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When the job search becomes impossible

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Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#11

Post by OgsyedIE »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #6

This essay just makes me feel so hopeless about our society. I don’t feel it’s right that employment has such weight in people’s lives that the search causes psychological damage.

It's just an abstracted and bureaucratic repackaging of the difficulty with searching for prey and forage during a succession of harsh seasons that some of our unluckier ancestors experienced, such as those who lived at the time of the Pleistocene Toba eruption.

To the brainstem, employment is the process of hunting for food. No employment means there's no hunting going on.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#12

Post by TrackerFF »

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're at your peak, professionally speaking, how are you supposed to be stay positive after that?

Me and my partner are doing everything we can to achieve some minimum level of FIRE, just in case.

I've also accepted that sooner or later, probably the next 10-15 years or so, I'll have to accept the fact that I'm going to end up in a lifer position. If FIRE can't save my ass, I simply can't afford to hop around.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#13

Post by pizzathyme »

> "You’ve spent several months sending out scores of carefully tailored resumes and cover letters for jobs you know you are fully qualified for and would excel at."

People should not do this. It is causing so much suffering. In my 6 jobs in my career from college internship to startups to Big Tech, I have never gotten a job from sending an application into a site. It's always been through (somehow) tracking down a person to speak to over phone or coffee, and get a referral.

A form is not going to a hire you, a person is. You need to ignore the form and talk to a person.

I wish I could put this on a billboard everywhere. It seems like many people are suffering from thousands of applications, and it makes me sad.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#14

Post by someone7x »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #6

This essay just makes me feel so hopeless about our society. I don’t feel it’s right that employment has such weight in people’s lives that the search causes psychological damage.

In the recent UAP hearing, whistleblower Borland talked about how financial ruin is the real fear holding whistleblowers back:

> Are you scared for your safety?

> … I am not scared for my physical safety in the sense of an agency or company coming to kill me, but I have no job. My career has been tarnished. I'm unemployed. Living off of unemployment for the next three, four weeks until that's gone. So it's a complicated question.

https://www.rev.com/transcripts/house-uap-whistleblower-hear...

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#15

Post by r_lee »

creata wrote: post #10
SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #6

This essay just makes me feel so hopeless about our society. I don’t feel it’s right that employment has such weight in people’s lives that the search causes psychological damage.

Life used to be even worse than this, though. I know it's going to be deeply unpopular -- it always is -- but I never understood how reasonable people don't find bringing children into this world to be an act of abject cruelty.

I mean, if it's so cruel, then why wouldn't you just commit suicide?

The reason why it's not cruel (IMO) is that there's hope for a better future, if you don't have kids, you will never be able to know. That's choosing to just not play the game, total darkness. There isn't an alternative universe to choose from.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#17

Post by kfk »

I met many programmers during the boom years of software that straight out refused to develop any type of soft or managerial skills. Forget that, they even refused to maintain good relationships with decision makers (and I did this too, but only once in my carrier), left jobs in bad ways, focused on chasing salary increases every 6 months.

And here is the problem. If you have been chasing "easy" salary increases, working only on the comfortable stuff like developing tech skills, you should have seen this coming. It's very, very, very hard to maintain sharp coding skills decade after decade. Even if the job market was good, the reality is that you will eventually end up with a set of tech skills that a kid 20 years younger than you, with no family and so being able to live on lower salary, probably has too.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#18

Post by creata »

r_lee wrote: post #15
creata wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life used to be even worse than this, though. I know it's going to be deeply unpopular -- it always is -- but I never understood how reasonable people don't find bringing children into this world to be an act of abject cruelty.

I mean, if it's so cruel, then why wouldn't you just commit suicide? The reason why it's not cruel (IMO) is that there's hope for a better future, if you don't have kids, you will never be able to know. That's choosing to just not play the game, total darkness. There isn't an alternative universe to choose from.

> then why wouldn't you just commit suicide?

I'm trying not to upset the people around me.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#19

Post by pizzathyme »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #6

This essay just makes me feel so hopeless about our society. I don’t feel it’s right that employment has such weight in people’s lives that the search causes psychological damage.

There is something fundamentally broken about this entire user journey and industry. There are lots of jobs to fill. But hiring managers don't find people reading through resumes submitted in a form. People don't get jobs by submitting resumes into a form.

The opportunities happen from talking on the phone, meeting someone for coffee. I feel like this entire resume submission industry should just be deleted.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#20

Post by OgsyedIE »

creata wrote: post #10
SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #6

This essay just makes me feel so hopeless about our society. I don’t feel it’s right that employment has such weight in people’s lives that the search causes psychological damage.

Life used to be even worse than this, though. I know it's going to be deeply unpopular -- it always is -- but I never understood how reasonable people don't find bringing children into this world to be an act of abject cruelty.

You might like Ajit Varki's 2013 book which is entirely devoted to using evolutionary biology in answering that question.
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