Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hunting For A Tech Job In Silicon Valley

ongig.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–48 of 48 posts

Re: Hunting For A Tech Job In Silicon Valley

#41

Post by MervynSF »

diminish wrote: post #12

Just wanted to use this opportunity to tell everyone; I setup an experimental web site at http://www.jobrupt.com to help people challenge the companies to create or open a job position for them by telling how they can add value. Would love to see that it will be useful to at least one person on earth. Except the design which sucks, I would like to hear if that will at all be useful to anyone or how to modify it to ma…

That's a great idea for a website. It could be potentially very useful for job seekers in my situation. It would be interesting to hear what companies feedback is on this type of contact.

Re: Hunting For A Tech Job In Silicon Valley

#42

Post by MervynSF »

donall wrote: post #20

I actually have a pretty similar situation. I am Irish, living in California after just finishing up in Dublin City University (I was probably one of Mervyn's lab tutors at some point!) and I'm also on the J1 visa. The difference is that I found a job before I left Ireland (made the visa application a lot easier). I responded to a post on the "Who's Hiring?" thread here on HN a few months back and landed a gig in an…

That's very interesting. I reckon I might have benifited from your tutelage at some point. I am definitely going to use HN as a resource for job seeking. Appreciate the feedback. How are you enjoying life in LA?

Re: Hunting For A Tech Job In Silicon Valley

#43

Post by MervynSF »

joelhaasnoot wrote: post #28
barry-cotter wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why am I the only one mentioning them in this thread? Because most recruiters are ignorant incompetents, or at least most of the interactions that potential recruitess have are with ignorant incompetents. If you want a longer, more involved version of this look at Peroni's comment history, (formerly KoZeN). http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Peroni

Recruiters mainly make the HR and/or management folks happy not necessarily the IT guys you'll working with. If you're a good candidate, they only do lots of work for you because they can land a better bonus.

This is all great advice. It's nice to hear some feedback from IT guys who have recently been job hunting in the Bay Area.

Re: Hunting For A Tech Job In Silicon Valley

#44

Post by MervynSF »

Finbarr wrote: post #5
thinker wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been doing the same and it works quite well if you are targeting startups. I've had a 50% response rate so far.

Would second this. I'm from Scotland and moved here in October for a job. Got a very good response from targeting startup companies directly.

A 50% response rate is promising. Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of job hunting thus far is the lack of feedback from job applications. Espcially on the big job search sites. As a result of the comments from you guys I am definitely going to change tack. It seems like targeting startups here in the area is the way to go.

Re: Hunting For A Tech Job In Silicon Valley

#45

Post by MervynSF »

smokinn wrote: post #30
digitalchaos wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all you guys targeting startups, do you have a recommended location for finding them? There are plenty of amazing startups around that I have never heard of. I feel like I just don't have the time to keep up or am unaware of some magic resource that some of you must have. I am mostly curious about companies specific to the bay area but a larger scope would certainly be welcome.

Tech meetups are a goldmine if you're interested in startups. Maybe you won't find employees from the startup itself there but if you interested in say, erlang, and go to an erlang meetup you can very easily ask people there if they've heard of any interesting erlang startups. You'll probably find some people who will say something along the lines of oh yeah, I recently heard about company x who's doing y, it sounds…

Great advice guys. Thanks a million.

Re: Hunting For A Tech Job In Silicon Valley

#46

Post by MervynSF »

tibbon wrote: post #35

Instead of hitting the pavement digitally, might I suggest mainly browsing the websites of startups, checking here on HN (HelloFax for example is hiring!), and then going to every event/meeting you can slide your way into. I think that would pay off a ton more than any job posting site.

Thanks for the feedback on my blog. Appreciate the advice!

Re: Hunting For A Tech Job In Silicon Valley

#48

Post by laaph »

shawndrost wrote: post #18
diego wrote: post #7

In the Bay Area, high tech jobs hunt you (at least right now). Fill in your LinkedIn profile like the first comment suggests, build your reputation (GitHub, StackOverflow) and you'll start getting approached by recruiters.

If you want recruiters, just call them. You need a linkedin or a resume, but the other steps are more useful to employers. (You can also email me, sdrost@gmail.com -- I just worked with seven in my job search, and can pass on the three I recommend.)

I've been avoiding recruiters due to past bad experiences. Do you mind the strangers of the internet asking for your recommendations?

I doubt I am the only one who is curious if you don't mind some unsolicited emails.

Post reply on HN