Everyone’s been rejected – these are our stories • Hacker News Board

Re: Everyone’s been rejected – these are our stories

#201

Post by will_pseudonym » Wed, Dec 16, 2015, 8:09 PM UTC

zeroxfe wrote: post #184

will_pseudonym wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun thought experiment: all this information is publicly available, and we're okay with it as evidenced by the fact that we're participating freely in the activity. You're not bothered by algorithms (maybe you are, but you're not writing about it, so from this context you're less bothered) that can analyze data and language and patterns of communication, but you do have a problem with a human trying to understand the…

> Fun thought experiment: all this information is publicly available, and we're okay with it as evidenced by the fact that we're participating freely in the activity. Spoken like a true stalker. > You're not bothered by algorithms (maybe you are, but you're not writing about it, so from this context you're less bothered) that can analyze data and language and patterns of communication, but you do have a problem with…

> There is a difference between machines aggregating large datasets and individuals directly targeting other individuals.

Could you help me understand the difference? Don't humans have access to the incredible output of those algorithms?

Re: Everyone’s been rejected – these are our stories

#202

Post by huac » Wed, Dec 16, 2015, 9:45 PM UTC

aikah wrote: post #137

minikites wrote: post #104

Oh no, highly skilled mostly white males experiencing temporary setbacks, won't anyone think about how hard they have it? They made it eventually and you can too! Never mind the dozens of stories without a happy ending as whole groups of people get funneled into the "discouraged worker" pool to keep them out of the U3 unemployment rate. I wish more effort like this was put into mentoring/training/recruiting underrepr…

> Oh no, highly skilled mostly white males experiencing temporary setbacks, Here comes the racist right here. people get rejected all the time even when they are white, in fact, most of the people that get rejected for a job are white. I think you do not fool anyone anymore with this kind of narrative. It's tough for everybody, so don't make it about race or gender. Stop complaining and try harder. And FYI, I'm black…

The parent post is a bit over the top, but you miss the point too - it's insulting to expect minorities to listen to the stories of predominating white males succeeding despite rejection and ignore the injustices in society that can contribute. If it's hard for everyone, let's have more stories from those who 'look like' everyone. Claiming that 'most of the people who are rejected are white' as a reason to not need more minority stories ignores the relative chances - are similarly qualified white and minority developers hired at the same rate?

This is similar to the model minority myth - "Asians work hard and are successful, so why aren't you?" Well, let's see some stories - and not just the token Latino dude.

Re: Everyone’s been rejected – these are our stories

#203

Post by kamaal » Wed, Dec 16, 2015, 10:04 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #113

thewarrior wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working for 2+ decades while making something like $150k+ a year on average over the long term , and retiring with substantial savings , without having worked 100 hour weeks on the startup lottery , sounds pretty awesome to me. Don't know maybe I'm not elite founder material.

Different strokes for different folks. Some people use airplanes for transportation, others go skydiving. The start-up lottery is a very fast way to learn a lot and probably not earn much, think of it as a school rather than a money making machine and it makes a lot more sense. If you then later apply all that you learned during those years in a non-start-up context you may still come out ahead.

>>If you then later apply all that you learned during those years in a non-start-up context you may still come out ahead.

Unless the start up had something to do with politics, and you learned a lot about politics, you can't use any of your skills(related to actual work) to 'come out ahead' in a big company.

Re: Everyone’s been rejected – these are our stories

#204

Post by kamaal » Wed, Dec 16, 2015, 10:10 PM UTC

fffrad wrote: post #85

It's interesting how in our current time, if you work at Twitter, facebook, google, or a famous start up, it is synonymous to "I made it".

That's always been the case since as long as history can go.

How do you they could get that many slaves to build the pyramids?

Re: Everyone’s been rejected – these are our stories

#205

Post by ryandrake » Wed, Dec 16, 2015, 11:41 PM UTC

I'd guess that over my nearly 20 year career, I've been rejected from more companies than most HNers have even applied to. I've listened to tons of employers tell me what they think I'm not capable of, and that was back when you would actually get personalized feedback from a failed interview. My grades, my lack of a "prestigious" education, my technical skills, my people skills, my background, my previous employment history, my potential, and, of course, the catch-all "cultural fit" have all been used as reasons that Company X was sure I'm an idiot. I don't let interview rejections bother me for even a millisecond anymore--it doesn't mean anything whatsoever, and I'm convinced getting hired at any given company is more of a dice roll than anything else.

Re: Everyone’s been rejected – these are our stories

#206

Post by devsquid » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 1:26 AM UTC

vonmoltke wrote: post #152

relkor wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't know why this is being downvoted, it certainly resonates with my experience. I write C by day, but I found that making a webapp that compared offers w/ cost of living and tax treatment to be an eye opener. I learned a great deal about how the internet works from just that weekend project, and I would heartily recommend making a webapp. Like it or not, HTML/CSS/JS is about as cross platform as C (don't do anythi…

It's "Dude you'll always have to do something with HTML/CSS/JS." that is attracting the downvotes. That is a thoroughly web-centric view of of the world. Some people never write software with graphical interfaces at all, let alone a web-based one. I never touched a GUI (LabView doesn't count :P) until about nine months ago, and I have been writing code full-time for over seven years and intermittently for over thirte…

I'm not a web developer and it seems a pretty common experience among application developers. Its certainly been mine.

"That is a thoroughly web-centric view of of the world." oh geezzz..... ◔_◔

Re: Everyone’s been rejected – these are our stories

#207

Post by devsquid » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 1:27 AM UTC

Retra wrote: post #173

relkor wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't know why this is being downvoted, it certainly resonates with my experience. I write C by day, but I found that making a webapp that compared offers w/ cost of living and tax treatment to be an eye opener. I learned a great deal about how the internet works from just that weekend project, and I would heartily recommend making a webapp. Like it or not, HTML/CSS/JS is about as cross platform as C (don't do anythi…

I've never had to write a single line of HTML/CSS/JS at work. There's a lot of software in the world that isn't web based. Hardware, operating systems, databases, AI, libraries, languages, compilers. There isn't a computer on this planet that functions without these things.

I'm not a web developer and it seems a pretty common experience among application developers. Its certainly been mine.

Re: Everyone’s been rejected – these are our stories

#208

Post by fitzgeraldthe1 » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 1:37 AM UTC

steven2012 wrote: post #66

Someone I know at Facebook said that they have something called "Overheard at Campus" or something like that, where people post funny things they hear on campus. They said that recently one of the posts was: "I am going into an interview. I am pissed. It's gonna be a reject from me." Which pretty much underscores how interviewing appears to be these days, especially at a company like Facebook.

Sounds like a joke.

Re: Everyone’s been rejected – these are our stories

#209

Post by nailer » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 7:56 AM UTC

copperx wrote: post #2

It's interesting how all these top companies insist on JS expertise, I didn't know that it was so important for an interview and that's something I need to work on.

Author of project is part of JS community on Twitter.

Re: Everyone’s been rejected – these are our stories

#210

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 12:05 PM UTC

kamaal wrote: post #203

jacquesm wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different strokes for different folks. Some people use airplanes for transportation, others go skydiving. The start-up lottery is a very fast way to learn a lot and probably not earn much, think of it as a school rather than a money making machine and it makes a lot more sense. If you then later apply all that you learned during those years in a non-start-up context you may still come out ahead.

>>If you then later apply all that you learned during those years in a non-start-up context you may still come out ahead. Unless the start up had something to do with politics, and you learned a lot about politics, you can't use any of your skills(related to actual work) to 'come out ahead' in a big company.

If all you learn in a start-up has to do with politics you're doing something very wrong.