From 6 Months Unemployed to 2 Offers: What I Learned

[@braedonwatkins967]

burnt out from my first job a couple months ago and left with just a bit over 1yoe. this was really great to watch. not doomer twitter rhetoric, not pull yourself up by your bootstraps linkedin rhetoric. just go build stuff. thanks for this man.

[@markbacon78]

Yea... that's exactly why I deleted my Twitter last week 😆 I'm all in on BlueSky now lol. The doomer on one side and bootstrap-pulling on the other side. I think it really did help to change my mindset of "ugh I need a job and I can code" to "well I genuinely like to build stuff so let me reconnect with that". And at the end of the day, you can build things that line up with job stuff out there. And for me, that just so happened to be incredibly helpful with my job search. Best of luck out there! Hit me up with a link here if/when you build something, would love to check it out.

[@t3chwood]

@@markbacon78 twitter can be inspiring to see cool stuff ppl are building, but it also wears on me when I see a bunch of posts like “if you’re not grinding every waking second you’re trash and going to be a wage slave for the rest of your life. you need to quit your dumb job and move to SF to have any hope at achieving freedom” and then you click on their profile and their startup idea is a GPT wrapper with no users. Maybe that’s just my feed specifically 😅

[@QK_Engineer]

small creators are truly a gem, youll never find a big tech youtuber make a video with even half the value this one has

[@markbacon78]

That makes me very happy to hear! Super glad it's got value, that's the goal. Thanks for dropping by!

[@Bruh-rw9yi]

The quality of KZbin is best for small creators.They tell you everything honestly without sugarcoating and watching them feels like talking to a friend.

[@markbacon78]

I feel like "watching them feels like talking to a friend" is the vibe to shoot for, so I'm super glad it came across that way! Thanks for dropping a comment

[@American_Kneeler]

it shouldn't be this fucking hard to get a job AFTER 4 years of school.

[@markbacon78]

For real :\

[@fanaticfanatic8999]

Totally, but there is hundreds or thousands of great talents out there. Fighting each other with more or less skills, for limited positions. Is wild, but is what's happen right now.

[@markbacon78]

More reasons to level up and become a cut above the rest! It's definitely rough out there.

[@gabrielscar2]

Bro got a job with experience being a Minecraft mod, certified in Archery and Typing speed of 170 wps. Now i now how to do it. Thanks men

[@markbacon78]

Minecraft mod and plugin developer extraordinaire 😎 However you do do it, don't forget to always be you! Thanks for dropping by the video 🤝

[@JLM-y5g]

Something I've quickly learned; people are rather helpful. I landed a job and felt *completely* out of my depth, but I had coworkers willing to sit down with me and work with me. I'm still there after a year. I think recruiters have become so desperate that your integration into their company culture matters more than any skillset; skills can be learned and improved, personality is a lot harder to "fix".

[@markbacon78]

Teams are also so sick of losing/gaining people. It's also way more expensive to hire someone new than to train someone there, but I know some companies just... don't bother and try and filter people out *cough* amazon *cough*. I totally agree with the notion of skills and personality there!

[@A--_--M]

I love some raw, unscripted and honest job life updates from small creators

[@markbacon78]

That's what I'm here for 😌 Thanks for dropping by!

[@EashanKotha]

Talk about mindset, determination, and sheer effort. gg man, this is dope. Excited for you!

[@markbacon78]

Thank you! I'm glad a lot of that comes through. I kinda failed to see it that way for a little while but I'm glad that's how it comes across. At the end of the day you gotta take agency. Thanks for dropping the comment!

[@kazami6317]

Congratulations Mark! Seeing you progress through this chapter of life gave me motivation for leveling up my own path! Feedback in each stage is the key and I found that you can only get it if you put yourself out there which I was really afraid of. Can't know what you'll get if you don't shoot your shot!

[@markbacon78]

Thank you g! We grow together 🔥

[@TheCodingSloth]

Awesome video thanks for sharing!

[@markbacon78]

That's a familiar name! Thanks for dropping by the video, much appreciated. The reach of this video has been surprising me each day...

[@AmericanPie-z6b]

I appreciate,how you takes the time to reply to every comments. Keep it up man .

[@markbacon78]

My favorite part of this whole endeavor! Thanks for dropping by the vid

[@mosesgodinez4968]

This was a great video man. Thank you for the tips, transparency, and motivation to keep going. I do alot of "You're not there yet" thinking which ultimately isn't helpful. Similar to you, I dont want to work for a company that only cares about hard leetcode questions. I love your perspective of practicing data structures and algorithms to gain self confidence. Thanks again!

[@markbacon78]

You are most welcome! I'm really glad that all resonated. I think "you're not there yet" has its pros and cons and at the end of the day it's best to toss things that don't work. Cheers, and best of luck with your search. Keep it up!

[@catalinpreda4666]

Really inspiring to see how you were motivated to put in the work and level up! Also interesting you said you were overqualified for junior roles but mid positions were so vague and you had to bridge the skill gap. You should make a video about it, it's refreshing to see genuine content about this kind of stuff, so much of KZbin seems to be students who lucked into FANG, juniors with little experience making tutorials and some rare seniors... I think there is a missing middle problem

[@markbacon78]

I'll try to touch on this in the follow up- thank you for the insight! The middle engineer is definitely a vague area because you're just discovering what you like / don't like, yet don't quite have your niche yet. Cheers!

