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How to get hired at a startup when you don't know anyone

shane.engineer

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Re: How to get hired at a startup when you don't know anyone

#131

Post by cscharenberg »

HillaryBriss wrote: post #91
waterlesscloud wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember, though, America has a critical shortage of programmers and we desperately need to allow more to immigrate!!!

Adding to that paradox, a major theme of the original post is that personal connections are really important to getting a startup job. So, startups are really looking hard outside the founders' circle of friends to find the most qualified applicants?

This is something I commented on recently. Retraining programs and those already in the industry say social networking will get these people jobs. But they have the weakest networks in their new career. Yes, I could reach into 100 companies through my network and get an interview. A new person cannot. The assumption of using social networks is true only for those already established.

Longer discussion of that as a comment on this blog post (http://www.siliconsloper.com/2016/02/tech-hire-utah-initiati...)

Re: How to get hired at a startup when you don't know anyone

#132

Post by cscharenberg »

totalrobe wrote: post #85
cscharenberg wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At most companies if you changed careers near 30, you will never get a chance to talk with someone and show your potential. The HR filters are so tight that unless you know someone on the inside of a company who can pull strings, you'll never get asked in for an interview. I'm watching my wife - a lawyer with math degree and programming experience - struggle to even get responses for junior QA positions. I think the…

From personal experience, it's better to try to make a move within a related industry - for example if she has law experience, look for software companies that create applications and systems used in the law world. She could probably more easily get into a more client-facing role where domain experience is a plus, like project/product management or some kind of implementation/consultant position. From there, she coul…

You might be onto something there. I will pass that thought onto her, that a legal-focused software company may give her more of a look than others. Thanks for the idea

Re: How to get hired at a startup when you don't know anyone

#134

Post by cscharenberg »

busterarm wrote: post #87
cscharenberg wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At most companies if you changed careers near 30, you will never get a chance to talk with someone and show your potential. The HR filters are so tight that unless you know someone on the inside of a company who can pull strings, you'll never get asked in for an interview. I'm watching my wife - a lawyer with math degree and programming experience - struggle to even get responses for junior QA positions. I think the…

> Apply to startups. I don't know what else to tell you. I'm seeing TONS of people (for better or worse) get placed in jobs after completing coding bootcamps. Some of them have >90% placement rates. @wdewind: I'm over 30, went to a bootcamp and changed careers (from something else in tech). It's still hard to get a good position in this situation. Yes, tons of people who get out of bootcamps get jobs but 90%+ of boot…

This reflects the people I know who have done bootcamps or just tried to build a portfolio and change careers. They struggled to get interviews, let alone jobs. A bootcamp instructor friend quit after losing faith in the program's efficacy after watching several graduating classes fail to get jobs.

My wife would take an unpaid internship for a few months if it led to a job, or work at very low pay, just to get into the industry.

Getting that first job changing careers is _hard_, but then you have experience to point at forevermore.

-- Anyway, I've gotten really intrigued by the hiring side of retraining people. I'm wondering if anyone has yet done research on the ability of retrainees to actually land jobs via social networking, which is how it's assumed they will get jobs.

I think this will be a real problem as more retraining programs start turning people out: that many companies' hiring processes aren't able to see, let alone hire them.

Re: How to get hired at a startup when you don't know anyone

#135

Post by niij »

brey wrote: post #127
niij wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're the best boss in this thread. On a side note, what are higher ups looking for in a young applicant? I'm graduating in the fall with a CS Undergrad and don't have any startup contacts (I live in a smaller town in Missouri) and am trying to get my foot in the door somewhere that is doing interesting work.

Passion. Engagement. Curiosity. Being the absolute best possible at something - I don't really care what, but being mediocre at lots of things is a turnoff. Ability to learn new stuff, more so than any specific skill (although YMMV with this one). Any interview I walk out of thinking I've had a 2-way meeting of minds, a genuinely engaged conversation as if we're already peers, rather than an attempt to simply answer…

I appreciate the response. Specialization is something I definitely need to work towards.

Re: How to get hired at a startup when you don't know anyone

#136

Post by leeleelee »

amyjess wrote: post #121
LunaSea wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's awesome, but please be careful. I was in the same situation as you but I was 19, hired as the first engineer (second employee) in a company of 5 people and I quit after almost 3 years. Even though it's still fresh, when I look back, I really think I should've quit earlier. When I joined I wanted to reward the company by showing that I was a hard worker but this resulted in just increasing the expectations with…

I was in a similar situation. I was suffering from long-term unemployment after a layoff, and my experience was so specialized that no company really wanted me (and if a company didn't want experience, why not just hire someone fresh out of college?). I wound up somehow managing to land a job at a year-old startup that was still in early stages. I was making barely more than what I made at my last job in pure cash ($…

I am slightly confused -- who's landlord was illegally discriminating against you? The landlord for the office your company rented? How were they singling you out and discriminating against you?

Re: How to get hired at a startup when you don't know anyone

#137

Post by georgecmu »

leeleelee wrote: post #136
amyjess wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in a similar situation. I was suffering from long-term unemployment after a layoff, and my experience was so specialized that no company really wanted me (and if a company didn't want experience, why not just hire someone fresh out of college?). I wound up somehow managing to land a job at a year-old startup that was still in early stages. I was making barely more than what I made at my last job in pure cash ($…

I am slightly confused -- who's landlord was illegally discriminating against you? The landlord for the office your company rented? How were they singling you out and discriminating against you?

Not familiar with the story, but from the text it follows that it was the company's landlord that was discriminating. Typically, in cases like this, conflict revolves around bathroom use and exclusion due to gender assignment/reassignment.

Re: How to get hired at a startup when you don't know anyone

#139

Post by amyjess »

georgecmu wrote: post #137
leeleelee wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am slightly confused -- who's landlord was illegally discriminating against you? The landlord for the office your company rented? How were they singling you out and discriminating against you?

Not familiar with the story, but from the text it follows that it was the company's landlord that was discriminating. Typically, in cases like this, conflict revolves around bathroom use and exclusion due to gender assignment/reassignment.

Bingo. There was only one bathroom on our floor, and we shared the floor with another company, some busybody at the other company complained, so the building manager banned me from using the women's restroom.

That's illegal in Dallas.

Re: How to get hired at a startup when you don't know anyone

#140

Post by spdionis »

cscharenberg wrote: post #132
totalrobe wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From personal experience, it's better to try to make a move within a related industry - for example if she has law experience, look for software companies that create applications and systems used in the law world. She could probably more easily get into a more client-facing role where domain experience is a plus, like project/product management or some kind of implementation/consultant position. From there, she coul…

You might be onto something there. I will pass that thought onto her, that a legal-focused software company may give her more of a look than others. Thanks for the idea

Wasn't that obvious?! Sorry for the tone of the comment but really...
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