5 ms·

I'm trying to tread carefully to avoid insulting you. You are very likely more talented than I am, so please take my input as just one data point. An outsider

I'm trying to tread carefully to avoid insulting you. You are very likely more talented than I am, so please take my input as just one data point. An outsider perspective: 12 in-person interviews is a high amount of interviews without receiving an offer. I've failed my fair share of interviews but never that many in such a short amount of time. If I were in your position I would try to get as much information as possible why you weren't accepted. Anecdotally, Austin should be a promising location for tech hiring. It may be a personality clash or a lack of preparation. I have bombed several interviews because I didn't take the time to practice Google-style interview questions. It took me 2 months of practice before I was ready to interview successfully in SF, coming from the East Coast. Fancy CS degrees and golden pedigrees get your foot in the door. The technical interview is up to the applicant to pass or fail. It looks like you get your foot in the door pretty well. Now it's time to focus on what you can do to convince these businesses that you will help make them money.

jakebasile 10y ago
No offense taken. I fully admit to underperforming on some of the whiteboard sessions I was subjected to. I also don't think I performed so poorly on all of them to get nothing but rejections. I am not a rockstar, but I am competent at what I do - but what I do is not whiteboard code toy problems. I always ask for reasons for the rejections, but I rarely get a response. Some will give insight (as I stated in my original comment) but the vast majority will not tell you any reason. I am just offering a piece of data to refute the "negative unemployment" claim and its ilk.
- linkregister 10y ago
  I appreciate your contribution to the discussion. Different opinions make HN special. I empathize with your situation; getting hired while unemployed is much more difficult than under better circumstances.
- magic_beans 10y ago
  I wonder if there is something in your personality that turns people off? Are you overly aggressive? Do you seem unfriendly? Honestly, it sounds like you just might need to sharpen your people skills a little bit! Those are important too :)
  - sanderjd 10y ago
    I can't figure out what, from the parent's comments, would make you draw this conclusion that it is a people skill problem when it sounds like a classic "whiteboard interviews are a total crap shoot" problem. This experience is not even at odds with the original quote from the recruiter - when the recruiter says "qualified", all they mean is "able to succeed in the hiring process companies are using". Unfortunately, that definition of "qualified" often doesn't have much in common with the usual definition of "capable of doing good work". The parent commenter may well be qualified in the second way but not in the first.
  - jakebasile 10y ago
    I hope there isn't something I'm doing that indicates I'm not good to work with, but I haven't ever gotten any feedback like that. I try very hard to be even-handed and pragmatic about how I speak and treat others, and I'm always willing to help or chat about... anything really.
- drdeadringer 10y ago
  Perhaps you happen to suck at interviews, or at least parts of interviews like whiteboarding. For me, there's a reason why I don't go to Trivia Night at the Programming Saloon despite interviewers enjoying playing Trivial Pursuit during an interview. "Practice Interviews" are a thing. Have you considered trying such out?
  - jakebasile 10y ago
    This is likely. I am deficient at whiteboard "coding" to solve toy CS problems, which is de rigeur for developer interviews right now. I think I've gotten better with practice over the past months but this doesn't seem to bear results. I have gotten to actual, workable solutions on the whiteboard numerous times and still nothing. I haven't done a practice interview, but another poster offered to help me with that. I may take them up on their offer.
- wyclif 10y ago
  I always ask for reasons for the rejections, but I rarely get a response It's unlikely you'll get a response like that after a 'no hire' from legit companies. They avoid giving that kind of feedback because of legal ramifications.
__jal 10y ago
My situation was possibly relevant, although atypical. I moved back to SF after decamping to NY after the dot.com crash. I started a company there which failed after five years, and then consulted for around three. Landed back in SF and had a terrible time finding employment in a very tight job market. The strikes against me were consulting, starting my own company and having a skill set that did not include several trendy buzzwords that were not in demand with the folks I had been working with. And, possibly, being honest about that[1]. A fuzzier but no less real problem was that the network of folks I knew in the Bay Area shrank a lot, and that's how I've gotten most of the work I've ever had. I did finally get a position. It sucked in a lot of ways, and my commute really sucked. But after a year, I was coming from a recognizable, local name and that appeared to make all the difference. So now that I actually like my job, I filter head-hunter mail to a separate mailbox and write pro-forma 'no thanks' in batches. [1] I am mostly honest in my work history. I suppose I lie by omission - I don't want to ever write Java again, so I've purged references to it from my resume. But it seems that a lot of folks find creative definitions for words like 'experience'. I know some whom I didn't hire did, and people I know are not terribly embarrassed by admitting it. It would be interesting to see some anonymous survey stats on the question.
- exolymph 10y ago
  Resumes are marketing documents, so there's no need to be thorough.

