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Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

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Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#191

Post by sheepscreek »

bmitc wrote: post #88

You are apparently in the UK, but the job market in the U.S. has similarly been very spooky lately. I was laid off and have received almost no interviews outside of a single previous employer. My resume was flat out rejected, even from places that I had previously worked or was made an offer from as little as a year or two ago. It was really weird. As in, previous contacts would not even reply to emails or LinkedIn m…

It’s not you. Nobody is hiring. The ones that say so are in no rush. Executives are pushing hard on doing more with less and improving profitability.

Things should loosen up when the Fed and EU announce rate cuts this year. Hang on. I know this isn’t the answer you were hoping to hear. Perhaps try your luck with contracting? There is more openness to that in this climate (lower threshold to commitment).

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#192

Post by davidalayachew »

Let me make a completely unrelated and orthogonal observation that has nothing to do with this post.

You see the url that is in the OP? This one. https://foon.uk/robin-allen-cv.pdf

Copy that url, paste it into a new tab, but remove the f at the end. *BRIGHT LIGHTS AND SEIZURE WARNING*

EDIT - Oh wait, the result is different depending on the browser. On one browser (Firefox), I get a creepy looking 404 error. On another (Tor, which is also Firefox), I got a giant strobe light effect with a bunch of diagonal lines.

In the Tor browser, this message gets spammed a million times in the console tab.

"Blocked https://foon.uk/robin-allen-cv.pd from extracting canvas data because no user input was detected."

The strobing effect corresponds to the number of times this message gets spammed (~50 times a second).

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#193

Post by avmich »

stonogo wrote: post #164
avmich wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The worst thing about your CV is the non-chronological layout CVs used to have a choice of layouts, you write in a form you prefer. What's wrong with non-chronologicals now?

I have over 200 resumes to go over this week for an open position. If I have to decipher your narrative it's going in the 'no' pile. Effective communication is a critical skill and evaluating that starts here. I'm not calling anything "wrong" but I definitely don't have time to have tea with your branding or whatever.

The whole web stands on each and every website being uniquely designed, however hard it is to learn how to navigate. If you want efficiency, work with databases, not people.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#194

Post by fulladder »

austin-cheney wrote: post #86
dr_kiszonka wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you asked, based solely on your earlier comment, I would suggest being more open, humble, and respectful. I recognize the downsides of relying on frameworks, but I can also see good reasons for using them. I wouldn't refer to colleagues using frameworks the way you did.

Why wouldn’t you call it as you see it? When you have lost your job and are no longer seeking that employment you can afford to become a bit more honest. Fearing that someone likely under qualified for their job might be offended by the mere mention of such sounds like a first world problem.

They're just telling you how you're coming across in these comments. You sound a tad resentful and like someone who maybe has a bit of chip on his shoulder with respect to more junior Java engineers. If that's how you want to come across (because you feel that's your authentic self, or feel you're telling it like it is), then no change is needed. If you feel that doesn't reflect who you truly are and you would like to come across differently, you may wish to course correct with how you present your Java dev years.

I'm not trying to criticize you. You don't sound like a bad person or anything. But you do sound a bit resentful and dismissive of more junior engineers and their desire to use Java frameworks.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#195

Post by bitwize »

avmich wrote: post #193
stonogo wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have over 200 resumes to go over this week for an open position. If I have to decipher your narrative it's going in the 'no' pile. Effective communication is a critical skill and evaluating that starts here. I'm not calling anything "wrong" but I definitely don't have time to have tea with your branding or whatever.

The whole web stands on each and every website being uniquely designed, however hard it is to learn how to navigate. If you want efficiency, work with databases, not people.

If you are applying for a job you owe it to your potential employer to communicate clearly why you are a fit for the role.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#196

Post by bitwize »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #183

Jonathan Blow predicted the collapse of web jobs about a year back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTkRPwnzE4w Basically get out of web dev if you can. Do real programming and try and tackle harder problems. Or even step into entrepreneurship. A talented programmer should be able to create a fast growing company within 2 years if they really applied themselves.

Ah yes, the 2024 version of the old Hackernews "any programmer who's any good should be able to quit their job Friday and walk into a new role the following Wednesday".

Still not true.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#197

Post by Paul-Craft »

brianwawok wrote: post #109
bmitc wrote: post #88

You are apparently in the UK, but the job market in the U.S. has similarly been very spooky lately. I was laid off and have received almost no interviews outside of a single previous employer. My resume was flat out rejected, even from places that I had previously worked or was made an offer from as little as a year or two ago. It was really weird. As in, previous contacts would not even reply to emails or LinkedIn m…

If there is a surplus of talent, a company would rather hire someone who has background in the current stack and can jump right in. If there is a lack of talent, companies hire whatever is even close and trains the new stuff. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

> If there is a lack of talent, companies hire whatever is even close and trains the new stuff.

I've been an engineer for 9 years and not once have I gotten so much as an acknowledgement or a call back on a job that didn't use a very similar tech stack to what I had on my resume.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#198

Post by iExploder »

fulladder wrote: post #176
ath3nd wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism is like a sleight of hand trick, a cheap con designed to distract with stupid toys and distractions while it robs you blind. It pretending that it's creating value, while never showing where the value comes from. Often it comes from extraction from other places. What the OP is experiencing is merely one of the many ugly heads of the very much real process of extracting value in pursuit of profit. There are…

It sounds like you've been out of work for a year and you've fallen into a state of anger and despair. It's understandable and you're hardly the first person that has happened to, but I'd really encourage you to rethink how you're looking at life. Just in a practical sense, even if you can 90% hide your rage in a work setting, the other 10% is still going to be enough to discourage anyone from hiring you. People are…

it sounds like you are projecting your own insecurities my friend. how about you try to dismantle ath3nd's take with counter argument instead of going for ad hominem attack.

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#199

Post by burrish »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #167
burrish wrote: post #52

No way you are the author of Hapland, thank you I had lot of fun. I don't have anything more to say than what has already been said in this thread, I would just recommend modernizing your CV by using Canva [1] , the site has lots of free themes and they are generally well done. [1] - https://www.canva.com/

I couldn't find "Resumes" on that site, and it seems to be for things with lots of graphics?

Hmm that's weird, when searching for "Resumes" and "CV" I find the templates on the website

Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?

#200

Post by burrish »

gtirloni wrote: post #179
burrish wrote: post #52

No way you are the author of Hapland, thank you I had lot of fun. I don't have anything more to say than what has already been said in this thread, I would just recommend modernizing your CV by using Canva [1] , the site has lots of free themes and they are generally well done. [1] - https://www.canva.com/

I'd be careful with any modernization that impacts ATS software's ability to parse it. Recruiters work through ATS systems and will rarely read a resume unless it shows up at the top of some filter. Use something like jobscan.com to validate how the resume parses and avoid any cool graphics and stuff.

Oh I forgot about this soulless aspect of job finding, thank you for link
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