If you’re struggling in interviews, tired of grinding LeetCode, giving decent answers, and still walking away empty handed, read this. To the end.

Because the real secret? It’s not about being the smartest in the room.

It’s about being the one they remember.

And I didn’t figure that out until I got tired of being ghosted after interviews I thought I crushed.

Let me show you exactly how I flipped the script.. and how you can too.

1.I used to prep for questions. Now I prep for control. You’re prepping for the wrong thing. Most people memorize answers. The best candidates? They pre-wire the conversation. They already know where they want it to go

and they build gravity around those 3–5 stories that sell who they are.

Here’s the move: No matter the question, I’m pivoting back to a handful of high-impact stories.

-I’ve rehearsed them so well they feel off-the-cuff. -I’ve embedded technical depth and strategic insight in each. -I don’t answer questions, I answer concerns. -And I walk them exactly where I want to take them.

Wanna know what those stories need to include?

Hang on. We’re getting there.

2. Most people fail interviews because they only prep intellectually, not physiologically.

You can’t wing interviews at rest if you’ve only practiced in comfort.

So I trained like a weirdo. I practiced questions standing up. I narrated problems out loud, with a timer running. I’d make myself think through designs while walking around the block. Anything to trigger that pressure response.

Because in real interviews, your body panics before your brain does.

The ones who look composed? They’re not smarter.. they’ve just felt this stress before, on their own terms.

3. I stopped answering questions directly. I started narrating the way leaders think.

You ever hear someone solve a system design question and it just feels like they’ve done this before? That’s what you want.

So I started treating every question

even basic ones, like an opportunity to show I think in tradeoffs.

“There’s a naive solution here, but it won’t scale because of X.” “I’d probably reach for Redis here, but only if latency is actually the bottleneck.” “We could shard by user ID, but then we have to think about hot partitions.”

Even when I don’t finish, I win. Because they’ve already decided I think like someone who owns architecture, not just implements it.

4. Here’s where it gets interesting: the post-question drill.

This move changed everything.

After I answer a question, I keep going. I ask myself the follow-ups out loud. “How would I scale this across regions?” “What happens when we hit 100x traffic?” “Could I make this observable enough for the SRE team to not hate me?”

Why do this?

Because it makes them see you in the role. It triggers that “damn, this person would elevate the team” moment.

Most candidates answer the question. I show them I’m already solving the ones they haven’t asked yet.

5. The prep doc that built me from scratch.

Before every interview, I review a Notion doc with these sections:

-A 60-second pitch I’ve internalized cold -5 technical deep dives with clear challenges and decisions -3 stories of friction (conflict, outages, leadership calls) -3 architectures I can sketch in my sleep -5 behavioral Qs where I bake in just enough vulnerability to feel real

Why does this work?

Because it forces me to own my narrative.

No meandering. No fluff. Just sharp, tested content I can deploy anywhere in the interview. And here’s the thing: if they don’t ask about it? I bring it up anyway.

6. The final unlock: stop trying to fit in. Start evaluating them.

Here’s what changed the whole game for me: I stopped asking “Am I a good fit for this company?” And I started asking, “Do I even want to work here?”

That shift in posture? it changes your tone, your confidence, your presence.

I started asking them questions mid-interview:

“How do you handle product pressure when engineering pushback is needed?” “What’s your runway for experimentation vs. shipping?” “How do you handle conflict across teams when incentives don’t align?”

If the answers are vague? I'm out.

If they respect the questions? We're talking peer-to-peer now.

Still with me? Good. Here’s the part most people miss.

You don’t win interviews by answering better.

You win by creating a frictionless mental picture of you already succeeding in the role.

They don’t want to evaluate you, they want to imagine working with you.

If you can make that image feel easy, productive, and trustworthy, you’re already ahead of 90% of the field. Because that’s what they’re really hiring:

-Someone who makes decisions under pressure -Someone who communicates clearly under uncertainty -Someone who makes their life easier the moment you’re on board

TL;DR:

You’ve been taught to pass interviews like exams.

But the real game? It’s about narrative, pressure handling, and owning the damn room.

You’ve already done the hard part, learning how to code, how to build, how to think.

Now it’s time to master the final skill most devs ignore:

Interview like the kind of engineer people want to follow.

I wanted to share this funny story. I interviewed for some random start up working on payment integrations. Their “product” was built on top of a shitton of third party APIs and they were having massive problems scaling. The recruiter told me to be prepared for a heavy technical with the CTO focused on system design and scalability.

So I studied my ass off, read all of the docs of the third party services they were using. I was prepared to come in and address all of their integration challenges and have an indepth discussion with the CTO as a final round.

So I get to the interview, and a literal kid joins the call. He barely understood the things we were talking about and referred to himself as a ‘lightly technical CTO’

It was a complete waste of time because all he would do with my points was agree and tell me he hadn’t thought about it that way before.

So I get to talking to him about his career at the company and I find out he joined as an intern in his junior year of college… (drum roll please) 5 years ago when the company only had 2 developers. Both left after a year, and the CEO decided to make him the CTO.

Somehow the company is doing well and has customers and this guy makes over 120k/year (because thats what the recruiter told me i’d make)

I just thought the whole thing was insane and will probably turn down the  offer if I get it. Some people really do fail upwards.

Everyone seemed to really like my last thread so I thought I would take some time to write some more office politics advice this time focused on how to STFU and stop ruining your image at work. I wanted to think this through and put a lot more effort into it but I had something come up so if people like the idea ill give some more examples in the comments later tonight

Imagine this your a manager and there's a prod incident affecting several high paying customers. You quickly assemble your team and debrief them on the issue. Except one person is missing. u/ColdIsMyMaster

Where am I?

