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When the job search becomes impossible

jeffwofford.com

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Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#51

Post by 3D30497420 »

TrackerFF wrote: post #12

I've been thinking about job searching lately, maybe a bit too much. I'm employed, so it is not any immediate concern for me, but one has to think ahead. Between age discrimination that starts after 50, and how difficult the job search seemingly is...some people will have to work at least until they're 70. That's a solid 15-20 years more, after the job hunting is an uphill battle. If the work search is hard while you…

This is one of my main concerns. A lot of countries are talking about raising their retirement age, and I just think to myself, which tech company is going to hire a 68-year-old? Sure, I could transition into management, but my company just laid off a number of middle-managers and the ones left are expected to do more than just manage (code, design, etc.). So I'm not sure that's all that safe either.

I like learning new things, and I hope to continue that into my 60s (and beyond), but I have to imagine picking up new skills will get harder as I age.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#52

Post by prewett »

pizzathyme wrote: post #35
insane_dreamer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A form is not going to a hire you, a person is. This is becoming less and less true. > You need to ignore the form and talk to a person. Unless you're lucky, this is no longer going to happen. Getting a job is now becoming much more about luck, circumstances, and who you already know, much like getting your first starring role in a movie -- not about your abilities.

No form is going to extend a job offer autonomously. At some point in the chain, there will be a boss, a person, who talks to you and thinks, "I want to work with this person", and decides to make the offer. So the goal is to figure out how to get in touch with that hiring manager as the first step. Even if the form or HR "rejects" you, this person can step in say, "that's silly, I want to work with them. Send them t…

> No form is going to extend a job offer autonomously.

Just wait... some time-pressed startup is going to find a killer LLM prompt that filters in exactly the people they want, and then post something on the benefits of "vibe hiring". Complete with large, well-spaced text, colored with one accent color, and several graphs of hiring spending vs. income or something.

You heard it here first!

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#54

Post by 3D30497420 »

throwawayoldie wrote: post #33
marginalia_nu wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of people simply don't know what to do with themselves when they don't have a job. There are many psychological needs that jobs often provide for you that you have to sort out yourself when you don't have traditional employement. This is a problem you face through unemployement, but also self-employment and early retirement. At least in part, it's not so much not having a job as not having daily structu…

> I think a lot of people simply don't know what to do with themselves when they don't have a job. I would be perfectly happy without a job. It's the income I'm concerned about.

Agreed. I have can think of about a dozen things I'd love to do if I didn't have a full-time job. Unfortunately, most cost at least some amount of money (not to mention food, a roof over my head, etc.).

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#55

Post by the_real_cher »

throwaw12 wrote: post #37
the_real_cher wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's very, very, very hard to maintain sharp coding skills decade after decade. This is straight up agism and should be banned. It's like saying black people can't code as well as white people. Carmack and Torvalds would disagree with you.

Wrong comparison, black vs white is racism, ageism is real

[flagged]

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#56

Post by the_real_cher »

the__alchemist wrote: post #31
the_real_cher wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's very, very, very hard to maintain sharp coding skills decade after decade. This is straight up agism and should be banned. It's like saying black people can't code as well as white people. Carmack and Torvalds would disagree with you.

Would you say, broadly, concepts you disagree with or find uncomfortable should be banned? Do you think that's sufficient, or should they be criminalized as well?

False information targeting a group should be banned in my opinion.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#58

Post by detaro »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #48
pizzathyme wrote: post #13

> "You’ve spent several months sending out scores of carefully tailored resumes and cover letters for jobs you know you are fully qualified for and would excel at." People should not do this. It is causing so much suffering. In my 6 jobs in my career from college internship to startups to Big Tech, I have never gotten a job from sending an application into a site. It's always been through (somehow) tracking down a pe…

I've gotten several jobs this way, including the best jobs of my career. It's insufferable the way so many commenters here assume their experience is representative of or applicable to others. It's like if main character syndrome was a web site comments section.

And of course it's the people that have a different experience than you that are insufferable, not the ones that share yours, right?

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#59

Post by jlarocco »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #23
SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #6

This essay just makes me feel so hopeless about our society. I don’t feel it’s right that employment has such weight in people’s lives that the search causes psychological damage.

I think a lot of people simply don't know what to do with themselves when they don't have a job. There are many psychological needs that jobs often provide for you that you have to sort out yourself when you don't have traditional employement. This is a problem you face through unemployement, but also self-employment and early retirement. At least in part, it's not so much not having a job as not having daily structu…

That's a little out of touch.

Most people don't have the financial resources to be out of work for a month or two, much less indefinitely. For most people it has nothing to do with the factors you listed.

I've been laid off twice in the past and each time I was fortunate to have enough savings to take several months off of work to relax and unwind. I'd quite happily do it forever if I could afford it. I loved being able to set my own routine, tell myself what to do, and find my own social context and sense of belonging while doing activities that I enjoyed, usually having nothing to do with work, like biking, skiing, creating open source projects, etc.

But watching your bank accounts slowly tick downwards is incredibly stressful, even when you have a long runway, and each time I ended up job hunting sooner than I had planned.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#60

Post by yepitwas »

TrackerFF wrote: post #12

I've been thinking about job searching lately, maybe a bit too much. I'm employed, so it is not any immediate concern for me, but one has to think ahead. Between age discrimination that starts after 50, and how difficult the job search seemingly is...some people will have to work at least until they're 70. That's a solid 15-20 years more, after the job hunting is an uphill battle. If the work search is hard while you…

It's been such an obvious self-own for tech workers not to capitalize on any of the multiple booms they've seen, and unionize.
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