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Panic at the Job Market

matt.sh

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Re: Panic at the Job Market

#341

Post by bpm140 »

ricardobayes wrote: post #292
evrimoztamur wrote: post #23

I will add my two cents for people who believe that this might be related only to the SWE and tangent industries: It's really not. I have many friends (in Europe) who are trying to get through to different jobs in unrelated industries ranging from finance to fashion, or just trying to get promoted vertically (or horizontally), failing rather miserably. Most jobs are now hoops after hoops, not taking into consideratio…

Incidentally, I read a post today which swore that the only way to get hired is NOT to rely on network. Because hiring managers receive so many applications if you don't get your app in the first 24 hours it's guaranteed to be rejected. I think the network thing works only for smaller companies.

Not relying on your network sounds like terrible advice.

Employee: “Hello, hiring manager. I know an incredible candidate for that job we posted last week.”

Hiring manager: “Thanks, employee, but we have hundreds of resumes from strangers, so we don’t need to talk to your contact.”

I’m not saying that never happens? But I am saying that it happens rarely enough that you shouldn’t use it to guide your networking strategy.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#342

Post by beacon294 »

OP, one common mistake is overthinking the interview process. I know it is bullshit, but it helps to think of it as an adjacent but mainly orthogonal skill to everyday work.

I am also allergic to playing the game, but I got ground down in my twenties and now I am happier than ever simply accepting the imperfections of the world, and sometimes even getting a chance to improve part of one.

Try applying the midwit meme from your post to the interview process "If I get hired, it worked."

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#343

Post by cooolbear »

Why is it so hard to make software developer jobs that are humane and dignified, where you cooperate with people to make interesting and useful things that also provide a decent living? The bloat of VC and the expectation for company profit and 'generated wealth per worker' has such terrible implications for salaries and expected duties.

Ah! It's greed once again!

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#344

Post by ericskiff »

Aurornis wrote: post #294
evrimoztamur wrote: post #23

I will add my two cents for people who believe that this might be related only to the SWE and tangent industries: It's really not. I have many friends (in Europe) who are trying to get through to different jobs in unrelated industries ranging from finance to fashion, or just trying to get promoted vertically (or horizontally), failing rather miserably. Most jobs are now hoops after hoops, not taking into consideratio…

> Most jobs are now hoops after hoops, not taking into consideration your particular profile or the contributions you can make. I’ve done some mentoring of CS grads for the past few years. We some times get people with unreasonable interview demands, like companies asking them to make an entire app or website for the interview process. We advise them to decline the really excessive ones. However, it’s rare to see tha…

For over 10 years we've had people do a paid ~4 hr take-home which is very similar to the work they'll actually be doing (here's a dummy codebase, add a few features fix a few bugs).

If they're not interested in getting paid to do that work now, it's a good signal for us that they won't be happy doing it when they're working with us. It's helped us find really wonderful people to work with.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#345

Post by saganus »

trogdor wrote: post #228
morgante wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absurd. He has no concept of market rates (and frankly I'm unsurprised that he's not getting hired if his expectations are this out of whack). His resume even confirms this[0], because he seemingly thinks the appropriate level at FAANG would be L10 which is extremely rare . There is a 0% chance that his experience would level him that high. The entire article can be chocked up to a massively inflated sense of en…

Oh. My. God. His resume starts with a quote of himself stating that he has “seen things you people wouldn't believe.” It goes on to highlight that he purchased a domain name in 1997. He claims to have developed “the highest performing in-memory database in the world” but complains that “nobody really wants to buy it when free worse performing choies [sic] exist.” The part about nobody wanting to buy his product is in…

I don't think it's satire.

The "Experience" section looks like a big complain about the world not recognizing his genius.

I really don't think a lot people would call him for an interview just by looking at this resume.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#346

Post by rustcleaner »

Working as a graveyard security guard for california-equivalent minimum wage beats working your butt off in retail or a warehouse for the same slim pickings. Bonus: literally nothing going on 90% of the time so could skill up or just piss-off.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#347

Post by notaustinpowers »

Aurornis wrote: post #294
evrimoztamur wrote: post #23

I will add my two cents for people who believe that this might be related only to the SWE and tangent industries: It's really not. I have many friends (in Europe) who are trying to get through to different jobs in unrelated industries ranging from finance to fashion, or just trying to get promoted vertically (or horizontally), failing rather miserably. Most jobs are now hoops after hoops, not taking into consideratio…

> Most jobs are now hoops after hoops, not taking into consideration your particular profile or the contributions you can make. I’ve done some mentoring of CS grads for the past few years. We some times get people with unreasonable interview demands, like companies asking them to make an entire app or website for the interview process. We advise them to decline the really excessive ones. However, it’s rare to see tha…

I remember I once applied for a job that was entry level mortgage customer service or something like that, paying just $45k/yr, can't remember exactly. I had to go through 5 interviews over the course of 4 weeks, with the final interview being with the VP of Marketing. Got the job offer, was waiting for the paperwork, and was called the next day that they are actually going on a hiring freeze and cannot hire me.

It was absolute buffoonery to me. Why on God's green earth is the Vice President of Marketing interviewing the candidate for an entry level customer service position? Especially after I already interviewed with an HR rep, the Head of HR, and the Team Manager before them. Do they not trust their team?

It makes me feel like these interviews are just to make management feel important again since it was a WFH role.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#348

Post by joha4270 »

ajkjk wrote: post #190
caesil wrote: post #53

>According to all the interviews I’ve failed over the years (I don’t think I’ve ever passed an actual “coding interview” anywhere?), the entire goal of tech hiring is just finding people in the 100 to 115 midwit block then outright rejecting everybody else as too much of an unknown risk. As a (now) senior/staff-level engineer back out on the job market for the first time in a while, I'm begrudgingly coming to accept…

Imo, there are two kinds of programmers: people who can write code to build stuff, and people who can write code to build stuff and are also conversationally fluent in the theory behind writing code. The second group is 5x more useful than the first, and coding interviews are testing which group you're in. Often the first group doesn't think the extra skill of fluency is important, which is fine, think what you want,…

Could you expand on what

> conversationally fluent in the theory behind writing code

means?

It might be my insufficient command of the English language, or I might be outing myself as being outside said group, but I'm unsure what that means. Is this just referring to a vocabulary for discussing the structure and creation of software, or is there a deeper mystery I have not yet grasped?

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#349

Post by downrightmike »

heymijo wrote: post #107
Matticus_Rex wrote: post #15

Wild that explanations of the tech job market like this are still being written without referencing the tax consequences of Section 174 changes.

TL;DR on Section 174, Research & Experimentation costs went from being fully deductible in the year incurred to being deductible over a 5 year period. Larger tax bills and a tightening on what roles/activities are deductible as R&E are likely what OP is pointing at with his comment. To the best of my non-inside baseball research, Section 174 changes were simply one part of a package of revenue generating measures to…

The entire history of at least the USA is that if conservatives want something, it will have extremely large negative consequences down the road for many years to come.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#350

Post by downrightmike »

aantix wrote: post #54
Matticus_Rex wrote: post #15

Wild that explanations of the tech job market like this are still being written without referencing the tax consequences of Section 174 changes.

Will Trump reverse these changes? Will he lower interest rates?

The market is down this week because it is already anticipating the market will tank if he gets in because of these policies he would enact.
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