
Ask HN: How hard is it to land a Software Eng job outside of Silicon Valley? - bsvalley
The competition is too high in silicon valley. If you&#x27;re looking for a software engineer role here, you most likely have to go through 5-10 technical interviews in order to get an offer. One single mistake and you&#x27;re out. They&#x27;ve all adopted the &quot;google model&quot; years ago.<p>The question is, how tough is it outside of SF Bay Area (and besides Microsoft and Amazon in Seattle)?
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isuckatcoding
Not all startups have adopted the Google model. I might've gotten off easy
because I was junior but I totally screwed up my technical interview and still
got the job. Some companies just like to see that you have potential and/or
you're thinking.

It is also possible that you just need to either lower your expectations or
get in on early stage startup. Keep looking. Don't give up!

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Bahamut
It's not too hard to get a job in the Valley if you're competent - I find it
very easy to get an offer at most companies. There are a fraction of companies
that try to get too clever and find ways to reject people (one rejection from
a startup I got was "relying on modern tools") instead of building a profile
of people's capabilities, and then there are the Googles and Facebooks, but
most have fairly easy interview processes.

I am currently one level lower than the hiring manager for engineering at my
company in Palo Alto, and found that we don't reject candidates for a mistake
unless a candidate outright lied or did something unacceptable. We build a
profile of the person, and then make a decision as to whether we can fit the
person within our org for our needs - if not, then we pass, and if we can, we
extend an offer.

I also found it pretty easy to find a job in the DC area in tech after getting
experience - the one thing that wasn't competitive there was pay, which is how
I landed in the Valley.

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adamb_
It's not bad. It's currently a candidate's market in the US, so if your a
decent engineer, job opportunities are pretty much readily available,
regardless of location.

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cauterized
Pretty easy in NYC. Maybe even easier. Since engineers are flooding to SF but
even non-tech companies need technical help these days, the supply of _good_
engineers doesn't begin to meet the demand.

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jetti
In the Chicago area it isn't that hard at all, provided you know Java or .NET.
I know people who have had no problem getting jobs here and they were less
than stellar developers (to put it nicely)

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bsvalley
I forgot to mention I'm not looking for a job. I just want to compare and have
another perspective. We're so stuck in this bubble... just curious how
companies hire outside of the valley.

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wprapido
try contracting. it's a lot lot easier and largely politics-free

