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Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

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Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#51

Post by haskellandchill »

danjac wrote: post #19
mateusfreira wrote: post #11

What is your stack? There are areas with more opportunities than others that may be worth considering a stack shift. I have been in the market since 2006, and I have seen it go up and down; I've never been unemployed since, but I have close friends who run over one year without a job (In Brazil, we usually have financial crises here more often), at that time their option was to do freelancing for a while until they f…

The problem is you can't "stack shift". I mean, of course you can, we know that if you know some programming languages you can pick up another language, if you know an HTTP router you can learn another, a MySQL expert can learn PostgreSQL, if you know React you can learn Vue and so on. But you won't get through the HR filters unless you have the magic n years' experience. Once you learn that stack in your junior year…

Not true. While it's harder, you can stack shift. I've done Ruby/Rails, Python/Django, and JavaScript/React and treated them as interchangeable. I might be rejected in some resume screens here and there but once talking I make it clear I'm comfortable with the target tech stack and it has never been an issue.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#52

Post by cinericius »

bsnnkv wrote: post #28

I was laid off a month ago, been looking since then and the market is pretty brutal. Very difficult to get even screening interviews, portfolios of public work seem to be ignored, and even if you manage to get a screening interview, which is rarely with the hiring manager, you'll probably just get a templated rejection email from a person you haven't even interacted with the next day. How am I dealing with it? I'm st…

Your GitHub profile is stellar, I can't imagine interviewers see one like yours very often.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#53

Post by smelly101 »

anymouse123456 wrote: post #46
0xEF wrote: post #31

"How are you dealing?" Short answer; not well. Long answer; I'm currently stuck in a job with an employer that I hate, that is slowly destroying my love of the work, and I can't afford the time it would take to leave, upgrade my skills and get into a better situation. For context, I am a versatile service tech for industrial machines. I have zero certifications in anything only because I never needed them before sinc…

You can do it! You just have to start. No one on Earth can stop you from learning what you want to learn. Don't worry about certifications, dig into the information on your own time. Do it at night, or in the morning, when everyone else is sleeping. Buy some old, broken or used controls and mess around with automating something in your house. Once you start taking action that convinces you that the day job you hate i…

> You can do it! You just have to start. No one on Earth can stop you from learning what you want to learn.

The 'weekend' is not enough time to switch a career.

A university undergrad takes 1460 days.

With 100 weekend days a year it would take 14 years to achieve that. That's assuming you don't take a single day off for 14 years.

You're gaslighting the poor dude.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#54

Post by moneywoes »

kemiller2002 wrote: post #13

I'll let you in on the secret to finding a job. It's not about your skills really (maybe some), it's about who you know. If you're relying on only your skill to carry you through to finding a job, you're going to have a rough time. It's about who you know. You're looking for a job? Go to meetups, code and coffees, free tech seminars by companies etc. That's your job now. Connect with people on LinkedIn. There are ver…

How do you use linkedin effectively?

i’ve been sending 3-4 line connection attempts based on their profile but have not had luck

is there a playbook to market onesself?

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#55

Post by bravetraveler »

bad_user wrote: post #41
danjac wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is you can't "stack shift". I mean, of course you can, we know that if you know some programming languages you can pick up another language, if you know an HTTP router you can learn another, a MySQL expert can learn PostgreSQL, if you know React you can learn Vue and so on. But you won't get through the HR filters unless you have the magic n years' experience. Once you learn that stack in your junior year…

This isn't actually true. HR people do apply such filters, but you can usually work around it, if you're a capable individual that can actually "stack shift". I "stack shifted" multiple times in my career, without lying about my experience. Companies look for talented software developers. Going from backend to frontend or vice versa might be harder, but otherwise the required skills pretty much universal. Having cont…

Maybe it's different for developers, but as an SRE or Architect it's pretty much a requirement that this shifting be performed

Nothing is forever, we must all adapt

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#56

Post by smallerfish »

danjac wrote: post #19
mateusfreira wrote: post #11

What is your stack? There are areas with more opportunities than others that may be worth considering a stack shift. I have been in the market since 2006, and I have seen it go up and down; I've never been unemployed since, but I have close friends who run over one year without a job (In Brazil, we usually have financial crises here more often), at that time their option was to do freelancing for a while until they f…

The problem is you can't "stack shift". I mean, of course you can, we know that if you know some programming languages you can pick up another language, if you know an HTTP router you can learn another, a MySQL expert can learn PostgreSQL, if you know React you can learn Vue and so on. But you won't get through the HR filters unless you have the magic n years' experience. Once you learn that stack in your junior year…

Depends on the position. If I'm hiring you on contract for a project with a specific stack, I'm going to want stack experts. If I'm hiring you full time into a salaried position on a product, I don't care if you know the stack or not, just that you have sufficiently adjacent experience that I could see a cross-train happening in a reasonable amount of time.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#57

Post by toomuchtodo »

moneywoes wrote: post #54
kemiller2002 wrote: post #13

I'll let you in on the secret to finding a job. It's not about your skills really (maybe some), it's about who you know. If you're relying on only your skill to carry you through to finding a job, you're going to have a rough time. It's about who you know. You're looking for a job? Go to meetups, code and coffees, free tech seminars by companies etc. That's your job now. Connect with people on LinkedIn. There are ver…

How do you use linkedin effectively? i’ve been sending 3-4 line connection attempts based on their profile but have not had luck is there a playbook to market onesself?

I loved this advice enough to save it. Might have value, check it out. Network like your life depends on it and have no shame in flexing your network. Talk to as many folks as you can.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37983867

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37990707

Courtesy u/Mandatum

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#58

Post by SkipperCat »

tedajax wrote: post #38
danjac wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is you can't "stack shift". I mean, of course you can, we know that if you know some programming languages you can pick up another language, if you know an HTTP router you can learn another, a MySQL expert can learn PostgreSQL, if you know React you can learn Vue and so on. But you won't get through the HR filters unless you have the magic n years' experience. Once you learn that stack in your junior year…

Protip: lie

In the spirit of your comment, there's nothing wrong with spinning your skills to fit the job req. If they ask for 5 years of Golang and you've only worked on it for 2 years, but you have 10 other years of programming - I'd just tell them you know Golang and have 10 years experience programming. No real harm in them making a technically incorrect assumption.

The real interview will be with the tech staff, not the HR bot. Let them make the decision to hire there.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#59

Post by 0xEF »

kemiller2002 wrote: post #13

I'll let you in on the secret to finding a job. It's not about your skills really (maybe some), it's about who you know. If you're relying on only your skill to carry you through to finding a job, you're going to have a rough time. It's about who you know. You're looking for a job? Go to meetups, code and coffees, free tech seminars by companies etc. That's your job now. Connect with people on LinkedIn. There are ver…

This is good advice and I need to start taking it. I am one of those rare people who could get hired on skill alone. It's not working anymore, leaving me stuck in a dead-end position.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#60

Post by moneywoes »

mateusfreira wrote: post #11

What is your stack? There are areas with more opportunities than others that may be worth considering a stack shift. I have been in the market since 2006, and I have seen it go up and down; I've never been unemployed since, but I have close friends who run over one year without a job (In Brazil, we usually have financial crises here more often), at that time their option was to do freelancing for a while until they f…

what stack is the play today?
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