And this is the only top level reply. Interesting.

I try to answer these questions so I can better update my resume. As one marketing agency web dev to others, I'd like to see how others figure out what makes our contributions uniquely ours, in terms of value we create for the company.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40339664

Points: 1

# Comments: 2

In Chicago I find they're still sparse, still nowhere near the level they used to be since the lockdowns threw everything off.

From someone outside the UK who doesn't understand the economics of the nation it's sort of a mystery to me that they had quickly become a shadow of what once was.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38812778

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

I found out about returnships and they appear to be aimed towards people like me, getting back into the workforce after a long term leave.

However, information on returnship experiences is sparse and can't find a good guide on how to pick one that is a good fit to restart my career. I'm guessing that returnships are niche because of the circumstances one must be in to join one. How do I weigh the pros and cons of a company's returnship program and make sure I am going to get the proper experience and training and not be up the creek without a paddle?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38227372

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

It's become a tricky tightrope to walk with the pro-side of self-learning is that it's necessary to stay attractive in the job market, but one downside is that it can feel like unpaid work because you're unemployed but learning these things for your career, and not for personal enjoyment or passion.

I have no job for which to learn new things on paid time- all my time right now is unpaid, and sometimes I can't help but think that any sort of career improvement when you have no job still needs to be compensated in a more immediate, consistent fashion.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37316612

Points: 1

# Comments: 4

Reddit style forums are not great for posts intended to log something in progress (like a computer build) because they require the user to make a new thread multiple times instead of making a new comment that automatically brings the thread back to the first page. But flat list threads are great for that.

They usually try to compromise with comment replies shown in "comment pyramids" but they can get unwieldy quick. It's a reasonable tradeoff for the flat chronological layout.

Providing more context in when and how small turns into big could be especially useful for professionals who only know small-scale dev practices but are trying to bridge the gap.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36284935

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

But what I want the most is having an incentive to actually fulfill positive outcomes for the clients. And actually see my work make a difference. I don't care for the "churn and burn" mindset where agencies just sign off contracts and only care that they are paid for deliverables. I want agencies that actually care about creating profits for their clients. Are there any out there that operate in this fashion? I'd like to discover some.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35993410

Points: 4

# Comments: 2

I'm interested in how to find them more easily, and from smaller companies. Finding them in general is like a needle in a haystack (as well as discussions about them, apparently)

I'm in a position where I could use a returnship and I think many more people are now in that position because of the climate of the tech jobs market. But returnships are still rather uncommon. I've found that it's mostly big, high-profile companies that offer them but I would like to seek more options in other places in order to increase my chances of getting hired. What are some other online resources that I might be overlooking for returnships from more unlikely companies and organizations?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35635404

Points: 1

# Comments: 2

But, it is true that I did not take my career seriously for a long time. I treated it more as just work, with no clear direction, since I didn't understand the fundamental difference between a career and a series of similar jobs. Every new job, I was just hoping for a modest pay raise and learning a new thing or two, and being able to coast when I wanted.

Coasting is probably acceptable once you hit senior level in a well rounded team, but I figured out the hard way it's bad to do as a junior or mid-level.

I just can't see myself improving by learning on my own anymore. As another professional told me, "you're practicing, but with no guidance and nobody to step in and let you know when what you're practicing is the wrong approach." And when a person can spend many hours a week with practice and learning and receive the same result - no job offers - as someone who did little-none, it's entirely reasonable to conclude that learning new things is just a waste of time.

I still code once in a while, just to keep busy. Still haven't gotten a good idea of "exchange rate" for employability with the knowledge I obtained from my personal C and JavaScript projects.

I know that many companies won't train you from the ground up, but there are a couple. So I started looking into WITCH and similar consulting firms with a contract training program.

InfoSys and Deloitte have rejected me for some general SWE positions (not language-specific) but there are other similar places. Don't mind if I have to go to one of these body shops, they seem like my best fit for a software job right now.

