Nice!

Starting a new gig on Monday, designing electronic modules at one of the big three automotive manufacturers. Took me over a year of on-and-off looking to land this role. I applied to over 100 positions, had about 20 callbacks, maybe 5 actual interviews with hiring managers. One company flew me to SF for a day of panel interviews and gave me an offer in November, but we couldn't align on comp.

Looking back, I think there were 3 main reasons I landed this new role:

1) I had a referral from one of my good friends who had previously worked with somebody on the interview panel. He put in a good word for me the day before the interview.

2) I did a LOT of prep for the interviews, probably 10-12 hours. This company really wants you to follow the STAR format for responses. I had a first-round interview at the same company for a different position back in January and didn't get the job, but I knew what to expect and the types of behavioral questions they were going to ask. I put together about 7 or 8 stories from my past experience that could be used to answer these behavioral questions, made some bullet-point notes, and recorded myself responding so I could tweak it. I had a slide deck for one of these stories prepared, and was able to whip it out when the opportunity arose, which went over big with them. All of this really boosted my confidence. I had a number of poor interviews in the past, especially when I was first starting to look, mostly because I was nervous and tended to ramble. The prep work this time really helped with that.

3) The final interview with the grandboss was in-person, and I brought some physical examples of past designs I worked on. Show-and-tell works wonders, especially with engineers.

This is probably all obvious stuff, but it's the first time I had taken it this seriously. The last real interview experience I had was 10 years and two jobs ago, and the market was much different back then.

Good luck out there friends.

Nate Dort wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 8:05 am Starting a new gig on Monday, designing electronic modules at one of the big three automotive manufacturers. Took me over a year of on-and-off looking to land this role. I applied to over 100 positions, had about 20 callbacks, maybe 5 actual interviews with hiring managers.

Nice! Congratulations!

Nate Dort wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 8:05 am Starting a new gig on Monday, designing electronic modules at one of the big three automotive manufacturers. Took me over a year of on-and-off looking to land this role. I applied to over 100 positions, had about 20 callbacks, maybe 5 actual interviews with hiring managers.

I agree, that's awesome! Congrats!

Will you have to deal with "functional safety" at all?

I accepted a Dev position with a local fintech company this week (still waiting on the paperwork stage). It's a step back in level/pay, but I'll be able to expand my skillset and honestly I'm a little rusty since my last 2 positions barely had me touching code. The first few months will essentially be a paid-to-learn phase, which I always appreciate. Onsite, but at least in a nice downtown building that's bikable/bus-able.

I had pretty much given up on tech and was applying for city jobs (solid work, but slooooow application process), but fortunately this all came together in the last month.

Nate Dort wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 8:05 am Starting a new gig on Monday, designing electronic modules at one of the big three automotive manufacturers.

penningtron wrote: I accepted a Dev position with a local fintech company this week (still waiting on the paperwork stage). It's a step back in level/pay, but I'll be able to expand my skillset and honestly I'm a little rusty since my last 2 positions barely had me touching code. The first few months will essentially be a paid-to-learn phase, which I always appreciate. Onsite, but at least in a nice downtown building that's bikable/bus-able.

I had pretty much given up on tech and was applying for city jobs (solid work, but slooooow application process), but fortunately this all came together in the last month.

Excellent news, FMs Nate and Pennington! Congratulations!

Congrats y'all - love hearing about people getting better gigs nowadays - most job market stuff seems so bleak...

penningtron wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 8:48 am I accepted a Dev position with a local fintech company this week (still waiting on the paperwork stage). It's a step back in level/pay, but I'll be able to expand my skillset and honestly I'm a little rusty since my last 2 positions barely had me touching code. The first few months will essentially be a paid-to-learn phase, which I always appreciate. Onsite, but at least in a nice downtown building that's bikable/bus-able.

I had pretty much given up on tech and was applying for city jobs (solid work, but slooooow application process), but fortunately this all came together in the last month.

Also congrats!!

I have thought on occasion to get back into writing code but think I'm no longer employable in that regard, unless I went back down to entry level. It's been 20 years since I was paid to actually write code (gasp)! Reviewing other organizations' software development life cycles doesn't count.

penningtron wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 8:48 am I accepted a Dev position with a local fintech company this week (still waiting on the paperwork stage). It's a step back in level/pay, but I'll be able to expand my skillset and honestly I'm a little rusty since my last 2 positions barely had me touching code. The first few months will essentially be a paid-to-learn phase, which I always appreciate. Onsite, but at least in a nice downtown building that's bikable/bus-able.

I had pretty much given up on tech and was applying for city jobs (solid work, but slooooow application process), but fortunately this all came together in the last month.

Congratulations! Sometimes, taking a step back is not a bad thing! Good luck and I hope you learn a lot of new stuff.

jfv wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 8:27 am

Nate Dort wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 8:05 am Starting a new gig on Monday, designing electronic modules at one of the big three automotive manufacturers. Took me over a year of on-and-off looking to land this role. I applied to over 100 positions, had about 20 callbacks, maybe 5 actual interviews with hiring managers.

I agree, that's awesome! Congrats!

Will you have to deal with "functional safety" at all?

Probably, since there's some ADAS stuff involved. I've got enough FuSa experience to at least have it in the back of my mind when I'm drafting a circuit, so once you get in that mindset, it's not a big deal. Just a bunch of documentation.