Ask HN: How did you find your current job? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How did you find your current job?

61 pointsspacebanana7127 comments

Currently evaluating the tradeoffs between using my network (smaller pool, high trust), public boards (large pool, low trust), and recruiters (presumably medium on both scores).

There was a similar discussion on HN in 2018: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17791766

View on HN

I'm a software engineer.

I used the "Who's Hiring" monthly thread on Hacker News. To be perfectly honest, it's the best "job board" I've ever used for tech jobs.

In my case, it was during Covid. Unemployment benefits were good enough that I wasn't eating into my savings. Every month, I would spend a few hours going through the thread, narrow it down to about 10-15 good postings, and see where it went. Hiring was also slow at the time.

The thing that I really liked about the job board here is that, almost every time, my initial contact was with a hiring manager or someone who'd I'd work very closely with. The job descriptions also get to the point quickly, unlike most job boards where the job description is 1-2 pages of 80% fluff.

For awhile I had the "open for work" flag on my LinkedIn profile. I got a lot of great outreaches that way, (and recently declined a very good offer,) but they tend to be bigger companies. (FWIW: Any time someone reaches out to me on LinkedIn with a vague "We might have matches for you, sign up and we might follow up with you" request, I flag them as SPAM.)

Not a programmer, but new Physics PhD grad in a mid-sized midwest city.... so exactly 0 job board postings looking for my credentials.

Resorted to technique of Guerilla marketing for job hunters: https://www.gm4jh.com/ . Made a list of the top 4 companies that were interesting to me, and started cold-calling. Started a job at the top of the list 2 months later. I did have to take a job for which I was overqualified; but got my foot in the door. 7 years and 3 promotions later I've got a job that's a near perfect fit.

The benefit of GM4JH is it builds a network you can always go back to. Can't recommend it enough.

This is legit. I wasn't aware of gm4jh, but that's how I got my first job out of school without even knowing it.

Why do these websites always look like some sort of self-help cult, why can't they just propose some methodology and sell a book with more details?

Yea, I linked to the website instead of amazon, but really just read the book. Don't read the website.

I'm a civil engineer and I wrote an open source library that compiled a C library to javascript for my own personal projects - epanet-js [1]

A water utility in Spain spun off a start up called Qatium [2] and they used my library as the engine of their simulations and asked me to join.

[1] https://github.com/modelcreate/epanet-js

[2] https://qatium.com/

Front-end developer here. I use exclusively AngelList and HN's "Who is hiring?" (my last 3 jobs came from those places), but that's because of my particular case.

I am Brazilian, no intention to relocate, but I want to find a job at an American company because they pay way better (even more considering the exchange rate of the Brazilian Real vs US Dollar in the last couple of years). So I need to find US companies that hire globally remote. That's a niche. It got larger with the pandemic, but still a niche. This niche is almost all times small, VC-funded startups. From 5 to 20 employees usually, definitely not more than 100 employees. Larger companies, when they hire remote, they hire remote US only, or where they have offices. And VC-funded pays better than non-VC-funded (like bootstrapped companies or agencies).

I find these companies on AngelList and HN's Who is hiring. Definitely not on LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, etc. Even when they do announce a job post on those places, they are among thousands and thousands of job posts of places that would never hire me (or pay what I want). No point in looking for jobs in those places.

Also, I don't have that big of a network in IT. I changed careers five years ago. The few developers with whom I have some connection still all work here in Brazil. So it's always a cold start.

Exact same situation here :)

Do you mind sharing your story and how you did it in more details? So I can copy and do the same later.

I wonder how many brazilians are checking this exchange :)

I'm almost 40 and have a kind-of-comfortable-job in a brazilian hardware engineering company, but I'm not able to fully pay my bills (wife, kid..) right now and looking for something in USD for the same reason. And from what I read on twitter, even juniors are making 50% more than I am, even working for brazilian companies.

So I would have to make this jump so I can get ahead of inflation for a few years...

Start applying to jobs on American companies, that hire globally remote, that match your skills. Be upfront that you live in Brazil and don’t want to relocate, always mention that in the first email, it saves a lot of time for both parts. AngelList, HN’s Who is Hiring, and YC’s www.workatastartup.com are great places to look. See if you get an offer.

Hey, can we chat about this in more details? I'm in a situation where I'm looking for a job from a US or EU company, would be really helpful to have your input as you already did it.

Sure. I don’t mind keeping it async and public in this thread. But if you prefer to do it privately, let me know and I ping you on the email you have on your profile.

