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Comment by egman_ekki | Hacker News Reader

I would like to believe this, too. However, after spending 6+ months helping my SO applying for more than 100 positions, handcrafting every CV and cover letter for each position, highlighting the skills that each position required, and all that we got back was maybe 5 negative answers, I think it's time to try the mass spamming approach. It's true the positions were not hardskills programming ones (more BA/data analyst oriented), but I still find it quite baffling.

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The strategy which worked best for me was to first find a job that I was interested in, and then to reach out to someone in recruiting via linkedin, twitter, whatever you find. The point is to have an actual conversation/email exchange so you're not just a pdf in someone's inbox. The recruiters won't think it's weird that you dug up their contact info because this is exactly what they do for a living, and you come in the door as a warm lead, so in the end it's a win for them. I had around an 80% success rate in getting phone screens and on-site interviews using this method.

There are two routes to finding jobs.

First route is through personal contacts/network/referral/nepotism/cronyism. In this case, your strategy of customizing resume and application is an effective strategy as you know your application will be reviewed a relavant human.

The second route is through applying to job listings when you don't have any contact. With this route the chances of your application being reviewed by relevant human is extremely low. In this case, you are better of reaching out to as many opportunities as possible. Pre-application suitability filtering and application customization is waste of job applicant's time. Instead have an standard application and just apply to all positions in your area of interest. Any filtering by job hunter happens once an interested company has made contact.

First route is essentially the only way of doing it, especially after you've been in the field for a bit. Either you're doing amazing work, and companies are after you, or you're a kid out of school. In between is ALL about who you know.

Really?

I thought there is a shortage on devs these days.

The last 2 years I only worked with companies I found online on some recruiting platforms.

A shortage at the price companies are willing to pay, typically growing slower than inflation.

Software development salaries are definitely beating inflation, by at least 2x recently.

http://www.workbridgeassociates.com/posts/images/1835/3054/C...

I thought there is a shortage on devs these days.

No. It's difficult to evaluate and hire, and the process generally takes much longer than companies would like, for a whole bunch of reasons (some good, some bad).

Which people confuse with "a shortage of qualified devs".

That is an interesting perspective, but quite different than mine. But it could be there is both a shortage of devs and it is difficult to hire and eval etc.

Seattle is estimated to have over 15,000 dev openings. My last company wanted to hire several hundred on its own. All the people we wanted had multiple offers. There seemed to be more jobs than people, but to be fair, it could be because we were all missing a bunch of good people. But it was hard to even get people to apply, they were tired of companies bugging them to interview. It sure felt like there was a shortage devs, because they didn't even want to interview with us.

I hire very good people without personal connections using postings here, recruiters, etc.

Any chance you're hiring at the moment?

We're always kind of hiring. Depends if you've got a PhD in stats or some machine learning heavy field, can code a bit and want to work in London.

I have a mentor who convinced me to go the computer engineering route. How do I convince him to grease the wheels so to speak and go the nepotism route to help me land a job out of college? It seems he does not want to do this, and I cannot seems to land a job.

A first job can be hard to land. Are you looking for jobs that you are qualified for? Play up any internships you had. Are you looking in areas that have jobs that are introductory? It's not nepotism unless he's your uncle or something, but it is normal and fine for your mentor to help you find a job.

Look for personal contacts that can help you get through the endless blitz of resumes. Look for a company recruiter on linked in or the web that hires people with your background, connect up with them, tell them you might be a good candidate. Respond quickly to their email. Look for user groups in your area, go to them. Ask your profs. Doesn't your college have a job counseling office, usually you can keep using it even after you graduate.

+1 for the spamming approach. I've been in the software and system engineering field for over 15 years and the best jobs I've got involved the least effort.

Sometimes I painstakingly craft out a cover letter and tailor my CV, but that seems to actually have a negative impact. My success rate is best when I don't write a cover letter at all; just attach your SO's CV to a blank email.

My guess is that it shows you don't really need their job, which makes you a more attractive candidate.

May I ask what's SO?

Significant other?

Significant other, it means wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend.

Ah, an old /. refugee I see!

Stack Overflow. It's a website.

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