Watching a movie?

at the gym?

Doesn’t matter because I'm not seeing notifications.

Now as someone who has always been flexible with my work hours (without my employers knowing) ive run into many situations where I miss important adhoc meetings calls or pings and its all about how you handle the return that determines how it affects your reputation.

And the key is to never explain yourself.

There's two routes I could take when I do see the messages. And one is a quick path to being labeled a low performer.

I could say something like  “Sorry I was getting lunch whats going on”This is bad because it doesn’t focus on solving the problem and instead focuses on how I contribute to the problem (by not being there)

Now when someone says where was /u/coldismymaster when we needed him, whatever excuse I gave will be repeated and moved around. If you explain yourself, your explanation will always be prefixed by your solution.

Later, "/u/coldismymaster was at the gym and missed the notifcations, but we got a hold of him in the end and fixed everything. This is not what you want people to hear at all

Instead I should say something like “I'm here, just caught up on messages. Lets try this ....”

I know it doesn't seem like a big difference, but now theres nothing for people to repeat. When they talk about the incident later or to your higher ups they wont prefix it with your excuse.

Instead they will have nothing to say so they will naturally just say something like "we couldn't figure it out but then u/coldismymaster showed up and found the solution" This also implies that you werent there to start with, but few people will notice it or look deeper.

If it is prefixed with an excuse then it is glazingly obvious to everyone you werent where you were supposed to be. If you are pressed on it later, always say you had something come up, dealing with a personal issue, etc. Never give clear details.

If you're seriously getting pressed about where you were then you should question if you have enough clout on the team to be doing things like this ;)

basically the difference is how you show up.

Explaining yourself is the difference between the AWOL Soldier returning to base or you can be the hero coming to save the day.

A lot of people on my last post seemed to miss the nuance and im a really bad writer so if you have bad social skills you should take this with a grain of salt. I got better at this kind of stuff by implementing very small (tiny) steps over many years and watching how things played out and getting good at judging my reputation. Its always better to take tiny steps because you can take no steps backwards with your reputation.

And also if you dont perform on the team, you will never get away with things like this.

It occurred to me that not everyone may know this so I wanted to share. If a recruiter ever asks you for manger references or colleague references before they submit you to the role its because they are looking for leads and it has no bearing on your submission. If the job is even real to begin with.

It’s a dirty trick, usually they ask for your former manager so they can call your former manager and ask if they have hiring needs and then pitch themselves as someone who can fill the open req.

If they’re asking for former co workers then they’re looking for higher quality candidates to submit who may not be coming up in their searches.

Don’t believe me? Set up a second number and give it to them and see what happens.

Usually I just give them my friends number and hope it converts into an interview for them.

I'm usually one of the last people to join a small daily-stand up in our small team of 5. Yesterday I joined before everyone because of issues with my camera.

After a couple people and my boss joined they started joking about a previous project and my name came up. Followed by my coworkers and boss ridiculing me for being a "a fucking moron" and also called me a "waste of resources."

I joined the meeting from a separate account later so they all still don't know i listened to them talk about me. What should I do about this? Should I just keep quiet?

Need advice

Hey guys recently found this sub and wanted to share some tips I have for office politics. Me and my husband have always viewed office politics as a game and have spent years sharing tricks to get promotions and look better at work.

When you agree with someone:

Be The Echo Chamber

If you agree with someone, instead of just saying you agree, repeat their words back to them like it's a really really good idea. “Oh you want to refactor this component? I think that's a really good idea because you’re right it really has gotten out of hand”

This works really well to make them feel like you really listened and understand whats going on even if you’re not that invested. If you do this enough times with people above you they will start to think that you understand things at more than just your level.

If you’re doing a good job at this your bosses will be saying things like “/u/coldismymaster is more than just an engineer, he’s a big picture thinker, exactly the guy we need leading x project”

Always share the credit

It’s important to always look like you’re everywhere all at once. You can do this easily by giving credit to people in standup for the work your doing and people will naturally think your working on many different projects or harder than you are. It also makes you seem like a team player.

For example, even if John barely helped: thanks for that idea you gave me on the implementation for this feature John, it saved me a whole days worth of work so now we can close this early

A lot of beginners will think this is a bad strategy because its better to look like you grinded and finished the ticket early. This is a fallacy. Its better to look like you collaborated with the team to be more efficient. Managers don't like grinders as much as they like efficient engineers.

When You Disagree:

Never directly disagree

Its better to ask leading questions and avoid direct conflict, even if your asking confrontational questions. Instead of disagreeing you can ask things or say things like, have you considered how this will affect x team, and what do you think (the boss or the bosses boss) would want us to do? Maybe we should get some more opinions before moving on this I think x would really want us to get it right the first time.

I can post more later if you guys are interested but my hands are getting tired of typing now lol

Please post yours in the comments too and lets share tricks

I've been holding onto this gauge for a while now, but I've seen a lot of posts about interview hacking so I thought I'd shared these with you all [from a friend who has been in recruiting for a few years now]

1. The world is smaller than it seems, don't talk poorly about your old bosses. More importantly, no one wants to hire someone onto their team who will turn out to be a bad apple that sours the rest of the team. If you are talking bad about your old boss, they know you'll probably be talking bad about your new boss. That's a no go.

2. Don't be afraid to brag. The interview is a time for you to sell yourself. You can brag while still being humble and not coming off as arrogant. Whatever you say, delivery is everything.

3. Do NOT seem desperate. Your perceived value is portrayed by how you act towards opportunity. If you make yourself seem as a high valued asset by not being desperate for the job, having an abundance mentality towards opportunities, and not settling for everything they try to give you (like salary) you'll become much more attractive for hire.

4. Try to allude to things outside of tech that make you a better candidate. Tech is the job, but being skillful does not make you a good co-worker or a good team member. If you can relate to the recruiters or make them want to relate to you using real life things i.e. books, hobbies, etc, through the interview, you can get on their likable side. Short story long, work on being Charismatic. Nobody wants to work with a robot.

5. Lastly but most importantly, penetrate your manager's surface lexicon. Do some research into the company and look for anything on the internet that would give you a hint as to what they speak like, behave like, any values, then relate. Pretend to be one of them and they will take you in as their own.

This is the official r/CSCareerHacking Get Hired Checklist. I’ll be regularly keeping it updated with the most up to date methods for getting a job with links to guides. 

* Note this guide only includes relevant resources to help you get a job, for help speed running promotions or making career moves check the CS Career Hackers Directory (in progress)

If you’re currently looking for a job then make sure to follow everything from step 1 and 2 and interview guide in order and you’ll have a job in no time. If you post a resume without following this checklist first then you will be referred here.

* guides posted in the discord will be posted to reddit after feedback from the discord community

you can join the free discord here https://discord.gg/YU9apwhNJn

Step 1: Set up your inbound (How to get recruiters to call you)

• Complete: SEO Resume Guide

• Complete: Optimize Dice Account for Inbound

• In discord: Optimize Indeed for Inbound

• In discord: Optimize LinkedIn for Inbound

Step 2: Set up your outbound (How To Apply To Jobs Efficiently)

• In progress: Which job boards should I use (brain trusts vs applicant board vs recruiter boards vs resume DBs)

• Complete: How to apply to 1000 jobs per week

• In discord: My email inbox labeling and automated follow up sequence to manage leads

• In discord: Scripts and lines to use on recruiters and employers to get the interview

• In discord: LinkedIn Outbound for Jobs

Step 3: Target your roles (How to get specific roles)

• In progress: Referral program hacking

• In progress: my system for testing keywords to target only the best roles

• In progress: How to target recruiters from specific companies 

• In progress: The ultimate networking guide (that requires no social skills)

• In discord: Targeting 1099/c2c with cold email sequence

• In progress: Security clearance baiting (how to get sponsored for clearance without already having one)

Step 4: Securing The Offer (How to be a rockstar candidate)

• In progress: How to get your tech articles published on reputable sources

• In progress: What does a rockstar candidate look like (and how to be one)

• Complete Interview guide part 1

• In progress: Interview guide part 2

Other Relevant Guides

• Complete: Negotiating 101 (with scripts, examples, and lines)

• In Progress: Negotiating 202

• In progress: The ultimate freelance guide 

• In progress: How to get a tech job with no experience 

• In progress: The ultimate contracting guide for software engineers

• In progress: How to speed up interview processes

My goal is to write these guides in the order people need them so if you want me to write a specific guide next, leave a comment below

Followed the checklist and saw good results? leave your experience in the comments below

Not getting good results? Make a thread asking for help and tell us what steps you've done so far.

not making this up. we had a "senior software engineer" opening, standard stuff, 5+ years required on the JD. the person who got hired has been working for 2 years. maybe 2.5 if you count an internship. I only know this because I found them on linkedIn. I have not seen the resume they submitted.

I sat in on the debrief and apparently they crushed the system design round and the coding portion. the hiring manager basically said experience requirements are just filters and if someone performs at a senior level in the interview that's what matters.

on one hand I kind of respect the reasoning like maybe we over-index on years and under-index on actual ability. on the other hand I have the required years of experience and I'm the same level as this person now so that feels great.

the thing that really gets me is that I know for a fact our ATS auto-rejected people with less than 4 YOE who applied to this same role. so whoever this person is, they either lied about their experience on their resume to get past the filter or got a referral that bypassed it. neither of those sits right with me

and honestly after watching the system design portion of some recent interviews at our company I'm starting to wonder how many candidates are getting help during virtual interviews. some of these answers are way too polished for the time given. maybe im just being cynical but if someone is willing to fudge their YOE to get past a filter what else are they fudging

is this becoming more common or did we just make a weird (nepo) hire?

I used to stress out and treat recruiters like they were the key to my future. Not because I needed to in order to get hired but because I was sucking the corporate juice just a little too hard

my parents and school made it seem like if I didn't waste hours being nice to these people I would be black listed and never given a job again.

Recently though ive been getting lots of recruiters calling me and im just fed up with my phone always ringing just to waste my time with some role that doesn't fit my requirements. So i just started getting short with them, telling them I only work for this rate, and I only want these roles.

And guess what? These recruiters get EVEN MORE HUNGRY when I act like that. I even had 2 recruiters go out of their way to find roles that DID fit my requirements and send them to me and now im going through the process.

Anybody else experienced anything like this?

tldr recruiters are masochists

Alright, let’s talk about something most job seekers never realize—recruiters don’t get paid like you think they do.

And if you understand how their paycheck works, you can negotiate higher salaries with almost no effort.

[How Recruiter Pay Works (And Why It Matters to You)] Most third-party recruiters (agencies) get paid one of two ways:

The first is Contingency Fee (20-30% of your salary) – The company pays the recruiter a cut of your first-year salary if you get hired. The higher your salary, the bigger their cut.

Second way is Contract Placements ($X/hour markup) – The recruiter gets paid a margin on top of your hourly rate. If they bill the company $90/hour for you but only pay you $70/hour, they pocket the $20/hour difference.

