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Ask HN: What job search strategies work for you?

47 points Jabbs | 5 comments | 15 Nov 24 17:07 UTC | HN request time: 0.642s | source

I’ve been laid off since June and have not been getting responses from most of my applications other than denials. I have 10+ years mostly Ruby/React/JS. New just working on a side project (job listing scraper) but curious what is working well for you? Specific apps or strategies that lead to your hiring?
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brudgers ◴[15 Nov 24 19:43 UTC] No.42150170[source]▶
Reaching out to everyone you have worked above, under, and beside is the best strategy (assuming you are not the kind of person people don't ever want to work with again).

To put it another way, with ten years experience a hiring professional might reasonably wonder why you are cold applying rather than working through a professional network. Or at least networking into the company org-chart before applying. [1]

And because any public job listing is going to be fire hosed with applications by people scraping, the hiring professional's job entails saying "no" on more than 99% of applications.

Therefore finding reasons to say "no" is mostly what they are going to do for very practical reasons. You might be a diamond in the rough, but being in the rough is almost certainly a good enough reason to not move your application forward in a saturated channel of applications.

Good luck.

[1]: If you identify someone within, reaching out and asking for an "informational interview" is a way of opening a conversation. An informational interview is where you can find out what a company is looking for in candidates. You need to be fly fishing, not chumming.

replies(2): >>42150592 #>>42153075 #
1. staticautomatic ◴[16 Nov 24 00:45 UTC] No.42153075[source]▶
As a hiring manager, I’d say rule #1 is “apply for the job” regardless of what else you do. If someone reaches out to me on LinkedIn for an informational interview or whatever and they’re not in my ATS, I don’t take the call. I cannot apply for you or move you through the process without an application.
replies(3): >>42154426 #>>42156221 #>>42217601 #
2. brudgers ◴[16 Nov 24 05:00 UTC] No.42154426[source]▶
Like I said, hiring managers are incentivized to say “no” but as I did not say clearly, informational interviews are a networking strategy, not a backdoor to job interviews.

They are a way of meeting someone on the inside.

3. andyjohnson0 ◴[16 Nov 24 13:06 UTC] No.42156221[source]▶
ATS?
replies(1): >>42162493 #
4. ostaquet ◴[17 Nov 24 07:12 UTC] No.42162493[source]▶
Applicant Tracking System
5. guinn8 ◴[22 Nov 24 21:42 UTC] No.42217601[source]▶
Hey, I wanted to thank you for this advice! A recruiter from my dream company reached out to me on LinkedIn yesterday about an opportunity. Before responding, I remembered this specific comment and took the following steps:

   1.  Applied for the job within 30 minutes of the recruiter reaching out.
   2.  Replied to the recruiter, requesting a quick phone call the next day.
This approach worked beautifully! I just got off the call, and it looks like I’ll likely be doing a technical interview early next week