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Ask HN: Anyone else struggling to get a software dev job?

• PaulHoule 4y ago
  "trying to find a customer to place me" makes it sound like this is an agency. Is that the case?
  • ineedausername 4y ago
    No, they do both internal hiring and outsourcing.
    • LtWorf 4y ago
      Well looks like they were just wasting time and there never was a position.
    • 1123581321 4y ago
      If they won’t set up a first interview with their client after one conversation, they either don’t have anything or they have a tenuous relationship with the client and are afraid of presenting another bad candidate. If you talk with them as if meeting the client is the expected next step, they’ll take you more seriously, too.
  • throwaway675309 4y ago
    Yeah that line sounded very off to me as well, I'm not sure if it's a communications barrier or if that's what they actually said.
• zach_garwood 4y ago
  Currently looking myself. It's rough out there. And companies will never give you any useful feedback, so you're just left with self-doubt.
  • ineedausername 4y ago
    Yeah and it might be the case that the timing is pretty bad, hiring freezes probably matter.
    • kaladin_1 4y ago
      The hiring freeze and the bleak looking economy right... Companies are not hiring as much they were when the world economy was booming. And for those of us outside the US, in Africa, to be precise, there's now less remote on HN whoishiring. The remote jobs posted there now are mainly for those domiciled in the US. I would have to look towards other platforms come next month. I've always used HN to connect to top companies but for a while things haven't been that good.
  • MarkMarine 4y ago
    Giving feedback is fraught. Some people take it SUPER poorly, which ruins it for the rest of us. I think it's fair to ask what module of a multi-part interview was scored the lowest, and maybe that would give you some direction. If it makes you feel any better, I regularly see experienced people from (insert any of the 4-5 top tier tech company names) that fall flat on their face in a coding interview. Not practicing for 6 years doesn't make you better at this specific skill. At my current company, we understand that and work around it in the interview process, there is plenty of room to flex system architecture muscles or other mastery to override a lacking DS&A module. Table stakes (and it sucks to say this, but it's true) is you've mastered the leetcode/cracking the coding interview style questions. I'm a self taught SW engineer so I had to spend about a year cranking on these type of questions before I was proficient. I spend a month or two reviewing before I start any interview cycle. Do you have any idea where your weaknesses might be?
    • ineedausername 4y ago
• GlickWick 4y ago
  It's really going to depend on your experience. Low years of experience or a poor resume/CV? Yeah, I bet it's a bit harder than usual. 10+ years or a great resume/CV? You're still getting flooded, although Amazon and Meta spam have stopped for a bit.
  • ineedausername 4y ago
    I'm at 5+ and I'm working on making my CV more professional, tbh I almost always get an interview opportunity if/when I pursue a relevant job position.
• rossdavidh 4y ago
  Maybe not as easy as at the peak, but still not that bad. However, you can definitely have just a run of bad luck, no matter what the job market is like. Maybe try companies in a different industry than the ones you've been interviewing for so far?
  • ineedausername 4y ago
    Yes, that could be the case. I'll keep looking, I'm not in a hurry too.
    • jrumbut 4y ago
      This is where the prudence that led you not to be in a hurry pays off. I've seen decent people gave difficult searches every year for the last 12, there is a randomness to this and a specificity to any individual's job search. But with some patience you can keep your standards reasonably high and that will serve you well for years to come.
• spacemadness 4y ago
  I’m not on the market but I have noticed my recruiter email spam has shrunk from multiple emails a day to maybe once a week at most. Quite a turn around.
  • ineedausername 4y ago
    I'm still getting spammed at a fair rate, but it's possible that there is some general hiring freeze going on.
  • rjh29 4y ago
    I get about one recruiter mail a year, I wonder what I am doing wrong... (or right)
    • ineedausername 4y ago
      What are you an esoteric language engineer or something :).
      • anacrolix 4y ago
        Hello, we love your profile, you should join our high energy PHP team!
    • vdfs 4y ago
      You shouldn't keep your emails too private.
    • paganel 4y ago
      Age, maybe? I'm a computer programmer in my early 40s and I've started seeing a decrease in unsolicited LinkedIn emails once I got to 35, give or take a year or two.
