When the job search becomes impossible • Hacker News Board

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#131

Post by neilv » Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 10:22 PM UTC

A colleague, who is very accomplished in tech industry (but not rich, for good reasons), said he would be in town, and asked to meet.

He strangely didn't say why (not even "to catch up"), so I thought it was probably that he had a new startup or executive role, and he was going to pitch recruiting me again.

But immediately after sitting down in the cafe, he said he was looking for work, and asked for my advice.

I hope I didn't laugh. Since I was in a similar boat, after a startup got disrupted. I wasn't seeing hardly any good job opportunities, so I wasn't feeling like someone who should be asked for advice on job-hunting, except as a cautionary tale.

Quickly moving forward from there, we had a good talk, exchanging thoughts and ideas, but neither of us had direct opportunities to give.

What's really dumb is that the world has capable people who spend huge amounts of time and downtime, simply getting permission to apply their hard-earned valuable skillsets.

It's grossly inefficient and unpleasant. We know some of the reasons, but it's still dumb.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#132

Post by asa400 » Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 10:24 PM UTC

josephwegner wrote: post #46

calepayson wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And juniors. I’m in a masters program right now and everyone’s got a network, it just happens to be filled with poor starving grad students instead of FAANG super stars :)

Give it time. Networks are a garden that grow over time, and moreso if you cater to them. Some of those starving grad students will be VPs in 10 years.

Speaking of networks, hey Joe! Clark from Belly. Hope you're doing well!

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#133

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 10:27 PM UTC

kypro wrote: post #107

the__alchemist wrote: post #53

This feels like the dating market right now too.

Dating is unbelievably easy in some ways though. I'd argue the problem with dating today is that people don't do the hard things and instead look for love on apps and other bad places. Dating is just a numbers game. Roughly speaking it's about maximising interactions with potential partners and taking a shot in as many of these interactions which go positively as possible. You can game dating in your favour with a bi…

[deleted]

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#134

Post by lawlessone » Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 10:27 PM UTC

titanomachy wrote: post #125

roadside_picnic wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Homeless" is not the same as "living on the street". People living in hotels, temporary trailers (in some places even tiny homes count), living with a friend temporarily, etc are all homeless . Plenty of Americans are much closer than this than you might think working in tech. 50-60% of Americans currently live 'paycheck-to-paycheck' which means the second work stops they're on a timer for missing bills to start com…

> People living in hotels, temporary trailers (in some places even tiny homes count), living with a friend temporarily, etc are all homeless. You're right. But is a 30-year-old who moves back in with their parents "homeless"? And yeah, the paycheck-to-paycheck stat blows my mind. Somehow the standard American experience has become the latest model iPhone (financed), a new car (financed), a rented home, 4-5 meals out…

A phone for internet access is basically mandatory now if you want to work, and depending on where you live so is a car.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#135

Post by moduspol » Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 10:30 PM UTC

yepitwas wrote: post #60

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.

Unionizing may help some things, but it won't make it easier for the unemployed to get employed.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#136

Post by Havoc » Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 10:30 PM UTC

I'm genuinely thinking it may be time to batten down the hatches and stay put for a year or three. As genZ would say the vibes feel off

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#137

Post by renewiltord » Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 10:31 PM UTC

titanomachy wrote: post #125

roadside_picnic wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Homeless" is not the same as "living on the street". People living in hotels, temporary trailers (in some places even tiny homes count), living with a friend temporarily, etc are all homeless . Plenty of Americans are much closer than this than you might think working in tech. 50-60% of Americans currently live 'paycheck-to-paycheck' which means the second work stops they're on a timer for missing bills to start com…

> People living in hotels, temporary trailers (in some places even tiny homes count), living with a friend temporarily, etc are all homeless. You're right. But is a 30-year-old who moves back in with their parents "homeless"? And yeah, the paycheck-to-paycheck stat blows my mind. Somehow the standard American experience has become the latest model iPhone (financed), a new car (financed), a rented home, 4-5 meals out…

[flagged]

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#138

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 10:32 PM UTC

titanomachy wrote: post #125

roadside_picnic wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Homeless" is not the same as "living on the street". People living in hotels, temporary trailers (in some places even tiny homes count), living with a friend temporarily, etc are all homeless . Plenty of Americans are much closer than this than you might think working in tech. 50-60% of Americans currently live 'paycheck-to-paycheck' which means the second work stops they're on a timer for missing bills to start com…

> People living in hotels, temporary trailers (in some places even tiny homes count), living with a friend temporarily, etc are all homeless. You're right. But is a 30-year-old who moves back in with their parents "homeless"? And yeah, the paycheck-to-paycheck stat blows my mind. Somehow the standard American experience has become the latest model iPhone (financed), a new car (financed), a rented home, 4-5 meals out…

[deleted]

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#139

Post by xyzzy123 » Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 10:36 PM UTC

creata wrote: post #10

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.

Life used to be even worse than this, though. I know it's going to be deeply unpopular -- it always is -- but I never understood how reasonable people don't find bringing children into this world to be an act of abject cruelty.

Because otherwise all the reasonable people get replaced with unreasonable people.

Some say this has already happened...

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#140

Post by dakiol » Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 10:39 PM UTC

afpx wrote: post #9

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.

It's tough to watch the change when not too long ago a software developer with decent skills could literally submit 5 resumes and end up with 3 good offers.

I'm not sure, but that's still happening. At least it happened to me this year. I consider myself a decent developer (in every job I have landed, I was always considered the "best" in the team after not much time in the job). I'm not faang-silicon-valley level, though. I haven't written a compiler or an OS, or contributed to the linux kernel. I have read all the popular tech books out there, I do more or less know what companies (and interviewers) want to hear, and I'm easy to work with.

I'm in western europe. I think the situation in the US is way different, though. Also, for juniors (or people with less than 8-10 years of experience) is much harder, that's true.