Ask HN: How are you suppose to find a job? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How are you suppose to find a job?

13 pointsyuashizuki17 comments

How are you suppose to get a job if almost all job offers available online require like 10 to 5 years of experience. Should one still apply? Can you share your stories about finding your first job that you did not get straight out of college, that you found online, also share what was your hit ratio. Thanks.

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So, this isn't meant to be mean... but first you could work on your English.

"I have no network, what do u mean widen ur search criteria, like doing a barista job, which I already have" is full of spelling and grammar issues. If you want to work in tech I would expect it to be possible for people to look up things you write online. Take the extra time and spell out words like "you" and "your."

Also, it's "supposed to get a job," but that one is less obvious.

But to help answer your question for real, I recommend internships (hopefully paid) and agree with agilebyte, who mentioned looking for the jobs that don't require the 5 to 10 years of experience to start. Practice hard at interview-type questions and really make sure you know about the stuff you might be working with. There's lots of great starting jobs in tech that require less experience. Start there and get the 5 to 10 years, or be so good that you can knock 'em dead in an interview.

The first few jobs are the hardest to get, I would recommend that you focus extremely narrowly on a few companies you want to work for, and then do whatever it takes to blow your potential-bosses' mind.

Case in point: My first job was a typical development role at a startup. I got the gig by going the extra mile. I took the product-idea they were working on (which they had described in detail in the hiring ad) and then built a working prototype from scratch (designed it, coded it, launched it, and sent them a link to the website and a zip file with the code).

Would I do that for a job today? No, probably not. But when I was starting out, going the extra mile was the only way to get my foot in the door, and it worked.

Work-history is just a way for hiring managers to know you can get the job done. If you're just starting out (and have no experience for them to review) you must figure out a way to prove to them that you can perform well.

Hope that helps.

If you can actually do the work described in the job post, most companies will hire you. Your hit ratio is meaningless. You only need to find one good job.

You do what everybody else does, and keep trying. What kind of work are you looking for? In my industry (software development), it'd be incredibly rare to have a job interview without some kind of technical component / test. If you can demonstrate via your CV and application that you've got the goods, then hopefully you'll get an interview and the whole experience thing won't matter so much.

Basically just tailor your CV to highlight what you've got to offer, and then just keep applying. If you're a good fit for the role and can demonstrate that, then few places are likely to hold hard and fast to the experience rule. Experience is only a general 'easy' way of assessing somebody's suitability, but there are enough terrible employees with decades of experience under their belts to prove that it's not a guarantee of quality.

"A job" covers a lot of ground. What kind of job are your trying to find? Getting hired as a lawyer requires different tactics than getting hired as a software developer which is different in turn from a real estate agent.

If all of the offers available online require 5-10 years of experience, perhaps you should widen your search criteria? Or look for local jobs? What meetups, if any, are available, for networking? Have you asked your network for help--not to find a job, but to introduce you to people who are in the industry that you are interested in?

I have no network, what do u mean widen ur search criteria, like doing a barista job, which I already have.

What jobs are you looking at that require 5-10 years of experience?

Why do you have no network? Can you build one? Do you have friends in the industries you are interested in? Parent's friends? Can you afford to volunteer for a company, a hackathon, a meet up, a conference in the area you are interested in?

Also, can you build something of interest yourself which you can point to at job interviews? Can you find an open source project to contribute to in your area of interest?

Yes, and I have, but most companies don’t give enough importance to such projects.

As a practical matter, job boards are passive way to find a job. Here's a solid pro-active resource to give you ideas on a job search, http://www.amazon.com/What-Color-Your-Parachute-2014/dp/1607...

Almost all does not mean all. You are going to work in only one job right? That job gives you more experience, more experience to apply for jobs that require 5-10 years of experience down the line.

If you believe you have more expertise than meets the eye, you could give freelancing a try.

can working on personal projects, on github, be called as work experiance

No need to lie, I put them under "github projects"* because they are exactly that. When people ask for "work experience" they want to see how you solved someone's need. Of course, you can create an open source project that is being used by thousands of people, clearly demonstrating that.

* http://radekstepan.com/pdf/cv.pdf

On the lower-paid side of the outsourcing: they can easily hire a junior and sell him as a senior. You would probably have to travel though.

Contact me at zq@nemcv.com. If we can't find you a job we pay you $1000

Internships are a great way to get work experience.

Network

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