Going beyond ‘do you know of any open positions?’

https://www.dewanahmed.com/do-you-know-of-any-open-positions/

by mooreds • 3 years ago

94 122 3 years ago

alain94040• 3 years ago

Correct. Here’s a pro-tip that also applies at work, when you email your manager: make it as easy as possible for the person to help you. If you ask for an intro to someone, write an email that is ready to be forwarded, as is, and already has all the context that the person you are trying to reach would need. So manager or relation just has to hit forward, type a little note to their contact at the beginning of the email, and they are done.

ketzo2• 3 years ago

I used to feel kind of queasy about this strategy -- writing what you want someone else to send, and basically just asking them to cosign it -- but it is both shockingly effective, and usually kind of a relief to the person you're asking.

genmud• 3 years ago

When I do this I always preface it with, "hey here is an example of what you could send... feel free to copy-pasta or ask in whatever way you want". That way it isn't as icky feeling.

MattGaiser• 3 years ago

I’ve written virtually every reference letter I have ever received for myself.

And I was asked to do so. Usually within 5 minutes they acknowledge receipt and send it.

xtracto2• 3 years ago

I learned it from an early age while I was finishing my BSc: I needed some "referral" letters from professors that I have worked with. They all told me to write something in Word, print it and they would sign it (it was back in 2001).

HeyLaughingBoy• 3 years ago

Like anything else, you get more traction if you make it easy for the other person.

bluedino2• 3 years ago

I hope this message finds you well.

As an American, I find this a very odd way to start an email.

It always makes me think of Civil War letters or something.

I have a big favor to ask, and I truly appreciate your time and consideration.

This also seems like too much, and too early in the message. Leave the "thank you" for the end.

JohnFen2• 3 years ago

As an American, none of that sounds off to me at all. It's certainly formal, but that's appropriate.

xtracto2• 3 years ago

Those two read a bit "Indian" to me; that is, like English that someone from India would write. Something similar happens when someone from my country (Mexico) writes an email/letter: You usually have to read it from the middle to the end, because the first half would be just fill-up text.

dewan235• 3 years ago

Curious to hear more on "Those two read a bit "Indian" to me" :)

How would you start a conversation with a stranger?

``` I want $something

EOM ```

for some folks, filler sentences are a sign of politeness.

crooked-v• 3 years ago

The "I hope this message finds you well" is also potentially an indicator of ChatGPT influence, as for whatever weird reason it very often starts "Write a letter to X about Y" responses with that phrase.

itqwertz8• 3 years ago

I see most of those open-position LinkedIn posts as lazy cries for help rather than legitimate job search strategy. People swarm and post good reviews of the person as a coworker/employee, but it’s a waste of time. Sympathy is not worth a damn, no matter how many people tell you that you deserve a great job.

Chris Rock said something similar to my attitude: a person waiting on the side of the road with a broken car isn’t getting help. A person pushing their car on an exit ramp will get people to help.

Here are better job hunting strategies:

* Connect with anyone (just spam connect requests). You can easily have 5,000 connections. This looks good to people who take a cursory glance at your profile.

* remove anything on your profile that could be a potential liability for your future employer: no attitude, no rainbow emojis, no flags, no political statements

* embellish your resume and work history. If you’ve read a tutorial on a technology, you list it.

* start applying for anything you might qualify for. Interviewing is a skill and a process you have to get used to.

* Set your status to Open-to-work, open accounts on Monster/Dice/Blind/Indeed and start talking to headhunters/recruiters. Reach out to the big players (TekSystems, Robert Half, etc) as well as the smaller shops and see what they have.

* Personally ask or DM your friends for leads and references.

* search for “inurl:careers <your role or industry>” and find open positions to apply for anything

If you can’t get a job after following this advice, you’re doing something wrong.

UncleOxidant• 3 years ago

* embellish your resume and work history. If you’ve read a tutorial on a technology, you list it.

This seems like not a great idea.

itqwertz8• 3 years ago

It works when you’re being filtered on keywords. A competent C# software engineer who has worked with web tech can list Blazor, ASP.NET MVC, or even PHP if they understand the fundamentals of web dev. Let’s not kid ourselves, most of these frameworks and web languages are very similar.

If you’re actually desperate for a job, you’ll take what you get and rise to the challenge.

A4ET8a8uTh0• 3 years ago

I think there is a careful balance that needs to be met between what HR wants to see and what hiring manager/peers want to see. I was mostly lucky enough lately that most of my recent positions were direct referrals to hiring manager, which meant I did not have to hunt for keywords or anything silly like that, so I could get away with my resume/linkedin looking understated.

Garrrrrr• 3 years ago

In my experience, TekSystems (an IT hiring agency) have proven to be a waste of time. Even if you manage to secure a job through them, be prepared to sacrifice a significant portion (10-30%) of your potential salary, as they'll deduct your hourly/salary pay as a finding/employment fee. I'm not sure if this is common practice with other recruitment companies but I find it to be very scummy

JJMcJ2• 3 years ago

This is not customary. In fact I've never heard of it for placements. A broker for consulting work might take a finder's fee, but never for regular employment.

Way back when, like in the 1950s and 60s, employment agencies might take a percentage. The shift to more contract work, where the percentage is baked into the billed rate vs. what they pay, has ended this.

naillo• 3 years ago

just spam connect requests

Tons of great tips in this comment

itqwertz8• 3 years ago

I have ~5000 connections, I get hit up for jobs and collaborations every week.

If you’re not playing the game willingly, you’re still playing the game.

jurassic2• 3 years ago

Some of this is good advice, but I definitely wouldn't advocate embellishing your resume in this way. You're going to waste a lot of time on the phone with recruiters exploring roles you probably are not a good fit for. Also if I contact you because I'm looking for a FOO expert and you actually only read a blog post about FOO, you immediately lose credibility with me. Very low chance of it turning into a job.

IMO it's better ROI to get as specific as possible about the BAR role you are looking for and then put in the effort to do these things:

1) really workshop all the text on your resume / LinkedIn to make it clear you are seeking BAR opportunities

2) connect with people who are working on BAR or are BAR-adjacent

3) (if needed) think of easy things you can do to bolster your BAR credibility (small side projects, read a book on it, etc).

If you can do these things you automatically stand out because most people seem to lack introspection about what they want and also communicate poorly.

Doing this also will improve the ROI you get from your own network, because people will be able to more easily understand what you're looking for when thinking about the opportunities they know about.

Bottom line though: If I read over your profile, is it obvious you are actually good at X and seeking Y? It's amazing to me how many applications I see that communicate nothing about what the candidate has accomplished or would like to do next. A keyword spam resume is getting the circular file if it hits my desk.

If you have no friends, discuss it with ChatGPT.

ryandrake• 3 years ago

Some of this is good advice, but I definitely wouldn't advocate embellishing your resume in this way. You're going to waste a lot of time on the phone with recruiters exploring roles you probably are not a good fit for. Also if I contact you because I'm looking for a FOO expert and you actually only read a blog post about FOO, you immediately lose credibility with me. Very low chance of it turning into a job.

I think it depends on whether you already have a job you're OK with vs. if you're unemployed and have N months until you're living in your car.

I've been unemployed with a family and burning through a very small savings account. When you're in that situation, "finding a good fit" is not a priority. Getting an offer letter from any company by any means is the priority. Embellish and spam. Knock on physical doors if you have to. Let the company decide whether you're a good fit. This is one of those unfortunate "don't hate the player, hate the game" realities.

schmorptron2• 3 years ago

what does BAR mean in the context? couldn't find the acronym when searching

nrub• 3 years ago

Do what you want with some of those tips, maybe not necessarily good advice. But if you're searching, try these search queries replacing `%s` with your desired role(s):

