this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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one anxiety I have, is that I've not formally looked for a job for so long, all my knowledge for job seeking might be dangerously outdated. post-covid, post-AI, post-me-too, post-Trump, next gen surveillance, etc. I have no idea what kind of plot-holes I would be about to fall into.
I see the job search process as a consistent cycle
-Spend hours looking for a job
-Eventually make some progress with a position that is interested in you
-Become very hopeful that you might get an offer
-You learn it pays 30/hr max full time where the rent average is 1200/month and any negotiations are shot down hard
I know a lot of people would be very pleased with that pay, but Godamn I took at multiple loans and was told my major would get me a job that would “pay that back in no time.”
The job market kinda feels like an industry in and of itself
it's a numbers game you just make loads of applications until you get one
you absolutely shouldn't get emotionally invested in a job until they give you an offer. I would encourage you to forget you even applied until you hear back from them
you are 100% going about it wrong getting hopeful or invested before the concrete offer is not the way to go. There is a good chance with each application that no one even reads it because they get so many
you need to apply to many jobs. Having a good CV that highlights transferable skills is key. It's a process where high volume of applications is the most important thing
Hmm “transferable skills”
Was grilled in my head that technical skills/programming languages are the most important by far, so I guess I didn’t think to highlight soft skills. Maybe that could be a problem?
technical skills and programming skills are very good. But highlighting soft skills is also very important.
it's a numbers game you just make loads of applications until you get one
you absolutely shouldn't get emotionally invested in a job until they give you an offer.
It's a bit like online dating
I feel like there are only so many jobs you can apply to though. It’s not like a bottomless pit of choices
this is true. It can be hard to find jobs to apply for. You mentioned you have friends who work in industry asking them to let you know if there's a posting would be good.
A website where job openings are posted would be ideal. Really there should be a government department where every company has to register job openings, that would massively streamline the process as a central repository of all jobs would cut down on the search
I don't know what it was like before, but I can't help but think it's different than what it used to be. I'm a recent grad in computer science and I've been job hunting for a few months now. My resume isn't stellar, sure, but it's not abysmal either. I stopped bothering to keep track of how many resumes I've sent once I passed ~300ish two or so months ago. All to entry level positions, but otherwise across all sorts of things. I've tried remote and in-person across the country, lowered my salary expectations $10k/yr under the bottom quartile of starting salaries in my field, made it clear I'm willing to relocate, and had friends at a few different companies try to get me an in. I've yet to hear back from anywhere.
Gotta think that one of the big downsides of everything being remote in CS is that now everybody everywhere can apply for every job. If I find a posting on LinkedIn with less than 400 applicants on the first day, I consider it unusual. Seems logical that if 100x more people are applying for each post, you'd have to apply to 100x more places. Some very nice people on here offered to throw me in their referral system, but I chickened out last second. That probably wasn't the smartest move, honestly.
Anyways, didn't mean to turn a reply into a personal vent session, but yeah, I can't imagine that it's always been like this. It's completely maddening. The very reason I went into CS instead of fucking physics or philosophy was specifically because nobody shut the fuck up about how much demand there is for coders and I was too naive to really understand that when you hear that, it's usually more about collapsing wages than filling positions.
Actually now you can often easy apply on some of these sites, they'll ask you like 2 questions and take your resume
It’s the fucking algorithms too isn’t it
Oh it's been algorithms for a while
Here if you want to really beat the algo, and it's a job you really want
Put a cover letter as the first page of your resume. Make a 2 column table with the job requirements on left side, and your experience for each topic on the right. Skip meaningless job requirements just do the meaningful ones. Now you probably have all their keywords in your fucking resume, and when a human reads it they can see you fill all their requirements.
That means even if you don't have experience, say, operating trains, it still says the words "OPERATING TRAINS" inside your resume next to your response "well, I drive a tram ok" so you'll get selected by the stupid word search robot
Your resume will eventually be viewed by a human though, right? Isn’t that a bit of a barrier to gaming the bot?
No not a barrier at all. It's baller shit. Instead of having to process how your description of your past experience abstractly relates to their needs, you're directly saying every requirement is met. I would do this even if robots didn't exist.
Can shift quickly to handle unexpected tasks | I managed 5 accounts simultaneously and delegated and scheduled work from hundreds of emergency work requests
Preferred: Able to diagnose and repair Caterpillar or other heavy equipment failures | I have 4 years of experience with Komatsu machines and would be able to quickly translate those skills
Now your resume says CATERPILLAR and you can bet the hiring manager or recruiter put that word in as a keyword. You'll be bumped up based on that, and you are not only being honest, you're spelling things out and making it super simple for the person who has to scan 40 resumes
They might even put in really stupid keywords like "unexpected tasks" which you will only match if you are copying their description
🤔
I will consider this if I sell my soul
Ty comrade