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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

#291

Post by tennisflyi »

guessmyname wrote: post #33

I work at Apple and my team has been “hiring” for the last 2 years with no offers so far. Why? Because even if you are a good candidate, hiring is not as easy as people think. Among the many challengues we have I can list the following: 1. The people interested in your profile have minimal influence in the process, 2. There are people who are always chasing for the shiny new object (or person, in this case), 3. There…

> 4. People over estimate their qualifications. Their abilities may be good, but they write over the top accomplishments in their resumes that are hard to believe, at least without proof, and they are the first ones to get rejected,

You would never get to the next round otherwise.

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

#292

Post by anon50118810 »

aiisjustanif wrote: post #284

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 inc…

I spot-checked some of the companies you listed. Problem is that they're a mix of not remote, have complex applications requiring logins which I assume are big time sinks into black holes, the software jobs aren't in the U.S., they use enterprise technology which is fine but just not my skillset, all that sort of thing. Also I'm assuming, maybe wrongly, that big enterprises have a hiring cycle of several months which is just too long for me at the moment.

If you know of any big companies that have startup-like departments than I can apply to separately, that would be great. Otherwise these aren't really a good fit for me, personally. Maybe other people though!

Also, other people have suggested contracting jobs but I'm not really sure what that means, see my comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33598270. If you know of a place that is actually always hiring, meaning they will almost certainly hire you if you have skills and are who you say you are, I'd really appreciate some examples, because I don't know what that looks like.

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

#293

Post by ihaveabeardnow »

i_am_toaster wrote: post #100
ian_dot_so wrote: post #46

I think this is over-generalizing I've been both on the hiring side and candidate side this year and demand is still very strong (granted moreso for more senior applicants than junior). Couple of tips that have worked for me: * Make sure your Linkedin is up-to-date, you have "open to work" turned on and that your experience is filled with direct results and accomplishments. Example of a bad bullet point (Used javascr…

I don’t agree on a few of these. I wouldn’t personalize your resume for any company, nor do I recommend writing a personalized cover letter for any of them — you have no idea the skill set that will be valued by the person reading the resume, as they are an unknown random variable. I feel it’s just a time waste and there is no proof that this sort of thing is fruitful. Also fuck leetcode. I’ve refused to do the leetc…

I don't understand not considering tweaking your resume for each application. I could write a novel on what I've done in the last year - how do I narrow that down for a resume? I can't buy into the idea that I could write 5ish bullet points today and think it would be the best way for me to represent myself to every position I might apply for.

I don't know what proof you need this is useful - you're selling yourself, so make sure to sell what they're trying to buy.

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

#294

Post by anon50118810 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #290
ghaff wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is an odd take given that the majority of remote software developer jobs I've found, with form applications, are specifically listed at the senior level or higher. Maybe you're suggesting it's something like Groucho Marx's quote "I wouldn't belong to a club that would take me as a member."

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

#295

Post by smugma »

giantg2 wrote: post #224
adventured wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The median individual income in the U.S. is 32k The median full-time income in the US - which is a much more applicable reference point - is around $55,000.

Source? I thought it was $42k a year or two ago, but haven't looked since, and I don't remember if it was strictly full-time.

Asking "source" and saying what you thought it was doesn't contribute to the conversation.

Searching Google for "median full time income" pops up $51,480 in bold. The next link is to the BLS (US Bureau of Labor Statistics): https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.t01.htm

For Q3'22, it was $1,068/wk, or $55,536/yr.

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

#296

Post by chrisseaton »

anon50118810 wrote: post #294
chrisseaton wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is an odd take given that the majority of remote software developer jobs I've found, with form applications, are specifically listed at the senior level or higher. Maybe you're suggesting it's something like Groucho Marx's quote "I wouldn't belong to a club that would take me as a member."

I think a FAANG-level developer would probably email a team they’re interested in working with.

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

#297

Post by chris11 »

anon50118810 wrote: post #245
yamtaddle wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a relative who's quite accomplished in HR and recruiting and, can confirm, they don't encourage outright lying but they do insist you have to stretch everything to the max and freely imply a lot more than a very honest person might be inclined to. Judging from the results for people I know who've had this person re-work their résumés, it's extremely good advice. Non-braggy résumés seem to just get round-filed fo…

One of the twists in the software industry is that something that looks braggy to a non-technical recruiter can look irrelevant to someone in the know, or from the other direction something that looks braggy to a tech person can be meaningless to a non-tech person. For example, if you say that you "developed software that saved the company $X million/year," that might look good to a non-tech person but a tech person…

I'd say it depends on the company. Silicon Valley likes to promote on impact. So being able to communicate that impact is a valuable skill.

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

#298

Post by smugma »

guessmyname wrote: post #33

I work at Apple and my team has been “hiring” for the last 2 years with no offers so far. Why? Because even if you are a good candidate, hiring is not as easy as people think. Among the many challengues we have I can list the following: 1. The people interested in your profile have minimal influence in the process, 2. There are people who are always chasing for the shiny new object (or person, in this case), 3. There…

1-4 (and sort of 6 as a result) seem like general hiring struggles, and it's hard to account/adjust for that.

#5 sounds like you have a bad HR team, or don't have the right relationship with them. I've had HR discard good resumes because they were "over-qualified" and try and force me to interview people who aren't qualified, or try and convince me to say that I want someone with a college degree (the compromise was "or equivalent", which basically makes the request for a degree worthless) but ultimately, it seems like you should be able to control your rec more. The quality of recruiters varies wildly, have you tried escalating to get better support? Or maybe it's chicken and egg, because it's been two years without hiring, HR thinks you're the problem and isn't going to put effort into it?

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

#299

Post by miohtama »

treis wrote: post #220
cableshaft wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this first job in the industry or mid-senior level? I don't think I've ever sent 200 applications in any of my job searches. Last time I didn't send any; I just flicked the switch on LinkedIn and Hired and had almost 60 recruiters reach out to me (followed up with about 18, had initial interviews with about 8 companies, ended up with 4 late stage interviews and 2 offers). And I wouldn't consider myself an amazing…

Once you're a part of the club it's dramatically easier to get a job. A year and change ago I made the move into a legit tech company. I think it took me 50ish applications to get that one offer. That job was not meant to be and I went looking after a few months. With just that brief stint I applied to like 10 places, got some level interest from all of them, and ended up with an offer.

This is called a CV stuffing position. It works very well because recruiters can identify brands, but not skill.

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

#300

Post by notpushkin »

kube-system wrote: post #176
frontman1988 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Gender identity is frequently visible. I don't think many people are going to fraudulently represent their gender identity for a misguided chance at a job.

Well, I can imagine that people who aren't “proper” trans but are comfortable with, say, crossdressing start doing it in order to get benefits. Can't say I'm against that (more femboys IRL :^) and also this is on the queer-ish side so they probably still should get some preference if hiring process does take gender identity into account already.
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