Why I'd never apply for a job online again
hottakes.space
hottakes.space
Don't get me wrong—job apps are grueling at best, soul-sucking at worst. But if you've never applied for jobs before, you're not gonna be familiar with the best practices and conventions for doing so, and so of course it's gonna be frustrating. It's a learning process! Your resume and applications aren't gonna be as polished as someone who's more familiar with the game!
And then the proposed solution ("If you want real opportunities build relationships, create value publicly (publish ideas, case studies, etc) and put yourself in a position where companies and decision-makers seek you out.") is like, well, okay. Great advice. All you have to is be extraordinary in your field and very, very lucky, and the rest will follow.
I would wager that at least some of this is facetious (literally being "hot takes" and all) but it's still hard to take any of it seriously. The whole thing reads like someone saying "I had a bad time trying to deal with health insurance, so I've decided to simply never get sick again and save myself the trouble." If only the rest of us had thought of that! :P
When 99.9% of posted jobs are fake (including in HN's Who's Hiring), these are the only ways to save your emotional health.
Okay there a lot of fake jobs, maybe not as high as 99.9%, though.
But what's the basis for saying that "Who's Hiring?" is fake? Why would a business seek out a relatively lower traffic job venue, field the traffic of submissions, and then ghost everyone who applies (or whatever is done by 99.9% fake jobs)? Why wouldn't employers just save themselves the effort and do nothing?
You don't need fake job listings when the market is good; you've presumably got real funding and less pressure to deliver.