silvercymbals

5 ms·

1. 1.▲
   by silvercymbals 11mo ago

   Reducing myself to the career mean of a midwest town sounds worse than checking myself into a mental institution.
2. 2.▲
   by silvercymbals 11mo ago

   Worst case maybe I'll join the military
3. 3.▲
   by silvercymbals 11mo ago

   It's really scary out there - I couldn't imagine what it would be like to not have any hard skills during this recession.
4. 4.▲
   by silvercymbals 11mo ago

   thanks - this is what I'm getting by on for now
5. 5.▲
   by silvercymbals 11mo ago

   This is a fantastic analysis. I didn't want to go here, but I do have direct knowledge from two final rounds I was passed over for that h1b visa holders were selected instead of me and paid less. (I knew employees at these startups) Pa
6. 6.▲
   by silvercymbals 11mo ago

   Hope things get better! Thanks for your thoughts :)
7. 7.▲
   by silvercymbals 11mo ago

   Thanks for your thoughts - but I'm not going to pat myself on the back trying to make the US median income. To be clear, I'd accept anything over $70k at this point.
8. 8.▲
   by silvercymbals 11mo ago

   this has been precisely my experience frankly, if an offer presented itself for $80k a year I'd take it (it's embarrassing but that's just where I am at the moment)
9. 9.▲
   by silvercymbals 11mo ago

   hard to say - just trying to figure it out
10. 10.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    I've run out of options in my network and at this point I just need to make at least $70k before I have to resort to working at a UPS store or something that will cause my skills to further deteriorate.
11. 11.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    Couldn't agree more - I'd even be open to an unpaid contract period before an offer goes fulltime.
12. 12.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    I've actually never really had issues passive system design rounds. I had to get through those to get to both on-sites I mentioned. It's partially why I started applying to solutions eng roles. Fortunately I have some vaguely pr
13. 13.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    They've given some - all I've really received is "your solutions were interesting and passed the bar, but we proceeded with another candidate"
14. 14.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    We'll see - have a few leads but hoping to close one of them before November since all hiring grinds to a halt until the new year after November.
15. 15.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    Thanks! I really enjoyed the process engineering and problem solving of running my own companies. It's how I ended up managing a small team of engineers. I even lived in China for a few months getting our production setup. Unfortunat
16. 16.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    Looking for opinions from engineers in america.
17. 17.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    I've had plenty of time to relax. Going forward I want options, and the best path to that is to pay off the small amount of debt I currently have and start making forward financial progress. I need a way to begin making income in the
18. 18.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    I can't tell if I'm just too stupid to pass them or if the market has suddenly raised the bar substantially.
19. 19.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    Well, if your basis is a midwest state like Iowa with zero tech jobs - that might be accurate.
20. 20.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    I built a bespoke IOT stack that currently runs over 10k devices and a full production line interface / deployment for a factory we used in china. I'm not going to define what "senior engineer" is, but this was done lar
21. 21.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    Thanks for your thoughts :)
22. 22.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    Look up the average salary of H1B visa holders... I don't really have any interest arguing what a respectable salary on HN is. The recruiter I was working with clearly stated that $180-200k given my resume was reasonable. America isn
23. 23.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    These were real-world type problems etc. Maybe I just use cursor too much and I've forgotten the short-hand they were looking for. Prior I never had to do leetcode screens for interviews because of my network - don't really regre
24. 24.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    thanks, this means a lot I'm in my early 30s, but I generally find it really discouraging here when people on HN try to "be nice" by claiming $150k isn't effectively minimum wage even working at startups in the bay. Fort
25. 25.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    Some have been leetcode, others just asking esoteric react facts. The in-person rounds I've done have seemingly gone well, I've produced code that fits requirements each time. Not exactly sure.
26. 26.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    Good luck friend :)
27. 27.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    I've considered this. But I really just want a real salary. If I could find this and make $120k in the bay (barely survivable) I'd consider it - but I would really prefer to have a normal job with a dependable salary. I was prev
28. 28.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    Regardless, calling $150k a "shockingly high" salary is hilarious in 2025.
29. 29.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    I appreciate this, but I'm just not willing to fall for boomer cope. The notion that $150k will even let you raise a family where you don't care about looking poor (I don't care) is frankly insulting. I'm legitimately go
30. 30.▲
    by silvercymbals 11mo ago

    Not in a hurry, but my lackluster "exit" is roughly equivalent to a middling faang job for the years I put into my startup. My monthly expenses are low, but I'm sad I'm in my early 30's and effectively just burned a