Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

281–290 of 875 posts

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

#281

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…

Hmm I would give rock climbing another shot, pandemic aside rock climbing especially at gyms is very social, I’ve even quit gyms because some are more akin to night clubs than climbing gyms.

Bouldering? Ask for beta or work a problem with someone. Top rope or sport? The gym should have a program for people looking for belay partners.

Give it another shot

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

#282
> Reading Meyers, Knuth etc. books.

I assume you are reading these books to get better at coding.

Reading books is a great start, but the only way to become good at writing code is to actually start writing code.

Reading is the theory, writing is the practice.

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

#284
Since you're scared ...

You can drive a semi-truck. That was my solution for pay and health care, after destroying my software career. Most large trucking companies either have their own CDL school or contract out. Driving a semi-truck is a learnable skill, and you will get hired. My company paid for my school, requiring a year of work or I'd have to pay it back.

Short term, if you're "really" scared, you can get hired anywhere as a security guard. That was also my solution, until I figured out truck driving was viable.

If you don't find any "in-career" suggestions that work for you in this thread, think out of that career box.

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

#285
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is typical for internal transfers in large companies, pressing Apply is (almost) the last step. From the other side of equation as a hiring manager, it's a small negative signal if somebody internal applies "cold", the good candidates tend to reach out first.

+1

Dont do this at apple though*

*this is hearsay. Maybe up/downvotes can help resolve this?

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

#286
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…

What are the blacklisting systems all the big companies use now?

Hmm? Usually just in their HR or background check software for their company, I don't think there's any systems dedicated to blacklisting in an organized way except for the shared data on violent contractors that Uber/Lyft started sharing.

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

#289

As a hiring manager, the things that stand out to me in your post: - You said you quit a job at EA, quit a job at IBM, dropped out of college your freshman year. You may have valid reasons for leaving each of these, but you have to see this from the manager's perspective: You had 3 different great opportunities that all came to a dead end at the beginning of your career. You need an alternate narrative. - You talk ab…

This kind of safe advice isn't very helpful for someone who is hustling IMO. Maybe it is useful for someone who's going to become a principal engineer at a large corporate. The parent commenter would be well suited to work at a startup. Unfortunately, startups have also been infected by the corporate virus. In a country that's stagnating, such risk averse behavior makes sense, because there is no reward for taking on…

That's weird, where did you get the sense that op is "hustling" (whatever that means)? They spend half their post listing big companies they are trying to get jobs at.

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

#290

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…

Try more meetups in person, even if they're awkward! Great way to both network for your next job and sharpen your social skills.
Post reply on HN