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Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

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Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#361

Post by beckingz »

whstl wrote: post #352
metadaemon wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, there's definitely something broken with the cold application process. I'd estimate my success rate of getting an interview from a cold application is something like 1-5%. I almost always resort to referrals or getting lucky networking with recruiters.

I'm definitely seeing a pattern in the posts here. Referrals and recruiters = success. Apply to a position = failure. I've had in the past a few recruiters on the lazier side ask me to "please apply directly at the company portal" and that had a perfectly round 0% success rate.

The best part is hot referrals to a large company, when they ask you to apply for the role a day AFTER receiving a verbal offer.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#362

Post by sgwizdak »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #309
sgwizdak wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One note from personal experience -- it'll likely take about 12 weeks or so for a laid off dev to come back up to speed with interview prep to feel confident to start the interview grind again. One thing that can likely help is being upfront with the evaluation process.

If they can afford to wait three months (!) to start looking for work because of "feelings" they they deserved to be laid off.

It's an estimate based on both the average severances coupled with how long it takes to work through the Blind 100 LC grind with a bit of reset time thrown in. If you're in a position where you can handle 2 LC-hard questions in about an hour with near perfect execution, good for you! But most folks need to prepare for that.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#363

Post by beckingz »

clavalle wrote: post #118
Ncarpentieri4 wrote: post #67

I was laid off in november, in vc. Looking for PM/Ops roles. Applied to a ton of stuff where I was a great fit, no answer or immediate rejection lol. I'm 8 years out of school and am not applying for roles that are unrealistic. I think the entire hiring/search process is so broken. Different applications, formats. Don't get me started on having to fill out sections in a form that are just resume sections (work experi…

>"Don't get me started on having to fill out sections in a form that are just resume sections" I haven't been laid off but I've been dipping my toe in the past few months because I'm a bit bored in my current role. The process is much more fiddly than it needs to be. When I run into those 'fill this out again for our system' forms, often times it's after a long day and I will just save it to come back to it later...a…

I've had hot referrals that I haven't followed up on because I couldn't be bothered to put all the sections of my resume into their applicant tracking system...

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#364

Post by therealdrag0 »

hackernewds wrote: post #104
jaxomlotus wrote: post #66

Here's the flip side: I was hiring (at a stealth vc-funded startup). I reached out to every designer and coder laid off from Twitter and Amazon (one of my investors sent me a spreadsheet that those laid off folks added their contact info to). I didn't receive a single interested response to my reach outs. Now granted, I'm sure they were bombarded with lots of startup offers and being picky what company/stage they wer…

Does that say more about the hiring market, or about your startup though?

The point is if the market is bad enough than people can’t have standards. And people still have standards so the market isn’t that bad.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#365

Post by beckingz »

millerm wrote: post #209

My contract was just cut early at a large corp. So, this is awful. Second time I have lost a gig in the past 2 years. I can't take this biz anymore. About time to jump off a friggin' cliff.

You've got this! Money can be exchanged for goods and services, and the demand for software services is still near an all time high and will tends towards increasing for a long time. As a seller of software services, don't take it personally.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#366

Post by beckingz »

bhouston wrote: post #111
ulizzle wrote: post #93

I just got back into the market after taking a hiatus to write a novel (finished it, deleted it afterward cus I'm not proud of it) and work on my music,(more success but I'm not good enough to think I can make a career out of it). There's a definite hiring slowdown due to current market circumstances and the fact that "Senior" really doesn't mean what it used to, so there's a lot more competition for those roles now.…

Should release the novel anyhow.

I strongly recommend releasing it even if you don't think it's good.

I wrote a book, and I don't think it's especially good, but I've gotten a lot of respect for having published it because people think it's hard.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#367

Post by cwkoss »

ryandrake wrote: post #116
dixie_land wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My observation is that recent layoffs affect engineers with different seniority very differently. Senior devs I know who got laid off are just enjoying their time off (with pay! if you consider the severance) after the rocketing market in 2021 (and maybe even H1 22) made them whole and financially secure. And they won't be entertaining a startup unless significant equity or big leveling up (eg Principal or Director).…

Furthermore, some very senior employees are in this boat: They kinda have enough savings to just retire, but were hanging on to their jobs to save maybe 10% more or whatever. Now that they're out of a job they are simply saying "Whelllp, I guess I'm now retired." and not really feeling the need to look anymore. I know someone who refused a forced return to office, and when his company tried to call his bluff, he just…

FWIW in my experience the first retirement never sticks for these folks.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#368

Post by gendv »

lbrito wrote: post #204
dream-cast wrote: post #178

Personally I find it amusing watching tech workers who were resting and vesting from the 2016 to 2022 period find out how broken the hiring system is. Here's a tip, it always was. I struggled to find a job for years and the only advice people in tech were willing to give is that I should have gone to Standford (Washington State University for life) or I should just try harder. Eventually I got a job in a call center…

>I hope you all suffer like I had to suffer. I'm sorry for the ill-minded advice you got, but not everyone in tech is an asshole. By definition a very small minority has Ivy-league, trust fund-brat backgrounds. There are people from all walks of life, many like yours, and not few that would think _you_ are spoiled and entitled - I've seen developers from Gaza posting on HN, for instance. Give that a thought before wi…

> but not everyone in tech is an asshole.

But the evidence says otherwise. Broken hiring, big egos, bad software. This field is a mess and the people made it like this.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#369

Post by yellowapple »

cwkoss wrote: post #367
ryandrake wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Furthermore, some very senior employees are in this boat: They kinda have enough savings to just retire, but were hanging on to their jobs to save maybe 10% more or whatever. Now that they're out of a job they are simply saying "Whelllp, I guess I'm now retired." and not really feeling the need to look anymore. I know someone who refused a forced return to office, and when his company tried to call his bluff, he just…

FWIW in my experience the first retirement never sticks for these folks.

Sounds like my grandpa. He retired from the US Air Force when he got passed up for a colonel->general promotion... only to eventually become a high school teacher. He's since retired again, though with the multiple volunteer jobs he's doing it doesn't really feel like it lol

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#370

Post by manfre »

elif wrote: post #186
ericmcer wrote: post #21

I took 8 months off voluntarily, just started applying again last week (full stack dev): 10 applications, 2 rejections, 1 initial phone screen Anecdotally I see very few junior/low level positions open, most jobs seem to be senior+. Salary ranges are all a bit higher than I remember them being 3 years ago. I am still a long way from being scared enough to take something I don't like or that doesn't pay well, still op…

i'm curious, from what you can tell, has anyone cared about your voluntary break or is it all the same to them? i quit/retired about 4 years ago and often wonder if i applied places how much it would be held against me wanting to have control over my life like that.

An 8 month gap is not a big negative as long as the candidate can say something sensible as to why. It's not a long enough time for knowledge to go stale. With a 4 year gap, you would have a much harder time getting interviews.
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