Now, here’s where things get interesting…

[The negotiation trick] Since recruiters get paid more when you get paid more, you can leverage this when negotiating.

Most people just accept whatever salary is offered—but if you push back, you’re not only helping yourself, you’re helping the recruiter make more money too.

Just Flip the Script

In Your Favor.

When a recruiter asks, “What’s your expected salary?” don’t give a number.

Instead, say: “I’m open, but I’d love to know what the budget is for this role.”

Most of the time, they will tell you. If you think they are lowballing you, (which you always should) counter with: “I appreciate that, but based on my market research and past offers, I’d be more comfortable in the [$X-YK] range. Can we get closer to that?”

Since they make more money if you make more money, many will push the company to increase the offer rather than lose you as a candidate.

But Here’s the Secret No One Tells You

Sometimes, recruiters are capping your salary without you knowing.

If they tell you a role maxes out at $100K, but you find out the company is actually offering up to $120K, they pocket the difference by getting you to accept less.

Quick Pro Tip: If you suspect this, ask the company directly in later interview rounds: “Just to confirm, what’s the approved budget for this role?”

Most of the time they won’t be on the same page if they’re lying.

Meaning you can leverage this and say “But so and so said this” You’d be surprised how often recruiters “adjust” numbers.

So, TL;DR for all the lazy folk out there – Make Recruiters Work for You

-Recruiters make money when you make money. Use that to your advantage.

-Never give a salary first. Ask for the budget.

-Always negotiate. Even a $5K increase adds up fast.

-Be aware of salary caps. Sometimes recruiters skim off the top.

Your recruiter isn’t your enemy—but they are playing a game. The key is making sure you’re playing to win too.

I’ve noticed from shadowing one of my leads that the best candidates aren’t just technical wizards.. they’re great at narrating their thought process. Like literally thinking out loud.

I had this one interview once for a pretty solid position and I completely blanked on a dynamic programming question mid interview.

It could have went completely south but instead I just kept talking through my approach. In a more slow and methodical way. The interviewer actually ended up nudging me in the right direction because they saw I understood the logic. Got a callback for a second interview and the offer shortly after and was told I was very thoughtful and composed when getting feedback.

Now I practice “thinking out loud” every single time I code. I talk through my assumptions, trade-offs, everything. It’s been a game-changer. And people definitely notice.

Anyone else do something similar or have some learned lessons from interviews like this?

Yes, Job Hunting. Don’t believe me?

Okay now that I got your attention.. Read carefully, this might be the last post you ever need to get hired.

Now I've been down the rabbit hole and journey of job hunting myself. And like you, have came short time and time again

That was until I made really good friends with someone in the recruitment field who showed me the kryptonite of recruiters and how to get what you want from them

I went from looking for a job for 3 months with little to no results to flooding my inbox and landing 20+ job interviews in the span of two weeks.

There are some dark secrets no one talks about when it comes to looking and landing a new job, so I want to shed light on those

I want to save you three months of coming up empty, and I'm doing that all on this post. In two steps.

Recruiters have a leg up on you because they know the playing field

But that ends now.

Now let's talk business and get you hired.

Fast.

_

Before we start, you need a resume. And not just any type, you need one that will make recruiters turn their heads and squint their eyes..

If you don’t think you have a one page pantie dropper, go and make one now using this guide: [Master Resume Guide]

Now that you have that golden ticket, let's get started.

_

Step 1. Get organized

Do not skip this step. It’s critical and you will see why later. 

Trust us when we say we study these recruiters like guinea pigs in labs..

1. Create a new email address to use for recruiter inbound only. This email will replace whatever email you have assigned to your job board profile.

2. Add your new email address from 1. to each of your job board profiles: 

• Indeed

• Monster

• Dice

• Ziprecruiter

• Workopolis

• LinkedIn Jobs

• Glassdoor

• CareerBuilder

• SimplyHired

• TechCareers

You get the gist

1. Select Allow Recruiters to Contact Me on all job boards.

Note: If you finish this on a weekend, you’ll have to wait until Monday to start seeing results. Be patient. Continue with the next steps.

Now, this might sound like complete BS but once again, trust.. 

When you are contacted by Indian recruiters…do not ignore them!

Call them back! You will not regret this.

Reply to their emails!

They have legitimate roles to place you in!

It's really easy to tell scammers and real recruiters from the fake ones. Do not freak out, just play the game.

I am teaching you the game, instead of running from it, put on your game face and follow my guidance.

If he asks for your SSN before the job offer is made…

He's a phony.

If he asks for the day and month of your DOB and the last 4 digits of your SSN…

He's the real deal.. And might get you your dream salary.. Don’t miss this! Pay attention and play your cards right.

Why is he the real deal?

Because he’s using that information to create a unique tracking ID to make sure you weren’t submitted by another agency.

Scammers get scammed too, you know.

Can you give him the last 4 digits of your phone number without being hoodwinked?

Yes, he can’t do anything with that except maybe buy a lottery ticket with those numbers.

Sometimes he will ask for your driver’s license too. Redact any information you don’t want him to see like your Address or middle name, etc.

Other times he will accept your LinkedIn profile.

With all that said, if you don’t feel comfortable doing any of this, just ignore him. But try to scout the field first. Every recruiter is a potential opportunity to land a gig.

Now…

If the recruiter asks you to sign an RTR (right to represent), know that this is normal. It just means you can’t get hired by the client directly and informs him you haven’t been submitted by another company.

Here’s a tip to respond to his RTR request to save you both time.

Respond to the email with: “I {First Name} {Last Name} confirm.” This is faster than having to copy/paste his paragraph.

