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I'm asking myself the same question for a different reason: nobody will even interview me. I've been out of work for a while. Savings are running out. I appa
by Paul-Craft 5mo ago
I'm asking myself the same question for a different reason: nobody will even interview me. I've been out of work for a while. Savings are running out. I apparently don't even know how to look for a job anymore.
- alephnerd 5mo ago[flagged]
- Paul-Craft 5mo agoBay Area, 9 YoE primarily backend, US citizen. I'm familiar with AI coding tools. I've done real work on real systems.
- WickyNilliams 5mo agoWhat is your experience in? The company I work for is constantly hiring
- sublinear 5mo agoMost of the job openings for humans are remote and not in big tech, but the pay in absolute terms is significantly lower (same wage percentile for the area you live though). It's important to understand the world beyond your bubble. If those jobs seem unrealistic as an option, you may need to consider if your cost of living is unrealistic.
- Paul-Craft 5mo agoI'm fine with "not big tech," along with a "not big tech" salary. In fact, I prefer "not big tech." My cost of living is not absurd for the Bay Area. I'd even be willing to take a little less than what I made before. After all, less than before is still better than 0. I'm using AI to tailor my resume to every posting, and still not getting calls.
- sublinear 5mo ago> not absurd for the Bay Area Yeah I was implying you might need to move to optimize for cost of living, but I don't know your situation and am not really asking. It's actually surprising sometimes to hear how long this took to affect some tech workers. You're lucky it's now that housing prices have stabilized (everyone else has stopped moving), and not a few years ago. Remote work doesn't necessarily mean you aren't still tethered to some radius. Otherwise I'd be living in Monaco or something haha.
- adw 5mo agoYou’ve got nine years of experience, so work your network and get referrals. It’s very hard to get mid-career jobs through the front door; most people want someone they trust to vouch for you.
- Paul-Craft 5mo agoI've tried that. They don't have anything for me.
- micik 5mo ago> Most of the job openings for humans are remote and not in big tech where do you find these?
- Paul-Craft 5mo agoHuh, weird that you can't reply. I'm tailoring my resume to individual postings a good portion of the time. My "default" resume is by ChatGPT; it's essentially my human-written resume, jazzed up a bit for ATS-friendliness. There are no hallucinations in it, and I feel it accurately represents my experience.
- defrost 5mo ago> Huh, weird that you can't reply. It happens to many, it's happened to me three times so far - the mods rate limit (only X comments per Y time period) people who have been flagged, judged, and found to be a bit prone to get in rapid back n forth exchanges that have crossed guidelines. It can generally be reversed on request via hn email, sometimes it's a blessing, sometimes it's not even something that impacts a user very often unless they find themselves in an interesting exchange.
- lordkrandel 5mo agoBy hand written, I think he means something like a letter written by hand, or anyway sent via post. Not "chatgpt that is basically handwritten"
- alephnerd 5mo agoNope. I mean text created by a human not an LLM.
- dnnddidiej 5mo agoAt this conversation depth thete is no reply button here but you can open the comment by clicking the time "8 hours ago" then reply.
- baxtr 5mo agoThe best way to find out: just start. You’ll improve along the way. Questions like this (and anxiety) are best fixed by action.
- lazyasciiart 5mo agoWhen someone says “no one will interview me” this is a pretty unhelpful response.
- baxtr 5mo agoMy response is probably controversial. But I genuinely think it’s generally helpful advice. Ofc I don’t have any other information than the comment about this person.
- Brian_K_White 5mo agoYou literally said they should do something.
- baxtr 5mo agoYes exactly. I stand by that advice. What’s the alternative? Do nothing?
- lazyasciiart 5mo agoSo you advise that they do not need to change their approach at all, since they’re already doing something: posting on hacker news.
- baxtr 5mo agoOk, so comments like this are helpful then?
- 5mo ago
- oldmanhorton 5mo agoI have no advice to offer, I only wish you good luck. I am still lucky enough to be employed, but when this whole parade ends, I have no idea what comes next - my only skill is programming and related knowledge work. I think the only path forward is to try to jump ship to another white or blue collar industry…
- Paul-Craft 5mo agoI thought along those lines as well. The only thing I could come up with that would be semi-viable was medical school, and I"m not sure I'd survive residency. I definitely would never be able to pay back the debt, if I had to take any.
- idiotsecant 5mo agoThe era of anyone interested in programming for fun being able to make upper 10% incomes is drawing to a close. You'll unfortunately have to join the rest of us who work for money and program for fun. I suggest engineering (the real kind, not software 'engineering')
- Paul-Craft 5mo agoUnfortunately, I have a visual-spatial processing disability. You don't want me near anything mechanical, and I can't do visualization-based tasks because I literally can't visualize. That eliminates most engineering jobs. There's also the matter of going back to school, and the associated debt I'd have to take. I'd never be able to pay the loans off if I did that.
- idiotsecant 5mo agoElectrical engineering doesn't need much in the way of mechanical aptitude, has a substantial overlap with what you already know depending on specialization, and might not have as much new schooling required as you would think. Something like industrial controls engineering might be right up your alley.
- nso 5mo agoYeah. Got word I was being laid off in November. Officially because of restructuring, but after having had some conversations it's clear I've been replaced by a junior with a Claude subscription. 20 years coding experience. Gone through the sweaty junior years, senior, founding engineer, CTO (and back to software Engineering again because it's my preference) -- and now I can't even get an interview with a human. Due to unfortunate life events my savings are now all but gone and I don't even know how if I will be able to keep a roof over our heads. It's messed up. If anyone is hiring send me a message. I'm a .eu citizen but work have residency in and work out of Mexico.
- anal_reactor 5mo agoUse AI to mass-apply to all available job postings. It's a numbers game.