[@lesliewubbel9157]

I am just so burnt out and I don't have that buffer you mention at end, and every tech jobs wants to go through hoops when that timeframes is not there to upskill in terms of affordability its just so hard, I loved that final part in the video you put in and I agree with that take agency, but god even a entry level jobs you can qualify for are just not being provided. For example there are so many more senior, and middle positions versus entry level positions or junior I could be wrong but that is really gist I get from reading job applications. Anyways thanks for putting that in the end because we all understand we need to upskill like we get it, but when you have a partner, kids, or no buffer it's just not realistic. I think that says something about the broader economy that tech jobs are just becoming so specialized that there are not going to be enough job opportunity for the average person anymore, and that in sense is scary because what is the average person suppose to do now for a job? with automation coming online for so many people

[@markbacon78]

I think the industry as a whole just... has no concept of "junior level" roles anymore. And I'm glad you got that last part. People would tell me, "Man that's ridiculous! 5 in a row? A 6 hour day-long project?" and my response was always, "yep! but thankfully I've got no job and I've got no kids" or along those lines. I have the same issue with takehome interviews- those who can spend more time on them will usually do better. The system was made for a time when going through one of these processes was a guarantee, but the times are different and thus the process needs to. Hang in there, and sending you my best 🙏

[@binarystar-y9w]

Kudos, I''ve been out for 8months+ couple interviews but nothing, I'll stop fighting the process and happily do it

[@markbacon78]

Hopefully those couple of interviews have at least been informative in some sense. It's definitely draining, but worth the fight in the end. Keep it up 🔥 And thanks for dropping by the vid!

[@mikocst]

Congrats man! I'm happy the algorithm led me here. I'm about to go through the process of applying to jobs as I move some projects along. I tried using this year to make my own experience out of passion projects and any freelance opportunities. Thanks for outlining your journey and huge props to you!

[@markbacon78]

Ey that's awesome, super glad you found your way here too. I'm a big projects guy and building that experience on your own. Thanks for dropping by! :D

[@Richard-xp2xr]

Appreciate the value from this video- haven’t seen one of these in a good minute

[@markbacon78]

I'm glad that you enjoyed and it resonated with you! :D Thanks for leaving a comment.

[@noodlespwn42]

you're so real for this. i'm in a similar situation

[@markbacon78]

Glad it resonates- thanks for dropping by!

[@hassansyed6087]

Quite the journey, Mark. But the best part? --> Your attitude. You could have seriously gotten yourself in a rut and just degraded yourself or felt useless because you failed a few interviews - but you rose above. I swear, I believe this firmly that once you fail a challenging interview, you grow stronger if you choose to or, you remain the same and fail again. You chose to grow strong. Keep the upward trajectory. Good shit.

[@markbacon78]

Thank you brother! At the start it was definitely demoralizing but sometimes you gotta fall a long way down to climb back up again 🫡

[@scarlettparker7751]

Absolutely superb video from start to end, love how genuine everything felt throughout.

[@markbacon78]

Thanks so much for the feedback! It wasn't too scripted and I think that let the genuine thoughts really poke through a lot more clearly. I'm glad that came across!

[@user-oz4ts5mv5h]

Thanks for the inspo. Congrats! 🎉

[@markbacon78]

I’m glad it resonated! Thanks for dropping a comment 🔥

[@thinkingoutthebox7253]

It's crazy to me that this is almost my exact story right now, but I'm around month 2. You forgot to add in the exhaustion haha. I've learned a lot though and am almost at an offer.

[@markbacon78]

Let's gooo! I hope that end to the process smooths out for you. The exhaustion is definitely real but I guess I just brushed it aside as a regular aspect of life at one point. Highs and lows, highs and lows.

[@user-jm8fi4fs2l]

Hey man, keep up the good work. Thank you

[@markbacon78]

Thanks for dropping by!

[@sofianealloui]

wow bro thanks a lot, you just clarify everything here thanks a lot, but for I'm feeling it is a long long way to be one those software engineering experts

[@markbacon78]

I'm glad I could help! Becoming an expert is certainly a lifelong endeavor, gotta love the journey :)

[@namang2557]

Love from India ❤ Thank you for the video. It gives me positive energy ⚡😊 keep going

[@rosepainting8775]

Hi Naman, where do you work?

[@markbacon78]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for dropping a comment :)

[@rafael86ny]

Congrats man! Leveling up. Keep doing it.

[@markbacon78]

Thanks g! 🙏

[@jamesnarin3849]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and these resources, especially WTTJ!

[@markbacon78]

You are so welcome! I think WTTJ definitely helped me have a smaller target when applying. Best of luck!

[@ankit7359]

Congrats Mark! Your videos are really inspiring and informative! Thanks for the great work and wish you the best! Cheers!

[@markbacon78]

I’m super glad you’ve gotten something from them, and thanks! 🙏

[@pritulkhan1395]

Wow. This video doesnt' relate to my situation but you provide valuable advice. No one is immune to job cuts and such... would love to see more of your journey. You earned a subscriber :)

[@markbacon78]

I appreciate the comment! More on the journey is for sure to come 🔥

[@shayanakhavan6002]

Awesome video and super insightful. I am trying to find a job in biotech since graduating with my masters and it's been rough. Just have to keep grinding and building stuff

[@markbacon78]

Glad the video helped! Building stuff and hopefully getting visibility is the goal. Best of luck with your search and congrats on the masters!

