Navigating Unemployment: Job Search Lessons Learned

Num reflects on his six-month job search, emphasizing the importance of networking and staying proactive in a challenging tech market.

### Navigating Unemployment: Lessons Learned from Job Searching in a Tough Market
* 📉 About six months ago, I lost my job, and now I'm navigating the challenges of unemployment while managing my finances in **one of the most expensive cities in the U.S.**
* 🏡 Living at home during COVID provided a safety net, allowing me to **save money**, and I believe we should **normalize this living arrangement**, especially as it's common in Indian culture.
* 💼 The tech job market is currently tough, and although I received **decent job offers**, I declined them, choosing instead to wait for opportunities that **genuinely excite me**.
* 📝 Reflecting on my past six months, I learned that "**beggars can't be choosers**," yet I maintain confidence in my abilities and believe that it's **only a matter of time** before I find my dream job.
* 🔍 One key lesson I discovered is to "**always be looking**" for job opportunities, as keeping connections warm can make a **significant difference** when you need to start recruiting again.
* 🤝 I also realized the importance of reaching out to former coworkers and maintaining professional relationships, as they can be **invaluable during job searches**.
* 💪 As I began interviewing again, I faced challenges, including a rejection from a company I felt confident about, which taught me that sometimes, even **strong performances don't guarantee offers**.
* 📈 Ultimately, I received an offer from a company I was excited about, but I turned it down due to **unfavorable equity terms**, reminding me that sometimes the **best opportunities aren't the right fit**.

about 6 months ago I lost my job and I'm still unemployed. My severance has since run out. My mom texts me every single day concerned about my well-being and how I'm going to afford rent in the most expensive city in the United States and

for the first time in a long time, when my friends invite me out, I have to look at the number of dollar signs on the restaurant to decide if I can go. Don't worry, I'm not on the streets just yet. Clearly, I lived at home during COVID and

that was honestly a lifesaver because I have some savings now that I can use during these tough times. We should normalize living with our parents. It's quite common in Indian culture, but not so much in others, and I'm not sure why. Now I'm sure you can agree that the tech

market is absolutely trash right now. There really is no argument there, but I can't really blame the tech market for all of my problems because I actually recruited and got some pretty decent job offers, but then I declined all of them. So the obvious question you're probably

thinking is why. Well, in this video, I'm going to tell you. And if you're following the recruiting series, then welcome back. I'm going to reflect on the last 6 months and then tell you all the lessons I've learned along the way because hindsight is 20/20 baby. In this

market, the companies have all the power. So maybe it's about time I just accept that beggars can't be choosers, but I'm not ready to do that because I have confidence in myself. And it's just like I tell all of you, it's not if we'll get

that dream job it's just a matter of when I'd rather take something I'm genuinely excited about rather than something just because here's how the last 6 months have been if you're new to the channel or just to recap my name is

Num I'm a software engineer I went to Rice University and studied computer science I've worked at slumber Microsoft Gusto and then in June of 2020 upon graduation joined Bolt a fintech startup in San Francisco I was there for just

about 3 years of which the first two Fondest Memories ever the last one not so much we had multiple rounds of layoffs and then I was unfortunately let go in June of 2023 and if you want to watch that entire Saga unfold check

out this video right here I signed a severance agreement which covered some benefits and then gave me the equivalent of X weeks of pay if you're interested in a full breakdown of the severance document page by page comment the word Severance below that Severance has since

been depleted and now I'm living entirely off of my savings but just for a minute let's go back to the good old days since I've been working basically non-stop for the past 3 years I never really got an opportunity to take a

break so I purposefully decided not to recruit I had just moved to New York City it was summertime and I decided to just enjoy life for a bit in a way I didn't realize how exhausting it is to do a job and I'm not talking about the

coding, or debugging, or even designing the fun stuff. I'm talking about all the work you do just to make it look like you're working. The Slack updates, standups, responding in Threads messages, or what managers like to say, 'optics'. Well, for the first time in a very long time, I

had no optics, no one to respond to. I could just truly be myself. My time was my own. Without digressing too much, I enjoyed a summer in New York City, one of the best things you can do. I spent time outdoors. I experimented with new

creative YouTube videos, and then some days I just bummed on the couch and watched TV. It was a well-deserved break, and honestly, the first time I just said 'FU' to hustle culture and did nothing. At some point, it became evident that I needed to get a job for two main reasons.

