Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice? • Hacker News Board

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

#91

Post by vemv » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 2:32 PM UTC

kypro wrote: post #86

It's hard man. I don't know if anyone here can realistically give you useful advice or much comfort because if you've been employable for years and are only now struggling it suggests it's not you, but that the job market has changed. The job market for developers is really bad right now, and honestly it's hard for me to see it improving much any time soon. The industry is so saturated with talent these days that I c…

I second the sentiment, however I'm not sure that the market is 'saturated' with talent. The need for productive devs remains there, companies just lack the investment money (and/or cannot spend it due to the US tax situation). Products, teams are struggling as a consequence.

The moment investment comes back, so will be jobs. In the end it's that easy.

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

#92

Post by as1mov » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 2:35 PM UTC

It's not just you, I'm in a similar boat (also in EU). The market has been quite bad in the last few months. Used to get at least a few calls from the HN hiring posts, but got absolutely nothing in the last 3-4 months. Same for LinkedIn, used to get at least 2+ interview calls every week. Now almost nothing :/ I'm not even picky when it comes to the requirements, don't mind working from office or learning something new (or obscure) for the job.

Every job post on LinkedIn seems to have hundreds of applicants, reminds me of the time I used to apply for jobs in India.

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

#93

Post by ben_w » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

flkenosad wrote: post #2

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

Für mich, Softwareentwicklung ist die eine Arbeitsstelle, wo meine c. B1 Deutsch ist (normalerweise) kein Problem.

The original poster was "in the EU", just like I am. It's entirely plausible that for them, like for me, language is a barrier to other jobs besides tech.

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

#94

Post by bryanlarsen » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 2:46 PM UTC

achempion wrote: post #46

koliber wrote: 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.

No matter how logical and straightforward an approach is, human implementations of an approach are never completely logical and straightforward.

Whether implicit or explicit, humans will short-change or sabotage job applications they don't want.

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

#95

Post by thorin » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 2:55 PM UTC

starbugs wrote: post #23

jowdones wrote: post #14

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.

I'm afraid that's my current takeaway of the situation as well. Not sure if that is really the case though. It would be nice to hear about different experiences. Apparently, after remote was "the new normal" and "worked extremely well", now nobody wants it anymore for ... reasons?

I think it was only the new normal in certain sectors/countries for a period. Now I see mostly hybrid and after 3 years remote I now have the expectation to go in 1 or 2 days a week. Would at least look at this initially, then after you get in you can push for less.

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

#96

Post by dispirited » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 2:57 PM UTC

gpmcadam wrote: post #37

Don't feel bad about taking time to give yourself more energy in the long run. Go for a walk or jog. Do something you enjoy to help recharge your batteries. If you plan to continue spending time on personal projects or CV, maybe change your scenery and go to a nice cafe or similar. Maybe coworking spaces or new environments will unlock opportunities to network in ways you haven't thought of. Keep your mind focused on…

Thank you for your kind words <3

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

#97

Post by EchoChamberMan » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 2:59 PM UTC

TradingPlaces wrote: post #81

EchoChamberMan wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm in the EU FWIW.

Just putting it out there for people, who don’t seem to know this is happening from the frequent postings like this. Also, all large companies are tech companies and finance companies now. Walmart has 1695 openings with the word “software” in the title. https://careers.walmart.com/results?q=software&page=1&sort=r...

Tragically the problem is not lack of roles, it's a lack of hiring managers able or willing to fill them. No one wants to risk a visible failure, so they take no risks at all... which leads us to the current situation of 1600 unfilled software dev roles at walmart.

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

#98

Post by lokhura » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 3:21 PM UTC

throwitall wrote: post #38

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

Two reasons why this probably happened. 1) you paid too little, and 2) you probably had people in-office too so the remote employees were second class workers. The solution is simple: pay above market rates and create a truly remote culture.

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

#99

Post by itake » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 3:22 PM UTC

al_borland wrote: post #75

itake wrote: post #4

When I am in situations like this, I try to focus on the process, not the outcome. Find joy in applying for new jobs, learning about system design and algorithms, or doing practice interviews. If you follow the process, you will find that job. ---- On a side note, I would encourage you to not lower your pay or communicate you will accept lower pay, because its a signal to employers that you're desperate, no one wants…

>As one of my old favorite managers once told me, "when I gave you that offer, I wanted you to walk in on your first day smiling" Is there more context to this? Did the manager want you to walk in smiling even though a low ball offer was accepted, or want you to walk in smiling because you felt you got a good offer you are happy with?

This was my second job. I went from making $55,000 per year to $70,000.

I think he wanted me to feel good with the offer that they gave me. I really enjoyed working with him along with my raise by leaving my previous job.

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

#100

Post by lokhura » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 3:34 PM UTC

pluc wrote: 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…

When you don't have connections, lying is the best advice to get the good jobs. I just lie about anything I know I can learn on the job. No experience with Vue but know React? No problem, I'm a Vue expert. No experience with with C# but know Java? No problem, I know C# by heart.

Once I get pass HR and get to talk to an actual engineer I can reevaluate my lies and drive the interview into the areas I'm actually experienced with.

Also, interviewing is a game. Even if I'm not looking for a new job I just do it to practice and for fun. It feels pretty good to reject an offer and know your worth.