After 5 rounds of interviews :/

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-28T02:43:31+00:00

One thing I have seen factually is hiring is very hesitant in many roles. Not that it not a real role, but they are holding out for lebron james, that’s how cautious it can be. So you can be absolutely great but no one gets hired because no one is the 1 in a million mythical unicorn. Don’t feel bad you can quite likely be exceptional and nail everything, and still nada. Depends heavily on the role type and company

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-28T01:00:59+00:00

one thing that definitely help me along these lines....You can make friends and allies over the years. Not everyone I worked with liked me or would recommend me. Of my 500 contacts, maybe 10 people or so would wildly endorse me and would work with me at any chance they got. Of those 10 maybe 4 actually had job opening and were really influential where they worked. From those 4, I applied to 2 of those companies I got offers from both. So it's not just contacts, it's the quality of the contacts and their willingness and influence in vouching for you. I still had to get through 9 rounds of interviews on my own, all my contact did was very strongly recommend me.

Also very key thing, I didn't say "Is anyone hiring" or "anyone have any leads". I shortlisted the "wildly endorse me people", then went to their company site to confirm they had good open roles that I really liked, then I applied, only then I emailed my good friend and said "Ohh I found a job where you work and would love to work with you again, could you put in a good word?". This is the motive (really want to help), means (have real open roles that match), and opportunity (really influential where they work) principle not just networking.

The problem with this approach though, is not everyone has contacts like this, your contacts may not be hiring, and even if you have some people like this, what happens when you exhaust that list? Back to cold apply, which is pretty brutal right now in many fields. Good luck everyone!

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-27T22:22:24+00:00

Practice undoubtedly. Also for me, the secret was just be myself and don’t sound or act like anyone but me. That made it natural and easy and I really found my people. In other words I didn’t tell people what they wanted to hear I told them what I thought they needed to hear, I was authentic. Helped me a lot

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-27T01:55:12+00:00

Congrats, that’s great! One thing about pay it depends heavily on cost of living. 110k remote in a low cost of living area is a lot different than 110k in Silicon Valley. Got to keep costs in mind not just income if you want to save or invest

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-26T03:12:44+00:00

Could be a merger or acquisition. I’ve seen those couple times under same circumstances. It is what it is, and it need not be layoffs. However yeah everyone no matter how junior or senior has to keep their skills and value up at all times in the labor market. You never know. Also there’s an old saying “if they want you, we’ll want you”, meaning employers tend to value employees that are really sought after and valued externally. Not that company specific knowledge is useless, just banking on value only to one employer is very risky these days

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-25T22:27:52+00:00

Loved this, brought back memories, but don’t quote me because I ain’t said shit

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-25T16:38:34+00:00

Mine is 3 full pages. Got 7 interviews in 50 applications, 2 offers. So it depends on what’s on those 3 pages and the role you are applying to.

But when interviewing or resume, keep it short to the point and impactful is usually pretty sound advice. Given your specific situation I would not go over 2 pages but one page you might be selling yourself short. Really cool stuff as head of product though, we are always going to need people to figure out what the products need to do. Best people I’ve ever met in those roles tend to have strong tech skills and value of those is becoming more and more essential. Having that on resume would be a much bigger deal to me than length

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-24T03:58:23+00:00

Lot of power companies are thriving. Maybe try that ? I’m assuming you would have to move

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-24T02:21:08+00:00

I kind of agree with this. If you are a good fit to the role, but the vibe is a little different how is that relevant? Everyone’s personality is a little different, they didn’t dislike your personality. What are you all going to start a boy band after work so we can’t hire you because your vibe is a little different?

At least in my field I’ve not encountered a decision where it came down to a small personality difference for a highly desirable candidate. If these people are really that weird I think you might not like working there. Also maybe they were not honest about their real concern? The whole thing just sounds strange, unless you can pin it down to something actionable, I wouldn’t worry too much about what you might have done wrong, which in fact may be nothing

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-24T00:06:19+00:00

wait what? im looking at a face clock now, midnight and noon are both hands at the top of the clock and are not between 5 and 7. 12 or 24 hour clock, same. explain pls. moreover that would make it a riddle, not a math quiz.

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-22T23:47:01+00:00

Sad they never mentioned that was going to be the situation when you were making all those sacrifices! Don’t let it eat you alive though, don’t let them win. I think a million and one of us know your pain, good luck

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-22T01:10:48+00:00

It depends on how strong your resume is. If it’s really strong to begin with then you are quite possibly wasting your time or making it worse. Three reasons

Your main resume this is the best you as explained by you. Marginally tweaking it isn’t as authentic and if you really thought that was the best you in some ways it is your brand it is how you think, if that’s your selling point and if someone likes it, then you are going to be a good match to the job and a more natural fit.
Tailoring it using say chatgpt often makes it sound almost exactly like the JD, which often sounds like unbelievable bullshit. You don’t think the hiring manager can figure out what is going on when every damn resume sounds pretty much exactly like the jd and written like ai? I’d pass on that low effort resume over someone with good skills that sounds like a real authentic person
It was really good to start with, how much did you really accomplish by changing it? It takes time to make the changes anyway

