4 ms·

1. Four months looking for an job isn’t a long time in today’s job market. You aren’t in giving up or changing careers territory yet. 2. Focus on making your j

by dangus 1y ago

1. Four months looking for an job isn’t a long time in today’s job market. You aren’t in giving up or changing careers territory yet. 2. Focus on making your job acquisition process a full time job and treat it as a different skill set entirely. For example, applying for jobs doesn’t cut it in today’s market. You need to be reaching out to real live people with messages that offer value. Keep bothering them if they don’t answer, on average it takes 8 contacts to get a response from a cold contact. 2. If you can’t pass tech screens, study tech screens. Put the work in. There’s no excuse for you not passing them. 3. Consider a different role than software engineering. Since you’re a founder, and you’ve started companies, maybe you are a better fit for something else. 4. Expand your reach outside of the Bay Area tech industry. Everyone has software engineers. Look at other industries that aren’t explicitly tech companies. Healthcare comes to mind. 5. Don’t get a law degree. You want to work fewer hours, not more. 6. Get out of the Bay Area. Software engineers don’t work 50 hour weeks in the Midwest. California work culture is toxic, and you’ll get your own house for the price of a VCR in the Midwest. 7. Reset your salary expectations (see also #6). The median income of the USA is so much lower than $150k.

silvercymbals 1y ago
Thanks for your thoughts - but I'm not going to pat myself on the back trying to make the US median income. To be clear, I'd accept anything over $70k at this point.
- dangus 1y ago
  I guess what I mean to say is don’t get the idea that $100-120k for a non-senior developer job in a middle America city is a bad living. You’ll probably live better with that than you do now in the Bay Area. I was at a concert last night and met someone working concessions who used to do training for a tech company. She has been out of career work for 2 years. Has a promising job opportunity but no offer yet. Real life isn’t necessarily going to cut you a break.
  - silvercymbals 1y ago
    Reducing myself to the career mean of a midwest town sounds worse than checking myself into a mental institution.
    - dangus 1y ago
      You aren’t superior to everyone else. Maybe you aren’t passing the vibe check rather than the tech screen if this is your level of humility in interviews. The Midwest includes some amazing and really nicely affordable cities like Chicago. You would even find mental institutions like the twin cities, Milwaukee, Madison, Columbus, Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh to be really nice places with lots to do. And I’m not even telling you that you’re resigning to being a plebeian with median income, but you can’t help being snobby anyway.
    - xtracto 1y ago
      You've had already several replies commenting in your attitude issues; but it seems you are still to young to see them. I really, really hope in my heart that you can still keep the way of life you are used to. Although, from what I've seen in the US and the world currently, it will be quite difficult. It is a reality that us people from Xenials (myself), Millenials and Z have have lived our work lives in a generally confortable era. I myself ended my BSc in 2004, way after the dot-com bubble burst, and fortunately the 2008 crisis didn't hit me. But, the advice you are calling "boomer coping" (or similar) has some experience in there, most likely from people that suffered the 2000 dot-com bubble burst. From the accounts I've read of older friends, there were people with plenty of experience and great CVs washing dishes at local restaurants. Right now, the way things are moving in our field, with AI, outsourcing and everything else playing, it looks like the skillsets are getting cheaper. So, we are getting punched by reality and I believe it will only get worse. Good luck.
      - acdha 1y ago
        > But, the advice you are calling "boomer coping" (or similar) has some experience in there, most likely from people that suffered the 2000 dot-com bubble burst. From the accounts I've read of older friends, there were people with plenty of experience and great CVs washing dishes at local restaurants. Also the early 90s weren’t great: the Cold War ending meant that a lot of defense contractors laid off very specialized workers. For an example of that circa 1994: https://web.archive.org/web/20000816014209/https://philip.greenspun.com/careers/ https://web.archive.org/web/20000816014209/https://philip.gr...

by dangus 1y ago

silvercymbals 1y ago

Thanks for your thoughts - but I'm not going to pat myself on the back trying to make the US median income. To be clear, I'd accept anything over $70k at this point.

dangus 1y ago
I guess what I mean to say is don’t get the idea that $100-120k for a non-senior developer job in a middle America city is a bad living. You’ll probably live better with that than you do now in the Bay Area. I was at a concert last night and met someone working concessions who used to do training for a tech company. She has been out of career work for 2 years. Has a promising job opportunity but no offer yet. Real life isn’t necessarily going to cut you a break.
- silvercymbals 1y ago
  Reducing myself to the career mean of a midwest town sounds worse than checking myself into a mental institution.
  - dangus 1y ago
    You aren’t superior to everyone else. Maybe you aren’t passing the vibe check rather than the tech screen if this is your level of humility in interviews. The Midwest includes some amazing and really nicely affordable cities like Chicago. You would even find mental institutions like the twin cities, Milwaukee, Madison, Columbus, Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh to be really nice places with lots to do. And I’m not even telling you that you’re resigning to being a plebeian with median income, but you can’t help being snobby anyway.
  - xtracto 1y ago
    You've had already several replies commenting in your attitude issues; but it seems you are still to young to see them. I really, really hope in my heart that you can still keep the way of life you are used to. Although, from what I've seen in the US and the world currently, it will be quite difficult. It is a reality that us people from Xenials (myself), Millenials and Z have have lived our work lives in a generally confortable era. I myself ended my BSc in 2004, way after the dot-com bubble burst, and fortunately the 2008 crisis didn't hit me. But, the advice you are calling "boomer coping" (or similar) has some experience in there, most likely from people that suffered the 2000 dot-com bubble burst. From the accounts I've read of older friends, there were people with plenty of experience and great CVs washing dishes at local restaurants. Right now, the way things are moving in our field, with AI, outsourcing and everything else playing, it looks like the skillsets are getting cheaper. So, we are getting punched by reality and I believe it will only get worse. Good luck.
    - acdha 1y ago
      > But, the advice you are calling "boomer coping" (or similar) has some experience in there, most likely from people that suffered the 2000 dot-com bubble burst. From the accounts I've read of older friends, there were people with plenty of experience and great CVs washing dishes at local restaurants. Also the early 90s weren’t great: the Cold War ending meant that a lot of defense contractors laid off very specialized workers. For an example of that circa 1994: https://web.archive.org/web/20000816014209/https://philip.greenspun.com/careers/ https://web.archive.org/web/20000816014209/https://philip.gr...