Fine by me. My first question is about salary. I don't know if you OK talking about that publicly or even privately, and if not can you give a ballpark compared to a US dev living in the us for example? My expectation are low, if any company would want to hire me for $27.000 I would sign without any hesitation given I'm qualified enough. Second one was about Jrs but I saw you answered that already. Lastly, any tips on getting that first job and be more marketable? What stacks hires the most? What are the exceptions towards a junior dev these days?

About salary. I earned $12k/year on my first dev job in a big startup in Brazil (it was a decent salary in 2017 for a junior dev in Brazil). Then I moved to the US and earned $67k/year working onsite on a small startup in LA as a junior with 1.5 year of experience. Then, still a junior position, but now with 2.5 yoe, I earned $115k/year working remote for a medium-sized company (but with a small engineering team). I was still living in the US, and I know being there and having work permit helped get the job. During that job I moved back to Brazil. Then, they started planning for IPO and fired me because they didn’t want international contractors working fulltime anymore. Then, living in Brazil, I got a job at an American startup, but fully globally remote from the start (team in US, Netherlands, Russia) as a mid-level software engineer earning $120k/year. All of this total compensation without any benefits (as I am a contractor).

$120k a year without any benefits is stellar salary in Brazil. I am top 1% income here. But I think those FAANG jobs paying $200k+ are out of reach for me.

About first job. First job as a junior I would actually recommend getting a local, ideally onsite, job on a company with several senior engineers and a culture of good mentoring for junior people. Well worth the investment of two years for the knowledge. Then go remote and global. If you can find such a company that’s remote and paying in a strong currency from the start, great too.

About stacks. If frontend, definitely React (but strong fundamentals in CSS and JavaScript are more important than React). Backend I would say Rails, Python or Node.

For being more marketable, create a portfolio of projects that you 1) created yourself, not just copied from a tutorial; you thought yourself and built it and 2) deployed. Websites or webapps that are actually deployed in a domain and are functional. It could be anything, but go all the way with them.

Then apply to A LOT of positions and learn along the way how to improve yourself, your portfolio, your communication, your interview skills, etc. I applied to ~250 positions to get my first dev job (keep in mind that all of them were for junior frontend developers, which I was).

Can you get employed by an American company, without an American working visa, as long as you're remote?

Yes. And as long as I am not staying too much time in the US. One week for meeting the team is ok. 3 months not ok, you need a work visa.

Also, I am a contractor. If they wanted to hire me as a full time employee with typical benefits they would have to establish a branch here.

Well done mate, you're an inspiration. In a few years you'll get that FAANG job if you want it, finger crossed.

The problem for me in getting a local job, is I have to go back home (I'm from a poor African country, there are no jobs there and if there are the pay is "shit"). I live in France right now, they are not so so keen on the remote thing, plus the fact that they still really care about degrees, mine is in business. What hires the most, back or front end? I'm leaning more toward back end stuff as I find it more fun, but I would change if it affects my chance of getting a job.

What's your background by the way? STEM or completely unrelated? How hard is it for them to hire a contractor? Does it involve a lot of paperwork? An on my side, what do I have to do? How about part-time jobs?

PS: Shoot me an e-mail, I'd like to stay in contact with you if that's ok.

If you live in France a “local job” means get a job in France. I did not mean to get a job where you were born. Also, I do think an onsite first job is better than remote anyway.

I have a degree in Economics. I worked in the social sector for seven years, then in marketing for about six years. I learned to code when I was 37yo to change careers.

If you prefer backend, study backend. It matters a lot that you are studying what you like more. And, between back and front, there is no difference in what hires more. Maybe backend hires more, but both hire a lot.

It is very easy for an American company to hire an international contractor. Much less paperwork than hire a local fulltime employee. But most large companies don’t want to do it for potential labor law issues. If they hire someone as contractor that works fulltime and has the same work relationship as a regular employee, the companies risk an expensive lawsuit. The risk is much lower for intentional ones I believe. Anyway, this is decided before you apply. If they accept hiring globally remote means they accept international contractors.

On your side you just sign a contract and send very simple invoices that you can create your self on Word or Excel.

I’ll email you.

Hey thank you for the info. I'm a Front-end developer from Argentina and still looking for a job. I would like to know how do you use AngelList to search for those niche companies. And do you think those companies have opportunities for Jr devs?

It's harder for junior devs. When I started, the remote junior was seemingly impossible. So my first job was at a local startup. But that was pre-pandemic, so there might be a chance now. Still, there is a ton to learn as a junior developer in a nice team, with kind senior developers present in the same room. So my advice would be to work for a couple of years in a company in your town with good senior developers, and only then try to find something remote.