[@nelzkiecode546]

Hey man, just wanna say thanks for this video. Similar situation. We just given a notice and our jobs is gonna end soon. Been applying and the market is really tough the recruiters are giving us lower pay than what we currently have for a higher responsibility. I respect you with the guts to say no. Seeing the market nowadays, its really hard not to become desperate even if you have a buffer. Glad I saw this video

[@markbacon78]

You guys got notice?! Kidding- I'm really sorry to hear that. Notice or not, and whether you're ready to transition or not, having that ripped away from you is never a fun time. Jump into something fun and/or something you've had on the "some day" list. I took ~2 weeks before I sent my first application as my resume was finessing and would recommend taking that small break (though no harm in starting early) I think my decision to say no was largely based on the fact it was also a contract role + bad terms + low rate, and to be fully transparent I was rolling the dice with three other processes that were ongoing at the time (...thankfully one of them worked out). One thing I have learned, and maybe I'll follow up with this in the next video on this topic too, is that there's a different between a company that can't pay too much (e.g. startup) versus a company that won't pay what you're worth (e.g. an adtech job could probably afford way more). Don't forget to work with companies that will simply value you how they best can. It can be hard to not be desparate- and hey, at the end of the day, you can always say yes and hopefully keep interviewing to take another job. It's a heavy toll on time of course, but if the money's short it's always an option to try half assing both. Best of luck with your search, sorry again to hear about that. And happy that you resonated with the video!

[@cloakprince]

omg it took me so long to realise this is a small youtuber def subbing. this was a great video

[@markbacon78]

A compliment of the ages! Ty so much haha- much appreciated, and welcome to the club

[@Finn-jp6pn]

Subscribed! "Take agency for your life" - words of wisdom. Would definitely like to see how you made use of the tools at your disposal - job tracker sheet, obsidian with excalidraw plugin, and the tab for digital notes. I have a similar system and was curious.

[@markbacon78]

Noted! I was always planning on following up with stats, but a handful of comments with various questions have been akin to this so I'll put this comment in my notes and cover tools too. Finding the Obsidian/Excalidraw combo definitely made my quality of life go up for system design studying. And I'm glad the note on agency resonates with you! Makes me happy to hear. Thanks for dropping by the video! (And bonus points for the adventure time pfp haha)

[@Finn-jp6pn]

@markbacon78 hahaha... thanks. Adventure time is one of my favourite shows. Will eagerly wait for the next video ✌️

[@Career_Concepts]

Congratulations !!!

[@markbacon78]

Thanks! :D

[@InsightfulJayy]

the middle in anything always sucks

[@nicholasSewing]

Keep these vids coming

[@markbacon78]

I'll do my best 🫡

[@michaelbarley]

Great video mate

[@markbacon78]

Thanks! I appreciate you dropping a comment

[@waynehuang119]

Thanks, Mark! This is awesome! I was wondering, what does your daily schedule look like? I’m struggling to balance my time between job hunting, LeetCode (or studying algorithms, lol), and learning system design…

[@markbacon78]

Glad to hear the video resonated so well! Daily schedule definitely varied, I tried to balance a lot of things so I prioritized focuses work over longer periods of work. I shot to wake up at 7 every morning to start and start working on something by 9 (as if i had a 9-5). Algorithms was less enjoyable for me so I usually tried to get an hour/hour and a half of that out of the way early. I think I averaged one system design Q every other day from hello interview, during that last two weeks at least. Tried to squeeze in time on Infinite Game as well, but had other things going on. Probably ended up being 4-5 hours of work on these things a day. Not that much tbh, but it was focused and I was focusing time elsewhere too. As for applying, I’d shoot off anywhere from 10-30 apps at a time, every few days. Sometimes w breaks in between if i was in final panels but then my optimism started to die so I just kept on applying. Best of luck w the search! If anything, the grind helps build confidence. Keep it up 🔥

[@gantz0622]

Tu parles Français l'ami ? J'ai vu "French" as additional skills sur ton CV lol c'est cool! Je commence juste ta vidéo mais j'adore ta transparence et ton énergie, force à toi l'ami 💪😊

[@markbacon78]

Oui! J'étudié pour une semestre a Paris et a mon lycée. Merci d'avoir écrit un commentaire! 💪

[@funguy2627]

damn yo i gave up the whole process was so draining. I don't know if I even wanted to through all that hell again.

[@markbacon78]

Yea, I hear that. I hit a real hard stop in August/September. Did some traveling and along that some interviews "on the road" which helped a bit. I think one of the big things was getting my head out of the "leetcode grindset" mentality and just reconnecting with what I wanted to do. For me that was building up this idea I had (Infinite Game) and doing some game development. I tailored infinite game to some job postings as I mentioned, but it made it so I was leveling up, doing something I wanted to do (the reason I'm a code monkey I guess), and also felt like to helped me with job skills. I'd recommend the same. If you find you want to get back there and answer that "what if", it's time to lock in. But if you've found something else and you're happy there, I say full send there and keep doing you. Thanks for dropping by the video! If you resume, good luck! You'll go back in knowing more.

[@funguy2627]

@@markbacon78 Ya I prob should go back to the painful grind since i got no other choice sadly... Hows life after getting a job? Is it less stress and you like the work your doing?

[@markbacon78]

Unfortunately, that was part of my mentality at one point- no other choice, really. And unemployment from the state only lasted so long. I got lucky with the timing that I've taken a job I'm genuinely adamant about, as opposed to one that is just show up, work, collect a check (but hey- if it gives YOE then hopefully it opens up doors). School could also be an option, but of course degrees aren't much guaranteed these days. I know UW CompLing program has an internship program so it could convert into a full time thing? Just a thought. As for life after getting a job- I signed the contract last Friday and don't start until after Thanksgiving... Not sure if I should wait until I start for the next video but we'll see xP I'm looking forward to it. Good people, cool company, great incentive behind what the team works on. I think I'll enjoy it, and all the questions about WLB seemed well answered. Great questions to ask as you go through interviews.

[@funguy2627]

@@markbacon78 Thats good to hear, glad you made it. Tbh i dont think i want to be a code monkey but seems these days for u to get a job you gotta be super passionate about it or the employer will sniff it out easily lol

[@markbacon78]

Admittedly, I do think it helped when I didn't have to fake the "oh hey this is a cool thing!" in interviews, e.g. consumer products versus random ecommerce.

[@nivkapadia5504]

this one video made me subscribe him. Extremely great mindset. keep it up!!

[@markbacon78]

Super glad you enjoyed- welcome! :D

[@adrianford468]

Great videos dam small channel with great stash of videos

[@markbacon78]

Thanks so much for stopping by! :D

[@dafivers4127]

good video, well structured

[@markbacon78]

Much appreciated! :D

[@godcomplex5821]

Love u mark -Zak from MC

[@markbacon78]

Bros supporting bros

[@bryanmojica1517]

Congrats brother

[@markbacon78]

Ty!

[@Leadbraw]

7 months to graduation, im locking in

[@markbacon78]

7 months for the rest of your life. Full send 🫡

[@kaboommie6927]

This has inspired me to rewrite my CV in LaTeX -- just for fun (hopefully)

[@markbacon78]

A true classic, let's gooo! I hope it goes well. Also- did you find the Cowdino Arcade or this channel first? That's a rare thing to happen! (I run both, but it feels far too coincidental for that not to be known)

[@kaboommie6927]

​@@markbacon78 I know both from a few years ago -- I watched your The Witness series quite a while ago (which coincidentally got me into philter) A friend reminded me of this when we were talking, now I'm here haha. Glad I found this gem of a channel(s)

[@gxyxy1012]

thanks for the video!

[@markbacon78]

You are most welcome, thanks for the comment! :D

[@t3chwood]

Awesome vid! thanks for covering your experience. Were you looking for in-person/hybrid jobs, or remote? Also, is it normal for companies to have system design interviews for L4/mid-level equivalent positions?

[@markbacon78]

Glad it resonated! I was looking for any job that would take me haha. I was open to remote because I knew I worked well in a remote environment, and I was open to hybrid because I wouldn't mind an office twice a week or so. Could be a nice space for collaboration since the remote did take a small mental toll on me when I first moved to Seattle and didn't really have friends. Fully in-office wouldn't have been ideal but I wouldn't turn it down. I had a system design style interview in every final panel I had, so I guess so. I think what's nice about it is that system design is much easier to gauge "what a midlevel answer is" and "what a senior answer is". Hello Interview kind of talks about what those expectations would be.

[@t3chwood]

@ Makes sense. Thanks for the response! I’m in a big tech job right now but the work is super stale so i’m thinking of prepping to switch for something more interesting. And will probably look for in-person because remote gets lonely haha. Considering moving to Seattle for it too bc I love Seattle and there’s more opportunities. So it was divine providence that brought your vid to me hahah. New sub!!

[@markbacon78]

Haha that's good to hear! Best of luck with your search 🔥

[@Parriscite]

Just to preface: I think this is a great video with a ton of excellent information, but I had one gripe. At 18:05 you say not to look up solutions until you have completed an algorithm problem. I think if one acknowledges that time and mental energy are finite resources, then for some problems you lose out on a lot of return on investment by sinking a ton into a problem without "giving up" and looking at the solution. Because of this, I think not looking up solutions should not be a hard and fast rule, but one should timebox their effort and not look at a solution without going at it for say ~30 minutes by yourself. To me I think there's a delicate balance between using time efficiently and working/growing your skills by grinding out a problem. If you can't do the problem in half an hour, you've already failed within an on-site context, and if you're spending over an hour on a problem where you might never reach a solution, you're wasting valuable prep time/energy. Open to discussion! Lmk what you think. Thanks for the video.

[@dab_tube]

thank you so much for this, is it possible to share where we can get the templates for the resume?

[@markbacon78]

Glad you enjoyed the vid! I made the resume from scratch in Photoshop. I think I started with one from here: gdoc.io/resume-templates/ and then just took my own direction with it

[@sootynemm]

ling ftw gl with the offers subscribed

[@markbacon78]

Ty ty! Ling for the win indeed 🔥

[@swetanegi6724]

Okay, not gonna lie-the job hunt really took a toll on my mental health… (2024 graduate ). But watching your journey, I can totally relate! I might not be at the finish line just yet, but I'm inching my way there. Will definitely UPDATE soon 🫡. Oh, and you've got yourself a new subscriber!

[@markbacon78]

Right there with you 🫂 Taking breaks is okay, don't forget that! I like the mentality. Definitely update me (and tag so I get a notif!) on how it goes. I'm glad you resonated with the video, and best of luck with your search 🔥 Keep on keepin' on

[@btm1]

You haven't seen nothing yet buddy...just wait until you will have to deal with unreasonable deadlines and difficult clients.

[@markbacon78]

Eh that's every job at some point though. All about how you balance it.

[@Akash_Kumayu]

Okay, ian!

[@dehjo4706]

Did you take Professor Bloomberg's Agile/Devops Software Engineering course?!

[@markbacon78]

Yea 😆 And I tutored for it the year after. That's wild

[@Gaurav-kw8xb]

Thank you Tech Harry Potter

[@markbacon78]

You are... welcome... 🧐

[@ramielkady938]

Ok kids. Now you know. You want a tech job ? Your put your name on the top of your CV; the catch ? It should be title case 🤫

[@markbacon78]

Sometimes I just maximize the aesthetic of the resume because I figure it stands out from generic black and white ones. Idk though, resumes are a bit overhyped imo but of course important

[@actiQ]

Is everybody in this field just okay with packing up and moving wherever the job is? It is impossible to stay in one area that is not a major tech hub and get hired, correct? Wish I knew that going into college

[@markbacon78]

I moved to Seattle when my job was fully remote (within the US) out of choice because I didn't want to stay in New York, not really accounting for whether or not it is/was a tech hub. A lot of jobs I interviewed for were fully remote and/or remote within certain bounds of timezones so they're definitely out there. That being said, incorrect in terms of "impossible to stay in one area" If you want to work in big companies it might be a different story, but on the plus side you might have options of where to work from? Hopefully the RTO trend doesn't fully go back

[@HeySkidee]

video is fire but we can't ignore the fact that the thumbnail is also going extremely hard

[@markbacon78]

That’s what we like to hear 🍵🔥

[@rosepainting8775]

Hey Mark, you worked at Perficient. How was that company? I am thinking of joining it.

[@markbacon78]

All in all, it was a good first job but consulting wasn't for me. There was room for advancement, but as someone who wanted to code and build things, I didn't get put on an interesting project and left after 3 months. Worked with some super nice people though, and I think the org seemed pretty well structured. If you don't like your project, probably best to speak up and/or get on something you find interesting early on. If you're just looking for something to fill the 9-5 though, great work life balance and cool people!

[@grzegorz__]

You pretty often say that interview was a failure (on your side) but i'll tell differently - 90 % of interviews are failure. youre recruited like your project will be going to Mars planet while in reality the project is like going to the grocery store and buying Mars cookies xd interview should be matching the quality of projects company has to offer.

[@markbacon78]

As far as "interview should be matching the quality of projects company has to offer", I totally agree. Some interview processes were better than others. I might be misunderstanding? But a failure, in this case, is simply "not an offer" / "getting rejected". And from those I tried to learn as much as I could. Sure, interviews might be this leetcode hard questions as if the project is some big thing when in reality it isn't. But at the end of the day, you still have to do these interviews to get the job. My studying for it made me a better engineer imo, even if I don't use those skills. Just gotta play the game and make the system work for you, not hope that easier interviews are going to come along (in my experience, they won't).

[@CultureofSpeech]

In the text of almost all job offers you can see that the capitalist Employer wants to pay only for the skills of the employee, however not for the wear and tear of the physical and moral strength of the person.

[@markbacon78]

Pretty much. Given the environment, it's almost better to take the mentality of "taking a job" from an Employer as opposed to thinking of the Employer "giving a job" to someone who matches the skill set. Weird mentality but I think it helps. Thanks for the comment! I like the way you connected to the message.

[@vincentnnyc]

I'm a desktop support and hasn't look for a new job since 2015 since i'm still with my full time job. but back in those days, i used to look for new jobs at craigslist, career builder, monsters, indeed, and dice. Are those job boards no longer relevant for looking tech jobs in 2024? which jobs board do you recommend for ppl that has 20+ years of IT experience?

[@markbacon78]

I have only heard of Indeed in that list, and it felt far down on the list for me. For IT, given it's in tech and SWE adjacent, it might be worth checking LinkedIn and Otta & Jobright (the two I mentioned in the vid, links in the description). The latter two I found were great at matching my experience to relevant experiences.

[@shafialanower3820]

I am assuming you paid for those resume services to get the full effect ?

[@markbacon78]

Not a single penny. Otta/WTTJ and Jobright were both free. When I said I got people to review my resume, it was just friends who were at the same level as me and some friends/past coworkers who gave me feedback. And me just tweaking it on my own. In my opinion, those are not services worth paying for (at least for me) and I value feedback from those who know me & the industry moreso than random consulting companies. The only thing I paid for in this entire process was for Algo Expert, and that was largely because I preferred the framework and service they provided regardless of finding some algo questions on leetcode. I was leaning to pay for something from Hello Interview but ultimately looks like I didn't need to.

