I’m currently a P4 Lead Engineer at Wells Fargo with consistently good performance reviews. However, my applications for Senior Software Engineer roles keep getting rejected without any interviews and I may be impacted soon by the company’s location strategy. Could you provide insights on why my applications might not be moving forward and what career steps I should consider next, both within WF and externally? I don’t find many opportunities at P4 which match my skills
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Don’t give up keep trying. The market is currently very saturated and a lot of the jobs also have people who have been promised the role and are just fake openings. Keep applying and customizing your resume and I’m sure a hiring manager will see you a a great deal.
it is very difficult to get positions approved these days so as a hiring manager I want to ensure that whoever I hire is going to stick around a while. By hiring someone into a role who may be overqualified, there is a high likelihood they will move on the first chance they get so lateral or promos are a better hedge against that.
@ee was not true in the past
OP here. I am in one of the core locations. Our organization used to be spread across 5 or 6 core locations, but now they’ve decided to support only four. We were told this decision applies to other teams as well.
@OP I heard before they even start interviewing, they check in with your manager.. if manager says you are needed they won't interview you. No idea if this is true but that is the rumor
If 'location strategy' is the reason you're applying and you're not in a Tech Core Location, there's no way your resume' is going to interview. Also, HR is giving preference to displaced people if they're in a core location.
But aren't you in the same situation? You'll still be in a non core location.
@aa - you nailed it, this hiring pattern has increased exponentially… they all know someone or an h1b candidate.
it’s the OHIO
Only
Hire
Indians
Often
Filipinos speak Tagalog not Filipino
Learn Telugu or Hindi. Maybe throw in some Filipino. Problem solving here!
OP here. Thanks for all the inputs. My salary is on the lower end of P4 for my location. Even after putting “location strategy” as the reason for applying to a P3 role, no luck. The irony is that a few years ago I got a P4 offer in another team and turned it down. Now, with things changing, I applied for a P3 role under the same hiring manager and my resume didn’t even make it to the next step. Honestly, feels like a really bad time to be in tech.
Is your current salary too high for the senior role? Even if it's within the specified range, it still might be too high relative to who your coworkers (esp India) would be.
Another reason is that HR and hiring managers sometimes assume that people trying to move down wouldn't be satisfied in the role for very long due to money and/or job duties.
Or, they might be assuming that your wanting to move down is a sign of problems (over your head in your current role, etc). And they're not going to ask to about it, they're just going to make assumptions.
Your current location might also play into it. You might be filtered out before your resume is looked at.
Overall it's a bad time to be looking for work no matter who you are. Adding complications (like applying for a lower level role, even though it seems like that shouldn't really matter) just makes it harder.
You could try sending a friendly message to the hiring manager next time with a brief explanation for why you're considering a lower role. Something that relays that you're totally fine with the difference in comp scale. This will take a little wordsmithing to make it sound good. No guarantees this will help, but it can't hurt...
I’m guessing you are not from India? They only hire Indians now for software engineering to hide their ineptness amongst each other. Especially if you are trying to get into credit risk area, they have methodically laid off or pushed out all the good developers in favor of their Indian friends and their wives.
Do the smart thing and get out, you will be so much happier!
When I made a move down in levels, I knew the hiring manager and was able to tell her pretty bluntly that I was trying to get ahead of a location-strategy driven displacement. This helped smooth a lot of the questions. The interview was a panel with another manager I didn't know, and they did ask about why I was moving down levels, and i had to give s more veiled answer. I think if I hadn't had a pre-existing connection to the hiring manager it might have been hard to be considered. I'd suggest looking up the hiring manager and figuring out if you can network with them in some way so they can ensure your resume gets through the HR screen
Maybe your resume sux.
just keep applying. if you find a listing check the org chart and see if there is anyone you know who is either in the org or agacent to it who may know the hiring manager and can reach out to them with a reference. also, make sure you are in one of the locations listed. lastly, dont senior level roles tend to be p3 and lead are P4? It goes senior -> lead -> Sr. Lead