Top all-time · #6484
Job Tips For Geeks
Personal blog · jobtipsforgeeks.com · on HN as fecakcareerprogramming
Job Tips For Geeks is a personal blog at jobtipsforgeeks.com about career and programming. Since 2012, 12 different Hacker News readers have linked it 132 times, most often “Enterprisey Developers, Acronyms, and Discrimination”. The last post was in 2017, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for career advice aimed at engineers, covering resumes, hiring, and working with recruiters. Commenters describe it as packed with useful information.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
career advice for programmery people...
Most-linked posts?
- Enterprisey Developers, Acronyms, and Discrimination3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2013-03-07
- Things Great Engineers (Almost) Never Say3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-10-08
- Recruiters Are Pretty (and how to find one)2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-08-09
- How Employers Measure Passion in Software Engineering Candidates2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-04-26
- Using the “Do You Have Any Questions?” Question2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-11-17
- The Engineer’s Engineer2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-05-31
What Hacker News says?
I wrote a post a few years ago about agents ( https://jobtipsforgeeks.com/2012/09/17/disrupt/ ) and actually had some people from HN approach me to see if I'd started that service. At the time I hadn't but I'm reconsidering this right now. I wrote the article in response to the incentives for recruiters being typically seen as driven by the client (hiring firm). The main issue is that recruiters are paid by hiring f…
Comment linking /2012/09/17/disrupt/
on “Massachusetts Bans Employers from Asking Applicants About Previous Pay”Submitted Why You Make Less Money as a story · 152 points
HN discussionRecruiter here, almost 20 years. Do a search for articles warning about counteroffers and you'll find almost all are written by agency recruiters. Why is that? It's because agency recruiters lose probably millions in fees every year when candidates accept a counter. I have personally lost 30K on a single fee due to counteroffer on more than one occasion. It hurts quite a bit - that's a car - which is why if you acce…
Comment linking /2014/02/19/counteroffers/
on “Never accept a counter-offer”Submitted Why You Didn't Get the Job as a story · 77 points
HN discussionRecruiter of software engineers here, and liked the article. I can't begin to estimate what percentage of job changes are attributed to the work of recruiters (recruiting firms, not internal company recruiters), but I think that one reason engineers sometimes make poor career decisions is that they are being coached by recruiters to make them. The technology industry has created a vibrant technical recruiting indust…
Comment linking /2012/09/17/disrupt/
on “Engineers suck at finding the right jobs”Submitted Why is it important to have a shorter résumé? as a story · 34 points
HN discussionThis blog post discusses it a bit. http://jobtipsforgeeks.com/2013/03/07/enterprisey/ It wouldn't shock me if it also gets used as code for things like "hasn't worked at a startup before" or, frankly, "too old."
Comment linking /2013/03/07/enterprisey/
on “Resumes suck for hiring engineers”Submitted Why You Didn't Get The Interview, Part II as a story · 33 points
HN discussionHe's probably best known to HN for his GitHub exploit with Rails in 2012. I wrote a profile of him earlier this year ( http://jobtipsforgeeks.com/2014/03/27/homakov/ ) which talks about his background a bit more.
