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Ask HN: Who's getting their job applications rejected?

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Re: Ask HN: Who's getting their job applications rejected?

#81

Post by ronniefalcon »

readingnews wrote: post #8

I am having a tough time... I am a systems administrator who also has experience teaching and coding, but I am looking at systems admins / engineering positions only. I consider myself highly experienced in Linux / Unix. A few years back, I could just word of mouth say I was looking and have offers. Now, nothing. Lots of ghosting after the 2nd or 3rd interview. Very few positions for Sr. Systems admin / Engineer that…

Agree with this notion. Being a "systems engineer" in the past was akin to a sysadmin- jack of all trades. Sure, with experience you specialise and you need to make that shine on linkedin and the like. But now any use of the word "engineer" relates to dev/full stack work, including understandings of cloud technologies.

However. If you _Are_ a seasoned "sysadmin", you can pickup the cloud stuff. It's a different paradigm but if you have skill, you can do it. Time to learn new stuff!

Re: Ask HN: Who's getting their job applications rejected?

#82

Post by ghaff »

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #41
buro9 wrote: post #29

I work at Grafana, and we be hiring, I posted on the Who's Hiring in January and that was a big mistake. I've posted before (probably 6 times a year as I miss the 1st sometimes) and had few to no responses, but in January I had over 50 responses in the first few hours, and it continued to elicit responses for the next week. Employers are swamped right now, there are a lot of people seeking few positions. I've gone fr…

There is no real way to handle the influx of applications these days since it's so easy to apply, especially on platforms like LinkedIn. I just take the first X and try to find a qualified applicant. I'm at a small company, we simply can't process 1000 resumes.

I've heard other people talk about this dynamic. Companies have generally made it very easy to apply. Especially in the current market this means you have increasingly desperate candidates sending out hundreds or even thousands of resumes. Which in turn means companies are applying simple heuristics or "AI" to massively filter the number of resumes that a human even glances at. Which of course reinforces the cycle because it becomes a massive numbers game to even reach a person.

Re: Ask HN: Who's getting their job applications rejected?

#83

Post by pc86 »

jplrssn wrote: post #23
mojomark wrote: post #16

I have not from the perspective of seeking emplyment, but from the smaller mid-size employer side (200 employees, robotics) we have had to reject a number of candidates. Normally this is based on a resume review (so as not to waste people's time), but sometimes it does come out in interviews. My main challenge, and I'm not saying this is the case for you - I'm just offering the perspective on the other side, has been…

I'm not saying this is the case for you, but often when companies have recurring problems with retention it's because of some underlying issue: culture, perceived lack of professional development opportunities, low pay, etc. These issues might affect even new hires joining with the best of intentions.

I mean it is extremely likely it is a problem with the company. We don't know how many "a rash of folks" is but sounds like at least 3 or 4 and at that point it's not just bad luck. Most people don't want to work somewhere for a year and leave, they do it because something better comes along.

Re: Ask HN: Who's getting their job applications rejected?

#84

Post by dataflow »

mojomark wrote: post #16

I have not from the perspective of seeking emplyment, but from the smaller mid-size employer side (200 employees, robotics) we have had to reject a number of candidates. Normally this is based on a resume review (so as not to waste people's time), but sometimes it does come out in interviews. My main challenge, and I'm not saying this is the case for you - I'm just offering the perspective on the other side, has been…

Seems everyone is making guesses or assumptions, so I'll just ask - why do you believe new hires are leaving so quickly? Have any of them explained why? If so, what is their feedback like?

Re: Ask HN: Who's getting their job applications rejected?

#85

Post by [deleted] »

greatpostman wrote: post #7

This is going to put fuel on the fire. I run a startup, we hired two devs out of Eastern Europe at 60k each that are absolutely phenomenal. We’d love to hire American but can’t afford it. I know many other companies doing the same (nyc based seed/preseed startups). With ai, high interest rates, and covid accelerating remote hiring, I don’t see this recovering.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Who's getting their job applications rejected?

