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cakes wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2024 3:29 pm Eventually, the other shoe dropped and it seemed that workers in the tech sector had too much power on their wages, and the big tech companies decided to trim the fat after the pandemic and the zero interest money dried up. You can see salaries correcting themselves now that there's more people competing for jobs. I have strait up asked companies with large engineering teams in my initial interviews if they had to let go a percentage of engineering staff, followed up with why. I have gotten some really interesting answers, but they all pretty much sum up to: needed to grow quickly, realized we hired to quickly, had to get rid of 10-20% of staff that wasn't up to standards

Yeah. The other end of that is I sense that a lot of teams I've interviewed for are currently pretty frazzled, expected "to do more with less". Every current job listing talks about how 'fast paced' everything is. Yeah, supporting some warehouse inventory system or whatever is a Shit Hot field you should be willing to give up some evenings and weekends for as well

I got laid off about 6 months ago after 20+ years at the same company.

I just attended a seminar about (essentially) making yourself appear less old on your job applications, resume, LinkedIn profile, etc.

You might think having lots of experience and knowing things about being good at your job could be a really good thing..........

What a world.

LuciousSandwich wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2024 4:20 pm I got laid off about 6 months ago after 20+ years at the same company.

I just attended a seminar about (essentially) making yourself appear less old on your job applications, resume, LinkedIn profile, etc.

You might think having lots of experience and knowing things about being good at your job could be a really good thing..........

What a world.

That is interesting that you say that. On one hand, I think there's a bias against hiring older people, especially in role that aren't very senior. I have been guilty of that in my youth. But that does shed some light into some of immediate rejections, it feels. I have since tailored my messaging to be more implicit about the length of my experience in the industry. I have considered chopping off some of my earlier jobs, because they are not exactly relevant anymore, but I fear that might hurt me more in the long run. I've also realized, thinking back at my job experience, that I have a much broader scope of skills when it comes to engineering, so I've expanded my resume and adjusted my cover letters to speak to that.

I feel a little bit better than I did earlier. My wife told me I looked pale when I came up from the interview. It was really a shock to the system and I could go into the grueling details, if for the humor of it.

Oddly, I got an email to schedule an interview tomorrow. Its with a company that an old work friend is at, that I applied to and he sent me the original interview schedule. He didn't respond, so I assume the job was taken. I would have liked a response for professional courtesy, but someone else at the company sent the new request. I also found two jobs that fit my exact job description and applied for them, so we'll see. I kind of want to go a different direction in software development, but it might not be the right time to do it. Which, at my age, I'm not sure is going to happen again. I'm hoping this next job I can stay at for as long as possible. I'm tired of having to find a new job every 2-3 years for one reason or another that is often completely out of my hands.

Our collective obsession with appearing "youthful" so as to remain relevant to the current world and its limited/waning prospects . . . sometimes it almost threatens to spill over into Logan’s Run territory.

cakes wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2024 4:32 pm

LuciousSandwich wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2024 4:20 pm I got laid off about 6 months ago after 20+ years at the same company.

I just attended a seminar about (essentially) making yourself appear less old on your job applications, resume, LinkedIn profile, etc.

You might think having lots of experience and knowing things about being good at your job could be a really good thing..........

What a world.

That is interesting that you say that. On one hand, I think there's a bias against hiring older people, especially in role that aren't very senior. I have been guilty of that in my youth. But that does shed some light into some of immediate rejections, it feels. I have since tailored my messaging to be more implicit about the length of my experience in the industry. I have considered chopping off some of my earlier jobs, because they are not exactly relevant anymore, but I fear that might hurt me more in the long run. I've also realized, thinking back at my job experience, that I have a much broader scope of skills when it comes to engineering, so I've expanded my resume and adjusted my cover letters to speak to that.

I should add that I spent that long at an internet company that's generally considered uncool because I liked most of my actual work and my immediate co-workers. In Silicon Valley culture there's a weird implicit view that everyone should be a striver, and HR people are somehow suspicious of job seekers with long records of steady competence. Do I lack the Eye of the Tiger? Probably... but I am good at the work part of work.

Working in tech, the most annoying things are that (i) there's no adequate way to gauge coding skills but they'll still make you do a free project, nitpick it, then reject you and (ii) the "tech experts" interviewing you are usually either tech bros with power/ego complexes or weirdos with their eccentric foibles, and getting past them is an absolute fucking chore in itself.

Hell is definitely other people.

Edit: I forgot to also mention recruiters - greedy middlemen who are a step below used-car salespeople and add absolutely no value at any stage, but siphon large amounts of money and ensure your application doesn't make it anywhere near the company if they don't like your vibe

Software hiring has been completely broken for a long time. Everyone continues as is because they can't think up an alternative.

Those assessments are nothing like the actual job, and having some dickhead(s) commenting on your work from their ivory tower is demoralizing.
I've also learned that the more work you put into any project they give you, the less likely you are to get the job.

Emotionally speaking, it helps to remember that jobs are a bit like relationships - it can feel really lonely and awful when you're not in one, and the longer the situation goes on the worse you sometimes feel, but something usually comes along and when it does it's like all that shit you're feeling goes out the window and never happened. It doesn't define you.

cakes wrote:support a family of 4

Hey, congrats on the growth of yr family, and good luck with continued, gainful employment!

penningtron wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2024 2:15 pm Oh! And recruiters! I've talked to nearly 100 on the phone at this point and there are about 3 of them I don't want to murder. Just absolutely insulting, holograms of human beings who barely understand the nature of the work they are hiring for. One last week insisted I add a line about "I like to break things!"

So I should just announce why I lost my last job?
Bold strategy, I can’t wait to try it!

Looking for a job sucks.

Hope all PRF members have success.