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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?

#81

Post by pfarrell »

I went through it at the beginning of the year. In the end, a cold inbound from a recruiter for a leadership position that I wasn’t right for led to her referring me to another recruiter with something that was perfect. The point? Work every angle and treat looking for a job as your full time job.

You only have to find one gig, so don’t get sucked into self-pity endlessly focusing on everyone who’s having trouble, when it happens, have something constructive to divert you.

If you’re going for remote work, expect that the whole process will take longer and the same rules won’t apply. The candidate pool is vast and you need to stand out. You need to apply early, when the position is posted.

Realize your resume is likely being parsed by software before it’s even screened by HR. If you can get your resume directly to a hiring manager, do that. Otherwise consider feeding your resume through various parsers to see how it looks to algorithms. Cover letters that are written to the exact specs of the job as posted can’t hurt.

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

#82

Post by mpeg »

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 great advice for ICs but I've never really understood how to leverage networking in management – most of time the person I know in a company is already doing my job!

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

#83

Post by sofixa »

piva00 wrote: post #35
Unfrozen0688 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, if he has been working since 2011 he should know a lot of ppl? He never worked in a team and can grab them on discord, phone, sms, text, skype, email, blog comment, instagram , snapchat, github account and see if they are looking where they are working now? Asking OP.

Grab them on Discord? I don't think I have anyone from my past 20 years of career on Discord... Is that a thing nowadays?

I've had team buildings that were gaming (light stuff, like Among Us), and used Discord for audio chat, so yeah.

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

#84

Post by harveywi »

1. Read this great "Surviving A Layoff" essay [1] and build a plan for yourself.

2. Take the time to level up on one or two foundational skills whose barriers to entry are combinations of tenacity and intelligence, or tech stacks that are very close to a foundational skill. Something like "Fart App Framework" is not a foundational skill because it becomes obsolete in a very short amount of time. Things like mathematics, statistics, hard sciences, cryptography, security, etc. will carry you through the rest of your career and create a moat.

3. Network, network, network.

4. Remind yourself that nothing lasts forever, that you're not in control of everything, that feelings of safety/security are merely feelings, and that the root of all suffering is attachment. If something's making you feel anxious or vulnerable, ask yourself why until you get to the bottom of it.

5. If you're consistently having negative thoughts, frame this experience in terms of gaining something (resilience, experience, wisdom) rather than losing something.

Good luck, and hang in there.

[1] https://oursoc.io/f/surviving-a-layoff

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

#85

Post by danjac »

irrational wrote: post #49
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…

Not necessarily. I was a web developer for 24 years, then my company moved me into an integration role (it opened up at the same time a website project I had been working on closed down) - I haven’t touched anything web development related in a year or so now and have been doing straight Java, Python, Apache nifi, AWS, etc system integration programming. I’ve found that I enjoy and could continue doing this for years…

That is your company moving you to another role internally. I am talking about job applications.

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

#86

Post by bilsbie »

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?

Does a linked in premium membership if some kind help with that?

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

#87

Post by 0xEF »

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…

I like the positive energy, but this is not a practical solution.

For more context, I work a lot of over-time at my current (US) job. Outside of work, I have a home and family to take care of.

Time is an expensive commodity in my world. Don't get me wrong, I am self-taught in a lot if areas, but there are some areas where structured learning is better, especially when it comes to being endorsed (certs, diplomas, etc).

Money is also an issue. About 80% of my wife's and mine combined income goes to debt (credit cards, loans, kid's schooling, etc) and the rest goes into our gas tanks or bellies. The US economy is not friendly to people who started off lower-income, and sadly, positive vibes don't help change that.

We're realistic, not looking to get rich. But do I have the brains to do better? I believe so. Convincing a potential employer of that is impossible without backing, and if you're at the bottom, getting that backing is MASSIVELY difficult.

Another comment mentioned that networking in the industry is key, and I do need to do more of that. I suppose it is time to reactivate my LinkdIn, something that seamed like another superfluous Facebook back when I first made the account.

Anyway, positivity is important, but it is not a solution. I do my best on that front, but it gets harder as I get older and less marketable.

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

#88

Post by danjac »

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…

"Companies look for talented software developers"

While that may be true, and it's what they all say, ultimately they just filter on keywords.

Of course, if you have a network then that's less of a problem. You are talking to a real person who can evaluate you.

If you don't it doesn't matter how good you think you are, you are at the mercy of the filters. It's not about your ability to change stacks, or your ability in general, it's about how companies select people.

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

#89

Post by joshspankit »

mpeg wrote: post #82
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 great advice for ICs but I've never really understood how to leverage networking in management – most of time the person I know in a company is already doing my job!

Network one or two levels above where you want to be

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

#90

Post by danjac »

haskellandchill wrote: post #51
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…

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.

"Once talking" is the problem. You have to get your resume picked out of the pile so you get to talk to a real person.
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