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Looking for a Job Is Tough

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Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#21

Post by herbertl »

OccamsMirror wrote: post #7
friggeri wrote: post #3

One piece of advice I usually give is to avoid applying to jobs through company’s career websites or LinkedIn. Instead, tap your social network: see if there is someone you know/have worked with who either works at the company you’re interested in or is connected to it someone (as an advisor, investor, personal friend of someone in a leadership position) and ask them for a warm intro. Social proof gives you an advant…

> Instead, tap your social network Do you have experience with doing this in a way that doesn't come across as desperate or too forward? How close do you need to be with this network? Is Linkedin connection enough, or would you only do this approach with people you've worked with?

I like to think of it more as being intentional, and less as desperate/too forward. You want to know what you're looking for and, just as important, what you're not looking for.

In terms of reaching out, here are some things I did when I was job hunting:

1. The classic referral

Find the job post and work backwards from there (e.g., is there somebody I know (1st connection) or somebody who knows somebody I know (2nd connection) on LinkedIn who works at the company?).

If I knew the 1st connection, I'd reach out and ask if they were comfortable referring me.

2. The forwardable email

If it was a 2nd connection, I'd reach out with a forwardable email (https://also.roybahat.com/introductions-and-the-forward-intr...) and ask if they'd be able to forward an email and make an intro if they received a positive response.

3. Job hunting as an occasion

I made time to catch up with good friends. It felt energizing to get the moral support, with the added bonus that sometimes they knew people working at companies looking to hire. For example I would eventually get a job offer from Figma and that was because a good friend's partner worked there and was glad to refer me. I hadn't even heard of the opportunity before we talked.

4. The weak ties

I also made time to catch up with people I didn't know that well. There's some research on "weak ties" that suggest that people who you don't know well probably are exposed to a very different network to you, and will come across very different opportunities. The convo would be an opportunity for us to catch up and I'd talk about being open to job opportunities.

I hope this helps!

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#22

Post by jarsin »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #4

Good luck, Sergey. In my case, the process became so awful, humiliating, and hostile, I just gave up, and retired, ten years before I had planned. I’m very fortunate, that I could afford it. I now develop software for free, for outfits that can’t afford people like me. It’s tough, but looking for work after 50, especially when pivoting from management, back to IC, is unbearable. My heart goes out to those without the…

Devs in there 40's and 50's are probably the most valuable devs on earth. We grew up with computers and had to adapt to our rapidly changing industry.

I suspect we will see startup founders trending older if it isn't already happening. Companies stuck in the old way of thinking that older is slower will probably be disrupted in the next recession.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#23

Post by colesantiago »

It's going to get tougher and tougher in this job market.

1. Layoffs happening regularly.

2. Less Senior positions and virtually no junior jobs.

2. AI accelerating and reducing the number of software engineers.

3. Job postings being reposted with less salary and equity in US, EU and especially the UK.

You might as well take yourself off the job market / stay in current job, build a paying SMB company or side project on the side and make that your third income.

If it gets better and reaches sustainability you can choose to leave your job and live off it, or choose to get funding if need be.

After applying for over 60+ jobs after graduation and getting rejected over and over, I took myself off the market and started a pest control SaaS 4 years ago now it's bringing in over $2.2M+ ARR.

While the jobs I was applying for have now either shut down or not even bringing in anything over $100K ARR.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#25

Post by wayoverthecloud »

colesantiago wrote: post #23

It's going to get tougher and tougher in this job market. 1. Layoffs happening regularly. 2. Less Senior positions and virtually no junior jobs. 2. AI accelerating and reducing the number of software engineers. 3. Job postings being reposted with less salary and equity in US, EU and especially the UK. You might as well take yourself off the job market / stay in current job, build a paying SMB company or side project…

Congratulations! This is my dream. But the SaaS thing is so challenging. Couple of questions if you don't mind. Any tips for someone starting out? Did you have any experience in the pest control business? How did you decide pest control industry? How did you market the product?

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#26

Post by Plasmoid »

There are just piles and piles of companies out there trying to hire but are absolutely obsessed with having people work in their terrible SF offices.

I don't get it. If these companies really believed that working in an office was so beneficial they would invest in them. But they all come across like "I need an office to appear like a real company but I don't want to spend a lot of money". They're these millennial gray warehouses rocking the sad-bachelor aesthetic.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#27

Post by MarcelOlsz »

colesantiago wrote: post #23

It's going to get tougher and tougher in this job market. 1. Layoffs happening regularly. 2. Less Senior positions and virtually no junior jobs. 2. AI accelerating and reducing the number of software engineers. 3. Job postings being reposted with less salary and equity in US, EU and especially the UK. You might as well take yourself off the job market / stay in current job, build a paying SMB company or side project…

On the other side of this you have people like me who've tried and failed, and now 15 years later I have 30 days to pay my mortgage or my life starts unfolding. Hoping to make some portfolio pieces in that time to impress some hiring managers, building fun tools for myself again without profit in mind. Not everyone can build a hyper successful SaaS.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#28

Post by GenerWork »

I've been unemployed for 4 months. While I have received a job offer, it would require me to move and either sell my house, rent it out, or just continue to pay the mortgage on top of rent. I'm torn as to what to do as I do need a job, but I don't want to leave my friends and family. My thoughts go out to everybody else out there looking for a job at this time.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#29

Post by trentnix »

thw09j9m wrote: post #18

This is the toughest market I've ever seen. I easily made it to on-sites at FAANG a few years ago and now I'm getting resume rejected by no-name startups (and FAANG). The bar has also been raised significantly. I had an interview recently where I solved the algorithm question very quickly, but didn't refactor/clean up my code perfectly and was rejected.

I’m not sure the bar has been raised. It’s been weirded, but not raised.

Re: Looking for a Job Is Tough

#30

Post by cj »

PittleyDunkin wrote: post #12
friggeri wrote: post #3

One piece of advice I usually give is to avoid applying to jobs through company’s career websites or LinkedIn. Instead, tap your social network: see if there is someone you know/have worked with who either works at the company you’re interested in or is connected to it someone (as an advisor, investor, personal friend of someone in a leadership position) and ask them for a warm intro. Social proof gives you an advant…

In my experience, even internal referrals barely give you an edge these days unless the referrer is quite high in the company org. Of course things can change rapidly; perhaps the influx of ai-produced applications may bring this practice back.

Internal referrals won’t necessarily give you an edge, but they definitely nearly guarantee at least getting into the door.

At our company the (unwritten) policy is anyone who is referred internally will always get at least 1 shot at an interview even if the resume would been have otherwise been rejected. The bar isn’t lowered on merit, though.

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