
534 Job Applications: Finding a Life Path During Crisis - LenaTech
http://cactushr.com/blog/2017/03/20/534-job-applications-finding-a-life-path-during-crisis/
======
colmvp
534 job applications over an eight month period seems like a lot. I don't even
know if I can reasonably say that there are ~500 companies in my city who a)
have a position open for what I do and b) I'd want to work for. And this guy
in particular seems motivated where I would've been surprised if he would
consider working at a company he was only somewhat interested in.

That aside, I have a sense based on personal experience that going to meetups
related to your industry may provide a worthwhile parallel route to sendin job
applications. The tech industry (I realize the author is in HR) is especially
wonderful in this, as you can have a variety of consistent meetups ranging
from programming languages, to AI, to civic and government engagement, to
technical book clubs. Sure, you still need to have a skillset, but connecting
with other people can increase the chance of serendipity.

~~~
adewinter
In fairness, it seems very unlikely that he only applied to jobs 1) in his
city, 2) at companies that "have a position open for what [he does]".

He likely also applied to jobs that he wasn't super pumped up about, in case
the job (or other factors regarding the job) turned out to be awesome.

Unsolicited advice: I'm not sure if you're actually looking for a job (or will
be in the future), but try not to limit yourself so much before even starting.
It feels like your comment had a lot of excuses/reasons why it won't work for
you/your industry. It's not true: getting a job can be a grind. Sometimes
that's just what you have to do. When you've applied to dozens of companies,
or turned down dozens of offers, you'll have a much much better idea of what's
possible what isn't worth the effort (plus you'll have a ton of very useful
experience and skills because of it, to boot).

------
DrNuke
Unfortunately this is a buyer market globally because of the high supply from
everywhere, so high that every open advertised position is going to end
flooded by applicants in a short time. On the other hand, word of mouth still
makes wonders locally so the quickest path to a job in a given place is asking
relatives, friends and friends of friends.

------
startupdiscuss
55 TV series to speak fluently.

This was very interesting. For ease of numbers lets say that this means 20
episodes at 30 minutes per episode, so about 10 hour per series.

So, after 550 hours of Mandarin, would I be fluent?

And, in addition, did he watch it with subtitles or not?

Anyone on HN know of a study?

Edit: Didn't know about fluentu but someone beat me to it -
[http://www.fluentu.com/chinese/blog/2015/02/11/mandarin-
chin...](http://www.fluentu.com/chinese/blog/2015/02/11/mandarin-chinese-
movies-on-netflix/)

Edit 2: Math correction

~~~
mdorazio
For what it's worth, I'll chime in with my personal experience as a white guy
who learned Mandarin. 5500 hours is just under two years of consistent 8-hour
days. In my opinion, spoken Mandarin is not actually all that difficult
compared to other languages once you adjust to the presence of tones (there is
basically no conjugation or changing word prefixes/suffixes on the fly, tense
uses simple particles, etc.). After 500 hours of classroom study and about
4000 hours of immersion in Taipei and Beijing, I was pretty close to fluency
in speaking. I think you probably could be as well.

However, even after all that time I was only able to read and write at an
elementary school level. Reading, writing, and speaking any dialect of Chinese
are basically three separate skills. You can easily know how to say words and
have no idea how to write them, or know the meaning of a character, but not
know its pronunciation, or my favorite - be able to easily read an entire
sentence, but then only know how to write half the characters properly if
asked to write it out 5 minutes later.

So, in my opinion, yes 5500 hours would get you to spoken fluency in Mandarin
without too much difficulty. But unless you are really good at memorizing
things (I'm not), don't expect to be able to read and write at a native level
in that time frame unless you had exposure to written Chinese growing up.

~~~
startupdiscuss
My math was off. It is 550 hours. That is much more reasonable. Do you think
it is still possible to be fluent in speaking?

The reading and writing part surprises me. Is that different from English? I
don't remember what it was like to learn it in the first place so I don't
remember if I initially had trouble writing something I had read.

~~~
mdorazio
Not in a normal sense. I know the DoD has immersive programs for training
interpreters and SIGINT people to language proficiency as quickly as possible,
but I don't think 550 hours is nearly enough for Mandarin. Even assuming 12
hours a day of full immersion, you're looking at fluency in 45 days. This is
only feasible if you've already had a lot of exposure to the language. For
example, many people outside the US are exposed to English movies, TV shows,
ads, and grade school language programs growing up, which makes it easier to
later learn English seriously. If you're not a Chinese American, this
situation is unlikely for Mandarin.

