Live data from Hacker News

Looking for a Job Is Tough

blog.kaplich.me

101–110 of 296 posts

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#101

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’m not sure the bar has been raised. It’s been weirded, but not raised.

The bar has been lowered in many respects. 14 years experience, 5 of them at a FAANG. Successful startup exit for a small company I founded, and and endless array of India-based recruiters that, for example, want me to mention “Ruby 3.2” in my resume when the resume says I have 14 years of Ruby experience including using it daily in my present job. I could literally say “I invented Ruby and have worked with it daily for 20 years,” and they’d say, “but you don’t have 3.2 listed.”

I play the game then they pass me off to another Indian who is less understandable than the first guy and then they offer $45/hour. I say yeah sure, submit me to the potential client. Then I never hear anything back.

The Indian 3rd party recruiting industry is absolutely horrible. Another anecdote was spending 10 minutes explaining how Java and JavaScript aren’t the same thing. I am convinced there is rampant discrimination happening as well against non-Indians, and especially those who aren’t H1Bs. (H1B is a trap that makes it easy to hire people at lower wages and then also makes it harder for them to switch employers.)

I’m not well articulating the problem, but anyone who has done this dance knows exactly what I’m talking about.

By the way, I used to contract at $95/hour and now I can’t get calls back for $45/hour.

The outsourcing offshoring business needs to be significantly reformed. I had a gig at Best Buy ($70/hour) and I got to spend 3 months training some Accenture H1Bs to replace me. I thought H1B was to fill “critical shortages of highly skilled workers?” Best Buy didn’t have a shortage — they fired my entire team and replaced it with Accenture. Best Buy should be heavily taxed for that and Accenture et al should have their offshore labor tariffed into oblivion. (They typically have onshore H1Bs directing offshore teams.) The Best Buy CEO talks all sorts of DEI crap, while firing people to cut costs. Not very inclusive if you ask me.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not the poster's point. The poster contends women are being prejudicially hired as "diversity" rather men who have "sacrificed" and worked hard. "lolwut" indeed.

[flagged]

Are you asserting that companies in a free market are intentionally hiring people unqualified for their jobs and paying them wages as if they were qualified?

To what end?

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> * Diversity hiring: Big US/EU companies are trying to hire more females here because cost is low and they can show great diversity numbers. 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. do you have any examples of this happening? or is this just a boogie man? my experience has been different: so many medio…

[deleted]

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not the poster's point. The poster contends women are being prejudicially hired as "diversity" rather men who have "sacrificed" and worked hard. "lolwut" indeed.

Right, but certain careers have figured out that women are, on average, better at the socialization game and thus, broadly speaking, a better fit for the job. Ain't nobody "diversity" hiring on the oil rigs or other jobs where the physical act is more important than interpersonal interaction. However, it is difficult to measure those positive traits for what they are, so employers are selecting based on gender hoping…

[deleted]

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> From my experience there are relatively few women who really get in the trenches. have you ever heard of the word "bias"? > Staring at logs in a terminal and sifting through endless YAML not so much. i did not know that one gender could be better at this work. that seems like huge news if true. and yes, you sound like a reactionary. coward ass throwaway account.

> i did not know that one gender could be better at this work. that seems like huge news if true.

There is research that has shown that men are, on average, better at single-focus tasks. And, indeed, it was huge news at the time the research was published – at least as huge as being reported in major news publications is.

It wouldn't be huge news now. We quickly grow bored and tired of widely reported things from the past. Humans, of all genders it seems, tend to seek novelty.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ma…

[flagged]

The words you're looking for aren't conservative or reactionary they are bigoted and asshole. Best software engineer I've ever worked with is a woman, the rest had exactly the same range of ability as the men. Overall though a much lower level of entitled ignorance than "guys like us".

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#108
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

No fool like an old fool.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#109
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah well what do recruiters know about software development? They just know the keywords the EMs and C suite sent them in the headcount request.

That EMs and the C-suite think solving their engineering needs is to add "headcount" is the bigger problem.

That’s what they thought in 2021.

Now that money isn’t free, they think the problem is too many engineers.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#110

I guess Europe isn't nearly as bad as the US. My portfolio (and probably my actual skills) are nowhere close to what some of those in the comments that can't find a job are offering, but I was able to secure a job in Trondheim, Norway (where I'm about to move in January) with a single application and interview. I assume there weren't too many people in the Trondheim area who were willing to work at an office and who…

The salaries and perks in the US are much higher and candidates are more mobile than us in Europe.
Post reply on HN