      • freedom2099 4y ago
        37yo here and still have to fence recruiters off
• kaladin_1 4y ago
  Yeah, totally relate! 5+years here too! They always oh you are good but we found someone with more number of years and whatever... I still thank God the industry is such that you never feel desperate. Partly, because you always have part-time gigs coming through and also you're well compensated. Wishing you good luck man! You're not alone.
  • ineedausername 4y ago
    Yeap it's true there's always cake on the table :) good luck to you too.
    • bitwize 4y ago
      But as Milton Waddams said, "the ratio of people to cake is too great".
• satellites 4y ago
  If you’re not opposed to contracting through bigger staffing firms, there is still plenty out there. But full time positions do seem to have slowed down from my anecdotal perspective.
  • dhanna 4y ago
    I recently got a job this way. It’s not ideal but since I’m coming out of a bad spot mentally, it’s an absolute lifesaver.
    • tough 4y ago
      This would help, what should I look for?
• kyleyeats 4y ago
  You're probably disagreeable. I'm struggling too. Have you tried agreeing with absolutely everything? That's what your competition is doing. Next time a company tells you about their mission statement, stop them midway, eyes open in awe, and say "That's my mission statement." Do the same thing when they tell you about their tech stack. Or anything else. I'm not kidding. The last applicant agreed with everything, and you need to agree with everything harder. Agreeability and disagreeability are two separate skills but the tech industry sees it as a spectrum. They do not hire disagreeable people.
  • adamredwoods 4y ago
    The other reason for this, is you want to present the enthusiastic side of you. A candidate that is energetic, excited, and passionate about programming. Practice this in front of the mirror. Record yourself.
  • mkw2000 4y ago
    Good advice
    • rapind 4y ago
      Good advice? This is AMAZING advice! I can't remember the last time I received such great advice. This advice is like a gift from the heavens. Life changing stuff right here.
      • kyleyeats 4y ago
        There's an offer in your inbox.
  • ineedausername 4y ago
    This is an excellent point you made here, I'm not a people pleaser and really need to think about this better.
  • bloodyplonker22 4y ago
    This may be true, but wait until you get hired and you disagree with a lot of what they do or say, internally. You will not be able to let it be known and you will hate the people, your job, and everything. It may be better to find another team that you agree with if you don't desperately need the job.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• datalopers 4y ago
  Good luck
  • tester756 4y ago
    are you saying that there's a bias against Java devs?
    • datalopers 4y ago
      .
      • VirusNewbie 4y ago
        Most of FAANG uses Java, so I'm not sure where you think there are more higher paying JS/Python jobs...
        • robswc 4y ago
          I find a lot of "general" or "SDE" jobs as a fullstack python dev but I also see quite a few pretty good java positions pop up all the time. At least they look good to me. Maybe I'm out of the loop but I agree with you.
      • ineedausername 4y ago
        Java is paying preeetty good I dare add.
        • deleted 4y ago
          [deleted]
• mkw2000 4y ago
  A few years ago it took me a few days to find something, this time around it took me a few months. I've had a few experiences similar to you where I was basically told an offer was about to be sent and then it just doesn't happen, or I was rejected after what I thought was a great interview. Don't let it get to you or take it personal and just keep pushing.
• barrenko 4y ago
  It gets worse at the end of the year (and fiscal year).
• runnr_az 4y ago
  Maybe if you had a username…
• lupire 4y ago
  You aren't disqualified, hiring is tight right now.
• nlstitch 4y ago
  YES. I am getting flooded with offerings but just for the "Stay in your cubicle and write code for a boring company, but we have a pingpong table so we're super fun" cringe jobs. It's like recruiters have to make some dumb quota to make and just spam everyone. Nobody truely cares anymore. Engineers are really desired and recruiters know that, but they also kinda judge you negatively for it. Like smiling at you but hating your guts at the same time. (A lot of recruiters where hired during covid19 to find SEs) Others want to make you pass 25 different psychological and programming tests that have absolutely nothing to do with the actual job, and some you have a great conversation with but never hear back from It sucks. Big time.
  • tennisflyi 4y ago
    > It's like recruiters have to make some dumb quota to make and just spam everyone. Pretty close if not the truth.
  • itsoktocry 4y ago
    People's memories are so short... There have been thousands of layoffs in the tech world in the past few months, valuations of the biggest companies on the planet have been halved. Winter is coming. The last few years of near million dollar compensation for engineers is the anomaly, not the norm. You're going to have to adapt. But summer will arrive again one day.
