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Comment by jtsiskin | Hacker News Reader

“The current job market” - tech stocks and revenue is exploding, is the job market difficult currently?

My understanding from younger colleagues is that entry-level positions are much more competitive than they were when I was leaving college and entering the tech market 10 or 12 years ago. At that time, my experience was that if you knew Linux (at all) or Windows/Mac administration - and were otherwise a good interviewee - you essentially had your choice of jobs.

People entering the market now talk about it like it's a complete wasteland. Apparently entry-level 'learn-on-the-job' tech work is extremely competitive and difficult to access for new graduates these days. If you're already 'in' and have a network and experience it's still largely like the glory days, but getting to that level is supposedly much more difficult now.

(To be fair to any younger people reading this, my entry-level tech job was at $28k/yr and I worked restaurants and bars until I was able to move on, so it's not like I got a degree and someone threw $150k at me to intern. It took a lot of work, even in the glory days)

There are many people entering the industry that can already demonstrate their skills well, and interview in a way that shows that even if they are technically entry-level, they likely won't stay there for very long.

This probably contributes to a very competitive situation for traditional entry-level "actually I need to learn this job once I get there" candidates.

From say, December 1995(An arbitrary date) to now, in every single month,you could find posts/emails/comments all over the internet claiming that in that month/year:

- The economy was in a slump and was going to get worse

- The job market was in its way situation ever

- All the good ideas had been taken, no hanging fruits anymore

- It was a bad time to study CS/law/medicine/engineering/math/physics

- The good times were over

- More and more people were "leaving the field"

I've anecdotally heard from former colleagues that it's gotten tougher to find entry-level or mid-level positions, not sure how broadly that applies, though.

This is sort of evergreen though.

It's like "last year at Burning Man was the last good year."

I will add my anecdote to the pile. It seems like there are a good number of positions out there, but it also seems like most of them are asking for senior level folks. Then, the ones I interview stall out because I either have too much experience, or not enough experience - I'm square in the middle ground where it seems nothing is quite right for me.

Same experience. Low level warm-body work is plentiful, but pays poorly and doesn't give good experience. Senior level work is in extremely high demand, but employers aren't willing to bring on engineers who only have experience with the latter. I've started shopping around for (and have had limited success with) 100-500 headcount companies who are willing to hire seniors on the greener side.

I identify with this. I'm ready to move on to the next step but there doesn't seem to be a position that fits my experience level. "Senior" seems like a relative distinction based on the company. I'm ready to land at a place that takes engineering practices more seriously but those companies don't think I have enough experience with those practices - for instance, I've never worked at a company that even cares about unit testing, now I need to be very experienced at it. I know how to do unit testing of course but it's not my sharpest skill for obvious reasons. I'm focusing on these weaker skills but it's definitely a challenge.

Yeah it's super competitive for entry level jobs. I live in a city with a lot of tech workers and it's not uncommon for entry level development jobs to have hundreds of applicants within a day or so.

I suck at actual technical interviews due to anxiety, but I score exceptionally well with take home tests so thankfully I was able to land a job.

Only because entry level now includes folks who did a coding bootcamp or a couple of Coursera courses. Every college CS graduate I have known was juggling multiple full-time offers months before graduation.

I got an offer from a place (hot startup)that I wasn’t really interested in. Had a call to talk about it, see if I might be into. Oh can you talk to so and so, hey can we do a coding exercises really quick, hey can you chat with founder really quick.

3 days from hearing about company, I had an offer.

Then was being pestered about background check.

Wait, how did I get to this point? I wasn’t even really interested.

Few days later offer was withdrawn since I hadn’t completed paperwork.

Overall I’m glad I didn’t accept, they clearly had a very inflated opinion of themselves and how eager everyone would be to join.

In a tepid defense of the anonymous company… I would probably also interpret someone in the situation doing a coding exercise as a sign they are interested in a position.

Fair point. I liken it to going to the bar and waking up in Vegas with a ring on your finger and a stranger in your bed.

It’s probably your fault, but it’s still a huge WTF just happened moment

> Few days later offer was withdrawn since I hadn’t completed paperwork.

Saw the not-filling paperwork/red tape in a timely manner used as a signal first-hand to screen out a perfectly-acceptable (technical-wise) candidate. Combined with a perceived lack of enthusiasm in personality for the role (which I could easily put down to a manager who has a specific idea in mind of "enthusiasm", and doesn't mesh well with a wider variance of personality types), it was a one-two punch the candidate could not recover from, and lost out to a slightly more junior tech.

I suppose my comment lacked a bit of nuance, as I understand the author may be in a different sector and certainly different geographic location.

Where I live (and the areas I am able/willing to transfer to), the job market has proven quite difficult. But, it could also be that my resume isn't to par, or a lack of effective networking, or both. That's why I'd be interested in seeing the perspective from someone who is obviously having success landing interviews.

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