As for the AngelList search, no big secrets. I would look for job posts explicitly mentioning "frontend", not mentioning "senior", not mentioning "remote US" (although a lot of those that just say "remote" are actually "remote US"). I would search for new job posts every single day. Spent a couple of hours finding new job posts and applying. As a junior, expect to apply to hundreds of jobs.

Looking for a Chik-Fil-A :)

I'd just done back-to-back military tours in locations with no Chik-Fil-A and was following the GPS to the nearest location by our new house and happened to drive by my current job's campus and thought "wow, that looks like a cool place to work, it has giant radio dishes and an observatory on the roof!" A few years later I got out of the military and went straight to work there.

Recruiter reached out while I was also actively searching (and I had been for a while) and I ended up liking the position and the team.

I don't know what "using my network" would even mean - just limit myself to a handful of companies (that I know nothing about) and cold-message people that I haven't spoked to in months/years so they can maybe check if there are open positions (which I could have looked up on the company's career page) and then can maybe refer me? Every part of it sounds weird, the whole "find a job through your network" is concept from an ideal world where I actively maintain relationships with many people in great companies that I want to work at. I don't know how many people are in that situation but I'm not one of them.

A lot of companies offer referral bonuses/incentives to employees whose referrals become successful candidates. Often people who work in such places are happy to refer old classmates & former colleagues they remember as competent, even if those relationships are pretty stale otherwise.

It's actually exactly as you described, and it works really well. People are surprisingly willing to help. Just send a message saying "Hope you're well, I'd love to reconnect and learn more about $COMPANY." Email works better than LinkedIn if you can get it. I got my current job by getting my manager's email from a friend and cold emailing him after seeing that he was hiring. Just introduced myself and said I wanted to chat.

Another weird one the 'JuSt NetWoRk Bro' people recommend is 'Just message random employees at the company on LinkedIn and ask them out for coffee'. I've often wondered if anybody has done this one successfully without just creeping out a bunch of people and getting blocked.

Yes, some people use networking to mean random reaching out for coffee, sending random LinkedIn requests, going to "networking" events, etc. Which is probably mostly fairly ineffective.

However, networking can also mean just keeping casually in touch with people with whom you have mutual interests and keeping somewhat visible.

Networking events are seriously low ROI. Always have been. That said, when you're panning for gold, you have to sift through a lot of dirt first.

Keep in mind that some companies offer a nice bonus for a reference that leads to a hiring and it makes a lot more sense. I have seen referral bonuses up to 50k.

Referral bonuses though, if your profile looks good I would probably do a quick coffee or even a video call nowadays and then pocket a nice little bonus if you make it :)

Yes, I do that. Yes, it works. Don't come across as a creep. Be very clear that this isn't a transaction or that you're desperate. Show interest in other people. It's another one of those slow-burn recipes for success. I am, quite literally, on my way to lunch with someone right now, who I have never met in person but I randomly messaged three weeks ago. You'll be surprised by how fast the wheels can turn with a little grease and small shove, so long as you go in to it with no expectations and are prepared for a lot of rejection.

> I don't know what "using my network" would even mean

One example: look at the people on your direct team from your last job, and see are any of them working at companies that might interest you. If they are, message then directly and ask if they've got an opening in your area coming up.

You don't need to be lunch buddies with the person. There's plenty of people I've worked with over the years that if they reached out saying they were looking j would have no hesitation referring internally, and at even a medium size company a job opening can appear.

Every job I've had in the past 20+ years (just a few of them) has come directly through people I knew. I've admittedly been in roles where I'm in contact with a fair number of people on a regular basis.

For my current job (10+ years), I knew I needed to move on from my last position. I put together a short list based on companies I was interested in and contacts I had. I wrote to a higher-up who I knew and had done some work for. He brought me in. I had some interviews. And I'm still there.

The small multimedia company I worked for in the very early 2000s folded during the dotcom bust. A few months later the technical writer from our old company emailed me about a position at a local Fortune 500 company she thought might be up my alley. I took a look at the job listing and applied. I’ve now been there for 20 years. So… I guess I got the job through my network, though I was not actively reaching out to my network. I imagine job hunting is a lot different today than 20 years ago. For example, I do not have a LinkedIn account since that website did not exist the last time I was job hunting. I suppose if I ever need to job hunting again I will wish I had a LinkedIn account, but I have avoided having any social media accounts so far ;-)

I've gotten all my jobs via a recruiter reaching out first.

