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Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#41

Post by ctoth »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #35
mronetwo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally, this. Realistically, not sure about this. It might be a bit of a crapshoot. It might yield very rewarding "jobs" but it's difficult to put your mind into it, when you just want to make a living. It just feels like you have to cross certain wealth threshold to do this. It might not reflect reality but this feeling of "I need a 9 to 5 to just keep myself afloat" is real.

You're right about that. And this is something I've been thinking about for quite some time. My rejoinder is that most people have a set of compromises they can make that might make them a lot wealthier than they think. For example, a friend of mine was complaining that he had to work hard to afford a house. However, he was dead-set on a set of ideals and a location he wanted to settle at. Maybe part of that was pref…

> there are plenty of nice places where the houses are 60K.

Citation super needed. Where in the US can I buy a house for $60,000? Does it have a roof?

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#42

Post by Ilasky »

My own search has been on LinkedIn, as well as sites like Otta. The key for me to get more callbacks has been to personalize my resume for each job description (I even made a tool to do it for me [0]) and then to follow up with the hiring managers for the job.

Out of the stacks of resumes that get submitted to the black hole, it really does feel like a grind, but the little bit extra by reaching out to the recruiters/hiring managers seems to make the boost to at least get to the first round screen.

[0] https://resgen.app

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#43

Post by ardit33 »

alexpotato wrote: post #21
itsoktocry wrote: post #3

Once you've moved beyond a junior-level of experience, I'm not sure if there's a better way than working your network for opportunities. In my experience there is never, and will never be, a shortage of business people looking for technical problems solvers.

Joel Spolksy has an interesting quote about this: "Third, and trust me on this, there’s still an incredible shortage of the really good programmers, here and in India. Yes, there are a bunch of out of work IT people making a lot of noise about how long they’ve been out of work, but you know what? At the risk of pissing them off, really good programmers do have jobs" From: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2005/01/02/adv…

Joel is wrong. The 2001-2003 timeframe was very hard to find a job, even if you were a really good engineer.

There is a good reason Open Source development exploded during those years, as there were a lot of unemployed or 'underemployed' good engineers that had time to do some open source work while looking for a job.

By 2005 (when that article was written), the market had already recovered, and what he said is true (good engineers had already found a job), but that doesn't negate the fact that 2001-2002 was bad even for good engineers.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#44

Post by jitl »

teirce wrote: post #16
frfl wrote: post #8

Bit of a tangent, but what has been everyone's experience so far in 2023 trying to find a new job? I got really interested in this and have been passively researching it (HN, reddit posts). My conclusion, so far, is unless you've got strong connections it's hard right now to find a job. Most job posting, as OP mentions get hundreds if not thousands of applications. Other times, I've personally also notice, candidates…

Been looking since about February. I've probably sent out at least a hundred apps for positions I was interested in and met qualifications for. I think I've made it to a recruiter screen around ~10 times, and I've had less than 5 actual interviews follow. I have 6+ years in industry, 4 and some change of which were FAANG (which everyone believes is a golden ticket into any company). And I can't even get an interview.…

At this point I’m more hesitant to hire FAANG employees who are used to really strict guardrails both culturally and technically to keep them “on track”. Most startups don’t have the guardrails and need people who make good choices without the bumpers. Hiring a bunch of FB and Google people did not improve Airbnb’s average engineering skill, rather it sank because a substantial part of our population only cared about promo and promo projects.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#45

Post by vouaobrasil »

ctoth wrote: post #41
vouaobrasil wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right about that. And this is something I've been thinking about for quite some time. My rejoinder is that most people have a set of compromises they can make that might make them a lot wealthier than they think. For example, a friend of mine was complaining that he had to work hard to afford a house. However, he was dead-set on a set of ideals and a location he wanted to settle at. Maybe part of that was pref…

> there are plenty of nice places where the houses are 60K. Citation super needed. Where in the US can I buy a house for $60,000? Does it have a roof?

