Ask HN: Unusual Recruiting Stories?
My first big job i got through Twitter.
One job i got by coincide running into someone in a WeWork.
What are your most unusual ways you landed a job outside of indeed.com / LinkedIn jobs
One job i got by coincide running into someone in a WeWork.
What are your most unusual ways you landed a job outside of indeed.com / LinkedIn jobs
Only one problem: I didn’t want to live and work in Dallas. I wanted to be in Austin. That corporate sheen, so prevalent in the city’s culture, embodied by this shiny company, just wasn’t me. I’d been suppressing that thought all day because it seemed like such a good opportunity, but I knew deep down I wouldn’t be happy.
End of the day, final interview with the CEO, in his office. I took a deep breath and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t want to be in Dallas.”
He smiled, thanked me for being honest, and said “We have a sister-company upstairs. They have an Austin office. Want me to take you up there and introduce you?” That ended up being my first software job.
I put up a team with friends to compete in that race and we were drinking special beers during the relays. The team next to us was cooking a barbecue and saw our beers: we traded sausages for beers... I was unemployed at the time, and through a happy discussion with that other team, I was offered a job by one of their member who had a computer shop and needed a technician.
best job interview ever !
Then out of the blue I got an invite to an internship interview at a local very reputable firm, and ended up getting the job. I never applied for it. Eventually I asked how it happened. The guy running the department looked up (public) exam results and invited top X% in my STEM subject, me among them.
Was much better than what I’d get at a corporate graduate puppy mill.
In a past life, he'd been hired to find a cybersecurity expert in a very niche field, where there are really only a handful of people with the proven chops. Naturally, all of them are happily employed and unlikely to switch, so he decided to get clever.
He zeroed in on one target. First, he thought, let's find out contact information. A quick Google search turns up nothing (no email, no phone number, no social media handles), but a more advanced one with boolean filters brings up a link to a personal website that had long since been taken offline.
So my recruiter used the Wayback Machine to inspect the link, and finds, to his joy, it's been cached. In the About Me section, there's a small snippet about how he enjoyed playing chess and a social media handle.
Now the recruiter gets even craftier. He uses the Foursquare API to track his check-ins from the social media handle. Over the course of a few weeks, a pattern emerges - every Friday, maybe a Thursday, the expert would check in to a local bar. So this recruiter simply shows up at that bar on a Friday, and waits for the guy.
He lets him sit there for a bit, nursing his drink, and then sidles up to him and starts a conversation about chess. They bond over it. The guy invites the recruiter to his local chess club, who meet every Sunday. Over the next few days, the recruiter gains his trust, learns what this guy wants. Then finally he pitches the company he represents, addressing everything the guy had brought up to him in the conversation. He walks away that evening with a willing candidate who would go on to get hired.
I have no idea how true this story is. This recruiter was an unusual fellow, and he only stayed for a few months at my former employer.
When my friend explained I spotted the solution in minutes, he offered me a job on the spot.
Applied for a job in another country. Was invited within days. I landed the job instantly since I helped a guy with a big zombie network problem years ago via a mailing list. He was now the hiring party and recognised me by my background.
Re-met a school buddy while bringing my kids to school, where he brought his. Needed help with a large, multiple year, consulting job. We rocked it.
Met some googlies at a conf I attended while on holidays. Had a couple of great conversations. Was "interviewed" on the spot and accepted the job offer 2 hours later. Wife not so happy since we had to move countries again :)
Coming to think of it, most of my jobs I landed "unusually" compared to how that process seems to go for many people.
Edit: not all went well, BTW. Once I was interviewed and some HR person wanted to explain the results of a "test" I had done before the interview. Told her no, I have no interest in what looks like an astrology drawing. She instantly left the room and after 10 minuted I figured I was not the ideal candidate and left the building unattended.
I did electronics repairs for a friend when I was a kid. I ended up working for him on a project at Westinghouse.
I then got a job making a prototype inspection system on a referral from that job. The customer hated the computer the prototype was written on, and I got another job for the same task from a different person. I sketched my solution to it on a napkin over lunch at Wendys, that became my job for about 8 years, writing and supporting that inspection system,
After that folded, I was visiting my local ISP in the days of dialup. I ended up a system administrator, and bench technician for a few years.
Then a friend from my local computer user group needed "someone he could trust" to replace his computer consultant when he was hired in to manage a marketing firm. I contracted and they hired me after 2 months. 6 months in, he was fired, and I stayed there for 15 years until things were so reliable and stable they didn't need me anymore.
From my contacts at a makerspace, I got a job making gears, no experience required. It was a physical job, but I loved it. The commute and pay truly sucked, though.
As I said, I've done many, many things, but sending out a flood of resumes and hoping for a reply wasn't one of them. I've been quite lucky.
[Edit/aside] Not a job, but once an offhand comment "Why don't you just levitate the filament" had me building a machine to do so, to allow tungsten filaments to be seasoned during manufacture of halogen lamps.
That was a fun little challenge during my years as a programmer supporting the inspection system.
I was a dumb script kiddie and never went to college, but that experience helped me land another job post-high school, and a few more jobs later I have a pretty good career at one of the big companies.
We need another dev, and i was in charge of check them.
A very simple interview: make a single CRUD form for a database, in FoxPro, that is like asking for make a hamburger in Mc Donald-,
We tried a lot, most from Universities, all sucks (as is: Not even finishing the form after left them alone)
you know... the normal.
The boss get tired.
Then he say "the NEXT guy show up, is hired, period".
It show up a guy in a wheelchair, and was hired in the spot.
It actually was a decent dev!
Please elaborate.
An old colleague randomly set me up on a blind date (to talk about something I was known for and relevant in industry) with the CTO of his firm. We had a few drinks. I was running a team for him a month later.
I think I dodged a bullet there.