OT I suspect this is American terminology, but what does it mean to be or not be a "target school"?
Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?
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Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?
#22Applying to a bunch of job postings isn’t really going to help. If you’ve already had a job as a dev than you’re already ahead of the game. I’d recommend spending more time on networking, it’s a lot easier to get an interview when you have a connection with the company/hiring manager. Just keep up your coding skills in your primary language so that when the interview comes along you’re ready. Also it feels like the j…
> I’d recommend spending more time on networking
Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?
#23You are literally one day away from the who's hiring and who wants to get hired threads. Review and apply, be willing and honest to discuss strengths and weaknesses. Have interesting projects that you have worked on and can speak about. Best of luck!
I always felt discouraged from even applying to those. They usually say they're only hiring one candidate and I know a ton of other hackernewsers are applying to the same posting who have a good chance of being much more tryhard at fleshing out their github portfolio et cetera.
Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?
#24If you’re looking for flexible work accommodations, I doubt state/federal gigs would be a fit. Not sure which state you’re in, but those tend to be much more conventional “9 to 5” than you might find at other tech companies.
If you want time-of-day flexibility, look for either a distributed startup OR a giant company that has presence in lots of different timezones
Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?
#25OT I suspect this is American terminology, but what does it mean to be or not be a "target school"?
"elite school"
Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?
#26You only need to compete in dev/IT when you lack relationships. It's not about raw talent or raw output but instead absolute trust. Confidence that you (or whoever) has a good sense of direction and is grounded in their work. I don't trust anyone in this industry who has never had a mentor. I would never work with anyone else in this industry who is themselves not already a part of an active community where they are…
and like...if you don't have a community, how to get into one in the first place?
Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?
#27OT I suspect this is American terminology, but what does it mean to be or not be a "target school"?
Assume not elite in compsci/EE. American corps rely heavily upon university rankings when hiring for STEM roles. It does make a difference in candidate quality.
Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?
#28If I understand correctly, you're about to get a degree but you have several years of software development experience. If that's the case, you should have a significant advantage in 'new grad'-advantaged jobs: you have the experience that the vast majority of your competitors do not. Go for that.
If you don’t have a degree you almost certainly don’t have years of (professional) software development experience.
The only exception in my experience (and this helped me get a job when I was a new grad) is having a large portfolio of tangible projects. Not just react tutorials, programs that solve a problem someone had or did something interesting. For example, I did a lot of programming in middle school and high school related to automating games like RuneScape. Also had a win at the international science and engineering fair in the computing division. It’s safe to claim years of experience when you’ve got something to show for it.
Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?
#29Probably get downvoted for this but seek a job outside a computer. Plenty of engineering gigs onsite, petroleum, civil, mechanical, etc. tbh you sound depressed and sitting in front of a computer will only compound the issue. IMO- Comp sci jobs are crutches at best. Best of luck.
> IMO- Comp sci jobs are crutches at best.
Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?
#30I think you might be over-indexing on the process of getting a job, and under-indexing on the process of /doing/ a job. Yes, getting a job sucks -- for a few weeks or months as you work through the process. But once you have that job, it will take up more than a third of your waking hours for, ideally, years. What can imagine doing for 2000 hours of the next 8760? What would you /enjoy/ doing? That, more than the con…
This. If you haven't been naturally excited to work on your own projects during this downtime, this field might not be for you.
To counter that, when you have a team with external accountability and teammates relying on you and a salary, that can be far more motivating than working on personal projects by yourself. I wouldn’t discount the field just because of that.