[@itsyaboimat2393]

Hey Mark so I've got a question I want to start in Tech but here's my problem I was a firefighter for 11 years and have an opportunity to join a technical rescue team that's pretty much locked in would going the technical rescue route be a better idea then trying to get an entry level tech job in 2024 because I've been heard just take the technical rescue job. I'd start school for tech in about a week

[@markbacon78]

So, when I was choosing jobs or even now just picking between two offers, I asked a lot of people for input. And I think getting a lot of input is fine, but in my opinion you should never ask others what you "should" do. No one has the right answer, if there is one. That being said, I don't know what a "technical rescue team" is, but if it's upward movement + you've been doing this for 11 years, it sounds like that's something you have a lot of experience in, potentially enjoy, and are definitely good at. If you feel like your life is going to constantly be absent and you'll always regret not going to school for tech, then maybe tech is just a path you need to explore. This isn't a question I'll have an answer for, as it's your life, but I can definitely say that getting a job in tech right now is difficult. I'm just a midlevel engineer, and I imagine it's even more difficult for junior levels. If there's a way you can do school part-time maybe you can do both? But at the end of the day, it comes down to your own risk management. Not sure if this helps you, but hopefully you get something from it!

[@monterreymxisfun3627]

What were the unacceptable terms for the contracting company? A non-compete? A code ownership clause, meaning any code you produce, even for yourself belongs to them?

[@markbacon78]

In effect, yes to all of the above. The low-pay was a bit of a pain but it would have been worth it since it was a short contract for a cool company. In short, the contract was disagreeable because: - Any inventions I previously started and continued working on would become theirs during my time - For any company I worked for through them, I would not be legally able to work for those companies for 2 years (this was the big one. If i wanted to work for a company after my 6mo contract, id have to wait 2 years, trapping me with that agency). - Incredibly unprofessional behavior in general; eg spoke with 7 different people throughout (interviews excluded), sometimes having the same conversation twice. Receiving the calls at very random hours. Did not want to be on a payroll if that was the kind of organization going on. They were nice, but as an org unorganized

[@zeeshanashraf1985]

Great Video! Do you coach 1-1 ? Not joking.. I am serious. Need some practical advice in this domain. Can we connect somehow?

[@markbacon78]

Haha- I'm honored, but no not really. You're free to email me some questions (email in my "About" tag on the channel page) and I'll do my best to answer!

[@chombamumba5339]

Don't know why I thought truck was a dog for like 10 minutes

[@harrobye8233]

Rly bad pay. Giving 80k for a first yr role doesnt even cut it , people can barely pay for rent Even 2nd yr role is not much pay increase

[@markbacon78]

I'd hesitate to say say that 80k is really bad, but I do agree people can barely pay for rent. Where you choose to live can be a big part of it (I could be paying triple my rent for a smaller apartment in NYC). The system is pretty shot right now and I don't think it's gonna get better :(

[@staticdev7453]

I don't like data structures and their algorithms, whoever thought these are a good indicator for filtering out good software developers, good job.

[@markbacon78]

In my honest opinions, I think you should work on this mentality. Having a strong understanding of DSA is important to being a good engineer. Do you know the advantages of using a map over a list? Sure. But how about the disadvantages? Are you able to evaluate, in a given scenario, when implementing a graph will be crucial to features you are implementing? All of these DS and As exist for a reason, and a very good reason. From that perspective, it's incredibly important to get a good handle on them. As to /leetcoding/ and algorithmic questions, yea, idk why those are still the norm for filtering out software developers in interviews. They demonstrate when someone can apply DS&As, but it's gotten to something like the SATs (in the US) where those who perform best are simply those who have studied them. Not necessarily those who know when to use them. You may not like them, but they are important (and quite cool once you start using them in your own things). But as filters for job interviews, yea pretty nonsensical when done during leetcoding. I sure how an average software engineer knows advantages to using sets, lists, and maps though. And if you're hiring a senior for a platform with millions of users and/or requests, they better know their datastructures and distributed systems theory.

[@beymaster562]

Congrats man! I love your points and your advice. Kinda in the same boat but with being a new grad & more in the data sciences field. I wanted to know how grind heavy should I be given applying for entry level to jr level roles? I'm not aiming for fanng but still get discouraged on leetcode, sql, data and other questions. My biggest issues is that I can't even land an interview, so getting practice and comfortable is hard. Any tips or words of wisdom?

[@markbacon78]