• tflinton 4y ago
  Most companies are on a soft or hard hiring freeze right now. Many growth efforts are funded through debt that has recently become expensive. Even if a company doesn’t rely on debt for growth they are probably waiting to see if macro trends point to how hard of a recession we’ll go through before readjusting budgets. Come January most companies will reopen hiring aligned to macro trends in the economy and their own fiscal makeup. What’d important to know is right now is a critical point before trends show how bad things may get. During this period companies tend to hold their breathe. Of course, usually most companies will backfill for positions so you can find those even during a freeze.
  • firesloth 4y ago
    Without knowing too much about the original poster's particular circumstances, I expect this is probably the answer. If you can endure until early next year, things may improve.
• tootie 4y ago
  Was this a consulting company? That means they hired you a role that wasn't actually funded. They're not usually so transparent about it. Basically they interview to fill roles for projects that aren't sold yet. If they are sold, they need to staff up fast so they can't wait. If the sale falls through they leave candidates dangling.
  • ineedausername 4y ago
    Not a consultancy. It was peculiar. I had to fill internal CV on their system too, with more details than the original. First they decided to hire me for a customer instead of internally saying the customer needs 2 weeks to answer, then getting rejected because "something changed" and customer is looking for Senior+ (wtf??). Same thing with other customers until finally nothing left, and we love you please let us know if we should contact you next year for further offer, as it takes too long.
• jongjong 4y ago
  I was struggling to find a job with big corporations and also with startups backed by big VCs (the trendy ones with a lot of big corporate clients) but I had no problem finding jobs with independent bootstrapped startups (quite the opposite; I had to turn down offers and they were outbidding each other)... Weird. If you're going through interviews which are going perfectly and companies are backing out at the final stage with weird excuses which don't make sense, you could be in the same situation as me. I'd recommend to NOT apply for any big corporation or VC-backed startup; only apply for bootstrapped startups; you will save yourself a lot of time. Some of these bootstrapped startups are very successful/profitable and growing quickly. I had a lot of weird stuff happening to me. One big name company I was interviewing with (and perfectly matched for) seemed very interested to recruit me; they told me they had several different possible roles open for me and already hinted to a high salary... Then after the final interview (which seemed to have gone very well), I got an email saying "The role has been filled." - Whatever happened to all the other roles they said I would be suitable for? I had wasted hours on a challenging tech test (which I aced) and did 3 interviews - I thought the final interview was meant to be a formalty. Sometimes I think that maybe I've been blacklisted by big tech.
  • jemmyw 4y ago
    > Then after the final interview (which seemed to have gone very well), I got an email saying "The role has been filled." I would guess that one of the many people you interviewed with decided they didn't like you. That would shut down the whole process and give you no meaningful explanation. I think it's an example of how hiring is really quite bad, hard and bears little relationship to performance.
    • gamblor956 4y ago
      No, it means that he was just one of several people interviewed for the position, and either they liked someone else more, or they already had someone considering an offer when they interviewed him but were interviewing a backup in case the other candidate declined.
      • 4y ago
• jrockway 4y ago
  From a small sample size in the other direction, we have positions to fill and there have definitely been some candidates recently that have backed out mid-process to take another offer. Despite Meta and Twitter's troubles, the demand for software engineers doesn't seem to be at zero.
• revskill 4y ago
  Should backend devs invest more on soft skills instead ? I've seen bunch of folks succeed at soft skills rather than technical skills and can pass the interview easily.
• ergonaught 4y ago
  Struggling for almost 6 months to find work for which I have 15+ years experience, with all sorts of shenanigans occurring at every stage, despite finding hundreds of "open" and actually appropriate positions. Hiring is broken; very many reasons for it; I suspect many of these companies aren't actually hiring but haven't yet figured out that it's uncool to waste everyone's time pretending.
  • sph 4y ago
    Same here. 16 years experience, I've been looking for 6 months. To be honest I haven't been trying very hard the last 3 months, because it's fucking exhausting. A lot of LinkedIn recruiters and even people off HN job threads wasting my time. Contacting me, great interview, saying I'm a perfect candidate, and then ghosting me. That or I must have become really terrible at interviewing and reading people. Freelance job boards are useless unless you're a junior React dev or want to get into a Web3 crypto startup. I've been out of the job hunting circus for a while, and it's been dire. That said, I asked a little too much for a position at a dream company I always wanted to work for, but at least they graciously came back to me to say "we would have hired you, but your salary expectation are a way out of our budget so we went for someone else." Oh well, live and learn. The economy's a little tight these days, so one needs to adjust their rates accordingly.
