<story><title>Ask HN: Jack-of-all-trades of HN, how do you approach job search?</title><text>I have enough experience under my belt to feel comfortable approaching fuzzy engineering problems that span relatively unfamiliar domains but I feel it&amp;#x27;s quite difficult to convey this when applying for positions.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m also sure to fail googlable technical questions so I was wondering how others might approach this.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>ethbr0</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Curious if I&amp;#x27;m alone in this?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think most people underestimate their networks. Not saying you&amp;#x27;re wrong, but you&amp;#x27;ve worked with people, right? Hopefully not been a complete ass :) ? Done work on a team with or adjacent to them?&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s a start!&lt;p&gt;Networks aren&amp;#x27;t created overnight, and people try to hack them poorly all the time.&lt;p&gt;Think about it like a garden, not a project. It can&amp;#x27;t be created overnight: the right way is repeatedly, but at a low-intensity, tending to it.&lt;p&gt;Set yourself a goal: reach out to one person you&amp;#x27;ve previously worked with on LinkedIn a week. Don&amp;#x27;t ask for a job. Just say you were thinking of them, {insert memory, if you have one}, and hope they&amp;#x27;re doing well. If they reply, maybe steer the convo to what technologies or challenges they&amp;#x27;re working on now...&lt;p&gt;I get it. I&amp;#x27;m an introvert too. I&amp;#x27;m €®£÷ing &lt;i&gt;terrible&lt;/i&gt; with people. But it&amp;#x27;s improveable with repeated effort, like anything else.&lt;p&gt;A few ideas (in preferred order): (1) Take coffee (or now, Zoom?) with folks to catch up, (2) Volunteer with tech groups (pref charities, in tech, with people you want to network with, not just you giving free labor, and make sure to introduce yourself and talk about what you do), (3) Attend tech meetups (eh... unless you&amp;#x27;re presenting, this can be a waste of time), (4) Attend conferences (again, be seen, introduce yourself. Many are remote and free this year, good for attending, bad for networking)&lt;p&gt;The end goal is that if that person thinks &amp;quot;I need someone to X&amp;quot; then your name pops into their head. If you haven&amp;#x27;t talked to them in 5 years, that&amp;#x27;s not going to happen.</text></item><item><author>msluyter</author><text>&lt;i&gt;If you have years or decades of experience you should have a large network of colleagues to get leads and jobs from.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Clearly I&amp;#x27;ve failed here. I&amp;#x27;ve kept in touch with a few folks from previous jobs via LinkedIn or whatnot, but as a network, I&amp;#x27;d describe it as &amp;quot;thin and weakly connected.&amp;quot; Part of that is due to being an introvert and generally terrible at maintaining long term human connections. And part of it is a certain indifference I&amp;#x27;ve had in the past to actively managing my career, which in an of itself is a result of how generally easy it&amp;#x27;s been to find work. Curious if I&amp;#x27;m alone in this?</text></item><item><author>gregjor</author><text>I’m almost 60, lots of various technical experience in my 40 year programming career. I’m busier than ever with freelance work.&lt;p&gt;Don’t try to join startups or cool SV companies unless you have an inside track. Their recruiting and hiring practices are mostly geared to ensure “culture fit.” That’s code for young single male who will work 12 hrs&amp;#x2F;day and think free beer and pizza makes it cool.&lt;p&gt;Focus on measurable accomplishments rather than languages, frameworks, tech buzzwords.&lt;p&gt;Learn to solve business problems rather than “engineering problems.” No one needs 2,000 more lines of Javascript. Lots of companies need business problems addressed.&lt;p&gt;If you’re  applying for jobs you’re hobbling yourself. If you have years or decades of experience you should have a large network of colleagues to get leads and jobs from.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mud_dauber</author><text>I was standing at a gas station in rural New Mexico a few weeks ago when my phone buzzed. It was a LI note from an ex-colleague that I hadn’t seen in 12 years, wanting to know if I was available. I’m meeting her team in a few days.&lt;p&gt;Just being a good human being will get your far in life irrespective of tech stacks.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Jack-of-all-trades of HN, how do you approach job search?