Work Reform

Been a software developer for 15 years. I've applied for hundreds of positions this summer and all of them either never call me back or say they are interested in other candidates. I actually fucked up two coding tests this week and I dunno anymore. I'm just so disappointed and money is starting to get tight, and I have a surprise medical bill for a biologic. I'm thinking when I can't afford rent, I'll just kill myself.

What's worse is I did have a job for two months but I fucked it up and botched a production instance. They let me go a couple weeks later, I wasn't a good fit. I wanted to die then, and the sensation hasn't gone away either. I lie about it because saying you are suicidal is a great way to be rubber roomed.

Some days posting on 196 isn't even worth it.

This has literally been my experience! I've submitted near 100 applications and NOTHING! I'm 20, living at home with my parents breathing down my neck and saying how lazy I am for not getting a job while NO ONE will fucken hire me! I've even done walk in interviews and STILL NOTHING! I don't know what to do anymore and feel like I'm stuck in hell. Cant leave this house cuz I'm broke, can't get a car cuz I'm broke, can't pay my crazy medical bills cuz I'm broke. College for me is over after this semester if I can't get at least minimum wage employment and what do ppl say to me when I complian? WHY DONT YOU JUST GET A JOB!!? I'm so tired, I'm so done, just end me now.

I have probably sent out a good 100 resumés over the past few months and have only gotten responses within the past few weeks. A good chunk of them did not bother notifying me that I was not being considered and I would only find out if I logged into their shitty portal.

I am no longer applying to jobs that do not lost their salary range. I had an interview the other day that was a complete fucking waste of time because at the end there was my salary was nowhere near what they could afford. They have been looking for months. They definitely need a reality check if they think they can pay next to nothing in the locations they are hiring in which are all high cost of living areas.

There's so many other issues too, such as the fact that old job posts don't really get removed, employers/recruiters also spam multiple websites with their job posts and forget to check them, and some of the job descriptions don't even match what you go and sign up for.

No salaries mentioned on lots of posts, multi stage interviews that somehow demand your free time during work hours, so good luck interviewing for other roles while you have a job. Take home assignments that take multiple hours sometimes, sacrificing a whole evening.

Recruiters that will ask for all your information again, despite having found your phone number from your CV, and once you go through that, tell you they have nothing for you and that they'll be in touch.

Questions that mean nothing in an interview, including acronyms I haven't used or even heard of outside of interviewing for other jobs, because my job doesn't need or use them, we just do the work.

One of the additional things that sucks is here in Australia if you're unemployed and/or disabled you can sign up for Centrelink and do Job searching there. But it is just terrible, because not only do you have to look for a certain number of jobs (I think abled-bodied people can do 20 jobs per month, whereas I got to apply for 12 due to disability), but every 2 weeks you have to go in and spend maybe 10minutes or more traveling to the jobseeker place and tell them "no I haven't heard back from anyone, yes I've applied for jobs, etc".

On top of that, if you're disabled you'll get fucked over because you can't work, you know you can't work, but Centrelink refuses to put you on the National Disability Scheme because you're not disabled enough (people who have missing limbs have been told that their missing limb will grow back, or you'll grow out of it. Some disabilities aren't even on it, like ADHD isn't considered a disability and only "high functioning autism" is allowed). But you can be a part of the Disability Employment Scheme (DES) where you still have to apply for jobs, but not as much, but you get some benefits over being a regular Jobseeker.

Generally, the whole thing fucking stinks and I'm so thankful that I'm finally out of it. That and the fact that those receiving Jobseeker payments are being paid below the poverty line because the government refuses to put it up.

I just, ugh. Job seeking sucks, especially when businesses ask for 50million years of experience but it's entry level. Or the fact to get experience you need to work in this field but to get in this field you need experience. Ugh.

A tip for anyone in the situation: when looking for a job on any website, if it has a ridiculous pay range, like 30k-140k, stay away. Usually some pyramid scheme, or scammy commission only sales job that you'll never make anything from.

I'm sure some of these work out for some people, it has to. But realistically it doesn't ever work out.

You wooly for 20 jobs on Indeed. The ones that respond want you to do a one-way interview so they can discriminate against you without facing you.

I am so glad I am a Union member. I would probably be homeless if i had to deal with this shit. I mean, I have almost been homeless with my union, but without it I'd be screwed.

