Ask HN: Where do you find the interesting jobs? • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by xeromal » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 1:38 PM UTC

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.

Nah, this person is delusional. I don't even know why you'd want to see their code.

I'm sure plenty would explain their processes and how they code, but they're not showing you their code unless it's already public which would be a moot point then.

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

#152

Post by 082349872349872 » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 1:39 PM UTC

uVacCXNiiJCTnYB wrote: post #94

krisoft wrote: post #86

Don’t look at job adverts. Figure out what interests you. Find people who do that. Figure out how they got there and how you yourself can get in the same position. > It honestly makes me feel like my skills and time are being wasted. Stop wasting them then. Hint: work is not necessarily the thing which will scratch that itch. If after plenty of introspection, and trial and error you find that the kind of things which…

That's pretty much where I currently am. "easy" job, the rest of my free time is spent on open source side projects. But it's just not a great feeling to be paid to make nothing useful, and to have so much of my life be effectively wasted time.

Einstein worked at the patent office while coming up with relativity. Aristotle charged big drachmas for tutoring Alexander. It may not be the dream, but there are undoubtedly many more examples of people who managed to roll the peanut of humanity a bit forward despite doing something else to pay the bills.

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

#153

Post by tluyben2 » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 1:40 PM UTC

I usually get asked, but I more and more desire just projects that are from scratch for 3-6 months alone or with 2-3 mates of mine. Those I find harder to find; the sites that say they offer projects like that really don’t; they mostly end up being huge tech debt pools built by different bad teams from the same site and too far in to offer a rewrite (well offer is ok, but they will say something like ‘maybe later, please finish this list first with the current code’).

A good site offering only that would be excellent but I guess hard to do.

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

#154

Post by scarface74 » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 1:44 PM UTC

By becoming a specialist in something.

In my case:

- a run of the mill enterprise CRUD developer? Boring run of the mill of jobs

- a run of the mill enterprise CRUD developer who can talk to customers, write documents, present to investors, train developers on best practices etc? - slightly more interesting jobs at companies where companies were looking to move to a different level of maturity.

- all of the above and experience with “cloud”? - a remote job at a FAANG specializing in “cloud application modernization” that I got without having to do the leetCode/DS&A monkey dance.

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

#155

Post by the_only_law » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 1:45 PM UTC

uVacCXNiiJCTnYB wrote: post #81

ehnto wrote: post #52

> 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 bu…

Definitely agree, though I wonder where you find those types of jobs? I recently tried looking at government jobs but didn't find anything that was either remote or near me. Not sure where to find the rest. Because indeed, almost everything I find on tech recruitment platforms is either big corps (often doing nebulous B2B things) or VC backed startups that clearly don't really provide real value besides making VCs ho…

> I recently tried looking at government jobs but didn't find anything that was either remote or near me.

Hell, I’d be willing to go back in office for an “interesting” job. The problem with the government is what they pay for probably having to live in DC. As well as the horrible sounding bureaucratic requirements and leveling.

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

#156

Post by paxys » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 1:46 PM UTC

There is no universal definition of "interesting". You have to figure out what that word means to you, and find companies which offer such opportunities. Or just go do those interesting things on your own.

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

#157

Post by uVacCXNiiJCTnYB » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 1:48 PM UTC

the_only_law wrote: post #147

uVacCXNiiJCTnYB wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's probably true. The work I always love the most is building tools to help other people at work... On the other hand I've found those companies hard to break into because they often expect you to have specific expertise in things like "very high scale applications" or specific low-level things. I only tried Gitlab I think, and never really heard back.

Even worse, I have the experience, just no way to put it on my resume to avoid getting ATs screened out. In my last job search, I swore up and down that I’d not settle for money again, but would actually put effort into getting a job I wanted. It didn’t work out. Almost every job I applied for, I got ATS screened out of. I remember looking at one job and thinking “oh yeah, I could do this”. The job wanted experience…

Yeah my last few job searches went a bit like that too. Sending CVs to try interesting new things gets not replies, meanwhile I get dozens of recruiters offering me well paid jobs as long as I stay in the same general areas.

It's really hard getting out of the boxes we're typecast in.

I still like programming a lot when I do it on interesting things (which are side projects really), but I haven't had interesting programming at my job in years.

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

#158

Post by goodpoint » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 1:48 PM UTC

robofanatic wrote: post #95

uVacCXNiiJCTnYB wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm building something interesting but it's not something that will make money, because it's an open source tool and open source devs generally don't get paid for their work lol. Outside of that, and outside of the obvious snarkiness, the whole "why don't you make your own job" thing isn't a real solution. Not everyone can be creating companies, otherwise who would be working at those companies? I don't have much sec…

> open source devs generally don't get paid for their work lol. have you seen this https://github.com/sponsors ?

https://github.com/sponsors provide tiny amounts unless you are in the 0.001% lucky+famous projects.

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

#159

Post by uVacCXNiiJCTnYB » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 1:53 PM UTC

rglullis wrote: post #118

uVacCXNiiJCTnYB wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm building something interesting but it's not something that will make money, because it's an open source tool and open source devs generally don't get paid for their work lol. Outside of that, and outside of the obvious snarkiness, the whole "why don't you make your own job" thing isn't a real solution. Not everyone can be creating companies, otherwise who would be working at those companies? I don't have much sec…

Plenty of successful, profitable businesses are built on open source. > Not everyone can be creating companies, otherwise who would be working at those companies? Those who are not arrogant enough to think they are above the position. Those who tried running their own companies, got humbled by their failure and learned the hard way that perhaps any "uninterested" job is enough. Those who are find meaning in their liv…

I don't know why you keep being so aggressive but you don't know me or anything about me and you're making weird wide ranging judgements just based on the fact that I'm asking for advice on how to find more interesting jobs.

Not everyone has to be an "entrepreneur". I like making things, not running companies and managing people/talking to investors and all the other things that come with trying to create a startup.

And yes, sorry but if you're not aware, some people have life situations that don't allow them to simply quit their job and start a company without a safety net. There's a reason the vast majority of "entrepreneurs" are of a very specific demographic

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

#160

Post by CabSauce » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 1:53 PM UTC

Job boards can be pretty terrible. I try to find companies doing something interesting and apply directly through their site. You can also find yourself among less competition if their jobs aren't being picked up by big boards.