There is plenty of discussion about how hard it is to get or change jobs in tech (even with several years of experience) in the r/womenintech subreddit, along with some discussion about what other industries to potentially pursue instead.
Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?
41–50 of 625 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?
#42>I myself have had a difficult time landing an interview over the last year despite having two decades of experience. Unfortunately many employers see that as a minus, not a plus.
Indeed - I've legitimately considered creating a fake profile at this point to make myself look more Jr with about 10 years of experience. I don't really have much to lose in trying it.
I've been at the receiving end of ageism, and what i now do is drop off some of the older experience(s) from my resume, etc. Also, i try to avoid listing my graduation year from university. Some people suggest even if not fighting off ageism, its only relevant to list the last decade of experience on a resume anyway...so if i ever get questioned, i'd use that as an excuse...but, my strategy is simply to get my foot in the door to an interview without getting caught by the "age police" in HR. (If someone thinks that there's no such thing as a sort of filter - what i called "age police" - within HR, then you have wool over your eyes.)
So, my suggestion is maybe there's not a need to create a fake profile, but maybe trim yours a bit. Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?
#43Wherever there is difficulty, there is also opportunity. I think the major thing stopping people from just going their own way is healthcare coverage. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) I wonder if I can hack a business model that somehow provides healthcare but also gathers together sourced projects, and freelancers to bid on building them, while also getting healthcare. (And if you opt out of healthcare, you can take the d…
I’m somewhat dubious that healthcare is the biggest impediment to doing a startup today, because of the Affordable Care Act. It certainly seems to have helped supercharge the “FIRE” (financial independence, retire early) movement—another set of working-age people who need healthcare without employment.
I think a lot of engineers just want to engineer. Leading a startup quickly becomes mostly business stuff like finance, marketing, sales, hiring, etc. You need a business model, not just tech know-how. Starting your own business is definitely not the same job as staff engineer at an established business. It’s not for everyone.
Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?
#44Wherever there is difficulty, there is also opportunity. I think the major thing stopping people from just going their own way is healthcare coverage. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) I wonder if I can hack a business model that somehow provides healthcare but also gathers together sourced projects, and freelancers to bid on building them, while also getting healthcare. (And if you opt out of healthcare, you can take the d…
There is some truth to healthcare coverage, but 26 and under are covered by their parents. They’re the hard to fill junior roles anyway.
IMO, people want way too much fucking money.
Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?
#45Exploit foreign labour to pick crops, exploit foreign labour to do manufacturing, exploit foreign labour to do tech. At the end of the day, what is left? I keep thinking of that Henry Ford anecdote about factory workers and buying cars.
Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?
#46I've been out of a job for most of the past year. While sending Merry Christmas texts to my friends, I had a conversation with one (another programmer, different technologies and industry) where he revealed he was laid off last month. I keep applying for jobs, and recently accepted the possibility to relocate for an on site position (because staying where I am and hoping to get a remote position hasn't worked out). I…
That has been my experience as well.
You are not alone!
Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?
#47Anecdotally.. but not really. I was worried about the job market but this was unfounded, for me... I started applying in October and had four offers from large tech companies by end of November. A lot of this was through networking to be fair, not “cold applying” (1 was through cold applying, the other 3 through networking). reach out to former coworkers or friends and ask for referrals. YMMV, but I do not think it i…
| A lot of this was through networking to be fair
On that note, being in a larger city and doing in-person networking is a much different game than trying to apply online from afar. Plus, I've heard a lot about how useless online applications have become due to AI, ghost jobs, bad HR practices, etc. It makes me wonder if returning to the "come in to the office and drop off an application" days would be better for everyone.
Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?
#48Longterm unemployed people turn to the armed forces for employment. Intentional?
There's no doubt that the "economically disadvantaged to military pipeline" is as old as history itself, but...
No.
No for a lot of reasons.
There's no shortage of poor people in this country even when employment is high.
I mean, the max enlistment age in the US Army is theoretically 35 years old, but realistically they are not looking for anybody much past 25 from anything I have ever seen. Even from a machiavellian standpoint leaving a whole bunch of unemployed people from 18 to 75 just so you can scoop up the youngest 10% of them or whatever just makes no sense.
Lastly, the next war between major powers is probably not going to involve massive numbers of infantry troops from America. We fight proxy wars (Ukraine, etc) generally and if we fight another peer/near-peer country directly it's going to be missiles and drones and what-have-you, not 10 million American infantrymen marching through China.
Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?
#49I've been out of a job for most of the past year. While sending Merry Christmas texts to my friends, I had a conversation with one (another programmer, different technologies and industry) where he revealed he was laid off last month. I keep applying for jobs, and recently accepted the possibility to relocate for an on site position (because staying where I am and hoping to get a remote position hasn't worked out). I…
And we see PG talking up H1B on twitter. I'd like to think that if he still read HN he might not do that.
Really companies should be banned from importing more people[1] if they laid off a certain number in the last year. That way the job market would be more likely to self correct.
[1] I think they should still be allowed to hire people who are already in the country on a visa, as it's unfair to make their risk of being kicked out of the country worse. And they should be allowed to renew existing visa workers
Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?
#50Wherever there is difficulty, there is also opportunity. I think the major thing stopping people from just going their own way is healthcare coverage. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) I wonder if I can hack a business model that somehow provides healthcare but also gathers together sourced projects, and freelancers to bid on building them, while also getting healthcare. (And if you opt out of healthcare, you can take the d…
> ...I think the major thing stopping people from just going their own way is healthcare coverage...
i agree. Tying healthcare to employment limits things in several ways. What if, instead of starting my own business, i wanted to work 2 different part time jobs for 2 different employers? Maybe 1 of them is a rather low-paying job at a non-profit, and another is some tech-related job...well, even if enough of my poay is covered between both jobs, what would i do about healthcare? Yes, i know about the Affordable Care Act, but its been watered down by the powers that be who don't care about proper healthcare for everyone, etc. I think if the ACA in its original form were to have been launched, maybe it would have set us on a better trajectory - at least for more universal coverage which isn't tied to employment...then, at that point, Americans can choose their own adventure from an employment perspective (assuming they have the proper skills for whichever career adventure they undertook) - either work for someone else (or work for several different bosses), or work for themselves.