
Tech hiring is broken so how can I find a new job? - alansmitheebk
I&#x27;m a senior front-end developer at my current job. I&#x27;m tired of working here but having trouble finding a new job. I have 8 years of experience, which includes having done some fullstack stuff with PHP in the past. I&#x27;m obviously qualified to be a senior front-end dev because uh.. I AM one... Problem is I don&#x27;t have a CS degree and the interviews that I go on ask me questions about algorithms and data structures that I have trouble with. It seems a bit silly to me since these questions usually don&#x27;t have much to do with frontend development (do backend devs get asked about how they would implement a mobile-first responsive design using CSS3 and HTML5?) but whatevs... it is what it is.<p>I&#x27;m planning on hitting the books (and coursera ) to brush up on this stuff, but I&#x27;d love to know if anyone else out there running into this same issue? If so, how are you coping with it?
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elmojenkins
Same here. 9yr of front-end dev/design experience and no luck. Applied for
over 120 jobs (between 2015 & Today), and not 1 single interview. Nothing.

I have the education (Bachelors in Digital Design & Masters in HCI)...I have
the experience & diversity of project work..... yet, I can't seem to land an
interview out of 120 applications. What gives?

Perhaps it's my resume, perhaps it's my skill set, or the places I am
applying, or maybe the market it flooded with dudes like you & me...I'm not
sure.

It is very frustrating. I don't know what to do about it. Maybe get another
degree....?

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vthallam
Seriously? I thought companies fight for people with good skill set and i see
recruiters bothering me on Linkedin all the time. Did you try applying for
start ups?

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elmojenkins
I have intentionally not applied to startups. I want to work for an
organization with some staying power and not the 'flavor of the week'. With a
wife & 2 kids, the risk of working somewhere that may go belly up in 3yrs
becomes a huge factor when applying.

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partisan
I'm sorry you are having trouble finding work. I know what it is to have to
support a family.

It can be demotivating, but don't give up, and take a look at some of your
algorithm books. Or cut to the chase:

[http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-
Programming-...](http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Programming-
Questions/dp/098478280X)

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vthallam
This is a problem in general. There were so many instances where the
candidates were turned down because they couldn't write an algorithm from text
book. The famous example being the guy who made Homebrew.

Reasons are below: 1) The existing assessment methods being used have been
working for companies except in some cases. 2) There's no new way(yet) to
assess candidates apart from the experience related questions. some companies
use pair programming interviews which is by far the only different way which
seems to be working. 3) Companies don't have time/resources to screen every
candidate over phone, so they end up sending a link to hackerrank or some
other programming questions site. And there are no custom assessments
generated based on the candidate profile, rather these are very generic
aptitude/algorithmic questions.

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JSeymourATL
Don't look for a job, look instead for people you can help.

Get out of your bubble-- start attending meet-ups, conferences, industry trade
events. Make new friends and contacts. Ask around who's doing interesting
work? Who's struggling with technologies in your area of expertise? Who might
need dev help?

That's the Old School informal search approach where you uncover those famous
'hidden jobs'. And it still works!

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dhogan
So really just "don't be introverted." I agree with you, and all that stuff is
good, but sometimes it all can sound a bit much when you just want to do some
programming for someone else. It's not that you shouldn't be doing these
things, it just takes A LOT more energy for some people to add these tasks
along with their normal schedule.

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JSeymourATL
> it just takes A LOT more energy for some people to add these tasks along
> with their normal schedule.

I'm not a social butterfly by nature, but I do enjoy conversations with
intelligent people. If a new job truly is a priority, carving out the time (1
or 2 events a month) is an entirely workable stretch. And often you can use
"professional development" as cover to get away from work.

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canterburry
As a hiring manager I see a lot of resumes and I am frequently shocked at how
poorly many candidates come across on their resume. There may actually be
nothing wrong with your skillset or experience, but many can't make it show on
their resume.

If for every position you did:

1\. Feature enhancements in HTML, CSS and JS 2\. Bug fixes and debugging 3\.
Wrote scripts, created new layouts etc etc

...then sorry, I am not even interviewing you because you don't seem to be
thinking very critically about your job and what you are really here to do for
the company.

Always express your resume in terms of accomplishments and what change you
produced that affected the ultimate goal of the business.

So no, you didn't do "feature enhancements', you "Increased conversion rate by
5% after acting upon A/B test results. Streamlined the customer on-boarding
experience by reducing clutter, pre filling forms, and cutting page latency."

After 8 yeas of experience and a brief listing of technologies you frequently
work with somewhere on your resume, I don't really care what technology you
used to accomplish the above. The fact that this is how you think about your
role at the company is what matters to me. Any deficiencies or strengths will
come out during the interview but I'll definitely invite you for a
conversation.

And I agree, interviewing front end devs using algorithm puzzles are bullshit.
A clear sign the company hiring doesn't know what it actually needs in a
person but just do it because it's what Google does (or did).

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afarrell
I've found that working with recruiters and going to conferences/meetups works
much better than applying via a web form.

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stuxnet79
The best jobs I've ever gotten were through connections. I've had some good
luck sending in applications through web forms blindly but the jobs weren't
that enjoyable. I suppose at some level this was due to the opaqueness of the
entire process.

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erac1e
Tech hiring is fucked.

