Ask HN: How did you find your current job?

I cold emailed the company I work for now, saying their product (not a piece of software, hardware, etc, a real-world thing) was cool and asking if they needed tech help. At the time, they had none. Now we're starting to have scaling issues and it's getting exciting!

BONUS The job before this: started working for a founder, showed him I was a really hard worker and knew my stuff, then was asked to Co-found.

For years (and due to a comment I read here changing my ways), I have responded to all the cold emails and linkedin messages I get from recruiters with a short polite response thanking them for their consideration and saying I will reach out if I become interested in new opportunities. So this time I actually did that last part: I reached out to a recruiter who had sent me a linkedin message a year or so earlier. He didn't actually work for the company any longer (if I'm remembering correctly), but knew the person who had taken his role. He put me in touch with her and she got me started on the interview process.

Throwaway for obvious reasons.

I was set to go into academia. I spent my entire grad school without any tech internships, and did research every summer. Months before my graduation, my ex-wife wanted a divorce, and one reason (out of many) was not seeing a future together as I will be in remote places(where most universities are), and she want to be in a big city.

Trying to save my marriage, I declined my postdoc offers and start to look for jobs in the industry in the big cities. It was difficult, as I haven't programmed for years. I applied to every major tech companies and financial companies. I asked for referrals from my friends. I got no responses from most of the companies. The only two responded was a company I worked for before entering grad school, and a company that was trying to double their engineering team. It was very demoralizing.

It was surely the darkest days of my life. I questioned my self-worth. Feeling that I am not someone to be desired both personally and professionally.

My advisor, who was really kind and understanding and I'm forever grateful to, used his connection to get me interviews I'm sure I could not possibly gotten if I applied directly. In fact, I can't even apply directly, because some of the positions were not advertised. Finally, one of the places gave me an offer, and that is what I took, and I have been working there since.

A job site, I applied. It was posted by a third-party recruiter. Pretty much how I've found all my jobs. I'm not very good at networking or the good-ol boy network. I find them through job boards.

Twitter. I hearted a listing from my (now) boss because I liked the company and thought the listing looked great. Wasn't really looking for a new job, but things worked out that way, and it has been fantastic.