As a software engineer, what is the biggest problem you face to land a job?
The demand for software engineers is ever growing, but many software engineers still face problems to land a job. What is the biggest problem here?
51 comments
Recruiters who simply buzzword match resumes to requirements written by managers who are following the latest consulting firm's recommendations.
You can have 20 years experience with every major programming language and operating environment, but if you don't have the in-vogue framework and most hyped language using the FAANG only container technology then you don't even get a phone screen. Of course YMMV and you could land a job based on your domain experience.
You can have 20 years experience with every major programming language and operating environment, but if you don't have the in-vogue framework and most hyped language using the FAANG only container technology then you don't even get a phone screen. Of course YMMV and you could land a job based on your domain experience.
Hi Fabien, with 30+ upvotes, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]
I'm old chunk of coal so I had to remove my first job from my resume and remove the dates for the college
I did the exact same thing. My degree and college are there, but not the dates I attended, and my first two jobs have disappeared. I'm thinking about removing another couple of jobs and cutting my experience down to 12 or 13 years.
If you are an old chunk of coal then I am one of the original trees. I removed my college dates as well as the first 20 years of my CV, and I am thinking about removing some more.
I know exactly how you feel. After 20+ years industry experience I went back and did my PhD in SE, taught as an adjunct for a while. But since being made redundant by my uni I have trouble landing a suitable job. Yet, I taught dozens of SEs in the latest technologies and have kept my skills up to date. Of course, I trim my CV, but still ....
Heh. I finished my degree just last year though I’ve been working in the industry for 15. I wonder if having it up there will make a difference.
Asking coding questions that are irrelevant to the job and to my seniority.
I am NOT spending all my work time balancing binary trees. I am building complex systems that unlock value for customers or internal teams.
Sometimes I wonder if these companies even want to hire people who will do good for the service or are they only looking for busybodies passing some proctored exam.
I am NOT spending all my work time balancing binary trees. I am building complex systems that unlock value for customers or internal teams.
Sometimes I wonder if these companies even want to hire people who will do good for the service or are they only looking for busybodies passing some proctored exam.
The interviewers probably don't know the system or how to unlock value for their customers well enough to ask questions about it. That would require them giving you enough background to answer the questions - background they dont understand.
Hi nine_zeros, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]. Thanks
Unrealistic expectations of the employer.
They try to mimic fads from FAANG companies and end up misapplying things. Just because a framework/idea works for them doesn't mean it will work for the rest of us.
Our company has moved to developer chapter leads as managers, and it's a mess. They have no real power, they have no background/insider info on product strategy, they dont have any better idea of what we are doing since they are on a different team, and they are split between doing their normal dev work and people leadership. Maybe it works for tech companies, but we aren't a tech company.
We have started doing ridiculous code screens or whiteboarding, even for internal postings. Why not just ask my manager and tech lead about my code, or look in the repo for my recent commits? That's going to be much better than some 1hr code screen.
Don't even get me started about the 50 bullet point list of expected skills/competencies in job postings. I also love the ones where we want 5 years experience in a language that's only existed for 3 years. The company only wants experts, yet does nothing to contribute to developing resources into experts.
I'll be honest, I'm not a FAANG level dev. But these companies want to pay less than half of a FAANG salary and somehow expect their devs to be almost as good.
They try to mimic fads from FAANG companies and end up misapplying things. Just because a framework/idea works for them doesn't mean it will work for the rest of us.
Our company has moved to developer chapter leads as managers, and it's a mess. They have no real power, they have no background/insider info on product strategy, they dont have any better idea of what we are doing since they are on a different team, and they are split between doing their normal dev work and people leadership. Maybe it works for tech companies, but we aren't a tech company.
We have started doing ridiculous code screens or whiteboarding, even for internal postings. Why not just ask my manager and tech lead about my code, or look in the repo for my recent commits? That's going to be much better than some 1hr code screen.