The meta for getting jobs rn is through networking. IIRC something like 70% of job positions are not posted. I have worked in the tech industry and food industry and found this to be true in both. For tech, building a strong network is more important than any degree/cert you could get imo. I wouldn't even bother applying thru websites without a recommendation attached. I think ur time is better spent working on some sort of personal project and attending every conference/event in the area u can find for whatever ur tech domain is. Ideally if ur living in a tech "hub" or adjacent to one there usually is some sort of "area programming language/tech thing club" and joining is free. You can find them on facebook or meetup. Befriend some boomer nerds at them and eventually you'll get access to their "network" and will have a lot easier time landing a job. U can be upfront too by saying shit like "I am looking to expand my network" and this is an OK way to signal "Let me know about job openings that ur friends have" / "please introduce me to important people".

Image Transcription:

Tumblr post by user anotherchariotpulledbycats reading

"You apply for 20 jobs on Indeed. The silence is deafening.

"You apply for 20 jobs on Indeed. Half of them require you to create an account on the company website. You have a trail of ghost accounts that will be used once and never again. You never receive a response.

"You apply for 20 jobs on Indeed. One employer offers an interview, but it's so rare for you to receive any response that you forget to check the website and you miss the time.

"You apply for 20 jobs on Indeed. One employer offers an interview, but you don't know the magic words that signal to the esoteric mind of an interviewer that you're fit for the job.

"You apply for 20 jobs on Indeed. One employer e-mails you saying that 'unfortunately, you do not have the qualifications we are looking for'. You check the job again and see you applied to be a menial labourer.

"You apply for 20 jobs on Indeed. Half of them require a car a car. No one stops to ask how you're supposed to afford one with no job.

"You apply for 20 jobs on Indeed. One employer offers a job. The commute makes you want to die in your sleep.

"You call the HR manager for the workplace in hopes of arranging an interview more directly. They don't even have an answering machine.

"Employers complain that no one wants to work anymore."

[I am a human, if I’ve made a mistake please let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for ease of use. Thank you. 💜]

Very similar to finding a new home.

Bonus challenge: Find a new home without a job.

Stop. Using. Indeed.

It's a glorified resumé scraping service for corpos. It's free to use for job seekers right? That means YOUR INFORMATION IS THE PRODUCT. All Indeed does is look at what's on your resumé, and then delivers that insight to corporations for a fee.

Go handout resumés in person. If the company does not want you to do that, submit them through their career portal on their official website.

"the silence is deafening" sums up my job searching experience. I can apply to as many jobs as you'd like but I can't actually start working until the other side says yes. and they seem to not even register that my application has been sent. How am I supposed to work, if no employer ever even looks at my application?

I'm so glad that when I applied for my first job 10 years ago, having no experience in any field, applications through websites and apps wasn't really a big thing and it was mostly done by sending e-mails. Gathered a list of 200 emails and sent those emails one by one, got a call two days later and then kept getting more calls with offers for the next half a year. I do remember registering to a couple big company websites to apply there - and just like the OP mentions, those instantly became ghost accounts :)

I almost died in my sleep commuting home from a job that barely covered fuel costs. Never again.

I finally got to experience this from the inside. I was on the team that interviewed people to back fill my position after I was promoted. We didn't interview 1 external candidate. Promoted someone from below and then hired a new entry level person. We realized our internal hire has less experience, but they were the safe fast option that could get started right away.

Where is the lemmy for jobs? There is no need to create an account for every company if they all use activitypub.

Story of my life. Half the time they don't even bother to call back.

I get the pain, but if you're offered an interview and you forget to check what time the interview is scheduled for and you miss it, then that's on you. Showing up to the interview on time is like step 0, the most basic requirement for obtaining a job. If you're struggling with that step then at least part of the problem lies with you.

Well, problem 1 is using indeed. What an obsolete site for most places. But i get the joke.

Not that prospects are much better elsewhere. Like LinkedIn for instance with their “click here for instant apply” and then you see that you’re one of 50 people (today) to apply for this open role and some AI in the background estimated based on your profile that you have 22% chance of getting the job BUT if you pay for premium you can knock that 22% up to 50% and an AI writes you a better profile…

I really do feel sorry for the crap the boomer gen and even my generation (genx) has left every generation after.

#eattherich

My hubby went in for an interview and was told he got the job so he told his other prospective employers that he was no longer interested. Before he could arrange a start date, they ghosted him. He tried to call but it went to an outsourced helpdesk that told him they would create a ticket and he would get a call back. No call after several days. He physically went into the place and the hiring manager seemed flustered that he was there and told him they would contact him. After two weeks from when he was told he would get the job, he finally got a hold of the guy he interviewed with and was told they gave the position to someone else because he was "unreachable".

Problems like this are the reason why I don't hold loyalty to any company unless they've proven their competency. The ones that are good rarely hire because the employees don't want to leave.

I am in this hell. Recent software engineering graduate, and i haven't gotten any bites for a long while. I've got no idea what to do besides work on my personal projects in hopes that it catches the interest of some unicorn out there that will actually read my info.