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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?

#331

Post by bawolff »

livinginfear wrote: post #317

Your post provides a recruiter any number of reasons not to hire you. In addition to providing a personal history of failure and excuses, you're airing the dirty laundry of the companies you did work for. Your misgivings with these may or may not be legitimate, however what recruiter wants their name attached to you the next time you feel like airing your grievances with the last company to lay you off? > "I tried co…

> If you can't get through this thread without discussing your mental health problems that's a serious red flag.

That's unfair. Most of the mental health related comments are in direct response to someone else bringing it up.

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

#332

Post by jiofih »

lolinder wrote: post #264
sombremesa wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

That was my initial reaction, but the "your" is actually correct there: > Your applying to those companies with 0 experience or college degree is unrealistic. The clause "applying to..." is possessed by "your".

Or, more directly, “your applying [...] is unrealistic”.

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

#333

Post by kyawzazaw »

deanak wrote: post #311
snakedoctor wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 would not listen to any advice on HN. I have a pretty solid hiring strategy, but it got downvoted to hell because HN skews to people without much real world experience. They can only think of tech products to sell to other tech companies. (I'm a CTO, and I've raised seed money for two different products. Our market is small -- under 200MM ARR -- but our nearest competitor starts at $30k per year and their product i…

> Honestly, I don't know why anyone wants to work for Google anyways.

I can tell you why - www.levels.fyi

Google is quite literally one of the most well-known and powerful tech companies in the world - I assume it's not that hard to think people who work in tech would want to associate with an organization int hat position.

---

I don't understand your basis of judging the skills of their engineers either. You had one data point of taking a course from a former engineer - not working together with, not a current Googler. Google employs thousands of Software Engineers and represent a large part of the Internet.

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

#334

Post by hchz »

snakedoctor, you have borderline traits and should try to work with a therapist to gain insight into the dissonance between how you see yourself and how others see you. It is not realistic for you to achieve your goals without working on your mental health first.

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

#335

Post by eyelidlessness »

kelnos wrote: post #256
klyrs wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'd guess that you're on the spectrum. To be quite honest, I see my younger self in your actions. It took me a long time and a lot of work to recognize bad ideas before acting on them, and I wish I could share notes... but I never could learn from other people's advice, only from years of deep reflection after fucking up repeatedly. But it's good to hear that you're seeing a therapist. I didn't figure that one…

> I'm not one to crab about downvotes, but if y'all downvoting the parent post could kindly quit that. I upvoted parent/OP's post because I agree with you there. > Yeah, I'd guess that you're on the spectrum. Unless you are a psychiatrist who has met with OP in person (well, Zoom, these days, I guess), please don't armchair diagnose someone as being autistic. You have no basis or qualifications for this, and reading…

> Unless you are a psychiatrist who has met with OP in person (well, Zoom, these days, I guess), please don't armchair diagnose someone as being autistic. You have no basis or qualifications for this, and reading a couple posts on HN does not count.

I got the impression they were also on the spectrum and speaking from a place of familiarity. Sure, not a basis for diagnosis, but "I'd guess" isn't a diagnosis. It's a "yeah that seems to line up for me".

People with neurodivergence spot each other whether we want to or mean to or not. It's incredibly delicate bringing it up, but it can be incredibly helpful when someone with like experience says "hey I see a familiar pattern".

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

#336

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

ALittleLight wrote: post #296
veerabadhra wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A teenage boy asked the master "How do I compose a symphony?" The master said "You're too young, you need to start with more modest projects." "But master" said the boy "you first composed a symphony when you were half my age!" "Yes, but I didn't ask anyone how." --- What I mean by this is that "hustling" is something of a unique, rare, or hacking like thing. You can't ask people how to do it, because if they could t…

> You can't ask people how to do it, because if they could tell you then everyone would do it and it wouldn't work

Coding-camps?

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

#337

Post by kyawzazaw »

tempestn wrote: post #130
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…

Given the relative lack of experience and lack of education I'm wondering how OP managed to get interviews at the likes of Google, FB, etc.

That's baffling to me too. There are kids over at /r/csmajors who haven't had this many interviews with this array of companies at this caliber.

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

#338

Post by ALittleLight »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #336
ALittleLight wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A teenage boy asked the master "How do I compose a symphony?" The master said "You're too young, you need to start with more modest projects." "But master" said the boy "you first composed a symphony when you were half my age!" "Yes, but I didn't ask anyone how." --- What I mean by this is that "hustling" is something of a unique, rare, or hacking like thing. You can't ask people how to do it, because if they could t…

> You can't ask people how to do it, because if they could tell you then everyone would do it and it wouldn't work Coding-camps?

I think a good coding camp is a plausible route to an entry level dev position. I know a Google dev who got there via a coding camp.

I wouldn't describe it as a hack or hustle though. It's basically learn the skills required, demonstrate your knowledge, then interview and get a matching job.

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

#340

Post by WalterBright »

cobaltoxide wrote: post #106
fooblitzky wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That may be true, but I've had good luck asking recruiters for feedback after getting bad news. They usually give some good advice or feedback - over the phone, of course, never in writing. Typically they say something like "You were really strong in X but the hiring manager is looking for someone with more Y." One recruiter told me that the HM had given me the thumbs down saying I was "insufficiently succinct" in my…

If you get feedback that doesn't make much sense, it's likely not the real reason. Just like if a date rejects you, they'll give some silly fake reason why.
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