Real-world compensation, job search, negotiation, networking, and engineering management insights from Hacker News
The thread discusses the widespread use of a method by job vacancy indexer sites and appreciates the author's provided templates and suggestions for cold emailing. The insights suggest practical applications of the method for cold email outreach and job vacancy indexing at scale.
The discussion highlights the difficulty experienced tech professionals face in securing roles despite extensive experience and reasonable salary expectations. Concerns about age and lack of management roles as perceived barriers are emphasized. These insights suggest the need for strategies to better market experienced candidates and challenge prevalent stereotypes in hiring.
The thread shares behind-the-scenes insights from Bruno Simon about his portfolio's development and highlights the release of a significant update in 2023, building on work since 2019. This is useful for those interested in creative portfolio evolution and web development, offering inspiration and context for iterative improvements.
The thread features users sharing their experiences and impressions of a 3D portfolio website that uses a game-like AWSD (likely WASD) interface to navigate a jeep. Comments highlight the site's polished design, interactive elements like easter eggs and a global portal counter, and responsiveness on various devices including iOS browsers. The overall tone is positive, appreciating the execution while tempering expectations regarding the site's novelty. Key actionable insight: Users should allocate some load time for the site and consider device performance when experiencing it.
The initial question raised concerns about productivity drops during COVID and whether companies responded with salary cuts. A follow-up response argued that productivity actually increased after the initial adjustment period. This indicates that fears of productivity loss may have been overstated and that companies largely did not enact salary reductions due to COVID-related performance issues. The insight suggests a need to differentiate between perceived and actual productivity impacts when considering compensation policies in crisis situations.
The discussion reveals personal concerns about working with CTOs perceived as difficult and the challenges of AI integration. One participant shares a cautionary viewpoint, prompting another to focus on enhancing AI tool usage in future roles, highlighting a need to adapt to evolving developer environments.
The conversation centers on the preference to view coding portfolios hosted on well-known platforms like GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket versus random domains. The main actionable insight is that candidates seeking employment should consider hosting their portfolios on recognized repository platforms to increase the likelihood of recruiters visiting their profiles, as these platforms are trusted and provide immediate verification of coding skills.
The thread captures a user reflecting on leaving a tech job to pursue entrepreneurship, experiencing loss of routine and purpose, and struggles with overthinking. This highlights the emotional and psychological challenges of career transitions outside of financial trading, emphasizing the need for support systems or strategies to regain self-discipline and meaningful daily structure during such shifts.
The original post shares a frustrating interview experience where nuanced understanding of OOP and microservices was disregarded in favor of simple yes/no answers. The response provides empathy and suggests recognizing that some innovation is incremental and that interviewers may not always grasp complex abstractions. The insight for readers is to prepare for standardized questioning in interviews and understand that simplified evaluations sometimes limit deeper discussions.
The original poster shares an experience comparing AI-curated ETF portfolios against traditional auto-investment and advisory-managed accounts, noting slightly better returns with AI assistance but marginal differences overall. The responder highlights the importance of expense ratios and long-term returns from low-cost index funds like Vanguard and Fidelity, cautioning that slight outperformance may be offset by higher costs and taxes. An actionable insight is that integrating AI research can provide incremental advantages, but evaluating cost structures and tax implications remains critical for portfolio success.
The thread revolves around a user's experience declining an interview based on initial impressions of a company's premise, with a follow-up comment suggesting that a single failed initiative shouldn't be the sole reason to judge a company negatively. The insight is to consider broader factors when evaluating potential employers rather than isolating one aspect.
The thread discusses the challenges of junior developer hiring and salary expectations. The original poster expresses a preference for experienced hires over juniors due to the perceived inefficiency and risks juniors bring. They note that junior roles often do not differ substantially from senior roles and juniors require extensive handholding, leading to a preference for companies offering simpler tasks suitable for juniors to learn. A respondent agrees but highlights the difficulty of lowering starting salaries since hiring is ultimately a math-driven economic decision. Actionable insight: companies seeking to integrate junior developers might focus on structuring roles around simpler, manageable tasks to foster experience, while addressing salary expectations practically.
The discussion revolves around the ethics and timing of reporting stock purchases. One user suggests outperforming a portfolio by copying it, while another highlights a regulatory challenge: the delay in reporting purchases. This suggests that requiring pre-purchase disclosures could improve transparency and fairness in investment strategies.
The original poster shares an experiential insight on employing a large language model (LLM) to construct 30-day buy-and-hold stock portfolios, achieving slightly better returns than the S&P 500. They emphasize the importance of precise prompts and model settings, highlighting strategies such as selecting undervalued stocks and diversifying macro vulnerabilities. A commenter adds a complementary strategy focusing on technical chart patterns and insider buying. Together, these insights suggest that combining AI-driven fundamental analysis with traditional signals may enhance portfolio performance. Practitioners could experiment with prompt engineering and integrating multiple signal types to optimize their investment approaches.
The thread discusses the value of traditional networking over relying on AI-driven job applications, emphasizing human relationships. A new graduate questions how to effectively network and expresses skepticism about networking advice for newcomers, highlighting challenges in initiating productive networking as a junior in the industry.