Cold applying to a job posting whether it be on LinkedIn or the company's site has always resulted in being ignored or getting swiftly rejected with a generic reason.

Trying to use my network has gotten me to the interview stage, but from that point on it's no different from going through a recruiter - you get the typical leetcode interview. In my case, I've failed all the leetcode interviews I've gotten through my network, so my success rate there is 0%.

I also have a poor rate at typical leetcode interviews. All of the jobs I've gotten have used alternative interview methods and it's worked out every time. And by "worked out", I mean they get a good hire at a relatively cheap price.

I found my current role on IRC :-) A real company in Australia so I work remotely. Super fun place to work at, and the fact that they listened to my urging for improving a11y (which is a passion of mine) is the icing on the cake!

Jobs, I've found can come from anywhere. It's important to keep a good network of people who know you - on as many platforms as you want. The more you're "out there" and the more relationships you build is the key imo.

> I found my current role on IRC :-)

How did that happen?

I was a regular in #startups on Freenode (now on Libera.Chat) - which was always the unofficial home for HN (I think). I made friends, acquaintances and so on. When a job came up at someone's work, I was asked if I wanted to apply as I had just been made redundant because of COVID-19. I interviewed well, got the job and here I am.

I've also had a few contracts over the years too, which paid well.

Every job I’ve ever had has been because of hackathons. Either being directly approached by a sponsor at a hackathon, or being remembered by someone involved with the hackathon after the fact. I briefly did a stint in a wildlife conservation NGO and even that came about because I had helped out at a hackathon at a zoo once.

I don’t think hackathons are particularly unique, I’d abstract this to “be visible and known in your tech community”.

Yes! This! Hackathons are hugely beneficial to getting new work. I have not attended a single hackathon that didn't lead to an offer for interview or a direct "come work for us, you've already done the interview portion."

Be visible. Tell the world about your stuff. Create value for yourself.

A recruiter called looking for my roommate, who wasn't around. Asked me if I was also a software engineer too, and if I was interested in a new opportunity. My company was recently acquired by a company I didn't want to work for, so I went on an interview and got hired.

I'm still there 25 years later.

LinkedIn, recruiter! I get around 10 messages a month (feels like more?) and one of the rare cases where everything just fit. Great company, pay and super professional and great recruiter!

Was contacted via recruiter on LinkedIn.

The quality of recruiters seems to be dependent on your history and who you are. I don't tend to get flooded by FAANG recruiters or recruiters at cool companies (well Amazon has reached out to me, but that's just makes me more wary). Most of the recruiters I get tend to be offering more or less the same thing I've been doing the past several years, just with more or less pay and maybe a difference in scenery.

For my previous job I talked to an engineer who was doing recruiting at my university's job fair. A week later I had an interview, and a week after the interview I had an offer.

For my current job the same engineer I talked to (who was now a co-founder at a startup) contacted me over LinkedIn asking about getting lunch. I got lunch with him, and I had an offer later that day.

3 of the last 4 roles have been recruiters from LinkedIn (Solution Architecture), including the current one. The one exception was reaching out to a customer to let them know I was leaving and they counter offered to get me to join them. LinkedIn is probably the most valuable one to me, by far.

2nd this, Linkedin.

(Midwest / Linux Devop infrastructure) I was looking around $125k, up from the current $110k. Co-worker complained all his buddies were doing contracting for $130k so I bumped my ask to that when I got an offer and it was met no issue. Had a round of counter-offers when I put in my notice and new place bumped me to $142k with no issue. Probably could have gone higher, but I'm happy.

Current job: Friend on IRC.

Previous job: Friend in real life said they got contacted by a recruiter and that I'd be a good fit so referred me. Recruiter worked for the company directly, wasn't a 3rd party.

Previous previous job: Applied for open job posting from an online job board (I forget which one). Ended up being through a local 3rd party recruiter.

First job: College on-campus job fair and on-campus interviews.

Based on my experience, as you progress through your career it feels like your network will start to naturally take over from other ways of finding/applying for jobs. If you're still early career, I wouldn't hesitate to put yourself out there to anyone and everyone who has an open job which sounds interesting. Use the interviews to find out if you're a good fit.

I was at a friend's place for a BBQ. He asked if he could test a new automation thing he built for applying for jobs at his company.

It worked really well.

I'm a software developer (embedded). I connected to the local boss (LinkedIn to boss of the local office) of the company I wanted to work for and sent him my CV. I came in for a talk and said that I would like to evaluate their company with a short project. I did the project and they hired me full time. I know my stuff after 20 years, but I think this would also work for younger people. We are a scarse resource and more people should believe in this. So far I have not done any test or leet code and I don't plan to if I have a choice.

