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When the job search becomes impossible

jeffwofford.com

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Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#161

Post by Avicebron »

renewiltord wrote: post #137
titanomachy wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People living in hotels, temporary trailers (in some places even tiny homes count), living with a friend temporarily, etc are all homeless. You're right. But is a 30-year-old who moves back in with their parents "homeless"? And yeah, the paycheck-to-paycheck stat blows my mind. Somehow the standard American experience has become the latest model iPhone (financed), a new car (financed), a rented home, 4-5 meals out…

[flagged]

You might need to get out more, I've lived it, I've been around people who live it every day. I met someone for the first time in like 15 years (old school semi-acquaintance), something like the second thing we started talking about was how rough it was just finding and paying for an apartment in the remote super "LCOL" place we found ourselves.

Think about it, I'm guessing the guy welding the beams in your kid's school isn't making a quarter of what you make a year. Yet he has to be reminded every day that he's an economic failure vs what do you do, javascript? Early stage startup ideas? I bet it was pretty good in 2006-8.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#162

Post by dymk »

kstrauser wrote: post #128
TrackerFF wrote: post #12

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…

I didn't have problems with age discrimination — I don't think — but I think because I countered it with energy and eagerness. "I'm ready to hit the ground running. Availability? Leave a laptop on my desk and I'll be there tomorrow. I'm not yet an expert in your line of business, but I've worked through 8 different industries and succeeded in each, and learning as I go is my favorite thing in the world. Let's go!" I…

That’s the thing about age discrimination, they don’t care that you’re eager, they care that you’re over 50. How are you supposed to demonstrate you’re not just another ossified old fart if your résumé goes straight in the bin?

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#163

Post by atoav »

b_e_n_t_o_n wrote: post #159
jofer wrote: post #148

As someone who's recently been hiring (sorry folks, position was filled just a few days ago), it's wild to me how distorted things have become. We had 1200 applications for an extremely niche role. A huge amount were clearly faked resumes that far too closely matched the job description to be realistic. Another huge portion were just unqualified. The irony is that there actually _are_ a ton of exceptionally qualified…

Would you have found it reasonable for interested candidates to have reached out directly instead of just submitting a resume to the ATS? With the AI spam etc. it feels like the usefulness of these automated systems is quickly diminishing. Hiring feels broken right now.

What does "reaching out directly" mean?

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#164

Post by bluefirebrand »

titanomachy wrote: post #125
roadside_picnic wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Homeless" is not the same as "living on the street". People living in hotels, temporary trailers (in some places even tiny homes count), living with a friend temporarily, etc are all homeless . Plenty of Americans are much closer than this than you might think working in tech. 50-60% of Americans currently live 'paycheck-to-paycheck' which means the second work stops they're on a timer for missing bills to start com…

> People living in hotels, temporary trailers (in some places even tiny homes count), living with a friend temporarily, etc are all homeless. You're right. But is a 30-year-old who moves back in with their parents "homeless"? And yeah, the paycheck-to-paycheck stat blows my mind. Somehow the standard American experience has become the latest model iPhone (financed), a new car (financed), a rented home, 4-5 meals out…

> You're right. But is a 30-year-old who moves back in with their parents "homeless"?

No, but this is also not ideal for many reasons

I have a friend going through this right now, actually. The biggest challenge is that her parents don't live anywhere near a strong job market. So the decision for her is "be homeless in a place where jobs are available" or "have a home but no access to employers"

It's not ideal

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#165

Post by renewiltord »

Avicebron wrote: post #161
renewiltord wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You might need to get out more, I've lived it, I've been around people who live it every day. I met someone for the first time in like 15 years (old school semi-acquaintance), something like the second thing we started talking about was how rough it was just finding and paying for an apartment in the remote super "LCOL" place we found ourselves. Think about it, I'm guessing the guy welding the beams in your kid's sch…

Getting out more won’t help in this case because I will be walking around SOMA. The fact of the matter is that the stat is made up by a payday loan company and has no bearing on reality.

People like to share it because they are LLM like and just repeat things without looking at the data. “Hallucinations” are the common way that humans experience the world. World models born of pure fiction.

Also wtf I know journeyman ironworkers. They own homes in Oakland. People act like this is some poverty mode existence. Their lives are fine.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#166

Post by lawlessone »

ghxst wrote: post #152
lawlessone wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A phone for internet access is basically mandatory now if you want to work, and depending on where you live so is a car.

I'd be surprised if you had no one around you that didn't have an old android laying around collecting dust. I'm still on an old A52s and it works fine.

i might, but i wouldn't want to rely on something i'm uncertain exists.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#167

Post by computably »

renewiltord wrote: post #137
titanomachy wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People living in hotels, temporary trailers (in some places even tiny homes count), living with a friend temporarily, etc are all homeless. You're right. But is a 30-year-old who moves back in with their parents "homeless"? And yeah, the paycheck-to-paycheck stat blows my mind. Somehow the standard American experience has become the latest model iPhone (financed), a new car (financed), a rented home, 4-5 meals out…

[flagged]

https://institute.bankofamerica.com/economic-insights/payche...

BoA says 25% are paycheck-to-paycheck based on their internal data, which is still pretty nuts.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#168

Post by zippyman55 »

We were looking to employ someone with experience in server experience in the field of High Performance Computing. We got a resume for a bartender with server experience. I so wanted to interview them.

Also, the number of junk resumes, where I take a resume block and post it into a search engine and it comes back with an exact match of the text. I write up a caustic response as to why not to hire the person… and they still slipped in!

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#169

Post by SCUSKU »

brandall10 wrote: post #154
SCUSKU wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read through your comment history and it sounds gnarly. I hope you find something soon. I was unemployed for 6 months in 2022-2023 and it was horrible. I guess I learned something from it, but I hated it. That said, I became employed after applying to a role by emailing the CTO after they posted on the monthly Who's Hiring thread. I've had 2 jobs from HN since. HN has been huge for my career personally, so I made thi…

Just for clarification, you've had 3 jobs in the past 2 years? Were some of these contracts? Otherwise oof, that sounds like volatility only worth dealing with if one really needs an income, esp. considering the signal for prospective employers.

I was laid off in Aug 2022, found a new role in March 2023, then found another role in March 2024. So basically 2 roles in 2.5 years. It's fairly common in the bay area, especially since I'm in the startup space.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#170

Post by leptons »

apwell23 wrote: post #117
forducks wrote: post #110

Oh how I would love to just stop looking for jobs for a bit and leave it on rest. Unfortunately I am selling things off right now to not go homeless and refusing to apply to jobs is an admission of defeat to me. Said as a (former?) tech worker.

is the job market really that bad for tech workers :( . I got laidoff on paternity leave last week. I am so scared. Hope you find something soon !!

It's as bad or worse than the 2000 dot-com bubble burst right now. We had a covid bubble for a while and that burst. The AI bubble is next to burst.
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