One, I needed money. Money is nice, it buys things. And two, I was getting a little bored, and I've never felt this before because when you're working, you always want to not work. But try it for a bit, just go do all the things you've been

meaning to do, that you've put off. And at some point, you'll get bored of that too, which is a good thing. It means you've recharged your batteries and you're ready for something else. So, I started looking, and that actually brings us to lesson number one: always be looking. It's

like the common adage, 'always be selling.' At least that's what investors tell founders, 'always be closing.' Well, I'm realizing that's exactly how recruiting is too. It doesn't matter what you're doing, you should always be recruiting. In the past 3 or so

months when I was just chilling, I should have put out feelers and set up coffee chats and passively applied to companies online. You don't have to be in full recruiting beast mode, but keep the leads warm. Put a little bit of effort in.

because once it gets cold and you have to start from scratch, it's so much harder. For what it's worth, I'd actually gone through a pretty intensive recruiting cycle in Spring of 2023 while I was still employed, so I guess I did

listen to my own advice back then. I'd actually gotten some pretty dope senior software engineering offers, but I ended up turning them down because my manager convinced me to stay, which I know was a mistake because in just a few weeks after that I was laid off. Super messed

up. I know I'm over it. I've healed. Thank you. So anyways, I decided to start looking for jobs the first week of October, like just about October 1st, 2023. But this time it's not proactively like in the spring, it's out of necessity and

honestly, I was pretty complacent because in the back of my mind I was just like, 'Oh, the offers I got in the spring, they'll probably take me back if they have headcount.' I mean, yes, that's how it usually works if you think about it from

their perspective. They spent so much time, energy, and resources hiring me. They liked me. I was ready to come but then decided not to. So, as long as there's no burned bridges, we should be good. Lesson number two: always reach out to old flames. No, I'm not talking about your

ex-partner, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever I'm talking about your ex-coworkers, managers, friends, as long as you didn't burn the bridges, that's a professional relationship you can leverage. So I started to reach out to my network, but I'm not going to go into a full

recruiting breakdown of the entire process yet, since it's not over and I don't have a job. Imagine if I titled this video "How to Get a Job" but then I'm unemployed trying to give you advice. That'd be a little strange, but what I

can tell you is what I've been through so far, the experience in these last 3, 4, 5, 6 months. Here's the first conversation on the calendar. The company I'd already gotten an offer from in the spring, George picks up, my heart is

beating super fast, my hopes are up and I don't want to recruit if I don't have to. So if I can just accept this, be so great, but they unfortunately tell me that they just don't have the headcount. They're super nice about it and this company is

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AI Essentials. Now let's get back to the video, so then I continue looking, I set up some first chats, do some first round interviews and they go okay, as good as you'd expect the first couple interviews after a long time of interviewing to go.

to come across as competent but confident, but not too confident, so humble at the same time. That's a fine line, it takes practice, and the only way to get better is by doing more of them. People are so obsessed with LeetCode questions and yes, that matters a little,

but doing real interviews, not mock interviews, not practice interviews, that's how you get better. You need to fail, make a fool of yourself and feel embarrassed when that call ends and you're like, "Oh my God, what was that?" That's how you move forward. Lesson

number three, do real interviews. By this point I've done so many first round chats and companies are telling me that they're looking for more senior engineers with one company actually having two levels for senior, they have like a junior senior engineer and then a

senior senior engineer I know it's super strange but I apparently fall in the middle of the junior senior engineer and they want the higher one it was crazy then there's this one company that's objectively not that good I'm not trying to be entitled I'm just saying compared

to even in this trash market the compensation offers the caliber of engineer the caliber of company you can get this one wasn't it it's Warner Media Pretty Legacy entertainment powerhouse and then I absolutely crushed it which this is the first time in this

process that's happened I walk out and I'm like oh my God 45-minute interview I did that in 15 minutes all test cases passed code was clean there's no way I don't get the offer well isn't it only when you feel so confident that things

don't go well because I've done interviews where I feel like I failed and I somehow magically passed but it's never the other way around why why is that why so yes they reject me and the recruiter calls and he's like hey um

quick question I know you didn't but just in case had you seen the interview question before or did you use AI to solve it I was like what no of course I didn't he claims that that didn't contribute to the rejection but come on

let's be honest if they had any inkling that that's what happened during the interview they're not going to take a chance so they rejected me now I'm not trying to say I didn't pass cuz I was just too cracked but I guess they think

I cheated, but I don't even know what advice to give you here. Like, maybe make more mistakes, which is mostly me trolling, but I'm not sure. I guess look more human than I did. Lesson number four: be good, but not that good. Again, mostly trolling, but I guess in the age of AI with all these LLMs, you could have it open on another monitor, so don't do that. But when you're doing the problems, I guess speak more to the camera, maybe stutter a little bit, act more nervous.

I'm not really sure. It hasn't happened again after that, but if it does, I'll let you know. So by this point, the first interview I crushed, but then got rejected. Definitely broke my morale, but no worries, the story gets better. I get an interview with a company I'm actually

really excited about for a couple of reasons. I use them, they're really good, and my ex-coworker works there and only has good things to say about them. So I mean, that's that's like a winning combo. Unfortunately, the job description says

they're looking for six plus years of experience in the industry, but also more specifically in Java. And the last time I used Java was in college. We had a couple of classes, a couple of assignments. There's no way I know how to write industry-level Java, and honestly, I don't even remember

the syntax anymore. None of my internships used Java, and both used Go. So this is right about the time when I fly back to Houston to be home for a bit. So I decide I should probably start prepping. No distractions, regardless, I end up applying with my friend's

referral and get the interview which just goes to show you that even though the job description says I wasn't qualified if you have a warm internal connection they can go to bat for you and you can kind of finesse your way. Lesson number five: always get referrals.