Had 3 employers and 5 roles in the last 12 years. Everything through people in my network asking if I'd be interested.

Got contacted by a woman on Linkedin with a really interesting offer, but her profile did not show anything related to startups or Human Resources so I wasn't sure that this was not a scam. I said that I would be interested if

1. The conditions of her offer were true (a few times I got a lower offer than the one in the initial message)

2. If I got an email/message from the CEO/CTO or someone with a higher position in the company to prove that the origin was real.

Three months later I'm working in a startup remotely and I couldn't be happier, so my silly advice: do not ignore messages on Linkedin!

Started as a SW engineer, after 8 years doing some management stuff and training agile, etc. The guy I did my bachelor thesis with asked if I wanted to join the company he did his masters thesis.

In all jobs over the last 15 years it's been executives/founders/etc representing the company saying "We need help and think you're the one to provide it."

How do they find you?

Searched "Linux" in my area on Indeed and applied to the first page.

I was on a massive lucky streak at the time or something, applied interviewed and started the job within a week of starting the search

Converted them (web agency) from SFTP to CI/CD in my first week and I've been the go-to nerd since.. oh wow I've been there 6 years now haha

Multiple hats size company so it's PHP dev and sysadmin mainly but I'm up for trying any hat on if it's not urgent

/waffle

My current job by talking to a friend/pre work college now college again.

But my search strategy changed over time.

1. My network was much smaller 10 years ago and I knew a lot less local companies.

Now I also Google around for companies I would like to work for. Like Google, GitHub, Netflix etc.

I also research what company is doing what I think is good for society like agriculture and automatiosation.

Currently I'm slightly stuck as my company allows remote work a d I want to buy a farm. So I'm not sure if I can jump continents (like USA) to work on bigger agriculture projects or if the farm and remote work will be more of my thing.

I also focus much more on the people I would work with and ask about the team etc.

But I also looked through ALL job postings in my city to get a better feeling what is out there. Probably I read 1000 job postings last time I was searching.

My Tipp: start with one two super unrealistic dream job companies than move to your top choice more realistic companies.

You don't want to get an offer from your 5th choice while still stuck in the hiring process for your dream job.

I would still quit a new job if the Dre job suddenly comes up.

A family friend posted on facebook how he was looking for a very rare/specific profile.

The news eventually got to me, and even if I didn't know him personally, I got in touch because 1) it wasn't a tech company (I really don't want to work in a FANG in the bay area, I don't like the vibes) 2) I didn't want to do coding interviews (I've done cool stuff, check my github, we can talk shop, but nope I'm not going to work for free)

After a video chat with the team lead and a lunch with the founder, I decided to join. I like it there. My gut feeling was good right from the start, and I'm happy I trusted my feelings.

The only one time I did some coding interview (+ take home!), it gave me really bad vibes, especially when try tried months later to get me to sign a NDA/IP release form.

I was like... no? I mean, they had a chance. If they want a license to put in production what I did, they can pay my consulting rate. And BTW, that was a YC company...

Combination of job board with my network... Looking idly at job listings on LinkedIn and found one that looked kind of interesting (using my platform of choice, in the healthcare market which I'd been contemplating a return to). I bookmarked it, then noticed later that a former colleague of mine worked there. I reached out to him to see how he liked it, and he gave it a positive review and connected me to the VP of Development. He and I hit it off on a call later that week, and it was a few days later that I went for onsite interviews, which were informative but not arduous (no l33tc0d3z!), and I was fairly well sold by that point. Negotiations and background check took another week and a half but I started soon thereafter and have been very happy with this gig.

I am a web developer.

After two years of fully remote work, I was let go from my last job during covid when they tried to recall everyone back to the office and I couldn't (moved in with a partner in another state).

Looked around on local job boards (Craigslist, Indeed, Monster, etc.) and some remote opportunities that looked interesting, customized a cover letter and resume for them, and sent them away. Ended up getting a couple interviews with all of them, but only one sent me an offer. Luckily, it was the one in the town I lived in, which I preferred over fully-remote work anyhow.

The whole process took only about a month from submitting resumes to accepting an offer.

This was very different from the last time I looked for a job, which took like 6-8 months :( That was before covid though.

Currently working as a Product Manager. Found the JD on https://remotive.com/ (remote jobs aggregator), applied and reached out the hiring manager with a personalized intro.

