I started my new job in Machine Learning at a YC startup whose core product was a platform to make computer vision ML modeling simple. The product, peers, culture, and the pay was great. A few weeks later we started working from home, just like almost any other company dealing with the pandemic. Even then, everything was super smooth.

One day, I get a DM from the CEO on slack that he wanted to chat about something. I knew it’s happening. I just didn’t know how to react. I asked about the reason, which I obviously knew. Somehow that awkward conversation got finished in 5–10 minutes.

To be honest, I did not feel too sad. I had spent only a little over a month there. Bothering part was the future — Yet another job search. Job search is draining. Normally, you get to search your job at ease, as you have an existing one. You take your time to evaluate the company, your future in it. I had none. And there were more like me and fewer openings than ever.

My immediate reaction

The first thing I did was to process the situation. Called up a few close friends to give them the news. Really helped me calm my nerves and reduce the nervous excitement.

Soon I made a few hunches for my next hunt —

1. I can’t be too selective. I need to assess who’s hiring pretty quickly. I need to have a clear set of minimum criteria for a job. So minimum that even if I remove one, my work life is as good as hell.
2. Since I am fired, I can publicly get the word out that I am looking for jobs. I was hopeful that my friends and network would help me. And they did. I got so many leads because of my one post on LinkedIn.
3. From my past job search experiences, I figured which job listing sites worked and which didn’t. But beware, many job listings exist but no one checks them. They are Resume blackholes.
   Working — iimjobs, hirist, angel
   Waste of time — Linkedin jobs
4. Apart from job listing websites, I relied more on referrals. Instead of applying on LinkedIn jobs, use the search bar to search content with tags like Data Science, Machine Learning. Connect to people posting openings via posts.

Time to chill 🙂

Full disclosure — I lived in my home in Mumbai during this period. I had enough savings to sustain myself and my family.

I took my unemployment pretty easy. I knew one thing — There’s no point applying for jobs all day. I had a clear strategy for applying — Every 2 days, visit job listings, find anything interesting, and apply. I was active on LinkedIn anyway. I had an eye on posts that mentioned any opening. Simply bookmark it. There was no point in wasting hours on job applications. The best I could do was have patience. For every important application, find a person who can refer you. Works 90% of the time.

I took a lot of good habits meanwhile. I started exercising, played a lot of indoor and outdoor games (in my society), took interest in Yoga.

On the technical side, I decided to learn new stuff. One regret I always had was not learning Data Structures and Algorithms. At least 4 times I started learning and then gave up. This time I had a fire under my ass. Mission accomplished.

Next, I really missed the technical meetups companies in Mumbai used to organized. I loved the industry level discussions and making new friends. During this unemployment+lockdown period, I decided to connect with people online. It was the best! I got introduced to so many people. Not only from Data Science but also Fashion, Management, and a lot more.

What about the interviews though?

Let’s see. I did 6 assignments, 10–15 interviews, and countless applications. I’ll highlight the important ones.

#1 A large food ordering company

1. Position — ML Engineer
2. Company Type — Large Startup
3. Status — Rejected after the first round
4. Source — LinkedIn referral

Process —

Usually, when an HR rep calls you for an opportunity, they ask for specific skills, current salary, location preference. But this was different. She explained to me the role and the problem statement so well. I did not realize that she’s an HR until she asked for the trivial HR details. She asked me if I know Scala. I did not. She explained how Scala was crucial for their systems in a super legit way. I was impressed!

The terms Data Scientist/ML Engineer are used interchangeably. Not here. The entire interview was essentially ML systems engineering. We discussed only the engineering part, not the science part. I was so not ready for that.

Overall a positive learning experience!

Red flags — None

#2 A large beauty and fashion e-commerce company

1. Position — Data Scientist
2. Company Type — Recently funded large startup
3. Status — Rejected after 2 rounds and 1 assignment (for lame-ass reasons)
4. Source — An employee reached out on LinkedIn

Process —

The interviewer was not a Data Scientist. He was a product manager. The company outsources a lot of its analytics work. First-round was pretty standard. Spoke about my past work. He gave me an assignment with a dataset of product descriptions. The objective was to rank products for a search query. Did the assignment with good efforts and results. In the next round, walked him through the approach and showed some interesting results.

