> Then they'd refuse to hire me, refuse to address the issues I discussed, and then sometimes one of the interviewers would pass that information to the Russians or Chinese leading to a massive break ala OPM or Solarwinds even after Senator Wyden sent Chris Soghoian or someone of similar skill adjacent to the Omnidynar group to go ask some hard questions.
This paragraph is exceedingly unclear and may hint at the reasons why you are struggling to get hired. This reads as some mix of narcissistic personality disorder / conspiratorial thinking. You write like a native (or near-native) English speaker, but your composition is all over the place.
I don't mean this unkindly, but have you ever spoken with a mental health professional? Many technical folks are neuroatypical and this can sometimes be a barrier to traditional stable employment.
I get the impression they are being deliberately obtuse, but that's not uncommon in this field (to be fair, so is schizophrenia/NPD).
This individual claims to be somehow involved in two high-profile national security incidents. It's not beyond plausibility that they are being exploited for information by companies who don't want to be seen associating with them. Snowden would receive the same treatment.
> This individual claims to be somehow involved in two high-profile national security incidents. It's not beyond plausibility...
Hacker news does attract some singular individuals from time to time, but I would suggest the more plausible scenario is that this person has untreated mental health issues.
Deliberately obtuse. Also schitzophrenia and NPD are... not remotely similar. You probably shouldn't risk a slander lawsuit if you're so uneducated on diagnoses, paired with never having met me.
Now, bristly replying aside: I also DO have anxiety, and wrote my comments earlier after too much caffeine.
>This individual claims to be somehow involved in two high-profile national security incidents. It's not beyond plausibility that they are being exploited for information by companies who don't want to be seen associating with them.
To give a real world example: one of the reasons I was pushed out of an NGO is I annoyed the lawyers pushing them to put MFA on their email accounts. Later we were one of the few not to be penetrated by the Russians... digitally... but when I watched that one Mr. Robot plotline where the one agent is increasingly unclear why her supervisor is not taking her concerns seriously, she finds out they are an agent of a foreign power.
Also I did a master's thesis on anonymity technology, so obligatory "it's not paranoia if they're actually out to get you".
>Snowden would receive the same treatment.
Snowden is stuck in Russia, a totalitarian hellhole. I live here, in the Paris of Appalachia, where I wander around sipping cortados and banging hipsters. We are not the same.
What often happens is I get a mix of people who respond in good faith (have no idea who the hell I am), paired with those who do, and say things in bad faith about my mental health.
(Reoccuring income would solve those issues overnight, email if you want a CV. I'm a decent pentester, can code in languages like Python and bash, and have an OSINT certification from Bellingcat.)
But often since my skills are more... qualitative (eg: I cannot write exploits well), people schedule an interview to treat it like a free consulting session (ask the one question an FBI agent would have if they could supoena me slipped in with the rest to clear me as a suspect in some bullshit), then don't actually hire me on... and the cycle repeats in 3-6 months.
Hence my supreme annoyance and occasional trolls.
Oh -- almost forgot -- in addition to the above, years ago, before I was doing brain experiments on undergrads alongside former Israeli snipers, I was in therapy. I found out at that therapist's funeral that he was a member of a motorcycle club. So sometimes... odd people boosted me through my career in civil society, and sometimes it feels like when I hit a wall, it's because someone in the past was supporting me for unsavory reasons, and doesn't have a good explanation for the sudden shift in allegiance.
I'm happy to explain further as needed, but all you really need to know is I ended up at a libertarian NGO despite being anything but, for reasons I don't fully understand, then got stranded in Appalachia by people who never want to admit they're wrong, even as I turn on the TV and see teachers who used to claim I was a menace to society running up on the capital.
TL;DR: I'm anxious because I'm a skinhead, in the antiracist sense, and a leftist, and the people who could assist me in my goal of being independent choose not to. I could join a firm like Mandiant or whatever tomorrow, be assigned some work, and be off HN and happy, but folks make the emotional decision to not allow me to do that, despite very clearly being qualified to, then question the mental health of a first generation PhD student with a dwindling bank account.
Based on the writing, my best career advice to this person would be to take a community college English composition class and/or join the local Toastmasters.
Extra time spent working on communication skills almost always pays off more than extra time spent on technical skills.
...
> Then they'd refuse to hire me, refuse to address the issues I discussed, and then sometimes one of the interviewers would pass that information to the Russians or Chinese leading to a massive break ala OPM or Solarwinds even after Senator Wyden sent Chris Soghoian or someone of similar skill adjacent to the Omnidynar group to go ask some hard questions.
This paragraph is exceedingly unclear and may hint at the reasons why you are struggling to get hired. This reads as some mix of narcissistic personality disorder / conspiratorial thinking. You write like a native (or near-native) English speaker, but your composition is all over the place.
I don't mean this unkindly, but have you ever spoken with a mental health professional? Many technical folks are neuroatypical and this can sometimes be a barrier to traditional stable employment.