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

Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 596 posts

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#311

Post by mooreds »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #249
throwawaysleep wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That means doing getting multiple offers within the same time period before you accept one. I need help on getting to the salary negotiation part with multiple companies at the same time though. This is the instruction booklet for landing a lunar lander on the Moon. I need the one for the Saturn V.

A lesson I did not learn: I dedicated each lunch hour every day for a couple of months ringing up companies and agencies. I moved jobs three times and doubled my salary in that year - which seemed good. Then I attended a seminar - the question was asked who used agencies and who used their "network" for new jobs / freelance work. I was the only hand up to go used agencies and the traditional job hunt. So it's the old…

And don't dismiss LinkedIn! It's a rolodex other people keep up to date.

Log on once a week and like posts by other folks (job posts, interesting articles, whatever). Send a congrats message as suggested by LI when someone starts a new job. Send someone a job that seems like it might be of interest to them when you see it. Post something you wrote/built/read about.

The goal is to keep in touch so that when you are ready to start looking, you aren't starting from ground zero.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#312

Post by mooreds »

noleetcode wrote: post #219
dbish wrote: post #4

Even if you think you’re well paid, now is the time to look around. I’ve had a lot of friends, mentees, and coworkers get huge bumps on total compensation even as relatively senior engineers and managers. Pay is jumping and companies aren’t doing a great job keeping that up for their people who have been around for a few years. As an employer, that should be the top worry, keep comp up, don’t lose your people because…

I'd love to, as I'm really tired of my current employer, and they're definitely taking advantage of me, but I resolved to never waste my time with leetcode garbage again... which means I either stay where I'm at, or exit the industry entirely.

What? Do you have former co-workers who have moved on who'd love to have you at their new place?

If so, I bet they can help you get past the coding tests.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#313

Post by analyst74 »

the_only_law wrote: post #100

I hate that the market is so great right now because I really can’t take advantage of it. I would love to start the process, to try and get a salary increase anywhere from 30%-100% but unfortunately I’ve stagnated sharply skills wise. Don’t qualify for the jobs I see I think I’d enjoy, and don’t even qualify for the jobs that meet my salary preferences that I’d otherwise dislike. I also would have to be looking at im…

You overestimate how much expert experience matters.

I recently went from a start-up to FANG after a gap in my resume, and the new job is in an area I have no experience in. Many people I know have gone through similar experiences.

You do need strong interview skill though.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#314

Post by mooreds »

version_five wrote: post #63

An interesting corollary is that certain types of business are no longer economically viable. If I have a business that competes with advertising companies for niche talent, my business model has to be able to generate the same outsized returns on that talent if I want to be able to afford them, so this limits the work I can do. I don't think people should work for below market wages, only observing how it can change…

> An interesting corollary is that certain types of business are no longer economically viable.

Or are no longer viable with US based software talent. I know a company that couldn't seem to keep/hire/find US based talent. Now they employ a couple folks from South America. The company gets competent developers and the folks from SA get jobs that they are happy with.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#315

Post by rsynnott »

cxx wrote: post #115

Not my experience at all. For context, I'm a L6 at FB right now and have more than a decade of experience. I've never seen tech interviews become as stupid as they are now. In the last 3 months I've applied to a few places, including one where I literally built from scratch what the hiring team wanted to do (and got promoted for it at FB), and I've never seen the difficulty of the programming rounds so high as now. I…

Do you… do this in other aspects of your work as well? Like, if you disagree with decisions being made on a project you’re working on, do you sabotage it?

In general, obstructionism is not a good way to effect change; it just hurts everybody. There are exceptions, but this probably isn’t one.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#316

Post by unnouinceput »

mmaunder wrote: post #123

This is very real. I run Defiant Inc (at defiant.com) which makes Wordfence (at wordfence.com) - a popular firewall and malware scanner for WordPress. We're hiring PHP devs that are senior level only. The job demands it because we deploy code weekly to over 4 million sites on a wide range of environments and configs, many of which are mission critical. We started hiring in 2015 and have always been 100% remote. We ha…

120k / 12 months => 10K/month salary

10K / 22 working days / 8 hours each day => ~$57/hour. Kinda low, don't you think? Especially for senior level.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#317

Post by dilap »

EastSmith wrote: post #278
dilap wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure I'd want to work somewhere that didn't do tech interviews (or something equivalent, e.g. project).

If the company pays well, it seems to me that not asking bubble sorting questions during interview does not matter?

YMMV, but I find that by talking with a person and solving problems with them I get a much better sense of their abilities than by just reading resumes or listening to recommendations.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#318

Post by alfiedotwtf »

the_only_law wrote: post #289
ddek wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You stagnated because you don't have a job that stretches you. Even if you think the best you can do is the same job you have right now, but in a different place, you'll see a significant bump. But it's highly likely you can do better than that. Why not try?

> Even if you think the best you can do is the same job you have right now, but in a different place, you'll see a significant bump. Because I doubt I could get the bump I’m looking for doing the same thing I do now with current restraints > Why not try? Time sink, especially with people talking about 4-5 stage interviews. Without some level of confidence I’d rather not use all my PTO or try to schedule hack at the m…

> Time sink, especially with people talking about 4-5 stage interviews.

From friends who are at FAANGs, it sounds like the prep work has been about 100 hours. That's re-reading things like Sedgewick and burning all your spare time at things like leetcode.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#319

Post by bittercynic »

warent wrote: post #92
yosito wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This negotiation tactic works fine if you don't have to do full day coding challenges to get to that phase, while also working a full time job.

These days I just immediately turn those down without a second thought. It's a joke of an interviewing system and your time is way too valuable for that. Happy to do coding questions, but not 8 hour long take-home projects. Those have screwed me too many times

Could those long coding projects be a strategy to force you into sinking so much effort into the process that you're now in a weak negotiating position due to the sunk cost?

I admit I'm speaking from ignorance here, and am only curious to gain more insight into this.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#320

Post by [deleted] »

caoilte wrote: post #275
sparker72678 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I trash every application that doesn’t include one. Because most likely they’re just spamming openings, and didn’t read anything about the position. Every applicant that included a cover letter was way above median quality, and worth interviewing. I might miss some decent people this way, but it’s been a very helpful first-level filter of applicants.

I suspect most of us have had semi-competent recruitment agents doing the first stage filter for us. When I look at a CV ahead of a 2nd or 3rd stage interview I take it for granted that they are serious about the role and qualified for it.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN