Ask HN: Why do we have to study before applying for a job?
I believe this happens for a few reasons.<p>* A lot of software developers don&#x27;t apply to enough positions. A number of developers who talk with me and complain about the interview process don&#x27;t apply and get enough interviews to be picky about the interviews they are accepting. Companies play on this fact very well. They know developers get their heart set on only a few jobs and so make them jump through hoops to get the position. Try applying to 10 developer positions a day. Seriously. It&#x27;s fun and refreshing.<p>* Software developers don&#x27;t market themselves well enough. I honestly don&#x27;t even have a resume available. When people ask for one I say, &quot;I don&#x27;t have a resume nor do I need one.&quot; They will then say one of two things. A) &quot;Fine, we&#x27;re not interested in you.&quot; Great! I didn&#x27;t apply with you anyway and frankly don&#x27;t have time to jump through your hoops. B) &quot;Oh that&#x27;s not a problem can we just chat with you for a bit? I know you spoke at Conference A, B, and C, and we saw you at MeetUp X, Y, and Z. You&#x27;re good friends with our Senior Ops person. We don&#x27;t need a resume.&quot; Fantastic. My marketing is working out well. By the way, when they bring me in to have a chat and say &quot;We&#x27;d like you to write out a red-black tree on the board in your favorite language, please. Oh and answer a bunch of random Big O notation questions.&quot; The answer is: No. Remember how you heard me speak at those conferences? Remember how I did a live coding and pairing session at that MeetUp? I think we can assume I know how to code. And if we can&#x27;t, that&#x27;s fine.<p>* Finally, have confidence. Honestly, most interviewers aren&#x27;t confident in how to hire or what to hire. So, be confident for them. 50% of the time when I say I will not answer your asinine questions, more interviews stop and say, &quot;Oh, well excellent, let me just talk to you about our problems.&quot; Which is where most interviews need to go.<p>So, you ask, how could we fix this? Fix it for yourself, individually. You aren&#x27;t going to fix the industry. You aren&#x27;t going to fix how bad people are at judging others work in a short period of time. But you can make your own situation substantially better.