
Ask HN: How to proceed? - tort_artificer
I&#x27;ve been a professional programmer since 2000. I work remotely and I&#x27;ve had a number of accomplishments over my career. Always gotten positive feedback from coworkers&#x2F;managers. I&#x27;d planned to change jobs at the end of 2015 and I also hit 40 recently. I&#x27;ve focused on remote jobs. I feel it is important to grow and aim above where I am currently at.<p>My search started 6 months ago. I&#x27;ve submitted 35 applications. 14 received no response. 9 responded with rejections. 3 had screening tests (e.g. HackerRank). 5 had code challenges of 8-12 hrs. Of the 5, 2 followed up with just a rejection. 2 continued on to more interviews. I did a paid trial project for 1 company. I interviewed with 8 companies. 6 went multiple rounds and 2 made it to final round interviews. More details here: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pastebin.com&#x2F;R2BjGAiW.<p>After many hours, stress &amp; sacrifice, I am questioning my next steps. I assumed (based on the ‘hot’ the job market and many recruiter requests) I&#x27;d have offers in a month. I’ve never had such difficulty passing interviews in the past and it seems way harder than say 5 years ago. Seems like interviews are more geared towards evaluating junior engineers and deeply discount experience.<p>Any advice on where to go from here? Should I just persist? Is this age bias? Should I use a recruiter like TripleByte? Should I switch to consulting? I’ve read comments that networking is key. Being remote I don’t get a lot of face time &amp; my colleagues tend not to move often, limiting opportunities. Perhaps study CS fundamentals and interview with Google. I don’t want to relocate, but having it on the resume might help a lot.<p>I could really use some wisdom on how to move forward. Anyone know of career counseling for people like me? Anything constructive that the community can offer would be greatly appreciated.
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datalist
Your story sounds familiar.

It does seem as if something changed in the past five to ten years when it
comes to the overall application and recruiting process. But then I have the
impression the entire field of software development changed for the worst.

As for advice, that is naturally difficult as this will highly depend on your
background, your expectations (where do you see yourself in five years .... ;)
), motivation, and of course personal character.

About Google, certainly this depends on aforementioned characteristics, but
generally speaking I'd be rather wary (to avoid saying "not recommend it"),
particularly when one is not in his 20s anymore (a blunt generalisation of
course).

If you'd like to continue this discussion, are you reachable outside of HN?

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tort_artificer
Thanks for the comment. I had to strip out a lot of background info in order
to get under the post limit. I'd like to continue working in software
development and I am really seeking a position where I am going to be
challenged and be able to contribute in a meaningful and visible way. I feel
like this decade of my life _should_ be a peak career-wise and for that to
happen I need to make wise choices now.

I'm interested in hearing more about your thoughts on Google. Email at
tortartificer[at]gmail.com.

