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+Document: WM-025                                                 P. Webb
+Category: Rant                                                2018.01.11
+
+                       Why the Job Search Sucks
+
+Abstract
+
+   It's not your fault
+
+Body
+
+   I have been unemployed since November 1st, *four days* after my
+   wedding. The company I was working for went out of business for
+   various reasons I won't get into but at least I got one last
+   paycheck! This was the first time in my life that I'd been let go
+   from a job. I'd either leave on my own accord or be fired (this only
+   happened twice, once in my professional career). I went into this new
+   development in my life fairly non-plussed because I've *always* been
+   able to find work relatively quickly. Of course, life has a way of
+   reminding you not to get comfortable. *Hooray*.
+
+   1. Rounds of interviews
+
+      Lots and *lots* of rounds. I really don't understand why this is
+      necessary. Here's what what makes sense to me:
+
+      1. Phone screen
+      2. Tech screen
+      3. Meet the team
+
+      After this, shouldn't you *know* if you want to work with someone
+      or not? What's wrong with your process that you need *more* than
+      three steps? Last month, I ran an interview *gauntlet* with a
+      company I (previously) admired. I had a video interview with HR
+      and a phone interview with *another* person from HR days later.
+      Then, I had to clear my entire Friday from *9am to 6pm* for *five*
+      video interviews with the shortest one being 45 minutes. I thought
+      I aced it! I even wrote a tutorial on how to use one of their
+      products and integrated said product into some of my projects. I
+      was told that I'd hear back from someone in a few days and if not,
+      to email.
+
+      Stop me if you've heard this before.
+
+      I waited. Emailed. Waited. Emailed again. By this point, another
+      week passed and I was *pissed*. I even checked my mail server to
+      see if messages were lost in the ether. *Nothing*.
+
+      Companies don't seem to realize that every interview is an
+      investment of time and emotion for the applicant. I apply for
+      positions where I feel I can make a positive impact and work on an
+      awesome product or help an idea form and gain traction. *There is
+      no excuse for not communicating.* While these companies are
+      internally deciding who to vet next, they can at least send a
+      templated reply back. I don't care if it looks like:
+
+      > Dear Paul, Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
+      > ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
+      > ahaha NO.
+
+      At least I know not to waste my time waiting on you.
+
+   2. Coding/design tests
+
+      See also: whiteboarding.
+
+      I've *never* met someone who performs exceptionally well with
+      thinking on the spot in front of people they've never met when the
+      grand prize is gainful employment. Not only are you thinking about
+      whatever question you've been asked to demonstrate your thought
+      process on, you're also thinking about what they might want to
+      see. Do you have your back turned too much? Should you
+      over-explain to "prove" you fundamentally understand the
+      concept(s)? What happens if you don't understand the question? Do
+      they take "points" off for that?
+
+      That shit is incredibly stressful.
+
+      You know what I love about coding tests? Finding a use for one-off
+      code exercises in my own work so I feel like my time wasn't
+      completely wasted. You know what else I love about them?
+      Absolutely nothing. These *tests and whiteboarding are not*
+      *indicative of your skill level*, they are *approximations* of
+      what you can do with what is likely to be limited information and
+      ambiguous scope.
+
+      Assuming you are gainfully employed, dear reader, think about your
+      job today: you (typically) aren't asked to create a solution for
+      something with three bullet points in a README file with a section
+      for "extra credit ;)".
+
+      I recently did one of these tests and yes, I've identified a
+      portion of the code I wrote for integration in one of my projects.
+      After days of waiting to hear yay or nay, I decided to email a few
+      hours ago and was told other people had more impressive code
+      submissions and tech stack cohesion. Makes sense but, would I have
+      gotten that rejection email today if I hadn't checked in? Next
+      week? Next month? In my experience, I either don't get that email
+      until at least two weeks later at the earliest, if ever.
+
+      Segue!
+
+   3. Feedback
+
+      It's very rare that you'll get helpful emails on how you can
+      improve your chances in interviews from the very companies that
+      rejected you, especially if you ask for it. This is at odds with
+      the initial tone and type of communication that's exchanged when
+      figuring out if you two are a good fit. "Other candidates were a
+      better fit, feel free to apply again in the future." Um, okay, but
+      why would I do that when *I don't know why I wasn't a fit to begin
+      with*? I view these canned statements as passive aggressive and
+      make a note of avoiding the company and their products
+      going forward.
