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Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

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Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#51
post #38

Really, really, really bad. I'm a full stack engineer. I took part of the last 4 years "off" due to having savings and finally settling down to pursue my own SaaS attempt. I've been back in the job market since the beginning of the year. I've probably sent out well over a hundred resumes (definitely over this number since I was keeping track until recently). I had a brief respite when I picked up a temp contract but…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#52
post #38

Really, really, really bad. I'm a full stack engineer. I took part of the last 4 years "off" due to having savings and finally settling down to pursue my own SaaS attempt. I've been back in the job market since the beginning of the year. I've probably sent out well over a hundred resumes (definitely over this number since I was keeping track until recently). I had a brief respite when I picked up a temp contract but…

Have you tried working with recruiters? In my experience applying directly might as well be sending your resume directly into a black hole. If you turn on the “looking for work” setting on linked in you’ll probably get plenty of opportunities to interview. I was interviewing in the spring and I had a few interviews lined up within a week this way.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#53
Really slow, more than anything. My own perspective is as a senior technical product manager, mainly dev tools experience, some entrepreneurship, plus coding. I'm only looking for all-remote roles. I've always been a little bit of a unique combo of skills, but for companies that need someone like me, I'm perfect. Now I'm finding there aren't too many jobs posted, that response rates are low, and then hire rates are low at the end of the interview process.

I think that the low hire rate comes down to more competition, plus some larger companies maybe have zombie hiring processes where the effort to hire someone continues, but if they find someone the funding disappears.

I've been trying to supplement with consulting, but I don't have any experience selling myself in that way so progress has been slow. In the meantime I am looking ay it as a good investment to get some experience on that front.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#54
Terrible (I'm available, React, TS, Python, DevOps and prod support experience. You can find my contacts if you click on my username).

I'm curious why you're asking though? Wanting to switch and testing the water? Looking yourself and having a hard time?

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#55
post #2

Its even worse than dot bomb (2000-2004) however is it all github copilot eating these jobs? I think some, but also with the success with remote work I image most roles were simply sent out of the US, and could be an outsourced team with extra help from copilot and other tools.

> Its even worse than dot bomb (2000-2004)

I don't know about that, companies were imploding left and right overnight. Stocks losing 99% of "value" etc.

With that said, this is the worse I've seen since that time, but really can't say it's worse than dot com meltdown.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#56
post #6

Seems like a lot of unicorn hunting out there, right now. At least for senior data leadership roles, I’ve hit a lot of JDs that were clearly written for one person (either internally, or the random Meta/Google/whatever layoff that this company is sure will take a 75% salary cut for). Networking has been really invaluable. ATS systems seem slightly more inscrutable than when I was looking two years ago (wonder if ther…

> Seems like a lot of unicorn hunting out there, right now.

Agreed, and I feel this is happening across job families - JDs seem much more domain-specific, especially around ML/AI. I don’t remember it being like this. Yes, there is absolutely a distinction between someone working Eng in payments vs infra vs ML, but I remember those being nice-to-haves, not requisites.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#57
post #47
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would that work? They have to get interviewed by the hiring company. I've never gotten to that stage via these 3rd party recruiters.

It was discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32996953

Thank you for finding it. Yes, this is the discussion that I saw at the time.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#58
(Aus) Going poorly for me. Started my current job a year or so ago, been looking to leave since. Probably into the 100s of applications in the last 12 months now; I will apply for most anything with a tech fit even if (for e.g.) a role requires on-site that I'm not interested in, just to try and get a feel for the market by whether or not I get at least a screening call. I've had 2 final stage interviews: knocked back in one and dropped out of the other (red flags). Have also had 2-3 applications get a "this role now on hold, soz" response. So I'm getting just enough interest to keep hope alive. Even the steady stream of LinkedIn PMs for vaguely-related jobs has dried up.

I touched up the resume a little bit but otherwise I'm not doing anything a whole lot differently. I was almost allowing myself to quit this ass job if I instead got some vendor certs, but I'm increasingly concerned that a decent job market might years away, not months, so the suffering continues. :)

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#59
post #38

Really, really, really bad. I'm a full stack engineer. I took part of the last 4 years "off" due to having savings and finally settling down to pursue my own SaaS attempt. I've been back in the job market since the beginning of the year. I've probably sent out well over a hundred resumes (definitely over this number since I was keeping track until recently). I had a brief respite when I picked up a temp contract but…

Is location a factor in your search. I'm seeing some openings around bay area but all remote opportunities have dried up.

Re: Ask HN: How's your job search going in this current economy?

#60
Bad.

DevOps/Software Engineer with 20+ years experience. ~100 applications this year, a good number of interviews, but no offers yet. (2.5 calls this week scheduled)

It seems I either get:

- proto-startups with ~5 people and no concrete revenue stream, or

- 5k-person enterprises who want someone with a very specific skillset

Both are fine, but they're picky... as am I, so I'm doing my own consulting for a bit.

What happened to startups? What happened to the thousands of 50-300 person companies who need tech work done? The other day a headhunter called me... because they were bored! Rather different from last year when they were juggling 4-5 excited companies in front of me.

Given my experience, I'll be giving a "Fast Developer/Startup" class to a number of companies. That'll turn into a day-long workshop that will be very valuable :)

Strategies:

- DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY

- find roles on e.g. LinkedIn, but _never_ do "fast apply": go to the company's site and apply directly

- use a "highlight positives/negatives" tool to draw certain words in a web page different colors. By interactively seeing a mass of green (or orange) you can quickly make a YES or NO decision on a role. I adore the Chrome plugin Highlight This -- https://highlightthis.net/

- apply for jobs on a schedule (e.g. Mon-Wed-Fri), don't just struggle for hours at a time, it's soul-sucking.

- do Studying (job-related tech) interspersed with Fun Programming (generative art!) -- have fun!

- take care of your health and family, go outside and take walks

- DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY

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