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Comment by m348e912 | Hacker News Reader

There are a number of similarities between applying for a job and looking for a partner (typically through online dating). In both cases, the process is impersonal, rife with rejection, and heartless.

The best tactic is to avoid the formal process, whether it's applying via the company website, or swiping right on a profile. Instead use an inside source, an employee you know at the company you are interested in, or a mutual friend who can play matchmaker in dating.

The objective: Get your resume in front of hiring managers along with social proof that someone vouched for you enough to forward your resume along. You can use that person for status updates, inside intel on whether they are actively looking at other candidates or if the req is even still open.

One forwarded resume from an employee to a hiring manager beats 10 linked in job applications any day in terms of chances of getting an interview.

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>The best tactic is to avoid the formal process, whether it's applying via the company website, or swiping right on a profile. Instead use an inside source, an employee you know at the company you are interested in, or a mutual friend who can play matchmaker in dating.

As someone on the spectrum this is something I struggle with. I have few but close friends, and only 2 of them work in tech; neither of their companies are hiring right now.

I need to find ways in which I can make new connections with people who work in tech, but I am unsure how to go about doing so.

Meetups for special interests / tech adjacent fields. Go to more company events for the tech you use.

The other factor is finding “high elo” people with influence that can help you if you live in a “low elo” area. You’ll have to go to the “high elo” areas more often to increase chance of a better match.

Maybe I should look into events being held in 'high elo' areas. Downtown Phoenix is not too far from where I live, maybe I should check there.

> Go to more company events for the tech you use.

Careful: you don't want to poison the well you drink from.

Relationships can sour. Accusations (false or not) can easily translate directly to not having a job when your dating pool includes current, past, or future coworkers.

Join clubs / sign up for recurring things* that interest you and keep showing up.

Odds are there are at least a handful of people like you in those groups … and odds are that the everyone else connections to people who could be your contacts.

Just by being there regularly, you become "one of the people in tech I know" of everyone else. And connections and opportunities start magically coming your way.

*It does help if these are the types of things that attract energetic, helpful, confident people.

100% of the jobs I’ve gotten in the past 25 years have been through current or former coworkers. Some have become friends, yes - but some were merely work acquaintances who knew first hand what I was capable of and wanted me on their team / in their company.

Don’t overthink this - I’m sure you’re great at what you do, and the people you work with and have worked with in the past know that you are.

The problem with this becoming the only reasonable tactic writ large is that it creates social bubbles just like social media. You wind up with very insular cultures and I think at least some of the hype addiction problems seen in tech can be attributed to these echo chambers. It's a hard problem to solve, especially now with LLMs being force amplifiers to low effort hiring and job seeking attempts. But to not solve this problem will, I think, continue to make increasingly unwell companies and unwell industries as the "meme pool" gets very shallow.

I ah e not seen this play out in practice at all. In 25 years I’ve been at 8 tech companies, all of which came through connections.

None of those have had an insular bubble - typically you know a few people, and they each have worked with a few others, but unless you go all “6 degrees of Kevin Bacon” on it, none of these jobs look like what you’re describing.

If you can't see the bubble you are inside of it.

In other words, don't look for dates/jobs online, let your friends set you up. They handle the social proof both ways.

This is the danger of treating everything in life as transactional. If you are an anonymous coworker, employee, student, neighbor, citizen you are bankrupting your social capital. At the same time, if you are only engaged with others out of self-interest, it can backfire spectacularly when you are found out. Live authentically, take a genuine interest in others, play matchmaker and let others play matchmaker for you.

Maybe you can get the Bot to submit it. This video of Steve Mould yanking a Bot's chain while the Bot tries to get him to refinance his car.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GJVSDjRXVoo

> Instead use an inside source, an employee you know at the company you are interested in

I have been reading this advice for a decade, and I have been working as a software engineer as a decade, and I don't know anyone who got a job this way.

I'm not doubting it happens. It's just interesting that this obviously seems very common in some software engineering circles, but is virtually unheard of in others.

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