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Comment by simplisticated | Hacker News Reader

I'm a former lead software engineer, currently looking for a job for more than two years. What I have learned is that resumes don't work anymore. It only matters who you know personally and who knows you. That's the thing recruiters will never tell you.

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My dad is in his 60s and is still landing interviews (even in big tech) with his resume and no networking.

Are you actually up to date on your skills and in a tech hub?

Are you expecting remote first? If so you have to change your expectations - remote first is only for known entities now.

Edit: You live in Russia. No one will hire you out of risks of sanctions. Your only option is to leave like other Russians in your shoes.

Edit 2: The risk of secondary sanctions for Western and Dollar/Euro transacting businesses only began in 2024-25.

This is why I don't buy many of the "woe is I" stories on HN. Dig a little and massive red flags come up.

Edit 3: "mixmastamyk"

You're in SoCal. Not a tech hub.

Tech is now back to being clustered in the Bay, Seattle, NYC, and Austin with 2-3 days in the office being expected.

Well, I can share my resume if you'd like to take a look at it.

Also, I'm not in a tech hub. I'm based in Russia and looking for a remote job worldwide.

> I'm based in Russia and looking for a remote job worldwide

No employer or freelancer hirer is going to risk sanctions to hire a freelancer located in Russia. Any method to pay you would require breaking dollar and euro sanctions.

Your only option as a freelancer is to immigrate to Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Turkiye, Azerbaijan, etc like others in your shoes.

China might work also if they can get a visa.

China's tech market is tough right now, and OP doesn't have the qualifications or background to hack it in that market.

> I'm based in Russia...

This would be an immediate disqualification for any tech job I can think of.

> based in Russia

immediate non-starter

I sympathize with the OP as I have roots in the former USSR, but this is unfortunately true. My previous workplace in the US straight out rejected any resumes that smelled Russian.

It's like complaining about absence of job interviews while living in NKorea.

That's a good thing for the world: at least some sanctions are working.

In California and haven’t worked either. Interviews are not enough, as they’ll look for any reason to not hire, even with referral. They’re easy to find as no one is perfect.

You're in SoCal. Not a tech hub.

There are only several hundred tech companies in SoCal, plus another several hundred entertainment, aerospace, biotech, and defense companies...

Right now, entertainment in SoCal is hurting pretty bad but the other 4 industries have hundreds of open job positions for engineering positions. The caveat is that you have to be an "engineer" and not just a "coder."

I know, but most of those industries treat software as a cost center, and are the first to offshore where possible.

It's like me complaining about not finding good biotech employment in Chicago or lack of Aerospace work in the Bay.

And traditional DefenseTech and Biotech has been conducting heavy layoffs the past few years (the former due to contract renegotiations with DoD/DoW and the latter due to the post-COVID funding crunch).

Aerospace/defense are not able to offshore.

There are dozens of tech job posts here per week, according to indeed anyway. Further, am willing to move for even a mediocre job. No offers to even consider, much less turn down.

I'd try getting an offer yourself. Bet you wouldn't find it easy to even get a reply. My location has not come up in the current year, because there have been no replies.

I don't need to - I'm a board observer in the space, and indeed is a hot piece of garbage if trying to apply to jobs.

And it's very difficult in this market to justify getting relocated with expenses paid.

It’s not about needing to, rather learning how the job market actually is before making judgments. The situation is, even an interview is worthless because there’s no chance at passing it if you’re old or make any kind of mistake.

One company dropped me when they learned I had java 18 experience and not 20 something, really.

I only use Indeed as a news feed, and it is useful at that.

Also, I’ve not asked for relocation expenses because it doesn’t get that far.

You're delusional and/or lying. I graduated from the top university for CS in my country and perhaps Europe, haven't checked in a while. My grades were not great but decent. Still I was struggling to get interviews. I thought I was doing something wrong so I consulted the career department of my uni but it still took me a year to find a well paying but kinda shitty legacy software job

I don't believe this. My latest job hunt was about 6 months ago, I had to stop applying for jobs I got so many callbacks. My CV is decent but hardly outstanding, good experience but no name-brand companies.

I saw another comment where you said you are in Russia, my guess is that is the reason. Not like there's much consumer tech investment flowing there at the moment.

This is the first I have heard of an experience like this. To what to you attribute your success?

Basically two things:

* I target jobs I've got an advantage at (e.g. they use backend Kotlin, which is a bit niche but I have several years experience in).

* I'm friendly, talkative, and if the energy is right, will banter. Doesn't sound like much but being easy to talk to is a massive advantage.

So, that was basically the lesson that my mom taught me in 1984. Right after I graduated high school and entered university. At the time, she had already been employed by the university HR department for a number of years, and she was now the official job placement expert on campus. She ran their entire Job Location Program. I even designed a JLP logo for her, while I was in high school.

The rule then was, 90% of all placements come from personal networks — people you know, or people that they can put you in touch with. Of the remainder, 90% came from headhunters that were sent out to do a specific job of finding a specific person for a specific role. That left just 1% of the total to be covered by things like listings in newspapers, job placement programs, etc…. Yes, she understood intensely how small her role was in this process. Which is what made her the expert she was.

She taught me that you always have to have your résumé ready and polished, which is hard for people who are in college and don’t have any real job experience. But you’re going to have to knock on a lot of doors, and meet a lot of people, before you’re likely to be hired.

So far as I have been able to determine, those rules haven’t really changed since. If anything, they’ve gotten worse. Especially with spam, junk listings, and AI slop.

Yes, I have a LinkedIn Profile which I have tried to polish up as best I can, but I know it needs more work. And I’m going to have to go knock on a lot of doors and meet a lot of people, before I can reasonably hope to be hired for my next job. And in the meanwhile, I’m going to be getting some official career counseling and advice.

But personal networking is key. Get yourself out there at local meetups. Get yourself out there in online groups that are doing interesting things. Get your name out there as THE expert in the things you care about. Make them knock down your door, headhunting you for their job they desperately need to fill.

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