Comment by stuartjohnson12
21 hours ago
Will be blunt since I imagine you're fed up and don't want affirmations.
In the most common case where I see engineers who say they struggle with the soft skills parts of interviewing, the underlying issue is a lack of skill in communication - working out what's important, stating it clearly and concisely, and in a way appropriate to the audience. I read some of your blog and found it pleasantly chatty, well structured, and obviously technical. If you communicate like you do in writing, there is obviously no problem there. I have no doubt that your account of performing well on technical questions is correct. However...
After some quick google searches, what I did find in your digital footprint is:
- A relatively high number of online posts complaining about employers in general across several years
- A tweet from a few years ago where you say you're fed up of software engineering but are forced to stick with it
- (as you stated) a jumpy work history
My best guess is that you're failing the digital footprint check. If I was hiring and post interview was doing a little more digging on candidates to help do a final pick, I would look at the short tenures, the outwardly directed frustration at employers, the stated lack of desire to be a software engineer at all, and pass on you.
As for why this is happening after several technical interviews? Most likely that's when you undergo final background checks and get cut out of the process. If you are burned out, sick of workplace social narratives, and don't want to work as a software engineer, I sincerely empathise for you. However: don't let me, a random hacker news commenter, find that out in under 2 minutes of time spent on Google.
I actually do appreciate the advice and blunt feedback, because you're right, I'm a little tired of affirmations. I honestly forgot about the tweets from years ago where I was pretty burnt out. I will be deleting those shortly.
The posts on LinkedIn should probably go too.
LinkedIn is not a place to air grievances. It’s a place to post your job history, post jobs, and “like” when others have been promoted
I agree that's what it should be, but that absolutely not what it is and it hasn't been that way for many years. People treat LinkedIn like Facebook and post their opinions on things.
Most of the potentially worrisome stuff I've posted has been comments responding to other peoples' posts. I went and deleted nearly all of those, though.
Really appreciate seeing comments like this on HN. You got me thinking about my own presence online. I decided to use gpt-5-thinking and perplexity's deep research with the same prompt to deep dive on my legal name, find aliases, research those aliases, etc. Then report on positive and negatives findings. Both did a good job and helped me feel a bit at ease. They both noticed that I worked at a place that later had a controversy and knew that I left prior to that but gave actionable ideas on how to answer questions around that during interviews or via linkedin. I think I might set up a perplexity task to run and email this once a month.
I'll probably one seperate ones for my own handles that are not attached to my name to monitor them as well. The panopticon never sleeps.
Yeah honestly it really is something I hadn't considered much, especially my old Twitter which I haven't logged into for years and the last posts were when I was in an extremely bad state mentally. I completely forgot about it even existing, but of course whether or not I remembered it doesn't mean it won't potentially hurt my prospects.
It's impossible to know how many jobs I've been turned down for due to my online presence and edgy takes; most of my takes really aren't that edgy or even that out there, but they might be enough make a potential employer think twice.
I just deleted my old Twitter, my Reddit account, and most of my posts on LinkedIn. I don't think any of them were really that bad but I don't really need them haunting me for forever.
How did you manage to get perplexity deep research to do research about yourself? I keep getting denied based on privacy rules and policies
i’m using perplexity pro set to deep research with this prompt:
read the hackernews comments on this link to understand how someone's digital footprint might affect their ability to get hired. Then do that research against me, <first last>, to help me understand what is available about me out there that could help or harm my ability to compete. See if there are any internet handles that you can associate with me, if so, research them too.
<hn link>
Because of these "digital footprint checks" now nobody can truly say what they want online. Either you have to put on a fake persona or just go completely silent. It’s self-censorship in disguise. Dead Internet Theory confirmed.
Once upon a time, we were told not to share our real name or personal info online with strangers. That remains wisdom!
I mean, I dunno. I attached my name to these things because these are opinions I do really hold. I could have easily done this under a pseudonym, but I didn't, and if I am going to attach my name to it (or an alias easily tied to m), then I can't really get upset that people associate these opinions to me.
Some of these opinions are ones I don't really hold anymore so deleting isn't a big deal. I will admit that some of the ones I am deleting upset me because I still do think that way.
This kind of response shows humility and self-awareness. I have no doubt you'll do great after a tidy up. Not an empty affirmation. Good luck stranger.
Just create 2 accounts
A good reason to not have social media. Thinking if my vent post will upset a future employer on a Saturday afternoon is not the future I want.
A good reason to have an anonymous account to post negative things on. Never post honest negativity under your real name. Unless you work for yourself or your vulnerability is a sort of marketing, you're only hurting yourself. Make an anon account, vent as much as you want.
If I'm hiring someone, I want to like working with them, and if I find them ranting online, I just mark them as negative and pessimistic. I can't help it - that's human nature
> If I'm hiring someone, I want to like working with them, and if I find them ranting online, I just mark them as negative and pessimistic. I can't help it - that's human nature
I understand this, but we can agree that this kind of sucks, doesn't it? Everyone has bad days where they're frustrated about something and could write something a bit cynical in the process. I don't think that's reflective of their entire personality. From Ted Lasso:
> I hope that either all of us or none of us are judged by the actions of our weakest moments… but rather by the strength we show when, and if we’re ever given a second chance
Dunno, obviously you don't want someone who's a downer all the time, but I feel like the permanence of the internet can skew perspectives.
I was declined from a job recently specifically because I wrote a blog post about my history with depression and medication for it [1]. That's not me justifying after the fact, they actually told me this.
I took down most of the posts on my blog that were personal as a result. Most of the stuff on there now is just technical stuff that I'm not too worried about being attached to my name.
[1] To be clear, the blog post was only talking about prescribed medication, I've never done any illegal drugs and I've never been an alcoholic, I'm not speaking in code for "self medicating".
Hope you got that in writing, because that is a hell of a ADA lawsuit you've got there.
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Then they get upset that you either don't have socials (antisocial, don't hire), or hide them (untrustworthy, don't hire).
It's awful. I think the best thing is maybe a fake profile you touch once a year.
Outside of some jobs requiring LinkedIn, I've never actually heard of anyone being declined for not having social media.
I haven't had a Facebook account since 2015, I don't have an Instagram and I hadn't updated my Twitter for years until I deleted it (about two hours ago). As far as I'm aware, a lack of social media presence hasn't been a factor.
Only social media I have now is Hacker News.
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at some point the AI based searching is going to just make it that much easier to incorporate social posts on any background checks.
Just dropping in to say, i appreciate this comment, and i have no skin in the game whatsoever. Upvote didn't feel enough.