How are you coping?
Comments
Lost my job in early 2023. Couldn't find anything (25 years of exp, director of engineering managerial/technical type, great at what i do by past coworkers/bosses admission). By EOY I had to sell my house, figured I could use the (significant) profits to buy time or I could travel and make the time a little more enjoyable, so I set out to explore most of Europe thinking, well I'll for sure find a job before I run out of money! Another year went by, hundreds of applications, no job. Back home now, living in rather inadequate accommodations thinking "any day now!" Applied to ~400 jobs in the last 1.5 months (because at this point I'm applying to everything that moves), 3 interviews, 3 ghostings. Everyone's rejecting for real shitty reasons, I could go on for a bit about that.
1) as the child of a parent who was a smart, hard working accountant/financial analyst who was out of work for 2 long stretches in my youth, I have learned when you lose your job, you do not fuck around — you attack it with the same urgency as if the house was on fire as in immediately; 2) after 25 years, you’ve got to have some network — swallow your pride and use them.
I have been there, and I saw my father — there is nothing good about it. You have my sympathy and I wish you the best.
Applying to 400 jobs is apparently not enough sense of urgency, got it. It's surely American laziness that's the problem and not the infinite slave labor they're competing with.
400 applications in two years is less than one application a day. The last time I was unemployed I was applying to five to ten companies a day all with targeted cover letters. I kept track of every application and followed up. I made it an eight hour a day job to find a job.
By belthesar 2025-09-2622:35 Heads up - OP said they entered 400 apps over the past 1.5 months, not since they’ve been unemployed.
By fayyazkl 2025-09-2619:40 You are missing the point that a director level resource, could only apply to a relatively smaller number of roles. Entry level IC might not be worth applying. So despite what they say, the limitation factor might also be number of posted jobs.
I know they said they applied to anything - but still anything for that profile might be a bit more broad - entry level IC to FANG may be which pays better or a role that is open to leveling or start up or any other combos.
By queenkjuul 2025-09-2220:03 Question is really, was it easier to find a job in 2023 or now?
After that much if you're as skilled add you think you should be finding an interview coach and someone to edit your CV.
Have you asked past bosses, co-workers for referrals?
I've done a few rounds of CV edits and reviews early on, it hasn't helped. It's worth noting that the initial CV I had was one where I never had trouble finding work with.
Edit: misunderstood "referrals" for "references" so edited my reply out. No, I've never asked for referrals from past colleagues.
Not having LinkedIn is ruining your chances. Candidates without a LinkedIn are going to come across as a scam in the very least, 90% of the time your application will just get tossed if you can't be found on LI.
Pretty much this. I know lot of people hate Linkedin but the fact is that if you are a job candidate and have little to no Linkedin, it's a huge potential red flag in today's world. Lot of scammers, overemployeds/moonlighters out there.
By throwaway1492 2025-09-200:58 When I was moonlighting LinkedIn didn’t affect me. Every time I applied/interviewed and got hired for a w2 job, I just left my last non moonlighting employer on there, and checked the “please don’t contact current employer” checkbox. I hadn’t worked there in over a year.
Didn’t my new employer want me to update my LinkedIn? That never came up, but if it would have I would have delayed. Why should I support their business model.
That's some real stupid thinking.
At its most basic, this is a cult of qualification which no longer provides real value, it fails for a number of reasons I won't get into here.
When you disqualify arbitrarily, and can't find anyone because of that, its your fault for disqualifying everyone, not the market's fault for not having the ballerina that doesn't exist.
Want a programmer in a language thats only 10 years old with 15 years of direct experience? You aren't going to find it even when the creator of that language applies.
You pay to have the work done. That is the only legitimate requirement for hiring someone and remaining employed, and you can't go and change the requirements later when they show they can do more. Doesn't matter if they moonlight, are overemployed etc. That view to disqualify such people are in fact monopolistic practices designed to disenfranchise wages that are already low and distorted because of money-printing, they are not red-flags.
Its like the flawed type of thinking that "We need someone to do this work, but this guy is so overqualified he'll leave first chance; so we won't hire anyone".
You hire to have a job done. You don't get to be an arbitrary slave master. The moment you lose sight of this is the moment you ignore your immediate needs, and drive your company on a path towards failure, and if its a consolidated large company, that failure and bad decisionmaking will impact a lot more people because of the centralization/concentration.
Financial engineering can decouple the need for immediate action, but the tradeoff is that the risk of not doing things you should have done becomes far greater to your long-term sustainability, and its completely invisible. There is no place for deception and coercion in the hiring process. If the job doesn't exist, don't jam communication channels. Jamming channels is tortuous interference.
The point is that when you have 100 Resumes to sort through for 1 role, you will have to use process of elimination. In 2025, with AI/scams/bots/moonlighters, Linkedin Profile is a good way to sort through. I am not saying having Linkedin is the only thing that matters but when there is so much noise, you need to stand out especially as a real human.
By trod1234 2025-09-2017:26 Sure, there is naturally a sieving process in any hiring, and the issue of AI/scams/bots is simple to solve because it was solved before AI was around before people got lazy. Fraud and misrepresentation isn't a new thing or even "being unsolve-able except in just one way, your chosen route".
The answer is simple...
Require that they come in and show up physically to the office to verify their CV/application/Driver's License, and at that time since there will be cost on the business side, also cross-check if they fit other open positions you have, or if they are interested in hearing about other positions (the answer will almost certainly be yes). Rapidly promoting from within naturally bubbles the competent to positions without a lot of external risk like what you've described.
This is how you build a resilient pipeline of talent, and vet the soft skills people who would be good at the job that you'll never find through an interview except by moonshot chance. When you structure it from the get-go to exclude excessively and use bad indicators, you have bad data in and get bad outcomes out.
> LinkedIn Profile is a good way to sort through.
Its not, there are plenty of fake LinkedIn Profiles. You can't stand out as a real human when you have pigeonholed everyone into a circular peg and set the sieve requirements to a square peg. Forcing people to all go through a online centralized portal, even when they show up in person, is what promotes these perverse incentives. Not rocket science.
As a business you can do a lot to solve problems, and there's no way you can stand out as a human among the noise of digital artifacts where bots mimic real humans in the same digital environment. Go physical.
I've friends who are executives that do hiring, their main complaints were we've tried to hire people for X positions, and our top 10 candidates were all fake, we spent months on this with numerous interviews (cost) and have to start all over from scratch.
I pointed out the answer is rather stupid simple. Go old school verify the inputs are real at the beginning of the process, not at the end after you sunk all those costs. That's what they've been doing since then and it works.
Finding the right talent is a cost you have to pay that you can't push off on other businesses through use of products or services where that business may lie/misrepresent because each business is different, and if you depend upon that one pipeline for talent they can and will eventually cause issues where you can't find talent.
The attitude you seem to have mirrors the same things I see in people who simply don't want to pay the cost to get competent people, and by extension don't want to actually be in business.
Also, conditions worsen when you spoil an entire labor pool over decades through bad management in consolidated hands, it gets harder and costlier to find qualified labor. Its the nature of ponzi; costs go up unti outflows exceed inflows.
If you don't get ahead of the labor crunch, it will crush you, and most competent people given the adverse circumstances in hiring are now retraining resulting in brain-drain, a hollowing out and watering down of the competency in the labor pool. What happens when you can't find qualified people at any cost because your practices drove them to other sectors. They won't come back because they wrote it off as a bad investment. Its psychologically sticky.
People always have a choice, even when others try to make it so they don't.
By matwood 2025-09-1922:38 Especially if someone has 25 years of experience as the OP said.
By DwnVoteHoneyPot 2025-09-1922:442 reply In addition to possibly being a scammer, some people found my resume to be less believable without a linkedin profile. One interviewer thought I was lying about my previous job title.
Why would it matter what your previous job title was? Why would I care if your previous job title was ‘Grand Vizier of Khyrgistan’? Can you do the job I want you to do now?
If your previous job title was "Doer of a Thing" then a prospective employer is more likely to consider you for a job doing the same (or similar) thing, as it shows you have prior experience doing a thing.
No, it shows that you previously had a job title that calls you a doer of things. I find that these don’t generally correlate with ability to actually do those things.