Comment linking /2014/03/27/homakov/
on “The No CAPTCHA problem”Submitted “We Love Older Programmers” as a story · 30 points
HN discussionThis is definitely not representative of all Java shops, but I'd agree that some (many) are as you describe. I think the perspective that I get from JUG, where I have interacted regularly with hundreds of Java pros over a 10+ year period, gives me a sense of the morale of the Java community and their feelings about Java. I wrote an article about this last year ( http://jobtipsforgeeks.com/2012/07/11/advice-from-a-ju…
Comment linking /2012/07/11/advice-from-a-jug-leader-learn-a-different-language/
on “Brand new Scala-lang.org”Submitted “Seeking 100K but I'm negotiable” as a story · 16 points
HN discussionPersonally I don't think the accuracy or inaccuracy (both are debatable) of the opinion is that interesting, and I've run a Java Users Group for over 12 years. I felt the article is much more interesting as a look inside a hacker's head as to what non-technical factors influence his/her opinions (and ultimately decisions) about a technology. I wrote a blog post breaking down his reasoning for the 'stink' and how tho…
Comment linking /2012/09/11/howhackerschoosetools/
on “Java's Cover (April 2001)”Submitted Recruiter Tricks: Salary Talk and Candidate Control as a story · 15 points
HN discussionRecruiter here with similar ideas. I wrote about an agent model for perm hire last year, was on HN and ad some comments. Part I and II below http://jobtipsforgeeks.com/2012/09/17/disrupt/ http://jotipsforgeeks.com/2012/09/26/disruptii/
Comment linking /2012/09/17/disrupt/
on “Top Coders Can Now Get Agents”Submitted Indicators of Talent For Software Engineers as a story · 15 points
HN discussionThe biggest issue here in my eyes is 600 submitted resumes and only 3 interviews (2 by phone). Those numbers are astounding, and I'd have to guess that someone with his qualifications must have had some issues to compound any perceived issues with ageism. Ageism is real, but I don't think we can attribute ageism and the down economy to a .5% response rate to a resume for a well-qualified individual. More likely some…
Comment linking /2012/08/06/why-you-didnt-get-the-interview/
on “Reinvented in His 60s, After 26 Jobless Months”Submitted Things Great Engineers (Almost) Never Say as a story · 15 points
HN discussionThis question can lead to quite a long list of answers. I've posted several of my blog posts about job search here on HN over the past couple years ( http://jobtipsforgeeks.com ), and I write extensively about job search and career tips specifically for programmers and tech pros. I've been recruiting engineers for mostly startup and small software firms for 15 years, and I've run a Java User Group since 2000. During…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: How do you apply for a tech job?”Submitted When To Leave Your Programming Job as a story · 13 points
HN discussionDevelopers do generally write bad resumes/CVs, and the tech acronyms and buzzwords are probably more intended to get the attention of both human drone scanners and applicant tracking systems that score resumes based on keywords. I think the software industry is moving away from resumes/CVs as we currently know them, and will soon be at a point where someone will list some companies, a brief narrative profile, links…
Comment linking /2012/09/17/disrupt/
on “Recruiter Disruption Rant”Submitted Who Needs Side Projects? as a story · 11 points
HN discussionRecruiter here, and one who is publicly critical of this kind of behavior in the industry. I write about career topics frequently and try to expose recruiter bad behavior. (1) I completely understand frustration about being contacted for jobs requiring skills that are far out-of-date or that you don't have, the laundry lists of technologies, etc. On behalf of some in my industry, I apologize. Although criticism of r…
Comment linking /
on “The Tenacity of Tech Recruiters”Submitted When You Can't Compete On Salary: Tech Talent on a Budget as a story · 11 points
HN discussionI recently blogged about this similar topic ( http://jobtipsforgeeks.com/2015/05/20/moremoney/ ) and listed a handful of ways to avoid what I referred to as a salary plateau. The basic list was change jobs, get promoted, ask for a raise, brand additional benefits to your hire (network, visibility, etc.), consult/contract, moonlight or add revenue streams, and specialize. I haven't read "Career Superpowers, but it so…
Comment linking /2015/05/20/moremoney/
on “How to avoid the software salary ceiling”Submitted How to Leave Your Job as a story · 10 points
HN discussionJust to be clear, I'm not advocating ageism at all. I'm in my 40s, write about ageism somewhat frequently (1), and tend to work with candidates that are closer to my age or older. On Monday, I should be getting an offer letter for a female engineer who started her career in 1988. I don't necessarily feel that appearances matter more than reality, depending on what appearance you are referring to. We're talking about…
Comment linking /2014/03/25/older/
on “Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?”Submitted Got Fired? A list of do's and don'ts as a story · 8 points
HN discussionRecruiter here, and the first thing to consider is that to actually be called a job hopper, you must be pretty good at getting hired. Otherwise, you'd be called unemployed. People define job hopping different ways, and the tenure matters. I once had a client (financial, big) that wouldn't hire anyone that wasn't at their current job for 7+ years. They abandoned that policy around 2006, as they found it impossible to…
Comment linking /2013/07/25/hop/
on “Ask HN: What do you think of job hopping?”Submitted A Guide to Lifelong Employability for Tech Pros as a story · 8 points
HN discussion