Ask HN: How do I find my next job?

Is a senior really someone with 3 years experience now?

I'm 11 years in and think I'd only just qualify.

This seems like more of a dig than a genuine question but assuming it is genuine... Here's what I'd say.

Where I work, time in the job doesn't necessarily correlate with career progression. It is dependent on continuously demonstrating impact, contributions to grow people, and direction. Someone in industry for 10+ years may not be qualified because of how senior is defined here, and similarly people with less time in the job very well might be qualified.

I was lucky early in my career to get enough mentorship to be able to get to that point. Maybe I would not be considered senior elsewhere because I haven't been in the job long enough, but at this workplace I am an L5.

Honestly not a dig, just surprised.

The senior title has no formal definition. Personally I don’t consider anyone with under 10 years of highly diversified experience to be senior. Any senior with less experience under their belt I assume their employer tossed the title at them in lieu of a raise.

The software industry in particular has gotten really lax with titles, to the point that they mean next to nothing.

I get a laugh imagining a kid just a few years out of school explaining to people that they’re a “senior software engineer”. Anyone on the outside would assume they’re either full of shit or some kind of Doogie Howser.

It's like "CEO" meaning they're the person responsible for anything. A senior engineer at a startup is the one expected to make sure engineering hits the deadlines.

Titles aren't exactly medals or certifications, they just denote who to blame.

I used to hesitate to call myself a senior dev, but I've come to realise it seems to be used just to refer to someone who can do their job without an excess amount of handholding.

Junior devs on the other hand tend to be developers with little to no experience with some of the core technologies used within the role. Typically they'll require some help from more senior devs to get up to speed.

I've been a developer for over 10 years at this point and I'm not really sure I feel like a senior dev. Every week I'm reminded how much I don't know. There's definitely a huge variance in the abilities of senior devs. Some of worked with are been terrible while others have been indispensable to the team. It's always bothered me that variance wasn't reflected in pay or title.

> I've come to realise it seems to be used just to refer to someone who can do their job without an excess amount of handholding.

Being competent enough to work independently is an extremely low bar for the distinction of being a senior in your field.

In most other industries that just means you’re not a trainee any longer.

For example my wife just entered the medical field doing administrative work. She’ll be a trainee for a full year. It will be a decade or more before she’ll be qualified to be in any sort of senior role.

I mean at the end of the day I don’t feel that strongly about it, but the problem is that when titles become meaningless it’s very hard to for example, communicate what role you’re hiring for, or who the right person to lead a new project is.

It varies from company to company and role to role.

I am in Seattle as well and moved out of Amazon recently. Drop me a note if you want to catch up for coffee. My email is in my profile.

Thank you, I'll have to take you up on this

Reality for me is to look for a job like anyone else; apply, wait for a reply; go through 4 stages of interview; take home tests that take a ridiculous amount of time, not paid; and then, wait like everyone else, for feedback, if not ghosted.

What I do when employed, I do my best on recruitment, to onboard people, make them feel welcomed, etc because I know how it feels otherwise as most are time wasters, have no respect and some people feel entitled...

My suggestion to you is to start looking on your own without any expectations

The recent who's hiring thread is a good place to look for companies of that size. Crunchbase is another good place to look. You can filter by company size.

Good idea, thank you

Have you looked anywhere? Spoken to anyone? Networking is really key to finding good roles imo.

There are a ton of jobs out there you just have to find the right one!

Good point. This is actually something I have not done well. Or at all.

I’ve been pretty much working and operating solo for the past two years, which isn’t great. I also live in Seattle which I have found not very conducive to networking, but perhaps that’s wrong. I’ll start looking around for things that way.

I live in Seattle too, feel free to reach out or cross post on Sqwok

Some ideas and resources for finding a job that's a better fit for you:

-Look for companies that are doing work that you're passionate about. If you're interested in a particular topic or technology, follow companies and leaders in that space on social media, read their blog posts, and see if they're hiring.

-Check out job boards that focus on your specific skillset or industry. For example, if you're a software engineer, you can search for job postings on sites like Stack Overflow Jobs or Hired.

-Look for companies that are located in an area that you want to live in. This can help you narrow down your search to companies that are a good fit for you geographically.

- Ask your friends, family, and professional contacts if they know of any companies that are hiring. Personal recommendations can be a great way to find a job that's a good fit for you.

I left Amazon (AWS) after 6 years recently to go go a smaller operation. Happy to share my thoughts over beer/coffee, I am outside Seattle

DuckDuckGo has many open positions, all fully remote: https://duckduckgo.com/hiring

Cliche but talk with a recruiter?

Do you mean of a specific company? I’m not sure which companies I’m interested in yet so it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem in that case.

But yes I agree I need to chat with someone at prospective companies once I find one I like!

Just be careful with recruiters. They are in it to help themselves not you.

Maang? Mmang? Define, please?

FAANG became MAANG when "F"acebook changed to "M"eta. The 2nd M in MMANG is probably Microsoft.

They will always be Facebook to me.

following, in the same situation