Don't even get me started about the 50 bullet point list of expected skills/competencies in job postings. I also love the ones where we want 5 years experience in a language that's only existed for 3 years. The company only wants experts, yet does nothing to contribute to developing resources into experts.
I'll be honest, I'm not a FAANG level dev. But these companies want to pay less than half of a FAANG salary and somehow expect their devs to be almost as good.
Theres no such thing as FAANG level devs. I have worked at two FAANGS, its just people that memorized the algorithms to pass the interview. I see horrific code here all the time, and have worked with much better software talent at startups that need people to actually deliver useful software.
What FAANG does get right is there are very smart people designing the frameworks, tooling, and standards through which everyone else delivers their software. This means that a low skill dev can be amplified in terms of delivery, and can be easily stopped from breaking production.
What FAANG does get right is there are very smart people designing the frameworks, tooling, and standards through which everyone else delivers their software. This means that a low skill dev can be amplified in terms of delivery, and can be easily stopped from breaking production.
Hi ldjkfkdsjnv, with 30+ upvotes, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]. Thanks :)
"Theres no such thing as FAANG level devs."
Yeah, but that doesn't stop management from comparing a candidate to the fiction they had in their minds.
Yeah, but that doesn't stop management from comparing a candidate to the fiction they had in their minds.
Yeah at my company it’s “show us your code” otherwise we do a code challenge.
Seems completely obvious but many orgs can’t get there for some reason.
Seems completely obvious but many orgs can’t get there for some reason.
Hi mountainriver, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]. Thanks :)
Hi giantg2, with 30+ upvotes, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]. Thanks :)
Ageism. 40+? Good luck finding that fitment with younger decision makers.
Biases. Started startups and failed? Too risky for the banks or old-school software companies.
Industry. Worked in non-profits and created entire software stacks for them from scratch? Good luck finding a break in mainstream product companies.
Hi berkeshire, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]
You sound almost as jaded as me.
1. Opaque interview process with no feedback. Recently two interviews I attended went this way; After 5-6 rounds of tech discussion, the process ended with the recruiter not responding to my email requesting an update or feedback.
2. Coding interviews where you're expected to give the "perfect" solution. I can solve problems of reasonable complexity, but apparently that's not good enough.
3. Recruiters not understanding the spirit of the requirements and rejecting my profile based on unknown factors. (I only apply to jobs in companies I know would match my experience.)
Hi benque, with 30+ upvotes, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]
I have extreme test anxiety (part of my anxiety disorder). Even as a software engineer of 25+ years, I still fail live code tests more frequently than I like. I’m just happy that I don’t have to take them often.
m3talsmith, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]. Thanks
I've not looked recently, but I think it will be hard to find someone who can afford me. I have some experience that I would think would be valuable. Over the last decade, I went from a startup with 30 people with everyone having the same root user up through an IPO followed by an acquisition. I've worked on the core backend systems that grew in revenue from single digit millions to over a couple hundred million dollars, that scaled from millions of daily requests to billions, from 10s of thousands of users to millions, and, all the while, keeping up high availability while rewriting the underlying systems from stateful VMs to stateless containers orchestrated by k8s. I'm a devops champion focusing balancing the needs of the business with engineering velocity and stability. I've seen and led so much in this space around scaling, availability, testability, quality, metrics, alerting, and building up and growing teams as the org changes. However, judging by what I read on HN, I'm going to get stuck on some leet code thing :). That's partly why I am giving management a proper go and am not operating as a principal engineer - I kind of hope any management/director interviews are more related to the experience I bring to the table.
Ghosting is the biggest problem I've seen personally. I might not know why a company that doesn't want me, ageism, sexism, racism, or whatever. But at least has the courtesy to tell me that I'm not longer in consideration. That's the least thing you can do after talking to me about your company and ask my resume.
Hi aynyc, with 30+ upvotes, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]
Had an interview with FAANG the other day. They sent a screening HackerRank.
