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Comment by Paul-Craft | Hacker News Reader

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.

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Yeah. 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 Officially because of restructuring, but after having had some conversations it's clear I've been replaced by a junior with a Claude subscription.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.

Use AI to mass-apply to all available job postings. It's a numbers game.

The 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')

Unfortunately, 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.

Electrical 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.

The best way to find out: just start. You’ll improve along the way. Questions like this (and anxiety) are best fixed by action.

I mean, I am. How else would I know nobody wants to interview me? :)

Fair enough :) wasn’t clear to me from your first comment. It’s definitely pretty tough out there right now.

It was completely clear from the first comment, which is why yours was so clearly unhelpful.

Yes absolutely. It’s even scientifically proven to be helpful advice.

Look up the work by Seligman et al. on resilience.

When someone says “no one will interview me” this is a pretty unhelpful response.

My 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.

You literally said they should do something.

Yes exactly. I stand by that advice. What’s the alternative? Do nothing?

So you advise that they do not need to change their approach at all, since they’re already doing something: posting on hacker news.

Ok, so comments like this are helpful then?

Yes, by explaining to you why yours was bad and hopefully preventing future such comments.

I 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…

I 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.

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