By queenkjuul 2025-09-2220:08 You hire a lot of programmers that have never held a programming position before?
By hombre_fatal 2025-09-206:51 It’s because LinkedIn creates a social cost for lying, and it also creates social proof because coworkers can agree that you worked there.
As opposed to claiming whatever the hell you want in resume.pdf.
What? I just put “computer programmer” for every position listed on LinkedIn - why would that be any more valid?
By JonChesterfield 2025-09-2621:05 One place really didn't like that mine says "software engineer" instead of the proper string of letters. Makes me look incompetent apparently.
By soulofmischief 2025-09-2015:22 noobs on HN have been claiming this since the site was created. It's so tiresome that it's actually against site guidelines to make this kind of comment. If you want HN to be a nicer place than reddit, try to follow the guidelines.
By SuiGenerous 2025-09-2013:12 [flagged]
By randycupertino 2025-09-206:21 Agree with this, unfortunately. I have a coworker who routinely calls people without linkedins "sketchy" and obsessively looks everyone else, vendors, functional area colleagues, etc up on linkedin. I didn't have a very fleshed out linkedin myself because I value privacy and was surprised how biased some people are about it. I've also seen candidates who have otherwise passed interview panels get veto'd because the dates on their linkedins don't match their CVs.
By ComputerGuru 2025-09-1922:387 reply I don’t have a LinkedIn and it has impaired my job hunts in the past but I always worry that creating one now (without the references of colleagues from decades of past work) would look worse than not having one?
By aunty_helen 2025-09-1922:57 Nah that’s not a thing. Get involved spend an afternoon setting it up and then it will suggest a bunch of people you’ve probably worked with in the past. They’ll be happy to connect and then it’s a good point to catch up and drop the “I’m in the market”.
If anybody used to enjoy working with you and they know of something it, should be easy enough from then on.
By dotmanish 2025-09-1922:57 Majority of my LinkedIn contacts don't have any endorsements on their LI profile.
It used to be a thing of the past - people don't seem to bother now. Go ahead and create the profile. Search and connect with your colleagues.
By craftkiller 2025-09-1923:162 reply Do people still do endorsements on LinkedIn? There was an initial flurry when that "feature" launched but I haven't been endorsed for anything for I think the past decade. Really the only things I do on LinkedIn are update my job history and accept connections from coworkers.
Imho, anything past where you've worked on LinkedIn is a waste of time.
And arguably even a negative signal. Productive people have jobs to do instead of grinding Monopoly karma. Yes, this absolutely includes LinkedIn thought leadership.
I know MS and recruiters love to push the 'it matters' line, but I'd ask the reader -- who would you rather hire: someone who wow'd in an interview or someone with LinkedIn flair?
> who would you rather hire: someone who wow'd in an interview or someone with LinkedIn flair?
Who would you rather interview: someone who has a great resume, and a strong LinkedIn profile, and connections to a strong peer community who can endorse them, or a faceless rando that shows up in your inbox with a PDF, amongst thousands of others, with zero referrals?
I'm not endorsing LI grind -- I too hate it, but ignore at your own peril. OP seems to be in a rather precarious situation, so maybe it would help being a bit less dogmatic.
LinkedIn referrals mean jack shit.
As I said:
> anything past where you've worked on LinkedIn is a waste of time
Because everything on LinkedIn literally exists to be farmed. And why wouldn't it? LinkedIn's customers are recruiters. Users are the currency.
OP would be better served by actually networking with their peers. Not in app-mediated (and -monetized) ways, but in normal social human ways.
Sometimes it's like people forgot how to say "Hey, want to grab a coffee and catch up? What's been going on with you?"
By guiambros 2025-09-2016:19 > LinkedIn's customers are recruiters.
Exactly this. And recruiters are the ones finding candidates and scheduling interviews.
You may not like it. I certainly don't. But that's the world we live in.
> "Hey, want to grab a coffee and catch up?"
This and the comment above are not at odds. If you're looking for a job like OP, at minimum you should do both.
> who would you rather hire: someone who wow'd in an interview or someone with LinkedIn flair?
Wrong question. This is not about the hiring stage.
Who would I rather move on to a phone screen: someone with an empty or nonexistent linkedin profile, or someone with a profile which matches their resume and has many connections to other people who worked at the same companies?
While I hate to have to say it is the latter, that's where we are today with AI-generated fake resumes.
I have 344 resumes left to review tonight. Those that don't match their linkedin profile history have no chance (unless they are a direct colleague referral).
Hence
> anything past where you've worked on LinkedIn is a waste of time
By queenkjuul 2025-09-2220:12 They just told you they also look for coworker connections though
By ethbr1 2025-09-222:17 If English isn't your native language, then an expansion/simplification would be:
Putting your work history in LinkedIn is the maximum amount of effort you should make. Any additional effort, beyond that, is a waste of your time.
By MarkMarine 2025-09-201:01 <3 I thought I was alone in this
By anonzzzies 2025-09-206:16 Yeah, I have like 50 endorsements from when it launched and 0 since. It looks fake to me (like I paid them) but that was how it was.
By acomjean 2025-09-1923:24 Like the saying goes, the best time was years ago, the next best time is now.
I hardly use LinkedIn, but it does show work history. As someone else said there was a flurry of “endorsements” but I haven’t seen many since.
As I take a break on friday night from reading through an endless pile of resumes for a role I'm hiring...
I would suggest creating the linkedin profile but be sure to fully populate the job descriptions for each job (or as far back as you care to go) and spend some time looking up past colleagues from each one and send them invites to connect.
I'm finding that a completely blank linkedin profile (listing only companies but zero detail) is a bigger red flag than not having a linkedin profile.
But having a profile with job description info and a network of connections from each job adds credibility. When a resume looks borderline suspicious, I dig through the persons connections in linkedin to see if it looks like they really worked at each of those places. Even better if I find any shared connections, which is a stronger signal that I'm looking at a real person not an AI bot.
Also, building that network of connections can be a source of job leads on its own.
By hombre_fatal 2025-09-206:57 Man, for 15 years I’ve been working on projects that are not LinkedIn friendly. For example, online casinos where my coworkers all have pseudonyms. Or taking 1-2 years to work on a personal project that fizzles out. Not to menion, surfing for 2 years.
I'm in a terrible position for when I need to find a normal job, and comments like this don't let me forget it!
By wcarss 2025-09-1922:59 not a recruiter: I have never felt that recruiters pay attention to linkedin references specifically.
You can also make one, add people, and then ask for a few references. "I just finally made a linkedin in 2025 on a lark" is a perfectly cromulent icebreaker/reason to ask.
By codegeek 2025-09-2016:25 It is better to have 1 than not. I highly recommend you set it up now. Put a real picture. Too much noise these days and without a Linkedin Profile, lot of employers are not even going to look at you. Just stating facts.
Seconding. These days I will rarely talk to anyone without a verified LinkedIn or other presence like a clearly inhabited GitHub (and I’m not looking for hyperactivity by any means)
> anyone without a verified LinkedIn
Last I checked, verification requires people to install the app. No thanks.
By SpaceNoodled 2025-09-204:01 Just uninstall it afterwards.
By danparsonson 2025-09-201:462 reply But why? Those things are easy to game, and speaking personally, I don't have an online software development presence like Github because I don't spend my off time working on anything I feel is worth sharing.
By dilyevsky 2025-09-205:05 If i’m hiring for eng director in my industry I'm expecting at least a few 2nd/3rd common connections so i can backchannel. Without that i assume its someone who hasnt gotten along with anyone at beast or a scammer at worst
Numbers. I’ve read thousands of resumes over the past few months, screened dozens of applicants, and experienced a wide variety of weirdness and fakes both in resumes and on screen calls. Please note that I’m talking about raw “application box resumes”. Referrals and other semi-vetted sources don’t get this level of scrutiny.
I gave two examples of secondary sources, but what I’m really getting at here is that the numbers and noise are so, so high now (not to mention staffing firm fronts and foreign actors) that I usually need more signal than a solid-looking resume before investing even 30’ in a screening call.
By danparsonson 2025-09-204:29 Ah, yes I see what you mean - a low pass filter.