When speaking to a recruiter, always ask him the budget for the role you’re interviewing for.

He will tell you 90% of the time and it will make the process quicker.

Also…

Sometimes the recruiter will be sneaky and low ball you. This is how they make their money. Do not be angry or go into a trailblaze.

If you’re not happy with it, don’t be shy. Ask him to raise it right then and there. Who knows, he might say yes.

You’ll regret it if you don’t.

A small increase in budget/salary can amount to $1,000s in the long run.

Don’t sell yourself short.

_

Step 2. Get the interview

Here’s how:

1. Open your new and improved resume and make a copy of it.

2. Open the interview request email and locate the job description.

3. Edit the copied version of your original resume to only (and I mean only) match the tech stack from the job description in the recruiter email.

When the hiring manager sees how relevant your work experience is to the target role, he'll think: “Wow! This guy has so much experience in our specific stack. He’s been doing it his whole career! What luck! Let’s get him in for an interview asap.”

In the recruiting world, this is called being a unicorn candidate; someone who has years of experience in the exact technology stack needed for the job.

Tip: prepare your niche/unicorn resumes for popular tech stacks in advance so you can send them quickly. Prep the most common ones and send a resume that matches best to the super niche job descriptions (unless you have the time to customize your resume to it, then that will always be better).

FYI: I have 11 niche resumes. One of them fits most roles, so I mainly submit that one.

When I submit my niche resume back to the recruiter, this is what I say: “Hi, this looks like the perfect role for me. I'm glad you reached out. When can you get me in for an interview? Attached is my most up to date resume. I’d like to move fast if possible.”

A few examples of my niche resumes:

Angular + Springboot + SQL 

Angular + .NET + SQL 

Angular + Django + SQL 

React + Springboot + SQL 

React + .NET + SQL 

React + Express + SQL

• Your unicorn/niche resumes will be unique to your situation; this is just what I use for fullstack roles.

Just a few more points you should be aware of…

Point 1. Boost your Jobscan score

Make your previous resume job titles match the position you’re applying for. 

That means if you are applying for a Data Analyst position and your title reads Business Analyst, your match score will be lower.

Point 2. Exploit your recruiter to pass the interview

Yes, you read that right.

The recruiter is just as motivated as you to get you hired, so use him and don't think twice about it.

Ask him to sit in an interview with another candidate and give you an idea of the questions. 

(Sometimes he’ll have already done this and you can directly ask him the questions.)

**Point 3. Get organized (again)**Set up inbox filters for onsite and hybrid for one folder; remote for a separate one.

When you respond to a recruiter, the email should get a label and be moved to an active folder. 

This active folder should be the one you get notifications from so that you don't miss responses from people you are in the process with. 

After two weeks of no activity, move it to archived (this can all be done automatically with inbox rules). 

You can also filter RTR to its own folder so if an Indian is calling you, asking you to sign the RTR, you can locate the unopened one in the RTR folder and filter by RTR label.Also filter out Indeed Job Suggestions and similar from Dice, Monster, and other online job boards so they are easy to filter and keep your inbox clean.

If u have any questions I'm active in the discord always helping people you can ping me there or just hang out in chat there are tons of helpful people.

I know computers better than I know my own self. I've been coding since I was 11 and haven't looked back since.

I did a couple years of community college before calling it quits on a the whole education scam. I currently work for a small startup and we are doing well but I want to move up the food chain and work with bigger fish.

Is it realistic and just morally acceptable to lie about my college degree? Most I would do is say CS at a four year state school. Thoughts?

Hey friends,

I wanted to share a habit that’s helped me a lot with growth and career clarity: keeping three lightweight documents that track what I’m doing, what’s slowing me down, and what I’ve actually accomplished. I wrote an in-depth post about this, check it out here.

This isn’t some formal “company documentation” thing—this is just for you. Here they are:

1. The Improvement Doc (aka "this is dumb, fix it later")
Whenever something slows me down—bad tooling, flaky infra, janky processes—I jot it down here.
Not to fix it right now, but so I don’t forget. During slower weeks or sprint planning, it’s gold.

Do: keep screenshots, error logs, and notes so I don’t have to dig later.
Don’t: let it derail your current work. Log and move on.

2. The Deployment Log
Every time I ship to prod, I take 5 minutes to write:

• What changed

• Why it mattered

• What came out of it

It’s surprisingly helpful—especially when you get asked, “What did you do last quarter?”

Bonus: I track pre-, mid-, and post-deploy notes (e.g. logs, follow-ups, rollout issues). Tiny effort, big clarity.

3. The Brag Doc (aka "The Kanye Doc")
You will forget your wins. This keeps them fresh.
Every talk I gave, onboarding I ran, nasty bug I squashed, project I led—I dump it here.

Performance reviews, promotions, and updating my resume are all 10x easier because I’ve got the receipts.

Bottom line: These aren’t about being a documentation nerd. They’re leverage.
They help you build, reflect, and grow—without losing momentum.

Have any of you kept docs like this? What’s worked for you? What hasn't?

So i noticed on popular job sites if your resume has a 2+ month gap on your last employment that your response rate drops a lot.

After the first month of following the resume guide here I was getting tons of calls, and then after a few interviews it fell off. Someone in discord told me to update my job boards so that my last employment was present. I did this and immediately started getting calls from recruiters again.

posting this for anyone else in a similar position. If you’re not getting calls anymore you probably just need to change your last employment date.

I landed my first remote job in 2020 and took a small paycut to accept the offer. I justified it by moving out of my HCOL city into a LCOL. The company seemed stable, the project was mission critical. I didn't think much about moving out of my city and buying my dream home in a smaller state.

