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Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

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Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#501

Post by trod1234 »

codegeek wrote: post #150
com2kid wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having LinkedIn is ruining your chances. Candidates without a LinkedIn are going to come across as a scam in the very least, 90% of the time your application will just get tossed if you can't be found on LI.

Pretty much this. I know lot of people hate Linkedin but the fact is that if you are a job candidate and have little to no Linkedin, it's a huge potential red flag in today's world. Lot of scammers, overemployeds/moonlighters out there.

That's some real stupid thinking.

At its most basic, this is a cult of qualification which no longer provides real value, it fails for a number of reasons I won't get into here.

When you disqualify arbitrarily, and can't find anyone because of that, its your fault for disqualifying everyone, not the market's fault for not having the ballerina that doesn't exist.

Want a programmer in a language thats only 10 years old with 15 years of direct experience? You aren't going to find it even when the creator of that language applies.

You pay to have the work done. That is the only legitimate requirement for hiring someone and remaining employed, and you can't go and change the requirements later when they show they can do more. Doesn't matter if they moonlight, are overemployed etc. That view to disqualify such people are in fact monopolistic practices designed to disenfranchise wages that are already low and distorted because of money-printing, they are not red-flags.

Its like the flawed type of thinking that "We need someone to do this work, but this guy is so overqualified he'll leave first chance; so we won't hire anyone".

You hire to have a job done. You don't get to be an arbitrary slave master. The moment you lose sight of this is the moment you ignore your immediate needs, and drive your company on a path towards failure, and if its a consolidated large company, that failure and bad decisionmaking will impact a lot more people because of the centralization/concentration.

Financial engineering can decouple the need for immediate action, but the tradeoff is that the risk of not doing things you should have done becomes far greater to your long-term sustainability, and its completely invisible. There is no place for deception and coercion in the hiring process. If the job doesn't exist, don't jam communication channels. Jamming channels is tortuous interference.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#502

Post by monkeyelite »

pluc wrote: post #466
MichaelRo wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> By EOY I had to sell my house, figured I could use the (significant) profits to buy time or I could travel and make the time a little more enjoyable, so I set out to explore most of Europe thinking, well I'll for sure find a job before I run out of money! Very reckless finance management, so I wonder if this correlates with not finding a "managerial" job. First, "set out to explore Europe" immediately says "expens…

There is actually meticulous financial planning required to stay afloat for 2+ years, and i do think it correlates with my professional abilities! Sure, it was reckless to leave but the alternative was to stay and fall into a depression from the routine, constant rejection and financial diet, so i picked what i had to.

> but the alternative was to stay and fall into a depression from the routine,

You just had to take the European tour for your health.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#503

Post by guiambros »

ethbr1 wrote: post #372
guiambros wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> who would you rather hire: someone who wow'd in an interview or someone with LinkedIn flair? Who would you rather interview : someone who has a great resume, and a strong LinkedIn profile, and connections to a strong peer community who can endorse them, or a faceless rando that shows up in your inbox with a PDF, amongst thousands of others, with zero referrals? I'm not endorsing LI grind -- I too hate it, but ignor…

LinkedIn referrals mean jack shit. As I said: > anything past where you've worked on LinkedIn is a waste of time Because everything on LinkedIn literally exists to be farmed. And why wouldn't it? LinkedIn's customers are recruiters. Users are the currency. OP would be better served by actually networking with their peers. Not in app-mediated (and -monetized) ways, but in normal social human ways. Sometimes it's like…

> LinkedIn's customers are recruiters.

Exactly this. And recruiters are the ones finding candidates and scheduling interviews.

You may not like it. I certainly don't. But that's the world we live in.

> "Hey, want to grab a coffee and catch up?"

This and the comment above are not at odds. If you're looking for a job like OP, at minimum you should do both.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#504

Post by hippo22 »

sam_lowry_ wrote: post #472
hippo22 wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s possible there are unknown circumstances, but this person sold their house and used to proceeds to travel while unemployed. They don’t seem like a great long term decision maker.

Also unknown unknowns there. Are his parents owners? Is he going to inherit their house? Or other assets? Can he stay at his brother's place once he uses up all the money from the proceeds of house sale? It's really hard to judge without asking lots of questions first.

In all of the cases you mentioned, selling a home to pay for travel when unemployed despite needing work are all poor long term decisions.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#505

Post by codegeek »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #155
com2kid wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having LinkedIn is ruining your chances. Candidates without a LinkedIn are going to come across as a scam in the very least, 90% of the time your application will just get tossed if you can't be found on LI.