Yo! Thanks for dropping by, I'm glad you enjoyed the video. The grind in general is tough, and recognizing it as a challenge is a good thing. My path is my path, and yours will be yours, but I can try for some tips haha. In terms of getting discouraged, always ask yourself "why". If a problem is too hard, try an easier problem. If you don't know about the data structure something is talking about, look up some conceptual videos. For me, it's taken several visits to basic material in order to really drill things in (I still struggle to understand Kadane's Algorithm on an intuitive level, but it has made more sense the 4th time than the 1st!) Junior level roles are also an incredibly tough place to be in, and I empathize with that a lot. As you mentioned you're in data science, are there any projects you're working on? I never did any internships in college, but at the end of the day could still talk about what I worked on because of the projects I created (different web apps + a Minecraft server, in my case). I think in the last 6 and a half months of failures, the biggest thing for me was getting to work on my own creation. If no one was hiring me, I figured I'd just start building something out myself. It's a great practical way to develop skills. I guess the point I'm trying to make there is that one can only grind for interviews so much; experience matters, and personal projects are valid forms of experience. As for interview practice itself, I'd 100% recommend looking up " + mock interview" on KZbin or something. Every time a question comes up, practice answering it- talk to your pet, a friend/family member, or even a stuffed duck. Learning to speak and trust your first answer is important, and that's one way to practice. And as far as landing interviews, looking back on when I was applying out of college, I would double down in focusing what you apply to + hyper focus your resume. The reality I "woke up" to is that I was competing with senior level engineers for midlevel roles, and unfortunately you may be competing with midlevel engineers applying for junior roles. While your own personal experience can only go so far, the quality of where you apply is significant. In other words, I saw my success rate go up when I started uses Otta/Jobright because they were giving me jobs that fit my level, not just random jobs on LinkedIn or Indeed. Jobright also has this free (or it was when I used it) resume analyzer that... I think helped? I can't quite give a standard answer of whether or not it helped lol but it gave me more confidence getting my resume out there. That was a lot, but in summary: - Challenge is hard, but good. If it was easy, everyone would do it. - When getting discouraged, ask "why". Change your perspective, change how you tackle things. - Junior roles are tough. Giving yourself experience by working on a project (e.g. something with Kaggle datasets for a data scientist) will pay dividends imo - Practice your answers to common interview questions by "interacting" with videos - Tailor your resume, make 2 or more if it comes to it, with terms closely relating to jobs - Focus your job search on roles for you. Spending the extra time to find postings that are more tailored to you is worth it over shotgunning to everything you find (which also isn't a bad approach I guess) That was a lot of word babble, but hopefully something in there is helpful! At the end of the day, keep up the good work and I wish you the best on the path forward 🔥

[@beymaster562]

@markbacon78 thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you, your video, and you comment tons. Wishing you the best and will be implementing these tips. I have about 1 and half years of internship and applicable experience but still struggle landing interviews even after tailor resumes etc. As you said, I may be competing with mid level, I'll work on playing the numbers game and keep my head up.

[@markbacon78]

Keeping your head up and eyes forward- that's what it's about at the end of the day 😄

[@dublindynamicdrive]

the problem is untalented people called HRs or recruiters are deciding who got a talent or not, by definition it’s dumb and insane

[@markbacon78]

I've had my trouble with recruiters in the past, sure, but calling them "untalented" is a bit much. Working with technical recruiters is always better than those without technical background, but their only job is to a) make sure what is on your CV/Resume is accurate, and b) that you can have a human conversation. Everyone after that is not a recruiter, unless you check in with them. And I've had some great recruiters, but every subsequent interview is with an engineer or something. That's... the least dumb part of the process at all, in my opinion. They're not untalented, they just might not have technical background. But it's not crucial for that part of the interview anyway.

[@dublindynamicdrive]

their ability to toss your cv in a bin simply because they run it through keyword matcher and it didn’t score enough points is a bit much. Even for the ones who got past that filter, they eyeball through your cv and then ask you questions like how many years of experience do you have, which technologies do you have experience with, what’s your current title, etc - read the bloody cv! maybe there’s a mismatch of understanding what untalented means for me and you: i interpret it as someone who doesn’t have special abilities or predisposition to something. One might argue that i’m wrong and their soft skills is what they’re good at, but for me it’s basics: if an engineer doesn’t posses good enough soft skills he can be rejected, but it’s an additional requirement on top of his technical abilities. Also i didn’t mean just software engineering, i was speaking for any complicated enough field, like general engineering, medicine, law, etc. Recruiters might be ok for hiring cleaning managers or staff for mcdonald’s, but i was fortunate enough to be under a management of one senior engineer who sent me some cvs of obviously (to us) excellent candidates which were rejected. He did this because he found it very suspicious our hiring pipelines were that shallow, it was circa 2019 where the market was in a very good shape. That taught a valuable lesson. Fast forward 3 years later i did what once that engineer did: same outcome, some really great candidates got rejected! I asked my manager to make that recruiter to reach out to 4 of them, resulting in 1 successful hire! You don’t need to believe me, i’m not here to convince or brag, just merely sharing my experience of course 2 examples out of thousands and thousands isn’t representative, but… is it really? Speaking to all that recruiters (and hr people in general) they are so alike when it comes to hiring, almost like they were produced on some factory i may be unjustifiably biased but i’m convinced they just suck, not all of them but 90% do

[@ChmmchangaLRD]

Would these resources you provide be helpful for a game dev?

[@markbacon78]

In my opinion, yes- but indirectly. - The resume resources absolutely, very tech oriented. - Algorithmic coding is key for game dev. It's incredibly important to be optimal when doing various operations, esp. graph kind of stuff - System design not exactly, but in my experience game development has been designing a serious of systems that ultimately interact with one another. If you're building up multiplayer game infrastructure, the parallel is a lot clearer. If you're just working on game dev, you could use the framework of system design and slightly alter it (e.g. design an inventory system for Minecraft)

[@ChmmchangaLRD]

@ Well than I’m In school still learning a lot and I want to do a deep deep drive into the whole world of CS. What would you suggest?

[@KhoiNguyen-fj6jp]

even NYU grad also struggle to get a job. bro wtf

[@imerence6290]

I have rarely gotten a feedback from a recruiter :(

[@markbacon78]

It's a rare occurrence, but makes a world of different when you do. Keep on keepin' on! Always good to self reflect too

[@DannyY4real]

Hey great video. What was your conversion rate for an interview?

