21–30 of 98 posts
When I was looking for a job I would routinely go through: - careers.stackoverflow.com - prospects.ac.uk (Though you need to have been a student to register) - s1jobs.com (Mostly so I could have at least seen one ad a day) - talentscotland.com - workinstartups.com
Find the type of company you want to work for. Narrow your list down to about 5 of those companies you'd like to work at.
Now sit down and write a personalized cover letter for each of these companies and the role you'd like to play in said organization.
Now email each of the companies hiring depts, founders, etc with said letter and sit back. If you wrote a truly compelling cover letter (you should have if you are actually passionate about working for the company) you will most likely get some sort of response.
Rinse and repeat if no success.
As a multi-time founder and hiring decision-maker I always enjoyed a good cover letter and great interview more than a resume. Even when it comes to technical knowledge the most important thing to me is that if you did not know it you were smart enough and capable of learning it.
If you can knock it out of the park on a cover letter and show why you're excited to be a part of said company then they would be foolish not to hire you.
EDIT: Obviously you should still send a resume as well. But sending one without a cover letter in my opinion is the equivalent of career suicide.
I haven't used it personally, but Angellist jobs looks interesting: https://angel.co/jobs I like that they have to disclose ballpark salaries. Makes it easier to get a sense for how the company values developers.
We've seen more than 90% of the jobs posted on our site also include salary. After reading many of the posts in this thread, I'm eager to expand the functionality of our platform's tools to include many of the methods described in finding a job outside the popular platforms.
I wrote a long post about job boards for programmers that was on HN a while ago: http://www.maxmasnick.com/articles/jobs/
I wrote a long post about job boards for programmers that was on HN a while ago: http://www.maxmasnick.com/articles/jobs/
What a coincidence. I emailed you about 10 minutes ago regarding this exact post!
I wish I knew more about the UK job scene....I'm in the US so I don't have any personal experience there. Are the big job boards the same there? (I'd guess Github, StackOverflow, 37s, angellist are the big established boards everywhere, but not sure.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a coincidence. I emailed you about 10 minutes ago regarding this exact post!
I just saw your email! I wish I knew more about the UK job scene....I'm in the US so I don't have any personal experience there. Are the big job boards the same there? (I'd guess Github, StackOverflow, 37s, angellist are the big established boards everywhere, but not sure.)
Chasing listed jobs is a mug's game for two reasons: (i) you need to compete with a mountain of applications, and (ii) people often list jobs that they aren't entirely serious about filling. Even if you have a strong resume and put 30 minutes into writing a good cover letter for each applications, the odds really are against you in this case.
Factor (ii) is still a problem if you get an interview because many organizations put multiple random barriers ahead of applicants. For instance, if you don't pass some test or flub a question or one of the fifteen people who talk to you just doesn't like you on an animal level you've wasted all the time you've put into the process.
Anybody who's using a recruiter, on the other hand, really wants to fill the position. The odds are in your favor because the recruiter is going to walk if the company keeps putting candidates through the gauntlet and rejecting them.
So how do you get people to call you?
Be active on the web. For me that's meant developing a few side projects and also developing connections and adding some content to LinkedIn every day... Even when I'm not looking for work.
If you get yourself known you can quit wasting time looking at job boards.
I'm a freelancer, and most of my work comes via referrals now. Not always, but it's been the case for the past few years.
Wasn't much different back when I was looking for full time work though. Even though I only worked for 2 companies, I use to get interviews through referrals, or through past colleagues that left and wanted me to come aboard.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just saw your email! I wish I knew more about the UK job scene....I'm in the US so I don't have any personal experience there. Are the big job boards the same there? (I'd guess Github, StackOverflow, 37s, angellist are the big established boards everywhere, but not sure.)
All of the above are relevant. Tech wise there are few that stick out aside from those which is why we are really pushing to be a bigger player as we reckon the UK tech job scene needs a lot of TLC.
Is there any sort of public reporting/metrics for the effectiveness of these boards, or do people use them because every other company does so it seems necessary to compete for candidates?