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Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

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Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#181

Post by tablespoon »

brightball wrote: post #166
_ed7m wrote: post #30

It took me 200 applications to land my job, and I think the rest of everyone I know who’s a decent programmer had similar situations. The bottom line is that everyone has employment and only had to move for it if they’re taking a high (120k+ TC for entry level) paying position. This is “falling of trees” compared to any other industry. Being able to land a middle class job directly in the field of your education with…

It’s always easier to get a job when you have one then when you don’t.

> It’s always easier to get a job when you have one then when you don’t.

This should be emphasized. I have a friend who quit a terrible, stressful job without something new lined up, and it took him a year to find another one. After an excessive number of interviews at one company for one position, he got annoyed and asked them what the deal was. They said that they were impressed by him, but were honest and said they were trying to figure out "what was wrong with him," since he wasn't employed, and then gave him an offer.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#182

Post by TedKroft »

steviesands wrote: post #143
sharkster711 wrote: post #62

I think the job market will get better by mid January 2023, when budgets open up. TC will probably be quite a bit lower than 2021 offers, but there's work to be done everywhere.

Is this how it works at most companies where new budget leads to new headcount and hiring in January? Is it due to an annual process?

Yes, it is pretty common for hiring to pick up in January. Usually there are approved number of hires approved and they run out toward the end of the year and then many teams stop trying to hire until new headcounts are approved for the next January.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#183

Post by anon50118810 »

rr888 wrote: post #34

Anyone know about ML? It used to be a different job market, I was thinking of moving into that area but now not sure if its bubble has been popped or always will be a premium.

Like everyone else is saying, from what I understand, going into ML as an ML expert only really makes sense if you have a PhD or at least a master's in the field from a well-known school. On the other hand there seem to be lots of ML companies who need more general software developers.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#184

Post by stack_framer »

I recently spent four weeks interviewing before landing a job, which is not an unusual amount of time compared to years prior (at least for me). The company I joined went from first interview to a good offer in two weeks—they were definitely eager. I put my application out approximately 50 times. Changing my LinkedIn status to "Open to work" helped.

The biggest difference this time around: Several companies invoked a hiring freeze while I was in the middle of their interview process. I've never had that happen before, so it felt like a storm brewing. Some were nice enough to tell me right away, while others went completely dark for weeks before getting back to me.

Good luck with the job search! I know it can be utterly miserable, but stay positive and keep those live-coding skills sharp as a razor.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#185

Post by jollyllama »

smt88 wrote: post #2

I wonder if this is related to the transition to remote work. A lot of companies are passing on comparatively expensive US developers and getting the same level of experience for 1/2 or 1/3 the cost in other countries.

The big thing about remote work is it's going to be very difficult for people to advance up the ladder. A lot of remote work is freezing careers and org charts in place.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#186

Post by emmp »

I'm NOT a developer. I'm actually in tech support. I can write scripts, identify bugs in code, and am up to date on cloud and k8s, but mostly I don't write code, I debug systems, write up bug tickets, and deal with customer issues. Even with these less impressive skills I was able to land 3 offers above 150k base comp for TECHNICAL SUPPORT in the past month. It's still a seller's market for skilled people in tech. Yes you need to pump out as many applications a day as you can -- the vast majority will never get back to you, will ghost, or will freeze midway through the pipeline. But there are still plenty of offers going around and only so many people who can credibly do the work.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#187

Post by lowbloodsugar »

guessmyname wrote: post #33

I work at Apple and my team has been “hiring” for the last 2 years with no offers so far. Why? Because even if you are a good candidate, hiring is not as easy as people think. Among the many challengues we have I can list the following: 1. The people interested in your profile have minimal influence in the process, 2. There are people who are always chasing for the shiny new object (or person, in this case), 3. There…

Is it possible your recs are just to support the “We can’t find anybody so we have to hire foreigners” narrative.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#188

Post by mgkimsal »

anon50118810 wrote: post #88
neon_electro wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention being your own full-time benefits manager isn't free and should be reflected in your contracting/hourly/non-W2-with-immediate-salary-and-employer-benefits wage.

Yes. They say that as a contractor you should ask for your desired FTE yearly salary divided by 1000, per hour. So the equivalent for a $120k/year FTE position would be contracting full time at $120/hour. As far as I know it's not any easier to find 40 hours/week at $120/hour contracting than it is to find a $120k FTE position.

It may be easier to find 2 or 3 projects/engagements that are 10-15/hrs/week.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#189

Post by TedKroft »

abhaynayar wrote: post #147
anon50118810 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one knows deeply about 100 companies, especially 100 random companies scattered around the U.S. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Maybe that is the problem. Instead of applying to 100 companies out of desperation, if a candidate practices and develops specific marketable skills and targets specific roles, he only needs to apply to 10 companies that he knows deeply and are in tune with his skills. The law of reversed effort — When you focus on your own skills and self-worth instead of desperately pursuing random externalities, externalities that…

That sounds nice, but it can be a bad really limiting to have high expectations of only getting jobs that initially appeal to you for multiple reasons.

1. Time spent researching or preparing for a job doesn't guarantee you anything. 2. Sometimes the most appealing jobs are the most competitive, meaning you might have less of a chance of getting them and they might have worse comp or quality of life 3. Some positions on websites are already filled or cancelled. 4. Not everything on a job listing is accurate and you can only get a limited sense of what the job will be like after talking to people during the interview process.

Definitely play up your strengths and be selective and discriminating. I've got some jobs through network and some through scattershot, but never have got an offer after sending out only 10 applications. Most companies don't even respond.

Re: Tell HN: Employers are not desperate to hire developers

#190

Post by anon50118810 »

endigma wrote: post #25

We are desperate to hire developers, HMU if you want a job.

OP here. I don't feel comfortable applying for a job in connection with this anonymous handle, but I've been checking the HN hiring threads since I've started my job search. If you post your job there next time, I should see it and apply if I'm still looking and it's a good fit.
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