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Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

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Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#111

Post by em-bee »

silverquiet wrote: post #53
flkenosad wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your an out of work anything, why not consider other careers? Work is work and if nobody's paying for it, is it really work?

Probably because of spending 4+ years of school training for it, tens of thousands or even more on said schooling, and a decade or more of your life after honing those skills on the job? It’s not an easy thing for all of us to just throw away.

no actually, it's because with a family to support, i can't afford to start over training for a new job and living on a junior level salary.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#112

Post by em-bee »

lokhura wrote: post #100
pluc wrote: post #3

I have 25 YoE and talking to walls too. My only suggestion is to ask everyone to review your resume. If that doesn't work, start lying. The last time I was looking for work, I applied to over 600 positions. I've been off work 2 weeks and I'm nearing 200. Came across this the other day, good resources hidden in links: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IUUwdEw0RjTftvJv3LTA-7XI... (such as this: https://docs.google.co…

When you don't have connections, lying is the best advice to get the good jobs. I just lie about anything I know I can learn on the job. No experience with Vue but know React? No problem, I'm a Vue expert. No experience with with C# but know Java? No problem, I know C# by heart. Once I get pass HR and get to talk to an actual engineer I can reevaluate my lies and drive the interview into the areas I'm actually experi…

i didn't exactly lie when i claimed that the few hacks i did in php some years ago meant that i could work on a php project. i got hired, and found that most on my team were junior devs whose code i ended up improving multiple times, despite me never having worked with laravel before (which turned out to be very nice to work with).

my next side project will be something using react, so i can add that to my CV.

then i can say i have more than a decade of experience in web development, and i am familiar with react.

of course, if they specifically want someone who has 3 years of react experience, then i am out. best i can claim is that i have worked on similar projects before and try to convince them that that experience is transferable.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#113

Post by silverquiet »

em-bee wrote: post #111
silverquiet wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because of spending 4+ years of school training for it, tens of thousands or even more on said schooling, and a decade or more of your life after honing those skills on the job? It’s not an easy thing for all of us to just throw away.

no actually, it's because with a family to support, i can't afford to start over training for a new job and living on a junior level salary.

I think that jives with the theme of sunk costs. I guess it's not socially acceptable anymore to sell the kids to science.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#115

Post by em-bee »

silverquiet wrote: post #113
em-bee wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no actually, it's because with a family to support, i can't afford to start over training for a new job and living on a junior level salary.

I think that jives with the theme of sunk costs. I guess it's not socially acceptable anymore to sell the kids to science.

not quite. sunk cost implies that the cost, despite not creating any returns, is to high to throw it away.

sure, if i have no job, and i am broke, then almost anything else will do. however, switching into a new line of work is only feasible if it does not require years before i can earn enough to feed my family. as long as there is a chance at finding a job with my current skills, that pays enough, taking on such a risk doesn't make sense, unless i can actually afford doing so. in any other case my energy is better spent looking for jobs doing what i already know, where i can earn enough.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#116

Post by jononor »

isoprophlex wrote: post #71

With 8 years of experience, you might know quite some people in a position to hire. Call every single one of them, and if they're probably not hiring, ask them for 1-2 phone numbers of people they know who might be looking to expand their teams.

This is a good strategy that is an excellent complement to applying cold.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#117

Post by silverquiet »

em-bee wrote: post #115
silverquiet wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that jives with the theme of sunk costs. I guess it's not socially acceptable anymore to sell the kids to science.

not quite. sunk cost implies that the cost, despite not creating any returns, is to high to throw it away. sure, if i have no job, and i am broke, then almost anything else will do. however, switching into a new line of work is only feasible if it does not require years before i can earn enough to feed my family. as long as there is a chance at finding a job with my current skills, that pays enough, taking on such a…

I guess the unknown is how much the market for tech jobs has dried up - will you always be able to find one? Whenever I see families in line at a food bank, I always wonder what happened that led them to that situation. I will say that employment in tech has felt like an ever-accelerating treadmill of skills that seem more akin to fashion than real technical progress; I don't think I can keep on that treadmill forever.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#119

Post by jacob_rezi »

ayewo wrote: post #107
jacob_rezi wrote: post #21

If anyone needs help with their resume - I built rezi and will be happy to give lifetime upgraded accounts at no cost

That’s very gracious of you. Thanks. How do HNers take advantage of your offer?

Hey sorry for the late reply - just email me at hello@rezi.io

Re: Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

#120

Post by jacob_rezi »

MilStdJunkie wrote: post #108
jacob_rezi wrote: post #21

If anyone needs help with their resume - I built rezi and will be happy to give lifetime upgraded accounts at no cost

Buy the pro plan first, then it gets upgraded to lifetime?

Hey sorry for the late reply - just email me at hello@rezi.io
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