Ask HN: Is avoiding unpaid career prep/learning a viable path when unemployed?

[spearingthehead]

About 2 years ago I joined a fairly well-known prep program for software engineers on job interviews. At the time I had been one year without a job and with some 8 years of experience, and this program was recommended to me so I gave it a shot. I did the several weeks-long course and the longer follow-up portion which mainly involves applying to jobs, attending one weekly meeting and checking in with my progress.

A year later, still no job offers. Therefore, I ceased doing my follow-up at the end of last year, and this year I really decreased my output for job applications, mainly limiting myself to recruiters. To meet a weekly quota with the interview prep program, I had sent nearly a thousand applications last year. My ratio of applications to interviews was still pretty low with the interview program, so I stopped mass-sending applications.

But I also decided to stop doing things towards helping my career on unpaid time, even as I'm still unemployed. Taking that prep course didn't do anything to net me a job offer and I feel I've put in too much of my free time already for not getting any jobs out of it, so why would I want to keep going when it all feels like a gamble? I want to avoid unpaid career building from here on out. Could this still be a viable path? I'm not going to sign up to anything or do any career-related practice unless a company is paying for it, or otherwise doing it on salaried time. I only make an exception for meetup groups since I count that as socializing and not strictly career-related matters.

A job can hire me and pay me to learn, I have no problem with that. On-the-job training is a real thing. But I don't consider job searching to be a job, because I'm not getting paid for it.

[jameshush]

I’ve been learning Chinese for four years. The first two years, I didn’t bother learning to write. I figured it was a waste of my time. Finally, one day I stopped giving myself excuses, and just sat down and grinded out writing characters for three months. On top of that, I took time off in between jobs and paid for a teacher every day.

Unsurprisingly, my results were huge.

I started applying this mindset to every skill I had a tertiary interest in. Public speaking, marketing, even stand up comedy. Using my own money and any free time I had (tonight I’m meeting with a comedy coach at midnight because of the time zone difference).

I know work in a sales engineer (cs degree) role, get to give fun presentations (public speaking/comedy), and write the odd blog post (marketing) for the company. All these skills I paid for myself with time and money. But the result is a fun and lucrative career that’s only going to become more fun and lucrative.

It sounds like you need a bigger goal. Having a huge goal is a good way to shift your mind from “How do I get paid now” to “How do I get to do what I want to do everyday, and get paid a lot later”

[spearingthehead]

I will never learn anything for free or paying money for it again because it has become ineffective from my own experience. Now, I require a binding guarantee that something has to pay off.

[antasvara]

Is it viable? Probably. Much of the world manages to get jobs without prepping on their free time. With 8 years of experience, it's likely that you'll be able to find at least some kind of job, even if it isn't an ideal fit.

Does it slow your career advancement? Yes. Does it decrease your likelihood of finding higher level jobs? Also yes.

Ultimately it's up to you how you value your free time. There's clear value in skill development and interview prep in that it helps you improve your chances of getting a better job.