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Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this possible? Surely at this point you would have a network to lean on that wouldn’t leave you applying for jobs online? I’m hesitant to believe you don’t have a network and more willing to believe you don’t realize you have that network and maybe even not sure how to use it. I truly don’t mean this to be critical and instead curious: Why would you spend that much time applying for jobs with that type of succ…

I'm sorry but this comment shows an immense amount of social privilege. Most of us don't have networks that can get us jobs. Those are exclusive cliques and it's foolish to assume everyone can lean on nepotism. Also, isn't it a bit scummy to keep someone in your life just in case you need a job?

It's normal to leverage your connections to find a job. Arguably it's the preferred way for both employees and employers.

"It's not what you know, it's who you know"

You too can acquire this "privilege" by building relationships with people.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#182
post #149

Dev wages have to come down. The last 10 years have been crazy. Lots of devs are paid like doctors, without the limited supply or years of expensive training. It wasn't going to last.

The wages went up precisely because of the limited supply and years of training needed for devs.

You get a really biased view when working in a tech company, but the vast majority of people can't code, and when they try to learn don't get beyond hello world.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#183
post #8

Bit of a tangent, but what has been everyone's experience so far in 2023 trying to find a new job? I got really interested in this and have been passively researching it (HN, reddit posts). My conclusion, so far, is unless you've got strong connections it's hard right now to find a job. Most job posting, as OP mentions get hundreds if not thousands of applications. Other times, I've personally also notice, candidates…

Been looking seriously for ~4 months now, no luck yet. My degree is in political science and I worked at a DC think tank as a research fellow focused on technology policy before leaving to co-found a VC-backed tech startup. After five years it failed. Now it seems difficult to find a place which needs my mix of skills, a combination of communication and technical. I don't know if it's my unusual career path or someth…

This is the time to try your hand at entrepreneurship again. Most private investors I know are investing purposefully right now. Forget VCs and bootstrap - build the future you want - show you have grit. I work with a lot of exited bootstrapped founders and many of us are excited for the future.

Most are not willing to struggle, sacrifice, survive, and grind for a decade or more. Be the exception and build sustainable value. Money follows; perhaps trite but true. Sadly, this is excellent advice that many ignore (this may not actually apply to your specific circumstances, of course).

Your career path makes you top talent in the eyes of many. Honestly, your journey sounds like a leader’s narrative in the making. No excuses, get in there and get it done. I look in the mirror every morning and say nearly that exact thing to myself: “get in there and fight, today like all the other days before and all the days to come”. This is not figurative, I do this literally every single day as part of my daily routine and I don’t let up, even in my darkest hours of which there have been many over the years. I attribute my success to this mentality, perhaps it can work for you.

Be well!

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#184
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this possible? Surely at this point you would have a network to lean on that wouldn’t leave you applying for jobs online? I’m hesitant to believe you don’t have a network and more willing to believe you don’t realize you have that network and maybe even not sure how to use it. I truly don’t mean this to be critical and instead curious: Why would you spend that much time applying for jobs with that type of succ…

> How is this possible? Surely at this point you would have a network to lean on that wouldn’t leave you applying for jobs online? I’m hesitant to believe you don’t have a network and more willing to believe you don’t realize you have that network and maybe even not sure how to use it. It's possible because of a couple reasons. The market is cold right now, and most of my network is _still at google_. There are a few…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#185
post #163

A lot to unpack in the comments here and I'm ready for the downvotes! First of all the credit market is in a crunch now and has been for some time. This makes investment rounds for small to medium sized startups both more difficult yield less. That means that hiring is slowing down if not straight up stopping for these startups. Second, there's a lot of pessimism here but I think the future is still bright. We defini…

> stand out Given what everyone in this thread has said, this is harder said than done, especially right now, when recruiters ghost, HR is drowning in applications, people are getting rejected even after good skill matches on paper, good interviews and 5+/10+ years of experience.

> this is harder said than done

Definitely. I don't mean to mislead anyone here, its not an easy path forward right now.