By drivingmenuts 2025-09-1922:431 reply Well, that sucks. The one thing I hate about Linked in is being up-rated on my skills by people who barely know what I do and certainly have never worked with me in any capacity or even discussed my work in any sense beyond "What do you do for a living?".
From where I sit, it's a tool for marketers and recruiters to gather data and it's otherwise completely useless.
By scarface_74 2025-09-1923:272 reply One of my pet peeves are people who don’t understand what I call “gravity problems”. You may not like gravity. But that doesn’t mean you jump off of a 30 story building and hope to survive.
Whether I like LinkedIn or not is completely irrelevant. I play the game, add connections, post a few banal “Thought Leadership” posts, ask for recommendations, etc.
My remote job at BigTech fell into my lap in mid 2020 and at 46 because an internal recruiter reached out to me, I got my next job two years ago within a week after I started looking because of targeted LinkedIn outreach. My current job also fell into my lap two weeks after I started looking because an internal recruiter reached out to me.
It does absolutely no good being good at your job if no one knows it.
I think even in the current job market, someone would give me a job or a contract relatively quickly if I needed one based on my network, LinkedIn profile, and positive impressions I’ve made in my niche over the past 7 years.
None of your positive impressions are by virtue of linkedin though. Unless your profession is influencer I suppose.
By scarface_74 2025-09-201:442 reply How else would someone know about me and how would I connect with them? I can change my status to “Open to Work” and have 1200 people see it My specific niche is strategy consulting along with hands on keyboard work for smaller projects and before that, I was hired at 3 separate companies by a new to the company director/CTO to lead initiatives. At that level it’s all about knowing how to “influence” and communicate.
I’m not bragging, I’m old. I should have that type of experience and network.
> experience and network
How does LinkedIn factor into your experience and network is what I mean. You can’t tell me people cold call you through linkedin. If people contact you it might be through linkedin, but that’s only because their friends have been talking about you. LinkedIn isn’t what gives you work, it’s the fact that you’ve done good work for others.
By queenkjuul 2025-09-2220:15 Recruiters will absolutely cold call from LinkedIn, it literally happened to me this morning.
> My specific niche is strategy consulting
I think that's the key difference. For strategy folks, it makes sense to demonstrate this kind of work through that kind of channel. But LinkedIn posts aren't relevant for non-networking roles.
By scarface_74 2025-09-202:48 The parent poster has “25 years of exp, director of engineering managerial/technical type”. He should be selling himself as a strategy person. In today’s market you have to be networking regardless especially for remote work. Even before I started doing the BS influencer mess, two of my last three jobs were based on internal recruiters reaching out to me.
By sethherr 2025-09-203:29 All roles are networking roles
"It does absolutely no good being good at your job if no one knows it."
Yeah and LI is a terrible way to show it.
There is a better way, and will be a better way. With time.
For now I agree - have to play the game.
By scarface_74 2025-09-201:391 reply So exactly how was a company in Seattle going to find out about me in Atlanta if not through LinkedIn to offer me a remote job paying 50% more than i was making? How were the next two companies where I worked remotely going to know anything about me?
What “better way” is there?
By rhetocj23 2025-09-201:41 ha, I cant say. Im working on something related to this.
By selectodude 2025-09-1922:263 reply Hiring managers check you on LinkedIn 100 percent of the time. Not having a LinkedIn is a huge issue.
In 2025 it basically means you're likely a bot/scammer. LinkedIn provides the social proof that at least you're a real person, with real business connections. It's sadly not optional.
I agree that it's not optional; in my book, a company mandating association with the degenerate cesspool that is LinkedIn as entry criteria for employment consideration is simply a non-starter, full stop.
If I disclose an email address that's directly traceable to my current employer---or even one provided to me by professional organizations I'm registered with---as adequate "social proof" (whatever that means) that I'm not "likely a bot/scammer", and a company's hiring manager is too blind to see the signal, then I'd write that off as a hidden trap passively dodged with confident relief.
By groby_b 2025-09-200:32 Good for you, you'll be a principled unemployed.
Absolutely stupid advice for people who actually look for a job. You're participating in a social game, with well-defined signalling functions. If you'd like to actually have a positive outcome, you'll need to make use of the signalling functions commonly recognized, even if you don't like them.
(Plus, opting out of a commonly accepted path with the reason that you personally think other signals are as good and the other side is just too blind to see them sends a large amount of information about your ability to collaborate in larger teams)
You do you. There are jobs where you can get away with this, there are people with networks that allow them to play different games. But as advice to job seekers, it's actively detrimental.
By jonny_eh 2025-09-2021:17 Probably github, if you're a developer.
By WarOnPrivacy 2025-09-200:321 reply > Hiring managers check you on LinkedIn 100 percent of the time.
YMMV. White collar work here follows connections and introductions - nearly exclusively. A few of my clients might have poked around Linkedin in passing but most have never used it.
As an aside, I deleted my LI because I've never had a legit contact thru it, only spam.
source: 35yrs in IT
When I was a hiring manager (it's been a number of years) I always checked LI for applicants which looked interesting on "paper" but which had not come through a trusted source such as coworker from the past or present that I had respect for (both their technical skills and their willingness to be objective about others even if their observations were negative).
My primary reason for this was that unfortunately some resumes seem to include quite of bit of creative writing -- creativity which the applicant could bet only I, and my company, would see. If, however, the applicant had posted similar claims about past jobs on LI, it was public for all to see so somewhat likely to be less "creative" as most people find it embarrassing to get _caught_ claiming credit for work that someone else did or giving an overblown explanation of the import of their work. This is, of course, not 100% reliable as I've seen coworkers and past employees posting on LI claiming things they were "responsible for" or "implemented" when, in fact, they only had a tiny role (or, occasionally, even no discernible role) in.
Also, if I happened to notice a "connection" that I also knew, I could potentially ask them about the applicant (using due care to make sure that the applicant wouldn't be "outed" at their current job by my doing so).
By WarOnPrivacy 2025-09-2118:07 > I always checked LI for applicants which looked interesting on "paper" but which had not come through a trusted source
This is a good observation.. rumination.. contribution? I can't find the right descriptive noun. Anyway, I get it. Perhaps the board is divided between regions inclined to use LI and not.
I have to disagree. I looked for a long time before I found my last gig (that ended in 2022). I had a LinkedIn and it wasn't much different, it took me months to find something. I still have a linkedin account to look for jobs, but that's it. No connections, no work history. What's relevant is on my resume anyway so I don't see what having a regular linkedin account would do. I deleted it when I found that job because, even as a job seeker, I saw no value in it and as a user, I saw no excuse to defend it.
You've applied to 400 jobs and had 3 responses and no success to be blunt your option about what you need to do to get hired is worth zero.
You refuse to change anything about your process, you aren't working to improve it, you are arguing against people telling them you don't need to do common/standard things.
This thread is a pretty good insight into why you are failing and what you need to work on.
Like I said, i had a legit linkedin account before i closed it and it never felt like it did anything for me. I have changed plenty about my process, from cv iterations and reviews, ai assistance to cater to job posts in cv and cover letters, etc. Of course i think all the information is great, but i also have first hand knowledge and experience. If you think all that's missing is a furnished LinkedIn account then i can tell you that it isn't accurate - in my experience.
By FreakLegion 2025-09-207:341 reply > If you think all that's missing
They said it's necessary, not sufficient.
I have a couple dozen open roles right now, at a 50-person company. Each posting gets thousands of applications. Most are fakes, or AI-generated, or AI-generated fakes. Realistically, we're going to respond to 1%, maybe 2% of them, because again, 50-person team. Half the time, you get someone named Ralph McGuinness on for a quick code screen and they have a thick Mandarin accent or something equivalently implausible.
The best first filter we have at the moment is to programmatically toss out any resume that doesn't have a LinkedIn, that has a hallucinated LinkedIn that doesn't resolve, that resolves to a name that doesn't match the resume, that has no connections or history, etc.
It's an absurd state of play that hurts those of us trying to hire and those of you trying to get hired, but also a trivial hurdle for you to clear, so stop arguing and just do it.
Of those 400 applications, my LinkedIn profile was viewed 16 times. LinkedIn is not as essential as everyone is trying to portray it. Especially outside of the US where people actually care about data privacy.
