Ask HN - Where do you look for jobs?
51–60 of 98 posts
Re: Ask HN - Where do you look for jobs?
#52Re: Ask HN - Where do you look for jobs?
#53This meant that my list of places to apply to actually grew every time I went to go and knock a few off my list. I met a lot of interesting engineers this way and generated a lot of leads that I wouldn't have found through HN Hiring or other boards. In some cases I found jobs that weren't posted online until after I found out about them in person.
Re: Ask HN - Where do you look for jobs?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you give me an example of "putting the right things in your profile" ? Might be far-fetched but, if I could see an example of "Mr.X"'s profile, that would be great starting point.
In my case it was just a matter of playing the game. I added people that I had interacted with at my previous companies as connections, I listed any articles I've written, put up links to personal projects/sites and reduced my skills to a small list of strong skills. I also joined a few small but known groups related to my work and made a couple of posts. Nothing too special, just a few posts here and there to answer…
Re: Ask HN - Where do you look for jobs?
#55Re: Ask HN - Where do you look for jobs?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you be more specific about this part: "Then, I contact those companies. I set up meetings when I can" How do you contact them, how do you pitch the idea of meeting with you?
(Thanks for asking! I'm about to meet with a client, so this is pretty stream of consciousness. If you have any questions, leave them here or shoot me an email at kai@kaisdavis.com!) I pitch the meeting as an informational interview to learn about the industry. I let them know I'm active / looking to enter the industry and I have a few questions for a 15-20 minute meeting. I'll check LinkedIn / my personal network /…
Can you share what kind of feedback you got from those emails? What is your success ratio?
Re: Ask HN - Where do you look for jobs?
#57I don't want to sound like a douche but I've never looked for a job on a website. Each time i needed a job i got an offer from a company or from someone in my network. To grow your professional network I would recommend to attend to meetups, hackathons, user groups or even better to get involve in the organization. It worked pretty well for me. I met some incredible people and got some good jobs offer.
Everyone of these meetups I've been to feels so...forced? I don't know but I've never really felt comfortable at these kinds of things. It's always so contrived?
Re: Ask HN - Where do you look for jobs?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
(Thanks for asking! I'm about to meet with a client, so this is pretty stream of consciousness. If you have any questions, leave them here or shoot me an email at kai@kaisdavis.com!) I pitch the meeting as an informational interview to learn about the industry. I let them know I'm active / looking to enter the industry and I have a few questions for a 15-20 minute meeting. I'll check LinkedIn / my personal network /…
I'm really intrigued by your approach. But doesn't this come across as nagging? I get the first email, and it's perfectly fine by me. I wouldn't mind receiving such an email. But the second one seems a bit spammy to me. Can you share what kind of feedback you got from those emails? What is your success ratio?
The second one is a phone call, not an email. I'd refer to it as being 'forceful' or 'insisting.' I'm interested in setting up a meeting and sometimes the person I want to meet with, sees the email, but is buried under 100 more important things to do and doesn't get a chance to respond back.
Giving a quick, direct phone call
> 'Hey, I'd love to meet, I'm Kai, I emailed a few days ago, would meeting for an informational interview this Friday for 20 minutes work for you? (yes/no)'
can be a great way to get a direct response and fast.
What's the worst case? They say 'Sorry, I can't meet.' I'd rather have that direct answer than wonder about unreturned email.
My success ratio is high enough that I'm happy with this method. I don't have detailed records of how it's performed, but I'd guess that somewhere between 10% and 25% of the emails and calls I make turn into meetings. I'm really happy with that math.
Feedback is either 'Hey, we'd love to meet, how about ' or 'Sorry, I can't meet.'
If they say they can't meet, I either ask them if they know of a similar company they can direct me to that I can meet with or ask if they have time for one quick question (generally I ask what skill they're looking for in applicants and candidates).
I'm moving to Honolulu in November and I'm excited to double down on using this method again.
Re: Ask HN - Where do you look for jobs?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
(Thanks for asking! I'm about to meet with a client, so this is pretty stream of consciousness. If you have any questions, leave them here or shoot me an email at kai@kaisdavis.com!) I pitch the meeting as an informational interview to learn about the industry. I let them know I'm active / looking to enter the industry and I have a few questions for a 15-20 minute meeting. I'll check LinkedIn / my personal network /…
I'm really intrigued by your approach. But doesn't this come across as nagging? I get the first email, and it's perfectly fine by me. I wouldn't mind receiving such an email. But the second one seems a bit spammy to me. Can you share what kind of feedback you got from those emails? What is your success ratio?