alex-yo

So, I'm looking for a remote job. This is quite disappointing. I have applied to about 40 job offers. 25 companies didn't even respond, which is strange. 5 replied with "no way, sir".

However some of them did it in a strange way. One replied "you have no suitable experience", although I met all the requirements (which is not common). One of them even gave me a task to do. I did, they also replied with the above answer. Two of them gave me quite complicated algorithmic tasks to implement during the interview, in 10 minutes. I had to think about that because those were not things I was doing for the last 14 years. I almost did that. "Almost" - that's why I didn't get those jobs.

The most disappointing part is answering a question about the salary. There is just one shot. They ask, I reply (giving not a huge number adding that I can accept lower figure depending on many other factors, so let's talk). Then they answer "this is too much, thank you, you don't get this job". That's all. There is no way to negotiate anything. They don't respond to any further emails.

Also some people asked me through HN to send them my CV. I sent. Just one person replied.

Another funny problem with the job hunt is that too many companies are so funny that they don't add the set of technologies which are required on a position, including programming languages. They have a job offer on their website without any technology information.

So, I'm disappointed by the lack of communication, 80% of my emails is without any answer. If someone writes "I will reply in a week" there usually won't be any reply within the week. And there is no salary negotiation, just one question, one reply. I know that the dream employee will work for free, but come on.

On the other hand there was always a salary negotiation in all my non remote jobs.

I'm really disappointed by searching for a job. I want to change my current, which is a fully remote one. Due to some family issues I need only, and ONLY a fully remote job without any trips. This one fact makes me a bad fit for about 99.999% of all job offers. The rest is more depressing, as I seek for some more interesting job, not a junior one.

I have over 15 years of commercial experience in different areas, I have been payed to program in: SQL, C, C++, Python, Java, SQL, Javascript, Ruby (plus some more).

And this is the problem. For the more advanced positions the companies/recruiters seek mainly for a programmer who has 10 years of experience using only one stack of things. What's worse it is expected that the candidate remembers the whole language/libraries specification, and documentation. I always worked with different versions of everything. When I had to fix a product used in different versions on different platforms, I had to use the exact version that the client was using. So I did.

I'm writing this because I got too many answers like "thank you, your experience is really great, but we got a candidate who is a much better fit for this position". I'm not sure that the whole world looks like this. I'm wondering if I'm looking for the job in wrong places. Or maybe the truth is that for the remote work, with so few positions opened, I will always be a bad fit, because there will always be someone who has been doing the one thing for the last 10 years, and who remembers all the APIs. The sad fact is that I haven't even got to the moment when they ask me "how much do you want to earn?".

So my main questions are: Should I give up my dreams about a remote work with flexible hours? Is there any better way to find an offer than using the mostly known sites like weworkremotely (with no more than 2 new positions per day) etc.? How hard is that to find a remote job company, which not interested in a 10-year-one-job-one-language programmers only?