Got rejected because I only passed 3/7 unit tests because I didn't fix a bug that I was seconds away from fixing.
The sad part is the code was well architected, well-made, idiomatic Python that showed my production experience with it.
Got rejected because I only passed 3/7 unit tests because I didn't fix a bug that I was seconds away from fixing.
The sad part is the code was well architected, well-made, idiomatic Python that showed my production experience with it.
Hi sergiomattei, that's kind of sad, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]
that's a stupid way to interview. is that a US thing or do they do it all around the world? I've never seen it around my group, but it definitely doesn't reflect real job tasks, where you can google, pause, have coffee and ice cream breaks. what kind of job gives you seconds to finish tasks like an Amazon packaging line?
From my experience the only "FAANG" that has tried to get me to do a hackerrank was the one you listed in your last sentence so you might have hit the nail on the head.
I have heard Ageism has become a problem. You might be good but apparently significantly disadvantaged.
Not sure how true it is.
I don’t know if other fields such as hardware engineering are any better? The salaries might be lower but experience matters. Software engineering favors fresh graduates.
I don’t know if other fields such as hardware engineering are any better? The salaries might be lower but experience matters. Software engineering favors fresh graduates.
Hi aborsy, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]
"Remote" jobs that turn out to only hire US citizens
Forced use of Atlassian products
Forced use of Atlassian products
Problem - I can't get interviews in the first place at least not at the companies that I want.
Causes? Who knows - badly written CV, not the right education/background/experience, not applying through the correct channels, everyone else is better - I don't know.
Not complaining - I have stable employment at a large company. But the more prestigious companies aren't even giving me the time of day.
Causes? Who knows - badly written CV, not the right education/background/experience, not applying through the correct channels, everyone else is better - I don't know.
Not complaining - I have stable employment at a large company. But the more prestigious companies aren't even giving me the time of day.
I have the exact same issue. I can get offers pretty easy, but only at a very narrow sort of company that will limit my career/salary growth in the long run.
In my last round of job searches, I was being extra picky only applying to jobs where I thought the role would be interesting, but was screened out from nearly all of them, presumably because the domains/tech involved were just so wildly different from what I’ve done in the past. These weren’t even necessary “prestigious” roles but most of them were with companies most people on this site will have heard of.
I have my theories about why this is, but I don’t feel like copy/pasting my ideas at the moment.
In my last round of job searches, I was being extra picky only applying to jobs where I thought the role would be interesting, but was screened out from nearly all of them, presumably because the domains/tech involved were just so wildly different from what I’ve done in the past. These weren’t even necessary “prestigious” roles but most of them were with companies most people on this site will have heard of.
I have my theories about why this is, but I don’t feel like copy/pasting my ideas at the moment.
Hi the_only_law, with 30+ upvotes, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]
Hi jstx1, with 30+ upvotes, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]
Opaque interview processes and poorly designed code/algo exercises are probably the top ones for me.
A close second are poorly constructed, time-gated take home projects. I am a working dev with a family, I cannot simply carve out 5-10 hours of my work week or weekend to complete some project with vague requirements.
A close second are poorly constructed, time-gated take home projects. I am a working dev with a family, I cannot simply carve out 5-10 hours of my work week or weekend to complete some project with vague requirements.
Hi 8b16380d, with 30+ upvotes, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]
Too many interviews. Mostly just asking me to solve their problems, and then (mutual) ghosting after about 12 ‘interviews’.
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Companies only considering people who have experience in their particular tech stack. It doesn't take that long to come up to speed on most tech stacks, especially if you are doing it for work.
trcarney, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]. Thanks
Companies want elite engineers, and so the technical interviews are Google level. Turns out 95% of the companies out there do not need elite engineers.
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Hiring based on a specific stack instead of fundamentals.
Hi codingclaws, with 30+ upvotes, I’m looking to solve this problem. If you’re interested to be a beta tester, feel free to shoot me an email titled “HN” at [email protected]. Thanks