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Comment by MattGaiser | Hacker News Reader

Get a LinkedIn premium subscription and ask alumni of your school for referrals. Just random alumni.

I was given this advice and thought it was brazen and aggressive and that nobody would do it. I didn't after graduation. I was wrong and when I tried it later, it worked. And I ended up doing it for others who messaged me.

Apply though the back door for VIPs. Plenty of people are happy to put you in. Random people on Hacker News have referred me. Random people from whoishiring threads have been willing to ensure I got an interview.

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> ...ask alumni of your school for referrals. Just random alumni.

When candidates do this to me I am happy to refer them after I personally screen their resume and I converse with them a little (written or verbal).

I don't refer someone unless I think it's worth my company spending money evaluating them.

I dislike the pushy candidates who believe this approach is a no-effort side door.

This works and demonstrates two desirable traits: confidence or courage to overcome apprehension and a growth mindset willing to work at actively searching for work. I prefer to hear directly from new grads than recruiters any day of the week.

The other thing people fear is being one of many and being a bother. As long as you target low enough of an alum, they are almost certainly not swamped.

This is good advice. I had a first year CS student at my alma matter randomly reach out to me for general guidance on LinkedIn. Two years later we have a rich mentor/mentee relationship.

Related... Mayuko is a software engineer who has worked at Intuit, Patreon, and Netflix. She now makes YouTube videos full time, many of them focused on bootstrapping a career in tech. Her latest video is about increasing the likelihood of getting engagement when doing exactly the kind of thing the parent suggests. https://youtu.be/SJ3cXmRX7mM

One reason why this works so well is that there is often a monetary incentive on the referrer's side, in that they get paid some referral bonus if you get hired

> Get a LinkedIn premium subscription

How does this help with asking alumni of your school for referrals? Can't you do that with a regular account?

It allows you to bypass (some?) restrictions on who you can message.

Without it, I think you need at least to have a mutual connection. (Which wouldn't be that hard to achieve with fellow alumni.)

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