[bravetraveler]

Keep in mind I've been where I'm at for about as long as you've been away -- the ground has surely changed since either of us saw it last.

With that said, just apply/get in the mechanics of it. You have a lot of runway, and I think the 'being employable' dance people go through with Leetcode/etc is over the top.

I don't buy this performative dance thing -- ridiculously unlikely problems, take home work, etc. I've never had to go beyond a few conversations where ability and fit is assessed.

Personally I've done well having very little projects to show and no formal education for this work, largely by filtering who I apply for -- aided largely by my network.

As an SRE/Operations person, the most 'code' I can show anyone would be Ansible roles/playbooks I've written, but it hasn't been a challenge.

At a certain point I think the biggest concern is, 'are there foundations we can work with?'

[troutskey]

Getting the applications started and see what happens seems like the best thing to do. It's just that when every now and again I used to open up HN, I would see these clumps of articles filled with Dall-E, ChatGPT etc. and these interesting new innovations, I managed to convince myself that everyone but me now knows everything there is to know about these fancy technologies and that made me a bit worried. But my worries are very likely misplaced.

Thanks a lot!

[bravetraveler]

Happy to offer my input!

If nothing else, I hope getting in the process will help alleviate some apprehension.

You likely will find some questions about the gap, but realistically - life happens. Most people understand this, at least the places where you want to work.

This approach is on my mind because of similar thinking patterns. My current employer is so dysfunctional that I've regressed skill-wise, but oddly found comfort.

I know how to fix our problems, but my ability to troubleshoot has diminished incredibly. Now I'm terrified of trying to survive 'in the cold', so to speak.

Anyway, the thing to do here is be brave - the good thing is, there's not a lot at risk besides time/effort.

[troutskey]

I have no qualms about getting asked about the gap or short duration of my employment because I am sure most will on some level be able to empathize with my situation. It's the idea of automated filtering machines or some person who has to go through 100s of CVs a day filtering me out without giving me a chance to explain that worries me. But that's a chance I'll simply have to take, I suppose.

What you mention about your current employer is eerily like the situation that ultimately led to every aspect of being just giving up. My last place of employment was an electronics startup making a portable version of an Amazon Go store. I joined fairly early and worked on pretty much every aspect from programming arduinos to migrating an old version of the web application, the mobile app and server code. I used to work about 17 hours a day and initially I really enjoyed solving all these different problems. But it eventually got to a point where those were the only problems I could solve and it ultimately came to a head, oddly enough, when I was buying milk at a store. I bought 2 packets and knowing how much 1 packet cost I couldn't calculate the cost of 2 packets. I just broke down right there and knew I needed to take a break. The feeling that I could write a daemon to reconfigure iptables rules on the fly without referring a manual but not multiply a small number by 2 is shattering.

[bravetraveler]

Ah, indeed - that's a fair concern. I was laid off before finding this place, and it took me a lot of applying to talk to people.

Once my foot was in the door things almost went too fast. I received way more offers than I accepted - it's a fair worry, there's a lot of drudgery involved.

Sadly effort is about the only fix - either apply yourself or make a machine :)

That pretty much perfectly goes hand in hand with my experience; thank you for sharing! I don't want to dwell on it, since I don't think it'll be good for either of us... but I can truly relate.

[xupybd]

Most of us work with boring tech solving everyday problems.

[bravetraveler]

Very true, and the foundation for why I walk away quickly when presented with Leetcode style interviews