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Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience

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Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience

#11

Post by darth_avocado »

It is definitely true for the most part. I took a software engineering job in A software firm that’s considered on of the OG Silicon Valley company after I graduated. Unfortunately, I very quickly realized that whenever I applied to FAANG or other “SV cool kids” companies, I would not get an opportunity, meanwhile, new grads from my same Uni kept getting those jobs. You don’t get interviews because you work at a non glamorous company, but you work at a non glamorous company because you don’t get interviews. It’s a tough cycle that takes some serious work to get out of.

A thing that may be at play here is that you add “years of experience” on your resume, and therefore as a lateral hire, are expected to get paid more and therefore the risk aversion.

Another thing at play could be the recency of experience. Your most recent item on the resume is what catches the most attention, so if it is something like SWE at Walgreens vs Senior at MIT, the latter sounds more promising (even if it’s not true).

TLDR; there are consequences of not starting at the right company, because they compound over time.

Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience

#12

Post by heavenlyblue »

madrox wrote: post #4

As a hiring manager, I've found entry level roles to be the hardest to fill well. No metric is a guarantee of a quality candidate. I loathe whiteboard programming, but for entry level jobs it's at least a signal that they're putting in the work to figure out how to be successful within a structure. Beyond that, I want a narrative for the candidate's career...both where they've been and where they want to go. It helps…

> "I work for the highest bidder"

Uhm, I find people like these are actually the easiest to keep. They know their price and define it. You know what to expect.

Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience

#13

Post by AyyWS »

shmde wrote: post #8

I can tell you this is 110% true in my case. I graduated and landed a very shitty testing job at a big consulting firm. I worked hard like a mule( more like a donkey ) for 11 months. Then one day I woke up in the middle of the night and screamed into the pillow that I rather kill myself then do my job. I resigned the next month. Fucked around for a few months, got interested in making backend apps and started applyin…

That same experience will be a boon later. You can show your progression from QA > Dev > Whatever you want. It's no longer an anchor weighing you down, it's a Rocky Balboa underdog story.

Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience

#15

Post by svnt »

In my experience, very high-performing teams are not rare outside of prestige employers, but the distribution is longer-tailed.

Employees at prestige employers don’t want to consider that they might not be the best, or might not have to put up with all the corporate bureaucracy, so they erect barriers.

For recruiters, recommending prestige resumes is just the equivalent of “nobody ever got fired for buying IBM”.

Nobody on tech teams is putting in 20 hour weeks and watercoolering to get by in those small teams at small companies. Everything they do counts.

Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience

#16

Post by heavenlyblue »

I_complete_me wrote: post #7

A personal anecdote that gives some credence to this theory: Some years ago, after the Economic Crash of 2009, I attended a course in Progammable Logic Controllers which was designed to be a module for electrician's Continuing Professional Development. I, a Civil Engineer, had no background in this topic and said as much to the tutor. "Don't worry, he said, "the people with no experience nearly always do better than…

People with experience can’t be asked doing the course because they know better anyway :) of course you do better because you probably take it seriously

Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience

#18

Post by strgcmc »

heavenlyblue wrote: post #12
madrox wrote: post #4

As a hiring manager, I've found entry level roles to be the hardest to fill well. No metric is a guarantee of a quality candidate. I loathe whiteboard programming, but for entry level jobs it's at least a signal that they're putting in the work to figure out how to be successful within a structure. Beyond that, I want a narrative for the candidate's career...both where they've been and where they want to go. It helps…

> "I work for the highest bidder" Uhm, I find people like these are actually the easiest to keep. They know their price and define it. You know what to expect.

There is a difference between (A) a skilled expert who takes pride in their craft, and understandably goes with whichever employer appreciates their skills and compensates accordingly, vs (B) a middle-of-the-pack journeyman who just DGAF about their work and treats all jobs as equally disposable and replaceable (these are also the types of people who are likely to try out /r/overemployed, cuz why not).

We may all pretend to be more like type (A) employees, but in reality not everyone can be above average and there's a lot of (B) out there. As an employer, it makes total sense to invest in and pay more for (A)'s, but you're throwing money away to try and woo (B)'s or pretending like enough money will buy you better engagement or more motivation from them.

Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience

#19

Post by zwieback »

ML is maybe a good example of a hot field that's sucking up the best as well as upper middle performing developers only to later spit them out when the meltdown comes. That in itself may not be a problem if you get your foot in the door of a company you're happy at. On the other hand, if you're just hanging on it might be sobering to have to switch from Google to a smaller company in a more affordable region.

Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience

#20

Post by madrox »

strgcmc wrote: post #18
heavenlyblue wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I work for the highest bidder" Uhm, I find people like these are actually the easiest to keep. They know their price and define it. You know what to expect.

There is a difference between (A) a skilled expert who takes pride in their craft, and understandably goes with whichever employer appreciates their skills and compensates accordingly, vs (B) a middle-of-the-pack journeyman who just DGAF about their work and treats all jobs as equally disposable and replaceable (these are also the types of people who are likely to try out /r/overemployed, cuz why not). We may all pre…

This is well said and sums up my experience
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