By FreakLegion 2025-09-2011:441 reply LinkedIn only shows you authenticated viewers. You have no idea how many automated systems have filtered you out because you didn't include a link in your resume/application or because, as you said, the account has no connections or activity.
By pluc 2025-09-2012:13 Do you know of any such automated systems or are you just making that up? I've never heard of application systems or ATS that looks for a linkedin URL in PDFs, extracts it along with employment information and validates it against what's in the resume, or a form that validates that a given entry leads to a valid LinkedIn profile, and that the profile corresponds to the one that was submitted. Recruiters; yes, and those will show up - and they haven't.
By queenkjuul 2025-09-2220:24 Every job I've applied for in the last two weeks has asked for a LinkedIn link on the application. I have more interviews this month than you've had in three years.
Just saying.
I hate LinkedIn too but i very much consider it an important part of the "finding a job post pandemic" game.
LLM-driven application sites were not a thing in 2022 (used by both real humans and scammers).
By milkshakes 2025-09-202:04 also fake workers were much less of a thing as well
By milkshakes 2025-09-202:05 to put it bluntly, the game has changed. what you knew from before is not correct now. if you keep applying your previous intuition and experience to a job search in todays market, you are going to be in for a hard time.
By mvdtnz 2025-09-1923:51 I don't think you're in a position to arbitrarily disagree with advice.
By selectodude 2025-09-1922:46 Well, keep on keeping on then. Sounds like you got this.
You are delusional if you think having a good LinkedIn doesn't improve your chances of getting hired... Maybe not for every job, but for many of them, surely.
I guess my experience hasn't shown value. I think people think of LinkedIn like Facebook - it only works if everyone agrees to stay hostage. I don't like the platform, I don't like that Microsoft is being all Microsofty about your data (have you looked at the new settings lately? That they added without telling anyone? Settings → Data Privacy → Data for Generative AI Improvement) and being a data-aware netizen, fuck linkedin.
Hiring manager here. It's standard practice for every hiring manager I know to review the candidate's LinkedIn as an additional input to the hiring process.
Not finding a LinkedIn page for someone can range from a neutral signal to a negative signal depending on the hiring manager. I personally don't read anything into it, but I know many hiring managers who feel that lack of a LinkedIn page is a negative sign. I don't like it, but it's how the world works some times.
A seasoned LinkedIn page is also becoming very valuable for applying to remote jobs. Remote employers are getting nervous with all of the overemployed people and fake applicants. Having a mature LinkedIn page with a decent number of connections to real people is a major positive sign for remote hiring.
It's not something you will be able to see or detect as a candidate.
I’m a manager in a cybersecurity consulting firm. I’ve hired half a dozen people for my team in the past year. I always check LinkedIn as well.
If someone isn’t on it, the chances are significantly higher they are fake or trying be be “overemployed.”
Does not having LinkedIn mean you’re not qualified or not real? Certainly not. Does it mean I will pass your resume over when sorting through a stack of qualified applicants? Absolutely.
By egberts1 2025-09-209:52 Overemployed? Wow.
By scarface_74 2025-09-1923:291 reply 100% of people I know without a LinkedIn profile are overemployed.
By sanswork 2025-09-1923:45 Those people probably have very strong personal networks and a willingness to reach out to them for opportunities or a very high profile in their niche.
OP appears to have neither.
By WarOnPrivacy 2025-09-200:50 > You are delusional if you think having a good LinkedIn doesn't improve your chances of getting hired... Maybe not for every job, but for many of them, surely.
This isn't universal in every market. Business is very insular here and work follows referrals and introductions. You have those and you have work. Without them, Linkedin won't help.
I'm 35yr in IT; I plug into my clients in a way that I learn their processes - inc hiring. Few white collar employers here use Linkedin. I've never worked with one who did.
By james_marks 2025-09-1923:481 reply No connections and no work history, I would blacklist as spam.
How do you ensure linkedin history isn’t falsified?
I’ve seen all sort of false claims, but ultimately small programming task is best to sift out people.
By james_marks 2025-09-2013:23 You check references and watch for clues that it doesn’t add up.
Imperfect, but effective enough that this is how the world has solved for this forever.
Seriously. I could write 20 years of fake FAANG experience, connect with every rando posting AI slop since they just farm connections, and that would be better according to what i'm reading here.
By james_marks 2025-09-2013:55 No, because that would be a lie and seen through.
You made a big jump from “post your work history” to “commit fraud”, so you can justify ignoring consensus.
By taurath 2025-09-1922:27 Referrals are the only way right now. The front door is broken everywhere. I spent 4 years off and I managed to come back, but only referrals were worthwhile in getting me roles worth anything
By BryantD 2025-09-1922:56 One small note -- what got you an interview before 2020 will often not get you an interview now. The market (as you obviously know) is much tougher. The last two managerial roles I've opened have gotten literally thousands of applications within the first week and it's harder to stand out. If you've done a few rounds already, there's probably not much incremental value, though.
Absolutely ask for referrals. You gotta painfully get on LinkedIn for maximum effectiveness -- if you're looking at a company and an ex-coworker you got along with knows someone there, ask for the introduction. It feels awkward and weird but it increases your chances somewhat.
By e40 2025-09-2012:47 A friend was laid off and when I looked at his CV I was shocked. It was terrible. I made suggestions but he didn’t seem to get it.
I strongly recommend you show your CV to someone and get feedback.
By bix6 2025-09-1922:57 Every job I’ve had came from a referral
By scarface_74 2025-09-200:08 If you are trying to get a job based on your resume and blindly submitting it to an ATS, you are doing it wrong. Every open req gets hundreds of applications and it’s impossible to stand out from the crowd.
Sooo... Have you made that LinkedIn yet so fellow Canadians might see what you worked on in the past and can get in touch?
By pluc 2025-09-2011:29 Even if i did i would never post it publicly. And yes i understand that it means i won't be getting thousands of strangers looking at my personal experience, one of whom might want to hire me. I wouldn't post my resume either. I'm just not comfortable giving my data to a company i don't trust and to share it openly on the public web. And yes i'm ok with the consequences.
> Have you asked past bosses…
I am not the original commenter but I think something that younger people forget is that when you reach 2 decades or more into your career, your network starts to dry up for you. This is in addition to your skillsets and work cultural fit being suspect because of your experience and age (set in their ways, old thinking, etc…).
I have been in tech for nearly 40 years. Almost every one of my former bosses is either out of the industry, retired, or dead. My network is useless to me. If my current job ends…I won’t find another tech gig.
Surely your current boss or recent colleagues aren't out of the market though.
I've been developing for over 25 years and my early bosses are almost certainly retired but I still have connections from back then in colleagues that are still wording I could reach out to. Unless you stopped interacting 40 years ago you should still have current people regardless of time in the industry.
How much do you interact with colleagues from 2000 and how much do they really know about your current capabilities? Probably nothing or minimal…”he was a helluva cobol dev back in ‘00” doesn’t sound like a valuable reference if I am a hiring manager in 2025 looking for a Rust dev.
Current colleagues and bosses would have to cycle out themselves and land elsewhere before they will be a help as a network resource.
Also, for current colleagues—-consider the case if your whole team gets RIF’d. At that point they are no longer your colleague, nor really a good network resource until they land. What they are is a competitor and a competitor likely similarly skilled as you, competing for the same roles that you are.
Your best network resources don’t currently work with you, but are secure in a gig, and someone you have worked with or for in the last 3-5 years.
By sanswork 2025-09-254:46 Old connections can still be helpful even if they don't know your current skills as long as they can assess what kind of worker you are. I've personally recommended people I worked with 17 years ago because I can remember how valuable they were with no consideration given to current specific skills. I currently regularly speak with 3 people I worked with over 20 years ago and check in annually with another half dozen or so.
If you don't keep any connections with your previous colleagues then you are self limiting your career options. But the second best time to plant a tree...
Have you tried searching for a tech job? It’s not possible these days.
By sanswork 2025-09-231:24 Plenty of people are getting hired so it's still possible but as with always a referral is the best way which is why I suggested that.
By MangoCoffee 2025-09-1922:061 reply this year's job market is really bad. my manager landed a new job last year but he have spent 5 years causally looking for a job ever since my employer got bought out. i have been looking to jump ship but gave up.
