Comment by ravenstine | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ravenstine | Hacker News Reader

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Contrasting with even just a year ago, the job market is in a lackluster state the way I see it. Don't be gaslit by all the people insisting that it's still a gold rush. It's not that there aren't jobs out there, but many companies right now are either laying off employees, under hiring freezes, or simply aren't that serious about hiring besides through nepotism. Since I got started as a software developer full time 9-ish years ago, I've been relentlessly blasted with messages from various recruiters. In the last 6 months, recruiter activity has slowed to a crawl, and I don't believe it's because there's something wrong with me. Back when I chose to stop working for almost a year, I still got plenty of recruiters reaching out to me.

To add to your point about resumes, people need to not underestimate the power of networking. Networking has been the key factor to my advancement for the last 3 jobs. It's just the way things are. People want to work with developers who aren't dicks, and interviewing is a time suck for both interviewees and interviewers. Today I was informed by a colleague that someone he was interviewing couldn't write a basic loop. Though the need for mere competence is reduced significantly, it's definitely still there.

Another thing to consider is to find companies that actually have a real profit model and apply to those. This is not the time IMO for feeding from the trough of easy money, because that whole phenomenon appears to be hitting a wall.

> To add to your point about resumes, people need to not underestimate the power of networking. Networking has been the key factor to my advancement for the last 3 jobs. It's just the way things are.

It's hard to overstate the importance of this. Without networking, your chances of landing the kind of job you _really_ want are vanishingly close to zero. Every single one of my civilian jobs has come about either through personal friendships ("hey bityard, my work is hiring and I'd like to work next to you") or due to name recognition, e.g. moving in and around the same groups of people that the hiring people are in. I have probably blindly fired off less than two dozen resumes in my decades-long career and while some resulted in an interview, none resulted in a hire.

For someone just starting out in their career, maybe blindly firing off 100 or 200 resumes for entry-level positions is the only option they have. But they should also be broadcasting their availability far and wide to friends, family, randos on the street, basically anyone that will listen. Local tech meetups. Online tech meetups. Career fairs, etc.

But if you've been in the industry for more than 2 or 3 years, and don't have a network that you can leverage in a job search, that is something you need to fix like immediately. That well must be filled BEFORE you need to drink from it.

> Without networking, your chances of landing the kind of job you _really_ want are vanishingly close to zero

Just to offer an anecdotal counterpoint: I switched companies 3 times in the last 4-5 years. Went from enterprise -> local start up -> big tech -> bay area start up. None of those jobs, including the enterprise gig where I got my start, required me to leverage my network.

I don't doubt it's much easier when you have people that can vouch for you, but "vanishingly close to zero" is not the experience I've had. And no, I didn't have to send out 200+ resumes.

Same experience here. I do have a network, but have never leveraged it. I just apply for jobs I'm interested and I get some of them. I never have to apply for more than 10 - 15 positions to get at least one. I don't have FAANG on my resume, but a string of solid, but not amazing experience.

To add to your point about meetups, I don't think there's been a better time to start an IRL tech meetup in a long time. The local tech scene in the SoCal area has definitely not been the same since the pandemic, and I recall a few threads on HN with remarks about how local tech meetups didn't come back. If someone can't find a meetup in their area, they might as well start one and have a good chance of getting networking value out of it.

100%. In school I did the usual on-campus interviews and blasting out resumes. However, the three jobs I've had since I didn't even apply for. I just sent emails to people I knew. (And, in one case, the job description was written for me.) Obviously your mileage will vary with this sort of thing, but it's my personal experience.

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