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Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

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Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#171

Post by HankStallone »

gilbetron wrote: post #169
mingus88 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s natural for homeowners to be resistant to new builds in the same way office workers hated the move to cubicles. I was in the Midwest recently and it was wild to see a block of high density houses in the middle of farmland. Houses that look exactly the same, shoved onto tiny lots with little gap between them, and surrounded by miles of corn. These are obviously attractive to developers as they are maximiz…

For whatever reason, those houses get snapped up quick. I've lived in the midwest my whole life, and those cornfield subdivisions are hugely popular. I have a house near a small city, and I've had numerous friends and family ask me why I would live where I am rather than in one of the "much better subs". I don't think people quite wrap their head around the fact that the US population love their cars and their huge s…

My place is actually rural, but there's one of those little cornfield subdivisions (I like that term) a few miles from me. I don't really get it either. I like living in the country, but they don't seem to, since they bring their town ways with them, landscaping their places to a T like they're competing with each other, calling the police on stray dogs, and stuff like that. They don't seem to live any differently than they did in town, so I guess it's about the presumably cheaper land and the distance from noise and crime that makes up for having to drive 20-30 miles to town for work and groceries.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#172

Post by saelthavron »

danans wrote: post #140
saelthavron wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being deliberate hasn't helped me. Hell, I've learned quite a bit about this one company. In my last interview, I asked a question that surprised the interviewers. It was about something they had yet to start work on which came up in another interview for a different position which I had already been rejected for. They still rejected me. At this point, I'm guessing I'm black-balled.

I've been there, but just because you did things the "right" way and got rejected from one company doesn't mean you should throw away what worked. After all, they did interview you for a second role after the first one. That said, especially in a tough labor market, finding a job is like dating, and the vibes matter a lot. While you control your side of the vibe, you don't control the other side. Technical people esp…

> I've been there, but just because you did things the "right" way and got rejected from one company doesn't mean you should throw away what worked. After all, they did interview you for a second role after the first one.

Several rejections by multiple groups. I'm pretty sure I won't get an interview from there for a while. I've not been interviewed by the same group for more than one position. Continually getting rejected and failing to achieve more than one interview per group is not what I call working.

> That said, especially in a tough labor market, finding a job is like dating, and the vibes matter a lot.

Thus, it makes perfect sense to just throw your resume at everything that moves. Vibes seem to matter more than fit. I interviewed at another place where one of the interviewers just had a week or two worth of tech experience. They were somehow a test lead. They couldn't answer a single question about testers interact with developers or how they test. I'm sure I was labeled as problematic because of my questioning even though I had zero knowledge of the lack of experience until after a few questions. The person they hired had zero experience outside of university classes. No internships. No personal projects. The position wasn't listed as a junior position.

> Technical people especially often don't want to think about the interpersonal factors, but they are a real part of the process.

It's the only aspect I've been thinking about for over a year. The "technical interview" is often a joke so I can't help but think they are using it as a hidden "vibe" interview.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#173

Post by sqircles »

saguntum wrote: post #147
sqircles wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that seemed to work best for me was reaching out to dev shops in my area and starting a conversation even if they didn't have a position posted. Go to meetups and talk to people, join their discord, etc... and job fairs, as lame as they seem, produced contacts for me that are still reaching out "just in case" even though I found a position eventually. What's old is new again. Get those soft skills warmed up…

Job fairs are super underrated. When my spouse and I were a bit in flux years back for where we were going to live long-term, we ended up living in the city where we met which is very much not a tech hub - only a few big companies that hire engineers - despite spouse applying to various places in SF, Denver, and Seattle. He landed the local job first by going to a career fair that I randomly discovered on Twitter. Af…

I believe they're the current "cheat code" to the hiring process. If you get called up for an interview after talking to a company at a career fair, there's a good inclination that you have already passed or at least have a leg up on the "culture fit" part of the interview.

With hundreds to thousands of people spamming every job posting under the sun the second it is posted, just getting your credentials read by a human is a major barrier right now that career fairs help alleviate.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#174

Post by ethbr1 »

sqircles wrote: post #173
saguntum wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Job fairs are super underrated. When my spouse and I were a bit in flux years back for where we were going to live long-term, we ended up living in the city where we met which is very much not a tech hub - only a few big companies that hire engineers - despite spouse applying to various places in SF, Denver, and Seattle. He landed the local job first by going to a career fair that I randomly discovered on Twitter. Af…

I believe they're the current "cheat code" to the hiring process. If you get called up for an interview after talking to a company at a career fair, there's a good inclination that you have already passed or at least have a leg up on the "culture fit" part of the interview. With hundreds to thousands of people spamming every job posting under the sun the second it is posted, just getting your credentials read by a hu…

Belated reply for posterity: another cheat code for job fairs is pre-researching the companies there.

Typically, attending companies are listed (or you can ask an organizer for a list). Do some quick searching and type up a summary.

Company name. What they do. 1-2 questions. Emphasis on companies you've never heard of!

You'd be amazed how many doors open when you walk up to a recruiter for a small, specialized company and know exactly who they are and what market they're in. (Remember: that poor person has probably spent all day explaining that to everyone else)

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#175

Post by mathiaspoint »

donatj wrote: post #22

I've been casually job hunting for a couple months since rounds of layoffs started at my company. I've applied to umpteen places and haven't had a single callback. In my twenty+ years working as a dev, this is the worst I've seen it since about 2005.

I was laid off recently but I typically keep applying even while I'm employed since I don't think of employment as stable.

It seems better now than it was two years ago.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#176

Post by mathiaspoint »

chao- wrote: post #30

It is difficult to balance the competing priorities of "home ownership is widely affordable" and "home prices must always go up". When the balance is not broadly possible, our system seems to favor "home prices must always go up", at least in the short term.

Who says home prices must always go up? That's an incredibly dumb thing to say. Houses depreciate. Maybe land prices always go up (maybe over very very long time scales because of currency devaluation) but that's a tiny fraction of the value of a home.

There's no good reason to expect homes to magically appreciate.

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