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Ask HN: I can't find a job. What do I do?
41–50 of 87 posts
Re: Ask HN: I can't find a job. What do I do?
#42You say you're from India but don't say where you're at now. Since you used term CV instead of resume, maybe still in India or maybe a European country? If the job market where you're at is largely expecting a University degree regardless of experience level then I would say at 27 go back and get your University degree. It is not a step backwards to get the University degree it will teach you valuable things that you…
Still in India. And I will not learn a single new thing if I go back to university, unless it's a good one, and I'll have to compete with more than 1 million students to get into one of those and there are maybe 15-30k vacancies per year. In the rest of them, the lecturers just dictate what you need to cram into your brain and vomit it out on the answer sheet and that's it. Lecture done.
Re: Ask HN: I can't find a job. What do I do?
#43Re: Ask HN: I can't find a job. What do I do?
#44> I just need some advice from people who hire developers. What can I do that would make you look past my lack of educational qualifications? The environment has changed since the zero interest rate era ended and now with AI quite frankly I'm afraid it will only get even worse which means less developers would need to be hired. Even if you get an interview, it is the Leetcode and algorithms pseudo IQ test bullshit th…
This. Unfortunately I think the SWE job market is only going to get worse.
Re: Ask HN: I can't find a job. What do I do?
#45You say you're from India but don't say where you're at now. Since you used term CV instead of resume, maybe still in India or maybe a European country? If the job market where you're at is largely expecting a University degree regardless of experience level then I would say at 27 go back and get your University degree. It is not a step backwards to get the University degree it will teach you valuable things that you…
Not only will going back to get the degree help OP be considered for jobs but there are also a few other benefits I can think of:
- Networking. Much easier to meet people when you belong to the school's institution and get feet in doors. At least in the US, the university to industry pipeline is strong. Businesses have a sense of trust of quality for students coming from certain schools and will prioritize you.
- Now that you're older and have experience in the real world, you will get MUCH more bang for your buck at school. You know what you want and will be able to steer your future career much more effectively.
Re: Ask HN: I can't find a job. What do I do?
#46> pinging me multiple times a day for updates
It tends to be part of the job, though in your case it might be that your manager isn’t technical because git and continuous integration do the same thing without your manager pestering you
> expecting me to be on call outside of work hours
Part of the job especially when there are either tight deadlines or bad bugs
You need a degree. Fortunately, there are now many reputable and inexpensive online options especially via public universities
The other riskier option is to learn a very niche programming language with a small talent pool like cobal.
The best option is to do both uni and learning the niche programming language
Re: Ask HN: I can't find a job. What do I do?
#47Get back to college. In coming recession around the corner 2024 to 2026 extremely likely. You go into college and get shielded. Study hard and score well. Get all the pro certs you can. Do master if possible. Specialize only on AI+Blockchain (using Java+Python+Rust+C). You will thank me later.
Re: Ask HN: I can't find a job. What do I do?
#48You say you're from India but don't say where you're at now. Since you used term CV instead of resume, maybe still in India or maybe a European country? If the job market where you're at is largely expecting a University degree regardless of experience level then I would say at 27 go back and get your University degree. It is not a step backwards to get the University degree it will teach you valuable things that you…
I never hired for software devs, so take the following with a grain of salt.
Agree in the return to university part. 27, three years of experience and no bachelors degree don't stack up well against someone with a bachelors and more experience, who can easily be younger. Life and health issues happen, living through them can nake you tougher and more resilient. That isba story to sell in an interview. Getting one is the problem now.
Hence, go back to university, get your degree (I'd say with ypur experience it would be easier than without), work as much as possibel during your studies, internships, working student jobs. But do not worl full time (I did during my masters, it worked, but took 4.5 years and instead of 18 months, I had a diploma begore, so time didn't matter for me, it does for you so).
Those interships and student jobs, in industry and not academia, shoupd be easier to get with relevant work experience. And they give you contacts and a foot in the door for a full time job after graduation.
Re: Ask HN: I can't find a job. What do I do?
#49> What can I do that would make you look past my lack of educational qualifications?
1. If you are in India, create profiles for yourself on job seeking websites such as AngelList, LinkedIn or Hirist. When I was part of a hiring team, I(and peers) used to go through profiles on these websites with filters for the skills we were looking for, and then ask the recruitment team to reach out to candidates we found interesting. If an engineer or a lead takes a look at your profile and feels that your skills meet what they are looking for, they are highly likely to overlook the lack of a degree.
2. Network. If your resume does not get your foot through the door, try to go to language specific meetups and socialize. The whole `need a degree to work here` is a HR thing and just a way for them to reduce the applications they receive. A referral from someone within the company would usually skip that barrier.
3. Apply to any and all openings that you feel that you are a suitable fit for. Do not let the `CV will not even be considered for even an entry level role at their companies because of that` thought stop you, and let the person looking at your resume decide if you are a fit or not.
> How do I make my skills visible?
Points 1 and 2 should help with this. Apply to one of the free courses on Udemy or Coursera and complete the courses to get a certificate. Have a colleague whom you work with leave a recommendation or endorse you for skills on LinkedIn. I used to receive offers for a IOS mobile dev roles even years after I stopped working with Swift just because of one single skill endorsement.
I believe you have not asked for this, but I would definitely recommend getting a degree, even if it were a distance learning course that you can do while you work.
Re: Ask HN: I can't find a job. What do I do?
#50Lots of certification for enterprise IT software might be a good way to get on the ladder. Look at the certification for SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, Azure, AWS, Cisco (on the other hand avoid most bootcamp "certifications"). Those entry jobs are not great in terms of salary and workload, but there is huge demand for analyst using these tools and having a certification might compensate for the lack of degree.
Have several of those. Doesnt help. Lol
Which ones do you have and which jobs are you targeting? Do you not even notice an uptick in interview requests?