>no one wants to give me work as a engineer because they think I'm too senior.
I read this as "we're afraid that if we offer him a mid-level role as an engineer, he'll get bored and leave to start another company".
Considering your background, I can see how that would be a common concern so maybe in the next interview it might be worth blatantly stating that you really are committed to a full-time engineering role for the next few years.
> But then why do I interview you? Why would I recommend you as a candidate for a position?
Presumably you have tasks that you want performed in exchange for money? (Or want to improve your position in the company hierarchy by having more people under you or whatever).
I don't know if I want to work with you. You haven't done excellent job of
selling yourself to me yet (especially with posts like this).
Moreover, most probably it's you who hasn't done your homework when redacting
job post. It's probably another "young company with long traditions" and
"international market leader", requiring "proficiency with Oracle, .NET,
Tomcat/JBoss and ActiveDirectory" and offering "dynamic team, competitive
salary and opportunity for professional development". Why would I feel at this
point the desire to work specifically with you? How do you differ from all
the others in the market?
And if you are too busy to do your job of looking for a good candidate, then
a) you probably should change jobs, and/or b) I don't necessarily want to work
with you. It's possible that there is more people acting incompetently in your
company (either because the people are just incompetent themselves or because
company doesn't give them possibility to act competently).
"So are there any real qualifications for this job? I’ve thought about it quite a bit over the last few weeks. And the only clear almost un-negotiable one I could come up with is that you have to be a guy. A guy who’s been in a serious and stable relationship for a significant period of time. That’s it. Every boss I’ve worked with well has met that criterion. Weird, huh?"
> At what point do you think taking a step back in seniority is worth it?
If you don’t get offers at the level at which you feel best matches your level of experience it may be time to adjust your expectations. If you apply for a position and the firm feels your skill set is better suited for a more senior role then your all set.
It’s not personal. Management loves hiring competent people for the positions they need filled and don’t like hiring people without a skill set that can make their team meet expectations.
> Unfortunately, I just learned that I'm not getting hired.
Seems like a ton of effort to go through to not get hired. I'm curious as to why he wasn't hired; IMO it seems kinda strange to go through 8 interviews only to be rejected.
> I would literally throw away my senior SWE status to join any of the aforementioned companies as a junior SWE level.
Sorry to say it but if I was a hiring manager and saw someone with senior experience applying for junior positions that's a red flag to me and I would be thinking they probably have big confidence problems.
> I have pretty specific professional interests (in an area that I'm quite experienced in) and aiming high, so there is not a lot of vacancies, that I'd be willing to consider. After filtering for remote-friendliness, what I'm left with is just a few positions.
There's your conundrum. Having specific professional interests in an area you're experienced in is great...assuming that specialization has enough market demand liquidity for you to not be in this situation. If that's no longer the case, perhaps it's worth asking if you'd be willing to negotiate on what you're looking for?
I've done a variety of things so as far as what I have been looking for with my current search, it's really more a high growth company that places a premium on backfilling senior talent, which likely means I'll get (read: have already gotten) a very attractive offer. It's true that this means I am somewhat compromising on picking specific things that I want to do, but the reason I do it is because I'd rather bet on a company than a role, and if I do it this way, I only really have to find one company that has more to lose by not hiring me than hiring me.
I guess that's probably the advice (perhaps unsolicited) I'd give to you -- are you flexible with what you want to do but want to be well compensated and work with a company that has defensible growth? In that case, it might make more sense to take a position that might not be ideal today but is in a growing org where you can make it closer to something that would have the specifics you like. Do you want to do a very specific role? Well, unless it opens your pool of potential companies rather than closes it, you'll have to work within the diminished market demand for it, which leads the the sort of frustration you express.
From the post it doesn't sound like he's picky.
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