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Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt

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Re: Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt

#31

Post by lbrito »

hackable_sand wrote: post #11
lbrito wrote: post #4

>Get in contact with current employees at the company. It is important that you send more than one email. I've gotten dozens of emails asking for meetings and referrals. The only time I actually respond to these is after the second email. Please, no. Go through the proper channels like everyone else. If you have a referral - great. Otherwise, DON'T spam current employees you randomly find on linkedin or whatever. I g…

That's a you issue. Not everyone is asocial.

If your idea of socialization is the transactional exchange of emails between yourself and someone who happens to work in a company you might be interested in also working, then most people would agree you have a very peculiar definition of socialization.

Re: Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt

#32

Post by cj »

drillsteps5 wrote: post #6

> Instead of applying broadly, identify 5-10 specific opportunities you genuinely want. Do that. >Get in contact with current employees at the company. It is important that you send more than one email. Don't do that. >I've gotten dozens of emails asking for meetings and referrals. I've never gotten one in my entire career, and I was hiring manager in multiple companies/roles. >If the company is Don't never ever EVER…

There’s very little you can do wrong by sending someone a genuine email.

Now if you use AI to automate the personalization and start blasting it out indiscriminately, then yea, please don’t.

But if you are being genuine and hand writing emails expressing why you want to work for someone, it’s hard to screw it up.

Re: Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt

#33

Post by skeptic_ai »

pavlus wrote: post #27
nemomarx wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the risk is that if the CEO doesn't like getting bothered and remembers your name, it might hurt your chances being hired in other ways?

Would you like to work for a company, where CEO is busy reprimanding people looking for a job, instead of doing his actual job, anyway?

If ceo receives 1000 resumes per month will it even matter?

Imagine as a ceo you receive emails from juniors wanting to work for your company. You might not even know the role, why would you waste time checking these Cv/email that detracts you from your goals? Usually are low quality and spammy , any ceo will quickly learn to ignore or forward to hr to blacklist these people. These are the same people that once they get a job will email the ceo for a raise.

As a ceo you hire hr to deal with that noise and only give you the top 3 are hr and others wasted their time filtering. If ceo does the filtering is useless.

Imagine for a tech role: the good devs would never email the CEO, the crap and entitles one will do. It’s definitively the kind of candidates you want to avoid.

Re: Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt

#34

Post by cal_dent »

FWIW one of the things about advice on job hunting (and a lot of other things in life tbh) is that no one ever seems to acknowledge that, more often than we like to think, it's just luck.

Yes reaching out to your network is good, putting yourself out there through direct contact where possible is good (early in my career two jobs which were real stepping stones came from emailing a head of and ceo directly after a conference), spending time trying to find your edge relatively to others is good. But there are so many points in the whole process where it's simply luck of the draw that spray and pray within reason isn't a completely ridiculous route.

Unless you're already in a role, try what you have to. It's no fun in it but things are always easier once you don't have anything to fall back too.

Re: Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt

#35

Post by [deleted] »

ebiester wrote: post #8
drillsteps5 wrote: post #6

> Instead of applying broadly, identify 5-10 specific opportunities you genuinely want. Do that. >Get in contact with current employees at the company. It is important that you send more than one email. Don't do that. >I've gotten dozens of emails asking for meetings and referrals. I've never gotten one in my entire career, and I was hiring manager in multiple companies/roles. >If the company is Don't never ever EVER…

Oh, I get them all the time. Usually from junior engineers. I don't hold it against them - it's good advice. So, what's your trick to avoid getting skipped because a contract recruiter or internal recruiter is going through resumes at 6 a minute and looking for keywords nowhere near the job profile? What's your trick to get through the noise? Right now, it's brutal from junior to staff, and if your network isn't hiri…

[deleted]

Re: Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt

#36

Post by jjmarr »

biophysboy wrote: post #22

Why isn't there a job search website that forces you to adopt this targeted bet strategy? The game theory of job-hunting incentivizes both submitters and receivers to adopt inefficient practices. Why not limit applications to one per day to signal genuine interest? Then you can demonstrate skill at an in-person interview, or at your local legally-bound interview center? (my very boring sci-fi prediction)

Greenhouse allows you to mark a single "dream job" per month to stand out.

It's unclear if anyone cares.

Re: Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt

#37

Post by dommer »

rvz wrote: post #13

Or even better. Build yourself a startup.

If you can’t find a job, make a job. Sounds reasonable but fraught with risk.

Having been in the software industry for 30 years I feel the need to provide some balance and context to your advice. YMMV

Getting a startup to even survival level money takes incredible effort, skill, and time.

Outside of those, luck is by far the most important aspect. Which is out of your control.

You have to fight and beat dozens of biases and fallacies. Here is a small sample…

Survivorship bias — focusing on visible winners, ignoring the many failures Outcome bias — judging decisions by results rather than decision quality Availability bias — overweighting memorable success stories Publication bias — only successes get written about or promoted Narrative fallacy — inventing clean stories after the fact

Please ignore the one-shot-bro-influencers who have a fool proof recipe for making 10MMR with Ralph mode. If they are real they have hit luck not execution.

As hard as it is getting a job. The massive amount of work and time it will take. Building a network via proof of work [side projects] and hitting only your archetype with applications is still far more valuable for landing a role. With, and this is key, much higher levels of success than startups.

Re: Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt

#38

Post by johnnyanmac »

>You have a unique connection to the company.

So it comes back to "networking", huh? Sadly the advice doesn't work if your network is either also laid off or simply is in a soft/hard hiring freeze. They can't connect you to what isn't there.

And that's even before following point #1. This far in my career I don't really have a "dream job" anymore. My dream is to be my own boss. But I need a bit more money and a smidgen more time to establish myself there. So those facts make me fall back to "apply to whatever fits my skillset, maybe ping to check vibes if I know anyone".

Re: Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt

#40

Post by AznHisoka »

jjmarr wrote: post #36
biophysboy wrote: post #22

Why isn't there a job search website that forces you to adopt this targeted bet strategy? The game theory of job-hunting incentivizes both submitters and receivers to adopt inefficient practices. Why not limit applications to one per day to signal genuine interest? Then you can demonstrate skill at an in-person interview, or at your local legally-bound interview center? (my very boring sci-fi prediction)

Greenhouse allows you to mark a single "dream job" per month to stand out. It's unclear if anyone cares.

Thats just greenhouse. They’re one of hundreds of ATS’ out there.
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