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Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

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Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#11

Post by mateusfreira »

What is your stack? There are areas with more opportunities than others that may be worth considering a stack shift.

I have been in the market since 2006, and I have seen it go up and down; I've never been unemployed since, but I have close friends who run over one year without a job (In Brazil, we usually have financial crises here more often), at that time their option was to do freelancing for a while until they find another job.

I never felt "safe", having entered the market in 2006 and seeing very senior devs losing their jobs in 2008/2010; I founded a company in 2010 and run it up to this day as a side project (A SSAS for small business), of course, it takes time to build one of those (In my case it took over three years to get the first five customers, today we have more than 1k), and it is a counter sense to spend time building a business that will make you 2k UDS when in your work you can earn 5x that working on a company and having vocations. Still, it does pay off in times like this since I am not too worried if the marketing goes terribly; I can make a living with my side project.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#12

Post by danielvaughn »

I thankfully still have a job, but even I'm a bit nervous. I've got a baby on the way and if something were to happen to my job, I'd be in a tight spot financially. I'm doing a few things to help prepare:

1. I'm actively working on this side project of mine, and I'm considering giving a talk about it at an upcoming conference.

2. I'm trying to practice leetcode and system design. I say "trying" because I find it's an incredible waste of time, and I hate it. But I don't want to be caught by surprise in a leetcode-style interview.

3. I'm trying to stay in touch with people I know in the industry. I hate networking, but as long as I stay friendly with past colleagues then I'm good.

4. I've been refining my resume over and over again, trying to make it as polished as possible.

These things generally make me feel a bit more likely to land on my feet. I still suck at leetcode though :p

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#13

Post by kemiller2002 »

I'll let you in on the secret to finding a job. It's not about your skills really (maybe some), it's about who you know. If you're relying on only your skill to carry you through to finding a job, you're going to have a rough time. It's about who you know. You're looking for a job? Go to meetups, code and coffees, free tech seminars by companies etc. That's your job now. Connect with people on LinkedIn. There are very very few people that are good enough that someone will just hire them on their skills alone. Will you find the "perfect" job that you never want to leave and retire from? In all honesty, probably not, but that doesn't mean it won't lead to the next great opportunity.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#16

Post by codeptualize »

1. Have a financial buffer if you can, the bigger the better, being able to wait it out is the ultimate protection, but increasing your runway by any amount increases your options and helps with the nerves.

2. Work on your network, talk to recruiters, peers in the industry, you can even do some interviews to practice. Not only might it help you if you need a new job, it gives you a taste of the actual situation, it might be better than expected or you know better what to prepare for and what you can work on.

3. Be open to freelance work and shorter projects.

4. Work on your skills, tune them to where the jobs are, build projects. Widen your skills with new topics/languages/frameworks/areas and get deeper expertise in your main area. Get your confidence back.

5. Start a company, but that is a lot more risky, and comes with a bunch of anxiety on it's own. It is also a lot of fun, I am enjoying it.

I think you need to do a good objective evaluation of your situation. Anxiety often comes from uncertainty, you might find it's not as bad as you fear it is, or you learn what you need to do. It sounds like you have a job, have experience, so you might be fine while just continuing to do what you do.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#18

Post by Waterluvian »

I grew up with a terrible anxiety about money. To combat it, I’ve spent my career living a lifestyle as if I made half the income that I do. As a result the job pool that would allow me to maintain my family’s current standard of living is considerably larger. It also means I feel less dependent on keeping my job and have years of runway savings.

The consequence is that unlike most of my peers, we only have one car, it’s not fancy, vacations are in-province, and we don’t spend on things teenaged me craved like a gaming PC or a Lego hobby. The kids want for nothing, though. I’m very thankful to have a partner who is deeply aligned on this philosophy.

I think there’s no “right” answer. I can hear people saying to should enjoy things while young. But I’d pay almost anything not to feel that anxiety ever again.

Re: Ask HN: How are you dealing with the job market anxiety?

#19

Post by danjac »

mateusfreira wrote: post #11

What is your stack? There are areas with more opportunities than others that may be worth considering a stack shift. I have been in the market since 2006, and I have seen it go up and down; I've never been unemployed since, but I have close friends who run over one year without a job (In Brazil, we usually have financial crises here more often), at that time their option was to do freelancing for a while until they f…

The problem is you can't "stack shift".

I mean, of course you can, we know that if you know some programming languages you can pick up another language, if you know an HTTP router you can learn another, a MySQL expert can learn PostgreSQL, if you know React you can learn Vue and so on.

But you won't get through the HR filters unless you have the magic n years' experience. Once you learn that stack in your junior years, you are stuck on that path for the rest of your career.

Of course it wasn't always thus, but like so much of the industry, common sense went out the window some time ago.

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