Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: With recent layoffs, how would you advise new grads entering the market?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 270 posts

Re: Ask HN: With recent layoffs, how would you advise new grads entering the market?

#31

Post by topkai22 »

As a new grad I don’t think you need to do much different. At my Megacorp the college hire budget is separate from everything else. Even during the strictest hiring freeze college hiring continued.

I would advise shifting expectations a bit, it’s likely offers will still be good but not quite as lucrative as last year.

As for accepting any job- just because you’ve accepted a job does not mean you can’t keep interviewing (in the US at least). Even starting at a company doesn’t mean you can’t keep interviewing. I ran a college hire onboarding program a few years back. Of the 20 people we had , 3 had new jobs within 3 months of hire. We weren’t happy about it, but they got legitimately better offers and we couldn’t match.

So, maybe say yes to a “safety job.”

Once you start, keep your expenses low, although you don’t need to live like a pauper. Living with a roommate (or SO), picking less expensive housing, limiting bar/club attendance, and driving a less expensive car really adds up.

That all being said, my impression is that the AI market remains one of the strongest in the tech sector for “real” practitioners. I think you’ll be ok.

Re: Ask HN: With recent layoffs, how would you advise new grads entering the market?

#32

Post by notch656c »

ryandrake wrote: post #22

I've been through the dotcom slaughter of 2000-2002 as a new grad (undergrad) and the comparatively small slowdown of 2008 (grad school new grad). Get ready to hit the Submit button... a lot. The stories of "getting three job offers after four interviews at five companies" are no longer reality. My application:interview:offer ratio has always varied from 50:5:1 to 100:10:1, and I would expect something like that or w…

Great recession grad. 1000:100:10:1

app:phone_screen:interview:offer

In general divide the first number by 10 if you have at least 12 months post grad professional experience. If you have a shiny high GPA diploma from a top school but no intern or any experience whatsoever change last two numbers to zero.

Re: Ask HN: With recent layoffs, how would you advise new grads entering the market?

#33

Post by Traubenfuchs »

ryandrake wrote: post #22

I've been through the dotcom slaughter of 2000-2002 as a new grad (undergrad) and the comparatively small slowdown of 2008 (grad school new grad). Get ready to hit the Submit button... a lot. The stories of "getting three job offers after four interviews at five companies" are no longer reality. My application:interview:offer ratio has always varied from 50:5:1 to 100:10:1, and I would expect something like that or w…

> The stories of "getting three job offers after four interviews at five companies" are no longer reality.

Yikes. I have been in Software Engineering for about 11 years and never had it any other way and even then interviewing and managing applications was stressful. Having to apply to 10s, 100s of companies would destroy me. I am very, very scared of my company going under and me having to compete in this market. I hope it gets better soon and people stop doing the "learn to code to get rich quick" routine.

Re: Ask HN: With recent layoffs, how would you advise new grads entering the market?

#34

Post by scarface74 »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #13

> Is it better to get any job than keep searching for the job I'd be most suited for? In general I'd say no although I'm not sure it applies to you. I know some people who graduated into the Internet apocalypse of 2002. They picked up crappy jobs and then got pigeon-holed into that crappy job for a very long time. It's a lot easier to get a job in a cool field as a new grad than it is as someone with experience doing…

This is an absolutely horrible idea. Pride never paid a bill.

It’s almost always better to take any job you can get and keep looking. Every month that you aren’t working, you have to make more to make up for the time of unemployment.

I would rather be “pigeonholed” (won’t happen) than be unemployed. The hardest thing is breaking the can’t get a job don’t have experience cycle.

I’ve transitioned between many technologies since I started working in 1996.

Re: Ask HN: With recent layoffs, how would you advise new grads entering the market?

#35

Post by scarface74 »

cratermoon wrote: post #25

Oh, new grads are golden, they have almost nothing worry about. The companies laying off workers are pushing out the senior, highly-paid, most expensive employees. They will quickly and eagerly replace with them with naive, low-paid (relatively), eager-to-drink-the-koolaid fresh grads. The only thing the new grads might have to worry about is that they probably won't get as much money as they would have prior to the…

If I’m trying to keep a company afloat, I would much rather have a few experienced engineers than a bunch of juniors that start off doing “negative work”

Re: Ask HN: With recent layoffs, how would you advise new grads entering the market?

#36

Post by geocrasher »

Focus. Focus. Focus.

Focus on being the best version of yourself. Be passionate. Stand out not by being what they're looking for, stand out by being what they didn't even know they were looking for until they found you.

Focus on solving problems, not just being a warm body in a seat. Companies need problems solved, not seats filled. Identify the issue they are trying to solve before you even show up, and then make it clear you're the person to solve it.

Focus on being human. If you're not the most personable person (not everyone is, and that's fine) then spend time to make sure they know that you aren't their average applicant.

And if your prospective employer says "In 100 words or less, tell us what makes you different from the rest!" for the love of all that is recruiting, do not just paste in your cover letter. I've disqualified SO many applicants without even looking at their resume or cover letter because they couldn't bother to follow the most basic direction.

Re: Ask HN: With recent layoffs, how would you advise new grads entering the market?

#38

Post by autodev1 »

I'd tell them to forget about current trends and look at long term trends based on a reliable source of data: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers"

Job Outlook, 2021-31 25% (Much faster than average)

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...

"Information Security Analysts"

Job Outlook, 2021-31 35% (Much faster than average)

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...

Re: Ask HN: With recent layoffs, how would you advise new grads entering the market?

#39

Post by rqtwteye »

notch656c wrote: post #32
ryandrake wrote: post #22

I've been through the dotcom slaughter of 2000-2002 as a new grad (undergrad) and the comparatively small slowdown of 2008 (grad school new grad). Get ready to hit the Submit button... a lot. The stories of "getting three job offers after four interviews at five companies" are no longer reality. My application:interview:offer ratio has always varied from 50:5:1 to 100:10:1, and I would expect something like that or w…

Great recession grad. 1000:100:10:1 app:phone_screen:interview:offer In general divide the first number by 10 if you have at least 12 months post grad professional experience. If you have a shiny high GPA diploma from a top school but no intern or any experience whatsoever change last two numbers to zero.

In 2003 it went to 100:1:0:0 for me for more than a year. It was a rude awakening after thinking that I was a high demand pro during the .COM bubble. Definitely taught me to hold onto my money.

Re: Ask HN: With recent layoffs, how would you advise new grads entering the market?

#40

Post by eschneider »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #26
eschneider wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always take a crappy job to pay the bills while looking for something better. You can decide later if you want to put it on your resume or not.

But you're out of the new grad hiring pipeline. It's probably different in 2022 than it was in 2002, but in 2002 when companies wanted to hire new grads they posted jobs at Universities and did job fairs at Universities. So if you weren't at a University it was harder to get a new grad job. And you have a hole in your resume you have to explain.

No, if you don't list the job, it looks just like it does if you didn't take it and kept looking. You have the "hole" between graduation and first job same as if you took nothing.
Post reply on HN