4 ms·

I tried to automate job applications as a software engineer (and failed)

31 points by ukrainian 2y ago

yinser 2y ago
I also took a stab at this last year and made the mistake of using an email service as opposed to just using SMTP on my own Gmail. I’d love to see the open rates published, and response rates from this approach because this still seems promising.
freitzkriesler2 2y ago
The statistic information from such an effort would be really useful and very depressing.
j7ake 2y ago
I guess this shows you how valuable references, connections, and networks are. If you don’t have these, you have to go through the black void of dropping hundreds of resumes to get any response.
- jmcmaster 2y ago
  Which is why if you're job searching you should spend a decent chunk of your time making connections. Go to meetups, work on open source, volunteer, join a hackathon if such a thing still exists near you as well as "job board" job searching. I read the evergreen "What Color is Your Parachute" when I was 18 or so (before the web), and it profoundly affected my take on job search (and sales). It gets updated pretty regularly though the original author has passed not that long ago.
  - vertis 2y ago
    23 years in and all my (contract) work comes from my network. Parent comment is the advice you need. It's never too late to start, but it is hard to do on demand. Also the way you behave within a company will follow you. If you're NotAnAsshole™, can do the job and I've worked with you I'll help you get your next job for the rest of your career.
  - __loam 2y ago
    Don't work on open source if you're just trying to pump up your resume. Contribute only to projects you use and can make actually valuable contributions to. It does look good on a resume but telling people to do it because it looks good on a resume hurts the open source community imo.
brailsafe 2y ago
It doesn't really seem like you failed, it just seems like it didn't have a positive result. You appear to have completed what you set out to do, but with nobody hiring, a stagnating economy, and a terrible source of data, it's just confirmation that it's time to pick up a job at McDonald's or something, because things don't look so great out there. Edit: To clarify, the Job Bank is a deeply unfortunate source of useful leads, as the author concluded, and is what I meant by "terrible source of data". My overall comment is regarding the state of what can vaguely be described as the market for software devs in Canada, but even now trying to get a job in a warehouse or whatever isn't proving fruitful.
- chinchilla2020 2y ago
  > with nobody hiring, a stagnating economy, and a terrible source of data, it's just confirmation that it's time to pick up a job at McDonald's or something, because things don't look so great out there. The jobs market is burning hot https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/job-growth-totaled-303000-in-march-better-than-expected-and-unemployment-was-3point8percent.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/job-growth-totaled-303000-in.... Tech is oversaturated, but tech is just one industry in the whole economy. People having trouble getting a tech job need to stop acting like their experience reflects that of other industries. Right now, manufacturing will hire pretty much anyone with a pulse.
  - brailsafe 2y ago
    That's a different job market. Canada's unemployment rate just tipped over 6%. I'd argue that manufacturing is also too broad of a category to be useful as something to mention, and every similar statement of "X industry is basically hiring anyone" rarely ends up being true in a practical way. It always needs to be qualified somehow, and usually by a lack of competition in the physical region of the facilities. That's my impression anyway, I'm sure everyone's experience varies, but people are getting ghosted for all kinds of jobs. Within tech, people often suggest going to work for government or some big corp that's not FAANG as the backup path, but you still need to go through similar hiring gauntlets or live down the street from the office, or in the capital, or meet a lot more of the silly list of requirements up front, or have specific certs, and they still need to be hiring

31 points by ukrainian 2y ago

I also took a stab at this last year and made the mistake of using an email service as opposed to just using SMTP on my own Gmail. I’d love to see the open rates published, and response rates from this approach because this still seems promising.

freitzkriesler2 2y ago

The statistic information from such an effort would be really useful and very depressing.

j7ake 2y ago

I guess this shows you how valuable references, connections, and networks are. If you don’t have these, you have to go through the black void of dropping hundreds of resumes to get any response.

jmcmaster 2y ago
Which is why if you're job searching you should spend a decent chunk of your time making connections. Go to meetups, work on open source, volunteer, join a hackathon if such a thing still exists near you as well as "job board" job searching. I read the evergreen "What Color is Your Parachute" when I was 18 or so (before the web), and it profoundly affected my take on job search (and sales). It gets updated pretty regularly though the original author has passed not that long ago.
- vertis 2y ago
  23 years in and all my (contract) work comes from my network. Parent comment is the advice you need. It's never too late to start, but it is hard to do on demand. Also the way you behave within a company will follow you. If you're NotAnAsshole™, can do the job and I've worked with you I'll help you get your next job for the rest of your career.
- __loam 2y ago
  Don't work on open source if you're just trying to pump up your resume. Contribute only to projects you use and can make actually valuable contributions to. It does look good on a resume but telling people to do it because it looks good on a resume hurts the open source community imo.

brailsafe 2y ago

It doesn't really seem like you failed, it just seems like it didn't have a positive result. You appear to have completed what you set out to do, but with nobody hiring, a stagnating economy, and a terrible source of data, it's just confirmation that it's time to pick up a job at McDonald's or something, because things don't look so great out there. Edit: To clarify, the Job Bank is a deeply unfortunate source of useful leads, as the author concluded, and is what I meant by "terrible source of data". My overall comment is regarding the state of what can vaguely be described as the market for software devs in Canada, but even now trying to get a job in a warehouse or whatever isn't proving fruitful.

chinchilla2020 2y ago
> with nobody hiring, a stagnating economy, and a terrible source of data, it's just confirmation that it's time to pick up a job at McDonald's or something, because things don't look so great out there. The jobs market is burning hot https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/job-growth-totaled-303000-in-march-better-than-expected-and-unemployment-was-3point8percent.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/job-growth-totaled-303000-in.... Tech is oversaturated, but tech is just one industry in the whole economy. People having trouble getting a tech job need to stop acting like their experience reflects that of other industries. Right now, manufacturing will hire pretty much anyone with a pulse.
- brailsafe 2y ago
  That's a different job market. Canada's unemployment rate just tipped over 6%. I'd argue that manufacturing is also too broad of a category to be useful as something to mention, and every similar statement of "X industry is basically hiring anyone" rarely ends up being true in a practical way. It always needs to be qualified somehow, and usually by a lack of competition in the physical region of the facilities. That's my impression anyway, I'm sure everyone's experience varies, but people are getting ghosted for all kinds of jobs. Within tech, people often suggest going to work for government or some big corp that's not FAANG as the backup path, but you still need to go through similar hiring gauntlets or live down the street from the office, or in the capital, or meet a lot more of the silly list of requirements up front, or have specific certs, and they still need to be hiring