I just started a great new job yesterday. In my case, a recruiter found my resume on one of the boards (Dice?) and reached out to me with an opportunity that had not been posted anywhere.

At the time I was actively looking. I applied for multiple jobs I found in several different places. Sometimes I got some interviews, sometimes I didn't. But no offers (well, one a few months ago that I turned down).

My old manager who I trusted implicitly and really enjoyed working with left the company, and a year later was hiring for a role on his new team. I contacted them directly and applied after the fact for a role that hadn't been posted yet.

Network. My manager from a previous job 12 years ago. I had left the company in very good terms (but had to go see the world) and we became friends shortly after. Last year I told him I was looking for something new, he heard me and convinced his employer to propose me something.

He's not my manager today but he definitely outranks me in the company :)

I found my current job via LinkedIn.

I've also had surprising success cold emailing small companies in my research field. I didn't take the offer in the end, but I'd probably try again in the future.

A friend asked me.

Most often I've applied directly.

Sometimes with a small dialogue first with someone within the company that I knew.

I've never used a recruiter. I did talk to one, but they seemed too much in the pocket of one employer.

Recruiters.

I really wish next one could be big tech but it seems ever the more elusive… I just want to be in a proper engineering culture for once instead of having to fight for the basics…

I’m a Software Engineer. I joined the gopher slack (community for Golang developers) and monitored the #jobs channel. A post called my attention, chatted with the poster who happened to be the hiring manager, and a few weeks later I had the job.

Quite a few devs communities have such channels and what I appreciate about slack is the ability to start a quick chat with the poster in an informal way, get a referral and overall skip the whole ATS resume black hole.

Previous Job I just left - Former manager (great boss) recruited me. I spent 7 years there.

New Job - Told people in my network I was looking and let people refer me.

I've gotten all my jobs except my first by gathering a list of companies that I thought were interesting on whatever axes I was considering at the time, then finding people in my extended network to refer me to them; sort of a hybrid approach. It's worked well enough.

That said, I got my first (and longest tenured) job by applying to a random "who's hiring interns" post on HN.

The last couple:

Current one was a company recruiter who found me on LinkedIn. On the previous two I was found by my managers to be, again, on LinkedIn. Before that, I found the company and applied (on LinkedIn). Before that, a freelance recruiter found me on a retrocomputing community.

Interestingly enough, my first job was also found online, on a BBS, with further conversation happening on a Minitel-based instant messaging app.

I'm a compsci teacher in the school I finished my pre-uni education in. When I was applying for teacher training the school asked to have me as an intern. 6 months later they hired me on a permanent basis. So getting the intern placement there was largely because they knew me from when I was a student then that gave me the chance to show them what I can do.

Real life networking. Someone recommended me to another person who reached out directly to me. 7 years later I’m still loving the job.

I am a full-stack engineer working with React. All the following worked. Not in any particular order.

1) LinkedIn 2) HN monthly hiring thread 3) Personal Portfolio / blog 4) GitHub

Main consistency about your bio across all platforms and keep engaging with subscribers or followers.

People do notice your activities and reach out to you when need arises.

At the risk of not fitting into the conventional HN profile, the pandemic got me my current job. They were desperately needing to fill positions, and they were the only ones who would give me an interview.

Kinda stings to think about it happening that way, but it's work that isn't dread-inducing, so I'll take it :)

I always loved and was interested in roller coasters and how they and other rides work. Eventually I found out they are powered by PLCs. Scoured HN Who’s Hiring for PLC-related companies for many months until I finally found Copia, which is one of the most productive jobs I’ve ever had.

I got my last full-time gig via referral from a friend. Switched to contract/freelance work afterwards.

I've got all but 1 job in my career through talking to recruiters on LinkedIn.

Once you find a couple of good ones and make sure to have a coffee or something with them from time to time, you can get a really good feel for what's out there and where you should be aiming your efforts.

Design manager currently, found my current company through a short term creative recruiting agency. (My old contract went full time pretty quickly.) I'm often shocked at how many designers don't know that they're available to give short contracts to fill up the portfolio.

Internal recruiter head-hunting me via LinkedIn. I had been actively applying for ~10 other roles at the time, but ironically, the job I ended up taking was the one that was chasing me! So often, it seems, the market knows what I want better than even I do.

HN who is hiring.

Now that there are so many remote positions, it is definitely the best place for software jobs for the discerning developer. I went through the hundreds and found a select few that met my criteria (open source, multi language, not too big, software focused company, etc).