  • tacostakohashi 4y ago
    A lot of software jobs require, say, 3, 5, or 7 years of experience, and they're looking for someone who is minimally qualified, or possibly even slightly underqualified who will see it as an amazing opportunity that they are lucking to have and grow into - and not someone who has essentially already done that job for many years. You may have more success if you can identify and move into a role that requires, and values, 15+ years of experience - probably management of some sort.
  • jsjsof 4y ago
    Same. It does feel like they want to hire only yes-men.
• z9znz 4y ago
  I think the real issue is that there are practically an infinite set of unique circumstances (the time, the economic situation, the current company atmosphere, and dozens more variables) which all can impact hiring. One very simple example which can result in a good candidate who got far through the process hitting a wall is that a key person in the company became overwhelmed with something unrelated. Suddenly they don't have the bandwidth (or have left the company perhaps), and the progress is now halted. That's just one little common example, but there are so many more. Unless you have an insider who can investigate, you just don't know. Wondering is futile, especially as many of us assume it was some failure of our own which caused the process to end. In the last year I had several very promising applications which went through multiple phases, all seemingly very positive, which ended abruptly and shockingly (with a "Sorry"). From the other side, we have seen posts here on HN where the person says, "I applied to 100 jobs and this is what happened." If you take a shotgun approach, you absolutely will get something. There are many problems with this approach, especially if you are more senior and have opinions about things. For example, there may be some industries or companies which you would not work for regardless of the money. There are also some companies that you know would be horrible to work for, so you would skip those. It is possible some of us filter out possible companies a bit too heavily, building our hopes on 1-3. And 1-3 is not a big enough set to reliably make it to the end. My new strong feeling is that those of us with a little runway (as in 1-3 months, not "rich") should just find a personal passion project and build it. Then maybe the project makes money, or maybe it's just a showpiece to pass some of the dumber interview processes which want you to solve unrealistic CS300 level algorithm tests in a crappy web UI with a timer and audience. But I totally relate about the feeling. Just one of several examples: There's a company that advertises jobs on HN at least once a month. They are hiring many people for this role. I went through two verbal interviews, two live coding test interviews, and finally an interview with the CTO (or at least the tech guy responsible for a big chunk of the devs in the company). Then I got a no. Either I offended the guy (which seemed difficult to do as he showed up to the interview apparently disinterested and unable/unwilling to ever look at me in the camera), or I failed earlier in the process and nobody stopped the show. But given how simple the programming challenges were and how I was able to suggest multiple solutions, I don't think it was that. So I was baffled. I have more stories not so different. You just _never_ know wtf is going on.
• cableshaft 4y ago
  > It's like I'm answering the questions correctly minus one, so I'm disqualified. That's been pretty almost every interview for me. The ones I get further are the ones where I can answer every question right (or are a bit more relaxed, which has been the exception, not the norm). If I get a single question wrong (or struggle somehow) but otherwise did well, I often don't get the benefit of the doubt and get passed over. Fastest and most obvious 'getting disqualified for giving one incorrect answer' was when I was called for a technical phone screen for Facebook (many years ago, probably a decade ago at this point) by someone who sounded like they didn't understand anything technical, just had three trivia cards provided by someone on the engineering team with the question and a single term answer. I was told 'correct' after my first two questions, then after the third question, I answered it in a general sense but without using the term that was apparently printed on their card, was told "Wrong, the answer is blah, thank you for your time." And I got a rejection email a few days later. I was only asked those three questions, nothing more. I don't remember what the answer was anymore, but something like "toll booth messenging" something like that, it was for an iOS position, I was a lead developer of a small team and had released a half dozen games and apps on the app store already, including one I developed from scratch[1]. Still quite proud of a platforming game called Tracklapse and wish the company was still around and the game still on the store[2]. I don't really do iOS development much anymore, except working on a Swift game for a while that I eventually abandoned (working on something cross-platform now), so I don't really remember what the answer was anymore. A quick google search didn't bring up anything obvious. [1]: https://youtu.be/uy08ohBLGhE https://youtu.be/uy08ohBLGhE [2]: https://youtu.be/BJ3NNLnKPdQ https://youtu.be/BJ3NNLnKPdQ
  • petercooper 4y ago
    As a huge fan of Dice Wars style games (I find Risk a bit too much nowadays), I have no idea how I didn't encounter Proximity. Is there still a usable version out there on any platform or a similar game you'd recommend?
