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Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

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Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#41
post #34
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you want to be a , just do it as a hobby spend ~8 hours a day doing something you hate.

It sounds bad, but it is actually very pampered to belive one has a right to work with something that one is passionate about.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#42

How about physical office jobs in your area? Have you applied to those? Remote is tough these days but willing to butt in the seat for 8 hours with a 2 hours commute might put food on your plate and buy you time.

This would be my recommendation too. The global talent market for remote developers is extremely competitive. The days of failed offshoring seems to have passed, it's now much easier to build excellent remote teams but it is driving down salaries.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#43
I don't know where you are in the EU but some places have a lot of jobs and its hard to hire people. I would consider doing this because you never know how it will turn out - you might end up getting a job overseas but spending months at home working remotely every year once they get to trust you.

Other people have said its a numbers game and they're right. You have to apply and again and somehow keep your spirits up. I hate it when I'm finding a job - I always feel like shit and that I'm worthless. Then I get something and I feel worthwhile again - it's all in one's own head and there's a skill I need to get better at about managing those feelings.

I think the key is to be slightly arrogant in your own eyes. Believe in yourself for no reason at all. "I know python but I'm not a great expert" BZZT....WRONG ANSWER "I know java" BING!!! RIGHT ANSWER. There's an element of projecting a confident and go-getter attitude. You can learn whatever you don't know, you can fix what you lack it's not a problem.

Another issue is that people are looking for different things and you can reword your CV to hook them. I've lost offers because I didn't sell myself on the right aspects of my experience before. You can learn something topical and put that on your CV if you find out that it's a hot item in your general field. e.g. if you do webapps then do you know react or is there something else that's a ticklist item with recruiters and companies?

I think it's also easier to get jobs with smaller companies - they've less budget and less staff and are probably more desperate. If you're not fullstack then do some basic fullstack example site and teach yourself enough to be just about useful.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#45
post #19

Why do you want to work in tech so bad? Just get a different type of job and code on the side.

Why do you want to be a , just do it as a hobby spend ~8 hours a day doing something you hate.

So dramatic. You don't have to hate it. Just do something you can put up with. And it's rewarding contributing to society in a way that other people value. This is how 99% of people view work.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#46
post #15

The market did get tougher. It's not you. That means that you have to put considerably more effort, or a different kind of effort, to land a job. Think about landing the job as a numbers game. There are a bunch of steps, connected into a pipeline. Roughly, it's 1. find offers 2. apply 3. prescreen 4. interviews 5. offer At each step of the pipeline, you will have fewer and fewer offers that will remain. Your goal is…

This approach is logical and straightforward. The main flaw is that it treats all job opportunities equally. Life is not numbers, and the job you have or find will demand a significant portion of your life.

This means that you can spend more effort on getting the job that fits you the best and none or less effort for other opportunities.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#47
Lower your expectations with regards to finding a remote position. I know you came here for comfort, but it seems to me that you are better served by hard truths. Working remotely, you are competing with the whole world. People in lower-income countries will be cheaper and not necessarily worse than you. Use your location as an advantage.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#48
post #22
post #3

I have 25 YoE and talking to walls too. My only suggestion is to ask everyone to review your resume. If that doesn't work, start lying. The last time I was looking for work, I applied to over 600 positions. I've been off work 2 weeks and I'm nearing 200. Came across this the other day, good resources hidden in links: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IUUwdEw0RjTftvJv3LTA-7XI... (such as this: https://docs.google.co…

I'm curious what subset of tech you're applying for, and what your region and salary expectation are. Speaking as someone with 20+ YOE experience myself.

I'm past IC (which I did for 15 years) and onto director/head/vp of eng, though I can be hands-on. In Canada, applying for full remote gigs. I've made a point this time not to come out with a salary expectation and instead ask them to make an offer. I'm not even getting through for Engineering Manager positions which are significantly lower on the experience scale.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#50

throwaway. we stopped hiring remote workers after experiencing massive amounts of employment fraud (multiple jobs, lying about who they were) and extremely low quality candidates despite good offers

I've vouched (voted to remove from flagged) this comment.

With that said, what was the typical salary for one of those positions?

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