Fake enthusiasm & having fun in Job Search
After being fired almost 1 month ago, I took time off to enjoy life and think about my next steps.
Of course, I spent the whole four weeks horribly stressed about what my future will hold, my bad 🥲.
But now I've started to apply for jobs again in a market that has:
- High inflation.
- High-interest rates.
- Massive layoffs even for senior ICs.
- Huge competition in the tech space, usually the one that remained easy to find jobs in.
All the former, with the addition that I won't be looking for a Software Developer/Engineer position, but I will pivot to Product Owner roles to orient my career toward Product Management/CPTO.
What can go wrong right?
Provided that I find a product-related job where I've had not that much experience compared to a technical one before, my compensation will be far lower than that of a Senior Software Developer. I prefer however to see the opportunity cost as the price of the education I will be receiving when I land a Product Owner job (I have to believe it!).
Still, with all that in mind, I've noticed a shift in my mindset when looking for a job. I no longer have the unwavering enthusiasm I had many years ago both when sending cover letters and having video interviews. I know much more now and I am a much better professional now, but somehow I am getting fewer job offers and I get rejected more often than before for roles that match my skills & experience.
There are myriad reasons why I might be rejected besides my enthusiasm toward the job offer, but I cannot shake the feeling that being more grounded and realistic about the real state of the tech industry today is playing against me. I just can't be enthusiastic about your ERP module that incorporates Machine Learning & NLP to streamline document processing and extract intelligence to be consumed in a structured way.
Additionally, since I've noticed the template and cookie-cutter nature of job offers and ra-ra writing about how this-and-that project is going to change the world is becoming prevalent, I no longer have the feeling that taking my cover letters that seriously is going to give me an edge against the other 200+ applicants. I am therefore going to at least have some fun writing the cover letters at the risk of them falling through the cracks, at least for a while, to see if it changes anything. Sentences like "I find the idea crazy as hell, I love it" will find their way into them.
I say this because, at a certain seniority level, I get the impression that real job opportunities come through the professional network you've managed to grow during your career. I could tap into it at some point and will do it eventually, but I want to see if I am able to land a job by myself before, fighting for it like hell 🌋.
Lastly, here is a rapid-fire bunch of thoughts about what I observe while looking for a job on boards, sites, tech news, etc...
- VC money is being very careful. Lots of startups that got funded with the 2021 money influx are dying out and only the ones that had a viable product-market fit and a sustainable strategy are staying alive. Valuations are lower and the focus is on cutting costs and surviving, so it is harder to find a job in a startup. Now they really have to need you.
- Avoid job offers with titles like Astronaut Developer, Ninja Coder, Jedi DevOps, and the likes. I understand they want to make the offer appealing and use humour to spice it up, but I find these job offerings offensive and frankly undermining our profession. You don't see a Ninja Associate Lawyer or Guru Banker job offer.
- Once you read enough job postings, you start to see common patterns. Reponsibilities, Requirements, What to Expect, all end up having a copy/paste feel to each other.
- There are still amazing startups with really interesting and cool projects out there. Machine Learning/AI applied to anything, Computer generated graphics, AgriTech, EVs... they are out there to be found!
- I don't care about free fruit & coffee, casual Fridays, or pizza parties. I care about a good work-life balance, and a good compensation package either in the form of cash or shares if I really believe in the mission.
- Let's imagine I find an interesting project: AI chatbots to discover and index information from different data sources so people can ask questions about the data. I've stumbled upon multiple flavours of it across different industries. I may find it very interesting, but I am not excited or passionate about it. The word has been hammered down and overloaded through its excessive use. I am passionate about learning and speaking different languages, cooking good food for my partner and friends, writing my thoughts despite nobody caring about them, doing sports, or learning about investing in my free time. I am not passionate about a project that is not mine or that I have no stake in. By principles, I won't be passionate about something I didn't create myself or have a personal investment in. Demanding passion for a job is a covert way of creating a culture where employees will put in longer hours not because they get anything tangible out of it, but because them being passionate about it. It's manipulative.
- To get a job it is a combination of having the experience, being likable in the interviews, having a well-crafted cover letter, good timing in the market, and a lot of luck. Not getting the interview, or not getting the job doesn't invalidate your skills or eligibility. All of us are winging it anyway, so don't give up.