There are some very different sets of beliefs, practices, and values floating around any craft among people who have the same title. I'll call these "tribes." Tribes are often associated with buzzwords, like "agile."
At the highest level of abstraction, practitioners in different tribes do the same job, but the way other tribes do things might be unrecognizable and/or horrifying from your perspective.
You want to hire from your tribe. Buzzwords get picked up by people who don't really mean them in their original sense (see: enterprises doing waterfall and calling it agile) so buzzwords on resumes don't identify tribe, and an interview is only a few hours of a candidate in a contrived high-pressure situation where they're nervous/presenting the mask they think you want to see.
So you start with people you personally know to be in your tribe. When those run out, you realize you can trust the people you personally know to identify other tribe members, and this works up to the nth degree. If that's not enough, you learn that certain institutions (employers, universities, etc.) select, demand, or instill membership in your tribe, so you go looking for candidates who have been attached to these institutions first.
FWIW this is not unique to software by any means. I worked on the tech side of theater in college and have friends now working in that industry. Designers, stage and production managers, etc. in the real world are hired almost exclusively on reputation and recommendation. They are cold-emailed job offers (not ads to come compete for a job, but actual work) based on colleagues' experiences with them at previous gigs. Gigs often last only a few weeks, so you are playing this game constantly. You essentially cannot break in as a total outsider. You need to go to a school that is trusted to provide good interns (because its teachers are from the right tribe and it runs its student productions the right way), and impress at your internship, or else know someone who will convince their boss to take a chance on you. Sometimes hiring does have a formal application process, but you are not getting the job unless someone reading the application has heard of you or has a lot of respect for one of the institutions on your resume.
"The boys club" is a (flawed) attempt at instituting meritocracy by a system of recursive trust. I believe it's much better than the resume and interview dance, but I'd still love for software to discover its "blind audition" hiring technique.
Yeah this kind of validates my experiences lately.
I recently moved to Europe form Australia, I was a successful tribesman but voluntarily left my tribe because I liked the idea of relocation/traveling.
I was awarded an decent paying job in Netherlands but left soon after due to toxic culture which I wanted to protect myself from. I received other offers but non paid well so I tried to find a remote position. I had no options but "cold applications", which means I was heading for dire straights.
Essentially I went from a somebody to a nobody. I worked in a very successful team as a SRE/Production Engineer in Sydney to nothing, from precious metal to polluted soil.
The "cold apply" method has failed me for months, countless coding challenges and technical tasks (which I successfully completed) have left me without a job. Oh, I've done several dances and jumped many hoops without any fruits of my labour.
I fell into bad depression. I've had to work very hard to get out of the depression. Coming out of it I can see I need to change my approach and on the bright side it's been an important period of self discovery and learning.
I've now admitted defeat and will head back to Australia, start everything again and take little for granted. I'm blessed I have the option of retreat.
Yeah, geographical mobility is the dark side of this scheme. For theater people, for example, even crossing over from Chicago to New York is extremely difficult. And it doesn't matter how much goodwill you've built in Omaha, that won't get you hired in Chicago unless one of your Omaha friends goes first. It's really important to go to school and start your career in the place you want to end it, because in a new city, if you can find work, you're probably going back to entry level for a while. Even worse in seniority-based union hiring halls.
This is partly why the Bay Area is what it is for software.
I'm sorry you experienced this. It sucks. I wish you luck getting back on your feet in Australia.
As an Australian, if you want to get "pedigree", you can work in the USA much more easily than other foreign nationals can -- because of the E3.
The E3 visa is one of the best-kept secrets in the world. It's only granted to Australian citizens. It's why my employers (Pivotal) have around 10 Australians in our NYC office at any given time, because we've actively recruited from Australia ever since the E3 was introduced.
I'm an Australian and I am grateful every day that I am. I grew up in a wonderful country and now I can work for a great company in a vibrant industry in a vibrant city.
Email me (see profile) if you'd like me to pass you into our recruiters. If you want to stay in Sydney, we have an office in Sydney.
At the highest level of abstraction, practitioners in different tribes do the same job, but the way other tribes do things might be unrecognizable and/or horrifying from your perspective.
You want to hire from your tribe. Buzzwords get picked up by people who don't really mean them in their original sense (see: enterprises doing waterfall and calling it agile) so buzzwords on resumes don't identify tribe, and an interview is only a few hours of a candidate in a contrived high-pressure situation where they're nervous/presenting the mask they think you want to see.
So you start with people you personally know to be in your tribe. When those run out, you realize you can trust the people you personally know to identify other tribe members, and this works up to the nth degree. If that's not enough, you learn that certain institutions (employers, universities, etc.) select, demand, or instill membership in your tribe, so you go looking for candidates who have been attached to these institutions first.
FWIW this is not unique to software by any means. I worked on the tech side of theater in college and have friends now working in that industry. Designers, stage and production managers, etc. in the real world are hired almost exclusively on reputation and recommendation. They are cold-emailed job offers (not ads to come compete for a job, but actual work) based on colleagues' experiences with them at previous gigs. Gigs often last only a few weeks, so you are playing this game constantly. You essentially cannot break in as a total outsider. You need to go to a school that is trusted to provide good interns (because its teachers are from the right tribe and it runs its student productions the right way), and impress at your internship, or else know someone who will convince their boss to take a chance on you. Sometimes hiring does have a formal application process, but you are not getting the job unless someone reading the application has heard of you or has a lot of respect for one of the institutions on your resume.
"The boys club" is a (flawed) attempt at instituting meritocracy by a system of recursive trust. I believe it's much better than the resume and interview dance, but I'd still love for software to discover its "blind audition" hiring technique.