[@markbacon78]

Thanks for stopping by! Conversation rate between what? I haven't quite crunched the numbers but as far as applications -> interviews, just above 7%. I passed all but one phone screen to land an initial interview. No crunched numbers yet as to how many final panels, etc. I hit

[@DannyY4real]

@@markbacon78 wow that’s actually good. I am in the same as your previous situation. Graduated in 2022, a little more than 2 yrs of experience and also in NYC. Currently looking for a new job since I got laid off. Video was very informative 👍.

[@markbacon78]

Happy to hear it! Best of luck with your search 🙏

[@Griot-Guild]

I missed it on your resume but did you graduate college?

[@markbacon78]

Yea, graduated from NYU in December of '21 with a BA Computer Science, BA Linguistics

[@Ianmat55]

Hmm this may be a long shot, but have you ever taken mma clases in a gym thats under a coffee shop? Also, congrats dude

[@markbacon78]

Ty! And maybe a long shot but indeed I have ahaha ♟️ Injured my foot so I was out for a few weeks but back as of last saturday; lmk when you see me! Small world 🔥

[@Ianmat55]

​@@markbacon78 No way! Very small world indeed. I was only there for a week last year on a short trip. I think you even tried to hook me up with a job referral at the time. Def would like to go back sometime.

[@markbacon78]

Ah I do remember that! Good thing you didn't take the referral, eh 🥲 I hope you've been well

[@Kenny-un6rk]

which FAANG did you get into?

[@markbacon78]

Eh I'm not particularly one for name dropping! I don't start until the 9th anyway. I hope you enjoyed the video!

[@eleazarhernandez805]

SAME on failing the ByteDance initial screen. I will say - there were some fun questions on it!

[@markbacon78]

Sometimes it be like that 😭 It is nice that there were a couple interviews that are actually fun and the interviewers are sometimes a good energy. Replit may have been the best experience I had despite not making it through. Thanks for dropping by the vid!

[@nikhilhalbe]

Cool surname

[@user-ve6em2gk5v]

CONGRATS finding new youtubers feels like a breath of fresh air i will start my cse jouney next year any tips on what to do along the way to be successful? i live in Bangladesh

[@markbacon78]

Thank you- and congrats to starting your cs journey soon! My only real tip is to stay consistent, and don't lose yourself along the way. Be consistent with how you practice and with every step you take in the direction you want to go in. Thanks for dropping by the video! :)

[@HeySkidee]

thanks gang

[@AriAnggooro]

nicee

[@Jaki_to_kolor]

heey, just being curious - what's your mbti/ enneagram? Peace and have a nice one

[@markbacon78]

INFJ! 50/50 on the third one though. Been a while since I've done an enneagram and I do not remember. Thanks for dropping by the vid!

[@Lost1nTranslation]

Do you feel like the gap on your resume started to impact your response rate from recruiters? Did you have any issues explaining it once you were interview? Congratulations and thank you in advance!

[@markbacon78]

Not really; my response rate didn't change to a noticeable degree at all. If anything, having the finalized resumes in September felt a lot better but I also picked up my pace a little bit so it's hard to tell. Something I can try to analyze later, but I doubt there will be any strong correlations. As far as explaining the gap, I think you can do two things: - Force the gap into your conversation (recruiters take notes, at least at my last position they did). I would do interview rounds in "waves" (i kept thinking my final rounds would yield something; 3x they did not). As a result, when I started interview processes in September/October, I simply said that right after we (emphasis on "we", the team) got laid off I rebuilt my website, took a small break, then got into game and web development again and started getting back into applying jobs a little later. In my opinion, it simply matter that I was doing something in the gap, but that's also my nature. I did not want to take an extended break (though if you did say you took a few months to travel the world, imo that's not a bad thing). - Start creating something now to fill that gap. I started a web project (Finite Vault) back in June. It was pretty slow, but it evolved into Infinite Game, something I'm working on still today. I plan on throwing it in my LinkedIn and even on my resume in the future (though hopefully I won't be in this situation again haha). I never did internships in college and thus emphasized my projects during semesters and the kinds of things I got myself to do over the summer (game dev, web dev). It simply mattered to me that I was doing /something/ with that empty time, and I think that confidence carries over when talking with recruiters. Whether it be your own project, open source, etc., I think you just gotta sharpen your skills by doing something practical and, more importantly, that you enjoy doing. In my case, that happened to be applicable to the jobs I ended up interviewing with. That was a pretty wordy response, but hopefully it's helpful! Thanks for dropping by the video 😄

[@WestTechLol]

Two offers after being unemployed for 6 months? You take the job, right? Why wait?

[@markbacon78]

As of recording this, I just hadn’t decided which to take. A great situation to be in! But a choice I made after a fair amount of deliberation

[@WestTechLol]

@@markbacon78 Got it! Yeah, having a choice is a great thing. Good luck!

[@vloggingwithmichael7635]

I juct came here because you're cute 😂

[@nceryu]

20 minutes ad 🎉

[@markbacon78]

?

[@annekitt8006]

You just have to change your hair and you'll look really good! A hair that you have to style. Itll be night and day if you get hair that fits you.

[@markbacon78]

While this does remind me I need a haircut, you're talking to a guy who wears the same color shirt every day haha. Hair styling is a bit high on the perceived effort scale, but maybe one day. I'm okay with how I am now though.

[@mtbr1995]

@@markbacon78 got to agree, better haircut would make you look sharper