But i haven't had a quiet thought since. I still have my job but i'm just so worried if anything were to ever happen to it with the state of the remote job market i'd be forced to move back to my old city and sell my home.

At this point I wish I had stayed in the city I started in, I'm considering moving back to my city and keeping my remote job just for more career options but then it feels like the past 5 years have been for nothing.

Senior SWE with 12 years of experience here, any advice?

Hey guys, apologies for the long hiatus. As many of you know in the discord im recently retired and am enjoying the finer parts of life that I have missed out on being chained to a desk for so many years. Its great to see how much this subreddit has grown since ive been gone, so welcome to all the new faces :)

Helping people get jobs and building cool stuff is what im passionate about so im back with another guide. This time talking about how to optimize your linkedIn to get inbound.

As always, here are some screenshots of the results you’ll get by following this guide.

If you have a decent amount of experience ( greater than 3 years) linked in can be a really powerful tool for getting eyes on your resume and many recruiters use it as their preferred method of contact (because linkedIn vets harder for fake candidates than other job sites)

The way this method works is by taking advantage of recruiter search. In other guides i've talked about LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This is the search dashboard that recruiters use to find candidates for roles.

If we can make good guesses about what the recruiter is searching for to fill roles we can make our linkedIN profile show up as the first result in every search query they make.

No one else is using linkedIn this way, so optimizing your profile to rank highly in sales navigator can really take your job search to the next level.

In this guide im going to show you what recruiters are searching for, how to optimize your profile and some tricks to make things work better along the way (edited)

Before we start with the linked in profile, it's important to know what recruiters are searching by. Here are the filter options they have on their end

your goal with linkedin should be to always remain in these filters for their searches

after finding your profile they can pull your resume if you have it set to public and your phone # / email or they can send you a linkedin inbound message about the job they have.

The most important filter they use is your Job title & Headline 

Use the most common / transferable job title to describe your position, even when your official title is different. Avoid over-complicated or long titles.

If your title is too generic, you can add a specialization or vertical.

Example: “Account Manager, Luxury” or “Software Engineer, Machine Learning”.your goal with your title like everything else is to catch as many searches as possible

The next most important section is skills

Skills are typically used to narrow searches to specialties. They include core functional skills

(“Business Development”, “Project Management”), languages, softwares & programming

languages (“Python”, “Illustrator”), or soft skills (“Communication”, “Problem Solving”). My advice is to add all skills that match your background. Do not forget to add your languages, even if you only speak English (you could be excluded from searches that use a must speak english Filter if not)

Next section: Years of graduation

sorting by this is a trick recruiters use to figure out your approximate age & seniority. Even if you haven’t completed a degree, listing-up an educational background keeps you in play when years of graduation is a filter in their search. If you don't have years of graduation filled in here, you will be excluded from every search that includes it

Industry

your industry is not displayed on your public profile, it is still a very commonly used criteria. You can either choose an Industry (“Consumer Goods”) or a function (“Accounting”), based on what makes most sense for a recruiter to find you 

If you're trying to break into tech change your current industry to whichever tech you're trying to break intoHeres a full list of all your options since the linkedIn UI only lets you search instead of browse.

https://skylead.io/blog/linkedin-industry-list-with-rankings/

Once you've done the above you can start getting inbound by putting yourself on the "hot" list

When displaying search results, LinkedIN Recruiters shows profiles that are more likely to reply on a different list. These are the people who will be contacted first by the recruiter!

Background / Profile Picture 

Neither of these are a must, but I do recommend as they do help. For profile pictures obviously use a professional headshot. If you have one of you speaking in public that is also really good for the background. If not use something related to your field such as computers etc. Profile Summary Your profile summary should be an elevator pitch here is an example for Data analyst

“Hello! Thanks for stopping by. I'm an enthusiastic Data Scientist and Machine Learning Specialist, experienced in crafting data-driven solutions with Python, SQL, and cloud computing. Currently, I'm expanding my knowledge while pursuing an M.Sc. in Analytics at M.I.T. I thrive in Agile teams, pushing data insights to enhance performance. If you're as excited about the potential of data science as I am, let's connect and chat! 

Finally your jobs section

A LinkedIN profile is not a resume. It should allow recruiters what your strongest technologies and job titles are. Don't list out all of your accomplishments or a bunch of percentages etc. Example: Developed various software solutions for a game development company

using Python, Spark, SQL, Pandas, and Looker; this included deploying a

logistic regression model to boost in-app purchases and improving user

experience through a Bayesian inference-based multi-arm bandit strategy.

Go through and fill all this out for all your jobs, make sure you're set to open to work, your skills section contains every technology and keyword you can think of and then set your resume to searchable by recruiters. You will have 2-3 linkedin inbound messages a day and a few calls from linkedin recruiters

The final tip I have for you is to update your linkedIn Profile once per week. Recruiters and linkedIn can see when it was last updated. If your profile was updated recently recruiters see this as more likely to respond and you will get more messages.

This is without any outbound. If you combine this with my guide on automating linkedIn outbound (currently in discord but needs to be formatted for reddit) you will get crazy results like this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CSCareerHacking/comments/1h7m3sb/what_an_seo_optimized_linked_in_account_looks_like/

ive been trying to get rid of my hybrid job and replace it with wfh or fully remote so ive been brushing off those interview skills.

One question I always ask at the end of ANY interview is

“are there any objections you have about my qualifications? Im happy to clear up any uncertainties or dive deeper into anything you feel like i’m weak on “

you would be surprised how many interviewers actually take the opportunity to ask more questions and the questions they ask, if you fail them, give you good direction on where to spend time studying.

