Seems like not finishing college is holding you back. I concur with some of the other comments about joining the military to help pay your way through college, unless there is a pre-existing condition that may disqualify you. Becoming a sensor specialist, a weapons specialist, an engineer or a doctor with the military will pay high dividends. You will remain employable most of your working life.
Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?
381–390 of 875 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?
#382Earlier quoted context omitted.
The secret to being a good conversationalist is to have the other person do most of the talking, and everyone's favorite thing to talk about is themselves. Being, and therefore appearing, genuinely interested in what the other person is saying about themselves creates the best feelings in the world for the other person, and you won't run out of things to talk about. "You just got a new dog? Cool!" Then you can ask an…
I hear people say this so much and it's so incredibly not true for me but I dunno if I'm different, they're all full of it, or both.
Which part isn't true for you?
Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?
#383Practice learning what people want and then trying to help them get what they want.
People who are good at this have endless opportunity.
Read the go-giver and give and take.
Then practice it and be patient. It can take a year or two to see results but they will come, and compound over time if you stay consistent.
Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?
#384Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?
#385Since you have an FSF member address, you might be interested in working on Free Software and Open Source projects, some resources:
https://www.fossjobs.net/ https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources
Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?
#386Brutally 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…
Desperate is not equal to creepy. Try thinking from his perspective, he’s perilously close to hitting rock bottom and terrified of the prospect. A bit of compassion goes a long way.
Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?
#387It is hard to figure out what the problem may be, without knowing you, so I won't try (feel free to PM if you want to do something like a mock interview). One thing that may suck, but want to make you aware is that chances are you need to do things worse temporarily, before they become better. You may need to put extra effort now (go to community college etc), for reward later. One program I'd suggest you explore is…
> feel free to PM if you want to do something like a mock interview
This is a very generous offer, OP.
Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?
#388As 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…
I don't necessarily agree regarding FAANG. Once someone gets an interview it doesn't matter much what their previous work experience is.
Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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?
A coding camp is the opposite of hustling. It's called "bootcamp" for a reason - it's there to impose some structure for those who need it. Also bootcamp is very overhyped. There's some great people that come out of them, but I think mainly the hype is the fact that college is overrated (this is a cliche opinion I know) so bootcamps are there to try to exploit some of the delta that the myopic focus on college degree…
> A coding camp is the opposite of hustling
Right on. I'm self taught before bootcamps were a thing. I learned by doing by launching a bunch of startup prototypes. Then I ran out of money so I started interviewing, went 1 for 1 and got a good 6 figure Rails job at a big corporation (skipping junior level), all with less than 1 year experience.
Many people getting into coding I talk to think this path is too hard and that a bootcamp somehow looks good on a resume and is therefore safe.
The same arguments can be made for startup accelerators. You really don't need one if you're a hustler who can build businesses. Thus they also attract some percentage of people who want a "safe" approach for their resume.
Re: Ask HN: How can a unhireable person get a job?
#390Have 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…
>you kinda seem like you might struggle just doing exactly what you're asked to do. Bringing up how frequently you quit things for various reasons or finding issues and bringing them up with your superiors' superiors Yes, this is what stood out for me. OP sounds malcontented, and habitually dissatisfied with his role, and makes antisocial decisions (like spoofing numbers - which is not just dishonest but shows contem…
Fascinating take on NPD. But it’s my understanding that narcissism is actually the hardest disorder to cure, as its very nature is to be in denial that anything needs to change — it’s the rest of the world that needs to change.