I know for sure I couldn't have gotten in if it was through normal interviewing channels, I always bomb interview questions in the most phenomenal ways.
So much varies by industry, specialization, time of year, time in economic cycle. My clients typically find 40% by aggressive networking (in-person, LinkedIn, Meetups, conferences), 30% by who they currently know in industry, the balance cold approaches and other.
A recruiter who I worked with in the past called me. This is why I tell recruiters who will listen to maintain relationships and not approach each match-hire as a one-and-done proposition. I can't count the times that a recruiter ghosts me after I turn them down.
As someone looking for work, the super enthusiastic recruiter who gets all excited, sometimes I even meet them at their office and......ghosted..... is a super frustrating thing. (I keep wondering if someone committed a terrible crime in my name and nobody is telling me.)
There was some article floating around LinkedIn about how frustrating it is for recruiters when someone ghosts them... that had to be some sort of troll right?
Heck I have respect for places that send out just an AUTOMATED "Hey man we're not picking you but best of luck and keep an eye out for other jobs on our site." email at this point.
I literally saw a super cool company sign on the side of 101 and thought to myself, "hmmm, I wonder what they do?" Two months later when I was browsing the job boards I saw a perfect fit opening for "that company with the sign".
I looked into the company further at that point and found out their customers were evangelical fanatics about the product. I ended up getting the job and three years later, it's by far the best job I've ever had - the team, daily responsibilities, financials, etc. So when you're stuck in that long slog of a commute on 101, take the time to peruse the corporate creativity lining the freeway. It may just lead to your next opportunity.
Had interviewed with a recruiter I met via LinkedIn a year ago, and rejected an offer. One year later I felt like it was the right moment to switch jobs and called him again. He got me the new job I have now.
I was unemployed, because I got fired (first time ever, by an asshole who never liked me). I had taken a month or so to try my hand at writing a novel, but eventually a recruiter cold-called me and offered me an interview, and COBRA was so expensive I said "sure, go ahead and schedule it."
Current job is a good fit, I enjoy it and have been here for two years.
I'm a freelancer, so I usually have several jobs. The last 3 jobs:
1. A VC who I pitched to didn't invest in my startup, but he was impressed enough by my technical ability that he took me on for some work. After being conscientious in series of jobs over a year, I usually get first pick in his projects.
2. A guy whose project I failed at recommended me to a friend. Two other people also mentioned me. He was a speaker at a talk that I liked and so I added him on Facebook years ago, which broke the ice.
3. Some of my students were doing a real world project for educational purposes. They dropped out and I took on the project, which was easy and paid very well for the difficulty level.
Same for me! I also got the feeling that I was viewed differently (in a positive way) from the candidates who came through recruiters. Most probably because they've had previous successes with hires through HN.
Last startup I joined died. A tip - when a founder tells you they raised money, make sure they have actually "received" the money and that the fund they raised from hasn't gone insolvent :)
Luckily an ex colleague referred me and it has been an amazing journey at LinkedIn. BTW We are hiring!
Hey mate Li doesnt "officially" hire remotely. There have been very rare cases where existing folks left to go work remotely, but hiring this way has been very rare. I am happy to chat offline to see if there is anything we (our recruiters) can do?
Hey mate. We are hiring for several teams around different parts of the Li stack. Our teams are (loosely) broken around infra, apps/product, tooling and UI on the engineering side. There are other ways to slice this categorisation too.
What areas would you be interested in? Happy to chat offline.
I applied for the REACH apprenticeship and my application is being reviewed. Thinking I'll hear back sometime this week on whether I'll get an onsite interview. Just wondering if you knew about this program and if it was something that current LinkedIn team members can refer/recommend people for? If so feel free to message me but otherwise no worries!
I was a freelancer doing contract work for various companies (while also running a few side projects) and a guy I did work for recommended me. Guy who I was recommended to messaged me on LinkedIn and we arranged a lunch meeting to get to know each other. Soon after I started doing contracting work for them. After about a month of the contracting gig he asked what it would take to bring me on full time and we came to some agreements. Now two years later I'm a partner at the company and we're growing like crazy. It's cool how all the little decisions and events in your life can come together to get you where you want to be.