The combination of a reduced capital market and a swell of engineers is going to make the coming years more challenging, but the only path forward is investing in yourself and your skills.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insufficient pay can surely be a cause for some employers not being able to be picky, but that does not mean the official unemployment rate is false. I think what people are dancing around is percent of people employed with minimum “acceptable” pay to quality of life at work ratio, which includes the location of the work. This figure may very well be trending down, but is not an official figure, and it seems like a d…

The 'official' unemployment rate doesn't include people who aren't actively looking within X time. I would not trust the government to accurately report on a statistic that makes it look bad.

There is an official unemployment rate that includes people who are not actively looking within X time. See U-6 unemployment rate:

https://www.macrotrends.net/1377/u6-unemployment-rate

https://www.bls.gov/cps/definitions.htm

>U-6 is the broadest measure of labor underutilization. In addition to the total number of unemployed and all people marginally attached to the labor force, U-6 includes people at work part time for economic reasons (also called involuntary part-time workers) and is expressed as a percentage of the civilian labor force plus the marginally attached.

>U-6 is calculated as: ( (Total Unemployed + Marginally Attached to the Labor Force + People at Work Part Time for Economic Reasons) ÷ (Labor Force + Marginally Attached to the Labor Force) ) x 100

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>which were FAANG (which everyone believes is a golden ticket into any company). In a past job, I saw a LOT of former FAANG candidates as a hiring manager (SRE @ hedge fund) at a past job. In my experience, FAANG folks have a somewhat barbell distribution where it's either: A. "This person is incredibly talented, well spoken and will probably find a job anywhere" B. "This person spent 5 years at a FAANG and worked on…

My experience with FAANG candidates, especially those with only FAANG experience, while at a startup is they often have isolated skills and experience with bespoke, idiosyncratic ecosystems.

> Isolated skills and experience with bespoke, idiosyncratic ecosystems.

Sounds like a good tagline for my Resume.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#188
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am programming since 1995. I got my first job in 2007. Pretty sure that not single line of my code is online. Maybe except couple forum/reddit snippets. I have two kids, couple family friends, one hobby and I like to watch basketball and old movies. Outside of work I spend some time here and couple subreddits. I do not have time for the side projects on GitHub or to prepare for silly LC tests. I do not have time to…

I think that’s a fair take. People feel comfortable with different things. Even in school I always surpassed others on take home assignments and struggled during tests. There’s another aspect in your comment too, and that’s seniority. I was born a year after you started programming, so GitHub and online portfolios were just a natural thing for me to take on. If you have people that will vouch for you and you have dec…

Actually I am only 12 years older than you. :) I had a lot luck to get my first computer early and was exposed to QBasic in dad's company.

>you can more easily get away with no leetcode and no take home.

Current rate in the last three months is around 75%. (which demands LC or take home)

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#189
post #8

Bit of a tangent, but what has been everyone's experience so far in 2023 trying to find a new job? I got really interested in this and have been passively researching it (HN, reddit posts). My conclusion, so far, is unless you've got strong connections it's hard right now to find a job. Most job posting, as OP mentions get hundreds if not thousands of applications. Other times, I've personally also notice, candidates…

my experience in 2023 is that I applied to a single job at fastly, got a referral through blind.

the only reason I applied was because it was uncanny how much the position matched my skillset.

this position was 1:1 what I've been doing in my career, pretty much an open req tailored to my experience.

dude on blind told me that it got fast tracked to the mgmt team from hr screening. I waited two weeks, and got a boilerplate rejection email. there were probably thousands of people who applied to that position.

Re: Ask HN: How do you look for jobs in 2023?

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been looking seriously for ~4 months now, no luck yet. My degree is in political science and I worked at a DC think tank as a research fellow focused on technology policy before leaving to co-found a VC-backed tech startup. After five years it failed. Now it seems difficult to find a place which needs my mix of skills, a combination of communication and technical. I don't know if it's my unusual career path or someth…

This is the time to try your hand at entrepreneurship again. Most private investors I know are investing purposefully right now. Forget VCs and bootstrap - build the future you want - show you have grit. I work with a lot of exited bootstrapped founders and many of us are excited for the future. Most are not willing to struggle, sacrifice, survive, and grind for a decade or more. Be the exception and build sustainabl…

Thank you for the encouragement. I don't have an idea I'm sufficiently excited about, but the longer I'm unemployed the more I begin considering them.
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