It was already bad before AI fucked it nine feet deeper. Now it's probably change career type of situation, but after climbing the tech salary ladder for 25 years (not US level mind you), it's real daunting to go back at the bottom.
By bluSCALE4 2025-09-1922:29 This is sort of what I'm afraid of. I reflect on a lot of people I worked with in the past that are a little older than I am now and things were rough. They'd basically try and find side work and make a living off of it but nearly all of them returned to the workforce. Now, jobs are scarce so I'm really thinking that a career change might be in order. With self driving cars posed to take out a chunk of low skilled jobs and with the self imposed AI that will likely cost 25% of IT job shrinkage, the future looks really grim.
Crass's song from the 1981 Systematic Death last verse seems prophetic, "They'd almost paid the mortgage when the system dropped its bomb".
By teaearlgraycold 2025-09-1922:282 reply I’m curious about personal connections. I’ve got many fewer years of experience and have had great luck with finding jobs thanks to friends and former colleagues even in tough job markets.
That's something that I've really wondered about too, since I can't count the number of people I hooked up with jobs I asked myself why the pendulum wasn't swinging back. I relocated "to the countryside" a few years ago and lost my big city tech network, where I was very active and even central. Not being on social media means I have very few ways to reach back out these days.
You live in the country with zero LinkedIn connections. Do you even want a tech job?
No need to be snarky, dude is going through a rough time, can use some empathy
Everyone thinks they know better, that's just the nature of people on internet forums. That's why I stopped asking for CV reviews - as soon as people know I'm struggling they come up with pointless edits. His point boils down to "you have no network, physical or digital" which might sound accurate with the information he's got, but isn't in reality because there's obviously more context than what I've shared here. I didn't just sit around brainlessly applying to jobs for two years. I've tried shit.
By teaearlgraycold 2025-09-2018:18 I don’t think I could easily get a job right now by applying to open positions. I haven’t gotten a job that way since my first job post graduation, and back then it was pretty easy to get into tech.
By petralithic 2025-09-203:55 What have you tried? And why don't you make a LinkedIn now and add the people you know from before?
By monkeyelite 2025-09-203:461 reply How can you be a director and be applying for jobs like a 22 year old?
By SpaceNoodled 2025-09-203:581 reply And also had less than a year of savings ...
>> By EOY I had to sell my house, figured I could use the (significant) profits to buy time or I could travel and make the time a little more enjoyable, so I set out to explore most of Europe thinking, well I'll for sure find a job before I run out of money!
Very reckless finance management, so I wonder if this correlates with not finding a "managerial" job.
First, "set out to explore Europe" immediately says "expenses". Without an income, that's teenager-level mentality.
Secondly, unless the house was still on mortgage, definitely it's cheaper to live on your own property and only scrap money for bills and food than paying rent on top of those. Also, and I'm not generalizing here, but people in general have parents / relatives. If times were that tough, I would retreat to my parent's house and rent the city apartment, that definitely buys me time.
And last but not least ... there are blue-collar jobs out there as a last resort. A friend of mine who lost his QA job, couldn't find anything else so he apprenticed as an electrician and now has got a license and works as such. Says he makes about the same as previously. There's "stacking the shelves at Lidl" also, not paying much but at least you're making something. And if you're willing to put up with the hard physical work and risk of accidents, there's always decent-paying construction jobs.
I'd say 2-3 months of looking are acceptable. After 6 months, some "plan B" needs to kick in, including the very mentally difficult idea of letting go of the past. You may have been a managing director but for the moment, the only option could be Lidl employee.
There is actually meticulous financial planning required to stay afloat for 2+ years, and i do think it correlates with my professional abilities! Sure, it was reckless to leave but the alternative was to stay and fall into a depression from the routine, constant rejection and financial diet, so i picked what i had to.
I'm not entirely convinced wrt your meticulous financial planning.
I think I was earning less than you yet managed to save the vast majority over my 15 year career earnings. Then my partner died and I was left raising a toddler by myself. It wasn't easy, but at least I don't have financial problems, thanks to a little financial planning.
If you had a long term partner, you're already splitting everything in half, it's a lot easier to save then.
By tasuki 2025-09-2212:15 We were not splitting everything in half. I paid perhaps about 80% of our expenses.
But yes, for some years I was earning a couple times more than the average person, while spending slightly less than the average person...
By monkeyelite 2025-09-2016:18 > but the alternative was to stay and fall into a depression from the routine,
You just had to take the European tour for your health.
I'm always surprised when people with "25 years of exp, director of engineering managerial/technical type" don't have significant savings...
By sam_lowry_ 2025-09-2011:201 reply It's unknown unknowns.
Had he support his parents, paid for the high school of his niece and for grandma' foster home?
Hadn't his wife left him with kids, taking the home and his new home was far from being paid off?
It’s possible there are unknown circumstances, but this person sold their house and used to proceeds to travel while unemployed. They don’t seem like a great long term decision maker.
By sam_lowry_ 2025-09-2012:241 reply Also unknown unknowns there.
Are his parents owners? Is he going to inherit their house? Or other assets? Can he stay at his brother's place once he uses up all the money from the proceeds of house sale?
It's really hard to judge without asking lots of questions first.
By hippo22 2025-09-2016:24 In all of the cases you mentioned, selling a home to pay for travel when unemployed despite needing work are all poor long term decisions.
By BrawnyBadger53 2025-09-2013:27 After reading through this thread, do you not think you might be being overly selective? You said you're only really applying to European jobs but hiring people that need working visas is usually a pretty big detractor. No LinkedIn can work, but in the LLM era you need something to prove you're real and you also stated you haven't been asking previous coworkers for referrals. It's very normal here to ask coworkers for referrals so I assume it's a cultural difference? But they usually get you to the interview stage. Your resume is likely not baring you but if you are applying to large enough companies that have thousands of applications on each role, they are using LLMs to filter them down. You should be running your resume against an "Act as a hiring manager" style prompt to see if you're getting filtered that way.
Canada, but I'm a rare case that I'm open to relocate anywhere (except the US) and have been working remotely since before it was made popular by the pandemic. So I've been applying literally all over the world for two years (though it's been mostly Europe due to personal preference and desire to relocate there).
Why not the US? Anecdotally, I'm beginning to see the US market pick up again and a TN visa should see you employed pretty quickly.
Because I'm Canadian. There's three places I won't go, the US, Israel and Russia. Happy to work remotely for US, but won't set foot in the place.
By richardlblair 2025-09-1922:341 reply The fact you're being questioned about this is insane.
There used to be a 0% chance of being tossed on a plane and deported somewhere else in the world when visiting the US. That chance is now non-zero, which is an unacceptable level of risk for many.
That and everything else going on. There's a reason Canadians have stopped traveling down south...
Business travel from CAN to US has remained stable (see: https://globalnews.ca/video/11436758/business-travel-to-u-s-...). It's leisure that is declining.
Meanwhile, total spending in the US from int'l visitor tourism is up in the US (see: https://www.hotel-online.com/press_releases/release/internat...).
Honestly, I think macro factors -- namely, poor Canadian household finances due to increasing cost of living and declining real incomes in Canada coupled with a strengthening US dollar against the Loonie -- are what are killing tourism from CAN to US right now.
All of my personal network has stopped non-mandatory travel to the US. I wouldn’t be surprised people wouldn’t resist if their employer told them to go for business, but many Canadians are simply opting out of leisure travel to the United States.
There are plenty of other places to travel is the rationale. besides, if a strong greenback was the reason for decrease of leisure, wouldn’t it also be responsible for a decrease in business travel, too? Certainly businesses are also bound to macroeconomic shifts.
I don't know what to tell you but on the front of:
> There are plenty of other places to travel is the rationale. besides, if a strong greenback was the reason for decrease of leisure, wouldn’t it also be responsible for a decrease in business travel, too? Certainly businesses are also bound to macroeconomic shifts.
Canada has shockingly little choice when it comes to trade partners. They are literally physically attached to the US and trade is much simpler when working with the US, whether Canada likes it or not. CETA hasn't yet been ratified; Canada has bungled trade with China since harper; Mexico is at best a cheap labor destination that can replace India for Canada. The only real staying power Canada has is exporting raw materials, and even that effectively turns Canada into a resource extraction colony. That's not a happy ending, either.
