5 ms·

I don't know about fake jobs, but as a ML Engineer looking, my experience has been appalling, despite all the AI/ML hype. I'm tempted to write a blog post about

I don't know about fake jobs, but as a ML Engineer looking, my experience has been appalling, despite all the AI/ML hype. I'm tempted to write a blog post about it, but the highlights are: * More than half of recruiters ghosted me at different stages of the process. * Many companies are unreasonably strict with their requirements, asking for x years of experience in their exact tech stack as a deal breaker. * Pay is much lower than my current company even for more senior roles. * Some positions are just ridiculous. One of them asked for a ML Engineer with experience in React to maintain a website. Another was completely unable to answer what their business do or what the responsibilities of the role are. Overall a far cry of the narrative of ML Engineers fending off recruiters who throw wads of cash trying to recruit them.

glial 3y ago
It's brutal on the hiring side too, FWIW. I'm getting lots of "cover letters" that are written to other orgs, e.g. Hugging Face.
- lifestyleguru 3y ago
  After addressing the companies correctly and compiling latex CV for the specific posting, the smartypants will still find repulsive three months of a gap here and there and few failed trial periods... so here it is - "Dear McCompanyFace, ....".
  - wormius 3y ago
    "Yeah, Karen, I took 3 months, cuz I would like to enjoy life while I can and not have to wait til I'm 90 and frail and dying before I get time to myself. I'm responsible enough with my money I can do so, I see that as a benefit, but you do you. See ya, hope you find a more satisfying job that can see hope and potential in people and liberated desires instead of being chained to that desk and wanting others to suffer just as much as you."
    - wyclif 3y ago
      Oh yeah, I hate that. I know a guy who is a network engineer. He got burned out by the workload at his old company, quit, and took 6 months to hike the entire Appalachian Trail because old company wouldn't let him take that long of a break. So after finishing up and taking a maybe two week vacation to recuperate from the hike, he starts applying for jobs again and whaddaya know: "We see here that there's a 7 month gap here, have you been on the market that long [gasp!] or did you have another role after that?"
      - mvdtnz 3y ago
        As an interviewer or hiring manager why wouldn't you ask about it?
        samtho 3y ago
        When you have 168 resumes to skim through, you can “afford” to just pass on this application and choose some others to interview that would be less offensive to office sensibilities. The impact of accepting so many false negatives is difficult to quantify because you don’t know which ones would have truly been good fit. I suspect that among the hundreds of discarded resumes for a particular role was a candidate who actually believes in the company, would have been fully engaged with the work, and made a serious positive impact on the company’s success.
        zarzavat 3y ago
        Because it’s none of their business. An interview is there to evaluate a candidate’s suitability for a role, not to dig into their personal life. What they did at work is relevant, what they did when not working is private. You wouldn’t ask what someone did on a Saturday night. Maybe they were sick, maybe they were pregnant, maybe they were looking after a dying relative, maybe they were backpacking across South America, maybe they were sitting at home watching every episode of Star Trek, what people do in their own time is a private matter.
        lifestyleguru 3y ago
  - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
    I do not understand the point you're trying to make here.
    - lifestyleguru 3y ago
      One can do best sending the right signals - custom motivation letter, custom CV, but some interns or overzealous puritans will dig out other non-negotiable red flags. Thus, the tiny probabilities of success make it not worth to address the CV and letter correctly.
      - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
        Translation: It's not worth it to write a cover letter or optimize your resumé for a particular job, because you won't make it through the screening process anyway.
- shagymoe 3y ago
  Cover letters are a scourge on society anyway.
mock-possum 3y ago
That’s been my experience too, and it sucks. Looking for a job now is hellish compared to 10 years ago and I kind of don’t know what to do about it. I feel like more in-person connections would be useful, but god I don’t want to start going to meetups and networking and informational interviews again.
eek2121 3y ago
My biggest complaints about trying to find a job today are: * Recruiters ghosting/not following up. * Companies post dozens of job openings, I apply, nobody follows up (even with a rejection) but keeps posting new positions (looking at you Aha!) The pay issue hasn’t come up except twice. One company wanted a senior engineer, but only wanted to pay 60k/year tops and you would be on call. Another company wanted a “volunteer”. There are other issues for sure. For some companies I do suspect age discrimination, especially with startups.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
  The non responses are really demoralizing. I can take a form rejection letter. You can even lie to me and say the position is closed. Just do not leave me hanging with some scrap of hope.
- wyclif 3y ago
  There's a startup in the latest HN "Who's Hiring" that flat-out asked for recent grads (past 2 years) or not-yet grads. Ageism is probably the last frontier of job discrimination.
  - LtWorf 3y ago
    You don't want experienced people who won't work loads of pointless overtime for free after all…
- SupremumLimit 3y ago
  Aha! advertises as far as New Zealand and I also never heard back when I applied. The excuse they supply (at least they do that much…) is that they receive too many applications to respond to everyone. But then why advertise all over the world? A scummy tactic when I think about it.
commandlinefan 3y ago
> asking for x years of experience in their exact tech stack That's not new, though - that's been going on as long as I've been in this business (early 90's). Most people suspect it's an end-run around H1B requirements: they already have a candidate in mind they want to hire, but they have to demonstrate to the government that they "can't find" a U.S. citizen who has the skillset they need.
RHSman2 3y ago
Welcome to the real world

glial 3y ago

It's brutal on the hiring side too, FWIW. I'm getting lots of "cover letters" that are written to other orgs, e.g. Hugging Face.

