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I'm at rock bottom. I got laid off unexpectedly, right at the beginning of the coronavirus. Severance package was terrible and I'm pretty much broke. Plus, the

I'm at rock bottom. I got laid off unexpectedly, right at the beginning of the coronavirus. Severance package was terrible and I'm pretty much broke. Plus, the FMV of my options cratered, so the equity I worked hard for is already underwater. Hit the interview trail hard and have received nothing but rejections. Despite getting referrals from current engineers, I don't even make it past the tech recruiter phone screen stage. And of course, no one is willing to offer feedback so I'm left with my worst thoughts of self-doubt and imposter syndrome. Sitting here with no money, nothing to do, watching all my friends take advantage of the remote work by going to cool places. I'm going insane and all signs point to the continuation of this shitty status quo for the next year at least. I don't know what I'm going to do.

barrenko 6y ago
Hang in there. Sometimes basically just a law of large numbers, sucks for some.
KoftaBob 6y ago
How can I help? What kind of positions have you been applying for?
ptero 6y ago
The fact that you are not hearing back may not be the negative indication. The companies you are applying for might just be in a "hold for now" mode, so even a positive initial interview may be stuck waiting for the next step. "Waiting for the manager to approve an on site; but wait, there is no one on site now; how do we proceed? well, let's think about this next week". One hand posting "help wanted", another starting "hard hiring freeze", etc. This can be infuriating, but is a much better state than a rejection. Hang on, and do not dwell on the losses. Try to ignore news and perceived fortunes of others. Read books instead of CNN and/or twitter. Most importantly, focus on staying healthy and sane. Healthy, energetic and $20k in debt is much a much better "COVID exit" state than spent, on antidepressants but with $20k in the bank. Contribute to an open source project, try something new. Are you handy? try building something or fixing something; not for money, just to keep your mind on building things. Good luck!!
tuckerconnelly 6y ago
Just hired someone. I focused on character—looking for hard worker, resilient, and utter honesty—and intelligence, assessed through a fairly difficult coding challenge requiring recursion to solve. If you’re a software engineer, recommend reading Code Complete and SICP while you have free time. For working on your character, one path would be following the book of Proverbs :P
muzani 6y ago
Sounds like you might need to take something other than tech to make do. Maybe even consider out of town jobs, WordPress, or even PHP. Or try remote jobs outside your country - normally the US has the best jobs, but it really turned around this year. The interview gauntlet can be tough and demoralising, and extremely depressing. I've been there. After months of rejections, I ended up at a company where the last guy quit with minimal notice and they needed to replace him ASAP. It helped that I was out of a job and didn't have any notice period. They ended up offering me double what the average engineer got and they haven't fired me yet, so it might not be you, just the job market. My best tip would be to find and stabilize your life somehow so that it's not a race against time at least with regards to living costs. Find some small victories in your life like exercise or a productive non-addictive hobby like updating wikis or drawing. When applying for jobs with failure for too long, your confidence and willpower drops significantly, and this might show in your interviews.
gentryb 6y ago
Please hang in there. You aren't the only one in a similar situation. Reach out (you can find me) - even if someone to talk to. I still try hard to remain confident we'll all get through this.

barrenko 6y ago

Hang in there. Sometimes basically just a law of large numbers, sucks for some.

KoftaBob 6y ago

How can I help? What kind of positions have you been applying for?

ptero 6y ago

The fact that you are not hearing back may not be the negative indication. The companies you are applying for might just be in a "hold for now" mode, so even a positive initial interview may be stuck waiting for the next step. "Waiting for the manager to approve an on site; but wait, there is no one on site now; how do we proceed? well, let's think about this next week". One hand posting "help wanted", another starting "hard hiring freeze", etc. This can be infuriating, but is a much better state than a rejection. Hang on, and do not dwell on the losses. Try to ignore news and perceived fortunes of others. Read books instead of CNN and/or twitter. Most importantly, focus on staying healthy and sane. Healthy, energetic and $20k in debt is much a much better "COVID exit" state than spent, on antidepressants but with $20k in the bank. Contribute to an open source project, try something new. Are you handy? try building something or fixing something; not for money, just to keep your mind on building things. Good luck!!

tuckerconnelly 6y ago

Just hired someone. I focused on character—looking for hard worker, resilient, and utter honesty—and intelligence, assessed through a fairly difficult coding challenge requiring recursion to solve. If you’re a software engineer, recommend reading Code Complete and SICP while you have free time. For working on your character, one path would be following the book of Proverbs :P

muzani 6y ago

Sounds like you might need to take something other than tech to make do. Maybe even consider out of town jobs, WordPress, or even PHP. Or try remote jobs outside your country - normally the US has the best jobs, but it really turned around this year. The interview gauntlet can be tough and demoralising, and extremely depressing. I've been there. After months of rejections, I ended up at a company where the last guy quit with minimal notice and they needed to replace him ASAP. It helped that I was out of a job and didn't have any notice period. They ended up offering me double what the average engineer got and they haven't fired me yet, so it might not be you, just the job market. My best tip would be to find and stabilize your life somehow so that it's not a race against time at least with regards to living costs. Find some small victories in your life like exercise or a productive non-addictive hobby like updating wikis or drawing. When applying for jobs with failure for too long, your confidence and willpower drops significantly, and this might show in your interviews.

gentryb 6y ago

Please hang in there. You aren't the only one in a similar situation. Reach out (you can find me) - even if someone to talk to. I still try hard to remain confident we'll all get through this.