Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break • Hacker News Board

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#411

Post by tracker1 » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 4:20 PM UTC

solaire_oa wrote: post #273

chis wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't really agree. I mean you scroll 1 paragraph down and it says he worked a Google Deepmind, that's really all I'd need to see. I think the market is just super hard for new grads. I've heard from people that had to apply to hundreds of companies and do 20+ interviews to get something. Totally agree that this guy could write books though. On some level I always wonder if it'll be better for society if the next g…

You say that you can't really agree [about the resume being poorly formatted from having too much text?], but then you agree that there's too much text (if all you need to see is the 1 item of "Google", then you're saying there's firmly too much text, like 95% of the resume is useless). Also consider that the resume has too much text in a pre-LLM world (e.g. this submitter doesn't structure documents for consumption…

I'm not sure if this is a good approach or not.. but I've started just exploding my resume out, then feeding it to an LLM to create a job-specific version a few times... I'll edit the job-specific version a bit, which does cut things down.

I don't know it's helped or hurt, as I've only gotten a response from about 1:50 that I sent out before or since I made the shift and I know the job market sucks.

I still need to flush out some of the prior jobs in terms of older history, projects and accomplishments. I've done a lot of contract work in 6-12 month segments in the past three decades... It's kind of wild to look back on the shear variety, scale, scope and size of some of the things I've done and worked on.

At this point, I'm not sure if it's luck, ageism or just the number of short stints in my past... but It's a weird feeling in recent job market that I haven't felt in decades. 5 years ago, it felt like I was being overwhelmed when I wasn't even looking... today it's a mess.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#412

Post by ForHackernews » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 4:40 PM UTC

mike_hearn wrote: post #47

Great article, well written. I'd certainly consider interviewing this guy - if I was hiring. Based on the other comments it's worth noting a few things: 1. Ahmed seems to be in the UK, not the USA. H1Bs don't affect him. This isn't obvious because he talks about the USA. However, the mass immigration into the UK might have impacted him by saturating the low skill markets such that everyone else has to fight over the…

It's hard to fault a young CS student for focusing on AI (that's where all the hype is) but there is a certain irony that he'd probably be more employable if he had some experience working on Boring Line of Business (BLOB) apps. The tech industry will probably always have orders of magnitude more "can you make this CSV/XML/JSON format slightly different" jobs than frontier AI gigs.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#413

Post by triceratops » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 4:40 PM UTC

yadaeno wrote: post #206

Buttons840 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have more than my fair share of complaints about Trump, but I did like the idea of charging $100,000 per year for every H1B visa. It would have ultimately helped American workers by giving them more negotiating power and higher salaries. So, naturally, Trump was talked out of doing it yearly and it looks like it's legally questionable whether it will stand-up at all. It appears things worked out in a way that benef…

A much better solution is something like the hire act.

The solution is obviously tariffing lines of code.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#414

Post by manyaoman » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 4:45 PM UTC

urlahmed wrote: post #175

Hey all, OP here (author of the blog post, someone else submitted it ). I wrote this a few days ago mostly out of frustration and honestly did not expect it to go anywhere. It is pretty surreal to wake up and see it on HN with so much discussion. Thank you for reading and for all the comments, messages, and thoughtful critiques. I am currently looking for roles that sit at the intersection of ML, product, and researc…

Fascinating article, it really got me thinking if I'm “out of distribution” enough. Also wild that this could have been a scifi essay just three years ago.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#415

Post by vkou » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 4:48 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #383

vkou wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of real people will the average new grad have in their network? A bunch of other new grads, all in a cage match over entry level that don't exist? Where are the nativists, and why aren't they demanding a $100,000/license tax on AI?

If they are worthy, they will have parents who have influential friends and family. Or if they have parents who have influential friends and family, they are worthy.

That works for people coming from upper-quintile backgrounds. What about the other 80% of the population, and any hope of social mobility for them?