He did not ask me anything about my approach. Instead, I was asked about the improvements I could make. I explained my ideas around using past purchases and methods like collaborative filtering. All I got was Hmmm…

Later when I asked for the status of my application, he called and informed me that I am rejected. Cool. I asked for the feedback. He said these two things —

1. I am not from CS background — Why didn’t you read it on my Resume or ask me before making me do the assignment????
2. We need someone senior — I have cleary mentioned my experience on my Resume with dates!! Counting ain’t that hard.

Red flags —

1. The interviewer was not suitable.
2. He did not question me on my approaches while discussing the assignment. I understand that he does not have the technical know-how. You can still ask a lot from a business or a product angle.

#3 A small analytics firm

1. Position — Data Scientist
2. Company Type — An analytics firm (service-based)
3. Status — I rejected them
4. Source — An employee reached out on LinkedIn

Process —

The HR called. Asked the standard info about me. Then it got weird. Asked about my father’s business. I was wondering why? Is this even legal? I said what it was. Then she asked me how much my father earns? Good time to say-

#4 A SaaS company

1. Position — Data Scientist
2. Company Type — A Saas firm
3. Status — Offer received. I rejected them.
4. Source — An employee reached out on LinkedIn

Process —

Total 4 rounds, 1 assignment. The company was not so well known in India, at least in my network. Upon stalking, I found their product, employee backgrounds. Nothing extraordinary though. The interview was standard. Solved the assignment, discussed it with a Data Scientist in one of the rounds. Spoke to the upper-level management in the subsequent rounds. Mostly case studies. They offered a good salary in the end.

I still felt some uneasiness about the company. There weren’t any red flags as such. Apart from one thing — In the assignment discussion, I mentioned a few approaches I couldn’t try within the deadline. She said, “Well, 24 hrs deadline is pretty common here.” And then laughed it off. I did not read into it a lot at that time.

I read the reviews on glassdoor. The positive ones looked fake. The negative ones had common pain points. I decided to reach out to ex-employees. Finally, I decided not to make a wrong call out of desperation and declined their offer.

Red flags —

1. Suspicious culture
2. Consistent negative reviews

#5 A silicon-valley based food-tech startup

1. Position — Data Scientist
2. Company Type — Series A raised
3. Status — Ghosted (After 4–5 reminders) after the assignment.
4. Source — Matched on Angel

Process —

In my previous job search, we matched on Angel. Since I had gotten an offer just after the match, we didn’t proceed. This time I reached out if they are still hiring? They sent me an assignment. It was a multi-label classification task. And it seemed like one of the problems they were solving.

I worked the hardest on this assignment. Couldn’t complete all the sub-tasks. However, did more than enough to convey my efforts.

I asked for the review and status next week. They said in a few days. And the same repeated for 4 more times. Every time some different lame excuse.

Probably, they were getting solutions to their problem from applicants.

Red Flags —

1. Series of excuses. No communication from the HR unless you ask for it.

What kept me sane?

Although I said I was pretty chill about the lay-off, once I found out top companies are laying off in 1000s, I started wondering — How am I gonna compete with all of them at the same time? That too for so few openings? I gotta speed up.

Throughout these 2 months, my friends and family supported a lot. Friends kept checking on me frequently and my family gave me enough space to figure my shit.

CEO from my first job asked offered me to come back as soon as he heard my news. I also made sure to take care of myself physically and mentally.

What have I learned?

There have been not many chances for me to deal with uncertainty. This difficult experience taught me how to deal with it. Having people who look out for you makes the experience so bearable.

Start making a strong network asap. Connect with people and ask them about their current projects, how you can help them. Make as many friends as possible. Realize that you are always stronger when part of a community.

[“source=towardsdatascience”]