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Tell HN: I'm having the worst career winter of my life

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Re: Tell HN: I'm having the worst career winter of my life

#41

Post by immibis »

daviddever23box wrote: post #7

Domain-specific knowledge, having no relation to software engineering per se, is a necessary skill set. The best analogy I can find, if not a tired one, is the equivalence of software engineering to tool-and-die making. In prior generations where manufacturing was king, it was a necessary operational skill set in order to produce things at scale, yet is much less (if no longer) relevant in the age of additive or subt…

Quality still matters sometimes. You can make a lot of things by AI, but you can't make them good. The same is true of 3D printing.

Also 3D printing is good at making unique objects, but if you want to make ten thousand of the same object, you definitely need someone who knows the "old" ways. They're not irrelevant at all. And you can even use a 3D printer to help make your tools and dies.

Re: Tell HN: I'm having the worst career winter of my life

#42

Post by andyjohnson0 »

If the op is looking only for remote roles then I'd emphasise that competition for these is extremely high. My advice would be to broaden your search to include hybrid and-in person roles.

I wish that rto was being handled with more flexibility and empathy, and I appreciate that travelling to work can be very difficult to reconcile with location and parental/caring responsibilities, but this is unfortunately where we are.

I'd also recommend looking beyond startups and pure software/tech companies. There are many businesses in eg manufacturing, or in less mainstream locations, that struggle to hire decent devs.

For context: I'm a UK-based developer and have recent experience of a fairly substantial period of unemployment. I now have a job with a great business, but also with a substantial commute.

Re: Tell HN: I'm having the worst career winter of my life

#44

Post by throw-the-towel »

mariogintili wrote: post #4
xnorswap wrote: post #2

I'm fortunate to still be in a role, but I've always kept an eye out for other opportunities, and it looks very rough out there in the UK job market. I don't know if companies are just in a "wait and see" stance to see the effect of AI coding agents, or if it's the sign of a wider slowdown. 100% remote is also a tough ask. I've noticed increasingly job roles are listed as 2-3 days in the office as companies awkwardly…

The UK market is doing poorly but I changed to a commute where 3 days a week is unrealistic. I can be onsite once a month :)

I'm sorry if I'm being too blunt, but it looks like you just cannot afford that location any more. It could really be wise to consider moving.

Re: Tell HN: I'm having the worst career winter of my life

#45

Post by ecshafer »

mariogintili wrote: post #36
chvid wrote: post #29

Stop chasing remote roles - show up at the office and then maybe go remote after a while.

I'm open to be partially onsite

Beggars can't be choosers. If you are having the worst career winter of your life shouldn't you be taking whatever you can get? Whether its 5 days a week in office or full remote or anything in between?

Re: Tell HN: I'm having the worst career winter of my life

#46

Post by rep_movsd »

mariogintili wrote: post #28
paxys wrote: post #22

Remember that for remote roles you are competing against the best talent in the world, and most of them can afford to work for a tiny fraction of what you are asking for. There are still plenty of jobs at local software shops, banks, consulting firms, hospitals, government agencies and more, and you are at the front of the line for all of those. A lot of them enforce as little as 2-3 days in the office. Apply there i…

I applied for those(hybrid), still the same reach :(

Just out of curiosity, what is the reasonable range of pay for an engineer of your caliber in the UK?

Re: Tell HN: I'm having the worst career winter of my life

#47

Post by pluc »

TekMol wrote: post #35

Why is Hacker News so interested in regular software jobs? Isn't the idea of the site to "hack" as in thinking outside the box, building your own projects and companies, doing things in interesting new ways?

Because having a golden cushion on which to rest and create isn't something most people have.

Re: Tell HN: I'm having the worst career winter of my life

#48

Post by mariogintili »

TekMol wrote: post #35

Why is Hacker News so interested in regular software jobs? Isn't the idea of the site to "hack" as in thinking outside the box, building your own projects and companies, doing things in interesting new ways?

That was back then when we were in our infancy as an industry and everything was about spitting out some cool graphics in less than 100 lines of JavaScript

Right now(specially looking at the world economy) It's all about getting yourself a nice, stable placement.

I haven't stopped hacking away, but I need an income

Re: Tell HN: I'm having the worst career winter of my life

#49

Post by ecshafer »

mariogintili wrote: post #39
blargthorwars wrote: post #17

Remote role? Why would anybody pay UK wages instead of $developing_country wages?

Honestly, like the international landscape for salaries has kind off like normalised itself. Wages for SWEs are more or less the same across the globe when you look at remote work. Intelligent people are cutting costs instead of trying to earn more money

In the US I have noticed that the tier 2/3 tech cities SWE salaries seemed to raise a bit with covid and level off. The Tier 1 tech cities they seem to (outside of AI) have dropped a bit after the covid boom amid massive layoffs. Remote seems to be kind of independent of location but I see some remote places paying more Tier 2/3 level salaries

Re: Tell HN: I'm having the worst career winter of my life

#50

Post by OutOfHere »

TekMol wrote: post #35

Why is Hacker News so interested in regular software jobs? Isn't the idea of the site to "hack" as in thinking outside the box, building your own projects and companies, doing things in interesting new ways?

Agreed, although the issue is that it's damn difficult to find something real that is at the intersection of: (1) pleasing users, (2) making them pay, (3) actually being useful, (4) being possible to get off the ground without a multi-year investment in time or money, and (5) remaining profitable or even revenue-generating for at least say three years before competition or evolution gets to it. It's a lot easier to hack something nice when you don't have to sell it.
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