lifestyleguru 3y ago
After addressing the companies correctly and compiling latex CV for the specific posting, the smartypants will still find repulsive three months of a gap here and there and few failed trial periods... so here it is - "Dear McCompanyFace, ....".
- wormius 3y ago
  "Yeah, Karen, I took 3 months, cuz I would like to enjoy life while I can and not have to wait til I'm 90 and frail and dying before I get time to myself. I'm responsible enough with my money I can do so, I see that as a benefit, but you do you. See ya, hope you find a more satisfying job that can see hope and potential in people and liberated desires instead of being chained to that desk and wanting others to suffer just as much as you."
  - wyclif 3y ago
    Oh yeah, I hate that. I know a guy who is a network engineer. He got burned out by the workload at his old company, quit, and took 6 months to hike the entire Appalachian Trail because old company wouldn't let him take that long of a break. So after finishing up and taking a maybe two week vacation to recuperate from the hike, he starts applying for jobs again and whaddaya know: "We see here that there's a 7 month gap here, have you been on the market that long [gasp!] or did you have another role after that?"
    - mvdtnz 3y ago
      As an interviewer or hiring manager why wouldn't you ask about it?
      - samtho 3y ago
        When you have 168 resumes to skim through, you can “afford” to just pass on this application and choose some others to interview that would be less offensive to office sensibilities. The impact of accepting so many false negatives is difficult to quantify because you don’t know which ones would have truly been good fit. I suspect that among the hundreds of discarded resumes for a particular role was a candidate who actually believes in the company, would have been fully engaged with the work, and made a serious positive impact on the company’s success.
      - zarzavat 3y ago
        Because it’s none of their business. An interview is there to evaluate a candidate’s suitability for a role, not to dig into their personal life. What they did at work is relevant, what they did when not working is private. You wouldn’t ask what someone did on a Saturday night. Maybe they were sick, maybe they were pregnant, maybe they were looking after a dying relative, maybe they were backpacking across South America, maybe they were sitting at home watching every episode of Star Trek, what people do in their own time is a private matter.
        lifestyleguru 3y ago
- ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
  I do not understand the point you're trying to make here.
  - lifestyleguru 3y ago
    One can do best sending the right signals - custom motivation letter, custom CV, but some interns or overzealous puritans will dig out other non-negotiable red flags. Thus, the tiny probabilities of success make it not worth to address the CV and letter correctly.
    - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
      Translation: It's not worth it to write a cover letter or optimize your resumé for a particular job, because you won't make it through the screening process anyway.
shagymoe 3y ago
Cover letters are a scourge on society anyway.

mock-possum 3y ago

That’s been my experience too, and it sucks. Looking for a job now is hellish compared to 10 years ago and I kind of don’t know what to do about it. I feel like more in-person connections would be useful, but god I don’t want to start going to meetups and networking and informational interviews again.

eek2121 3y ago

My biggest complaints about trying to find a job today are: * Recruiters ghosting/not following up. * Companies post dozens of job openings, I apply, nobody follows up (even with a rejection) but keeps posting new positions (looking at you Aha!) The pay issue hasn’t come up except twice. One company wanted a senior engineer, but only wanted to pay 60k/year tops and you would be on call. Another company wanted a “volunteer”. There are other issues for sure. For some companies I do suspect age discrimination, especially with startups.

0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
The non responses are really demoralizing. I can take a form rejection letter. You can even lie to me and say the position is closed. Just do not leave me hanging with some scrap of hope.
wyclif 3y ago
There's a startup in the latest HN "Who's Hiring" that flat-out asked for recent grads (past 2 years) or not-yet grads. Ageism is probably the last frontier of job discrimination.
- LtWorf 3y ago
  You don't want experienced people who won't work loads of pointless overtime for free after all…
SupremumLimit 3y ago
Aha! advertises as far as New Zealand and I also never heard back when I applied. The excuse they supply (at least they do that much…) is that they receive too many applications to respond to everyone. But then why advertise all over the world? A scummy tactic when I think about it.

commandlinefan 3y ago

> asking for x years of experience in their exact tech stack That's not new, though - that's been going on as long as I've been in this business (early 90's). Most people suspect it's an end-run around H1B requirements: they already have a candidate in mind they want to hire, but they have to demonstrate to the government that they "can't find" a U.S. citizen who has the skillset they need.

RHSman2 3y ago

Welcome to the real world