My 2023 and my advise for those #opentowork and #hiring

Yeah, this is my first post on this platform, and I was wondering how to get started. I don't usually talk about my personal life, and this might be the only time I will do it. I will share the year challenges and some takeovers during my research for a new job. I hope you enjoy it.

By the way, it's a ChatGPT free article, so you might see some typos here and there. :-)

My Year

I was working into an US company as a Senior Developer. In overall it became a good year, despite the odds on my personal life and career.

Summarizing, on January, my parents' landlord requested the house they were living into. They lived there for 23 years. For sure, it's a long rental time, but I we had plans to buy it someday. I was getting prepared to it. Unfortunately we couldn't buy it.

With all the rent prices going up, and with my parents weren't employed, both me and my sister started looking for new houses for them. Actually we couldn't find good places to buy, and as another implication we found that the interest rates in Brazil would make us pay 400% the final value we would take loaned. The second problem is that, after some search, we found a place that my parents liked, but unfortunately the value couldn't be financed due to some complications with some notary bureaucracies.

So we thought to ask money to a friend, but at the very end, when we must needed them, they bailed out and leave us empty handed.

No problems. I and my sister negotiated with the owner and I emptied all my savings and hers in order to buy the house. Happily we could make it and this month will be the last installment: finally we have a house.

In September I lost my job alongside a friend. What matters is that I needed to move the next day and trace a plan for it. I was sad, hopeless and questioning about my professional skills.

Finally I have a dog that is an old one. Live with my parents and I noticed that he was feeling weak and skinny. We thought it could be related to his age, but I insisted to take him to vet. We realized he needed a blood transfusion with some urgency, so I made it, no matter how much. The only place we found the blood was in a city nearby. Communicated the team and so we did it.

After one month of this procedure, he recovered his weight and it was more energetic (6,5kg to 11kg), but another unfortunate situation happened: he had a tumor and I thought that he couldn't make it. Thinking to prolong his suffer just because of my desire to give him a last goodbye wasn't an option. I said that because I'm in a city way much longer of my hometown because I'm supporting my life partner to get her PhD course.

After not giving up on him we took him to another vet, but now an Oncologist. The good news were that the tumor wasn't a malignant one and we made the surgery in a good time. Today he is good and tomorrow I'm going a trip back home so I can meet him again and give all my love. =)

Bruce, my old friend before the whole mess.

Well, if you read this so far, I would like to thank you! Probably it won't make too much difference on your life, but I would like to get this registered because it was a tough moment on my life, and now I just have reasons to be grateful: a fresh restart.

Seeking for new opportunities

After a bad time, and going back technical, I started to seek for new opportunities. Several times I sent my resume to companies and I noticed some behaviors:

1. They didn't answered me (that's fine);

2. They answered me telling that they wouldn't continue on my candidacy. (It's expected and desired, since I'm competing with other friends. Desired because I appreciate the transparency)

3. They asked me to talk and know a little bit more about the position. (and this one I would like to explore a little bit more). This could potentially end into some conclusions:

   1. They didn't want to get going on my candidacy, via feedback [which is desirable, since we end the chapter]

   2. They put the position on hold. So they talk, and that's fine. It happens.

   3. They setup an automatic challenge which usually couldn't end well with some reasons

   4. They ask for a live code exercise

   5. They ask for a code challenge

About the process

I noticed, during my time, that seeking for International companies isn't an easy task. mainly because of some cultural things, timing and probably because you would be hired potentially by an outsourcing company. This creates another layer of bureaucracy that tend to be reflected in lower compensations and less benefits.

In average it took more than 3 weeks to get the process concluded, with a minimum of 3 steps, suffering the risk to get the process put on hold. Unfortunately I was in a process with 6 steps that I tried to focus all of my time, but unfortunately on the very end, they put the position on hold.

Other one has a 5 step training, but with a huge amount of talks, which is fine. The problem here is that as long as the process takes, the chances to get hired in another company increases, consequently people tend to end the process in the middle.

I will try to describe my point of view of some processes that I noticed and points that I would improve if I had a chance.

Having an automatic timed code challenge

Actually this doesn't work. Should be just a matter of luck and fast thinking to get thought it. Fine. You could say that if you have the right knowledge you could crack it, but again, doesn't reflect the reality and you should not feel bad about not being able to make it.

A worse scenario: a sadistic test that evaluates internal parts of the programming language you are applying to that is difficult to identify the issue, imagine the solution: and you have 30min to do so.

Having an automatic timed quiz

The worst scenario. If you have studied that specific technology several weeks ago, it might be a good call, but doesn't make sense to put a gun on your head and ask you to answer those questions. I'd rather prefer a well defined long task that the recruiters could evaluate your thinking process than setting a timer and set you to fail. At least in several quizzes the chances to hit in a right answer was 25%.

Having a long project to get built

Since we apply to more than one process at time, I think its fair that recruiters ask for projects end-to-end. Assuming a best scenario, you are employed and have only your free time to take the test. You should carefully craft your test in a way you can use it to evaluate the candidate skills at the same time you don't make him to spend too long to this.

Having a coding challenge exercise

I got several coding exercises during the time with some recruiters and what I can say about that? Some was good and fun to build, others they make more confusion and create a bad environment that wasn't good for develop the thinking process. I explain.

The ones fun to build, we discussed about a solution to achieve, with small steps and a lot of talk about improvement techniques. That's good.

The other ones, they put a very hard exercise to make it. So far so good. I identified the core issue, explained my idea, but when I tried to write down in code, the recruiter started changing my plans. The fun fact is that my solution would work, but wasn't the same solution proposed by the recruiter. The problem on this experience was that the recruiter asked me to go back and try to implement his solution. Total failure.

