HN user
I'm a 50+ year-old senior developer who finished a job search last year. Yes, it took longer, but would've taken days if only I was willing to take a small pay cut. We are expensive for the senior level; and while I think myself and many others my age are absolutely worth it for the wealth of experience we provide, I can understand why some employers back off if you're not a perfect fit.
I find it pretty common for people to tell me I'm not on the spectrum when I reveal it, as if in 5 minutes they have a better handle on me than I do. It's helped me understand just how annoying "mansplaining" can be (even when it's done by a woman.)
The eleventh rule should be: understand exactly why all of these rules exist, so you can know when it's possible (or necessary) to break them.
I had a 3-month job search over the last summer, encompassing about 150 contacts which I filtered into roughly 25 actual interviews. It takes an enormous amount of time to deal with all the various interview techniques out there. Such as:
* Four or five-hour interviews. * Interview prep suggested by recruiters for tech interviews. * All-day work sessions pairing with employees. * "Homework" that can take anywhere from 5 hours to days. * Multiple online sessions, each to solve a tech riddle.
I can't imagine how I could've done this when holding a job at the same time. I'd have to be incredibly picky about who I chose to interview with - which means, I wouldn't have interviewed with my current company because they didn't interest me during the screening, only until after the interview when I got to talk with actual developers.