Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I automated my job application process

blog.daviddodda.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

781–790 of 884 posts

Re: I automated my job application process

#781

Post by dennis_jeeves2 »

rockemsockem wrote: post #684
dennis_jeeves2 wrote: post #646

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There is a shortage of good tech workers. I wish someone quantified what 'good' is. Ask 2 tech workers to rate each other and they are most likely to rate each other mediocre by each's standards. Each would nitpick on what the other didn't know.

If they're both nitpicking then they are in fact both mediocre at best.

You cannot say either way. There was a point I was trying to get at: Devs access each other just as several religions people do : one's own religion is the best, and that there cannot be any other right way to do things. This why the whole hiring/interview process is broken.

Re: I automated my job application process

#783

Post by semiquaver »

benhurmarcel wrote: post #623
biztos wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "can't afford to?" Because you can't possibly mean you think candidates are going to fly out for an interview at their own expense. Traditionally (i.e. pre-Covid) flying out a senior candidate was the standard signal that both sides were taking the process seriously. And for competitive hires, the quality of the hotel and the restaurants they were taken to and the seniority of the people who joine…

For seniors maybe but for juniors it’s not rare to have to fly out in your own dime unfortunately. For finding my first job I had to pay for a few trips myself (flights and hotel).

Just to counter your anecdote with another of equal value, the only time I’ve ever traveled for an interview was for my first software dev job when I had zero experience. Flight and hotel was paid for by the company. I’ve never heard of anyone other than an employer paying for interview travel expenses.

Re: I automated my job application process

#784

Post by lolinder »

mholm wrote: post #771
dangus wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you missed this part, emphasis mine: I spend a week or so deeply researching where I want to work and figure out how to get there role-wise. Figuring out how to get there means figuring out how not to get ghosted, not just blasting off a quick application and crossing fingers. I imagine that probably means reaching out to people in their network at the company, learning about their hiring practices and how pe…

When was the most recent time you tried this, and for what level of role was it? I believe this could absolutely be effective pre-2023, or for very high level roles. I don't think it's currently viable advice for ~Senior level engineers, who are currently competing against thousands of other applications, many of whom were generated specifically for the given role.

Speaking as someone currently involved in hiring for Senior roles at my company: We have hundreds of resumes, most of which are garbage. We're not seeing a lot of evidence of large numbers of people working hard to tailor their resume to the role, so doing so would absolutely help you in our case.

Even more so, if we got a referral right now from within the company we'd absolutely skip them straight to the interviews. Dealing with resumes sucks right now as an employer, and we want to avoid that stage as much as you do.

Re: I automated my job application process

#785

Post by balls187 »

MrMember wrote: post #314

I'm seeing a lot of back in forth in the comments between hiring managers and employees discussing who is more responsible for the current situation, but from the perspective of someone looking for a job what should I be doing? I've been pretty aggressively looking for a job for the past six months or so. I have 10+ years of professional software dev experience so I've mostly been looking at senior dev positions. I h…

> what should I be doing?

The current hiring market mirrors online dating.

Swiping right as much as you can (as a man) will get you more matches for sure, but is unlikely to result in a long term relationship.

There isn't much you can do. It comes down to two things: luck and timing.

I do think there are actions you can take to improve your odds, but you gotta figure out what will work best for you. If those actions were somewhat obvious, I'd imagine thousands of others are doing the same thing.

> know someone in the company who can vouch for me

It didn't take long to establish myself as a relatively skilled engineer in a discord community specific to a mobile development framework. I was able to help many junior engineers solve issues. If I was looking for a job, that community may have provided me an opportunity to at least get my resume in front of a few hiring managers.

Me personally, with all these seemingly out of work programmers who are likely as skilled. or more, I'd look to network with a few of them and do something interesting. Start a programming community that lets engineers self organize and launch a projects. Keep the bar to join very selective much like those dating apps that target VIPs and elite people.

Re: I automated my job application process

#786

Post by cellu »

sdenton4 wrote: post #658
robotnikman wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes me wonder if we should just mail in our applications by snail mail at this point.

Or, better yet, literally knocking on doors.

I tried that too e.g. messaging talent recruiter managers on LinkedIn - never got a reply or “accepted” to start chatting

Re: I automated my job application process

#787

Post by dangus »

mholm wrote: post #771
dangus wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you missed this part, emphasis mine: I spend a week or so deeply researching where I want to work and figure out how to get there role-wise. Figuring out how to get there means figuring out how not to get ghosted, not just blasting off a quick application and crossing fingers. I imagine that probably means reaching out to people in their network at the company, learning about their hiring practices and how pe…

When was the most recent time you tried this, and for what level of role was it? I believe this could absolutely be effective pre-2023, or for very high level roles. I don't think it's currently viable advice for ~Senior level engineers, who are currently competing against thousands of other applications, many of whom were generated specifically for the given role.

I’m not going to get into my specific work history in the spirit of trying not to put more metadata about myself out there, but I can confidently say referrals are still king and I have witnessed those results.

I have a hard time believing that the market is as dire as people say it is at least right now approaching 2025. I see peers who are getting laid off get back into jobs, it’s just taking a few months longer than it used to. It’s just not a magical hot job market like it used to be.

A good indicator is to look at Meta’s employee count. It’s down dramatically since 2022 but they still have more employees working for them than the last day of 2021.

https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/meta/employees/

Or look at layoffs.fyi, where layoffs are reported at their lowest level since early 2022.

Re: I automated my job application process

#788

Post by rr808 »

wryoak wrote: post #362
jakewins wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But like.. what happens after this supposed trick? I don’t understand how they wouldn’t just be fired after the first week if they can’t actually do the job? Is it that they are applying to places where you don’t pair program?

In my ten years I’ve never worked at a place where pairing was the norm. I would love to experience that kind of culture

Agreed, I've worked in a dozen firms now in many different teams and never seen anyone pairing.

Re: I automated my job application process

#789

Post by deepsquirrelnet »

jland10 wrote: post #340
bovermyer wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this approach. In this field, unless you're hiring a junior engineer, you can have a reasonable expectation that a potential candidate will fly out for an interview even if it's a 100% remote job. If they refuse, well, there's a chance it's just because they can't afford to. The chance is far greater, though, that you dodged a bullet.

I have 15 YOE and I am a very qualified senior candidate, at least IMO. There is no world where I would take an interview that I had to fly out and stay at a hotel on my own dime. That would 100% sound like some sort of scam job to me.

I’ve seen the movie Dead Man. No way am I paying my own flight and lodging costs for a potential employer that has no accountability to me.

Re: I automated my job application process

#790

Post by rr808 »

hnthrow90348765 wrote: post #207
Aurornis wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public job board listings have always been flooded with low-effort spam applicants, but AI tools have supercharged the problem. The saddest part to me is watching the AI and social media malaise infect young mentees. I’ve been doing volunteer mentoring for years. Recent cohorts have been infected with a sense that the job market is nothing more than a game that they need to min-max. It’s sad to see smart, motivated y…

>It’s sad to see smart, motivated young people get their opinions on the job market from cesspools like Reddit and TikTok, which teach them that trying is lame and the only way to retain your dignity is to withhold your effort from a job, lie your way through interviews, and “quiet quit” by testing the limits of how little you can. Reddit and TikTok swoop in to rationalize this behavior as the fault of companies and…

> I kept my current title and only got a 3% pay increase.

I've been working for nearly 30 years now. This is pretty standard. Talk to your friends who dont work in tech a 3% raise is pretty good.

Post reply on HN