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Ask HN: What would you do if you want to change job in the next few months?

8 points by siscia ↗ HN
Hi HN,

I am European and I work in a good EU company, but I am not growing anymore. I want to change for better growing opportunities.

What would you do if you were me?

Blindly applying to FANG?

Write to a recruiter?

Switch the linkedin flag?

I am recognized as a quite senior backend engineer, and I would like to try my hand into tech lead or engineer manager, but no company seems interested.

I honestly find the market quite dead, companies want to pay the very bare minimum and they don't seems a great opportunity anyway.

What would you do? What worked for you?

I am definitely not in an hurry, but I would like to get the ball moving.

9 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 33.2 ms ] thread
AnimalMuppet
One thing I would do, if you can, is print out your last several annual performance reviews and take them home. Whatever route you take to finding a new job, those will be useful.
stuntkite
Why?
AnimalMuppet
Because some companies won't give references, because some people have sued because the company gave a bad one. So you can hand a prospective new employer your reviews, and say "This is what they have to say."

Also, it lets you interview without someone calling your current employer and asking, which might avoid some discomfort.

austincheney
What worked for me: a military deployment.

My recommendation is to consider an adventure as a change of pace. Take a job in a foreign country where you actively contribute your leadership and technology experience. Please note that you will be trading compensation and quality of living for something that matters, like Doctors Without Borders.

a_lifters_life
Quite honestly my last two tech jobs came from LinkedIn - one was flipping the switch. The other was a random reach out on there
scott31
Consider moving to US, there are more opportunities here
komon
I personally just started applying to roles just beyond what I thought I'd be able to get easily. I generally keep LinkedIn and it job profile sites always in "actively looking" or "open to opportunities" because I like getting free notifications about what roles are opening out there.

If you aim your job search high and come up with some quick templates to speed up cover letters and the like, you can easily apply to all the most interesting, high paying jobs in your field pretty quickly, and then just keep up a steady stream of applications until you start getting contacted for interviews.

Don't be afraid to be scheduling multiple interviews with different companies, just be sure to give yourself adequate time to prepare for each. I've definitely flubbed a few by packing my schedule too tight.

I'm not sure where you're looking for jobs right now, I personally use a combination of LinkedIn, angel.co, stackoverflow jobs, and indeed. I prefer sites that let me filter on salary, but LinkedIn gets some bonus points for their easy apply feature and being able to filter by how many people already applied. Indeed gets me the most contacts from recruiters, but honestly the matches are lower quality since they tend to be based on me appearing in a search result based on my tertiary skills.

komon
Also, as clearly over-simplified, janky, and non-indicative as every programmer knows they are, I do every "skills test" those sites throw at me. I wouldn't trust them if I was hiring, but completing then usually gets you features in more search results and can get you advanced notification on new jobs that match your tested skills.

Also, paying for premium on LinkedIn is generally worth it for as long as you're searching.

It's a great opening line in your cover letter if you can say, "I saw that you were looking at my LinkedIn profile and when I saw that you had an opening I'd be a great fit for..."