> A form is not going to a hire you, a person is.

This is becoming less and less true.

> You need to ignore the form and talk to a person.

Unless you're lucky, this is no longer going to happen. Getting a job is now becoming much more about luck, circumstances, and who you already know, much like getting your first starring role in a movie -- not about your abilities.

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pizzathyme 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

No form is going to extend a job offer autonomously. At some point in the chain, there will be a boss, a person, who talks to you and thinks, "I want to work with this person", and decides to make the offer.

So the goal is to figure out how to get in touch with that hiring manager as the first step. Even if the form or HR "rejects" you, this person can step in say, "that's silly, I want to work with them. Send them through"

I think this charade of sending in resumes to forms is causing people so much pain. It feels like rejection and is not moving them closer to a job.

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prewett 6 days ago | parent [-]

> No form is going to extend a job offer autonomously.

Just wait... some time-pressed startup is going to find a killer LLM prompt that filters in exactly the people they want, and then post something on the benefits of "vibe hiring". Complete with large, well-spaced text, colored with one accent color, and several graphs of hiring spending vs. income or something.

You heard it here first!

	▲	groby_b 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		That startup is going to fold about two years in unless they're at least Series E or so. Incompetent hiring will kill you, and hiring people that you and your team don't personally gel with is incompetent hiring. So I see that as a self-solving problem.

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JohnFen 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Getting a job is now becoming much more about luck, circumstances, and who you already know, much like getting your first starring role in a movie -- not about your abilities.

That's not a new thing. It's how it's always been.

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danans 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Getting a job is now becoming much more about luck, circumstances, and who you already know, much like getting your first starring role in a movie -- not about your abilities.

Getting a starring role in a movie has a lot to do with abilities, not just luck and who you know.

Many companies are looking for strong mission alignment, because when it's a buyer's job market, why not select someone who has intrinsic motivation for what you are doing? Are you passionate about the problem? That is a lot like auditioning for a starring role: do you understand the character you might be playing? Many jobs - especially desirable ones - use this sort of "mission alignment" as selection criterion.

The thing that's different in software is that because the equipment needed to demonstrate technical skills is so cheap (just a computer) and trust in representations of technical experience is so low, they can test for technical skills in a way that other industries can't.

I don't think that anyone asks a civil engineer to design a bridge or a surgeon to remove an appendix to get a job.

	▲	insane_dreamer 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		The abilities is the threshold requirement - which many people have - the rest is luck and connections.

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bopbopbop7 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

You need luck to have a network now?

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Yoric 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

Kinda, yeah.

My first job in the industry was in a startup that went belly down. Most of us didn't get much opportunity to network.

Thankfully, I happened to contribute to two open-source projects. One of them was a (then) obscure language called Rust and another one was Firefox. Both contributions eventually turned into career-defining moments for which I'm still reaping benefits 15 years later.

Had I contributed to Vlang and Camino instead, my career would probably have been much less satisfying.

	▲	abnercoimbre 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		Vlang catching strays made my day.

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hn_acc1 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Agreed. It's next to impossible to actually connect with people about non-work topics. Way too many possible landmines, unless you really, REALLY click about a couple of topics.