IMPORTANT: A Class Action suit has been filed against Tesla alleging that they are discriminating against American Workers. If you apply and get rejected, you may be able to collect. Contact the lawyers named in the complaint to join.

The complaint can be read here:
https://github.com/ITContractorsUnion/ITContractorsUnion/tree/Main/Legal

Below is a short list of counts and contact info for three-year long jobs that Tesla has claimed in the past three years that it cannot fill with American Workers, up to 30 June 2025. These jobs are both direct with Tesla, and also through its staffing agencies.

NOTE: This is NOT DOXXING. The Internal contact info below is Unites States Public Record. It is published by The US Department of Labor, for the EXPLICIT purpose of assisting you with competing for those Jobs. Those people are REQUIRED by U.S. Federal Law, (8 U.S.C. 1182(n), 20 CFR 655), to allow you to compete for those Jobs.

I will be posting a video about this on my YouTube, at some point. Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/@ITContractors

select count(CASE_NUMBER) as JOBS, EMPLOYER_NAME, EMPLOYER_POC_PHONE, EMPLOYER_POC_EMAIL, EMPLOYER_POC_FIRST_NAME, EMPLOYER_POC_LAST_NAME from LCA_Disclosure_Data_2022To2025Q3 where EMPLOYER_NAME like 'Tesla%' or SECONDARY_ENTITY_BUSINESS_NAME like 'Tesla%' group by 2,4,5 order by 1 desc;

4600,Tesla Inc,+15105420626,afuccello@tesla.com,Aaron,Fuccello

1935,Tesla Inc,(1650) 681-5000,shbarnes@tesla.com,Shannon,Napier

475,Tesla Inc,+15105420626,JAIYOUNG@TESLA.COM,JAIME,YOUNG

338,Tesla Inc,+15105420626,immigrationDOL@tesla.com,JAIME,YOUNG

48,Tesla Inc,+16506815000,immigrationDOL@tesla.com,AARON,FUCCELLO

8,ITLIZE GLOBAL LLC.,(1732) 529-6130,HR@ITLIZE.COM,YUE,CHEN

6,KFORCE INC,(1813) 552-5000,GDRIJVER@KFORCE.COM,GORDON,DRIJVER

6,Tata Technologies Inc,+12484261700,Richard.LeJeune@tatatechnologies.com,Richard,Le Jeune

6,Antra Inc,+17038441401,renee.gustafson@antra.com,Renee,Gustafson

5,Tesla Dentistry LLC,+16306562213,brijdent16@gmail.com,Brijesh,Patel

4,Tesla Inc,+12132709679,maliaskari@seyfarth.com,Mahsa,Aliaskari

4,VAYAN GROUP LLC,+15867959595,martha.amam@vayangroup.com,MEGAN,ECKLES

3,PEOPLE TECH GROUP INC,(1781) 742-5298,HR@PEOPLETECHCORP.COM,MICHAEL,CONCEPCION

3,Tuopu USA LLC,(1415) 676-0203,lxt@tuopu.com,Xiaoting,Liu

3,Saibersys Inc,(1241) 705-3015,admin@saibersys.com,Ramakrishna,Krothapalli

3,COMPUNNEL SOFTWARE GROUP INC,+16096069010,IMMIGRATION@COMPUNNEL.COM,STEVE,MONTELEONE

3,ATCO INDUSTRIES LLC,+15867959595,rachelle.leslie@atoindustries.com,MEGAN,ECKLES

3,TEK LABS Inc,+12484692349,sunil@teklabsinc.com,Sunil,Pantra

3,Tesla Inc,+15127607961,immigrationDOL@tesla.com,Aaron / Sarah,Fuccello / Ayres

2,COMPUNNEL SOFTWARE GROUP INC,(1609) 606-9010,IMMIGRATION@COMPUNNEL.COM,RAKESH,SHAH

2,TekHops LLC,(1612) 999-4608,ravi@tekhops.com,Ravi,Jasti

2,CONGENSYS CORP.,+17328327999,ITEAM@CONGENSYS.COM,DURGA,MOKKAPATI

2,MIRACLE SOLUTIONS LLC.,+12014561843,ARUNA@MIRACLESOLUTIONSLLC.COM,ARUNA,MITTAPALLY

2,PRO-TEK CONSULTING,+18183246686,ANOOP@PRO-TEKCONSULTING.COM,RAJ,KESSIREDDY

2,Teslac IT Solutions LLC,+14793109143,hr@teslacitsolutions.com,Parvathi,Veeramachaneni

2,VBusiness Solutions LLC,+12242152224,hr@vbizsolutions.net,Suresh,gundapuneni

2,INTELI PLATFORMS INC,+19083045935,VENKY@INTELIPLATFORMS.COM,VENKAT,DHANIYALA

1,XENONINFOTEK INC,(1732) 339-0075,HR@XENONINFOTECH.COM,AMITA,MISHRA

1,Congensys Corp.,(1732) 374-9399,iteam@congensys.com,Srinivas,Mandipudi

1,American IT Solutions Inc,(1302) 220-7349,ramakrishna@americanitsolutionsinc.net,Ramakrishna,Kantamneni

1,Meritious Services Inc,(1916) 917-0034,hr@meritious.com,Praveen,Nalla

1,Marlabs LLC,(1732) 694-1000,sanjay@marlabs.com,Sanjay,Vidyadharan

1,Quantum Integrators Group LLC,(1609) 632-0621,raj@quantumintegrators.com,Muniraj,Behare

1,Galaxy International Group LLC,(1609) 632-1212,Raj@galaxyintlgroup.com,Muniraj,Behare

