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Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#151

Post by gonehome »

I've found internal referral to be the only reliable way to get an interview at competitive companies. Generally I think the below is true when it comes to getting interviews.

- Internal Referral (this is the best way)

- Twitter leading to internal referral

- Inbound recruiter leading to interview (only happens if you've already succeeded at 1 or 2 previously).

---

- Have gone to famous school like MIT or Stanford.

There are a lot of ways to get an internal referral, but most involve making friends with someone who already works at a place or knows someone who does. You can do this by making friends on twitter, HN, github projects etc. Moving to an area that has a lot of the industry (SF Bay) if possible helps too, though with remote work is less important now.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#152

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

Pro tip: never ever ever ever put your phone number in your resume or on a jobs site. If you have to put a number, get a google voice number and don't forward calls.

I have 753 voicemails from recruiters. And I'm not in demand. (I have 5x as many e-mails from recruiters, so I also recommend not putting your personal e-mail in your resume)

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#154

Post by fatnoah »

gonehome wrote: post #151

I've found internal referral to be the only reliable way to get an interview at competitive companies. Generally I think the below is true when it comes to getting interviews. - Internal Referral (this is the best way) - Twitter leading to internal referral - Inbound recruiter leading to interview (only happens if you've already succeeded at 1 or 2 previously). --- - Have gone to famous school like MIT or Stanford. T…

I think mileage may vary depending on location, role, and YOE. I didn't go to a top/famous school, but I do have 20+ years of experience, including Principal level IC and several years of management experience as tech lead manager, manager of managers, and executive (at a small startup, so not a huge org) experience.

Of the six rounds of interview/job offers I've gone through since 2016, 5 were the result of a recruiter finding me on. LinkedIn. Caveat for one of those was that one of those was a reachout from a big name tech company a couple years previous, so I then reached directly out that recruiter. For another big name tech company, I submitted my resume directly through their online portal and got a call the next day.

My LinkedIn spam level is probably about 75%, which isn't actually a terrible ratio. I consider spam to be something that's clearly irrelevant to my role or far too junior. For the spam, I ignore, and for the others I always reply with a polite "thanks, but no thanks" which people generally respect and has occasionally led to a more appropriate job link.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#155

Post by dep_b »

abledon wrote: post #94
dep_b wrote: post #88

I landed my current job at one of the absolutely top paying companies through LinkedIn. Meta contacted me a short while ago and while I wouldn't want to work for them they did find me through LinkedIn and it was a serious recruiter directly from them not some third party shady stuff. It's my #2 source of jobs after TopTal for the last 10 years and comes before word of mouth. I don't think there are any other sources…

can you give an overview of what type of jobs you find on TopTal? e.g.... is it 'migrate our huge legacy databse to Oracle Version X' or, our PhP wordpress site needs a css banner that shows a clock counting down? Do they pay only if the contract is met or do they pay hourly then fire you if they don't like the results delivered at each sprint?

Anything. Legacy to green fields but loads of green fields for me. A lot of startups but also a few well-known names. I did mobile.

After a one week trial you either get hired and paid 100% or rejected and paid 50%. Unless you totally fucked up. The client never pays anything but sometimes they try to abuse it. But >90% good.

Paid every two weeks like clockwork.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#157

Post by DoubleGlazing »

tata71 wrote: post #148
paulcole wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this person needs a job more than they don't want to be inconvenienced by recruiters, then they really don't have a leg to stand on. You can always be as demanding as you want but don't be surprised when somebody else doesn't give in.

Just seems like GGP is trying to avoid being hired by a string of people not detail oriented.

Pretty much. I have always found that it is better to send out fewer customised job applications, rather than send out loads that are all the same.

I wish recruiters would do the same. If I engage with recruiters that use the scatter gun approach then it is inevtable that they will be wasting my time as they just aren't interested in detail and effort.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#158

Post by AnimalMuppet »

paulcole wrote: post #144
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, you're contacting me . Why should I care what kind of pressure you're under? Who's being unprofessional here? Isn't it the recruiter?

If this person needs a job more than they don't want to be inconvenienced by recruiters, then they really don't have a leg to stand on. You can always be as demanding as you want but don't be surprised when somebody else doesn't give in.

True, but DoubleGlazing didn't answer the first time. That isn't someone who "needs a job more than they don't want to be inconvenienced". That's a recruiter that wants to find someone to fill a job more than they want to respect your desire to not be inconvenienced. And I don't have any sympathy.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#160

Post by gonehome »

fatnoah wrote: post #154
gonehome wrote: post #151

I've found internal referral to be the only reliable way to get an interview at competitive companies. Generally I think the below is true when it comes to getting interviews. - Internal Referral (this is the best way) - Twitter leading to internal referral - Inbound recruiter leading to interview (only happens if you've already succeeded at 1 or 2 previously). --- - Have gone to famous school like MIT or Stanford. T…

I think mileage may vary depending on location, role, and YOE. I didn't go to a top/famous school, but I do have 20+ years of experience, including Principal level IC and several years of management experience as tech lead manager, manager of managers, and executive (at a small startup, so not a huge org) experience. Of the six rounds of interview/job offers I've gone through since 2016, 5 were the result of a recrui…

Yeah I think you’re right, I suppose I was thinking in the context of early career or first job. I think you get more attention if you have a lot of YOE.
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