    • cableshaft 4y ago
      TLDR: The original Flash game of Proximity is still playable on Newgrounds (via an emulator)[1], but that's it from me out there at the moment, but I'm working on new versions. You can probably find some unofficial versions of the game made by other devs in the meantime, though. I'm working on new versions now but I keep changing scope and platforms when I should just focus on getting something out there again. Proximity 2 iOS code would require too much reworking of the graphics (2D pre-Retina) and the codebase to be worth it at this point. I also released Proxmity 2 on Xbox Live Indie Games on the Xbox 360, but then the XNA framework died (I probably could have released Proximity 2 a couple of years earlier even, but I got a job working for a small video game publisher that was considering publishing Proximity as an official Xbox Live title, but while I did end up working on an Xbox Live game as a producer while working there (Double D Dodgeball), it wasn't anywhere near as well received, for various reasons, one of which being that it relied heavily on its online mode and we had unexpected network issues at launch that weren't present when testing on Xbox's sandbox network[2]. I left Proximity 2's code dormant for a long while, then a couple years ago I tried converting it to Monogame and was surprised how easy it was to do so, spent some time upgrading various things in it (upgraded from 720p to 1080p graphics, localization support, 6 player support, reworked map selection screen, some other enhancements). I was getting a little frustrated with scaling of the 2D graphics for different resolutions, though, and eventually decided to just make the leap from 2D to 3D and rewrote it from scratch with that in mind. Wanted to rework it to be friendly for Twitch streamers (let hundreds of people play in Twitch chat along with a streamer), but that just ballooned the scope again, trying to just get what I've got working with pass and play or bot players like Proximity 2 and get it up as an alpha game on Steam. Proximity 2 probably could be released on Steam in the meantime I guess, but it wouldn't have some features people would probably expect from Steam games, like achievements and whatnot, because I really don't want to sink too much extra time into it considering the 3D version is coming along and should eventually have all the same features (and more). I also have a basic Pico-8 version I never quite finished so I didn't release (I probably should do that) and I spent a weekend porting that to PlayDate, but I'm holding off on releasing that until I get my PlayDate console shipped to me and try it out. The graphics on it are extremely basic though, I kind of feel like I should spend more time on them, especially with other quite pretty puzzle games other devs had made on the Playdate already, but I should also not just sit on the game either, like I did on all the other platforms. I also let myself get distracted with working on a Unity version for a little bit, because I really wanted to make a VR friendly version, and came up with a bunch of clever things to make the game deeper (multiple territories, resources, supplies, squads with special troops, etc), but I decided that's just asking for another couple of years of development and I can always do that after I get the other game out there. Also the success of Wordle (and my day job making React apps) made me want to make a simple web version again. One of these weeks I might sit down and knock that out. Not sure if I should use Phaser game framework or try to just use javascript and CSS like Wordle did. It's easier to manipulate square grids with CSS than hex grids, though, so I'm leaning towards Phaser. Part of the reason it's been so long is I spent about 5 years pursuing board game design instead of coding games in my spare time. I struggled to find publishers willing to sign my games, though, despite being a finalist in a couple game design competitions. I did get one game signed a few years ago, but the pandemic threw a monkey wrench in things and it could be another couple more years before it comes out. Anyway, I don't need a publisher to release video games, so I finally switched focus back to those again. I need to get a proper online multiplayer version at some point too, but that's again just too much scope for the moment (I was trying to bypass it a bit with the Twitch and or Discord chat support instead, so I could put that off a bit longer). [1]: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/183428 https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/183428 [2]: https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/double-d-dodgeball-review/1900-6194922/ https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/double-d-dodgeball-review/1...
• morgante 4y ago
  The market has definitely shifted away from labor dominance recently. Ask yourself if your expectation still make sense in a different market reality.
