person will be able to do consulting considering the actions they have done while interacting with managers, directors, executives.

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

#190

Post by taabcd »

Clewza313 wrote: post #101
dotBen wrote: post #83

First off, your HN submission history is really weird, dude. ( https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=snakedoctor ) If you get a job in customer support at Amazon there is literally no way to get a 'promotion' to a dev role. It's different parts of the org, and you're tarnished with being a CS person. Why? Because it's signaling - people who can do eng roles at Amazon don't take CS roles so they don't bother minin…

Customer support for AWS can convert into other roles pretty easily, just apply for internal transfers for adjacent roles or move into devops etc at another company. But if you have programming skills, I agree you're far off going directly for dev roles instead.

For amazon, the move it not to apply formally through the internal jobs site. Clicking apply will notify your manager instantly.

So the accepted practice is to connect directly with the HM for a chat/pre-interview and once they say they are inclined (barring unexpected info), click apply. This is fairly common and expected.

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