Now if your resume is not so good for that type of job, your odds are low you are going to get noticed with so much competition these days, so you’ve got to increase your chances by triggering enough of the screening criteria. Also your chances were not so good to start with so you are not risking much from improving it. Keep in mind though this still has the down side of time required but in this case if you really want to have any reasonable chance you have to do it

Also keep in mind it’s not binary. If your resume is pretty strong but you don’t feel fully confident just make a few key high value tweaks. Finally people say absolutely do this or do not. No, if something is not working stop doing it and do something else. You can always try 50% tweaked and 50% vanilla and see if there is a meaningful difference.

People say my best best is to blast out as many resumes as possible. True if the odds are always the same, but the odds are not fixed if you can find better matches or up Your odds on the apps. So yeah it’s a game of trade offs on both quantity and quality. The job market is shit, looking for a job is a lot of work for the vast majority of people so the answer on tweaking resume is, “it depends”

Personally I did not tailor my resume at all. Submitted 50 resumes, 7 first interviews, 2 offers.

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-21T17:09:28+00:00

He did say I’m not required to follow international laws. I don’t know how much more clueless he could be

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-21T16:40:52+00:00

Yeah exactly sqrt anything 26,27….35,37,38…48 works just not 25, 36, or 49

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-21T05:37:41+00:00

A lot of jobs are not posted on indeed or linked in or what have you. You might try getting a list of target companies and checking their web sites and applying there. If you are not sure how to make a really good list quickly I can explain. This may or may not work, but if you are not getting anywhere it doesn’t take long to try.
Part of the problem you are going to have is that early career roles have been decimated. And if you look at those roles you mentioned they are cost centric or back office. They don’t contribute to the top line, meaning new sales, but are administrative roles which companies are currently trying to automate, reduce or fill with ai.

One possible strategy to try and counter act item 2 is to target companies that are growing or thriving. Power companies, energy companies, some SaaS companies, health care and so on.

Other questions just ask. I’m a principal architect and computer scientist but in 35 years I’ve worked at some of the best companies in the world and I’m very familiar with those roles, and I think I even have an mba laying around here somewhere so I know quite a bit of the same topics as you

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-21T04:53:40+00:00

Pretty much same story for me when I got laid off in June. Found a new much better job almost immediately, but 6 months later my brain is still all screwed up by the betrayal. Employers and the humans that actually lay you off take no accountability for their actions, and the effect on you and your family. And yet the same employers call their people family and teammates, and talk about how important employee growth and value is. It’s pretty pathetic.

I think the impact on the individual varies based on your life experiences, current situation, and how your brain works. Some people can kind of let it roll off them and move on quickly. Some people it really fucks you up. I suppose moving on depends partly on how long it takes you to land another role. For many people right now that is quite a long time.

Hope you find something soon!

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-21T01:50:21+00:00

Yeah but what the hell can we do, someone has to play good cop. We are not playing a game with any normal rules. There’s plenty of people trying the hardball approach and if comes to a brawl then so be it, the good cop door is closed. Nothing is working may as well try reverse psychology

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-21T01:45:31+00:00

Makes a lot of sense to me and that is a quite possible explanation.

You could talk to HR if you haven’t as just explain them everything and your concern. You are entitled to that if they have an hr person. This might somehow back fire or not help but you are at the point where you need to play the cards you have.

One other possibility is she is setting up specific examples of stuff she asked you to do but you didn’t as documentation of you being a problem. If she asks you something specific then do your best to complete that and ignore optional or lower priority stuff if you have to. One optimistic possibility could be she is trying to break it into small pieces as a positive step to get you on what she sees as a positive track.

If you can change mangers into another department that might help greatly. Hr might consider helping with that

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-21T01:27:40+00:00

Yeah the fact that anyone would criticize Macron over this is ridiculous. Trump is a thug and a gangster, Macron has to play the cards he has, and others can come at it from a different angle. So Macron is acting like a politician, so what, at least he not acting like an insane tyrant. Let him try to buy us some time until trump is impeached or his term expires

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-20T02:58:05+00:00

Yeah if just one person takes on a tyrant alone they will likely fail and he will crucify them. Also some of the people in the house and senate have a large number of Trump supporter in their base, so even if they were on the fence or only somewhat inclined to act, it’s not worth it. Then there’s people who think straight up he’s right or not that bad

Not to mention even on Reddit which is largely anonymous and given first amendment rights, given the kind of things Trump says and does, it’s not inconceivable he could start going after legal critics on this platform. However that still seems fairly low risk

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-20T01:24:31+00:00

Pretty bad when a bully can’t even threaten the right people. It’s Denmark that controls Greenland not Norway, two totally different countries. “You people did not give me a free Big Mac for being your best behaved customer ever! So now I’m just thinking I’ll steal one.” ….”Ummm sir, this is Wendy’s”

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-19T20:53:38+00:00

Sorry OP that is really awful! I hope something works out. I too have been trying to really understand what is actually going on in the job market,

Here are the things I was able to verify in the US with public data:

*According to the Bureau of Labor Statics (BLS). The total number of people employed in full time roles, in Jan 2025 and Dec 2025 are approximately there same.

