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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?

#81

Post by spondylosaurus »

like_any_other wrote: post #64
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…

> if you think it’s bad for white men, just wait till you hear what it’s like for black women "Corporate America Promised to Hire a Lot More People of Color. It Actually Did. The year after Black Lives Matter protests, the S&P 100 added more than 300,000 jobs — 94% went to people of color." - https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-black-lives-matter-e... A BestBuy & McKinsey leadership program open only to non-white…

Yes, companies went out of their way to hire people of color... to rectify historical discrepancies.

Also worth noting the original headline for your linked piece about Best Buy is "Best Buy, McKinsey partner to develop diverse leaders" (ah, the progressive radicals bringing down our country... McKinsey!) and your linked piece about the London transport team comes from some sensationalist outlet I've never heard of, whose founder appears to be writing articles about how "Jill Biden's White House Christmas decorations are predictably ghastly." Not sure I trust that as an unbiased source.

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

#83

Post by jamal-kumar »

Not really a problem for me but that's because I had the foresight to realize this is the way things are going and that it's time to get into my own thing and start my own companies if I am going to survive. The thing that was the writing on the wall for me ages ago was seeing older programmers with plenty of talent finding it hard to get work in their field, like the ageism thing, if you're past 35 or so and still just doing the labour thing and not in a management position people tend to give you the side eye in this industry...

So yeah if nobody is going to promote you to that you gotta promote yourself and start a company, that has been clear to me for at least 5 years since I did that. It's kind of weird seeing people complain as if this is a race subject though. I think the discrimination may be there for that but it's beyond it too and has been for a LONG time now.

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

#84

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

"I am seeing many anecdotal experiences shared online on various platforms stating that it is difficult to find employment in tech."

What is "tech"

100% serious question

Is it short for "technology"

For example,

"Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way."

Skolnikoff, Eugene B. (1993). "The Setting". The Elusive Transformation: Science, Technology, and the Evolution of International Politics. Princeton University Press. p. 13. ISBN 0-691-08631-1. JSTOR j.ctt7rpm1. Citing Harvey Brooks' definition of technology as "knowledge of how to fulfill certain human purposes in a specifiable and reproducible way."

The term "technology", historically, is not synonymous with computers despite whatever popular usage has arisen in the past ~20 years.

Technology predates the existence and use of computers and computer networks and the use of these resources for commercial surveillance

Knowledge of computers and computer newtorks is a type of conceptual knowledge

Electronic surveillance, data collection from internet usage and delivery of advertising via internet is a practical goal

The application of conceptual knowledge of computers and computer networks to the practical goal of surveillance, data collection and advertising is reproducible

However it should be self-evident that "technology" is much broader than this type of application

Most technology has nothing to do with internet surveillance or advertising

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

#86

Post by m_ke »

It's not just you.

I have an Ivy league degree, worked in deep learning since alexnet at a leading startup in the space, was a CTO of a startup that got acquired and have referrals from very senior people at the top FANG companies and still struggled to get interviews.

I also have research scientist friends with Neurips papers, ones that solved long standing open math problems and even they are struggling to get hired.

What me and my friends heard from a lot of people at the large companies was that many of them are no longer hiring in the US, but in India, Poland and Brazil instead, and that the roles they have listed in the US are for internal transfers. I've had a referral for Google for months and did not get an interview for NYC based roles, but when I went to an ML conference in Warsaw a few months ago I learned that Google is looking to hire 2000 people there, but with people in that office making ~1/4th of my friends in the US.

On top of that you have a huge pool of bootcamp grads and foreign applicants so any role posted gets 1000s of applications in the first few hours, making it impossible for recruiters to look over all of them.

And if that wasn't enough we're going through a huge hiring downturn post the COVID bump, see: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXUSTPSOFTDEVE

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

#87

Post by ckirch »

35, male, American citizen. applied to 800 jobs, few technical interviews, no offers. i believe with the advent of AI, the landscape has changed faster than the job market has corrected for it. It will never go back to the glory days of tech people getting hired, its over.

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

#88

Post by betaby »

Low pay offers.

In Montreal there are plenty of offers paying ~90k CAD/year ( 62k USD/year ) for 15+ years of experience.

There are lot of job listings in Montreal, and those positions are real. Problem is that the pay makes those positions undesirable.

The second problem is that no one hires junior developers. My friend's kid finishing CS studies in May 2025 and prospect for jobs are not good.

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

#89

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #84

"I am seeing many anecdotal experiences shared online on various platforms stating that it is difficult to find employment in tech." What is "tech" 100% serious question Is it short for "technology" For example, "Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way." Skolnikoff, Eugene B. (1993). "The Setting". The Elusive Transformation: Science, Technolo…

> Most technology has nothing to do with internet surveillance or advertising

Yes, but what people want is to make money applying technology, and most of that does in fact have something to do with surveillance and advertising.

This is because control-over-other-people stands out as something which there will always be demand for. Everything else gets easier to supply as technology improves.

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

#90

Post by misiti3780 »

m_ke wrote: post #86

It's not just you. I have an Ivy league degree, worked in deep learning since alexnet at a leading startup in the space, was a CTO of a startup that got acquired and have referrals from very senior people at the top FANG companies and still struggled to get interviews. I also have research scientist friends with Neurips papers, ones that solved long standing open math problems and even they are struggling to get hire…

My company is hiring in ML, the position is remote, can you send me your resume?
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