As a developer, what problems do you face during job search? 🤔

Here at DEV, we're a diverse community 👨‍💻👩‍💻
Some of us own tech companies. Some of us are devs who work with tech companies. And some of us are devs still looking to be hired.

Most developers have faced some sort of problems while finding a job. Sharing these with the employers/recruiters on DEV can help make the process better.

And most importantly, y'all devs can vent out 💆‍♀️💆‍♂️

So, do you have something to add to the conversation?

PS: Hilarious responses are just as welcome as serious ones!

Comments

[Andrew Baisden]

Recruiters who hype up roles, tell you that they have been reading through your profile and give you a false sales pitch telling you that you are "The perfect fit". Then they show you a job description which is a complete mismatch. But you said that you read my profile... wait no it was just a copy and paste message sent to 1000+ people 🙃

[Utkarsh Talwar XenoX]

"Job descriptions are either unrealistic or unreadable."

Totally agree. Job boards are plagued with bad JDs. What makes for a strong JD in your opinion?

[tnypxl]

Too few companies set a clear record of what "experience" means in the context of their company. I have many years of experience, but if it doesn't apply from the outset, why waste everyone's time being needlessly vague?

Tell me what the role will actually be doing and how my experience should line up. Would save everyone hours of phone tag and interview steps.

[Ashley Sheridan]

Biggest problems I've had is bad recruiters. Problems with them have included:

• being offered an opportunity for a job that was both not my language and 100 miles from where I said I wanted jobs
• emails to me but addressed to the name of a famous author because in the early days of my CV I'd included some authors I liked reading
• being accused of hiding being in prison (for the record I've absolutely never been in prison!) because they'd edited my CV (telling me they hadn't and wouldn't do such a thing) and removing a few years of work history! They then tried gaslighting me and saying that accusing me 3 times of that was a joke.

Then bad interviews:

• in one they'd messed up and started interviewing me for a different position than I went in for
• another got annoyed when I said I liked to think of myself as a stakeholder in what I worked on (if I don't enjoy the work, why would I be there, of course I'll want to input and go above and beyond), and then in the paired programming test, the interviewer just spent half the time on his phone

To these people, I say, you get what you put in.

[Utkarsh Talwar XenoX]

"being accused of hiding being in prison"
"they'd edited my CV"
"They then tried gaslighting me and saying that accusing me 3 times of that was a joke."
"started interviewing me for a different position than I went in for"

[AinaJ]

Searching a job is relly hard as developer. You write a resume but not every recruiter read it.
And you write a letter but no everyone read it also. When you get an interview they ask you algorithm that has nothing to do with your job. Then when you get the job they ask you to do a job that never been in the job requirement.
So dear recruiter why not just hire us without these multiple process. We can adapt ourself to learn new tech if need but don't juge us with one tech that we don't know yet.

[Mike]

It's hard to find positions for senior level developers. It feels like companies are starting to just load up with cheaper junior devs.

[Julieta Campos Guzmán]

• Intimidating job descriptions
• Unreachable expectations for entry-level positions
• Whiteboard interviews
• HUGE take home assignments that are impossible to finish in their desired time frame
• NO feedback

I think that job searching is like kissing frogs to find a prince. You need to kiss A LOT of frogs, but if you're patient then you will find a nice job. I found one after 1 year of endless CVs, calls with recruiters, take home assignments, tech interviews that made me feel worthless, and in the end I found a company which aligned with my values and wasn't so terrible during their process.

Finally, you don't have to apply to AAGF to be a successful developer.

[Octa]

Most jobs are in locations with high cost of living or long / difficult commute times, and want you in the office four days a week at least.

[Raphael Habereder]

Currently, it's no problem for me to find projects for my employees, but for me it's pretty much impossible. As CEO all clients in my country want me to sign a temporary employment contract, because they want to "mitigate legal risks", right... (Successfully guess the country and you'll get bonus points).
I'm not going to sign an employment contract and lose everything I've built the last 10 years, including my great employees, that would be hilariously stupid.

So the search for "real" freelancer gigs goes on. Now insert the current pandemic into the mix and it gets even worse. I don't want to be a full time manager. I want to stay on the front lines and actually create things.

Another thing would be recruiters that don't read profiles or have very unrealistic requirements. For example, this one I got in today made me laugh quite a bit:

Administration of RedHat Enterprise (min. 5 Years)
Administration of SUSE Enterprise (min. 5 Years)
Administration of IBM AIX and Power-Systems (min. 5 Years)
Administration of Solaris Systems (min. 5 years)

1) That's 20 years of experience, I'm 29.
2) Why all the different systems? I can see reasons why you would operate AIX/Solaris at the same time, but RHEL and SLES? Pick one, ditch the other, improve the life of your OPS.
3) Who in their right mind still uses Solaris? Don't get me wrong, I love me some solaris, but... why.

I'm trying not to touch the topic of "knowing someones value". Most companies want experts for a junior salary. That's just plain disrespectful.

Oh well, that's my rant for today. Onwards to like all the other cool comments :D

[Chris Bongers]

I really think there are many issues.

• Recruiters don't understand the tech stacks
• Recruiters ask ridiculous amount of money if you ask me
• Interviews are off, asking the wrong questions for the wrong job
• Tests are just plain not working anymore
• Everyone is looking for that unicorn
• Every unicorn is your neighbour bob, john and his dog who took a free online course (not saying it's wrong, but still apply for the right job and don't oversell yourself)

[Utkarsh Talwar XenoX]

"Recruiters don't understand the tech stacks"
"Interviews are off, asking the wrong questions for the wrong job"

I agree. I think many of these problems happen when companies outsource hiring to recruitment/screening firms that may not have expertise in the domain. If they can't tell the difference between java and javascript, they shouldn't be interviewing/screening you.

[Chris Bongers]

True, but as a person being interviews it just frustrates.
and i wonder if the company paying top dollar for recruitment then gets the best person for the job?