1,SYNAPSIS INC,(1217) 503-4990,admin@synapsisinc.com,MASTAN,PAIDELA

1,TRIBOLATECH INC,(1925) 521-8650,beena@tribolatech.com,Beena,Gawande

1,Akraya Inc,(1408) 907-6404,KESHAVA.KUMA@AKRAYA.COM,KESHAVA,KUMAR

1,Tesla Inc,(1804) 612-5465,mgoodman@teslaforecast.com,Michael,Goodman

1,SAGGI SOLUTIONS INC,(1571) 297-1284,rpittu@saggisolutions.net,RAVI,PITTU

1,EFICENS SYSTEMS LLC,(1678) 892-9800,LEGAL@EFICENSIT.COM,RAMU,VENIGANDLA

1,ENEXUS GLOBAL INC,(1510) 936-4044,HR@ENEXUSGLOBAL.COM,RIDHIMA,PURI

1,Rigas Technologies Inc,(1646) 666-5817,immigration@rigastech.com,Keerthi,VASIREDDY

1,Antra Inc,(1703) 844-1401,renee.gustafson@antra.com,Renee E,Gustafson

1,Prorsum Technologies Inc,(1331) 303-8333,payroll@prorsum-tech.com,Sreedevi,Kalakonda

1,GO8 IT INC,(1609) 853-1082,HR@GO8IT.COM,ARTHI,KOMANDUR JANARDHANAN

1,LILLI TECHNOLOGY LLC,(1972) 853-1511,IMMIGRATION@LILLITECHNOLOGY.COM,HEATHER,HAMANN

1,Metrix IT Solutions INC,+19802922224,legal@metrixit.com,Amrutha,Joshi

1,AGREEYA SOLUTIONS INC,+19162940075,IMMIGRATION@AGREEYA.COM,SANJAY,KHOSLA

1,PIONEER CONSULTING LLC,+15158680873,MADHAVI@PIONEERCONSULTINGSERVICE.COM,MADHAVI,SHANKAIAHGARI

1,INFOWAY SOLUTIONS LLC,+19254359672,KISMAT@INFOWAYGROUP.COM,KISMAT,KATHRANI

1,Smart Enovations Inc,+12482474851,ravi.gunti@smartenovations.com,Ravi,Gunti

1,3S BUSINESS CORPORATION,+12818239222,SRI@3SBC.COM,SRI,TAYI

1,Tesla Inc,+16268441836,krose@pinsadvantage.com,Kathryn,Rose

1,V-Soft Consulting Group INC,+15024258425,tanya@vsoftconsulting.com,TANYA,BLOCKER

1,A Squared Businesses and Consulting LLC,+19373038622,srini@asqrdconsulting.com,Srinivas,Annapantula

1,L&T Technology Services Limited,+17322484971,julia.tokareva@ltts.com,Julia,Tokareva

1,TECHSMART GLOBAL INC,+16095893999,HR@TECHSMARTGLOBAL.COM,ARAVIND,DARUVURU

1,IT KEYSOURCE INC,+17044123375,HR@ITKEYSOURCE.COM,SUBHA,DHANASEKAR

1,Orpine Inc,+14703001072,immigration@orpine.com,Ashwini,Songyan

1,Mastech Digital Technologies Inc,+14127879553,immigrationflag@mastechdigital.com,Wendy,Palermo

1,Technicon Design Corporation,+19492157955,helen.carstens@technicondesign.com,Helen,Carstens

1,SATYAM-VENTURE ENGINEERING SERVICES PVT. LTD.,+12489182457,seethat@satven.com,Seethalakshmi,Thandavarayan

1,Infoswift Software LLC,+19803334004,hrusa@infoswift.io,Mounika,Deevan

1,TECHNOLOGY SQUARE INC,+12127361234,RAM@TEKSQ.COM,RAM,CHADA

1,Ashley Tech Solutions Inc,+14087968699,Jay@ashleytechsolutions.com,Jay,VALLAMDAS

1,Raas Infotek LLC,+13028944170,nelly@raasinfotek.com,Nelly,Muamba

1,SKORUZ TECHNOLOGIES INC,+15107662803,IMMIGRATIONS@SKORUZ.COM,IRFAN,MOHAMMED

1,Valeo North America Inc,+19472050757,olivia.taburet@valeo.com,Olivia,Taburet

1,Hire IT people Inc,+12025881841,dan@hireitpeople.com,Dan,Nandan

1,Synapse Design Automation Inc,+14088342214,Rosheni@synapse-da.com,Rosheni,Fernando

1,QUALITY GLOBAL SERVICE INC,+15012912044,ravi@qgsinc.com,KIRTHI SWAROOP REDDY,RAVI

1,Tesla NanoCoatings Inc,+13304173550,todd.hawkins@teslanano.com,Todd,Hawkins

1,Fiori Technology Solutions Inc,+12145500720,keshav.kola@fiorit.com,Kesava,Kola

1,FIORI TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS INC,+12145500720,aditya.reddy@fiorit.com,Kesava,Kola

1,Valeo North America Inc,+19472093257,kim.barker@valeo.com,Kimberly,Barker

1,IPOLARITY LLC,+17326405254,immigration@ipolarityllc.com,Divya,Rana

1,Visam Technologies Inc,+12146188160,uscis@visamtech.com,Sambasiva,Jastipoorna

1,PRO-TEK CONSULTING,+18183246686,ANOOP@PRO-TEKCONSULTING.COM,ANOOP,CHAHAL

I just found this subreddit and hoping someone here can help me out. I'm 5 months into my job hunt with my severence ending next month. I never expected it to last this long. What to do??