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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?

#121

Post by throwaway5959 »

__float wrote: post #58
throwaway5959 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> had been at his last 3 jobs for roughly over a year each And yet the manager would be your boss. Not sure why you think how long someone has been in a role is somehow a worthwhile signal.

As you get more senior, it takes time to understand your sibling teams, the business itself, etc. If it takes 6+ months just to get "up to speed", are you really having much impact when you leave 6 months later?

I’m a principal software engineer. If it takes me more than a month to get up to speed with an organization (I usually work with small-mid sized companies), I consider that a failure. Six months to first contribution is insane.

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

#123

Post by recfab »

93po wrote: post #100
0xDEF wrote: post #55

>Submitted 150 job applications last week. Try customizing a few of the applications for the specific position you look to fill.

Yeah this was what I noticed too. I write custom cover letters for jobs that I apply to, and it often takes 30-60 minutes. Sometimes I'll even tailor my resume for the ad. But I also only apply for a job every week or two, and I only apply to ones that I'm actually very interested in.

Has this been working for you?

At times, I've had panic mode set in and _feel_ like I need to apply to every little job that looks remotely decent, but I don't know if that's _actually_ helping.

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

#124

Post by neilv »

SassyGrapefruit wrote: post #22

I don't know man. I am employed but I still get 64 recruiting emails a day. Seems like business as usual. FWIW I have never had luck with applications. The last time I was unemployed I sent out 10 or 15 and heard nothing. I reached out to a recruiter and was drowning in interviews within a week. As for the other side, I do hiring on my team. We posted a Senior SRE on linkedin and got 30 applicants within a week. That…

> but I still get 64 recruiting emails a day

Recruiters recruit. When it's harder to get people hired, I suppose that means recruiters have to work harder/smarter.

If you're getting more recruiter outreaches than most people, maybe it's what you're plugged into, or (I suppose) some recruiters might still be operating on the old rule that a poached hire is preferred to a currently unemployed one.

(Even though, given the large number of layoffs from prestige/upscale companies lately, I'd think that being laid off isn't a bad signal on someone. And the laid off person might be more likely candidate to get to accept an offer, and therefore maybe preferable to spending recruiting time on.)

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

#125

Post by eschneider »

jselysianeagle wrote: post #73
gabereiser wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary… I’m not seeing any evidence of this. If anything, salaries are going up.

This seems extremely counter-intuitive. I'd figure with so many experienced and talented people looking, it would be an employer's market and they'd use it to reign in pay at least a bit. Why do you think this might not be occurring?

I would expect that from the employer's point of view, it's not a sea of "amazing candidates to choose from, any of which would be a good fit for my company." When they find someone who ticks all the boxes, they can expect that person will tick the boxes for other companies as well, so best to make a reasonable offer that the candidate will take.

Are average companies offering $300K to Senior/Staff Engineers this days? Not often. Are they offering < $150K? Not if they're serious about hiring people. The numbers are somewhere in the middle.

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

#126

Post by bluGill »

93po wrote: post #100
0xDEF wrote: post #55

>Submitted 150 job applications last week. Try customizing a few of the applications for the specific position you look to fill.

Yeah this was what I noticed too. I write custom cover letters for jobs that I apply to, and it often takes 30-60 minutes. Sometimes I'll even tailor my resume for the ad. But I also only apply for a job every week or two, and I only apply to ones that I'm actually very interested in.

Not just the cover letter, also the experience. Look at the job description and keywords. Make sure your relevant history is there early and the things less relevant used as filler.

In the US we mostly use resume which is a short summary and you are expected to take off things that are not relevant. In Europe I understand they more use the CV format which allows for more length for experience that we don't care about.

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

#127

Post by aldarisbm »

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…

ChatGPT is passing quantum physics tests. "ChatGPT can answer it" should not be a thing that we say. ChatGPT can recite every single algorithm known to man, wondering about your interview process.

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

#128

Post by bluGill »

recfab wrote: post #123
93po wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this was what I noticed too. I write custom cover letters for jobs that I apply to, and it often takes 30-60 minutes. Sometimes I'll even tailor my resume for the ad. But I also only apply for a job every week or two, and I only apply to ones that I'm actually very interested in.

Has this been working for you? At times, I've had panic mode set in and _feel_ like I need to apply to every little job that looks remotely decent, but I don't know if that's _actually_ helping.

The more remotely decent the job is the more important it is to customize. I have hired people who have never worked in my niche before, but if all I see is irrelevant experience with no indication you want a new field you go in the pin. Convince me that despite not having the right experience you want a new field and you get a chance.

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

#130

Post by jacknews »

moosedev wrote: post #6

Not just you. I would guess, optimistically, I’m averaging a 5% conversion rate of applications to recruiter chats/“stage 0 interviews”. That is, ~95% of applications yield silence or a generic email rejection without any human contact. ~15 YOE, FAANG experience, usually only applying to roles I feel I’m at least a halfway good fit for (i.e. not a complete scattergun approach). I’m (financially) fine for now, which i…

" I wasn’t even laid off - I quit voluntarily and took a sabbatical while the good times were rollin’. "

Did the same. Boy do I feel dumb now.

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