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Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

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131–140 of 191 posts

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#131

It's been incredibly frustrating. I recently did a round of onsites for a staff level position at a big company you've heard of. After the interviews, I was told I was going to be offered a lower level role instead. I met with the hiring manager and expressed disappointment, saying it felt like a step backwards from my previous job, and I wanted to understand the new lower level role in more detail What followed was…

Was the compensation a step down? Plenty of tech companies levels are different. Boggles my mind someone might turn down a better job with more pay because for whatever reason they give a slightly lower title.

I took a 'step down' in title at a FAANG and still got a huge jump in compensation.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. Most people on HN are in some dimension, at least, qualified for FAANG or better. I have 6 yoe with quite a bit of impact and I've crossed many domains. I've received quite a few offers over the past year but I've also received my fair share of rejections. I just go through the rejections (it's like dating, and heck I've been through rejection there too). I leetcode daily and have a system design study…

Is there any chance you do this group virtually? I tried organizing a group a few year ago and almost got traction but it fizzled out as people moved on. I'm guessing you're in the bay area. I'm in SoCal, but would love to learn from someone like yourself who's been grinding it out and learning. Currently looking for a new position after several years at a company, but taking the long view (it's a marathon and not a…

i'm in socal and I work at FAANG, what are you interested in?

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#133

It's been incredibly frustrating. I recently did a round of onsites for a staff level position at a big company you've heard of. After the interviews, I was told I was going to be offered a lower level role instead. I met with the hiring manager and expressed disappointment, saying it felt like a step backwards from my previous job, and I wanted to understand the new lower level role in more detail What followed was…

Was the compensation a step down? Plenty of tech companies levels are different. Boggles my mind someone might turn down a better job with more pay because for whatever reason they give a slightly lower title. I took a 'step down' in title at a FAANG and still got a huge jump in compensation.

>>> without the staff level title or pay.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was the compensation a step down? Plenty of tech companies levels are different. Boggles my mind someone might turn down a better job with more pay because for whatever reason they give a slightly lower title. I took a 'step down' in title at a FAANG and still got a huge jump in compensation.

>>> without the staff level title or pay.

Right but senior at Netflix/G/Meta might pay a lot more than staff at IBM or Samsung or Ford.

Just because they want the candidate to be a lead, but won’t give staff level pay, is not a reason to reject a job imo.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#135

Regarding companies requiring very specific requirements: I wonder if those are real adverts, or just ones invented by HR for PR purposes?

> or just ones invented by HR for PR purposes?

That seems like a massive waste of time for no benefit to anyone.

My assumption has been that the company is required to post internal promotion opportunities because their legal team thinks it’s required.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#136
post #80

Not so great. Not a single call yet. This after having spent over a decade as CTO at a startup, built all products and teams from scratch. Dont know where I am going wrong. But.. hope is what makes the world go round!

Not many companies hire CTOs through regular channels, and it’s likely you’ll be seen as overqualified for lower rank jobs. I think you can basically do 2 things: try to get into contact with executive head hunters or make it very clear on your resume and LinkedIn that despite your tenure as CTO you’re very much open to EM or IC engineering roles.

Would second this. I also just dropped the C*O title from my resume in certain cases where I thought it would look worse.

The outreach I’ve gotten for similar positions was always outside-in.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#138

On the topic of getting hired, id like to take a moment to rant at the employers, and ask you HN folk to do something. PLEASE stop applying to jobs that make you jump through stupid hoops or answer stupid questions that dont need to be asked on applications. Every person that applies and answers these questions are just helping to standardize their use on applications, and it needs to stop. Theres so many that i cant…

Yes to not answering stupid questions. One of my pet peeves about job applications is the "Voluntary self-identification" form that has all required answers. So I select "I do not want to answer" and assume they're too stupid to hire me.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#139

How would a forty-year-old electrician (with data center [IBEW] and private residential experience) segway into a more-technical career? I have a STEM degree, but never ended up working anywhere where college wasn't shunned by hard-working co-workers. The concept of "make six figures" while "working at home" makes literally zero sense to me, except with an image of a young `1337` coder abusing way-too-much speed perf…

If you like programming enough to do it professionally, then it might make sense to do a master’s degree in CS.

Otherwise, in your position, I would try to talk my way into working at a small startup. There’s often enough work to go around that you can customize your role to include whatever area you’re interested in if you show promise.

But now is a really tough time to be trying to make this switch, I’m afraid.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#140
post #80

Not so great. Not a single call yet. This after having spent over a decade as CTO at a startup, built all products and teams from scratch. Dont know where I am going wrong. But.. hope is what makes the world go round!

Please shoot me a message -- email on profile
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