[oortoo]

Obviously, learning all popular tech stacks is not entirely realistic, but IMO when a SE or any engineer is looking for work, at least 1-2 months of researching and getting proficient with the full breadth of what's out there for your interest is going to pay off.

Unless you are moving jobs to just do the exact same thing somewhere else (who wants that) you kind of have to take it on yourself to show up the the interview appearing like an expert in skills you hope to get to really grow comfortable with on the job. You may even need to exaggerate your experience.

Ultimately, specialization should be more about how you think than what facts you know, but the hiring market won't see it that way, meaning you need to just get really good at faking it and not be afraid to back it up later after some late-night study sessions.

The other half of this is that 'levels' don't always translate across environments. Just find work that resonates with you, and you will move up. Obsessing over the level (or even the pay) is probably limiting.

[neilv]

> You may even need to exaggerate your experience. [...] meaning you need to just get really good at faking it and not be afraid to back it up later after some late-night study sessions.

Please don't do this, and don't normalize other people doing it.

Dishonesty isn't something I want to have to be understanding about in colleagues. Like, maybe they just see it as a little while lie, and some job-hunting Web pages told them is ordinary to do, and you'd be at a disadvantage if you didn't do it, and you're even to be commended for your scrappy can-do resourcefulness in fudging. I'm ready to be understanding about many situations, but I want dishonesty to be something we can summarily nuke from orbit.

Also, when I'm in an interview to possibly join a company, I don't want there to be more rationalization for crappy interview process. ("I see from your resume that you have decades of experience, including sole author of open source packages, but you could be lying about all of that, you dirtbag, so let's derail this meeting by focusing all our energy on some BS test that's been gamed to heck.")

[singron]

I was really amazed about how many people lie on the resumes. E.g. a recent study [0] said 70%, but there are many of these with similar numbers. There is a difference between putting your best foot forward and just straight lying for financial gain, which is fraud, and can (very rarely) send you to jail.

Personally, if I suspect dishonesty, it's a strong no-hire. If I even get a whiff of dishonesty, I'll at least flag to recruiters, hiring managers, and interviewers, and we've actually compared notes and realized a pattern of behavior before.

It is hard though since a lot of the stuff they would lie about are things you can't verify.

0: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2023/11/05/70-of-...

[otteromkram]

> Please don't do this, and don't normalize other people doing it

Unfortunately, that's how the competitive market works.

People shouldn't be penalized for the tech stack that their company used vs. what companies are looking for. Skills from one platform to another are very fungible (eg - Java/.NET, AWS/Azure), so "beefing up" a resume is what's required if you plan on getting any calls back.

> Dishonesty isn't something I want to have to be understanding about in colleagues.

I have some bad news for you...

> .. I don't want there to be more rationalization for crappy interview process.

No one is forcing you to participate in interviews which require doing a coding test or system design review. You are more than capable of withdrawing your candidacy.

I would bet that a lot of equally-skilled people are lining up behind you and ready to do that extra work in order to stand out and get a job. Don't place yourself on too-high of a pedestal, my friend.

[neilv]

> Unfortunately, that's how the competitive market works.

That's how some people think the competitive market works. It's not universal.

Which is why I just contradicted that, and called to not encourage those beliefs.

Put loosely, half the job of an engineer is to tell the truth.

What I think you're characterizing is a corporate bullshit shoveler who just wants to go through the bullshit motions to get a paycheck.

I really don't want some impressionable junior engineers to see multiple people on HN encouraging lying.

I do not want to wade through that, to separate the merely misled junior engineers, from the hopeless anti-engineers.

> You are more than capable of withdrawing your candidacy.

And I do. But I'd prefer that the situation improve.

[okr]

I am pretty tolerant when it comes to not knowing things or time for learning new skills. With this fast changing industry i can not help it but tolerating.

But when i catch someone lying at least twice about something technical, i do my part to make sure the person is not hired or next to leave. There is no trust.

[lazide]

An engineer who can’t admit they don’t know something when it matters is actively harmful to the work of engineering.

[mrexroad]

This. I am genuinely excited when I am faced with a problem set where I don’t know something (e.g. need to research, explore, gain a skill, or otherwise educate myself) — seriously, it’s the best. The only thing better is learning (or being told) that I was wrong about something and then re-evaluating my belief/understanding stack in order to find and correct the error. I have such little patience for folks fronting or faking knowledge/expertise - it’s such a fucking waste of time for everyone else.

[bavell]

> An engineer who can’t admit they don’t know something when it matters is...

a bad engineer.

[entropi]

While I agree with you on the principle, I would not blame anyone who lies in such a BS market to be honest.

If for a person, the choice is between not being able to pay rent because they had 6 years of experience in a given stack instead of 8, vs. exaggerating in their cv, I dont think it is reasonable to expect complete honesty.

Also we all know most of the companies are often very dishonest, so why should we expect complete honesty from the workers?