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Ask HN: How to overcome job search exhaustion?

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Re: Ask HN: How to overcome job search exhaustion?

#131

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

wincy wrote: post #25

I don’t know OP, I’m a tech lead who has done his fair share of interviews and based on your few comments on HN there seem to be some red flags with how you’re viewing the interview process. Saying “one person derails things because I’d outshine them” seems to externalize the blame. I don’t know that I’ve ever worked with any engineer who thinks they’d be worse off by hiring an extremely intelligent engineer. I’d lov…

I've definitely had interviews where it became obvious the interviewer was competing.

In addition, people love to judge, interviewing is like porn for these people.

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome job search exhaustion?

#132

Post by unity1001 »

sage76 wrote: post #118
unity1001 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting up a profile with your experience at Upwork, and start doing contract work is not an option? Things are not the same as they were decades ago. Covid and remote work shattered all traditional practices. People at Upwork do upwards of $60/hour. Ive seen the profile of someone who left Google contracting at $250/hour and someone ex-Twitter contracting at $150/hour.

> someone who left Google contracting at $250/hour and someone ex-Twitter contracting at $150/hour. You see the issue here right? They are trading on past FAANG brand names. This industry just pretends to not be like others. People drool over FAANG jobs just like finance bros drool over goldman jobs.

> You see the issue here right? They are trading on past FAANG brand names.

No, I gave those as examples of what hourly rates were possible. Otherwise there are a lot of people who started and grew at Upwork, charging around $100/hr.

> People drool over FAANG jobs just like finance bros drool over goldman

Nope. Small and medium businesses and individuals would avoid those names since they would think they would be too expensive. Sweet spot for contracting would be in between $60-$120/hr. Assuming that you have enough experience in the field that you work in and also can demonstrate good track record.

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome job search exhaustion?

#133

Post by Kranar »

antisthenes wrote: post #128
Kranar wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There may be something going on that you're not aware of and interviewers don't want to tell you. This is absolutely key, and when OP says something like: "I often get praises during interviews, but never an offer." I kind of feel bad because honestly, many people will give praise to a person just to kind of end the conversation, and I will admit to being guilty of it myself. It avoids the situation where you then h…

Quoted post unavailable.

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Re: Ask HN: How to overcome job search exhaustion?

#134

Post by itake »

digitalgangsta wrote: post #38
wincy wrote: post #25

I don’t know OP, I’m a tech lead who has done his fair share of interviews and based on your few comments on HN there seem to be some red flags with how you’re viewing the interview process. Saying “one person derails things because I’d outshine them” seems to externalize the blame. I don’t know that I’ve ever worked with any engineer who thinks they’d be worse off by hiring an extremely intelligent engineer. I’d lov…

this. Worth interviewing with someone you know and see how you do. I interviewed a gent once who was very smart but talked my ear off, including cutting me off multiple times. After 45 mins of this, I stopped him and bluntly gave him this feedback. He was stunned and then thanked me as he realized he had been failing interviews because of this and no one had told him. I didnt hire him, but he was very appreciative an…

> I didnt hire him

Seems like if he took the feedback well, he could be a good person to hire, unless there were other issues with his interview.

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome job search exhaustion?

#135

Post by gopher_space »

pixelrevision wrote: post #103
gopher_space wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the nice things about the old "nerds-only programmer's pit" style of team leadership is that it provides a refuge for people that want part of their world filtered out to get work done. Quite a bit more mandatory social engagement as an engineer these days. Lots of requesting your face.

It was also better for the really quiet ones. There’s some really great programmers who can put out amazing stuff if you can keep them away from the agile/stakeholder circus.

I mean how many of us have a door we can close and no movement in our peripheral vision when we're in the office?

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome job search exhaustion?

#136

Post by gopher_space »

Kranar wrote: post #133
antisthenes wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Quoted post unavailable.

You don't need to appreciate an applicant's point of view to see how your hiring process wastes resources. Why isn't every candidate in front of you a competent software developer? Why are you passing bad candidates on to your co-workers?

Refining your process would save calculable amounts of money and obviate complaints like this.

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome job search exhaustion?

#137

Post by Kranar »

gopher_space wrote: post #136
Kranar wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

You don't need to appreciate an applicant's point of view to see how your hiring process wastes resources. Why isn't every candidate in front of you a competent software developer? Why are you passing bad candidates on to your co-workers? Refining your process would save calculable amounts of money and obviate complaints like this.

>Why isn't every candidate in front of you a competent software developer?

If every candidate in front of me were competent enough to fulfill the role, I wouldn't need an interview process period. For some hires there's no need for an interview process, but most do, and the benefit of an interview process is that it's open to anyone.

>Why are you passing bad candidates on to your co-workers?

How does this follow from anything I've said?

>Refining your process would save calculable amounts of money and obviate complaints like this.

How does refining my process have anything to do with not wanting to give advice to every candidate I interview with who fails?

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome job search exhaustion?

#138

Post by freedom2099 »

sage76 wrote: post #114
lgleason wrote: post #10

Has the market become this tough/bad?

If you are a young recent grad with FAANG experience on your resume, you will be fine. Otherwise, everyone I know struggles. Interviews are now involving more and more esoteric questions about things that aren't even on my resume, and sometimes questions about tools that can only be answered if you memorized the entire 1000 page handbook of the tool. I have been asked questions about things that were tangentially men…

May I ask where do you live? I am almost 40 with more than 15y of experience (and a master degree in computer engineering in the top university of my country) and I have to fend off recruiters (I usually do a job interview every other month just to stay sharp - love my current workplace and would not consider changing- and end getting an offer most of the times).

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome job search exhaustion?

#139

Post by gopher_space »

Kranar wrote: post #137
gopher_space wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to appreciate an applicant's point of view to see how your hiring process wastes resources. Why isn't every candidate in front of you a competent software developer? Why are you passing bad candidates on to your co-workers? Refining your process would save calculable amounts of money and obviate complaints like this.

>Why isn't every candidate in front of you a competent software developer? If every candidate in front of me were competent enough to fulfill the role, I wouldn't need an interview process period. For some hires there's no need for an interview process, but most do, and the benefit of an interview process is that it's open to anyone. >Why are you passing bad candidates on to your co-workers? How does this follow from…

I'm not thinking about your interview process so much as I'm thinking about your role in it. Why is an incompetent developer staring at you, personally? Information is available to both parties about each other at the very beginning, so why are you in a position where you'd be asked for career advice?

You didn't say anything about passing bad candidates forward, that was my mistake and thanks for catching it!

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome job search exhaustion?

#140

Post by throwaway5959 »

dirtybirdnj wrote: post #107
ipaddr wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What language/stack are you in?

I got started with the LAMP stack but really enjoyed working with Node. I'm comfortable on the command line installing / running things, I've been doing linux based development my entire career with a few unfortunate exceptions where PHP was being run on IIS.

That could be part of the problem (older stack). Do you have any example projects/portfolio with newer tech?
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