Hated my current job and while I was on vacation in China, I sent a couple of inquiring emails to some contacts I had. I had a phone interview from a hotel lobby in Hong Kong at 2am (job is in Illinois). By the time I got home, I had a face-to-face interview and had a new job in a week.
This. I am confident I'd fail any current US corporate enterprise interview and I've had a happy successful 35 year career in computer science and networking. Don't fight for something as tenuous as a cubicle farm in a Plex.
>> don't hinge your happiness on something as random as an interview decision
This is easier for senior folks. At some point you just know the rejection was a failure of their interview process and not your ineptitude. I have failed several interviews at different companies where I was one of the best people _in the world_ for the job due to my domain expertise. It's a roll of the dice for everyone, but earlier in my career I did not take rejection well. Now? Honeybadger don't care.
Keep trying, and don’t take it to your heart. The whole interview circus is stupid and everybody knows it. The only people who think they’re the smartest around are the ones who never worked with folks who are truly, freakishly gifted. I’ve been lucky in that regard, so I no longer have any illusions about my intellectual prowess. Over time you will see that intellect isn’t everything, nor does it guarantee success. Stay in the industry, change jobs every 2 years, put yourself in the path of serendipity, and do a good job. Mobility will come eventually.
You could probably leverage 2-3 years at Amazon to a much better job somewhere else as a cloud guy. It is all about credentialling and other signalling, to get your foot in the door. Remember the only purpose of a CV is to secure an interview.
Well, it depends. Any F500 hiring manager would pay top dollar for an ex-Amazon guy to work on their cloud effort, maybe not as much as a FANG but 9-5 with decent job security. If you were looking to settle down somewhere long-term it might be worth the hit.
You've posted about this numerous times before. The first, extensive discussion may have had some intellectual curiosity, but at this point it's becoming repetitive and tedious. Please don't keep bringing it up.
Edit: actually, I've banned this account because repeating this turns out to be all it's been doing. Single-purpose accounts aren't allowed here, and when you repeat something as much as this one has, it's indistinguishable from trolling (which is why some users have been wondering if it's a troll account). Please don't use HN this way again.
Absolutely. I encourage the previous poster to get yourself to a point where you are happy with your current situation. Do more things that make you happy in your day to day, find things you can get lost in "flow", invest more in important personal relationships / give more, start a gratitude journal, etc.
Ironically once you can be happy without Facebook, you are actually more likely to get into Facebook or whatever company because you'll be more detached from the outcome and more able to focus.
The worst part of my rejections is that I cannot even pass recruiters - apparently I cannot sell myself good enough despite that I’m somewhat confident that I’ll do good at technical interviews. Looks like a common problem to introverts.
I think sheer practice can help here--when I haven't interviewed for a while, I'm rusty at telling "my story," but once back in the process, it begins to flow again. (rusty flow?)
As an introvert myself I can feel the pain. It only gets worse once you get into one of the big soulless companies out there. You get trampled and backstabbed every step along the way by the extroverts that -regardless of their technical skills- are better in politics, self-promotion and managing your clueless managers.
Hell - I'm currently regretting not going for a sailors' career when I could.
Also tried couple of the variations (inurl:jobs, Espoo, sre, Linux). This helped to find companies which didn't post their jobs on the usual job boards (mostly startups at the time).
That's been studied. The phrase "the strength of the weak tie" is one I have heard in relation to this phenomenon. People you don't know that well tend to be better leads than your closest friends.
Easy: recruiter asked me if I wanted to work remote. I said writing go and working remote and getting paid bay area comp sounds good.
But of course becoming the person that recruiter reached out to involved several years of study, betting on a brand new language, taking a risk on a startup with no money and a few other things.
Friend of mine moved on to the company I'm at now (he has since left) and when they were looking for a senior developer he gave them my contact info. I'm in the market right now and the most likely opportunity thus far is through another buddy of mine.
I've never gone through the front door at any company, for that matter, in the 25 years I've been working. The first job I ever got was because the teacher of a college class I was taking owned a small ISP and needed a sysadmin, and he liked how I was doing in his class. Everything since then has been through someone I know personally.