Canadian businesses have fewer options than many would like to admit, so it makes sense they are keeping up their economic activity with the US.
By richardlblair 2025-09-1922:461 reply As a Canadian, living shoulder to shoulder with the very folks who used to frequently travel to the US (and being one myself).
I firmly disagree.
Ok; all I can say is what the statistics indicate. It seems like at least some Canadians accept assignments which result in business travel to the US. As with the OC, this may result in more desirable employees to Canadian employers who wish to continue to do business with the US, hence the original question.
By lazyasciiart 2025-09-206:421 reply In other words, Canadians aren’t going to the US unless someone pays them for it. That’s pretty negative sentiment.
By mgh95 2025-09-207:06 Oh sure. But the important thing -- especially for the OC, who is having a rough time in the job market -- is getting paid to do it.
By sjsdaiuasgdia 2025-09-201:091 reply The left hand of the chart in the 2nd link provides some perspective for this year's numbers.
July 2024 through Jan 2025, the YoY numbers are always in the 7%-9% range. Averages to 7.7% across those months.
Feb 2025 to July 2025, there's only a single month (April) in that range. We've got 2 months at 1% YoY growth, one break even, and two negative. Those months average out to about 0.7%. If you include Jan 2025 to align to the calendar year 2025, you get 1.57%, which seems to be the number that becomes 'nearly 2 percent' in the text under the chart.
While it is still positive growth, it's 20% of the YoY growth trend for several months heading up to 2025. If you take out Jan 2025 (2/3 of which Trump was not yet president), it's only 10%.
By richardlblair 2025-09-201:581 reply Their comment about Canada's trade prospects are very telling. They are trying to spin a false narrative (surprise surprise).
In your opinion, what is false about it? Canada's growth segment in exports was minerals and tourism services. That's Canada's situation, unfortunately.
"Non-inflation-adjusted tourist dollars spent" was an odd metric to choose.
The number of international arrivals is down YTD (-3%): https://www.trade.gov/i-94-arrivals-program
By mgh95 2025-09-2018:34 Ask any business if they care about revenue or customers. $ is the goal.
By sethammons 2025-09-2010:40 > Meanwhile, total spending in the US from int'l visitor tourism is up in the US
You are disingenuous and spreading a false narrative. Look at that graph's growth numbers. Look at it.
9,8,7,7,8,8,7, Trump takes office, 1, -5, 8, 1, 0, -1. 6mo average from 7.5 to 0.6%.
A seven percent drop to near a zero average propped up by one historic looking value. But 0.6 _is_ "up" so you can be technically correct.
Well, that's a personal decision. And personal decisions can have financial costs.
By mgh95 2025-09-1922:29 The CV info you posted basically says upper management. I'm seeing increasingly that companies centralize management in an office (either city satellites or a hq) and permit developers to either work remote within the geographic region with occasional onsites. I don't know of anybody that would permit a manager (much less someone that is a sr. manager) to be remote which is why I asked.
By thirtygeo 2025-09-206:59 +1
Do you really need additional clarification on why non-American citizen might choose not to travel to the US for literally any reason? If you do need examples, let me just gesture broadly to the entire US society.
Not really. I even live in one of the cities that is "under siege". It's basically another day.
People read headlines, lock themselves in a cage of their own making, and assume the world is on fire. People would do better trusting their own eyes and ears.
By jonasdegendt 2025-09-201:43 Seconding what the other commenter is saying.
I’m in CA vacationing right now for a month, flew in last week. Literally the same experience getting in, and on the daily, as it’s been for the last decade of visiting annually.
I was talking to my +1 at work before I left, he’s just gotten back from living in OH for the last couple of years for his wife’s job. As much as stuff is seemingly a shit show at the highest levels (which we can all agree on, I reckon), the day to day hasn’t changed all that much. At least not for us privileged techies.
But hey, that’s just two datapoints, so what do I know really.
Can managers/directors of engineering even qualify for a TN under the recent renewed scrutiny?
Yeah. That's actually the only way to get a TN -- to oversee technical work in a managerial capacity. Technical managers of software engineers are 100% able to enter under TN.
By bananalychee 2025-09-200:181 reply What do you mean it's the only way? Computer engineering is a valid TN employment category, among many others.
By mgh95 2025-09-200:26 Sorry - I mean the "only way" as a manager, not as a software/technical professional.
You can't for example, use manager of a McDonalds to qualify as a manager under a TN as far as I understand it. If you are a manager, you need to be technical in nature.
By VirusNewbie 2025-09-1922:221 reply You were a director of engineering and you didn't have more than a year of expenses sitting around?
Directors of Engineering in Eastern Canada make (or made, until recently) < 200k, CAD. That's 145k USD. So no, didn't have much of a golden parachute like the US do.
By benhurmarcel 2025-09-209:471 reply Are expenses so high there? That’s still more than twice what you’d make here in Western Europe, and you’d have an easy time saving way more than a year of expense here.
By Bombthecat 2025-09-209:57 A big chunk went into the house I guess
By monkeyelite 2025-09-204:16 The side effect of stronger employment protection is limited upside and more friction in getting into new positions.
Sorry to ask, but is this another of those comments where there's an unmentioned criminal record lurking behind the story?
By Aztar 2025-09-2311:31 Are you by any chance applying to european jobs while residing in canada? This is a big no no. At the least you should have an address in the country you are applying for and a local phone number.
Applying with a CV from Canada with canadian details would probably eliminate you from the process early on. I say this as someone who was trying to work in the UK while living in Germany. The minute I changed address/phone things started to look better.
You may even mention this on your CV sayong that you are looking to move or already moved to that country.
By huflungdung 2025-09-1922:08 [dead]
By rizky05 2025-09-201:40 [dead]
By SeanAnderson 2025-09-1921:359 reply I've been unemployed for almost three years. It's somewhat intentional - at least leaving my last job was and I've been dragging my feet. Hopefully will have a job in upper management at the start of next year if things work out.
Coping by trying my best to become the type of person that I aspire to be. Quit weed, alcohol, caffeine. Lost 20lbs of fat and put on some muscle. Run 6 days a week, lift 3-4 days a week. Meal prep all my foods and getting into a good routine about those things.
Taught myself Rust and ECS and tried my hand at building a game. Built an Arduino prototype of some hardware a friend wanted to see exist, but ended up not trying to take it further. Built a website to help people play a video game better, it became popular while the game was trending, and made ~3-6k/mo running ads on the site. Went to Burning Man for the first time.
Now I'm kind of out of things that sound fun/purposeful and having a purpose dropped into my lap by working on an ongoing project with an existing team sounds more appealing than it did when I left the work world. So, slowly going back that way and hoping to hold onto all my good vibes and positive habits as I do so.
It's not exactly what I expected to spend three years of unemployment doing. I wish I felt more "accomplished" in how I used my time. But idk. Just kept myself busy with things that sounded meaningful in the moment. Now making money sounds more appealing than having more free time so hopefully jumping back in isn't too much of a shock.
> wish I felt more "accomplished" in how I used my time.
Idk man I think a lot of people here would be proud to have knocked off even one of those things on that list. The lifestyle changes alone are huge accomplishments. I also wouldn’t downplay the significance of spending a little time doing nothing. Probably added some years to your life
This a thousand times! I've taken some years off work, but never three in a row: I don't think I'd manage it as well as you did.
By BolexNOLA 2025-09-2019:43 I remember taking an incredibly light and schedule-y advantageous semester in college my junior year. I barely had to go to class and they were all frontloaded on Monday/Tuesday basically. I had so much free time and all these grand plans, none of which I actually followed through on lol
By hsbauauvhabzb 2025-09-1922:321 reply How do you go from unemployed for 3 years straight to upper management? Were you already in a similar position in the past? I would think 3 years unemployed may not look good to people who don’t share your personal views (no judgement, I think if you’ve been unemployed for 3 years it shows good financial planning, I just doubt my conservative family would see it the same)
By SeanAnderson 2025-09-1922:53 My last role was staff engineer/team lead. The company I was with was acquired and I was asked to take director of engineering post-acquisition. I was pretty stressed out about how the acquisition was being mismanaged and declined the role, but stayed at the company for another year when 95% of my coworkers left. I generated a lot of goodwill with the PE firm and C-suite during this time.