• ilaksh 4y ago
  I think that there is a lot of competition for high-salary positions. Try lowering your salary requirements. Possibly by a lot. There will be less competition for positions with less competitive pay. You could also consider trying to find a niche and start building a product or service. Maybe for a bootstrapped startup in a related business so there is a little pay, but make it clear that you are building a tool to sell to everyone.
• fbrncci 4y ago
  As someone in Asia, who is competing with remote US/EU job offers, there is one big tip which I want to throw out here, and that is to create a gargantuan digital billboard with your face, name and your skills on it. I have a remote job now, earning well, but since the future isn't promised, I keep interviewing and networking. Most of the requests for interviews I get, come in through my own website, which has quite a footprint on both Google and YouTube (5 videos). It's not a huge website or presence, but it certainly gives me an edge over most applicants. I also more often get contacted by companies themselves, rather than recruiters through those sites. Another tip I keep giving, is to keep interviewing while being in a job or getting your next job. Don't grow complacent. I average an intro or interview per week, sometimes two. For two reasons, firstly to get better at interviewing and talking about my own skills and goals. And secondly, to not having to start interviewing when I need it. Regardless whether I stay in my current position for 1, 2 or 5 years. I want to have my current job lined up, the last thing I want is to stress needing a job when I don't have one. > I don't remember job searching being that hard even a few years ago I think, that if you go about interviewing, by just submitting a CV and cover letter, then things have certainly become much harder. As for some, interviewing has become quite a game to stay good at. I interview for the sake of interviewing. I have now declined at least 5 good offers this year because I already have a job.
  • nolevels 4y ago
    I agree with this. Interviewing is a skill like any other that can get stale. It's good to keep it sharp and you never know, while practice interviewing you might find a place you end up really liking.
• nbzso 4y ago
  I am not on the market as a software developer anymore. I completely shifted my mindset since closing off my own company and stared working as an UX designer. Since I am considered “old” (hello, ageism) in the UX design profession, I don't expect someone to judge me by my proven experience and accomplishments of the past. I don't give my honest opinion on the given issue. I ask more follow-up questions and let others give the direction of the solution. Furthermore, I consider my self a facilitator of processes, my focus is on a communication and documentation part of the work. The other stuff (actual design work) is somewhat automatic. The tricky part is how one navigates the landscape of responsibility, but adaptation to a political point of view is a must. Actually, I found out that my employers are not paying me to deliver good UX for their users. They are paying me to visualize and validate their own biases and let them freely contradict themselves. In short, I UX'ed the hell out of the employment process. And when the users (company, PM, teams) are happy everything is fine.:)
  • Aeolun 4y ago
    I think this is why people burn out on this profession. At the end of the day someone’s agenda is always more important than the users.
    • deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
• tacostakohashi 4y ago
  A "verbal offer" is just talk and worth nothing. If someone makes a verbal offer, say thanks, look forward to the paperwork and a start date... and keep applying and interviewing. Nothing is final until your first day of work (and that cuts both ways).
• foundajob 4y ago
• ransom1538 4y ago
  "They said I passed the interviews and promised an offer. After a month of "trying to find a customer to place me", telling me I'm a fantastic candidate etc. they finally decided to cancel the verbal offer until maybe next year." I get downvoted everytime i say this. But, from the recruiters that actually speak afterwards, there are too many good resumes on the market: FAANG. They are everywhere trying to get a remote gig. Anywhere in the bay/ny is hosed for non remote. I have no idea why everyone is trying to hire first to be laid off FAANG. PRO TIP! You can use linked in to see who they ended up hiring.
• Worldblender 4y ago
  In my experience since September 2020, I've been without a job despite having graduated from university/college with a bachelor's degree in computer science. It doesn't help that I didn't attend any internships (because of focusing on getting classes done), which affects the connections I know well, and my inability to drive as of this post. The only way I have been getting any relevant experience is through personal open-source software projects, either through making my own, or contributing to existing ones. Well, this has gotten a little better since I'm working a seasonal job doing shelf stocking (retail job for 90 days since last Monday; 2 days per week, 4 hours per day; 8 hours per week), and is for getting work experience. I got it only with the help of a job recruiting agency. It's not involving computers much, but it's better than nothing.
