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Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

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Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#21

Post by infinitone »

jarsin wrote: post #12

I wouldnt worry about getting passed up by the bigger companies. Everyone knows their interview processes are highly dysfunctional jokes. Then most startup companies copy them because they all think they are going to be the next google etc. My last interview at amazon went like this: Stupid trick coding question over the phone that I did not understand at all. Followed by 3 memorization questions. followed by one que…

I did the new grad assessment test last week for Amazon, I am more than positive I aced both sections, especially the coding questions (passed all tests). Yet somehow I still didn't advance. I have other interviews in the pipeline that were way tougher and I didn't get the solutions 100% yet I still advanced.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#22

Post by fichtl80 »

So many sad recruiting stories ...

Some thoughts/tipps: Start your interview with: "I happy to be here ... am really nervous, i couldn't sleep last night." ... that removes questions marks in recruiters had about your eyes.

Don't tell em about xanax, better, don't use it.

@pookieinc 3+ years are not impressive ... i code for 15 years and possibly the guy who are you talking about your job too ... so don't behave like the god of coding.

@pXMzR2A 270+ job applications ... hmm your resume must be shit or you apply for jobs you are not qualified for ... i would love to see it, there must be a major bug in it :)

... and btw. congrats and merry christmas

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#23

Post by kachhalimbu »

k__ wrote: post #17
pookieinc wrote: post #11

JS + Ruby/Rails dev here w/ 3+ years experience under belt. Currently looking for job myself and have been for about 3 months. Funny how, like OP, my resume and exp. is "very impressive", yet it doesn't lead anywhere, not even to a phone interview sometimes. I'm attempting the numbers game approach (apply for 100 companies, 5 will get back to you, select from those 5), but I've hit the edge of: what if there are none…

3 years are impressive?

Well it is not the years but what you do in those that matters. I hope parent comments doesn't means 1 year experience repeated for years.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#24

Post by pcthrowaway »

a3n wrote: post #7
wallflower wrote: post #5

Congrats! Good luck! Re crippling anxiety - I highly recommend improv classes.

I indirectly second that. A colleague took improv classes for vaguely similar reasons, and he had a positive and helpful experience. Great username for this particular post.

Well if you're going to use silly tags like '/s' on Hacker News, you may as well make them SGML compliant

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#25

Post by dvirsky »

pXMzR2A wrote: post #16

I don't suffer from anxiety. In the last 8 months, I have submitted 270+ job applications, received 3 interviews, got rejected by all three, none of which were high reputation companies. Great to hear you had a success! :)

Did you ask for anyone to look at your CV and help you improve it maybe? For what it's worth, I'm not in HR but I interview a lot of people and see a lot of CVs (not hiring currently though). You can send me your CV privately if you want some feedback.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#26

Post by kolbe »

Congratulations. Regarding the crippling anxiety: I was the same way from college until a couple years ago. I couldn't, for the life of me, get a good night of rest on the nights before an important event. But simply changing up my diet[1] fixed that problem very quickly. It's worth a shot for you to look into doing that. I know how destructive and terrible it feels to be unable to rest properly.

[1] Specifically, I cut out wheat and corn altogether, reduced my carbohydrate intake to less than 50g a day, and never ate anything with added sugars.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#27

Post by raverbashing »

I think the job market is eating itself up.

This year I sent tons of CVs, very few responses, a lot of technical tests, some interviews where "you don't fit the profile"

Companies usually like me when I start working for them, but to "cross the chasm" is hard.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#28

Post by mgkimsal »

A lot of software companies seem to have a set of conflicting beliefs.

1 Iterative/agile software development. YAGNI. Build the bare minimum, then iterate when you learn more.

2. Hire slow, fire fast.

A really agile org would be hiring fast too. Now... I know a lot of this has to do with labor laws - hiring an actual employee brings extra baggage. And in the US at least, more people may want to be employees for reasons like health insurance.

Even with those considerations, companies should be bringing on more short term contractors, and the ones that work out stay longer. The ones that don't, for whatever reason, move on.

The same teams that will say "YAGNI, just build XYZ, ship it, etc" - iow, just get stuff out the door - will hem and haw and take forever looking for a perfect candidate that, in reality, doesn't even exist.

It's early in the morning, this sort of makes sense in my head, but I may not quite be making sense. But it's still a seeming conflict that bugs me.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#30

Post by mhurron »

cj wrote: post #10

Congrats on the new job! > I suffer from crippling anxiety [...] foggy Xanax brain. Consider asking your doctor about propranolol. It's a safe, non-addictive beta-blocker often used to treat high blood pressure, but it also eliminates the peripheral nervous system response to anxiety, the "fight-or-flight" adrenaline rush feeling: racing heart, shortness of breath, inability to concentrate, shaking, sweaty hands, blu…

You forgot to list the possible side-effects.

"Crack may cause shivers, night terrors, gay-for-pay, heart palpitations, homicidal paranoia or the sensation that you're on fire. Peeing blood and seeing friends' faces as talking skeletons are possible side effects of crack.

People who use crack may also experience 5-7 years in prison where brutal raping may occur. If you experience one or more of these side effects, consult your dealer. You may need more crack.

Crack. Isn't it time you see what all the fuss is about?"

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