</title><text>I have enough experience under my belt to feel comfortable approaching fuzzy engineering problems that span relatively unfamiliar domains but I feel it&amp;#x27;s quite difficult to convey this when applying for positions.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m also sure to fail googlable technical questions so I was wondering how others might approach this.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>ethbr0</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Curious if I&amp;#x27;m alone in this?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think most people underestimate their networks. Not saying you&amp;#x27;re wrong, but you&amp;#x27;ve worked with people, right? Hopefully not been a complete ass :) ? Done work on a team with or adjacent to them?&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s a start!&lt;p&gt;Networks aren&amp;#x27;t created overnight, and people try to hack them poorly all the time.&lt;p&gt;Think about it like a garden, not a project. It can&amp;#x27;t be created overnight: the right way is repeatedly, but at a low-intensity, tending to it.&lt;p&gt;Set yourself a goal: reach out to one person you&amp;#x27;ve previously worked with on LinkedIn a week. Don&amp;#x27;t ask for a job. Just say you were thinking of them, {insert memory, if you have one}, and hope they&amp;#x27;re doing well. If they reply, maybe steer the convo to what technologies or challenges they&amp;#x27;re working on now...&lt;p&gt;I get it. I&amp;#x27;m an introvert too. I&amp;#x27;m €®£÷ing &lt;i&gt;terrible&lt;/i&gt; with people. But it&amp;#x27;s improveable with repeated effort, like anything else.&lt;p&gt;A few ideas (in preferred order): (1) Take coffee (or now, Zoom?) with folks to catch up, (2) Volunteer with tech groups (pref charities, in tech, with people you want to network with, not just you giving free labor, and make sure to introduce yourself and talk about what you do), (3) Attend tech meetups (eh... unless you&amp;#x27;re presenting, this can be a waste of time), (4) Attend conferences (again, be seen, introduce yourself. Many are remote and free this year, good for attending, bad for networking)&lt;p&gt;The end goal is that if that person thinks &amp;quot;I need someone to X&amp;quot; then your name pops into their head. If you haven&amp;#x27;t talked to them in 5 years, that&amp;#x27;s not going to happen.</text></item><item><author>msluyter</author><text>&lt;i&gt;If you have years or decades of experience you should have a large network of colleagues to get leads and jobs from.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Clearly I&amp;#x27;ve failed here. I&amp;#x27;ve kept in touch with a few folks from previous jobs via LinkedIn or whatnot, but as a network, I&amp;#x27;d describe it as &amp;quot;thin and weakly connected.&amp;quot; Part of that is due to being an introvert and generally terrible at maintaining long term human connections. And part of it is a certain indifference I&amp;#x27;ve had in the past to actively managing my career, which in an of itself is a result of how generally easy it&amp;#x27;s been to find work. Curious if I&amp;#x27;m alone in this?</text></item><item><author>gregjor</author><text>I’m almost 60, lots of various technical experience in my 40 year programming career. I’m busier than ever with freelance work.&lt;p&gt;Don’t try to join startups or cool SV companies unless you have an inside track. Their recruiting and hiring practices are mostly geared to ensure “culture fit.” That’s code for young single male who will work 12 hrs&amp;#x2F;day and think free beer and pizza makes it cool.&lt;p&gt;Focus on measurable accomplishments rather than languages, frameworks, tech buzzwords.&lt;p&gt;Learn to solve business problems rather than “engineering problems.” No one needs 2,000 more lines of Javascript. Lots of companies need business problems addressed.&lt;p&gt;If you’re  applying for jobs you’re hobbling yourself. If you have years or decades of experience you should have a large network of colleagues to get leads and jobs from.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cushychicken</author><text>&lt;i&gt;I think most people underestimate their networks. Not saying you&amp;#x27;re wrong, but you&amp;#x27;ve worked with people, right? Hopefully not been a complete ass :) ? Done work on a team with or adjacent to them? That&amp;#x27;s a start!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is absolutely spot on advice.&lt;p&gt;Having a career network is roughly equivalent to saying &amp;quot;I have former coworkers that would say that I am competent and pleasant to work with&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;There doesn&amp;#x27;t need to be some intense relationship that persists past working together. Just shared work experience, and a track record of jobs well done on your part. : )</text></comment>