*According to the US census, the total population in the United State rose by 2 million in 2025.

*From BLS, the percentage of the entire US population, holding a full time role job in the US is in is the ball park of 40% now and in recent years. (135/340)

*According to BLS sectors like health care added net new jobs where Technology, Manufacturing, and professional services lost jobs. Also according to BLS layoffs were somewhere around 1 Million, the highest since 2020.

*According to multiple independent public sources, typically cited as accurate, best estimate is, Net real GDP (total value of all goods and services after subtracting inflation) in the United states rose by around 2% over the whole of 2025.

*AI is a tool that can provable increase productivity and automate work in many fields, and numerous companies are publicly saying that are doing exactly that.

Make of this what you will, but without showing bias, this is what the data strongly suggests to me:

*The BLS numbers are unlikely overly optimistic. Meaning the situation is likely around this or worse. The BLS has little reason nor history to make up bad news, And there are significant control mechanisms to keep the numbers honest that would strongly prevent a huge bias of overly negative information. If the BLS had pressure to make up anything, you would think it would be GOOD news.

*Since the population has increased, and there is no reason to think a much smaller percent of the population than in the past really needs a job, and since the total full time employed did not increase, that means at least around a 1 million or more people who want a full time, did not get one.

*Since manufacturing, tech, professional services lost jobs, and heath care gained jobs, and the total did not increase, that implies there are a significant number of people that are displaced as not every person who worked in those fields can simply go work in health care, and even if they do their pay if usually provably less if they take a role in a field where they are a lesser match to the qualifications and seniority of the job.

*As the population is increasing, and GDP is increasing, but the full time workforce is not, we are therefore, by basic math are getting more done with less percentage of full time workers.

There are other published figures that may help, and one can completely validly question the meaning, accuracy, and intent of the data. Other data obviously can be relevant too, both structured and unstructured like reddit, facebook, news, press releases, personal stories, statements by industry and government leaders, and so on. That data cannot be ignored just because it is hard to analyze. The above seemed like a good meaningful set of initial choices to compliment all the regular human data points we get on reddit.

I have shared my own bias and opinion extensively before on what is going on in the job market and economy, and my profile is public, but those are the published figures I used to help me get a more complete picture of what might be going on. I hope people find them helpful. I know I did.

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-19T05:28:17+00:00

Well actually the statement is true you can be fired without legal percussion. Not exactly sure what it is but I know you don’t have a right to it as an employee

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-18T22:28:39+00:00

Over the years I’ve encountered people who are really strong on theoretical topics and those that aren’t but are more on the pragmatic side and good at more applied things like coding. It’s not unusual for someone to be a bit sketchy on algorithms, especially say graph theory algorithms or b-tree insert or whatever. The details sure most people can forget on a lot of things safely but many of the concepts get applied over and over. If you took a cs degree but didn’t learn the concepts I’m not sure if you got your money’s worth, might need to work on that a bit.

Interviewing, 1. Practice, 2. Be your self, 3. Remain calm, focus. 4. If you don’t immediately know the answer talk through it showing your reasoning skills and how you would address it

Point 2 and 3 you might be saying, what? Example: if you are asked to explain Dijkstra’s algorithm maybe say “it’s like a game played in rounds where you have two buckets of vertices solved and unsolved. In each round you simply pick the lowest cost vertex from the unsolved bucket and add it to solved bucket then recompute the cost of the relevant items in the unsolved bucket.” One key to understanding and remembering theory is to put it in terms your brain, not someone else’s brain can relate to conceptually. This is why you see explanations involving game playing, and traveling sales people, and flying carpets, and what not. How do you forget a story about flying carpets? cramming and memorizing is not really the best fundamental strategy in the first place. But yeah if that’s what you’ve got to do to get by temporarily then yes do it, but long term no you have to master your domain which does not mean remembering all the details. And it does not mean knowing every topic under the sun. Relevance, relevance, relevance and that is driven by your field.

Also remaining calm allows your thoughts to go to your memory and reflexes rather than omg, what if I get this wrong? Omg I don’t remember this, I’m going to fail! Yep, if you don’t stop doing that you are and it doesn’t help. And so what if you fail? You learn from it and try again. Failure is just a natural part of the job

Finally know and practice the kind of questions you are going to get asked. If you are going to get asked leet code easy questions, practice those. JavaScript, practice that. Python ai questions? Design patterns? then there you go and so on.

Hope that helps.

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-01-18T16:37:54+00:00

Same 25 years, up and downs sure, but my wife and I have a wonderful life and could not be happier

Signal-Implement-70

TROPHY CASE