I’m in the same boat, went from a software engineer at Intel for 6 years to “oh sorry, this entry level position requires a master’s and 15+ years experience” or “are you willing to relocate to San Francisco/New York/other very high COL area?”
I closed on a house 2 weeks before being laid off, I’m terrified.
Software Test Engineer for 4 years and with the company for 10. 3rd year in my house and yeah I feel that fear. I’m so tired man.
LinkedIn was by far the worst place to look for jobs when I was looking. Indeed sucks, but at least I have a chance there.
If you’re up for corp-to-corp and contract work, Dice is a very strong choice. The CEO of Indeed is a friend of mine, so I hate to admit this, but we’ve historically had very poor results with it.
I’ve had at least some talks with agencies through dice so it’s on my watch list. Recently trying Otta so we’ll see how it goes.
Agreed. May as well print off 50 copies of my resume and dump them straight into the trash.
Yeah Indeed’s forced resume thing is somewhat tragic but the auto matching is not bad. It does a good job of picking the right ones.
Just got a new job after 3 months unemployment. While I’m glad to not be homeless, I’m going from 5 weeks vacation to 2, from full-time remote to dragging my ass to a cubicle 3 days a week. The worst part is putting that fake fucking smile on my face so my new bosses can’t tell how much I despise being there.
Brother I feel you, but you still have a golden ticket. I just wound up back at minimum wage breaking my back, somehow, and I think about killing myself every day. I was making $22 an hour, great benefits, vacation time, etc. All gone because I was stressed out and thought I could find something else. Now I have nothing at all but overdrawn accounts and a million bill collectors calling me every day threatening me. Life could be worse.
I feel this and it’s honestly one of my greatest fears. I did customer service for so long to get where I was working for petty bullies with management titles.
don’t give up, skeleton
The meat hurts but I’m full of calcium 🫂
After hundreds of failures, I managed to get a government job since they were obligated to test me on some incredibly easy “standardized test” which automatically gets you an interview with the team.
At least in these cases you’re less likely to be at the whims of a wholly inept HR person and instead at the whims of a wholly inept assessment third party. And the latter at least doesn’t care if you’re fresh on the market.
not to mention government jobs are typically unionized
That’s stellar. I’m finding myself being pushed out of consideration for almost every government or government adjacent field since I foolishly focus on the company before myself and don’t have a degree for what I do. Hoping I can find something contracted if anything.
Ah, the irony is I have a degree but it worked against me since it’s specialized— you’d think I wouldn’t have the 400+ applications rejected or ghosted, but every rung is filled with people asking too many years of exp, focusing on “objective facts” and ignoring soft skills like work ethics. (Incidentally, years worked on something isn’t inherently good, it can mean you do the same bad job for longer, haha).
No degree, your best bet might be in IT. My dad started off at City Hall without a degree and moved up from an on call tech to something pretty decent. They likely still test you on basic computer skills but it’s generally easy to learn.
One advantage you have at least is you can technically apply to anything. You don’t have the burden of a degree forcing you into a given industry, and a lot of places will train you if they need the help (childcare and healthcare are always in desperate need and pay more than average). Try not to be discouraged!
For sure that’s basically my trajectory. I worked at a community college doing tech lab administration, then an ISP, then did networking for sound systems and eventually helping with the software side of things. I’ve started branching out my searches to unis and cities so definitely good advice and part of my search.
I’m trying to keep my head up but it’s hard. Thanks for the well wishes it means a lot to me.
satan! I usually only apply to 5-10 a week when im actively looking massively. I mean I look at a lot more but I only apply to things im pretty qualified for.
Yeah I try to practice discretion but at the same time I’d really like to be able to afford a trip to the dentist so there’s a balance to things.
understandable. sometimes its any port in a storm.
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Yo, what’s your dream job?
I did software testing for sound systems / IoT and their associated software. It was a fun mix of scripting, test planning, data. As a musician it really scratched that itch and as a nerd doubly so. Only now after being forced out have I come to realize I was riding a unicorn.
Fuck dude, as a musician who works diagnostics for a day job, I feel that. It’s hard finding profit scratching that itch on the road, what you play?
Played cello professionally for a while until I realized nobody has a career in classical music without family money or a benefactor and I had neither. Good times and good lessons: I played with a metal band for a while and it rocked my world.
If you have a dream job you have already lost yourself to the machine.
Nah thats bullshit. And this is coming from somebody who would tend to agree with you, but you can’t always be so excruciatingly black and white. For example, my dream job is what I do in my free time, except in a non-profit organisation where I am not chained by an individual lack of resources. Some work furthers humanity. Some work is completely voluntary. Sometimes a dream job is that way to scratch the biological itch to keep our brains busy.
Additionally, this supports the bullshit capitalist argument that people wouldnt want to work anymore if not coerced into it. I believe people would still dream of doing important jobs that help humanity even out of their own free will.
Only a fool wants to work to make someone else rich. That is what a job is. Laboring for the benefit of a boss. Doing work is totally separate from that. The language you use is important. There’s much good work to be done, that’s true, but jobs are a construct of the ruling class. If you dream of any job you are sick. You are supporting the capitalists.
This has part time shift labor energy.
When you have stock and strong comp AND love the work and the mission, you have a dream job.
Listen to the company man. No, I’m lead in my department of the plant, I’m paid well for the area, work doesn’t even bore me most of the time. Have stock, and 401k, and insurance, and PTO. Still just a job. I dream of leisure, of having time to make music, or ride my ATC, or build another guitar. I dream of traveling with my family. I dream not getting up at 4fucking30, driving an hour, working 10, then driving another.
You are totally their man. I’ll bet you’re a hell of an employee, and probably decent to work with, but to every company you are more resource than human. And it’s not damned semantics. The language you use matters. No one in their right mind dreams of a job.Touch grass dude
Whatever city boy.
And when someone says “dream job” they are referring to the semantically correct meaning of the word? I have my doubts. When people say they’re dream job consists of doing something, like “helping people”, I think it is the “work” that interests them, and not the financial details.
What you call sick is only sick if you take your awfully correct definition, which I honestly don’t think correlates well with what people mean with it.
Thats also why I would still tend to agree with you, because I dont believe in laboring for some bosses benefit either. But certainly not with the initial wording
