[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How is your job search going? (January 2025)
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       Ask HN: How is your job search going? (January 2025)
        
       I've been pretty depressed trying to find a job recently, so I'm
       wondering how it's going for you guys. Wanna share your success
       story? Or are you struggling too and need to vent? This is the
       place.   _Who is hiring?_ https:
       //news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42575537   _Who wants to be hired?_
       https: //news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42575535   _Freelancer?
       Seeking freelancer?_ https: //news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42575536
        
       Author : notpushkin
       Score  : 25 points
       Date   : 2025-01-02 17:27 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
       | chistev wrote:
       | Not great so far.
       | 
       | I've applied to about 5 jobs on Upwork and the clients still
       | haven't even hired anyone.
       | 
       | The year is just starting, hopeful still.
        
       | giantg2 wrote:
       | I have a job, but it's in a terrible department. I've been
       | actively looking and posting internally. I've been looking
       | externally too, but haven't posted externally.
       | 
       | I've been looking for over a year and there have been extremely
       | few internal postings around my level/role. External postings in
       | my area seem to be mostly garbage, both in the sense that they
       | aren't actually hiring and also the ones who are have terrible
       | culture or pay.
       | 
       | Over the past year, I've probably interviewed for 6 internal
       | roles, most in the past 6 months. I've declined 2 of the postions
       | due their team being even worse than my current one. I have one
       | that I did well on and could result in a double promotion. I
       | should find out about that soon, but I'm really not hopeful. I'm
       | surprised they even took me as a candidate given I'm 2 grades
       | below it.
       | 
       | It seems like it's picking up internally at least. Maybe that
       | will translate to more external jobs next.
        
         | grugagag wrote:
         | > I've declined 2 of the postions due their team being even
         | worse than my current one.
         | 
         | What's your criteria to determine that? Is it just insider
         | knowledge from those departments or do you systematically go
         | over a checklist?
        
           | giantg2 wrote:
           | No checklist, it's based on what they tell me about their
           | systems.
           | 
           | One interview was supposed to be for a dev role. It turns out
           | it was for a test automation engineer for a testing only team
           | on a program. I've seen how those testing only teams get
           | treated in my org when you have a whole program throwing code
           | at you to test. You obviously aren't doing TDD, and good luck
           | getting good requirements or access to the business SMEs.
           | Hard pass.
           | 
           | Another was for a dev role for Python and some work for a new
           | Angular UI. I got into the interview and they're talking
           | about Go... which wasn't listed anywhere in the posting. And
           | that Angular work... it's going to be React. Their
           | explaination was that they just didn't update the posting
           | (lazy fuck, wasting everyone's time and the company's money).
           | Then they went on to tell me they didn't really have tests
           | and they aren't thinking about using a CMS for the UI. So
           | they can't even create a valid posting and just shrug at
           | common best practices that are missing. This isn't a startup
           | but a mature company in a regulated industry. Decline.
        
       | j-scott wrote:
       | Started prepping/interviewing in Oct after reading this post:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41402581
       | 
       | Secured interviews with Facebook, Databricks, Snowflake, and
       | Stripe (3 referrals, 1 recruiter reach out).
       | 
       | Bombed the FB phone screen due to nerves/first interview of the
       | cycle. Completed the remaining three loops by December, and got
       | offers from Databricks and Snowflake (Stripe went on two week
       | holiday break and hasn't gotten back to me yet).
       | 
       | Accepted the Databricks offer!
       | 
       | Happy to talk about practice/process (within the limits of the
       | interview NDAs)!
        
         | silenced_trope wrote:
         | Are you in the Bay Area? Do you know if Meta requires all
         | employees to commute to their S. Bay campus?
         | 
         | I have a recruiter pestering me from them. I'm open to Meta but
         | not commuting. If their SF office is open though I'd consider
         | an on-site role.
        
         | Ancalagon wrote:
         | Is the meta interview process still primarily a leetcode
         | gauntlet?
        
         | giantg2 wrote:
         | Who the fuck is making you sign NDAs just to interview? That
         | seems absurd for most roles/places.
        
       | DidYaWipe wrote:
       | I don't even really bother anymore. It's such a giant fraud and
       | time-suck.
       | 
       | We all know that society is propped up by people going to work
       | and doing nothing much of value. But now the do-nothingness
       | pervades even the recruiting stage. It's such an empty faff. WTF
       | are they doing? Why bother? I guess automation makes it cost-free
       | to churn out bullshit job posts and waste our time endlessly;
       | there's no human cost to the perpetrators.
       | 
       | It really does make you wonder about the collapse of our society.
        
         | arkensaw wrote:
         | > We all know that society is propped up by people going to
         | work and doing nothing much of value
         | 
         | I don't disagree that there are lots of companies out there
         | doing essentially pointless work and paying high salaries to
         | people who do very little all day. Mostly in the B2B space. But
         | is it accurate to say society itself is propped up by these
         | roles?
        
       | brainfog wrote:
       | I can't help but feel like I lucked into easy mode given the
       | general consensus that everything sucks right now. Applied to 10
       | places (mix of FAANG and small startups) after taking a year off
       | from work. Heard back from 5, somehow got offers from all 5 and
       | am starting at one of them next month.
       | 
       | It took a fair bit of prep to get back into things - especially
       | when it comes to system design interviews - but otherwise
       | everything went fine. Really enjoyed how some companies are
       | trying non-leetcode approaches lately like code review and
       | debugging sessions.
        
         | mancerayder wrote:
         | Which geographical market? Were you nervous after the time off?
         | 
         | I'm reading people who have been continually employed taking
         | forever to find jobs.
        
       | hu3 wrote:
       | I went from zero monthly LinkedIn messages from recruiters to 2
       | in December. So one could say infinitely better?
       | 
       | But realistically these contacts have little chance to
       | materialize into a solid, well-paying job.
        
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       (page generated 2025-01-02 23:02 UTC)