11–20 of 108 posts
It's a sharp contrast to a lot of the stuff that is posted here that depicts job hunting like some kind of spiritual search for your life's passion.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because you, the recipient, must now continue the job hunt, so luck in finding a better employer would come in handy.
But why is this pleasantry about "luck" and not something else? You don't hear employers say "keep studying" or "we wish you a good effort" or "we hope you build cool stuff". Isn't the employer referring to luck an admission from the employer that interviewing has a lot to do with luck?
Why do rejection emails say "good luck" at the end?
I'm starting to feel the same about the take home tests. Too time consuming.
WTF is the point of giving these work sample tests if they're not sufficient proof that you can do the work? And how can anyone think actually programming things into a computer is superseded by asinine whiteboard sessions that have less in common with the day-to-day of programming?
IMO, after the take home test, the in-person should be a couple hours or half day for personality fit and maybe some loose questions to determine if you actually did the test yourself. Mainly, the in-person interview should determine if you can tolerate sitting next to each other all day.
So I've started giving negative Glassdoor reviews to companies that abuse these tests, either by handing out broken or excessive ones or by wasting a full day of my time with algorithm questions AFTER accepting the test. I suggest everyone do the same.
" When I go into ‘interviewing mode’ I stop working on side projects, I stop visiting bs sites like reddit, news sites, and even HN. If it isn’t going to help you get that job just cut it from your life. Focus intensely on learning and writing job applications until you get there. This process isn’t fun, why drag it out any longer than you need to. "
Side question - how do these people interviewing at "a dozen or so places" manage it? Assuming most companies' interviews will force you to take a full day off work, and they will have different schedules and offer deadlines. Is there a trick to managing this that is eluding me? Even with taking a couple of weeks off it seems like it would be very difficult.
" When I go into ‘interviewing mode’ I stop working on side projects, I stop visiting bs sites like reddit, news sites, and even HN. If it isn’t going to help you get that job just cut it from your life. Focus intensely on learning and writing job applications until you get there. This process isn’t fun, why drag it out any longer than you need to. "
That ... doesn't sound healthy, or productive. It is well established that there are diminishing returns to working longer hours on a task, even to the point of negative marginal utility. This is not true just for knowledge workers but, surprisingly, also held for factory workers during the industrial revolution. Not to mention the health impacts of spending so much time on a singular (soul crushing IMO) task.
This has got to be one of the most honest descriptions of how job hunting actually works ever written and posted on HN. It's a sharp contrast to a lot of the stuff that is posted here that depicts job hunting like some kind of spiritual search for your life's passion.
But it's different than when you're in / just out of uni (I still remember sending just under 150 applications...), or when you're just recently out of work with a family and a mortgage (and you need something now).