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Ask HN: Where do you find the interesting jobs?

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Re: Ask HN: Where do you find the interesting jobs?

#51

Post by mxuribe »

uVacCXNiiJCTnYB wrote: post #37
inglor wrote: post #29

> How do you find interesting gigs? Get really good in a specific field you care about - for me that was platforms and programming languages but you might really enjoy other stuff. When I say really good let me emphasize that's not exceptional, I am in no means a great programming language designer or web platform person or developer in general. Once you get beyond a threshold - you'll find a lot of people who deeply…

That is interesting but what I find hard is getting a foot in the door when changing expertise field. In my case, I'm generally a mix of full stack dev and game dev (specialised in HTML5 game dev). I want to do more systems stuff (particularly Rust), and I've recently created a scripting language with a VM from scratch for a game engine as part of a side project. But I don't have any commercial experience or keywords…

> ...I recently got rejected at one job at the CV stage for "not having enough React experience" because my last job was in Vue so I wasn't technically using React in recent years (even though it's an extremely similar area of expertise)...

Ah, yes, the same old story that HR (or hiring manager) took the job description waaaay too literal, and missing the idea that a halfway decent technologist or developer can/should be able to reasonably pick up any other similar tech/stack...and as such, misseed out on a potentially good candidate. I swear that HR more than any other time in my life behaves more like robots looking to check boxes (or not checking boxes such as in your example). Or, maybe i'm just bitter because i got passed up for nice, interesting jobs in the past, where the candidates they ended up with were less qualified or left the org too soon (re-triggering the same job search again too soon)...plus, i would have stayed a lot longer, and given said orgs lots more of my passion, etc. But, no, i'm not bitter. Not bitter at all. ;-)

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find the interesting jobs?

#52

Post by ehnto »

> Everything is crypto "web 3" bubble, fintech, or recruiters being very vague about "unicorn" startups that are just making useless services that clearly won't go anywhere.

Find a business that makes money from software, small product-owner companies are often really good to work for, preferably one that supplies/supports your local community. You can actually find that in agencies pretty often. When you've got a business providing a core value to the community and no investors, you can feel a stronger connection to where you work and the community it's in. Usually smaller bootstrapped companies have to be providing a tangible service to the community in order to survive, whereas VC can be lofty and full of non-things and hype.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find the interesting jobs?

#54

Post by LAC-Tech »

BoumTAC wrote: post #32
rethab wrote: post #9

> I've also found that interviews don't tell you much about reality. Always ask to see code and talk to engineers about what their days look like. I believe there are very few legitimate reasons they won't show you their code, but more likely if they're refusing, it's because they're hiding something. When talking to an engineer, ask them how their code goes from idea to production and have it explained in detail . T…

Does it really happened like that in the US ? It seems like a total different world. Here in France, if I ask for something during the interview process with the recruiter, I will get a response like this: "Sorry we don't do that in our process, so goodbye" and they move to the next candidate while I'm out for this job.

Well now you have a career goal - stop working for french companies.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find the interesting jobs?

#55

Post by mcv »

7373737373 wrote: post #43
mcv wrote: post #8

The weird irony of our society seems to be that the most useless jobs pay the most, while the most essential jobs pay the least. A lot of important work is being done by volunteers and charity organisations. The best paying jobs are often parasitic. Like stock manipulation.

Interesting downside of human psychology/market dynamics, if many want to help others e.g. as nurses or teachers, that positive trait is punished financially due to the high number of applicants

Also, if you want to help others, the fact that you can do so is itself used as compensation. Greed is rewarded a lot more than altruism.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find the interesting jobs?

#56

Post by lotsofpulp »

QuarterReptile wrote: post #47
lotsofpulp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who are the people at the top? How do they “decide” revenue minus expenses? Are you claiming there is widespread fraud in SEC filings? If you are referring to many industries becoming controlled by a handful of large organizations, then people working in trading and finance have nothing to do with that. That is in the political arena.

I presume he's talking about Congress, and by 'deciding' he's talking about them making regulations that effectively have the US government underwrite long tail risks while leaving profits privatized for larger financial institutions.

I understood mcv’s comment about “stock manipulation” being part of the highest paying jobs to refer to people working in finance, such as HFTs.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find the interesting jobs?

#57

Post by s5300 »

mstipetic wrote: post #48
nurettin wrote: post #11

> Everything is crypto "web 3" bubble, fintech, or recruiters being very vague about "unicorn" startups I work in fintech and it is very interesting to me. I've turned down recruiters from 50 countries since getting this job and I obviously don't care if you think money is the root of all evil or some other weird tree hugger babble. So what is interesting for you ?

Tree hugger babble? Aren’t you just confirming the fintech stereotype

Malignant narcissism is a hell of a drug, if that wasn’t already obvious…

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find the interesting jobs?

#58

Post by sam_lowry_ »

> I would kill for a job that feels even remotely useful or interesting.

Public service as a freelance contractor. No, really. Depending on where you leave, this may pay good money (Netherlands) or next to nothing (Poland).

But there will be many useful projects to work on.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find the interesting jobs?

#59

Post by lotsofpulp »

s5300 wrote: post #50
lotsofpulp wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish we all could just earn the same amount In your society, what is the incentive for someone to clean up diarrhea in a gas station restroom?

Said society has fairly simply automated self-cleaning restrooms. It’s really not that hard, or expensive.

Based on the fact that they are not in widespread use already, and I have never heard or seen one, it seems reasonable to assume that they do not exist, or are very expensive, or have some other limitation.

I would be interested in looking at a link for these bathrooms that do not require human labor for upkeep.

Either way, the point is different types of work exist with different difficulties/desirabilities, and people need incentives to do the less desirable and/or more difficult work.

If you expect people to slog through medical textbooks and training for 12 years to earn the same as someone checking out groceries, you might be living on a different planet.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find the interesting jobs?

#60

Post by pc86 »

gampleman wrote: post #24

First, you need to actually value interesting work in relation to other job values (like compensation, good working hours, low stress, making a difference, family friendliness, good management and many others). Generally these will be a tradeoff, but you might find one where the tradeoff suits you. For instance I had a job I really enjoyed at an Earth Observation startup geeking out about maps and space, but the comp…

People really forget the first point. All things being equal, everyone wants to work on something interesting. So almost by definition, when interesting things come along people are more than happy to let the other things drop a bit. Pay will likely be a little low (not always). Hours will almost certainly go up, even if it doesn't feel like it since it's more interesting work. The only one I'd disagree on is management, managers like to work on interesting things too :) The one caveat being the org might be more inclined to just promote people who are really good at the technical aspects and don't have any managerial skills.
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