Ask HN: How did you find your current job?
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
128 comments
[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 173 ms ] threadI'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.
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.
However, networking can also mean just keeping casually in touch with people with whom you have mutual interests and keeping somewhat visible.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It worked really well.
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.
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 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
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.
(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.
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.