Landing A Job

Outline For Success

With any job search, there are no guarantees. There are just simply too many variables that are outside of your control. We can, to some extent, control ourselves in this process and make the most of our efforts and time.

Take Care Of Yourself And Build Good Habits

This is the foundation (and some might argue, the point) of a successful job search. You need to operate like a high performing athlete to handle the stress of a job search. Structure and self-care are paramount. Personally speaking, this is the hardest aspect of a job hunt next to coping with rejection and loss.

• Stay connected to friends and family

• Pace and limit your work, establishing a sustainable routine of work

• Get light to moderate exercise often

• Eat well

• Maintain sleep hygiene

• Maintain personal hygiene

• Find a little time for creative pursuits

Observe And Adapt

Personally, I do not operate with a "survival of the fittest" mentality. But when it comes to job searches, the reality is that job searches are dehumanizing, highly competitive, and deeply unfair. We absolutely need to do better as an industry. That said, for anyone looking for some hope of success, there is no room for taking things personally. You must keep track of your actions, the actions of your interviewers, reflect on them objectively, and use that information.

• Apply broad and deep application strategies from the start, refine both and skew toward depth over time

  • Broad means applying for many companies at once with minimal selectivity of the company or role and minimal tailoring of your application materials

  • Deep means being highly selective about the company's size, culture, and financials, the role's requirements, opportunities, and compensation and then working your network to get connected while providing highly tailored resume and cover letter

• Make it clear to interviewers that you need and appreciate feedback and won't take things personally. Consider it as a single data point and move on. Don't change your materials or process until you've heard the same advice repeatedly.

• Identify the bottlenecks in your "pipeline" and address them. Failing interviews? Practice them! No applications accepted? Update your materials. This seems straightforward but people don't do it.

Spend Less Time Practicing Technical Interviews

You need to practice but they are incredibly time-consuming and mentally-taxing. 

There's so much to say about this so I'll just try to keep it simple:

• There are too many variables outside of your control

• Practice with intention and curiosity

• Expect bullshit from sites like LeetCode and HackerRank and from companies and proctors

• Don't take it personally but don't ignore it either

Think "Sales And Marketing"

This is a great time to reflect on whether your work actually mattered. Imagine trying to hire someone you know nothing about and what kinds of details would make them instantly more trustworthy. 

• • Build your brand. Identify your strengths and articulate them concisely and consistently

    • Make sure that message is shared in every application material (LinkedIn, GitHub, Resume, Cover Letter, etc.)

  • Leverage every channel available (email, SMS, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok)

  • Be nice and check in on your friends and old coworkers

    • This is basically "keeping your leads warm"

  • Build a website

    • I used Google Sites for free

    • Use Google Analytics for free

    • Steer traffic here from other platforms

  • Post regularly (e.g. once a week) to improve search results and network reach. Find an easy and consistent source of material and inspiration to enhance and add your own spin

A lot of technology professionals find sales and marketing work unsavory. If you feel as such, you should read the next section closely.

Networking

The technology industry has a done a great job of making people think about their company's problems over their career or their peers. There is a prevailing sense that focusing on getting work done is admirable yet when we leave our jobs, we have nothing to show. This is unfair and we need to incorporate small ways of highlighting the work that we do outside of our current jobs and retaining relationships throughout our careers.

Engineers especially struggle with self-promotion. We can be uncomfortable with discussions about our long-term careers with peers and even less so with asking them for favors, however small. So, when it comes time for personal sales and marketing, we may view them as anti-social, disingenuous, or predatory and rightly so, based on our experiences of being on the receiving end of such activities.