Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

I am seeing many anecdotal experiences shared online on various platforms stating that it is difficult to find employment in tech. I myself have had a difficult time landing an interview over the last year despite having two decades of experience.

I am attempting to gain some insight into the issue. My situation is somewhat unique in that I am self-taught without a CS degree. I'm a very experienced, diligent worker, etc, but an algorithm doesn't care about this and so getting through the filters is difficult.

However I see many discussions being posted (primarily on X) stating that it is nearly impossible for people with CS degrees (especially white males) to get an interview let alone a job. There have been mass layoffs, less money being invested etc. Many people have claimed AI is taking jobs, or that there aren't as many jobs available, yet at the same time, Elon Musk and others claim there is an engineer shortage and we must increase the number of H-1B visas in order to fill this gap. When I apply to a position on linkedin I can see that even the most Jr positions have over 100 applicants.

I know that X can be slanted, and really anything posted online must be taken with a grain of salt - but I'm seeing many people claiming to be in the same situation as myself, and most of them claim to be white males.

Furthermore, in the last two years I experienced two layoffs. In both situations it was white males let go in favor of Indian and KZ foreigners. Again - this is anecdotal and could be a coincidence, but its awfully telling that Vivek and Elon are calling American tech workers uncultured, lazy and stupid in the wake of these experiences and those that I've read about online.

I don't want to start a war here on hackernews, but I'm looking for people's personal experiences. Do they match up? Are you having a hard time finding employment? Have you been fired in favor of foreign workers? Is this racism / ageism / sexism at play or is that being overblown by political actors?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42531830

Points: 16

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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42531830