
Ask HN: How to re-enter the job market after years of unemployment? - anonunemployed
I&#x27;m in my thirties, living off social security, and struggling with depression due to my financial situation.<p>Finding a (non-boring) job would likely have a positive effect on my depression. Unfortunately, that&#x27;s easier said than done. And I am unsure how to approach the search for three reasons:<p>1) my resume is a mess: a CS bachelor, two short programming jobs from which I got fired, and in-between long times of unemployment,
2) my soft skills are lacking as I have been a loner my entire life, and
3) I don&#x27;t enjoy coding, for me it&#x27;s a necessary evil (during my studies I enjoyed working at the &quot;UML level&quot; much more)<p>Any thoughts? Ideas? Thanks.
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badpun
> during my studies I enjoyed working at the "UML level" much more

There are still jobs like that in the non-Agile world of business application,
mainly in government I think (at least here in Europe). The position is called
"system analyst" (sometimes also "business analyst", but that is likely to
include more fluff). It involves writing down system specification, which
includes detailed requirements, user's interactions with the system (use
cases), the data model etc. The other part of the job is talking to developers
while they're developing the system and testing their work(making sure there
are no bugs and they they understood the specs correctly) after they're done.

It's not a bad job, definitely less headaches than coding IMO. The downside is
that you need to deal with business people more (can be an plus for some
people), and mainly that it's just not that common any more in the post-agile
world. Also usually pays less than development.

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anonunemployed
Thanks, that sounds interesting.

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roschdal
Get any job, including boring jobs. Good luck!

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anonunemployed
Thanks. I don't think getting a boring job would be helpful, because in both
dismissals "being bored" was a factor. I'm a bookworm and need intellectual
stimulation.

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dnh44
Have a look at getting a job in an optical laboratory.

Lots of different things to do, lots of problems that need solving. Lots of
optical labs take people on with no previous experience. But it's not a
particularly easy job and the pay isn't great.

