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Comment by teen | Hacker News Reader

Why would you post that you got rejected from 150+ other companies publicly before starting a new job? I might be a little apprehensive about my hiring decision at HelloSign after reading that... I was in a similar position to you (coming from a smaller city with a less than stellar tech background) and I received several offers within 2-3 weeks of job hunting.

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Respectfully, I think this attitude only contributes to the problem. It needs to be not shameful to try and fail, not shameful to have periods of unemployment, not shameful to bark up the wrong tree.

The more successful people who admit their past weaknesses, the less shameful it becomes. Having 150+ rejections shouldn't be a problem. The problem is the person (who? me) too scared to do those 15 or 150 applications in the first place.

I was going to post a direct response myself, but I think yours captures the essence of my issues with that post. As someone with well over 100 rejections by that standard[1] over the past five years, attitudes like that really rub me the wrong way. I have a hard time even getting companies to talk to me, though I am working with someone to do something about that.

[1] Application but no offer

He applied to 150 companies; that's not even remotely the same as being rejected 150 times. When you don't have somebody referring you inside the company, you're doing well to even get acknowledged by 50% of the companies you cold-apply to. Most companies will never write back, and many others will simply send a canned rejection if they can't tell you are a 100% match for the role based on a glance at your resume. Many companies simply don't look very closely at applicants applying directly, and if you don't have any of the signals people use as a proxy for quality (prestigious degree or prestigious job) it's tough to make it out of the slush pile.

You have to approach your job search as if it were a sales funnel, focusing on optimizing those things within your control. Those factors are number of applications, quality of your application materials and portfolio, and actual interviewing skill. You can't easily influence whether somebody takes the time to read your resume, which is why I don't think it's a bad sign that he had to send out 150 apps as a person without a strong professional network in the area. As far as I'm concerned, the real process begins when a recruiter sets up the first informational phone call. I'd be much more concerned if I found myself frequently flaming out at various levels of the process after I actually have a company's attention. Converting those warm leads into job offers is where raw interviewing skill comes into play. Some people, like the OP, just need a little practice to get good and comfortable at it.

No shame in needing some practice at those things that frequently come up in interviews but actually have very little to do with the day-to-day working life of a software engineer.

I've gotten passed over by 100s before landing a first job - many of them now try to court me. Everyone wants to hire safe, and it is disappointing to me.

If they like you, they like you. Companies that would be spooked by other companies' decisions are probably not companies you want to work for.

As has been said, job applications are a fickle beast. Just because you found success within a few weeks does not mean it's the norm.

From personal experience applying to jobs as a soon to be graduate, I know many of my friends with similar qualifications didn't even receive an interview at certain companies, even though I know they would do well in them from work we've done together previously. It's also interesting that I received interviews with all of the top companies I was interested in, but I didn't even hear back from several that I would consider the next tier down.

Even better, when I was applying for internships last year, some companies sent me rejection emails in the middle of the summer, seemingly indicating my application was unearthed in the abyss of the job portal by some random happenstance.

As I said, fickle.

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