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#416

Post by ForHackernews » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 5:11 PM UTC

insane_dreamer wrote: post #75

The same BigTech that for the past couple of decades have loudly proclaimed "go to a good college and get a degree in CS and you'll get a decent job" have now betrayed those who followed their advice. It's heartbreaking. It's not just this fellow. I'm hearing it from friends and relatives whose children are new grads in CS, cyber-security or and similar fields.

BigTech were not running bootcamps out of the kindness of their hearts. Employers have always wanted to expand the supply of labor so the price goes down.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#417

Post by jfewhfuehg » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 5:28 PM UTC

coolThingsFirst wrote: post #407

jfewhfuehg wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Even as DEI hire, DeepMind would get thousands upon thousands of applicants so he would still need to better than the other applicants.

[flagged]

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#418

Post by vablings » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 5:34 PM UTC

jfewhfuehg wrote: post #329

tionate wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It mentions DeepMind but also says Research Ready, which is the program funded by DeepMind but run by unis for disadvantaged students. That said I have no idea how competitive this program is.

>disadvantaged students That's what it says on paper but that's not reality. If you are asian you are suddenly not disadvantaged even if you are an immigrant. It is just legal racism. The fact that employers even get to play games like this tells you a lot about our current situation ironically.

"Disadvantaged" is not something that is defined purely by race (atleast in the UK) The key factors that are considered in your university application are all pretty much pure contextual factors IE; income, poor academic performance family history of higher education etc..

If you are of Asian descent in the UK the biggest factors to determine if your going to get into a program like this is not your skin color. Its an evaluation of you and your family's history and providing ascent to people less fortunate.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#419

Post by vablings » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 5:46 PM UTC

ares623 wrote: post #35

aresant wrote: post #21

"Teleoperation makes this even stranger. . . There are people in one country sitting at desks, driving forklifts in another country . . . It feels like immigration without immigrants." This is a fascinating point - if Neo / Tesla deliver a teleoperated hybrid at their These are being pitched as "home robots" but clearly corporations will go all in - 24/7 operation (with multiple remote operators), no labor law / heal…

I'm not so sure. The tech to do this has been around for ages, and it still hasn't happened. So I'm thinking there's something else preventing companies from going this direction. My uneducated guess is that if a remote operator has a bad day, there is nothing stopping them from doing damage on potentially sensitive and expensive assets and then disappearing in a country with lax enforcement. Also, after a certain po…

I disagree. The advent of high-speed internet in poorer countries is only something that has taken place in the past 10 years and it's only going to get worse.

This is almost like a second stage of the manufacturing revolution that happened with the advent of computer numerical control and generally the digitization of the so-called engineering "stack"

Right now, the pipeline is looking super gross for anyone apart from hyper-capitalists, but then again what meat is left to pick off the bone? Pretty much everything is overseas nowadays anyways

- Engineering Prototype is done domestically

- Verification is offshored to low-rate engineers

- Final CAD drawings are offshored

- Final Assembly instructions are offshored

- Production line is designed domestically

- Production line is assembled offshore

- Production is manufactured and shipped domestically at the lowest rate

- Said product is handled in a warehouse that is operated by offshored teleoperators

- Customer support for the end user is offshored

- RMA process is non-existent therefore replacement is offshored

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#420

Post by vablings » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 5:48 PM UTC

physicsguy wrote: post #396

silisili wrote: post #18

Not understanding the 'I did everything right and look what happened' intro, though certainly not a unique feeling. Tech hiring slowed at the tail end of 21 and the mass layoffs started in 22, 4 and 3 years ago respectively. Studying to go into a market in an obvious downswing has predictable results. Not that you should give up, but it's going to be switch majors or ride out the downturn. And that's not unique to no…

> switch majors or ride out the downturn You can't really do this in the UK where the author is based, it is very difficult. You are normally basically committed to a certain course of study after Year 1.

Student finance will only pay for X years of education based on your program. If you switch after first year expect to be paying the bill out of pocket for the first year of your new course, if you can stomach that you are in the clear.