jakebasile 10y ago

No offense taken. I fully admit to underperforming on some of the whiteboard sessions I was subjected to. I also don't think I performed so poorly on all of them to get nothing but rejections. I am not a rockstar, but I am competent at what I do - but what I do is not whiteboard code toy problems. I always ask for reasons for the rejections, but I rarely get a response. Some will give insight (as I stated in my original comment) but the vast majority will not tell you any reason. I am just offering a piece of data to refute the "negative unemployment" claim and its ilk.

linkregister 10y ago
I appreciate your contribution to the discussion. Different opinions make HN special. I empathize with your situation; getting hired while unemployed is much more difficult than under better circumstances.
magic_beans 10y ago
I wonder if there is something in your personality that turns people off? Are you overly aggressive? Do you seem unfriendly? Honestly, it sounds like you just might need to sharpen your people skills a little bit! Those are important too :)
- sanderjd 10y ago
  I can't figure out what, from the parent's comments, would make you draw this conclusion that it is a people skill problem when it sounds like a classic "whiteboard interviews are a total crap shoot" problem. This experience is not even at odds with the original quote from the recruiter - when the recruiter says "qualified", all they mean is "able to succeed in the hiring process companies are using". Unfortunately, that definition of "qualified" often doesn't have much in common with the usual definition of "capable of doing good work". The parent commenter may well be qualified in the second way but not in the first.
- jakebasile 10y ago
  I hope there isn't something I'm doing that indicates I'm not good to work with, but I haven't ever gotten any feedback like that. I try very hard to be even-handed and pragmatic about how I speak and treat others, and I'm always willing to help or chat about... anything really.
drdeadringer 10y ago
Perhaps you happen to suck at interviews, or at least parts of interviews like whiteboarding. For me, there's a reason why I don't go to Trivia Night at the Programming Saloon despite interviewers enjoying playing Trivial Pursuit during an interview. "Practice Interviews" are a thing. Have you considered trying such out?
- jakebasile 10y ago
  This is likely. I am deficient at whiteboard "coding" to solve toy CS problems, which is de rigeur for developer interviews right now. I think I've gotten better with practice over the past months but this doesn't seem to bear results. I have gotten to actual, workable solutions on the whiteboard numerous times and still nothing. I haven't done a practice interview, but another poster offered to help me with that. I may take them up on their offer.
wyclif 10y ago
I always ask for reasons for the rejections, but I rarely get a response It's unlikely you'll get a response like that after a 'no hire' from legit companies. They avoid giving that kind of feedback because of legal ramifications.

__jal 10y ago

My situation was possibly relevant, although atypical. I moved back to SF after decamping to NY after the dot.com crash. I started a company there which failed after five years, and then consulted for around three. Landed back in SF and had a terrible time finding employment in a very tight job market. The strikes against me were consulting, starting my own company and having a skill set that did not include several trendy buzzwords that were not in demand with the folks I had been working with. And, possibly, being honest about that[1]. A fuzzier but no less real problem was that the network of folks I knew in the Bay Area shrank a lot, and that's how I've gotten most of the work I've ever had. I did finally get a position. It sucked in a lot of ways, and my commute really sucked. But after a year, I was coming from a recognizable, local name and that appeared to make all the difference. So now that I actually like my job, I filter head-hunter mail to a separate mailbox and write pro-forma 'no thanks' in batches. [1] I am mostly honest in my work history. I suppose I lie by omission - I don't want to ever write Java again, so I've purged references to it from my resume. But it seems that a lot of folks find creative definitions for words like 'experience'. I know some whom I didn't hire did, and people I know are not terribly embarrassed by admitting it. It would be interesting to see some anonymous survey stats on the question.

exolymph 10y ago
Resumes are marketing documents, so there's no need to be thorough.