After I left, the PE firm finished the ~failed merger, flipped the company to another buyer, and the PE firm placed the CTO at another company. I've remained friends with the CTO and we have a monthly/bi-monthly check-in. He was very supportive of my side-projects and would've helped fund anything that I said had legs, but is equally eager to work with me again if given the opportunity. The company he's working at is going through a reorg and a position he thinks I'd be a good fit for (admittedly a growth opportunity) should open up.
If that falls through and I'm not able to get a warm intro somewhere then you're absolutely right. I'd focus on applying for IC positions, but clearly communicate that I'm interested in taking on leadership ASAP.
Also unemployed for the last 3 years after a layoff. Partially on purpose because I felt I needed a pause to recharge but I kept extending because money was not a problem due to stonks going up.
I learned react, go. Played videogames and had a child. Things are going well.
Part of me is afraid that too much time off the market will make me not fit for the workforce anymore but tbh I feel like my mental health really needed this.
Now I'm faced with a dilemma. Go back to my home country where I probably could retire now at 40 or stay here and try to get back to work. Trump administration has been making my decision easier by the day.
> Go back to my home country where I probably could retire now
May want to consider that things won’t stay the same price for 40 years?
By nixosbestos 2025-09-1922:26 My friend, so much self-work, you should be proud. Contentedness comes from within. If you think about it, do you really want your worth to be determined by your career? Really? After beating the vices, investing in yourself? I'm proud of you.
There is no "accomplishment". Get off twitter and instagram, and seek contentedness. Everything else is creative self-deceit or comparison games on a rubric that is artificial and asinine.
No one actually cares about your title. Or rather, you probably know that them validating your title isn't really what's going to matter to you? Or is it? Why?
I say this with love, I spent a lot of time (albeit voluntarily) unemployed asking myself such questions. Good luck.
By yodsanklai 2025-09-1921:488 reply I thought caffeine was actually good
https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/is-coffee-good-or-bad-for-your...
By SeanAnderson 2025-09-1921:584 reply I think from a health perspective coffee/caffeine is fine - maybe even good. I wouldn't be shocked if it were good for you.
My reason for wanting to quit caffeine was related to willpower and self-control. I wanted a stronger mind-body connection where I'd readily act on my desires rather than delegating to "I'll do that once I feel properly caffeinated." I was finding that I wasn't doing much with myself after work hours because my energy levels felt low once caffeine wore off and because I wasn't training myself to be comfortable doing things even when I didn't "feel" like doing them. Those behaviors made me uncomfortable with myself, but I never felt like I had the time to address them while working a full-time job. At best, I'd get two day "detoxes" over the weekend and then hop right back on the bean juice Monday morning.
By esperent 2025-09-204:49 My take on the health benefits of coffee or tea is that it's probably nothing to do with the caffeine, and a lot to do with antioxidants. Both of these drinks are high in antioxidants, and the typical modern diet is low, so for a lot of people caffeinated drinks are a major source of their antioxidant intake. This shows up statistically as coffee and tea increasing longevity, but on an individual level, just make sure you're getting antioxidants from other parts of your diet instead.
By throwaway1492 2025-09-201:121 reply Quitting caffeine helped me with anxiety and some mental health stuff. Ymmv
By WarOnPrivacy 2025-09-201:281 reply My milage does vary. I swore off caffeine for a decade. Then I discovered that stims restore some cognitive function that I had written off.
The difference is that my anxiety is more interesting (to me) than distressing. I can sometimes leverage it as a mechanism for change.
Granted - this also possible because my anxiety (currently) falls within a range. Turn it up a ½doz notches and I probably won't be mining it for usefulness.
Have you tried tea instead? Its effect is markedly different from coffee. THere should be no anxiety, but still contain that cognitive benefit.
By WarOnPrivacy 2025-09-2018:39 After some thought, I will give tea some fresh consideration. Mostly due to age wiping out my resistance to bad-choice consequences.
By WarOnPrivacy 2025-09-202:48 I don't drink coffee. I use a drink mix. The anxiety is probably history derived. I'm rolling with it.
By lanyard-textile 2025-09-201:23 I think I’m okay with scheduling my work around those known lulls, but I’m happy you shared your thoughts and perspective about it. Certainly gives me something to think about.
By wara23arish 2025-09-1922:25 I resonate with that way of thinking a lot.
fwiw: what you did is pretty impressive and hella brave, respect
Not if you’re a slow metabolizer. 15% of the population.
CYP1A2
Increased heart attack risk: A 2006 study found that slow metabolizers who drank four or more cups of coffee per day had a 64% increased risk of a nonfatal myocardial infarction (heart attack) compared to those drinking less than one cup daily. The risk was even higher for slow metabolizers under age 50, who experienced more than four times the risk
No increased risk for fast metabolizers: In the same study, fast metabolizers did not experience an increased risk of heart attack, even with high coffee consumption.
How does one find out being a slow or a fast metabolizer? DNA test?
By aantix 2025-09-1923:28 Get your dna sequenced. A simple 23andme test would do.
https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/caffeine-metabolism-and-you...
Like the other commenter alluded to, if you consume caffeine and your BP remains really elevated past two hours, you’re probably a slow metabolizer.
By AstralStorm 2025-09-1923:25 You can do the basic continuous blood pressure monitoring. Not super precise but should work for categorizing.
By helph67 2025-09-1922:01 Not if you have high blood pressure, both it and salt can affect your B.P. Years ago I suffered with very bad dizzy spells which always began when I tried to get out of bed in mornings. They could last a few days. A doctor said another patient had same symptom and found reducing caffeine intake reduce them. I switched to decaf and progressively they got weaker, ultimately vanishing!
By dpc050505 2025-09-1922:06 Caffeine withdrawals suck and it's a time and money sink keeping them at bay. I'm an habitual coffee drinker, love the caffeine high and the taste. I still wish I didn't get a headache by noon if I skipped a morning. A few days off the stuff and I'm fine, but it's still bothersome enough that sometimes I think it would justify quitting the habit.
It's enough work as it is staying fed, hydrated and getting a solid 8 hours of sleep. 20 minutes a day on getting your coffee fix is like 2 hours a week you could put to better purposes. Your article doesn't quantify the benefits, it just says there's some, that leads me to suspect that they're fairly minimal. Maybe getting an extra 2 hours of sleep or exercise would do more for your health.
It's neither good nor bad in absolute terms. It can be misused, abused, and overdone like any substance.
In my experience, the people who benefit from quitting caffeine were either using far too much of it, were drinking it too late in the day (interferes with sleep), or were using it to cover up other problems like poor sleep habits.
The person drinking a cup or two of green tea in the mornings after going to bed on time is going to have a different relationship than the person drinking very strong coffee drinks all day long to stay awake because they've been scrolling on their phone until 2AM every night instead of trying to sleep on time.
By pillefitz 2025-09-206:37 For those who can't metabolize it it's a net negative. Even a sip in the morning keeps me on edge the whole day and delays my sleep onset by around an hour.
I am on my sabatical now which I started to recover from burnout working in early stage startup. I stopped drinking coffee. I have drunk 4 to 8 coffees daily at work. It helped me to survive the day but I did not enjoy the taste. It was like eating pills. Also it did not help with sleep at night and rest during the day. I have not drink coffee or green tea for 4 months and now I have started again because I crave for coffee taste but I drink way less (3-4 coffees a week). Good think is that I enjoy it again, it helps me concentrate and also it does not interfere with my rest and sleep. The same applies to alcohol even in small amounts. It helps you to cope with overwork but it drains you in long term.
edit: So it is not only about health but also about satisfaction and well being.
By eastbound 2025-09-2113:03 When I see my interns drinking Red Bull for work: I get it that you have extremely high career objectives, but maybe you’re stressing about them more than working on them.
Worst case, you can work 8hrs during the day and study 3hrs in the evening with or without Red Bull: in both cases you’ll end up burnt out, you can just force it for a few months more with drugs.
> Hu said that moderate coffee intake—about 2–5 cups a day
5 cups of coffee per day is moderate?
