

Ask HN: How are you suppose to find a job? - yuashizuki

How are you suppose to get a job if almost all job offers available online require like 10 to 5 years of experience. Should one still apply? Can you share your stories about finding your first job that you did not get straight out of college, that you found online, also share what was your hit ratio. Thanks.
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greenpizza13
So, this isn't meant to be mean... but first you could work on your English.

"I have no network, what do u mean widen ur search criteria, like doing a
barista job, which I already have" is full of spelling and grammar issues. If
you want to work in tech I would expect it to be possible for people to look
up things you write online. Take the extra time and spell out words like "you"
and "your."

Also, it's "supposed to get a job," but that one is less obvious.

But to help answer your question for real, I recommend internships (hopefully
paid) and agree with agilebyte, who mentioned looking for the jobs that don't
require the 5 to 10 years of experience to start. Practice hard at interview-
type questions and really make sure you know about the stuff you might be
working with. There's lots of great starting jobs in tech that require less
experience. Start there and get the 5 to 10 years, or be so good that you can
knock 'em dead in an interview.

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MalcolmDiggs
The first few jobs are the hardest to get, I would recommend that you focus
extremely narrowly on a few companies you want to work for, and then do
whatever it takes to blow your potential-bosses' mind.

Case in point: My first job was a typical development role at a startup. I got
the gig by going the extra mile. I took the product-idea they were working on
(which they had described in detail in the hiring ad) and then built a working
prototype from scratch (designed it, coded it, launched it, and sent them a
link to the website and a zip file with the code).

Would I do that for a job today? No, probably not. But when I was starting
out, going the extra mile was the only way to get my foot in the door, and it
worked.

Work-history is just a way for hiring managers to know you can get the job
done. If you're just starting out (and have no experience for them to review)
you _must_ figure out a way to prove to them that you can perform well.

Hope that helps.

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staunch
If you can actually do the work described in the job post, most companies will
hire you. Your hit ratio is meaningless. You only need to find one good job.

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powatom
You do what everybody else does, and keep trying. What kind of work are you
looking for? In my industry (software development), it'd be incredibly rare to
have a job interview without some kind of technical component / test. If you
can demonstrate via your CV and application that you've got the goods, then
hopefully you'll get an interview and the whole experience thing won't matter
so much.

Basically just tailor your CV to highlight what you've got to offer, and then
just keep applying. If you're a good fit for the role and can demonstrate
that, then few places are likely to hold hard and fast to the experience rule.
Experience is only a general 'easy' way of assessing somebody's suitability,
but there are enough terrible employees with decades of experience under their
belts to prove that it's not a guarantee of quality.

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mooreds
"A job" covers a lot of ground. What kind of job are your trying to find?
Getting hired as a lawyer requires different tactics than getting hired as a
software developer which is different in turn from a real estate agent.

If all of the offers available online require 5-10 years of experience,
perhaps you should widen your search criteria? Or look for local jobs? What
meetups, if any, are available, for networking? Have you asked your network
for help--not to find a job, but to introduce you to people who are in the
industry that you are interested in?

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yuashizuki
I have no network, what do u mean widen ur search criteria, like doing a
barista job, which I already have.

~~~
mooreds
Also, can you build something of interest yourself which you can point to at
job interviews? Can you find an open source project to contribute to in your
area of interest?

~~~
yuashizuki
Yes, and I have, but most companies don’t give enough importance to such
projects.

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JSeymourATL
As a practical matter, job boards are passive way to find a job. Here's a
solid pro-active resource to give you ideas on a job search,
[http://www.amazon.com/What-Color-Your-
Parachute-2014/dp/1607...](http://www.amazon.com/What-Color-Your-
Parachute-2014/dp/1607743620)

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agilebyte
Almost all does not mean all. You are going to work in only one job right?
That job gives you more experience, more experience to apply for jobs that
require 5-10 years of experience down the line.

If you believe you have more expertise than meets the eye, you could give
freelancing a try.

~~~
yuashizuki
can working on personal projects, on github, be called as work experiance

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agilebyte
No need to lie, I put them under "github projects"* because they are exactly
that. When people ask for "work experience" they want to see how you solved
someone's need. Of course, you can create an open source project that is being
used by thousands of people, clearly demonstrating that.

* [http://radekstepan.com/pdf/cv.pdf](http://radekstepan.com/pdf/cv.pdf)

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CmonDev
On the lower-paid side of the outsourcing: they can easily hire a junior and
sell him as a senior. You would probably have to travel though.

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zubairq
Contact me at zq@nemcv.com. If we can't find you a job we pay you $1000

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knicholes
Internships are a great way to get work experience.

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hashtag
Network

