HACKER Q&A
📣 failwhaleshark

How to get a Sr SRE/PE job without a standard corporate ladder resume?


Every job these days seems to only want to hire people who haven't had any gaps in employment. I went into startup consulting for 5 years, which didn't lead to official roles, and then I didn't have a choice when I had to take care of my semi-disabled mom for 2 years overlapping the pandemic.

It's like starting over having no experience and them waving an "experienced candidates only" sign.

So how do you get a job if you have the experience but can't "prove" you're "proven"? I'm not going to lie on a resume like a roommate candidate did.

Also, I'm thinking about turning down a FAANG interview because they want me to invent a resume, I hear they're extremely ageist, and they're aggressively promoting under-qualified people to meet artificial "diversity" goals. "Promoting all people" is the copy on their website, but that's not what they mean.

Should I just become homeless and give-up on the delusion of ever getting a mid-six-fig gig?

  👤 PragmaticPulp Accepted Answer ✓
> I went into startup consulting for 5 years

5 years of startup consulting should have put you in touch with a lot of people. Have you tried tapping into this network?

> Also, I'm thinking about turning down a FAANG interview because they want me to invent a resume, I hear they're extremely ageist, and they're aggressively promoting under-qualified people to meet artificial "diversity" goals. "Promoting all people" is the copy on their website, but that's not what they mean.

You can't complain about struggling to get a job in one paragraph and then suggest you're going to turn down an interview in the next.

Drop the cynicism. Write a resume. Talk to the interviewers like peers and fellow humans. See where it goes. Stop enraging yourself about things you heard about a company before you've even interviewed.

> Should I just become homeless and give-up on the delusion of ever getting a mid-six-fig gig?

I think you need to set aside this idea that you're uniquely victimized. Prepare resumes, apply to companies, engage with them honestly. There is no secret. Put yourself out there and check your cynicism at the door.

It's hard to say without seeing your resume and experience during this 5 years of consulting, but at some point you have to accept that it might not be realistic to ask companies to skip you up the career ladder unless you have some concrete experience and results to show them. If you can't even be bothered to prep an honest resume for a FAANG interview, how are these companies supposed to judge your experience level?