I've had my resume re-done several times, and took the aforementioned interview prep. Applied to almost a thousand jobs last year alone. It has not made me more employed. And yes, I do want a job handed to me because the lack of progress has made me very desperate.

I don't even trust myself to do the right things anymore. But I now prefer not to learn anything for work unless I am getting paid for it. There's no positive feedback cycle I can find otherwise.

Wasn't just me at this workplace, but all the individual contributors were as well. We saw the writing on the wall, that the co-founders were not interested in full-time conversions and turnover rate increased.

It actually made me question the legitimacy of software careers for a while, because I was caught in this illicit operation.

I am 40 and sort of stumbled into a weird "comfortable but still poor" loop which for me meant working low paying developer jobs on and off, until one final job three years ago where I got laid off, no longer able to get hired again and now just living frugally off the small savings from my jobs.

As far as catching up with others in the field, I have put that aside and given up for now. I'm only learning new stuff for personal recreation projects so long as I still have money left.

Been applying for jobs and practicing interview for 2 years in my 3 year unemployment gap and still got nothing so far. I even took a $5k interviewing course. The 3 year gap is surely a killer at this point.

Also, don't take the title too seriously. I don't plan to retire indefinitely, and I'm just living this way as long as I have personal funds. I estimate about 10 months before my savings run out so long as monthly expenses continue the way they are now.

Some key things about my development "career":

- Graduated with an unrelated degree, so I started with jobs at local small companies, not aiming for big names

- Got fired from my first two junior-level jobs for performance-related reasons

- Majority of jobs are contract or so-called permatemp jobs, the business' intent being to cut corners in product development as much as possible

- Save for one jump from an agency to a startup, I always lose my current job before finding a new one

- My highest annual compensation was $50k

I get that a 3 year gap looks really bad, but all suggestions to fix that lead down a path of solitary effort with structure that you must set up yourself, and that sounds just as depressing. Nothing in the way of having someone else to keep you accountable, as I am single and the closest contacts I have are a few family members over the phone and occasionally meet in person. They are unable to help my job search because they're completely removed from the tech industry.

As someone who's often been told I have basically junior-level skills with senior-level years, the idea that you should up-skill on unpaid time in order to get hired again is laughable to me. That's like trying to climb up in rank when you're not even participating within a hierarchy. I'd rather get re-hired at the bottom and make my most impactful decisions on the job. But as long as my gap and experience continues to scare off employers, so must this "FIRE" continue for now.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33338191

Points: 4

# Comments: 9

Aside from the roundabout way of trying to draw more information from your past, I also think, this question is something I'd expect to get in face-to-face or onsite interview, not in an online application. And I've seen more and more questions regarding soft skills, in things that are now being "front-loaded" in a form instead of saved for a live interview.

To my knowledge, interviewing has never been a dedicated job but something that different employees might need to do from time to time. Seems like online applications and assessments like these are an impetus, maybe helped by HR or others, to diminish the role of interviewing so that employees can perform their main role more often. Does it follow a goal of trying to reduce and streamline the time employees spend on face-to-face interviews? I find it a problem because a lot of useful data from interviews is not just in the initial question but in the follow-up that can lead to other interesting tangents to learn more about the candidate, something that can't be done well with online forms.

I have never interviewed others for hiring so I lack this perspective. I'd like to hear what interviewers see in these types of approaches of moving more interview questions to online questionnaires, if it's reduced your role as an interviewer, and other ways that tools might be reducing that role, if any at all.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33324075

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

A very cynical take I've heard is that it acts as a class filter, just as is higher education. A somewhat less cynical view is that it's favoritism and trust, just like how people from certain top schools tend to hire those from other top schools with less harsh judgment.

However, I am really more interested in the apparent paradox that most internships present, in their accessible to students, people already in a better-off position to enter the professional world. But having the majority of them being inaccessible for those not in school, who actually need more help to get in a similar good standing for a career. In this comparison a student is getting a "double serving" of benefits. Is it as simple as risk factors that companies don't want to take into consideration with self-taught people?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33211969

Points: 1

# Comments: 0