If you're in America, you're fucked. One mistake and your marked for life. Be that legal issues, work history, etc. We'll hold that shit against you until you die.
Barring a criminal record, America is the land of second chances. People come from all over the world to start a fresh life here. If it can't be done here, it can't be done anywhere (except maybe Somalia but that's absolute anarchy).
Look at job applications. Some ask if you've ever been arrested or charged with a crime - not convicted even. Guess what, you answer yes for some stupid summary offense like having a dog off a leash and your application is in the garbage.
I see tons of bias in hiring too. What about people that take a break from working due to childcare, medical issues, etc? They struggle. There's a never ending amount of those stories that show up on HN. Maybe some get a second chance, but it might take years if they ever get one.
It seems like many places in Europe have better options for second chances from the legal perspective. Perhaps better from a financial standpoint with the support programs too.
To clarify, I have a degree, worked at a faang and have a squeaky clean criminal record. However, I hopped around early in my career working for a number of startups tried to found a few as well. I walked away with great experiences, but after attempting to transition to a TPM role I seem to have black balled myself in the process. Yes, I understand the market isn't great but at 5 YOE I feel hopelessly lost and only manage to get a handful of interview offers...
Currently doing a startup but I'm starting to feel like this isn't what I was built to do.
> It seems like many places in Europe have better options for second chances from the legal perspective. Perhaps better from a financial standpoint with the support programs too.
One reason Europe doesn't have startups is that it's so shameful for your company to fail that nobody would ever consider risking it.
I don't know, but that question implies that going bankrupt is common for startups to the point it is a blocking issue. And that in Europe doing so is more problematic than in the US. Is that the case?
Yes. It's very common for startups to go bankrupt, that's sort of the point actually, and it needs to not affect the founder's life too much when they do.
Because it's not even remotely true. I've been homeless, divorced twice, kicked out of a school under suspicion of crime, driven nearly insane at one point, desperate enough to embezzle cash from a retail employer 21 years ago, guilty of arson when I was teenager. I still have a perfectly good job that puts me in a higher pay echelon than I ever would have imagined at one time in my life, even a top-secret clearance. I owned my past mistakes, cleaned up, and am entrusted with state secrets. America is the land of second chances. Look at our last two presidents. Perennial fuck ups, and depending on your party, at least one of them is probably a criminal.
> If you're in America, you're fucked. One mistake and your marked for life. Be that legal issues, work history, etc. We'll hold that shit against you until you die.
Puritanical standards like this seem limited to the east/midwest; the west coast is much more forgiving (IME).
Also a heavy case of survivor bias, but my career history was also imperfect around the same time as OP when I applied to Facebook. No college degree, born in the wrong city and economic level, etc.
I had a huge bit of luck working for a startup in early 2000s that was acquired by Yahoo (ha ha shut up). They overworked me and even screwed me out of my promised shares but I had that pip on my CV. Went to work at a couple of other places later, mostly chosen for interesting work. Later later had the dubious luck to be bought by Yahoo again, and parleyed that plus contacts to get an invite to Facebook.
I bombed the first round of interviews. Only by the strength of my contacts and unexpected help from people I didn't know but for some reason wanted me there, I got another chance and joined a couple years before the IPO.
TLDR: this story has almost nothing to teach you or replicate. Except! Not having a mainline pedigree is a handicap but not necessarily a career death sentence.
I feel lost because I get the impression from my resume I look like damaged goods. I've had some recruiters give me solid pointers on my resume and things have improved slightly - but right now I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and wasting time trying to "make a living" doing this like I used to. Making less than my initial FAANG offer after college also hurts.
Listen. I don't know you and you don't know me. But I know and you should know that no one is "goods", damaged or otherwise. You are not a broken toy. You are not and never have been a box of clever tricks arranged wrongly or rightly. You are a person, with talents and dreams and all the other things that you should never forget you have that make you a person.
Labor markets are sometimes shit. Sometimes the skills you have are no longer in fashion. I don't know the answer to your situation. But, from experience, I suggest that if things are tight then the thing to do is find work that pays the bills today but also build skills that will pay off tomorrow. Life is long and it's only an always up elevator for the lucky few.
I don't have specific advice, but I've found that it helps to analyze the business your company is in in the same way you would analyze the code on your screen. What are the inputs and outputs? What makes it all work? Etc. if nothing else, that might help understand why the labor market is shit, and what you personally can do about it.
