Hell is Jobhunting

The amount of self-censorship one engages in as an employee or jobhunter in the US is incredible.

Long, long ago, I rarely had to touch LinkedIn with its large amount of self-aggrandizing wanna-be influencers and corporate bootlickers. I mostly went there to check on coworkers and maybe talk to recruiters, as useless as they tended to be. For jobs, the Seattle Craigslist used to be far better. Lots of direct job postings, very little recruiter spam.

Now Craigslist is a wasteland, and LinkedIn seems to be one of the few jobhunting resources left.

And Dice/Indeed/Etc? All third tier. Stopped using them back in 2001 during the dot-bomb. They re-posted stale old jobs all the time to keep their numbers up.

The Problem of LinkedIn

The amount of ass-kissing on the site is nearing unbearable levels. Influencers flood the site beneath self-aggrandizing posts for the most menial accomplishments. Developers spam basic Comp Sci tutorials for some kind of clout, and the boot licking of Capitalist Realism is incessant and non-stop.

No true discussions can take place, because America is at-will, and any and all discussion by workers is obviously through a lense of self-censorship, as your livelihood is at stake. One must always be careful to not blackball yourself.

LinkedIn is a union-free zone. There is no union presence, and little to now discussion of them. It is the perfect Capitalist echo chamber.

“We’re looking for Senior Developers with Rust, X, Y and Z, $80-$90/hr. Hourly W2 or 1099”

Lol no. Health insurance is the smallest cost of that. Also missing out on 401k match, and self-funding a nest egg for ‘unemployment’ and ‘being able to afford vacation days’.

They want unicorns for peanuts. These same jobs stay open for months, I’ve applied to a few, they then say “well you’re not what we want”, and the jobs are still out there. The implication is they are burning out everyone else while still trying to find the unicorn for peanuts.

Or they fill the job, then post a similar role again, and instead of coming back to me with “Hey here is another role you may be a good fit for”, they’re just starting the interview loop over again for other applicants.

“It was close, but we decided to go with the other candidate. We will reach out to you if there are any other roles that may match”

Find roles that match on LinkedIn.

Crickets from company I talked to, and already went through interview loop on.

So obviously that was a lie.