I have applied directly on company websites for my last three jobs (two BigTech cos and a stint in the public sector). Before that, I used recruiters who reached out on LinkedIn, which was honestly a lot easier but didn't get me particularly high compensation.

There aren’t that many places doing planetary-scale distributed computing, with an opportunity to influence total human welfare, so I applied to all of them—and got in touch place whose people, overall, demonstrated the closest values match. So far, so good?

Got pinged by a manager at frootland, went through the whole process. Was approved to be hired and then bean counter wrangling made it fall apart. Decided I wanted to work there, so I applied for every fitting position there until I got hired.

Blind application through LinkedIn.

I've used my network a few times in the past which is a great way to get a job doing exactly what you're already doing someplace else. Since I was sick of what I was doing (digital agency) my network was useless.

Rage-quit my last job without having anything planned. Sent an email to a contact at one of the former employer's clients and was hired a few days later. My previous employer lost the contract. That was in 2011 and I'm still here.

Search and filter from LinkedIn, NodeFlair, Indeed, Glassdoor and other review websites, then apply directly through the company's website.

Not a fan of going through with (external) recruiters, as their interest doesn't always align with yours.

Recruiter heard of me from a good referral of a director I had previously worked with

I discovered the company ten years ago through a summer job when I was at school.

For as much flack as LinkedIn gets everywhere, it seems from these comments to work pretty well as a path to landing a job.

Current gig also via a random LinkedIn connection to a recruiter despite my profile being woefully out of date.

Cold-applied on the website (like many other jobs). I got an email response fairly quickly (also like many other jobs). I used their product in my last role and was impressed with it. Very happy now :)

I created a small company solving a real problem for a small group of people. Sold the company for a small amount (not newsworthy) and got hired with a pretty good salary by the company that bought us.

I used to be a contractor for the people I work for. One day I got a tap on the shoulder and was asked if I wanted to work full time (with actual benefits!). So that's where I'm at now.

To be honest -- and this says plenty about the industry, but, yes, me as well -- I got a job at a large tech company by sleeping with the right engineer at Burning Man, got the referral, and then did well in the interviews and H1B lottery. #LeanIn.

In truth, industry referrals are themselves a part of the compensation package, as they give (generally male) more-senior engineers social leverage over anyone who wants a piece of the pie.

I played the game but I hate the game.

All the same, doing so tripled my income and moved to the USA.

Postscriptum:

My recommendation to industry: abolish the referral system. It's shockingly close to the recruitment pattern used in MLM schemes -- in this case, my contact got a bonus from "helping" with my recruitment.

Imagine if surgeons were hired like this.

> Imagine if surgeons were hired like this.

The gauntlet your American doctors have survived to become doctors is at least as awful as the referral system you partly documented.

I'm thinking of starting a jobs site where it's easier to find a job that matches who you are and what you're looking for. Does anyone else feel the need for something better?

Referral from someone I had interacted with often at my previous job.

I sent a resume to one of the production editors here looking for some freelance work. Turned out they needed someone to fill in for someone who was out on sick leave. That was in 2009.

Indeed. Same for my last job. Prior to that, craigslist.

I don’t live in a hot tech market area - I am pretty sure most companies here use public boards to fill most of their developer positions.

Network: co-worker left and invited me to join at the new place

Craigslist job posting for a jr developer, pay based on experience. I was a senior dev did not care about title and pay was more than I ever made before! Great job btw.

Someone I had a beer with in a conference ~4y ago messaged me asking if I was looking for a new position, did the interview panel and here I am

LinkedIn, but as a passive agent, many many years ago.

My colleague interviewed and got hired. The hiring manager contacted through all his relevant LinkedIn relations.

Very original: a recruiter found me on LinkedIn. And also the next one (contract signed, still in the prior notice period) has been found like that.

Almost every contract gig and position request came from someone reading a blog post I wrote and they emailed me asking to work together.

I used Hired.com to find a few of the jobs I’ve had over the years, including my current job. Happy to recommend them :)

Frankly, if you have a network to use, use it. It’s a high quality resource and it’s a mistake not to leverage it.

I failed at interviews until I found an employer advocating strong leadership as a first principle.

First three jobs after college were Craigslist. Next two were recruiters that approached me. I wasn’t looking.

LinkedIn networking by prior manager for ${job}-1. ${job} was from applying directly to specific F100 company.

Company recruiter on LinkedIn reached out, got me an interview, and got me an outstanding offer.

Me too. LinkedIn is great

DM'd the team lead on Twitter.

One of my managers in a previous company hired me. No interviews involved.

IRC

Founded company. Surprised this isnt a top answer here of all places.

