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What can I do differently to find employment?

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What can I do differently to find employment?

#1

Post by javajosh »

I've been actively looking for a job for the last 18 months, and having no luck. I've applied for many roles, both directly and, occasionally, through recruiters. All of these roles were very close to my existing skillset (webapps with Java, React or Angular, microservices, k8s, distributed messaging, ETL, etc), but recieved no response.

I've signed up for various job boards (indeed, ziprecruiter, jobboutique, jobhire.ai, etc) and I only get misleading "X is interested in you!" spam email from them. I'm not sure where or how they get their data, but it seems very low quality. I've taken to only applying directly or, on occasion, through LinkedIn.

Not that long ago I would have 10 recruiters with offers in a week of showing availability on LinkedIn. Now this. I'm not averse to working harder to find a role, but now I can't even get an interview for a heads-down corporate job, let alone anything more interesting.

Any help or advice appreciated.

Re: What can I do differently to find employment?

#2

Post by kradeelav »

What level are you/years of experience do you have? Advice for Manager+ is pretty different from somebody with 2 years of being an independent contributor, or none.

I've heard from several people the one somewhat reliable in is knowing somebody on the inside of the place you're applying to. At this point having somebody being able to vouch for you is helpful to separate your resume from the slosh pile.

It's rough out there. Wishing you luck.

Re: What can I do differently to find employment?

#3

Post by javajosh »

kradeelav wrote: post #2

What level are you/years of experience do you have? Advice for Manager+ is pretty different from somebody with 2 years of being an independent contributor, or none. I've heard from several people the one somewhat reliable in is knowing somebody on the inside of the place you're applying to. At this point having somebody being able to vouch for you is helpful to separate your resume from the slosh pile. It's rough out…

I have 25 years of experience, including at prestigious places like Blizzard and JPL. However I've worked for a variety of startups, none of which succeeded.

Re: What can I do differently to find employment?

#6

Post by brudgers »

javajosh wrote: post #3
kradeelav wrote: post #2

What level are you/years of experience do you have? Advice for Manager+ is pretty different from somebody with 2 years of being an independent contributor, or none. I've heard from several people the one somewhat reliable in is knowing somebody on the inside of the place you're applying to. At this point having somebody being able to vouch for you is helpful to separate your resume from the slosh pile. It's rough out…

I have 25 years of experience, including at prestigious places like Blizzard and JPL. However I've worked for a variety of startups, none of which succeeded.

Talk to the people you worked over under and beside.

Re: What can I do differently to find employment?

#7

Post by scarface_74 »

Let me tell you my experience in both 2023 and again last year.

For context, I had 25+ years of development experience at the time, a decade leading projects, 7 years of AWS experience and 3.5 years of experience at AWS ProServe with major open source contributions to a popular open source official “AWS solution”…

Plan A: reach out to my network. Results within two weeks - two offers for full time jobs and one short term contract.

Plan B: targeted outreach based on a niche in AWS where I was at the time considered one of the industry subject matter experts (ie third highest contributor to the popular open source AWS solution along with my own decently known projects I did while I was there). Two interviews one offer.

Plan C: where you are - randomly applying for jobs via an ATS. Every job had hundreds of applicants. I applied for over one hundred jobs mostly via LinkedIn Easy apply and a couple through LinkedIn. My application wasn’t even viewed. Let alone was my resume downloaded LinkedIn shows you both.

Lesson? If you are applying for a job blindly via an ATS with a generic skillset, it’s almost impossible to stand out above the noise.

Re: What can I do differently to find employment?

#8

Post by muzani »

Job boards suck. Once, a company rejected me on a job board but had actually contacted me via HN - they quickly changed the status from failed to in interviews to avoid confusion. Another time, the job board rejected me half a month after I had been working at the place.

LinkedIn is a little better, but it's just flooded by busy recruiters who message literally everyone then remember two weeks later about that job they were talking to you about.

I tried scraping job postings but there's literally 0% response rate because I guess everyone else does this too.

Got my current job from HN's who wants a job. Just started this month, so it works.

Unfortunately with the AI spam you might have to go old school and cold DM/email people on LinkedIn or something.

Re: What can I do differently to find employment?

#9

Post by bruce511 »

I (fortunately) haven't had to look for a job in 30 years. So I'm not sure this advice will work in your context.

I have employed people though, so maybe that makes this a valuable point of view.

At the moment the market is crowded with available people. So traditional paths are flooded. Some people are getting hired but supply is vastly exceeding supply.

I would recommend an alternative approach to meeting prospective employers. Be creative. Try and stand out from the crowd by doing something different.

(Hopefully 95% of job seekers will ignore this advice leaving the field open for the 5% who prove that problem-solving employees are attractive. )

YMMV. Good luck.

Re: What can I do differently to find employment?

#10

Post by taurath »

I just finished a multi-year career break and was able to navigate the market and land 2 offers - every company is dealing with a massive deluge of fake applicants. The front door is poisoned right now - do not funnel your job search through it.

You need to prove you're a real person now - the first way is to get a referral from someone you worked with in the past. Literally anyone - if you're not reaching out to everyone at any company that even may be hiring for a role you want, you should be.

Another way is to be posting somewhat regularly, having some online presence, showing your looking for work, are a person, and have a positive mindset.

Your resume should be tailored for the role, but not generated by AI (it'll get flagged) - spend less time messing with your resume though and more time networking. If you as you say have been in the industry 25 years, there absolutely will be someone who will give you referrals.

Companies are hiring, but the way you and I have gotten roles in the last decade+ is mostly shut.

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