7 frustrating insights about dev market now
Tags: career, discuss, watercooler, productivity
Published: 2021-02-16 13:43:29

I've written recently about the job aggregators. Today I've decided to share some of the insights into my job search process.

**Your bets are always accepted**

We read a lot of reports about salaries. Endless analytics: developers who use React on average get n-thousands a year, engineers who have excellent soft skills earn 5% more. I am so tired of that! 

*Isn't it frustrating?*

And at the end of the day, one and the only important thing is how you present yourself. Everyone lies, refers to reports and articles «how to sell yourself on the interview». 

«Of course, I have experience using this framework!» 
«Yes, I studied Python once.»
«I easily communicate with the team.»

We see overheated dev market with companies ready to fight for the one with perfect CV and the greenest Github contribution activity. 

####The market, where no one knows what he/she is really worth.

**Skills are not enough**

And so far no artificial intelligence and a cunning test task can evaluate them. When you are coding, many factors influence the way you do that: how the task is set, how you interpreted it, whether you had experience with similar tasks, how quickly you can solve it with your stack, how are you generally familiar with the application architecture. Did you get enough sleep, can you ask someone to help you, is the person next to you annoying, etc. Recruiters try to evaluate all this in an interview or two (three, four): and in the end, they check how cool you have pumped the skill «to pass the interview and not screw up».

What do you think? Do you adequately assess your skills? I am not sure that I do, because >> 

**The winner is the person without imposter syndrome**

If you have impostor syndrome and are constantly trying to assess how and for what «price» you are selling yourself, you most likely broke down on the second point.

Due to all what I've listed below, we see that mostly succeed the people who know how to sell themselves. That may be proof of the great soft and hard skillset, but maybe just great acting. 

So, if you feel weird every time you have to ask yourself «Am I really worth it?» — congrats! That means you have a high level of emotional intelligence. 

**The job description is half empty**

Recruiters compile job descriptions. They collect some requirements from the tech lead without asking «Why we need that?». 

So sometimes the vacancy is just a mix of the most popular technologies. And somewhere awkwardly attributed: «work experience with at least one of the listed frameworks is required». Why? 

So every time you should ask once again: why exactly this skill is required? If Javascript and PHP are listed, then — how PHP is used? If React is mentioned, then why Java / Scala / Python is added?  

If I don't have am experience working with this specific framework, is the close one relevant? All these details will help you cut out irrelevant job posts right away.

**Recruiters fail. And we do too.**

When you look for a job you get through multiple stages from «I am the God» to «I am the piece of sh*t». First, everyone outreaches you, calls you for interviews, and when it comes to it, they disappear. I received “organic” feedback after 7 out of 15 interviews.

I've asked for feedback in the other 8 cases, just 3 recruiters answered me and got back with a detailed answer. Of course, I received formal emails with «It was nice to meet you, we'll stay in touch». I am sure — you've received letters like that too. 

But I never hesitate to ask for feedback. Okay, you forgot. It sucks. But it's something I need. So I'll go and ask for it. My example:


*Hey!
I was at your interview /then/ for the position /title/. I really want to get feedback :) Maybe you forgot? I would like to know what went wrong, and what I should pay attention to?*

**Job aggregators**

Forget about comfortable job search process: you can be either annoyed or miserable. 

One and an only nice way to look for a job — find the job aggregator that fits your needs. I found Bergamot ([here is my comparison](https://dev.to/nataliefdv/10-biggest-remote-tech-jobs-aggregators-comparison-389l)). Good filters, enough fresh posts, two types of email subscription.

**Do not disappear for a long time**

Suppose you burned out and decided to take the leave - cool. But you took it, and then give it back, please, because the risk of losing even very relative and difficult to evaluate skills is very high. The brain quickly gets used to the good - to the fact that you can not waste energy, but vegetate on Youtube. In my experience, 2 months is the best time to stay and rest. If you have such an opportunity now, go ahead.

Well, sometimes look at the job market, this is a very good practice :)