
Ask HN: How do you navigate a software engineering job search? - yosito
I&#x27;ve seen a recurring theme on HN lately of engineers who are looking for jobs talking about how daunting the interview process is these days--several intense rounds of technical interviews and days of take home projects for several companies, followed by dozens of rejections even for good engineers. I think this is a symptom of the most desirable jobs having a daunting number of qualified applicants. In many ways it makes a lot of sense that you should have to work your ass off and be competitive to get the most desirable jobs. But as an individual it often doesn&#x27;t make sense for an experienced engineer to spend hours, days and weeks to prove and reprove themselves when their education, experience, existing projects and references should be able to prove that they&#x27;re a good engineer with a lot less effort.<p>It seems like traditional tips for efficiently navigating a job search apply less and less these days. You can be a great engineer, have a great resume, connections at the company, get lots of interviews, and have great interviewing skills but it&#x27;s still a lot of work to land a good software engineering job these days.<p>So my question is, what are some strategies you use to interview with multiple companies, prove yourself and get competitive offers that you can compare without exhausting yourself with all of the parallel interview processes? Job search burnout is real. How do you avoid it while still pursuing the jobs you want?
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ozten
> I think this is a symptom of the most desirable jobs having a daunting
> number of qualified applicants.

A big factor I didn't understand until recently is that smart companies filter
out qualified candidates, because they have more to lose from a bad hire than
they do to gain by a good one.

The big 5 tech companies hiring bars are so high and there is so much random
noise in the process, that they miss a lot of good hires. But those candidates
can try again in 6 months.

> what are some strategies you use to interview with multiple companies, prove
> yourself and get competitive offers that you can compare without exhausting
> yourself with all of the parallel interview processes?

It is important to realize that it's somewhat of a numbers game and an offer
is not guaranteed, even if you are the perfect candidate.

Therefore: * Prepare, prepare, prepare * Apply to several companies in batches
* Don't get too emotionally attached to any specific opportunity * Keep at it

It can be brutal, I know. Keep trying.

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BraveNewCurency
Don't forget, you should be interviewing them as much as they are interviewing
you.

If you choose to pursue a company with clearly distopian hiring procedures,
you are part of the problem.

