How to get hired

What is so good about this? It's straight out of the getting hired 101 stuff that most folks heard in college.

What about spending your time becoming someone worth hiring? Then moving to an area where they are hiring folks who do what you do? I could see the advice in the article working for a non-technical person, like a sales guy, but who is that passionate about working? "My dream is to come into your office five days a week and sit at one of your desks and work!"

This is just more propaganda from hiring managers with a financial stake in the hire. How are you going to negotiate salary after begging for a job for three months?

My advice: do what you love doing, whether in your current company, or in your copious unemployed time, then present yourself as someone who is very good at X; don't beg.

Good grief. I guarantee you that if anybody contacted me every week asking if I have an unadvertised job for them, I'd file them in the "stalker" folder.

This kind of thing makes me crazy: "It doesn't matter if they're not hiring."

If it's a small company... there's a good chance they're really not hiring. My family runs a consulting business, and our website says we're not hiring: http://seliger.com/faq.html#anchor6 . But we get people who send us e-mails (hire me!), to which we reply, "we're not hiring," and then call us and say the same thing, which gets a very fast hang up.

When people do this, they're wasting their time and our time. But they do it anyway. It doesn't matter how smart you are: we're still not hiring, even if you do this: " Learn all about them. Read every page of their website. Become a customer. Read every article about them. Study and memorize this info."

Derek's a bright guy, and I respect him. He doesn't even know me. To anyone consider trying this: don't let this advice land you a restraining order. I just thought I'd share an anecdote:

I had a applicant do this, including the "in-person" bit. The poor girl in HR thought she had a stalker, and I didn't appreciate the incessant badgering. Don't call from different numbers, use fake names, and state different agendas to talk to people.

To tell you the truth, I'd feel like a nut case saying something like "You are my favorite company. It's my dream to work for you. If you have any aspect that could use a little help, let me do it, and I promise you it'll thrive. I'm that passionate about this."

You will get hired with this approach, yes. But it is the best way to destroy your own value. If someone is constantly asking for a job at this special company, he is also willing to make a lot of compromises for it.

As the author stated, this is an "employer's point of view".

Perhaps he is just trying to say something else? Albeit in a really bad way. In some ways the post is just too vague, but I see it this way; constantly remind that organization that you are of some value, which isn't such bad advice at the end of the day.

I recently read Dale Carengie's book. Although, I started reading it with a WTF-Is-This? point of view, but I've fallen in love with his idea. I think that he has an important point. People, like everyone else, that make up those companies are only interested in themselves, in order to make them follow your path you have to be interested in the. Instead of just kissing someone's ass this means actually making contribution to that person be it in their work, or personal lives.

Most of us would walk away from that article with an idea of counterfeit charisma, but the real deal is something quite different. Something that all of us sense, but cannot define. Take a look at this article he linked to (http://sivers.org/tom-williams), which simply made my night. That person had the drive and the talent to do something, but he short circuited a process that would take years upon years to achieve, and I think that there is a lesson in there for all of us to learn.

The dog picture spoils it all, or was that the point? Basically, prove you are a good dog, and you'll be hired?

Warning: this only works if you are genuinely good at what you do.

Or you can try another approach: demonstrate value to the company by finding solutions to problems they didn't realize they had in the first place.

If you are a designer - offer a mock up with descriptions of how your design is an improvement.

If you are a programmer - provide bug fixes or build a feature that the company's product lacks.

Provide value and make yourself indispensable so that they will want to hire you before you even ask.

Don't just approach the company asking "what can I do for you?" instead approach them with "I respect your company, here are some solutions that I think will benefit you. Let me know if there are any other ways that I can help."

I'm not so certain that this is really good advice in the modern job market. Pestering people continually may not be a great strategy. If I was the company guy at the end of the phone taking very similar "I want a job" calls from the same person all the time I'd be inclined to dismiss them as a loony, even if their qualifications looked good on paper (or in an email).

In the modern era I'm not sure that it's necessarily a good idea to pin all your hopes and job finding efforts onto a single company. Probably it's wiser to consider a range of companies, and not appear to be suffering from OCD even if you really do love the companies you're dealing with.

Also, from the early part of my own career I know that people who are genuinely eager and somewhat naive can also get horribly exploited, so if pestering succeeds then be careful that you're not just being used like a throwaway consumable.

I have never read a "how to get hired" book ever; and if those books sound like this, I am so thankful that I did not read it during my college. What is the crux of whole write-up? Is it trying to say that anybody who keeps stalking a company receptionist/HR gets a job!!! This can give a serious misconceptions to people who are looking for a job.

Somewhat Off-topic: Assuming that I disagree with his advice to only go for one company, is it reasonable to politely decline to answer when they ask what other companies I'm applying with? I always feel a little bit uncomfortable answering that question, and I can't necessarily express why.

The approach described is ridiculous, and I'm glad to see that so many others here on HN see it the same.

Alternatively, you could work HARD at being bloody good at what you do.

For some types of jobs this would work, people looking for the all the time motivated and enthusiastic, but it looks more like "how to be annoying" manual.

I'd hire someone who took this approach (assuming he/she was qualified). They're motivated and enthusiastic. Which can be hard to find.

I know a guy who did this and ended up getting hired at the NHL. After 6 months of pestering, they started him as an intern; he's now an organization man slowly climbing the corporate ladder.

The picture that accompanies the article is ridiculously cute (though totally irrelevant) :)

I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and I have earned trust in the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken to the Messiah.

But, I have never gone to college.