Relevant experience is more valuable than a schools name. If your school didn't offer you the opportunity to acquire significant experience in your field, you were cheated. They should at least be able to guide their students into apprenticeship programs upon graduation.
Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends
101–110 of 247 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
How dare you guarantee that I'd consider you a failure? You don't know me, don't put that on me. In fact I am pretty sure I wouldn't consider you a failure. You're saying a lot of negative things about yourself and I don't know you or your situation but I hope you don't give up.
I recognize your username and I've followed your career since ~2017 or something. I never got an interview at Stripe, not that I would have ever passed it. I'm not a L6/L7/L8. I worked at Amazon, and people think my class of people are subhuman.
I see that your username is “laidoffamazon.” It seems that you are allowing the low points in your life to define who you are and what you think you can accomplish. Have you considered therapy?
Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends
#103Truly sorry you feel this way. For what it’s worth, this was common for people graduating into the 2008 financial crisis, too. It’s actually unusual that we went for so long without another period of contraction. From last time around: The people who kept pushing and took any job, anywhere turned out okay. This translated to a lot of people taking jobs below what they expected to get or having to move when they didn’…
I kept hearing about 2008 crisis. It is overrated. Just a market up and down ?
Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
MIT students expect (not unfairly) to work at Jane Street/HRT/Jump/Citadel Securities/OpenAI/Anthropic and then "settle" for Google or Facebook. They're not going to work for Fidelity or Raytheon.
That's a bit of a charcacture of Course 6 at MIT. Course 10 is chemical engineering and plenty of them go into industry at all the major oil companies. Lots of MIT students go into aerospace and defense (Lincoln Labs is directly federally funded) and MIT holds a yearly Soldier Design Competition that also helps students go for SBIRs. Raytheon is a big hirer of course 2 (MechE) MIT grads.
As someone who's worked at Lincoln Labs, I do wonder if the poster here has considered this. Although, it is worth noting that LL requires citizenship for many/most of its divisions.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends
#105Yeah I'm sorry for your troubles. I have 8 or so years in the industry and some decent names on my resume, and nothing is really sticking for me either. It was bad in 2023, horrible in 2024, and maybe outright catastropic in 2025. You may indeed be way way smarter than I am, but if are this stiff with their senior market, the entry level market must be absolutely dead.
I wish I had better advice. I really only have some decent part time work from a blind linkedIn message. Luck really is opportunity + preparation. And these days, you REALLY gotta get lucky. Keep every channel up to advertise yourself, talk around to everyone in your community, and keep bolstering your portfolio. Grab any sort of job possible if you don't decide to move back. If you're willing t relocae for any role, all the better. Just be keenly aware of CoL, because it may slip under your fingers in these times.
I was sent out to an okay enough market that was still looking for people. You were sent out into a wasteland. Just remember that absolutely none of this was your fault. But unfortunately your goal right now is to survive and ride the storm out.
Best of luck.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends
#106Truly sorry you feel this way. For what it’s worth, this was common for people graduating into the 2008 financial crisis, too. It’s actually unusual that we went for so long without another period of contraction. From last time around: The people who kept pushing and took any job, anywhere turned out okay. This translated to a lot of people taking jobs below what they expected to get or having to move when they didn’…
+1 to this. If I go look at social media the job market is ending. But if I look at the signals around me there's plenty of opportunities. Also consider taking something below (or even much below) expectations. It's much easier to work your way up with connections than it is to get in the door with no references.
> But if I look at the signals around me there's plenty of opportunities.
The signals around me in LA are pretty damn bad. several friends laid off, many others worried about layoffs, and a very weak pulse on the market in terms of roles. I still have part time work but who knows for how much longer at this rate?
At this point I'm fine taking up anything that pays and doesn't potentially sent my 8 YO car into retirement even faster.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends
#107Truly sorry you feel this way. For what it’s worth, this was common for people graduating into the 2008 financial crisis, too. It’s actually unusual that we went for so long without another period of contraction. From last time around: The people who kept pushing and took any job, anywhere turned out okay. This translated to a lot of people taking jobs below what they expected to get or having to move when they didn’…
> From last time around: The people who kept pushing and took any job, anywhere turned out okay. This translated to a lot of people taking jobs below what they expected to get or having to move when they didn’t want to, but it was ultimately temporary. I'm going to challenge this as you didn't give specific data to back it up. I read an article recently that did have data, and it made the argument that first jobs, an…
well anecdotes are anecdotes. But tech tends to be much less sticky in this regard. And west coast much less sticky than east coast. My first job was 28/hr and the next roll almost tripled to 120k base 3 years later. It does partially mean hustling in some regards (be it on portfolio or leetcode), but when tech needs workers, they care a lot less about your piece of paper.
But then again, we are definietly not in times of normalcy. If nothing changes quick we may all be losing our spending power.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends
#108Truly sorry you feel this way. For what it’s worth, this was common for people graduating into the 2008 financial crisis, too. It’s actually unusual that we went for so long without another period of contraction. From last time around: The people who kept pushing and took any job, anywhere turned out okay. This translated to a lot of people taking jobs below what they expected to get or having to move when they didn’…
I kept hearing about 2008 crisis. It is overrated. Just a market up and down ?
Are we calling current times overrated too? If so I'd love to know how you are fairing with work and overall finances.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recognize your username and I've followed your career since ~2017 or something. I never got an interview at Stripe, not that I would have ever passed it. I'm not a L6/L7/L8. I worked at Amazon, and people think my class of people are subhuman.
Levels.fyi has L5 at Amazon making $150k base, $220k TC. You might not be Jeff Dean or Andrej Karpathy but there's only two of them. None of us are. That's not remotely subhuman failure. https://www.levels.fyi/companies/amazon/salaries/systems-dev...
I make more than $220k now but OP 100% makes closer to $800K+ He definitely doesn't think people like me are human.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recognize your username and I've followed your career since ~2017 or something. I never got an interview at Stripe, not that I would have ever passed it. I'm not a L6/L7/L8. I worked at Amazon, and people think my class of people are subhuman.
I see that your username is “laidoffamazon.” It seems that you are allowing the low points in your life to define who you are and what you think you can accomplish. Have you considered therapy?
Therapy, in this economy? I'm trying to cut pretty much all subsciptions just to pay rent.