I don’t have a LinkedIn and it has impaired my job hunts in the past but I always worry that creating one now (without the references of colleagues from decades of past work) would look worse than not having one?

It is better to have 1 than not. I highly recommend you set it up now. Put a real picture. Too much noise these days and without a Linkedin Profile, lot of employers are not even going to look at you. Just stating facts.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#506

Post by mixmastamyk »

no_nobud wrote: post #281

Yep. I'm an Electrical Engineer, 10+ years of experience in systems (automation, robotics, etc.). I left my job back in 2023, which I regret now, but I didn't leave because it wasn't paying well (it was low wage), or anything, but because of the management and daily harassment. However, I should have let them terminate me instead to collect unemployment. The first few months I spent trying to make my own work, since…

I recommend electrician, rather than plumber, as it is adjacent to your existing skills.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#507

Post by codegeek »

trod1234 wrote: post #501
codegeek wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much this. I know lot of people hate Linkedin but the fact is that if you are a job candidate and have little to no Linkedin, it's a huge potential red flag in today's world. Lot of scammers, overemployeds/moonlighters out there.

That's some real stupid thinking. At its most basic, this is a cult of qualification which no longer provides real value, it fails for a number of reasons I won't get into here. When you disqualify arbitrarily, and can't find anyone because of that, its your fault for disqualifying everyone, not the market's fault for not having the ballerina that doesn't exist. Want a programmer in a language thats only 10 years old…

The point is that when you have 100 Resumes to sort through for 1 role, you will have to use process of elimination. In 2025, with AI/scams/bots/moonlighters, Linkedin Profile is a good way to sort through. I am not saying having Linkedin is the only thing that matters but when there is so much noise, you need to stand out especially as a real human.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#508

Post by mixmastamyk »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #70
elanora96 wrote: post #36

Yes, laid off in 2023 and haven't found a tech job since. Due to significant life and family health circumstances, anything that isn't a career job is hard to justify while caring for myself and others. I've spent the last two years volunteering a local bike co-op and getting way to into bike building and cycling generally. Additionally, I spend a lot of time doing what I can to help my local trans community (that I…

Why do you think anyone would want to hire you when things get better vs people that are „more in the game“, like experienced people without a career gap? Not asking to be mean, asking because I am afraid of that happening to me and looking for perspective.

Gaps are not worth worrying about unless you have < 5 years exp. At least no one has ever mentioned it. My career is long so experience is just a summary anyway. Use years only and learn how to freelance (or look like it) during lean times.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#509

Post by tasuki »

pluc wrote: post #466
MichaelRo wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> By EOY I had to sell my house, figured I could use the (significant) profits to buy time or I could travel and make the time a little more enjoyable, so I set out to explore most of Europe thinking, well I'll for sure find a job before I run out of money! Very reckless finance management, so I wonder if this correlates with not finding a "managerial" job. First, "set out to explore Europe" immediately says "expens…

There is actually meticulous financial planning required to stay afloat for 2+ years, and i do think it correlates with my professional abilities! Sure, it was reckless to leave but the alternative was to stay and fall into a depression from the routine, constant rejection and financial diet, so i picked what i had to.

I'm not entirely convinced wrt your meticulous financial planning.

I think I was earning less than you yet managed to save the vast majority over my 15 year career earnings. Then my partner died and I was left raising a toddler by myself. It wasn't easy, but at least I don't have financial problems, thanks to a little financial planning.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone else been unemployed for over two years?

#510

Post by balamatom »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #403
balamatom wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to push you into the rabbit hole but... have you looked into bolting some sort of scripting language onto your Rust program for quick prototyping?

I haven't looked into it seriously, no. Scripting support in Bevy (the ECS framework I was exploring) is pretty limited. There's an add-on that can provide unofficial support for LUA ( https://github.com/makspll/bevy_mod_scripting ) but I doubt that would be compatible with a WASM build target.

>I doubt that would be compatible with a WASM build target.

In principle, I don't see why not. In practice, yeah I can see it. In both cases, can't know without checking, and I haven't. Bevy is pretty cool though!

My drive-by suggestions would be more along the lines of https://github.com/mattwparas/steel, or the very ad-hoc embedded language of https://github.com/elkowar/eww, or perhaps most pertinently https://kdl.dev/

Maybe one of those would be minimal enough for the rest of the engine to not manage to get your way, as frameworks are known to do. As always, happy hacking!

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