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Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

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Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#121

Post by darkwizard42 »

anon50118810 wrote: post #43
devsatish wrote: post #5

1) Tail end of the year - its hard to get full time roles , The hiring definitely picks up after Jan 2nd week or so. 2) Try consulting/contracting - That space is still brimming w hiring. Much faster on-boarding /hiring.

Contracting is not really an option that way in the U.S. market that I've seen, though I'd be interested if you've had a different experience. Either you're contracting through an agency in which case you're applying just like for any FTE job, or you're operating at the high end with an established network. Random gigs at places like Upwork don't pay enough for a major U.S. metro area unless you're willing to hustle…

There is definitely an opportunity to contract this way, but you have to think outside of the largest companies. You want to start by looking through your network and finding the folks who are at smaller start-ups or even have experience working with venture capital firms. Start there and inquire if they have any need for contract work or looking for an engineer for one of their smaller portfolio companies who might want to take on a contract-to-hire or even just contract.

Smaller companies generally have less red tape to getting contractors, more need (as they are either scaling quickly OR just need something done and don't want to incur high cost of a perm eng). You will need to figure out the appropriate rate (keeping in mind this doesn't come with benefits), but that exercise is left to the reader.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#122

Post by anon50118810 »

Spivak wrote: post #103
heywherelogingo wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not in the US; if I had to send out 200 or even 100 applications I would change career. If I had to send 50 I would be starting to investigate other careers.

I think it depends, if you're early in your career you're basically trying to find a company willing to take a chance on you and train you. Once you have some accomplishments under your belt companies will start being more aggressive at hiring you because you can hit the ground running. If you're applying for "senior" positions and have the CV to back it up and you're still batting 1/200 getting to the first intervie…

OP here. GGP said 200 applications to get a job, not an interview. I've had a bit under a 20% success rate on getting a first interview after an application but haven't gotten an offer yet.

Also, there are red flags, and there are red flags. I have some red flags I can't do anything about, I just have to push through them, but they shouldn't be a dealbreaker for anyone actually desperate to hire.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#123

Post by frontman1988 »

John23832 wrote: post #22
commandlinefan wrote: post #12

Is it possible that you're not passing a DEI filter? A lot of companies are running into trouble for not meeting their diversity goals, especially bumping into the end of the year.

There’s no proof of this. Don't throw that bait out there with nothing to back it up.

In University recruitments in India, a lot of companies like Adobe only hire females. Like 10 people selected from a university with 70-80% male students and yet all 10 selected are women.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#125

Post by darkwizard42 »

humanlion87 wrote: post #11
devsatish wrote: post #5

1) Tail end of the year - its hard to get full time roles , The hiring definitely picks up after Jan 2nd week or so. 2) Try consulting/contracting - That space is still brimming w hiring. Much faster on-boarding /hiring.

Any suggestions on how to look for good contracting roles? LinkedIn only seems to have FTE roles.

Start with your network (assuming you have at least a few senior engineers and your career is 4+ years in tech, you should have this via LinkedIn). You are looking for folks you worked with that are now at their 2nd+ job in their career with mostly smaller companies (generally start-ups, 5-100 full-time, 1-50 eng teams) or are now involved with venture capital/investing/anything that suggests they have exposure to smaller teams. These are the companies with high chance of having a contract role open either because they are growing too fast or they just have lots of stuff to build but don't necessarily want to/can spend time on hiring.

From there reach out and ask them for help and provide your skillset, goals (X length contract work with mobile focus), and see if they will help connect you further. Hopefully your resume and past experience with that connection help you get your foot in the door more easily.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#126

Post by frontman1988 »

jimbob45 wrote: post #99
notpushkin wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this work? Surely you can't be white, say you're black and not get caught. Is that data perhaps anonymized?

How would they catch you? It's very possible to be of African descent and have white skin. Are they going to DNA test you?

Does it also work if you say you identify as a female even though you are a male biologically?

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#127

Post by dementis »

commandlinefan wrote: post #82
fdschoeneman wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? Do you seriously believe racism is never a thing that happens in hiring? Because it is, just as it is in academia. At least some of the time. Instead of shaming people for pointing out the real possibility that racism may be at play, consider acknowledging that it may be at play but that there's nothing the op can do about it and he or she should just keep plugging away. It's a numbers game, with or without…

> the real possibility that racism may be at play I mean... isn't that the actual justification for DEI policies in the first place?

DEI policies are not necessarily also anti-racism policies. The devil is in the details as they say.

This is taken from CNBC interview with Lybra Clemons(Chief Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Officer at Twilio Inc.)

"This success, as well as Clemons’ acclaim for the company, is owed to Twilio’s commitment to becoming “anti-racist.” According to Clemons, part of the difference between DE&I and anti-racism is self-awareness.

“Right before I joined, Twilio said, we’re on this journey to become anti-racist. And I think we were all like, what does that even mean,” she tells CNBC Make It.

“I think a lot of people thought it was just a more elevated term for diversity, equity inclusion. But as we’ve started to go through the process, we’re learning that anti-racism is different. DE&I are still very foundational and fundamental to work, but anti-racism is an active term where you are personally responsible. This is about self-awareness and taking full accountability of who you are. We are actively promoting equity and racial justice through consistent, deliberate decisions that we make.”"

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/11/the-difference-between-dei-a...

Same page archived

https://archive.ph/u92e4#selection-737.0-745.506

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#128

Post by Macha »

jason-phillips wrote: post #91
heywherelogingo wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not in the US; if I had to send out 200 or even 100 applications I would change career. If I had to send 50 I would be starting to investigate other careers.

I applied to 500 openings to get my first job. I think persistence is what matters.

My first development job as a graduate I applied to 5 positions, got 3 interviews and offers from all 3 interviews. Degree from somewhere middle of the road in my country, some side projects, applying to large but not FAANG tech cos. I think I had a good CV for a graduate nothing _that_ spectactular. There's definitely some diverging experiences going on here.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#129

Post by anon50118810 »

capableweb wrote: post #71

> My personal goal is at least 100 applications before seriously considering pivoting to something else. I don't think I have especially cool resume or anything, nor do I have extremely many years in the industry as well, but I'd never consider applying for 100 different companies. I don't even know deeply about 100 companies I think, which is something I learn about a company before even considering applying to it.…

No one knows deeply about 100 companies, especially 100 random companies scattered around the U.S. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
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