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Looking for a Job Is Tough

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Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#51

Post by MarcelOlsz »

bberenberg wrote: post #42
thw09j9m wrote: post #18

This is the toughest market I've ever seen. I easily made it to on-sites at FAANG a few years ago and now I'm getting resume rejected by no-name startups (and FAANG). The bar has also been raised significantly. I had an interview recently where I solved the algorithm question very quickly, but didn't refactor/clean up my code perfectly and was rejected.

I can’t solve everyone’s problems but I can say that I have 1-2 (depending if an outstanding offer is accepted) open principal engineering roles directly working for me. The process will be talking to the recruiter, then two tech interviews, then an interview with me. This will take you a couple weeks to go through because of our team is tiny and we’re fairly busy. Team is 100% remote and async. All the stuff in the…

This looks fantastic. Applied!

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#52

Post by uhtred »

MrVandemar wrote: post #6

> " the salary listed in the description had dropped by $30,000 ... But the role still sounded interesting, and the task itself looked like a fun challenge, " If you still went for a job that had dropped by that much , but it was still a meaningful amount of money and an interesting sounding job, well ... Good luck and all, but I kind of wish I had your problems.

I can't figure out what your point is?

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#53

Post by realityfactchex »

trentnix wrote: post #50
realityfactchex wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weirded how, if you don't mind elaborating slightly? For example, does it mean: the actual skill level (e.g., smartness) people actually look for and hire hasn't changed, but the activities that hiring teams require candidates to have experience with are (seemingly weirdly) not a great thing to need anyway and therefore lots of great candidates end up twiddling their thumbs? In that way, the "height" of the bar is th…

Many companies are filtering candidates in favor of mercenaries while pretending they are looking for dependable, committed professionals. If you don’t have specific experience with some CTOs favorite esoteric API or don’t have experience in the same, specific corner of some insurance or usury industry, your ability to actually engineer solutions is considered irrelevant. It’s as if the industry has forgotten that bu…

Thanks, much appreciated

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#54

Post by theonething »

rglynn wrote: post #46
colesantiago wrote: post #23

It's going to get tougher and tougher in this job market. 1. Layoffs happening regularly. 2. Less Senior positions and virtually no junior jobs. 2. AI accelerating and reducing the number of software engineers. 3. Job postings being reposted with less salary and equity in US, EU and especially the UK. You might as well take yourself off the job market / stay in current job, build a paying SMB company or side project…

Congrats on the business, I hope this inspires others to pursue their dreams. Since you mentioned a specific number of applications (60+), I just wanted to share my job hunt story. When I was last looking for a role (8 months ago), I started out thinking 5 applications a day was good, but then I spoke with an industry mentor, and he laughed me off saying that wasn't close to enough. Turns out he was right. On his rec…

> since so many places auto-reject if you aren't currently employed.

That really happens? How do you know they do that? I'm not doubting you, but I've never heard of that before.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#55

Post by MrVandemar »

rdfc-xn-uuid wrote: post #48
realityfactchex wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weirded how, if you don't mind elaborating slightly? For example, does it mean: the actual skill level (e.g., smartness) people actually look for and hire hasn't changed, but the activities that hiring teams require candidates to have experience with are (seemingly weirdly) not a great thing to need anyway and therefore lots of great candidates end up twiddling their thumbs? In that way, the "height" of the bar is th…

[flagged]

> It hurts when you see posh privileged urban women having much more chance of getting into a good company than a man who worked his way up through sacrifice.

It's not a gender issue. I would be looking to hire someone competent who works hard, not someone who makes "sacrifices" and then expects a job/promotion.

The latter never works. That's not the work culture in most places. I've seen it many times, people who make "sacrifices", allowing themselves to be exploited, expecting some promotion from it, and are then passed over for someone who actually has demonstrated they are good at the job and ready for more responsibility, and not being a doormat. Then they become resentful.

