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Ask HN: Is the job market brutal? or is it just me?

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Re: Ask HN: Is the job market brutal? or is it just me?

#111

Post by surgical_fire »

skyyler wrote: post #82
howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, would be great to live in a magic land, where the US has no competitors, adversaries and sworn enemies. But this isn't magic land. US defense contractors are very much for profit and deliver a product that deters or kills some very bad people, more and more discriminating between collateral damage and intended targets - far more than can be said of Russian in Ukraine, for example. There's an entire generation i…

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/us/politics/afghanistan-d... Anyone that gets into defense because of this thread, remember that the technologies you develop will be used to slaughter the innocent.

Them bills. They keep coming.

Re: Ask HN: Is the job market brutal? or is it just me?

#112

Post by recfab »

pkaler wrote: post #89

Hiring manager here with open REQs. I've been doing multiple phone screens daily, and it's been brutal on my end, too. I structure the hour-long phone screen to be 1/3 coding, 1/3 behavioural questions, and 1/3 career growth and questions for me. We rarely get out of the coding question block. It's a fairly simple question that ChatGPT solves easily. The tightest solution is about 10 lines of code. It can be answered…

Is the coding question that is representative of the work you do at your company, and that you expect candidates to have done? Or is it a toy, "write a function that does X" question? "ChatGPT solves easily" suggests to me that it's a toy question.

If it is a "toy" question, then I'm of two minds about it:

On one hand, I am used to solving higher level problems, so it might take me a few minutes just to realize you are asking a much simpler question. It also can feel just a tad insulting to be drilled on CompSci 101 questions.

Oh the other hand, I think candidates should be able to solve such questions, as long as the scope is clear. You need to filter somehow and I've met people who could not do that.

Re: Ask HN: Is the job market brutal? or is it just me?

#113

Post by BoorishBears »

1differential wrote: post #105
BoorishBears wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've either been getting low ball offers Are they all junior IC level low balls, or is this accidentally revealing why staff level+ engineers aren't getting calls? I'll be honest and say if tomorrow morning I get laid off, I'm not expecting my current pay to get matched.

Sorry for the confusion, I'm trying to interview for only staff/senior staff level roles. This company just had a job listing for "Software Engineer" to build out a new initiative so I decided check it out. And yeah, not getting the 20% pay bump between job hops that I'm looking for.

There's no confusion... I'm asking is your definition of lowball something like "offering Junior-like pay when I wanted Senior/Staff-like pay"

> And yeah, not getting the 20% pay bump between job hops that I'm looking for.

That kind of answers my question lol. This isn't the environment where I'd consider not getting a pay bump a low ball.

And ironically that mentality is what I infer when I hear stories like OP's: These companies assume that people from certain backgrounds have expectations forged in a much more favorable market, and they'd rather not waste their time interviewing someone looking for a 20% pay bump in a down market...

Re: Ask HN: Is the job market brutal? or is it just me?

#114

Post by eschneider »

abeppu wrote: post #98
eschneider wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed from Jan-Feb pretty much as a full time job. Lots of applications out, maybe 5-10 well-researched applications a day which yielded one or two interviews a day for that time period. Three went to offers and I'm pretty sure I could have closed a few more if I hadn't taken the job I did. I've done everything from UI to cloud to embedded stuff, but I was mostly focusing on embedded roles thinking that a) I…

> most seem willing to pay around 'market rate' for folks What does this mean? What do the quotes mean? This seems to be nearly a tautology; the market rate is what people are willing to pay.

It means that when companies would ask me what my salary expectations were, I'd tell them I was looking for something "market rate". Exactly those words. I'd often follow up by asking "Do you have a range in mind for this position?" and go from there.

At that point I've answered their salary question and probably not scared them off and if they really want to put a number on it, it's up to them. At this stage, if they don't have a range or just won't say, it tells you a bit about them.

Re: Ask HN: Is the job market brutal? or is it just me?

#115

Post by mrpeluca »

[deleted] wrote: post #92
skyyler wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/us/politics/afghanistan-d... Anyone that gets into defense because of this thread, remember that the technologies you develop will be used to slaughter the innocent.

[deleted]

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: Is the job market brutal? or is it just me?

#116

Post by 1attice »

neilv wrote: post #106
1attice wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I can't speak for parent, but those of us that aren't U.S. citizens are already having a hellish time. To those of us with work visas, this is like saying, "if you're homeless, just go to your vacation home," and then being surprised that people without vacation homes express feelings of despair.

I think most people realize that people on visas can be in an additionally tough situation during layoffs. I think the commenter's helpful suggestion has an implied "Unfortunately, this doesn't help everyone, but..." In an attempt to help the people it can help. For people currently in certain especially difficult or unfair situations, it might hurt less to know that people are sympathetic, though they might feel pow…

Yep, and I have no beef with the original comment. However, someone explicitly requested an explanation, and so I gave one.

Re: Ask HN: Is the job market brutal? or is it just me?

#117

Post by mmanciop »

hef19898 wrote: post #60
gautamdivgi wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why - if I may ask? What’s wrong with pointing out potential employers?

Can confirm, defence (related) and security clearance requirements largely limit the applicant pool. One, because for some reason Lockheed is dirty while Palantir or Facebook isn't. And because a lot of people are, by virtue of country of birth, ineligible of getting a security clearance. Also decent money and job security. But while I draw my moral.line at small arms (those have the nasty habbit of ending everywhere…

> Lockheed is dirty while Palantir or Facebook aren’t

Said nobody with any common sense, ever. Palanthir or Meta are in my eyes as bad on CV as… as… wait is there a way I don’t go Godwin’s in this thread?

Re: Ask HN: Is the job market brutal? or is it just me?

#118

Post by ineedausername »

gigatexal wrote: post #72

Have you considered moving abroad? I’m a mediocre engineer compared to the rockstars in my field and I regularly get interviews at startups, and medium to large companies here in Germany. I feel as though the jobs are for me to take or the interviews are for me to fail. Honestly think about it. I do interviews for the company I work for (though I’m a senior data engineer I really like being people facing and meeting…

Most folk strugling are either UK or US based from what I see.

Re: Ask HN: Is the job market brutal? or is it just me?

#119

Post by bluGill »

paxys wrote: post #37

Mass applying to hundreds of positions with a single non-tailored resume has never worked and will never work. If you want interviews you need to get a referral.

That depends on the company. Some you need a referral to attach to your resume. Some you need to send your resume to the person referring you - who will then personally give it to the hiring manager. Some the hiring manager isn't allowed to know about the referral (the company like that I know of gives to the referring employee - but that is only about generating leads, not hiring decisions).

You have to figure out what is the way your target company works. Note that companies change how they work over time so make sure you have the latest information for the department you want to be in.

Re: Ask HN: Is the job market brutal? or is it just me?

#120

Post by bluGill »

ivanstegic wrote: post #19

I believe that the market is correcting and that salaries will be going down.

Salaries only rarely go down. They might stagnate for a while (and thus go down relative to inflation!), but nobody likes making less money than before so it is very hard to reduce salaries no matter how much someone is overpaid.
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