Yes, most other writing systems, including English, use phonetic alphabets. If
you learn the set of letters, you can at least sound out any word, and make a
good guess at spelling something you know how to say. Chinese is a logographic
writing system. There are thousands of "letters" that you have to learn
individually, and there are generally only hints in the logograms about
pronunciation or meaning, so you're basically memorizing how to read and write
every single word individually. If you don't know how to write the character,
you can't "sound it out" like you can in English. You're just stuck. This also
leads to frustrations in even using dictionaries to look up word meanings.

------
guitarbill
The getting professors to fail you is such a great hack! But it's also really
alien to me: In the UK, if you fail the first time, you can resit the exam so
you can pass the module... but the exam mark is capped to the pass grade.

I also applaud his work ethic. However, when reading inspirational things like
this, it often seems hard work is the only option. But working smart is also
valid, and there's definitely a sweet spot of effort vs grade. I'm really not
trying to diminish this guys work, quite the opposite. Keeping up with high
achievers is (by definition) hard, and it's really easy to get stressed out.
Getting top marks doesn't help too much in life (although it usually doesn't
hurt) - especially if you don't intend to stay in academia. Other activities
(working part time, hobbies) can also be really beneficial for their direct
results (money, experience, balanced and healthy lifestyle) and indirect
results (can also look good on a CV).

Finally, his English skills are awesome. My English skills also improved
dramatically watching English TV and movies, and while frustrating at first,
in the end it's a very fun route to improve one's skills.

Is there a site that ranks shows and movies on how easy they are to understand
(e.g. how strong are the accents, how difficult is the dialog)? If not, it's
definitely something I'm interested in starting!

~~~
mattmanser
As far as i know each university has its own rules. Certainly there was no
capping when I was at uni.

~~~
pacaro
Right, and on the flip side, when I was at Cambridge, if you failed you would
be "sent down" (expelled) there were no resits. It's possible that the pass
fail mark was really low though, because I did spectacularly badly in my first
year and still managed to graduate

~~~
aninhumer
When I was at Cambridge I heard about people retaking the year, although if I
understood correctly, those people are identified ahead of time, and don't
actually sit the exam.

------
uptownfunk
Enjoyed the article. Definitely confirms my belief that the best way to learn
languages is full immersion. I couldn't even tell that the article was written
by a non native speaker until the author said, so hats off for fooling me. :)

~~~
mathyou
At the beginning of the article the author states that he set off to Learn
English and how he succeeded and you only realized that he was not native
until the author said so? Really amazing.

------
mikebelanger
I know this is meant as a motivational/instructional article for finding a
career, but I found this says more about Greece's economy than anything else.
The motivating part for me, is that here (in Canada) things aren't nearly as
bad as they are in Greece. All my close peers (in Canada, States) never had to
persevere as hard as this author did in order to find a job. Even a job like
his.

~~~
unlmtd
Actually the BIS just had a report that put the Canadian banking sector as the
riskiest, ahead of Greece. Most leveraged consumer in the world. I moved out;
it's about to implode. If I was still there I'd raise some sheep. They're
smarter than the legions of Govt educated 33x leveraged owners of the most
expensive housing market ever.

~~~
jordanb
I'm kinda amazed at what's happened in Canada. They largely missed the 2008
meltdown because their banking industry was still well-regulated and didn't
participate in shenanigans. So apparently they decided to deregulate their
banking sector and engage in shenanigans? Because now they look pretty much
exactly like the USA in 2007.

Case in point: [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/the-
market/mortga...](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/the-
market/mortgage-fraud-on-the-rise-among-brokers-trying-to-help-clients-
qualify/article27051297/)

------
NikosAmoiridis
Thank you for your comments and concerns. I indeed applied to positions in
other countries even though I wanted to stay in my country for family reasons.
Some of them were very targeted and indeed they called for an interview, some
were more generic. The purpose of the article is to promote planning and
putting goals, make choices and dont give up. The title as "finding a life
path" was not mine and I do not consider finding work as a life path. However,
in order to achieve and perceive your dreams, you need to work. And you need
to work somewhere you enjoy. The path to achieve that is the one I writed.

------
quirkot
It's so terribly unfortunate that "finding a life path" is so dependent on
getting a job

~~~
gdulli
Most people aren't born in possession of everything they need to survive. So
whether it's a traditional job or hunting/gathering you're likely going to
have to work. Why see it as unfortunate if you don't have to? Sure, it would
be great if we were post-scarcity but we're not. Work in some form is going to
be a significant part of your life path. Go into it with the attitude that
it's a fact of life and make the best of it. If you convince yourself it's
unfortunate you're likely to experience it more negatively than necessary.

