Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 875 posts

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

#371

Post by ZephyrBlu »

WalterBright wrote: post #346
snakedoctor wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be argumentative. But yes, I did attend college. Send me a email, and I'll send you an email from my college email address (Hasn't been deactivited yet). I can send you my college transcript if that helps.. Well, I did get hired by IBM as a programmer so... I've contributed to a GNU open source project.. So I feel that I am qualifed for a entry level developer/SecEng/Security Analyst role. I went above my boss…

Gentle tip: writing "shouldn't of" instead "shouldn't have" is one of those critical writing misteaks one should never make when communicating with educated people. Some others worth special effort to do correctly: 1. their there they're 2. its it's 3. your you're A couple other writing tips: 1. don't terminate sentences with .. or ... 2. "bosses" is plural, I think you meant "boss's" for the possessive I know it sou…

> misteaks

Har har.

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

#372

Post by avmich »

I feel really sorry for you.

If you believe you have good skills, make absolutely sure necessary people know about it. Be very public. Tell about yourself, show examples of your work - in this case it would probably benefit to work on side projects and demonstrate progress; you'll open yourself to lots of criticism, but win in the Theodore Roosevelt (man on the arena) sense. Becoming this public may be uncomfortable, but it's a necessary ingredient; you won't realistically get to a "deal" with people if those people unaware about you.

Don't allow yourself to become homeless if possible. If you don't have close friends, ask for help from less close. Be prepared - and then proceed - to spend next weeks and months concentrated on the task; again, make sure everybody knows about it, what you're doing and your progress. I wouldn't mind periodically read here about it. You have a lot of work to do, but you're not alone in the situation like this; try to make a good example to others.

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

#373

Post by ReptileMan »

IMO you want two incompatible things - you want the security and good pay of a corporate drone while living the hotshot maverick life that gets away with being above the things. There are few jobs that will allow you that and they require to be with the company from the start, a smaller company and quite a bit of luck to land one.

So just choose one of those paths.

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

#374

Post by perl4ever »

I suggest temping.

When I needed to do that, I found only one agency out of like half a dozen in my area was any help. It was the same one that I got a job through almost 20 years ago. So it's important not to give up if some of them seem to be wasting your time.

If you need good benefits, then a government job may be the way to go. I've never known anyone who got one directly, but there can be loopholes, and temping is one route.

Extremely boring companies and organizations are more likely to promote you from a low level job in my experience, because they're not drowning in talent in the first place. Get a job doing stuff manually, figure out how to automate it.

Listening to people who have trouble explaining what they need can be far more valuable than pure technical skill. Treating nontechnical people as human beings is easier than anything people will tell you to do on HN.

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

#375

Post by balls187 »

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 sound like a creep. Am I reading it right here, you spoofed your number to talk to executives?

If the Op had a bit more credentials, and/or created something special, they might label it as "chutzpah" instead.

I recall a story (perhaps apocryphal) that involved Steve Jobs that was similar.

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

#376

Post by whatever_dude »

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…

What the US and specially the tech industry call "hustling" is bullshit sprinkled with self-delusion. For every successful history of someone hustling there's a thousand more of someone hustling just as much and not getting anywhere, and usually the ones being successful are getting there with generous help from unseen forces (network, relatives, etc).

We need to stop idolizing hustling. Getting shit done without pretending it's a gambler's game will get you far.

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

#377

Post by undefined1 »

rsweeney21 wrote: post #84

I'm a software engineer that runs a technical recruiting company. I worked at Microsoft and Netflix for a decade. Email me at robert at facet dot net. I will interview you and tell you why you're not getting hired.

best possible response. I hope you get voted to the top.

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

#378

Post by spoonjim »

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…

Yeah, I expect that once someone meets this person they get the willies and try to avoid all further contact.

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

#379

Post by balls187 »

You don't really sound like you are cut out to work a corporate job. And that's not a bad thing.

I'd say find whatever job you can get your hands on that has basic benefits, and focus your energy on creating the next Symantec or whatever.

And maybe, someday, some oddball might contact you with spoofed credentials looking for a job.

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

#380

Post by wildermuthn »

hn8788 wrote: post #76
wildermuthn wrote: post #33

You’re young, inexperienced, and uneducated? College and good internships will improve upon all of that. If you can’t afford college, you’ll need to join the military (I recommend the Air Force if you want to take it easy, or the Marines if you don’t) and slave for four years. But it seems to me that your biggest stumbling block may be that you are shooting for the moon without realizing it.

Military is definitely an overlooked option. If sign up for an intel or cyber job, you'll probably have a 9-5 job after boot camp, get trainining, certifications, tuition assistance to finish a degree, veterans preference on jobs once you get out, and probably a security clearance. Even as a Marine it wasn't bad; the non-intel Marines used to joke that we were civilians in uniform. It can also help iron out some pers…

Well said! If you can’t turn around your life yourself (I couldn’t), you can at least delegate that task to an organization willing to spend ungodly amounts of money and time on making you a productive member of its society. Whether you like it or not.
Post reply on HN