I am almost the exact opposite to you - so my question is how much time do you spend keeping in touch with people you used to work with or met - either in deliberate "networking" or simply because you are a sociable person who you know, has friends :-)
About once every second or third week I go out to 'beer:30' with a small (5-10) group of people that I've worked with in the past, so I don't spend too much time networking. Aside from that I'm too busy with my family.
Probably the most successful strategy I've employed in my career is to remember that even though I'm reasonably good at what I do, how I get along with coworkers and management is more important. A lot more important, in fact. Turns out there are plenty of people that are competent enough, so when someone is looking for a new team member, they gravitate towards people that can play nice with others.
My current job at Amazon: Took two online coding tests, didn't talk to a single person and got an offer a couple days after the second test. Efficient.
Probably SDE. It's a similar process for everyone.
There's a lot of handwringing about it because it basically lets Googlers and Facebookers shit on our employee quality now (and you know they think we're inferior).
I couldn't care less about what Google or Facebook employees think; at the end of the day I'm just thinking of whether I did the best I could, there's a certain peace in it.
Same, except I had an extra phone screen because I fucked up the logic portion (guess I'm dumb). Still got the job, and then finished the internship, then got a return offer.
For that goal sure. For life, I am sure s/he has moved goalposts like we do :)
I have a reverse question for you though: has this kind of questioning worked out fine for you till now in real life?
An unwanted tip fwiw: it comes across as belittling an achievement (whatever it might be) from a quick glance. You probably don't mean it that way- in which case do look at rewording that into something like 'has it been everything you hoped for' :)
They hire an online company to install tracking software while you take the test, there's also someone watching you through your webcam. Bit creepy to be honest.
Moved to Saigon from the Bay Area about 2 years ago. Was unemployed at the time (I mostly do tech consulting) and sitting in the newly opened cafe in my apartment building. A guy sits down next to me and is reading a book about bitcoin. He just moved into the building a couple days before. We start talking and he tells me he is mining, invites me to come help install the next shipment arriving that weekend. I go with him to the data center located about an hour outside Saigon, which turns out to be in a super secure Vietnamese military telco building and install 150 new machines. Had a blast doing the install and I got a job offer to become CTO to help run the operation. 8 months later, the whole operation moves to Canada and I'm out of a job again (long story). Telling the story to a friend of mine, he offers me a job working for another large crypto company that he recently joined, to do an even larger mining operation. So here I am... working on that now.
Needless to say, I'm a huge believer in serendipity.
Twitter DM in response to an engineering manager that tweeted ≈'we're hiring!'. Talking to the eng manager directly, rather than going through a typical recruiting channel, made the whole process a lot smoother I think
I work at a large, well-known Silicon Valley company. I interned at the company while I was in college, but decided to work elsewhere after I graduated. After a few years, one of their recruiters reached out to me via email, went through the normal interview process, and ended up with the job.
Past jobs/internships have been a mixture of applying directly on college job boards, recruiters reaching out through email/LinkedIn, and Hired.
First mention I see of hired. Used it while I was looking for jobs in London - definitely something I can recommend to get your foot in the door, especially for people who need visa sponsorship (at least that was my scenario)
Yeah, it was decent. My experience was that it provided a lot of leads in a short amount of time. In a matter of a week, my plate was completely full, doing phone screens, take-home problems, and on-sites. Got several offers from some pretty cool startups at the end of it, and it was nice to have salary expectations up front.
I would say that I completely underestimated the amount of time required for it. It skews more towards startups, and it seems like take-home problems have become the norm in their application processes now. If you're going to take this route, I would recommend taking 2 weeks PTO from your day job to dedicate to this.
For my last job change, I took a much more passive approach. Over a period of a couple of months, I engaged with a couple of recruiters who reached out to me, only interviewing at 2 companies, and then took this job. Far more relaxing and less pressure. The only downside is that I felt like I had less negotiating power at the end.
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[ 9.6 ms ] story [ 460 ms ] threadI know for sure I couldn't have gotten in if it was through normal interviewing channels, I always bomb interview questions in the most phenomenal ways.
There was some article floating around LinkedIn about how frustrating it is for recruiters when someone ghosts them... that had to be some sort of troll right?
