Targeted Bets: An alternative approach to the job hunt • Hacker News Board

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

#91

Post by pjc50 » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 3:43 PM UTC

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…

> 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?

I don't know, but I can't imagine the person whose job is not to look at resumes at all is going to do any better.

There's a tragedy of the commons thing here. It might work if people are getting one inbound email a week and they like reading them. Once it becomes common wisdom, suddenly J Random Employee has dozens of incoming cold emails distracting from their work. So all of them go in the bin.

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

#92

Post by apt-apt-apt-apt » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

This seems contradictory, why not to ask employees for a referral?

"Contact current employees [presumably ask for referral]."

"Don't ask employees for a referral, most are incentivized (referral bonus) to give you one if you can convince them"

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

#93

Post by Unbeliever69 » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 4:10 PM UTC

Isn't this basically What Color is Your Parachute?

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

#94

Post by hosh » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 4:19 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #91

ebiester wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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? I don't know, but I can't imagine the person whose job is not to look at resumes at all is going to do any better. There's a tragedy of the commons thing here. It might work if people are getting one inbound email a week and t…

I got a chance to talk to one of the recruiters at my company, informally. One takeaway is that it really depends on the type of work. Even now, there are work where a recruiter has to source - personally go out to seek specific candidates. Referals are even more important here.

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

#95

Post by sennalen » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 4:24 PM UTC

"Get in contact with current employees at the company"

and draw the rest of the owl?

This blog is really missing the core question of what contact would be more effective than applying to the company's explicit job postings

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

#96

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 4:43 PM UTC

red-iron-pine wrote: post #81

brador wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

this is sarcasm, right?

[deleted]

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

#97

Post by daxfohl » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

Often when doing that, you look up the company on blind and it's got a 3 star rating with low pay, bad management, and no vision, though decent WLB.

My theory is that a lot of companies are one trick ponies. By the time you've heard of them, the core of their product is finished and they're left floating and have to make up stuff to pretend to work on.

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

#98

Post by dghlsakjg » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 5:09 PM UTC

brador wrote: post #80

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.

Plenty of people do this. Go to New York, SF or LA and you literally can't get a cup of coffee without running into someone that is stuck in a dead end service job, often for years, because they tried what you suggest.

Take risks, sure, but step 0 is have a resourced backup plan, and know when to execute it.

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

#99

Post by MarkusQ » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

brador wrote: post #80

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.

I could use some more detailed guidance on step 2. I managed it once, almost by accident, but have not been able to replicate since.

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

#100

Post by ericmcer » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 6:34 PM UTC

I had a really nice job hunt this time around because:

- I quit my job to work on a side project in a specific space (voice AI for me).

- Spent three months shipping a few things and sinking into the area.

- Apply to jobs in that space, custom cover letter if applicable.

- Reach out directly to hiring people/engineers on LinkedIn for those companies, if it is engineers I usually say things like "did you also struggle with 'x'", "I solved 'Y' by doing __"

- Be genuinely interested in that space.

~50% reach out to interview rate using that strategy.