By Aurornis 2025-09-1923:23 The definition of "cup of coffee" used in studies often doesn't match the type of coffee drinks that people consume.
Typically, when someone cites these numbers they're referring to total caffeine intake under 400mg. It would be 5 small cups of mild coffee.
You can exceed this number with a single drink from Starbucks.
By dr_dshiv 2025-09-1922:15 True. But if you drink more than that, you should be using bigger cups.
By MengerSponge 2025-09-1921:561 reply The dose makes the poison.
By mycall 2025-09-200:12 What industry do you want to work in? Pick a vertical market and make stuff for it. Look at government RFI/RFP to see what is needed, follow the trends.
By itsmevictor 2025-09-1921:41 Honestly, if you didn't struggle financially, it seems to me that you've had a pretty good time and that your perception that you're not accomplished enough in how you used your time is mostly a byproduct of our tendency to always be unsatisfied rather than stemming from your past few years having truly lacked purpose :-)
Making games in rust in retirement is my plan. Not, you know, good games (zero game dev experience), or games that anyone would realistically want to play, but seems like it would be interesting to learn.
By SeanAnderson 2025-09-1922:071 reply Yeah exactly :) I had no experience and, if I'm being honest, I was shit at game dev, but boy is it a nice means of creative self-expression. (https://github.com/MeoMix/symbiants/ / https://ant.care/)
It's really fulfilling to be able to show people your work and have them play with it. It's so different than like.. spec'ing out a new database schema and then building some APIs over it. They're both coding, but one's a little harder to have a convo about at the dinner table.
Rust is such a mature language to use coming from a JavaScript background. I don't think it makes the best language for writing good games because it's too challenging to write bad prototypes you intend to throw away. You have to refactor frequently and code-compile-run loop is so slow. The lack of quick prototyping discourages me from playing around with ideas that might not work out and that makes for a worse game. However, as a programmer, Rust is an incredibly satisfying language to write in. Everything you do always feels very technically correct. The Rust quip that "if it compiles then it probably works" is very accurate and is a continuous source of pleasure.
Not to push you into the rabbit hole but... have you looked into bolting some sort of scripting language onto your Rust program for quick prototyping?
By SeanAnderson 2025-09-205:581 reply I haven't looked into it seriously, no. Scripting support in Bevy (the ECS framework I was exploring) is pretty limited. There's an add-on that can provide unofficial support for LUA (https://github.com/makspll/bevy_mod_scripting) but I doubt that would be compatible with a WASM build target.
>I doubt that would be compatible with a WASM build target.
In principle, I don't see why not. In practice, yeah I can see it. In both cases, can't know without checking, and I haven't. Bevy is pretty cool though!
My drive-by suggestions would be more along the lines of https://github.com/mattwparas/steel, or the very ad-hoc embedded language of https://github.com/elkowar/eww, or perhaps most pertinently https://kdl.dev/
Maybe one of those would be minimal enough for the rest of the engine to not manage to get your way, as frameworks are known to do. As always, happy hacking!
By balamatom 2025-09-2022:36 s|your way|in the way|
By whatevertrevor 2025-09-1922:31 As someone coming on 30 months of retirement, I'm consciously shifting away from toy projects to projects where I commit to a more polished deliverable.
It helps with commitment and pursuing a deeper learning of the activity instead of doing quick and dirty stuff in my experience. Just don't expect it (or aim for it) to be a steam top-seller, my aim is usually to have at least one other stranger get some amount of value out of what I produce.
Not to say there isn't a place for quick and dirty projects, of course. Bespoke 3D models to fix things around the house are my current favourite category for that.
By SoftTalker 2025-09-203:02 I'll see how I really feel when it happens but when I retire I don't want to look at a computer for a very long time. I suppose after some time I might get drawn back but I plan to de-tech my life as much as I can.
By brokencode 2025-09-1922:04 I’d like to invest time into the Linux gaming ecosystem. Though it’s a little daunting that so much of the work would need to be done by Nvidia and major game studios that don’t really care.
Windows just feels irredeemably mediocre at this point. Maybe Windows 12 will improve things, but I’ve been pretty down on 11.
By bix6 2025-09-1923:06 Beast mode
By comment95198 2025-09-1921:557 reply I had a bout of poor health. And now I'm isolated and I don't know how to get reconnected to other people.
I'm not coping terribly well. I think what is most distressing is that I am observing a decline in my capacity. I feel mentally sluggish. I frustrate more easily. I tire more easily. Probably most worryingly to me I get spikes of aggression that lead to combative outbursts. I feel less empathetic, even mildly sadistic at times. Very hard to control the envy and the average person I interact with evokes envy.
Everyone in my life tells me I need to get working again (yes thank you it's obvious). Not even for the money, but just to have a purpose and structure and a social life. A common sentiment. But I've come to understand that it is backwards. Employment is secondary, and it follows from having a social network and being embedded in a social context.
Poverty alters your brain in strange ways. For an example I've been thinking about lately, the world is getting very small. I was late for an important appointment. It simply did not occur to me to take a taxi. I just don't do that anymore. It's sort of categorically ruled out as "expensive luxury". Such a difference from a few years ago! Would have ordered the taxi without even thinking.
On the plus side I quit smoking and lost a bunch of weight and I'm physically in the best shape I've ever been.
By codyb 2025-09-1922:07 Can you volunteer? I volunteer through work, but it's a great way to meet some nice people for a few hours and do something nice.
> I'm not coping terribly well. I think what is most distressing is that I am observing a decline in my capacity. I feel mentally sluggish. I frustrate more easily. I tire more easily. Probably most worryingly to me I get spikes of aggression that lead to combative outbursts. I feel less empathetic, even mildly sadistic at times. Very hard to control the envy and the average person I interact with evokes envy.
This is textbook major depressive disorder. I know you probably don't want to hear that, but you're basically describing a classic case of depressive symptoms.
> Employment is secondary, and it follows from having a social network and being embedded in a social context.
I'm sorry, but viewing these two things as connected or expecting one to follow the other isn't helpful. We all need a social life and we all need employment, but tying the two of those together isn't healthy. It's important to have a social life outside of work. It's important to have a job that isn't equivalent to your social life.
By mixmastamyk 2025-09-207:08 What’s the difference between “depressive” and depression?
By notmyjob 2025-09-2013:26 You realize social isolation causes MDD? Parent probably knows he has MDD, but does it matter what it’s called. A rose by another name…
If you can I'd chat to my doctor about Adhd and trying something like concerta! I'm able to recognize many of the things you are mentionning here and had positive effects from methylphenidate.
ADHD isn't a condition which spontaneously appears mid-life following an obvious difficult event like losing one's job for an extended period.
The comment was clear that these symptoms appeared after the job loss. It's a match for the symptoms of a depressive episode (which can and does appear after a difficult life situation) but not ADHD.
Suggesting that the commenter seek out stimulant medication is not good advice.
By dmbche 2025-09-200:27 I've suggested them to chat with their doctor.
Many (including myself) have been successfully living with symptoms without treatment, but seeked my eoctors advice after having similar symptoms after a similar situation, and the result was adhd medication which helped.
Suggesting that someone talks to their doctor about symptoms is reasonable advice.
Edit0: and I wouldn't go around diagnosing people with depressive episodes from a single comment, were I in your shoes. Let their practicians do diagnoses, you know?
He is unemployed which likely means he has no doctor or that high end health care if the sort you’re assuming is not something he has access to. Poor Americans can go to the ER, but talking to someone with knowledge and capacity to prescribe psychotropics is not how this works.
YCombinator is an American company, but beyond that you are “almost” correct.
https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/latest-news/deta...
By dmbche 2025-09-2021:55 Did I tell Ycombinator to talk to their doctor?
Is that link about accessing your GP?
I'm not sure what you're trying to get at. Good luck going forward.
By rslashuser 2025-09-1923:18 Don't underestimate the nicotine withdrawal for making you feel crabby - I've heard that anecdote many times. The nice thing is ... that one gets better with time.
By lvl155 2025-09-1922:17 One small step at a time. Small victories add up. Wishing you the best.
By eYrKEC2 2025-09-204:15 Have you considered joining the cult known as crossfit? They have fantastic community. Church as well.
By huflungdung 2025-09-1922:19 [dead]
