HN user
I'm pretty much set on wanting to apply a "set and forget" strategy to my career. Being collaborative with others at the job really isn't an issue for me, but I'm not into the whole thing about juggling professional acquaintances. I prefer my career to be low-maintenance.
They're temp contract jobs. They "lose" themselves once the time is over.
Practicing while job searching has become a distraction for me, from planning out my career and my life and taking other actions that would bring actual results. Continuing to practice interviewing when I make no discernible progress would be a waste of time I would think.
The more time I spend applying to jobs and practicing, the more I see it as a red herring- a mindless diversion. After 2 years straight of doing that stuff, I'm clearly not cut out for most interviews. I have to seek alternatives to financial stability.
It's better to use my time and energy finding a solution that does work for me. It's fine, interviewing isn't for everyone. Tenacity may be a good trait to have but it doesn't pay the bills :)
Located in Chicago. On occasion I apply to companies in other cities, but I have a preference to live in the Chicago area unless I can find an offer in another major city.
Your ability to solve leetcode problems fundamentally determines your job prospects
For those companies that make you do leetcode problems.
For better or for worse, 95% of the places I apply to don't make you solve problems about algorithms or data structures. It's mostly about concrete knowledge in specific languages or frameworks.
I already have poor leverage anyways, because over half of my jobs I lose/finish before I could get another offer ready.
I never talk about what I wrote here to an interviewer. I do the opposite- I convince myself that I don't even need the job when I walk into the interview. I tell them what I've brought to the past companies I worked for.
I'm located in the Midwest, Chicago area. I find the job search grind a distraction because I can't extract any quantifiable progress in my ability to get offers. I've changed my resume multiple times, and got feedback from peers from a few mock interviews.
Big takeaway from the mocks is that I come off as too junior or entry-level. Applying to junior jobs with my 10 years experience will lead to sticker shock for the employer so this is a tricky spot that I'm in. Even if that wasn't a problem, they would think I'm slow as a turtle to work and learn.
A very overlooked topic is how brutal the software industry can be for a person who has that prolonged junior phase. I fell into a 'perpetual temp worker' career by accident, and a contractor cannot expand their role in a company, esp. if they only work for 6-12 months at a time.