I’m a mobile dev, and all my jobs I have landed are via LinkedIn..

I found it on LinkedIn using the job alert feature.

Recruiting Agency - Specifically Robert Half.

linkedin. online applications have consistently shown to be a waste of my time.

Previous: Hackathon

Current: local Slack group

Over the years:

I built a video capture system for the Commodore Amiga as a neat side project for that lead to me working on Transputers that formed the heart of a non-linear editing system (no interview)

The Transputers were really fast, so I wrote some neat 3D demos that ran on the Transputer boards in the Amiga & PC => contract work with SGI (no interview)

Wrote a demo for the SGI video capture system to scan a magazine at high resolution => machine vision & robotics that was changing the printing industry (no interview)

Wrote a C compiler for an 8-bit micro so I could learn C => leads to writing a C compiler for a 16-bit micro at a company (no interview)

Created a "smart home dashboard" for a side-project => leads to writing a mobile app to manage a WiFi router => leads to becoming Lead Firmware Engineer on the project (no interview)

I wrote some stuff on the Unity3D forums => game development job offer (no interview)

Ran a number of in-person developer meet-ups over the years => various jobs & offers & contract gigs (no interview)

Got asked by a friend to teach a class on device driver development at USC, video recorded it, he sent it to his friend at Intel => wind up teaching many, many week long, rocket-science level classes on Linux & Android & device driver development & board bring-up at Intel (no interview)

Recorded all of my lectures at Intel, shared them with a friend at Facebook who was trying to get in to device driver development => Which lead to me teaching a couple of classes at Facebook (no interview)

Asked to critique a ReactNative class at Facebook due to my other teaching there => Which lead to me consulting/contracting for Facebook for a few years (no interview)

Video tape my classes at Facebook, which get shared with people at Microsoft & Apple without my knowledge => end up consulting and teaching at both Microsoft & Apple (no interview)

Created a bot for a popular MMORPG coupled with machine vision and some AI techniques => contract job to detect bots in the self-same popular MMORPG (no interview)

I created a C# package and published it that done some fancy stuff with random numbers => company hired me to work on their project that used the library (that was an "interesting" interview)

I wrote some SONY PlayStation developer tools => leads to getting a job at a game development company creating a PSX game (no interview)

Create some tools to theme websites and pull data from a database => accidentally create an adult entertainment empire (no interview)

Document how the Gameboy works, write some developer tools, maintain some developer tools => multiple jobs developing Gameboy games (no interview)

Port MAME to a bunch of consoles, write emulators as side-projects for other consoles => hired to write emulator of their classic consoles for "big console development company" (no interview)

Latest: Posted on HN's "who wants to be hired", initially blew the guy off because it didn't sound interesting, talked to him and found out his company is solving a really difficult problem in the healthcare industry that I am really excited to tackle, two hour chat and an offer.

Footnote: I am reading everyone's stories and they are so positive and wholesome and full of energy!

Damn.

Cyber Security Engr

Linkedin primarily

tl;dr: Consulted with a friend's co for a couple of years before converting to full time with profit sharing to turn two PS-based projects into paying products.

I was an independent consultant for almost twenty years. About 5 years ago, I started a contract through a friend's company, after reconnecting with him on a different contract the previous year (we'd worked together in the late 90s and early 00s).

That contract was pretty much me bum-in-seat for a client. The primary role of my friend and his co were satisfying the procurement chain (government contract, easier to work within an established SO than to go direct). But he'd check in and we'd chat about how things were.

About two years in, he asked if I had cycles to help on a different contract, so I started some part-time coding and customer engagement management. This went so well that we started talking about changing the nature of our relationship.

Long story short, in mid-2020, I retired my shingle and went to work for his co full time. My title is Director, BD, but given where we are right now, with a hardware network security product and a software integrated risk and compliance product, the former released and generally available, the latter in private beta until September, my actual work varies.

Anyone who has done early stage startup work knows the all hands on deck, whoever has the best skills, approach. Not sustainable long-term, but sometimes the only way to work early on, especially when funding is a mix of his savings and organic revenue.

Today's a great example. First couple of hours were following up on yesterday's customer scrum (how did it go, what comes next, etc.), all internal communications, just enough words, somewhat informal. Next half a day was more formal customer engagement management with another customer, more formal writing, with more care to what was said and unsaid, and to expectations management.

Now I'm in the middle of a brain break before switching gears to coding some performance improvements in the hardware product.

The context switches are the toughest part.

Facebook Ad :-)

Craigslist ad.

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