51–60 of 79 posts
In psychology there is a phenomenon called "the missing missing reasons." Usually this refers to parents whose children no longer have a relationship with them. The parents claim the child never gave any reason. Except the children always gave them plenty of reasons. The parents just weren't willing to accept those reasons. I suspect you are in the same position here. I think you know exactly why you aren't getting i…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Congratulations on being so inclusive, but studies have repeatedly demonstrated that what you look like, down to the brands you wear, makes a significant difference to interview outcomes.
Yeah, and this might not go over well here but: ... Wear a suit to the interview. Doesn't have to be an expensive Armani or anything, just look like you give half a shit.
The best thing is to wear their dress code +1. If they are all very casual, wear business casual. If they are all business casual, maybe you want to wear a sports jacket.
If you can't easily find out what their dress code is, I default to business casual. I would not want to work at a place where a suit and tie is mandatory anyway.
You say 5 years python, but based on your linkedin you mean hobbiest experience, so you should expect that it's going to be harder. I was a hobbiest for 4 years before I got hired. There's no link to your GitHub, so it's impossible to see anything you've written. Hopefully you're including links to personal projects in your resumes.
Your best bet is going to be cashstrapped startups. They will likely pay less and demand more than an enterprise role, but don't worry about the size of your first paycheck, because you can level way up in a year or two.
However, small orgs like to hire generalists, full stack devs that can do it all. I was hired for frontend, but I had to write code in Django Rest Framework and Flask too. With a backend focus, I'd recommend building the rest of your toolset out and learning some frontend if you haven't. You'll likely have to touch frontend, so youre only helping your future self.
Networking is big, and I spent a lot of time first going to meetups and later speaking at them. Even if you don't get a job this way, you will get more comfortable talking to other devs and increase your confidence. Feel free to shoot an actual resume or GitHub over to ian at schwartz.world and I will happily give you more thorough feedback
I’m sorry you are struggling to get a job :( been there, it sucks!! There are two things I would tell you: 1. Skip the recruiters! In tech I’ve come across some amazing and helpful recruiters, but that is a tiny minority. I used to hear the word “networking” and the sole concept was frightening to me, but at the end of the day all it means is making connections in whatever way you find comfortable for you. My current…
Wow - this is a plan! Thank you for putting it all right there and thanks for the link.
In psychology there is a phenomenon called "the missing missing reasons." Usually this refers to parents whose children no longer have a relationship with them. The parents claim the child never gave any reason. Except the children always gave them plenty of reasons. The parents just weren't willing to accept those reasons. I suspect you are in the same position here. I think you know exactly why you aren't getting i…
I'm a web dev, so I can only speak from my own experience: You say 5 years python, but based on your linkedin you mean hobbiest experience, so you should expect that it's going to be harder. I was a hobbiest for 4 years before I got hired. There's no link to your GitHub, so it's impossible to see anything you've written. Hopefully you're including links to personal projects in your resumes. Your best bet is going to…
I'm a web dev, so I can only speak from my own experience: You say 5 years python, but based on your linkedin you mean hobbiest experience, so you should expect that it's going to be harder. I was a hobbiest for 4 years before I got hired. There's no link to your GitHub, so it's impossible to see anything you've written. Hopefully you're including links to personal projects in your resumes. Your best bet is going to…
In my experience so far on the job market, employers do not look at anything in your portfolio, github or otherwise. I've got github portfolio and a huge active site and app portfolio with excellent analytics. I can see who visits my online properties and out of over fifty jobs applied for, not a single hit from an employer on any of my portfolio even when I'd be getting to the 2nd and 3rd and 4th interview with five…
Going through the entire process of getting a portfolio online is a huge signifier. If you build the site, manage it with git, get it up on GitHub and somehow actually deploy it somewhere, that means you've at least interacted with a lot of the basic tools developers use. It's a thing that you've done, when there may not be many others, and doing it more than once means it's less things we'll have to teach you when onboarding. With a nice classless frontend framework like Sakura, it takes like 30 minutes tops to put together a small HTML page and you can drag-and-drop deploy with Netlify, so honestly the bar is quite low.
But I actually brought up GitHub from the standpoint of: I have no idea what kind of job he's actually trying to get and how his experience might relate to that. All we know is 5 years, can't get hired.
One thing that stands out is the extreme asymmetry of the situation. Applicants need to have a brief and highly relevant cover letter or equivalent, a resume that emphasizes experiences directly relevant to a particular position, and some portfolio showing off their skills on github or such like. Anything goes wrong or isn't completely right at any stage means no thank you and maybe apply again. On the other hand employers post listings that have long and rambling laundry lists of nice to haves, listings get posted on job search sites and generate only that listing is no longer open responses, automated resume filters take out many applicants, and interviews are intimidating and loaded with questions about unrelated technical details.
Because many programmers have trouble with complex social situations and social problems this can end up being an extremely difficult situation. Alternatives like contracting and launching startups end up being easier and more accessible than actually getting a job even for those who would prefer employment.
Potential improvements may be more on the side of employers than candidates. Options like scanning more resumes personally instead of with machines, retaining contacts who were imperfect fits at one time, being flexible with qualifications, and offering options for evaluation periods or initial contracts might help. Expecting programmers to hone their social skills and appearance to get a job seems honestly unrealistic given the domain.
How many times are you applying? I applied to 500 different companies on Indeed, dedicating ~4 hours a day to filling applications, customizing resumes to job descriptions, and conducting phone and video interviews. Was hired in about 3 weeks. Maybe use that as a metric.
I respect the grind and tbh I have basically given up actively applying, I just respond to recruiters now. At my peak ~ hour a day. The thing is, if every company has something obnoxious like 3 + interviews, and I average about 1.5 before flaming out, then I don’t really want to apply to 500 jobs and forget who I’m even interviewing with. Also, now that I have a FT non-wfh, I don’t really have the time to.
Oh, you'll never get a job that way. Lol. Recruiters on linkedin who shoot out mass DMs are the bottom of the barrel.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, and this might not go over well here but: ... Wear a suit to the interview. Doesn't have to be an expensive Armani or anything, just look like you give half a shit.
I think this depends a lot on where you're interviewing. Showing up in a suit when everyone else is wearing flip flops makes you look like an asshole. The best thing is to wear their dress code +1. If they are all very casual, wear business casual. If they are all business casual, maybe you want to wear a sports jacket. If you can't easily find out what their dress code is, I default to business casual. I would not w…