Don't be bitter. Be better.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#56

Post by joshuaturner »

thw09j9m wrote: post #18

This is the toughest market I've ever seen. I easily made it to on-sites at FAANG a few years ago and now I'm getting resume rejected by no-name startups (and FAANG). The bar has also been raised significantly. I had an interview recently where I solved the algorithm question very quickly, but didn't refactor/clean up my code perfectly and was rejected.

I think a lot of this comes down to AI. In a recent hiring round we experienced multiple candidates using AI tooling to assist them in the technical interviews (remote only company). I expect relationship hires to become more common over the next few years as even more open-discussion focused interview rounds like architecture become lower signal.

So with that in mind I'll see you all at ReInvent

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#57

Post by rsanek »

joshuaturner wrote: post #56
thw09j9m wrote: post #18

This is the toughest market I've ever seen. I easily made it to on-sites at FAANG a few years ago and now I'm getting resume rejected by no-name startups (and FAANG). The bar has also been raised significantly. I had an interview recently where I solved the algorithm question very quickly, but didn't refactor/clean up my code perfectly and was rejected.

I think a lot of this comes down to AI. In a recent hiring round we experienced multiple candidates using AI tooling to assist them in the technical interviews (remote only company). I expect relationship hires to become more common over the next few years as even more open-discussion focused interview rounds like architecture become lower signal. So with that in mind I'll see you all at ReInvent

If you're giving remote interviews, your loop should assume candidates can use AI. it's like giving a take home math test that assumes people won't use calculators at this point

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#58

Post by smugma »

thw09j9m wrote: post #18

This is the toughest market I've ever seen. I easily made it to on-sites at FAANG a few years ago and now I'm getting resume rejected by no-name startups (and FAANG). The bar has also been raised significantly. I had an interview recently where I solved the algorithm question very quickly, but didn't refactor/clean up my code perfectly and was rejected.

As someone with a couple of open (not engineering) recs, I can agree this is the toughest market I’ve ever seen. For both recs, we received many highly qualified candidates with relevant skills, often in a relevant domain.

I’ve never seen this before. It’s always been very hard to find a single highly-qualified candidate.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#59

Post by purple-leafy »

It’s insanely tough. I’m currently searching.

For context - I’ve made 4 personal projects that currently have over 1000+ daily active users (numbers are ~1500, ~6000, ~14,000, and ~430,000) all created within the span of the last year. I’ve also sold software.

On top of all that, I have an Engineering degree, 4 years experience, no breaks in employment, study on my afternoons and weekends (C, Go, C#) and take extra university courses, and have some other high level achievements/recognition.

I apply for Intermediate and Senior positions.

So far I have 3 interviews lined up out of ~30-40 applications. About 10 rejections so far. 1 of those jobs is actually decent, the other 2 are desperation applications.

It’s brutal. I’m trying my absolute best, I don’t see how people that have been coasting have any chance.

You should be able to coast a bit in life.

I’m sad at the state of things, and sad for people trying to stay in the industry or break into the industry.

Makes me want to become a gardener

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#60

Post by drillsteps5 »

jarsin wrote: post #22
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #4

Good luck, Sergey. In my case, the process became so awful, humiliating, and hostile, I just gave up, and retired, ten years before I had planned. I’m very fortunate, that I could afford it. I now develop software for free, for outfits that can’t afford people like me. It’s tough, but looking for work after 50, especially when pivoting from management, back to IC, is unbearable. My heart goes out to those without the…

Devs in there 40's and 50's are probably the most valuable devs on earth. We grew up with computers and had to adapt to our rapidly changing industry. I suspect we will see startup founders trending older if it isn't already happening. Companies stuck in the old way of thinking that older is slower will probably be disrupted in the next recession.

> Devs in there 40's and 50's are probably the most valuable devs on earth.

Over 50 seeker here (25+ years experience, first IC then mgmt). All of hiring managers I've dealt with this time around are at least 10 years my junior, and they disagree with you. They view me as a risk (higher compensation, less "hungry", higher "flight risk") and prefer people their age or younger. Don't call it ageism though, that's just how the world works :(

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