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

Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt

seanmuirhead.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 113 posts

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

#61

Post by joquarky »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #43
ebiester wrote: post #12

It's interesting that the first thing you see in the comments is "don't contact anyone." Right now we're in a weird place - if you have a network, you're pretty well off. If your network isn't hiring, or you are early in your career, it's brutal trying to get through the noise. The truth is that proof of work matters. But the big problem is that proof of work is easy to fake right now. It takes being creative. I get…

>The truth is that proof of work matters. But the big problem is that proof of work is easy to fake right now. The big shame is that the hardest PoW to fake right now tends to be under NDA's and proprietary codebases. So if you aren't in the position to make major contributions to FOSS in your free time or "code for fun", it feels like a soft reset all over again. As if those yeras in industry mean nothing. I especia…

If you're interested at all in Eastern philosophy, it has helped me survive mentally the past few years of unemployment and unstable work after burning out from a 22 year career.

Highly recommend Alan Watts. If you like audiobooks, I started out on the one titled You're It. I think it was a good starting point.

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

#62

Post by onion2k »

tekacs wrote: post #3

> If the company is When the people you're interviewing with are 'already senior' (e.g. direct reports to the CEO), you can sometimes make your case worse rather than better, because it feels like you're going over their head. So rather than size... - If the interviewer(s) in question feel like you're trying to circumvent them, you're probably making your case worse. - The kind of CEO that tends to meddle in things b…

When the people you're interviewing with are 'already senior' (e.g. direct reports to the CEO), you can sometimes make your case worse rather than better, because it feels like you're going over their head.

If that happens then it's a very good thing - you do not want to work at a company where people are precious about how they succeed. If a great candidate (e.g you) drops into the inbox of the CEO who forwards it to someone else, and their first reaction is 'Well, they violated my personal kingdom by going over my head!' then that is a manager you do not need in your life.

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

#63

Post by asdff »

cj wrote: post #25
leeny wrote: post #23

This is very good advice. Because OP doesn't talk about how to write emails, here's how to write good cold emails to hiring managers/employees/CEOs: https://interviewing.io/blog/how-to-get-in-the-door-at-top-c... P.S. I'm CEO of a Series A company. I get a lot of email from prospective candidates. I never hold it against them, and as long as it doesn't look like spam, I reply. Telling people not to send emails (I saw…

I also regularly get cold emails from candidates. Most often for marketing roles, rarely for technical roles. Cold emailing definitely wont hurt your chances at the job. But to be effective, the outreach needs to be heavily tailored and personalized. You need to make it obvious you aren’t copy and pasting the email to 20 other people.

Would you actually hire a candidate from a cold email? I did it when I was in undergrad looking for research experience. But for professional level jobs it seems so presumptuous considering how you cost 10 or 20x more than an undergraduate on work study.

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

#64

Post by Nextgrid »

smnscu wrote: post #45
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…

I've interviewed 3k people with Karat as a professional interviewer, and several hundred more as a hiring manager. The very few times I received direct emails from candidates attempting to circumvent the normal process were met with unequivocally negative reactions. First, I find the Internet sleuthing they'd undergo to find my email address a bit creepy – for example, Karat would only show the first name and profile…

> interviewed 3k people with Karat as a professional interviewer

Working for an interview mill is not the same as working for a company.

An interview mill’s objective is to assess whatever criteria their client told them in a somewhat repeatable way.

A company worker’s objective is to find someone who would be a good colleague or addition to the company.

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

#65

Post by [deleted] »

tekacs wrote: post #44
wrs wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interpreted this post as being about how you get an interview in the first place, so the hope would be that the CEO forwards your mail to this senior person you're worried about.

Even still - a lot of senior folks, sadly, don't take it super well when candidates are forwarded their way by people above them when they're running a process.

[deleted]

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

#66

Post by Atomic_Torrfisk »

> You are specifically interested in the job for reasons other than the money. It is unlikely that other applicants want the job as badly as you do.

This is really rat race to the bottom. Obviously it goes without saying that people passionate about a project get preference, but if you are trying to wind yourself up to be "passionate" your winding yourself up to accept less for more work.

> Do not ask employees for a referral!

This amount of times I get asked for blind referrals is insane. Maybe it is a non-western thing, but I nor anyone else I know does this or accepts these requests. It only kills an application, since it looks deceitful, an applicant should stand on their own.

> If the company is There is already a lot of spam filtering through their inbox, this is white noise. This maaaay only work if you know them on other channels and they are "cool".

> Again, send more than one email.

lol

CS is oversaturated right now for many reasons. Regardless, mass applications do not work unless you are cheating, targeted applications do not work unless everyone else does the same. The best bet is internal networks, or searching for work in unexpected locations, e.g. webmaster at the local pulp mill.

source: I worked in hiring for small stints over 7 years

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

#67

Post by zem »

tekacs wrote: post #3

> If the company is When the people you're interviewing with are 'already senior' (e.g. direct reports to the CEO), you can sometimes make your case worse rather than better, because it feels like you're going over their head. So rather than size... - If the interviewer(s) in question feel like you're trying to circumvent them, you're probably making your case worse. - The kind of CEO that tends to meddle in things b…

I understood the OP to be saying "reach out to the CEO to express your interest in working for the company in order to get to the interview stage", not "email the CEO to make a case for being hired when you're already in the interview pipeline"

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

#69

Post by csomar »

cal_dent wrote: post #34

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 co…

> it's just luck

No one will admit that because everyone likes to pretend that they "earned" it. Everything about you, your circumstances and surroundings is stochastic.

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

#70

Post by dandelionv1bes »

ebiester wrote: post #12

It's interesting that the first thing you see in the comments is "don't contact anyone." Right now we're in a weird place - if you have a network, you're pretty well off. If your network isn't hiring, or you are early in your career, it's brutal trying to get through the noise. The truth is that proof of work matters. But the big problem is that proof of work is easy to fake right now. It takes being creative. I get…

I struggle with this a bit because while my network isn’t bad - I really can’t stand social network like threads/X etc - I’m not on any social media bar here and LinkedIn.

Do you think investing in bluesky is worth it? I’m in industry but have a PhD ongoing in TTI models so I should probably get on it :/

Post reply on HN