+
+   4. How to deal
+
+      Depends on the person.
+
+      For me, open world video games are a great outlet for expending
+      frustration and allows me to cool down. I also enjoy writing and
+      that's why I've written this post. Having my time wasted is one of
+      my chief pet peeves and it's an unavoidable part of the job
+      search…falling in love with a product and/or company only to later
+      be rejected, dismissed, and ignored is a *soul-crushing* exercise,
+      one that we subject ourselves to because we quite literally don't
+      have a choice.
+
+      It fucking sucks.
+
+      I was at a seminar today about dealing with stress in the job
+      search and I heard from people over the age of 40 expressing their
+      experiences and frustration with age bias. They do well with
+      initial email contact and phone interviews but when it's time for
+      the in-person interview, they see and feel quite accurately that
+      their age is what prevents them from moving forward in the
+      process. I feel bad for these people because their only enemy is
+      time. Rather than hire the best, some companies look to hire
+      recent graduates so they can 1) be overworked and 2) offered less
+      pay. They don't know what they don't know and certainly won't ask
+      questions. Older people and those with experience would never put
+      up with that.
+
+      In the seminar we were told:
+
+      > *You are not at fault for being in the situation you are in.*
+      > External forces changed your lives in a (mostly) negative way
+      > but, it's up to you to deal with it in a productive way.
+
+      Have you ever tried guided meditation? It was the first time my
+      brain was silent outside of sleep…it was weird. I almost fell
+      asleep, haha! I'm going to try practicing mindfulness[1] more.
+
+   5. Upsides?
+
+      Losing my job and not finding a new one shortly after has awarded
+      me something that's been lacking in me for quite some time, and
+      that is *focus*. As I mentioned in my last post[2], I put a stop
+      to all but one of my projects and am focusing on just one[3].
+
+      Seeing my year-old child grow and learning new words, colors, and
+      numbers has been a fascinating experience. He'll randomly point at
+      something and say whatever he's looking at: "Red! Nine! A!
+      Lellow!" (Yellow) and so on. Pretty neat.
+
+      Constantly retelling my employment history has encouraged me to
+      shorten my "elevator pitch" so I can at least get that part of the
+      conversation over and done with quickly. My cover letter has seen
+      *many* shifts and improvements. I state upfront that I have zero
+      React experience because 99.999999% of tech companies want someone
+      with 18 years of experience with a four-year-old JavaScript
+      framework. I'm being facetious here but that requirement is
+      *ridiculous* for a fad. Writing CSS in JS? *GROSS*.
+
+      I redesigned my resume to put my skills upfront (responsive
+      front-end web design and development, yes I can design *and*
+      code), followed by projects that utilize those skills, and then
+      experience. As tired as I am of the bullshit companies put you
+      through in the hiring process, I'm sure companies deal with all
+      sorts of other bullshit too. I like to think my cover letter and
+      resume do a very good job of informing potential employers if I'm
+      a good tech fit. If not, no need to respond! Just keep it moving.
+      Getting me invested in the conversation, your company and product,
+      and then ignoring me?
+
+      *Maaaaan*, go *fuck* yourself. 🕸
+
+   P.S.
+
+      When I eventually hire people for my own company I'm reading this
+      post every week to remind myself that applicants aren't just
+      numbers or Post-Its on a board, they are people with feelings and
+      expectations that they will be replied to in a timely manner
+      because they have life and responsibilities to deal with.
+
+   P.P.S.
+
+      This post has garnered more interest than I thought it would on
+      HackerNews[4]. You can read varying viewpoints ranging from those
+      who've been in this situation and are employers doing MUCH better
+      than the ones I've outlined in this post, to people who are just
+      plain dismissive of myself and others like me. It's a pretty good
+      read regardless, I love discourse.
+
+References
+
+   [1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness>
+   [2] </WM-024>
+   [3] </WM-023>
+   [4] <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16127697>