I was so hyped but also so nervous cuz I actually really wanted this job so I wanted to do well. Shout out to my boy for the referral. I end up going home and then I relearned Java from scratch essentially in two days and I live

streamed the entire process. I'm not sure if any of you tuned into that. I pull up for the first round and I actually end up passing with the only feedback being that if the candidate knew more Java they would have done better but all the skills were there. So thanks to the

interviewer for realizing skills matter, not programming languages. Anyways, I get the onsite but now I'm even more scared cuz it's a system design interview and I haven't done any of these yet. If you aren't familiar, these are really important for any role that is basically

not "nrad" software engineering, and you can't really get any offers that are senior unless you kill the design portion of the onsite. Which makes sense because the hardest part of building new features is designing them in the first place, not just to work correctly, but to

also be extensible, scalable, and all the other buzzwords. And while I've worked on my fair share of medium problems, I'm still quite junior in the grand scheme of things. So I haven't worked on any Netflix level architecture that I can talk about confidently. But we out here.

and we try our best I was doing a lot of these first round interviews and even some virtual onsites from home either in New York or in Houston but this specific company's onsite was actually in their downtown Manhattan office remember when on-sites meant that

companies would fly you out put you in a hotel and then you would interview onsite like literally in a conference room with these other real engineers yeah the good old days pepperidge farm remembers I'll spare you all the details but if you're interested just

comment and maybe I'll make a video with like a real deep dive of this specific interview and maybe some other ones too but I passed yes I passed the onsite I passed the system design interview I have no idea why because my system was not that efficient but I think I just

really got along with the other two interviewers in the room and I think people forget how important that is lesson number six don't forget the airport test people are so caught up in doing well in the interview like actually passing it in terms of code

quality or correctness that they forget that they're going to have to work with these humans and these humans are going to have to work with them and that might matter even more than getting the question right it's like the vibe or the airport test where essentially if you

were stuck in an airport with one of these co-workers or this candidate you're interviewing would you hate your life or would you go and grab a drink with them you'd obviously want the latter because it means that they fit in with your culture and you enjoy being

around them anyways I end up getting the offer just about a week later and I am hype, but there's one thing no one told me which was that this company gave you equity that was backdated just like Amazon, where your equity grant was

weighted towards your later years instead of your first couple, so if you had a 4-year vesting period, you'd only get 15 or 20% your first two years and then the bulk of it in your third and fourth. From the company's perspective,

this makes sense because it incentivizes employees to stay longer. They have to if they want to get the bigger parts of their equity grant, but I'd already been burned from one startup before and I wasn't trying to F around and find out again. I asked if the equity terms were

flexible, but they said no because they weren't going to make an exception just for me. At this point it didn't matter that the company was profitable, that they were probably going to IPO soon, or even that the dollar amount of equity they were giving me was substantial. I

just didn't want to get locked in like that, so this company ended up becoming the one who got away. It was a little sad because I was going to get the opportunity to work with one of my ex-co-workers again who's actually on the

same org as me at Bolt, but it wasn't meant to be. It's okay though, he lives in New York, I see him all the time. We're good friends. Last but not least, I know I'm missing the two stories I promised you, the company I really wanted, but I

just failed the interview and the company that I wanted, I got, I started celebrating and then they said actually sorry no. Well, as I'm recording this I'm realizing this video is becoming really long and those two other companies, they deserve videos of their own because the

tea is quite hot and spicy Masala chai, so I'm going to make a game time decision right now. Sorry to my editor who's probably editing this video right now, we're going to extend our original recruiting series, we're just going to keep these stories going so you can

follow along as I get that coveted dream offer. We already talked about the broken senior only developer market, I shared every single interview question I've been asked so far and now you know what the past 6 months have been like. Next up is the almost

$500,000 per year offer I just didn't end up getting and that company that pulled it away at the very last minute. So much more to come, stay tuned, cheers.

If you can't find a job right now, you're not alone...

Namanh Kapur

Job loss six months prior, severance depleted, financial concerns in an expensive city.

Limited social activities due to financial constraints.

Living at home during COVID helped save money.

Reasons for Declining Job Offers and Lessons Learned

Reflection on the past six months and lessons learned.

Confidence in self and desire for a fulfilling job.

Introduction of the speaker and background.

Lesson 1: Always be looking for job opportunities.

Lesson 2: Reach out to former colleagues and managers.

Initial contact with a company that previously offered a job; they lacked headcount.

Early interviews went well; focus on appearing competent and confident.

Lesson 3: Do real interviews to improve skills.

Aced an interview but was rejected, possibly due to suspicion of cheating.

Lesson 4: Be good, but not too good (in the context of AI).

Interviewed with a desired company; lacked sufficient Java experience.

Passed the first round despite lacking Java proficiency; skills mattered more than language.

Passed a system design onsite interview; importance of interpersonal skills.

Lesson 6: Don't forget the 'airport test'—cultural fit matters.

Received a job offer with backdated equity; concerns about vesting schedule.

Declined the offer due to equity terms; reflection on the missed opportunity.

Plans to continue the recruiting series with more detailed stories.

Preview of future videos: a near $500,000 offer and a last-minute rejection.