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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

#281

Post by foundajob »

theonething wrote: post #238
educaysean wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Without networking, your chances of landing the kind of job you _really_ want are vanishingly close to zero Just to offer an anecdotal counterpoint: I switched companies 3 times in the last 4-5 years. Went from enterprise -> local start up -> big tech -> bay area start up. None of those jobs, including the enterprise gig where I got my start, required me to leverage my network. I don't doubt it's much easier when y…

Same experience here. I do have a network, but have never leveraged it. I just apply for jobs I'm interested and I get some of them. I never have to apply for more than 10 - 15 positions to get at least one. I don't have FAANG on my resume, but a string of solid, but not amazing experience.

No post body was provided.

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

#282

Post by anon50118810 »

digitalsushi wrote: post #135
dariusj18 wrote: post #28

My experience is it's impossible to find people who's experience actually matches their resume.

We try to hire seasoned linux admins for our ops team. This has become difficult. I start with this technical interview question so I can calibrate quickly: "If I run the following two commands: mkdir a b c;mv * What happens?" One person so far has asked if globbing was active. Like half of people get the answer right if they assume it is. This question is deemed as "not fair", though, because it assumes a linux admi…

You didn't ask for advice, but I have some Linux experience and it does feel a little like a trick question since you would normally never do that. Probably I'd give 100% credit for answering the question as asked, and 90% credit if they can explain to you what happened after running it in a terminal or if you tell them the end result.

If you need good questions, maybe ask your current admins the five most common operations or pain points they have every day and then base your questions on that.

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

#283

Post by ghaff »

anon50118810 wrote: post #260
chrisseaton wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not cronyism - it’s people knowing your portfolio of work and abilities. And at the end of the day - do whatever you need to within reason to put food on your own table. Don’t worry about someone else judging you for cronyism for feeding your family.

There's nothing wrong with networking, but if we're all agreeing that networking is important to having a job search that doesn't involve hundreds of applications, then let's just be honest about that. In particular let's make sure people who don't have that network and who do have to job search know what they need to do to get where they need to be.

I expect it varies enormously. I can readily believe that people with relatively straightforward in-demand skills, an easy to follow track record, and maybe the right schools can probably (in a reasonable economy) just turn on LinkedIn and let interview requests flow in.

Someone who doesn't really check boxes and doesn't have a network may have to play a numbers game.

On the other hand, more senior and more specialized people (both in and out of engineering) will often have a much smaller number of holes that they would fit properly in and just sending out resumes is unlikely to be nearly as effective as networking.

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

#284

Post by aiisjustanif »

Opinion:

Too much of a blanket statement in my opinion. The way I see it as a consultant that has talked to multiple devs and management over the last year at multiple companies is that remote jobs are competitive at the moment, in person jobs less so, and contracting jobs are always hiring.

We are at the end of the year and operational expenditure is low and getting renewed, while capital expenditure is high and increasing which is good for contractors and consultants.

Factual Anecdote:

Personally if I were you I would go up the top 100 market cap companies [1]. I’m at a company that hired 75 dev in my department alone in the last year. I know personally places like Costco, Home Depot, Caterpillar, Abbott, and Comcast have been steadily having new employees and job postings.

Just don’t stick the jobs that Indeed and LinkedIn throw at you.

[1]: https://companiesmarketcap.com

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

#285

Post by winrid »

mannymanman wrote: post #16
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.

Companies have diversity goals? I thought that the diversity related info wasn't used in hiring, as is stated in all the job application forms

Yes, they do. Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives they are called.... :)

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

#286

Post by anon50118810 »

throwaway675309 wrote: post #278
_ed7m wrote: post #30

It took me 200 applications to land my job, and I think the rest of everyone I know who’s a decent programmer had similar situations. The bottom line is that everyone has employment and only had to move for it if they’re taking a high (120k+ TC for entry level) paying position. This is “falling of trees” compared to any other industry. Being able to land a middle class job directly in the field of your education with…

Given that you're talking about a 60 K position I can only assume that this is out of your first job or at the very least you're a junior or entry-level position. So of course this is only anecdotal but I've never sent more than 5 applications out at a time even back when I was a junior dev. In the last 10 years I don't even bother looking for jobs actively anymore, I just turn the switch on my LinkedIn indicating th…

If you're selling something that's both highly in-demand and niche, then lots of people will contact you and everyone who contacts you already wants what you're selling. Soft skills aren't really involved other than to avoid messing up the sale. I'm sure you're a very personable sort but I don't think that's really the issue here.

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

#287

Post by aiisjustanif »

anon50118810 wrote: post #279
Ken_At_EM wrote: post #267

This does not describe our company. We want to hire developers.

I looked at the jobs page off your HN profile. It looks like you're trying to hire firmware developers in-office in Houston, who also have to do customer support with an on-call rotation, and are paying on the low end of what web development pays. Kudos for being so upfront but looking at that I have a sense of where the challenges are for you.

As cliche as it sounds, beggars can’t be choosers. I’ve done customer support and on-call and it can be manageable.

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

#288

Post by aiisjustanif »

jollyllama wrote: post #173

How long have you been at it? Recruiting at non-FAANG employers works differently. The father you get from FAANG or startups, the less urgency you will find on the part of your prospective employers. Don't let this discourage you. Have you had to job search much before? I've found it's often a months long process. You might not be at the beginning, but at the middle of it.

Lol I find this to be exact opposite, FAANG has had very long wait times, Google probably with the longest streak of that.

I find non-FAANG to be much quicker.

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

#290

Post by chrisseaton »

ghaff wrote: post #283
anon50118810 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing wrong with networking, but if we're all agreeing that networking is important to having a job search that doesn't involve hundreds of applications, then let's just be honest about that. In particular let's make sure people who don't have that network and who do have to job search know what they need to do to get where they need to be.

I expect it varies enormously. I can readily believe that people with relatively straightforward in-demand skills, an easy to follow track record, and maybe the right schools can probably (in a reasonable economy) just turn on LinkedIn and let interview requests flow in. Someone who doesn't really check boxes and doesn't have a network may have to play a numbers game. On the other hand, more senior and more specializ…

Yeah you’re also disadvantaged as a senior when you apply by a form - people will obviously think ‘why is this FAANG-level person applying blindly like that’ and think it’s off and discard your application.
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