  • dehrmann 4y ago
    I'm really surprised you weren't able to land anything in 2021 when companies were binge hiring. It might be because new grads working remotely aren't worth it. It might be something with how you're interviewing, where you're applying, or where your degree is from. The lack of internships hurt somewhat, but not so much you can't land a job in a year in a booming tech environment. > which affects the connections I know well... For the most part, no. It's not the connections, it's a stamp that you have a small amount of experience, and for the companies running the internships, it's for their recruiting pipeline. Especially if it was remote, the connections just won't be all that valuable. > my inability to drive as of this post If you have to commute and don't live somewhere with good transit, yeah, this is a problem. > job...shelf stocking...is for getting work experience It's great that you're doing something and having a little spare cash is nice, but this experience won't help you get a tech job. Up top, I said 2021. 2022 is different, and I'm not as surprised.
  • propogandist 4y ago
    What state/region? It surely can’t be this bad for new grads… If you are open to relocating, note that in your resume and make it clear when applying. Being open to move will unlock more oppty. Beyond the retail/seasonal job you need to build a portfolio of tech projects. Things you’ve built for SMBs or even biz ideas you’ve worked on. Prep for the “what have you been doing since graduation” question from prospective employers.
• Proven 4y ago
• rmk 4y ago
  It may just be the timing. We are in the midst of what may be a recession: tech stocks have taken a beating because of tightening monetary policy, and companies are loth to increase investments, including hiring employees. It may also be that you do not have experience that matches expectations closely. In my experience, people say they do not care about experience matching what they need but then go ahead and do design/architecture discussions during the interview that will go well only if you already have prior experience with what they want. One way to eliminate the latter would be to interview with for jobs that require experience that substantially matches yours.
• simsspoons 4y ago
  I think this is the macro. People are freezing hiring
• david38 4y ago
  You don’t have to fail an interview to not get a job. You just have to not be the best. Maybe someone else answered questions faster or more confidently. Maybe someone else’s background is more aligned. Maybe someone else clicks more. Remember there is the minimum score to get a job and the competitive score. There is no such thing as “finding excuses” for the most part. They didn’t like you, didn’t feel confident in you, or liked someone else better. Are you really answering questions correctly? I’ve never seen an interview where I can confidently say I answered everything absolutely correctly, meaning “the most correct”. Asked the best questions, answered the most optimal algorithm, explained it the smoothest way possible, etc. If you think you have, you likely have a perception problem. Ask yourself those questions again, video record yourself answering them and watch yourself.
  • jsjsof 4y ago
    Most jobs get reposted, so I'm assuming they keep rejecting people looking for the purple unicorn.
  • Aeolun 4y ago
    Oh, there’s definitely those moments where you see the interviewers face fall, their eyebrow raise, or repeat the same question multiple times. But that doesn’t necessarily mean your answer was wrong, just that the interviewer thought it was. I dunno, my current employer is happy with me, and all employers have always been happy with me for going on 14 years now. I’m rather inclined to think I’m more likely to be correct than the little snot interviewing me and asking me dumb JS doc questions.
• atoav 4y ago
  First of all this has to mean nothing, if they take someone else this does not have to mean you are bad, this just means the other person was perceived to be a better fit. And there can be deciding aspects way beyond your pure technical abilities, like personality, symphaties, ability to communicate clearly, humour and so on. Especially in smaller companies you might be the future collegue of the people you are interviewing with, that means if they don't get the feeling you are a guy they wanna work with, that will be a pass. A good idea for you would be to make sure your self image matches with the external image you produce for your surroundings. I don't know you at all, but I know many people in our profession who would interview absolutely horrible and still be convinced afterwards that they did a good job and are the best candidate. That means the first thing you should do is to ensure you are not lying to yourself and are 100% aware of your shortcomings and your strengths. One technique to do this is the Johari Window: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window
• tomcam 4y ago
  I have worked for myself for the last quarter century, but in an equally tough job environment (the late 1980s to early 1990s) I seldom applied to more than two or three jobs. I did this by carefully choosing companies that I would like, and that I felt I could contribute to.
• kazinator 4y ago
  > medium sized company for a backend dev position > trying to find a customer to place me It sounds fishy; you may have actually interviewed with some recruiting or contracting firm, not with the actual company with the backend dev position, that being their client. That client bailed on them for whatever reason and so the job vaporized; then they scrambled to find another one (which they need to make money off you).