#86

Post by asynchronous »

tootie wrote: post #53
howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #28

About 5 recessions in my life's rear view mirror and looks as if we're in one now. For those of you new to this, and if we're in-fact in a recession: - Almost any job is preferred over no job at this time. - Some cities in the US are a bit less impacted by recession (eg. Omaha, Nebraska), or have labor shortages because the area offers zero glamour and zero Starbucks. - Technical skills are needed by USGOV, directly…

The current situation is absolutely nowhere near a recession. That being said, recessions are measured in very aggregate terms. In aggregate, the US and world economists are in a boom by any broad measures. But during a boom, some sectors or regions can be doing much worse than everyone else. I'm honestly not even sure tech is in much of a downturn. We've just gotten used to extreme boom times and this is now just ki…

If this isn’t a recession I fear it’s just the new normal of being an employee in the modern world. Tech stocks have literally never been higher and yet they continue to lay off % of staff. Ridiculous.

Re: Ask HN: Who's getting their job applications rejected?

#87

Post by sly010 »

Simon_ORourke wrote: post #32

Not rejected as per say, but about 12 months ago I applied for a role in Intercom. Strangest, downright oddest interview shuttle bus I've ever hopped on. First up was a screener with one non technical recruiter, final question of the interview was something like "would you be open to other roles too?". I said sure, but I was mainly interested in the role I applied for. End up moving to the next stage with a technical…

Sounds about right. Hiring pipeline is probably too long to guarantee anything, but most people don't work out, so recruiters want to keep good leads in the pipeline as long as possible, just in case something comes up. Never attribute to malice that you can attribute to (in this case organizational) incompetence.

Re: Ask HN: Who's getting their job applications rejected?

#88

Post by rwaksmunski »

greatpostman wrote: post #7

This is going to put fuel on the fire. I run a startup, we hired two devs out of Eastern Europe at 60k each that are absolutely phenomenal. We’d love to hire American but can’t afford it. I know many other companies doing the same (nyc based seed/preseed startups). With ai, high interest rates, and covid accelerating remote hiring, I don’t see this recovering.

I can confirm, Eastern/Central Europe devs are phenomenal value for money.

Re: Ask HN: Who's getting their job applications rejected?

#89

Post by pc86 »

mojomark wrote: post #16

I have not from the perspective of seeking emplyment, but from the smaller mid-size employer side (200 employees, robotics) we have had to reject a number of candidates. Normally this is based on a resume review (so as not to waste people's time), but sometimes it does come out in interviews. My main challenge, and I'm not saying this is the case for you - I'm just offering the perspective on the other side, has been…

Are you giving 5-10% raises every year to keep folks in line with market rate for new hires? Are you giving large bonuses that meaningfully affect people's lives? I've worked places where the "bonuses" were $500 or $1000 for people paid $150k/yr.

Very few people interview thinking "I'm going to take all the info I can here then leave in a year." Most people want to work somewhere for a long time and become an expert and master their craft. The most rewarding job I had I was there for almost 8 years and the last 2-3 I was really in the zone and felt like I could do anything.

There's an old saying about how if you're constantly smelling shit you need to check your own shoes. If a bunch of people come then leave, look at your own house first before assuming it's something wrong with them.

Re: Ask HN: Who's getting their job applications rejected?

#90

Post by angarg12 »

I wrote a reply to a person who was having a similar problem in another forum. I'll copy my post here.

I am a ML Engineer working at a big Co with 15+ YoE. This is how things are going for me:

* I started looking in September last year. So far I had 3 complete loops. One rejected me and two down leveled me.

* Although recruiters reach out a lot, more than half of them ghost me.

* When I started looking I used to ask for salary bands. Most companies top of band was around half of my current comp, so I declined. Now I'm saying yes to just about anything, just to prove to myself that I can get a job offer.

* Particularly in the ML space, requirements from companies are simply insane. One company was hiring a role doing exactly what I'm doing in the same domain. They rejected me because they wanted someone who was an expert at all of software engineering, data science and this particular domain, and apparently I'm not good enough. Oh, there is also this company who rejected me at the screening phase because I had "only" 6 years of experience with their particular technology instead of 8.

Draw your own conclusions about how good or bad the job market is.

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