When the job search becomes impossible • Hacker News Board

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#351

Post by user1999919 » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 12:55 PM UTC

tarsinge wrote: post #336

jofer wrote: post #148

As someone who's recently been hiring (sorry folks, position was filled just a few days ago), it's wild to me how distorted things have become. We had 1200 applications for an extremely niche role. A huge amount were clearly faked resumes that far too closely matched the job description to be realistic. Another huge portion were just unqualified. The irony is that there actually _are_ a ton of exceptionally qualified…

On the hiring side too, and I really don’t understand the fake resume with AI trend. How can they possibly think they’ll pass the interview? Because when I’m hiring I find it very easy to spot someone lying when questioning to go into the details of past experiences. Maybe they are betting on a broken process? Maybe you can pass (dumb) HR filters with lies, but not real interviewers, at least from what I do and have…

> Because when I’m hiring I find it very easy to spot someone lying when questioning to go into the details of past experiences

ain't nobody gonna get past the interview sheriff

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#352

Post by sieep » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:11 PM UTC

AndrewDucker wrote: post #349

I don't understand why LinkedIn haven't stepped in to this market more strongly. They can verify if people are real. They have the information on what experience people have. If I was them then I'd be saying that your LinkedIn profile was your CV, and persuading companies to make LinkedIn be their route to applying for jobs. (Not a shareholder, don't really use LinkedIn myself, just feels like such an obvious step fo…

This is an interesting take. I think they are heading down this path, especially with the 'Easy Apply' button which is essentially what you're talking about.

If I have to guess, the current business model is likely profitable & any deviations too far from that could hurt their bottom line. Incrementing slowly overtime to LinkedIn replacing the CV seems to be the play, mainly to keep the current cashflow going.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#353

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:26 PM UTC

roadside_picnic wrote: post #121

titanomachy wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "most people in the real world" have at least a few rungs between their current situation and true homelessness. Many people have some sort of family or other community that they could lean on, even in America where family ties are weaker than any other place I know. I have a couple friends who haven't had steady work in years, and they still eke out a pretty reasonable existence living with friends and famil…

"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…

The median American has $8000 in transaction accounts and a net worth of $192k. 50-60% of Americans self-report that they’re living paycheck to paycheck, but not everyone understands that to mean “I literally can’t pay the bills if my paycheck doesn’t come on time”.

(Is it deeply uncomfortable to get laid off with $8000 in your account? Without a doubt, especially in an increasingly weak labor market, even if you have home equity or retirement savings you could theoretically dip into to cover what unemployment benefits can’t.)

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#354

Post by bob1029 » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:27 PM UTC

I started working on shipping a game to Steam after I realized how broken the market was. I realize this might sound even more stressful than a job search for something like a backend role, but I feel like I have a better chance than average based upon cattle-like, low-effort trends in the space and my willingness to endure certain kinds of suffering that most indie game developers aren't even aware of.

Worst case scenario, this provides something interesting to talk about in subsequent job interviews. You can often delete large portions of a resume when you have a fully published product live on a platform like Steam, even if it's very mediocre and selling like trash.

In any reality, this is way better than working in the domain of boring bullshit banking and suffering the miserable personalities that inhabit the space. I feel like I might cross the "never going back" threshold with that entire industry within the next few months. If I reframe this, it is really stressful but it's also quite liberating. If I hadn't walked away from that job last year, I would have had zero time to think about these alternative paths.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#355

Post by dentemple » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:28 PM UTC

tarsinge wrote: post #336

jofer wrote: post #148

As someone who's recently been hiring (sorry folks, position was filled just a few days ago), it's wild to me how distorted things have become. We had 1200 applications for an extremely niche role. A huge amount were clearly faked resumes that far too closely matched the job description to be realistic. Another huge portion were just unqualified. The irony is that there actually _are_ a ton of exceptionally qualified…

On the hiring side too, and I really don’t understand the fake resume with AI trend. How can they possibly think they’ll pass the interview? Because when I’m hiring I find it very easy to spot someone lying when questioning to go into the details of past experiences. Maybe they are betting on a broken process? Maybe you can pass (dumb) HR filters with lies, but not real interviewers, at least from what I do and have…

It's because they're using AI for the interviews, too.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#356

Post by eleveriven » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:33 PM UTC

Really appreciated the honesty around rest, not as laziness or avoidance, but as an actual, necessary part of healing from burnout. Feels like we don't talk enough about that

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#357

Post by eleveriven » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:36 PM UTC

jofer wrote: post #148

As someone who's recently been hiring (sorry folks, position was filled just a few days ago), it's wild to me how distorted things have become. We had 1200 applications for an extremely niche role. A huge amount were clearly faked resumes that far too closely matched the job description to be realistic. Another huge portion were just unqualified. The irony is that there actually _are_ a ton of exceptionally qualified…

The fact that even well-meaning hiring managers can't see great candidates because of filtering overload says a lot about how dysfunctional the current system is

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#358

Post by eleveriven » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:38 PM UTC

bob1029 wrote: post #354

I started working on shipping a game to Steam after I realized how broken the market was. I realize this might sound even more stressful than a job search for something like a backend role, but I feel like I have a better chance than average based upon cattle-like, low-effort trends in the space and my willingness to endure certain kinds of suffering that most indie game developers aren't even aware of. Worst case sc…

Even if the game doesn’t take off, just having a shipped product under your belt is a signal. It shows follow-through, creativity, and self-direction

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#359

Post by eleveriven » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:42 PM UTC

ilaksh wrote: post #111

The thing that bothers me so much about this post is that it reeks of privilege by treating unemployment as if it were mainly just a bad trigger that you talk to your expensive therapist about once a week. For most people in the real world, psychological burn out is NOT the problem with unemployment. The problem is becoming homeless.

Burnout is real, and it’s worth talking about, but it’s a luxury to be able to even think about rest when your bank account is at zero and you're juggling survival

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#360

Post by Der_Einzige » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:56 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.

Unions drive wages down in the electronic vehicle sector by forcing pensions and dissuading RSUs. Most Tesla workers make far more than their unionized GM counterparts

Also unions are mostly there to allow the lazy low performers to coast. We already have a serious problem of this but making it hard to fire them will make everyone’s life worse.