Well, hopefully after 3 months seeking for a job, I was able to get into one position! Below I will send my thoughts about my colleagues still fighting for being relocated to the market.

About my colleagues looking for new positions

Seeking for a new position isn't easy and the majority of time, unfair. Don't expect that the companies will see your potential, and worse, would give the opportunity to showcase yourself. That said, my advise for you is: don't give up. It's totally fine to get rejected, and this cause a very bad feeling. But it's fine: you're a resource for companies. Try to be the best one and face it in a way that most part of rejections doesn't necessarily mean that you are not good.

Best Scenario: You have a job

Good. You have a place you can pay your bills with some comfort. Move to new challenges would be a next step on your career. You have the time to to enter into few processes at time, and you can seek for best positions tracking the cycle of hiring of companies. Time to time they used to open positions, so it's a time to leverage your tooling and study well the companies you'd like to apply to. Best luck for you!

You don't have a job

I'm sorry for that. It was my case and a friend of mine that worked on the same team. Fine. Because of my situation, I didn't had savings to afford my seeking process. So It was a bit complicated.

What I did to walk though this shit show:

• Count on my family and parents for emotional support. It's a difficult task and have them cheering for your success can make you feel supported and strong.

• Talk to your pairs. I would say that having some friends that supported me was crucial to keep the sanity and keep going.

• Create a fancy resume: it's also a good practice to keep it updated.

• Apply to a huge amount of opened positions. Since I know that the success ratio is low, as much opportunities as we have to move to phase 2 as best.

  • I assume that I lost the most part of my energy during this one.

  • Changed my LinkedIn profile to use a paid version; this one has increased my visibility for recruiters. According them, 2.6x chances.

• Learn with the interviews: try to get as much feedback as you can get. They tend to ask the same questions, so you can get this process improved and you can move to the next phase.

• Talk confidently about your resume. Don't omit abilities you think you don't know 100%. Use it to endorse your technical competences.

• Talk just what they want to hear. You are not friend with them, and probably as much as you talk, as much flank they will have to not chose you for the next level.

• Proactively ask for feedback: this will open your mind in order to detect some patterns on the recruitment side. Bug the recruiters if needed. It will demonstrate you are fully interested.

• Sounds simple, but it's true: take a good rest before doing the tests. A refreshed mind tend to get succeeded, specially the timed ones.

Overall, my takeover is: don't let the odds affect your morale. I would say that the majority part, it isn't your fault to not be hired. We need to understand that as soon as you have a chance to show your work, you will have a REAL interview indeed.

Also, according Murphy's law, as soon as the first offer letter appears, other ones will appear on the same time or right next. The rule of thumb here is: think on you first, no matter you joined into a company recently, and needed to move to the next one. Just be transparent and move on. Companies doesn't have feelings, but the people in it yes: just be frank and explain the situation.

For Recruiters

Recruiters are the front door for a new company. Having qualified professionals will tend reflect the internal communication quality of that company. If you automate this process a lot, you will lose great minds.

In Brazil we have a known company that uses AI to help recruiters to find the right matches. Turns out that people are not participating in such platforms that needs to have all the data from resume being provided over and over. Worse, these platforms won't let you get access to real recruiters because of hidden business logic on their platforms.

Feedback

People depends on the feedback in order to take an action. A whole life of financial planning will be traced on top of the decision made by recruiters. Assume that the people applying to a job, doesn't have money to pay the bills next month. Talk to them. Better, be empathetic with them. (Even if if it isn't good news).

I made a interview process for a company that I passed in 3 (of 3) steps, but at last they didn't answered me. Still waiting for a feedback though.

I understand that this problem might be a result of an overloaded team of recruiters, due to a small staff size and a huge demand.

Cancelling on the middle? Fail first!

It's predicted that processes can be cancelled at some point. Closed a position. Why? They already found another candidate that fit to the company. So I can prepare myself for other companies.

Please use humans!

Sounds redundant, but as much as we use technology to automate processes, as much as you dehumanize the process as a whole. Hiring someone is an exercise of two things:

• Validate the technical skills

• Validate the soft skills - understand if this user might be a good fit for the company

You might receive batch of resumes and try to read all of them. If you discard a candidate, tell him and move on. For those on the go, try to talk to them and align the expectations. You don't need to give them hope, but a real situation of what's going on.

Sounds simple, but it will make the difference!

Please, no year based experience only

Several companies used to capture resumes based on year of experience, assuming that they already ramped up on that specific technology across the years. Something to note is: the learning process isn't linear. It's fine to understand that the time you spent on a specific tech stack might introduce you to understand a little bit deeper about that given tech, but it isn't all.

You might work maintaining a legacy code for a long time, or doing some menial tasks for years, or started a side project learning more than 5 languages/technologies at the same time, so only time isn't a good measure criteria.

For instance, recruiters and the technical leadership should think in a smart way to do some equivalence checks across technologies. How a candidate with 0 years of experience on Kubernetes can still be valuable having a deep knowledge on Linux and Docker?

How can a self taught professional can learn a new language, being really good at another programming one? The question here is: is this candidate capable of ramp up quickly? It's specially true for SRE's given that DevOps is a huge ecosystem and it's almost impossible for a candidate to know all the tools provided on a Job description.

Conclusion

My year was a rollercoaster. I think it ended not the way I planned, but ended in a positive way. 0 cash, but with a house for my parents, making me tick a childhood objective. I will be traveling today for my hometown where I will meet my buddy again. I will make a huge party for the end of year.

Monday starts a new chapter on my life, now as a tech lead.