Heck I have respect for places that send out just an AUTOMATED "Hey man we're not picking you but best of luck and keep an eye out for other jobs on our site." email at this point.
It's that bad...
I looked into the company further at that point and found out their customers were evangelical fanatics about the product. I ended up getting the job and three years later, it's by far the best job I've ever had - the team, daily responsibilities, financials, etc. So when you're stuck in that long slog of a commute on 101, take the time to peruse the corporate creativity lining the freeway. It may just lead to your next opportunity.
Current job is a good fit, I enjoy it and have been here for two years.
1. A VC who I pitched to didn't invest in my startup, but he was impressed enough by my technical ability that he took me on for some work. After being conscientious in series of jobs over a year, I usually get first pick in his projects.
2. A guy whose project I failed at recommended me to a friend. Two other people also mentioned me. He was a speaker at a talk that I liked and so I added him on Facebook years ago, which broke the ice.
3. Some of my students were doing a real world project for educational purposes. They dropped out and I took on the project, which was easy and paid very well for the difficulty level.
Luckily an ex colleague referred me and it has been an amazing journey at LinkedIn. BTW We are hiring!
What areas would you be interested in? Happy to chat offline.
Twitter: referral
Current: referral
I also had to do a typical interview at all of them.
There's a lot more to life, and you deserve to be happy regardless of whatever else happens.
This is easier for senior folks. At some point you just know the rejection was a failure of their interview process and not your ineptitude. I have failed several interviews at different companies where I was one of the best people _in the world_ for the job due to my domain expertise. It's a roll of the dice for everyone, but earlier in my career I did not take rejection well. Now? Honeybadger don't care.
I’m afraid I’ll be stuck at Amazon, which nobody is actually impressed by, if I’m lucky and not PIPed out.
What?
Edit: actually, I've banned this account because repeating this turns out to be all it's been doing. Single-purpose accounts aren't allowed here, and when you repeat something as much as this one has, it's indistinguishable from trolling (which is why some users have been wondering if it's a troll account). Please don't use HN this way again.
Ironically once you can be happy without Facebook, you are actually more likely to get into Facebook or whatever company because you'll be more detached from the outcome and more able to focus.
Also tried couple of the variations (inurl:jobs, Espoo, sre, Linux). This helped to find companies which didn't post their jobs on the usual job boards (mostly startups at the time).
But of course becoming the person that recruiter reached out to involved several years of study, betting on a brand new language, taking a risk on a startup with no money and a few other things.
I've never gone through the front door at any company, for that matter, in the 25 years I've been working. The first job I ever got was because the teacher of a college class I was taking owned a small ISP and needed a sysadmin, and he liked how I was doing in his class. Everything since then has been through someone I know personally.
Probably the most successful strategy I've employed in my career is to remember that even though I'm reasonably good at what I do, how I get along with coworkers and management is more important. A lot more important, in fact. Turns out there are plenty of people that are competent enough, so when someone is looking for a new team member, they gravitate towards people that can play nice with others.
Funny that I have never heard of this huge company (and uber cool), some of the great ones are just not visible to outsiders.
10 years later I still love it.
There's a lot of handwringing about it because it basically lets Googlers and Facebookers shit on our employee quality now (and you know they think we're inferior).
I have a reverse question for you though: has this kind of questioning worked out fine for you till now in real life?
An unwanted tip fwiw: it comes across as belittling an achievement (whatever it might be) from a quick glance. You probably don't mean it that way- in which case do look at rewording that into something like 'has it been everything you hoped for' :)
Needless to say, I'm a huge believer in serendipity.
Past jobs/internships have been a mixture of applying directly on college job boards, recruiters reaching out through email/LinkedIn, and Hired.
I would say that I completely underestimated the amount of time required for it. It skews more towards startups, and it seems like take-home problems have become the norm in their application processes now. If you're going to take this route, I would recommend taking 2 weeks PTO from your day job to dedicate to this.
For my last job change, I took a much more passive approach. Over a period of a couple of months, I engaged with a couple of recruiters who reached out to me, only interviewing at 2 companies, and then took this job. Far more relaxing and less pressure. The only downside is that I felt like I had less negotiating power at the end.