Well, I was thinking of Canada. I found quite a few nice, basic houses (by this, I mean a place you can actually live in, not reno projects) for around $60K USD. I'm talking about sparse provinces like Saskatchewan. I also found some now with a quick search in Alabama (US) for around $70K. Check out sparsely populated, small places in the US, and search for small houses. Hey, I never said it would be a mansion.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#46

Post by jamal-kumar »

Honestly just look for companies that have bounties on tickets in their open source software and make a name for yourself that way. They'll know your name when you apply. You'll start to make money right away too. [1]

[1] https://github.com/djadmin/awesome-bug-bounty

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#47

Post by rhyme-boss »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #5

The truth is, most jobs these days are rather bloated themselves. I do wish you luck in finding a job, but I would also give you this following piece of advice: at the same time while trying to find a job, think about strategies where you can work less and contribute more to society in your local community. I truly believe that the real opportunities out there are those which are mostly divorced away from the typical…

I was offered a job coaching under-12 soccer for the top local club where parents pay thousands a year. The offer was $700 a month to run (by myself) 3 practices a week plus a game on the weekend. So less than $20 an hour, which doesn't even cover transportation costs.

Similar story applying to work at a bakery down the street, and same for working for animal control.

I agree doing work in your local community is rewarding, but it amounts to full time volunteerism. Our economy is truly horrific for the middle class and below.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#48

Post by mdekkers »

justinzollars wrote: post #33
mdekkers wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m 53, and I doubt I’ll ever find a job in tech again. I only started getting responses when I removed the earliest 15 year’s experience from my CV, and as soon as I hit the screening stage and my age is known they lose interest. Ageism can get fucked.

Out of curiosity - if this is actually true (I doubt it - that is you will never have another tech job; not ageism.) What is your plan?

My plan? I’ll go out on my own terms. I fought my entire life to escape a bad childhood of poverty and homelessness. Not going back.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#49

Post by nineplay »

wskinner wrote: post #4

1. Make friends with people at work 2. Eventually, some of those people will get new jobs, and they can refer you to their new employer (and vice versa). 3. Repeat for a few cycles and you have a network full of potential job opportunities without ever going through a job board.

I'd modify #1

1. Make friends with _everybody_ at work.

That includes the guy who brags about himself all the time. That includes the person who you only give the easiest tasks because you don't trust them with anything complicated. That includes the person who doesn't suffer fools gladly.

You never know. I had a constant braggart coworker who everyone else avoided. I smiled and listened politely. He was the one who got me my next job.

Exceptions, obviously, for coworkers that are actively corrosive or abusive. I'm not cozying up to the guy that the female interns refuse to share an elevator with.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#50

Post by frfl »

tayo42 wrote: post #38
frfl wrote: post #8

Bit of a tangent, but what has been everyone's experience so far in 2023 trying to find a new job? I got really interested in this and have been passively researching it (HN, reddit posts). My conclusion, so far, is unless you've got strong connections it's hard right now to find a job. Most job posting, as OP mentions get hundreds if not thousands of applications. Other times, I've personally also notice, candidates…

my job search is miserable. I want to post a well thought out rant about my experience but idk how to do it anonymously without ruining my chances to get a job looking like a dick online. Every part is horrible: recruiters that don't know the industry beyond buzzwords. this is frustrating, they cant think outside their box "oh you havent done exactly this for 10 years, so i guess youll never do it." I dont think peop…

It seems to be a culmination of all the worst the hiring process throws at you right now. Your frustrations aren't unique right now unfortunately, as far as I can tell. But at the same time, either to keep up appearances or for whatever other reason, others don't seem to be freely describing the same frustrations.

The public perceptions don't seem to reflect this side of reality either -- the job reports and unemployment rates at all time lows, yet the frustrations you're expressing seems more common that you'd think just looking at the headlines and reports of the job market.

For what it's worth, I think it's best to try and ride it out, until the tides turn for the better. I don't know the root cause, but the economic situation (high interest rates) would seem to be the likely root cause, but that's just a guess.

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