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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?

#31

Post by danielvaughn »

jimmaswell wrote: post #23
threeio wrote: post #3

You 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.

I got my current job on the Who Wants To Get Hired post. Granted it was in late 2022, right as the market began to crash, but still. You never know.

Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?

#32

Post by brutus1213 »

I think a wider issue I'd like to see a discussion on is the current workplace. I think employers are pushing individuals and teams beyond their limit - what are you going to do? Quit in this job market?

I'm literally doing the math on what sort of pay/title cut I'd be willing to take to move from a large corp to a sane, non-toxic workplace. I'm mid-career and know some people my level who have just exited the rat race. I was hoping once US rates get cut, things get less meaner .. but looks like this will continue for a while longer.

As it stands, tech at large companies has become a terrible career. I'm saying this as someone who is deeply passionate about technology and work at the cutting edge of AI. I think a big part is cargo culting and MBA-think in management. Instead of working, we spend months and months planning to do work. Other people in this boat or just my pond?

Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?

#34

Post by dsr_ »

zarathustreal wrote: post #28
dsr_ wrote: post #6

If 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 s…

... there are still a lot of people in this business who don't have a college degree. Doesn't stop them from being professionals.

Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?

#35

Post by jsyang00 »

Salesforce/ServiceNow/Snowflake all offer certifications I believe for roles where you are basically just using their platform. Not the greatest jobs but usually less competitive to get than traditional development roles. Government jobs are probably a good idea as well (not very flexible I imagine though). IT jobs can be high pressure w/out any of the salary and other benefits of software dev so I would stay away from those options if you have the chance

Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?

#36

Post by ayakang31415 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #19

Consider federal government remote work. You're not going to make FAANG money, but if you're remote, you don't need it. You need a job that supports your living needs and your mental health goals. For folks who have a STEM degree, the US Patent and Trademark Office is currently paying ~$90k/year for remote patent examiners. This macro will pass, you just need a place to hang your hat until you've gotten your foundati…

What exactly is 18f?

Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?

#38

Post by darkmarmot »

spencerchubb wrote: post #8

Apply at companies that are really big, really old, and are pretty bland. Like insurance, banks, retail. Basically apply to everything in the Fortune 500

So true! I have a tech job at a Fortune 100 building unique and interesting distributed systems in Elixir and get to work on open source libraries through the company. You won't make as much $$$, but you can potentially work on more interesting projects that overlap specific domains.

Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?

#39

Post by RussianCow »

jimmaswell wrote: post #23
threeio wrote: post #3

You 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.

I don't mean to push back too hard, but this is pretty defeatist. You really have no way of knowing what exactly the person on the other end is looking for. There's a very real possibility that you are an ideal fit for some teams out there, but you'll never find out if you don't even apply. Regardless of your qualifications, it's a numbers game.

As an aside, my more general advice is to find the one thing that makes you stand out among the sea of other candidates, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant it is, and focus on that in your résumé and cover letters. I have been hired at past jobs for all sorts of crazy/dumb reasons. After I got hired at my first "real" (9-5) software engineering job, my boss later told me that he picked me because I mentioned Clojure once on my résumé and he thought that was cool, and I didn't even have any professional experience with it, just a curiosity for it. (This was over 12 years ago when Clojure was still relatively new.)

Re: Ask HN: Junior dev and I don't want to compete in this job market. Any advice?

#40

Post by jameshush »

jimmaswell wrote: post #23
threeio wrote: post #3

You 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.

Over the last 10 years, I've gotten every job except one through Hacker News or a referral from a co-worker I met at a job. I got way more callbacks fresh out of school as a 21-year-old living in Canada (aka no USA work permits) via Hacker News than any other channel.

Focus on sending 3-4 _excellent_ applications a day rather than 3000-4000 AI-generated garbage ones. Also, go through your text message history and text every person on there the following:

``` Hi $NAME! I just saw you on $SOCIAL_MEDIA doing $THING and I thought about you? What's the latest with you? No rush to respond if you're busy.

wait for response

Great to hear! I'm currently looking for a software engineering job, do you know anyone who's hiring? ```

You do those two things consistently, you'll have three job offers within 3-4 months.

Now the tricky part is getting the confidence to ACTUALLY DO THE ABOVE. What helped me is going outside and getting involved in ANY club. In the past for me it's been salsa dancing, stand up comedy, and taking a cooking class. Replace those with any other activity you're remotely interested.

Good luck. You got this. The first job or two in tech is tricky. After 3-4 years it gets way easier.

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