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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

#141

Post by busterarm »

cscharenberg wrote: post #134
busterarm wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 t…

Almost all of us got jobs, eventually (in 6 months), out of every cohort... ...but my bootcamp was one of the best ones.

Unlike most of my cohort, I mostly relied on networking/HN to find jobs - most folks just apply via normal channels. I had a high in-person interview percentage from that, but I ultimately ended up getting my fulltime gig off Stack Overflow Careers.

The contract I landed via NYC.rb before that was a shitshow.

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

#142

Post by busterarm »

wdewind wrote: post #112
busterarm wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Yes, you're not going to get paid market rate as a junior developer coming from a bootcamp. Hell, most startups aren't paying senior level people market rate when compared to G/FB etc. My first job was hugely under market rate. I was up to market rate in about 3 years. But I had to change jobs 3 times to do it. It's not easy, definitely not saying that. But it's doable. > Ultimately, demonstrable programming skill se…

I came out as a solid mid-level fullstack dev, but mainly due to my experience and side-projects.

Tons of folks in my bootcamp went to the right schools though and got 100k+ jobs even though they were mediocre to average (for a junior) devs.

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

#143

Post by OJFord »

Kalium wrote: post #100
johns wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's too bad. A cover letter is 100x more valuable than a resume.

Could you explain why you say that?

You get not only a list of facts, but also an idea of what the applicant thinks is important - that is, important to them, or that they perceive as being in line with the company's objectives.

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

#144

Post by gravypod »

tropo wrote: post #118
gravypod wrote: post #83

The largest thing that stops me from being able to apply for a job as a college student is that every job I am interested in, mainly back-end/low-level software development, say that they require a "MS in CS and 5 years of experience." These job postings are for entry level positions and internships, nothing higher. Is this something I should be worried about? Should I just apply to this kind of work anyway? How do I…

When you say "low-level", might that mean assembly code? If so, got a resume?

Not assembly. Stuff like embedded systems.

I know a little, but like every college student: I still have a lot to learn. If you would like, I would be happy to email you my resume and talk with you via email. My email is my username @ my username .com.

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

#145

Post by xivzgrev »

My approach. Either do the job (I'm a marketer and built a landing page for one company with bootstrap to show I could), or find a common connection. In my current job, the hiring manager formerly worked with a good friend of a guy I helped out 4 years ago evaluate two job offers. that's how weak ties work. Also the benefit of paying it forward, never know how that connects back to you.

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

#146

Post by xivzgrev »

cscharenberg wrote: post #134
busterarm wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 t…

I was in a boot camp and have worked at two companies. The hiring managers at both looked for unteachable skills (e.g. analytic ability, proactiveness, hunger) and figured youd pick up the rest. The skills I learned in boot camp were mostly a talking point / nice to have / piqued their curiosity.

They're hiring managers who want to pay a little less and are looking at the long term potential not the next 3 to 6 months. Of course that's why first job didn't work out - we went thru an acquisition and CEO mind went from long term potential to I needed results yesterday damnit :D

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

#147

Post by apr »

iammaxus wrote: post #33
lucio wrote: post #24

You developed in a long weekend a MVP which does more than the startup's soft?

Formlabs cofounder here. Of course, there is a difference between a demo focusing on implementing new features then the software that we are shipping. But yes, it was extremely impressive and it's no surprise that he is leading much of our engineering team (beyond software, as well) today.

I am curious if the demo app was built using some pre-existing libraries/frameworks or even UI widgets. Because, based on the info available on the demo site, even if the author knew exactly what he was going to develop and the tech behind it, the sheer amount of coding required to build such an app from scratch would take way more than 3 days.

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

#148

Post by soared »

pravj wrote: post #50

I was interested in working with the Data Science team of one of India's leading e-commerce startups. Later, I ended up doing a project[1] where I have collected and analysed the user order data from their order tracking portal. Now I feel that they won't take me back because I kind of played like a Black-Hat instead of a White-Hat by not notifying them about the little loophole that made it possible for me. Before t…

They likely thought you used knowledge of their internal system for blackhat purposes, which is kind of what you did. Interesting analysis and dci nonetheless.

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

#149

Post by leeleelee »

amyjess wrote: post #139
georgecmu wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So you are biologically a male, you identify as a female, and you wanted to use the female bathroom?

I think that if, as a society, we decide that gender access to restrooms is not based on physical gender but instead based on how you self-identify -- then as society we should completely eliminate the separation of bathrooms for males and females.

Agree or disagree?

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

#150

Post by taneq »

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 ($…

It's amazing how many parallels exist between an abusive workplace and an abusive personal relationship. Good on you for getting out and finding somewhere better!
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