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Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

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Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

#71

Post by vbi8iBEX »

notfried wrote: post #58

I see this as a combination of three forces at play: AI, WFH, and Skillset--all adding downward pressure to hiring talent in the U.S.: 1) While A.I. may now be only adding 10-20% of productivity gains, the rapid pace of improvement leaves open the possibility that tha gains can be soon much more than that. So, instead of scaling your company now, if you can afford to, wait out a bit and see where this goes. 2) Even t…

Elon told people to "go fk yourself in the face" over H-1B. Doesn't seem very nuanced to me.

Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

#72

Post by Glyptodon »

ajb wrote: post #49
theandrewbailey wrote: post #2

I'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 b…

I think it should be a decay function that looks back longer than a year.

Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

#73

Post by throwawayhn2024 »

I was let go from my last job. Also no CS degree. Had no LinkedIn either (deleted years ago). Had to create a resume from scratch. The only thing I had was about a decade of experience.

I started by creating a resume and LinkedIn and aggressively optimized both as much as possible. Using a ATS checker I found online, I got a score of 96 for my resume after numerous changes (29 changes after a few weeks).

I started applying aggressively (and tracking) immediately after being let go. I’m pretty sure early rejections were because my resume was awful.

After nearly 2 months, 588 applications, with an average 10% response rate within an average of 10 days per response, I had 16 move to interview stages and 2 final offers. I accepted one of them (it checked all my boxes for what I wanted so didn’t have to compromise). I had 3 referrals but none of those materialized to interviews or offers. I did not work with any recruiters.

Market is bad, no doubt about that. I can’t speak to the experience of others but I’m convinced my response rate is good enough and it’s a numbers game.

This happened earlier this year.

Some stats for those who think it may influence my results:

40s Asian male. US Citizen. So no VISA needed and not white and don’t check any DEI boxes.

This is for Senior SWE IC role.

Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

#74

Post by [deleted] »

throwawayhn2024 wrote: post #73

I was let go from my last job. Also no CS degree. Had no LinkedIn either (deleted years ago). Had to create a resume from scratch. The only thing I had was about a decade of experience. I started by creating a resume and LinkedIn and aggressively optimized both as much as possible. Using a ATS checker I found online, I got a score of 96 for my resume after numerous changes (29 changes after a few weeks). I started ap…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

#75

Post by scottiescottie »

notfried wrote: post #58

I see this as a combination of three forces at play: AI, WFH, and Skillset--all adding downward pressure to hiring talent in the U.S.: 1) While A.I. may now be only adding 10-20% of productivity gains, the rapid pace of improvement leaves open the possibility that tha gains can be soon much more than that. So, instead of scaling your company now, if you can afford to, wait out a bit and see where this goes. 2) Even t…

h1bdata.info, check Elon's companies.

X Corp pays 150k for swe i in san francisco.

I'd be happy with the starting salary, but not there.

Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

#76

Post by Yoric »

underseacables wrote: post #25
theandrewbailey wrote: post #2

I'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…

I think companies do this deliberately to avoid hiring Americans. The entire H1-B scheme is a disaster.

I'm probably going to be unpopular, but as a non-American, I actually find that hiring non-American is a good trend, especially if you want to sell all around the world. I don't have an opinion on H1-B specifically.

Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

#77

Post by scottiescottie »

gosub100 wrote: post #56

> Have you been fired in favor of foreign workers? 1) I work at a large company everyone in the US has heard of. When I walk in the public areas of the company or at lunch, it looks like we are based in Mumbai. There is no "diversity", it's one country in particular, which is India. (Funnily enough, this demographic isn't reflected in management) 2) I overheard the 4th level (above me) manager complaining to another…

Do any of your real life friends accuse you of racism?

Do you find that Indian managers hire their own?

I'm assuming you're not Indian.

I applied to FedEx affiliated company for SWE, and everyone except upper management was Indian. I was shocked.

Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

#78

Post by jt2190 »

Remember that two things have changed the employment landscape:

- the end of zero interest rate policies mean that investments in projects can’t show a return “someday” but actually have to show some benefit on a reasonable timeline, say 2-3 years. Gone are the days when hiring armies of warm bloodies and having them work on “moon shots”.

- the expiration of the tax write off for programmer salaries when developing a new product.

The bottom line is that most of the market is now very price sensitive (hence trying to find the cheapest labor i.e. less experienced or overseas devs) and that devs in high-cost geographic areas now need to be extra productive to complete.

Re: Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

#80

Post by scottiescottie »

zusammen wrote: post #37

I’m 65 and I have tenure. If I didn’t, I would leave the country. If I couldn’t, I don’t know what I would do. You do not want to be on the open market in the 2020s, that’s for sure. it is nearly impossible for people with CS degrees (especially white males) to get an interview let alone a job. My friend, if you think it’s bad for white men, just wait till you hear what it’s like for black women. 2+ year job searches…

This hasn't been my experience for black tech workers. HR bent over backward to keep them when they found a higher paying job elsewhere.
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