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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

#71

Post by thomasfromcdnjs »

hansonkd wrote: post #16
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…

Idk, that is terrible advice. I've known several people who got hired because they emailed the CEO of 5-20 person startups. Heck my CEO asks me all the time that people are messaging him and if i think they are interesting enough to hire.

Agreed. I've worked in startups most of my career, I've messaged CEO's, CEO's have been messaged, never a negative experience and higher quality candidates in my opinion.

Side note: You gotta hustle people!

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

#73

Post by ptero »

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…

Luck plays a big role, but it is not just luck. One can apply in a way that significantly stacks the deck in his favor.

So absolutely reach out to your network, study the current market and find your edge. It might still be poker-style games which you can still lose because of luck; but doing that gives you starting hands with two aces. My 2c.

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

#74

Post by ghaff »

ptero wrote: post #73
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…

Luck plays a big role, but it is not just luck. One can apply in a way that significantly stacks the deck in his favor. So absolutely reach out to your network, study the current market and find your edge. It might still be poker-style games which you can still lose because of luck; but doing that gives you starting hands with two aces. My 2c.

Absolutely. There's still luck involved. But I've gotten lucky a couple of times when the market has been mediocre overall to very bad by reaching out to people I had worked with in some capacity. It also helps, per another comment, to realistically appraise the state of the market and if you get a decent offer, grab it.

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

#75

Post by ghaff »

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.

Remember, that you may not know who the hiring manager is and there may not even be a relevant posted position. I've gotten lucky with just reaching out to very senior people at a couple of different companies (of very different sizes) over time.

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

#76

Post by maccard »

Beijinger wrote: post #55

I tried this a lot. It did not work for me. But I also only sent one email and did not follow up. A few points: 1. Getting rejected does not say anything about you. The guy they hire says a lot about the company. 2. "If the interviewer(s) in question feel like you're trying to circumvent them, you're probably making your case worse" This is the whole point. In most cased you don't deal with an expert, but with HR. HR…

> HR are idiots most of the time. HR, like real estate, has also very low entrance requirements

Soft skills are the most important. Calling a group of people you work with idiots because their role has a low barrier to entry reflects badly on you. Bad recruiters are beyond useless but a good one can read a resume, match it to the JD, learn what the hiring manager is looking for (do they keep saying no to people with too much experience or too little? Or in X tech stack), and they can glean out all of the really important job stuff - salary, location, flexibility, perks, etc. they can also get a read on whether the person is likely to be… difficult. The way they treat people they believe to be below them is how they’ll treat others when they’re frustrated/stressed or even succeeding.

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

#77

Post by drsim »

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…

Don't spam. Don't be an asshole. And do everything you can to get that thing you want vs. spraying and praying for some cubicle job.

Exceptional folks rarely limit themselves to pushing submit to upload their CV. That proper channel is a lottery, and they know it. It's a broken system that requires hustle to increase the odds.

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

#78

Post by dworks »

A few times in my life I have found job opportunities that would have been my dreamjob and I was uniquely qualified due to a cross-disciplinary background, previous experience and education, language skills and such. I was an SME with technical skills and I had so much knowledge of the company's products, industry and competitors that I could have done their marketing strategy and product strategy in a couple of weeks. Maybe it wouldn't all have been correct from the start, but I had so much knowledge that I could have done this by heart.

I spent a lot of time on targeted applications for these places, re-doing my CV and spending weeks iterating on my cover letter. I never heard back from any of those places.

Instead I've been hired into industries I knew nothing about. Sure, I was a decent candidate, but I was just another candidate. This has worked out fine.

Why did these places hire me and not the others? Because they were growing so they had a need to hire. The former places did not.

So for me the only real advice is to apply to places that are growing. When places are growing and really need to hire to expand, all the bullshit in the process is eliminated. Decisions are made fast. It's easier and more pleasant.

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

#79

Post by mettamage »

dworks wrote: post #78

A few times in my life I have found job opportunities that would have been my dreamjob and I was uniquely qualified due to a cross-disciplinary background, previous experience and education, language skills and such. I was an SME with technical skills and I had so much knowledge of the company's products, industry and competitors that I could have done their marketing strategy and product strategy in a couple of week…

> So for me the only real advice is to apply to places that are growing.

Or sometimes when people are leaving and they need a replacement ASAP. That's how I was hired, but it was also quite lucky that there were not many applicants.

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

#80

Post by brador »

dworks wrote: post #78

A few times in my life I have found job opportunities that would have been my dreamjob and I was uniquely qualified due to a cross-disciplinary background, previous experience and education, language skills and such. I was an SME with technical skills and I had so much knowledge of the company's products, industry and competitors that I could have done their marketing strategy and product strategy in a couple of week…

1 sell everything.

2 turn 18.

3 move to highest gdp location, capital city, largest city, that you can get to, or that your chosen industry, if you have one, is focused in.

4 make list of growing companies.

5 apply to growing companies.

Simple, yet so few will actually do this.

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