``` search_strings = [ 'site:boards.greenhouse.io %s', 'site:jobs.smartrecruiters.com %s', 'site:jobs.lever.co %s', 'site:.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com %s', 'site:icims.com inurl:jobs %s', 'site:careers.peopleclick.com %s', 'site:apply.workable.com %s', 'site:jobs.workable.com %s', 'site:apply.workable.com %s', 'site:.taleo.net %s', ] ```

Most of those ATS systems are super annoying. I actually give preference to employers using more modern systems that have up to date user experiences, but regardless, it doesn't hurt to scrape and search all the big ATS players.

bojo• 3 years ago

embellish your resume and work history. If you’ve read a tutorial on a technology, you list it.

I'm going through a huge pile of resumes for a role I have open this week and these are getting thrown out immediately. I have no interest in reading through 6 pages of bullet points with keywords bolded. It's tacky, too information dense, and doesn't call out what you are actually good at nor how you've applied it.

throwaway2023513• 3 years ago

I think the 'correct' (from the perspective of getting an interview) approach would be to personalize your resume to include skills that are called out in the listing, even if you've just read a tutorial on it. Not to list a ton of irrelevant skills.

An example would be if you had 5 years of experience in AWS and only a few tutorials of GCP for experience, but the listing specifically wants GCP skills, you list it.

Not a case where you have 5 years of backend experience and start applying to senior frontend positions because you went through a React tutorial.

heartbreak2• 3 years ago

This is an ironic post about what not to do, right?

itqwertz8• 3 years ago

Offer better advice, then.

We live in a world where you can either compete or wonder why no companies want anything to do with you.

“Fake it till you make it” is a good strategy when you have to pay bills.

throwaway2023513• 3 years ago

no rainbow emojis

So it's not possible to be openly gay and hire-able?

I mean, sure, that must be true for some companies but I wouldn't want to work at those anyway.

edit: on second read, this might come off as more aggressive than I wanted, and the rest of the post is pretty good, but this part just stood out to me

itqwertz8• 3 years ago

No, the point is to look like a good candidate who won’t start a Slack pronoun campaign while delivering garbage code. For some companies, that outward presentation of identity and politics will be a deterrent. Do that stuff on your own time.

My advice is how to get a job when you need one.

bequanna2• 3 years ago

Openly gay != in everyone’s face writing preachy DEI memos and forcing pronoun campaigns

Essentially, don’t advertise that you might bring drama to the workplace.

Some people are always looking to pick fights and create drama (they can be gay, straight, whatever) and employers screen for this personality type.

spidersouris• 3 years ago

I don't think the point is to be found in one's sexual orientation. The thing is the rainbow emoji can communicate much more than that due to how it's used by conservatives, unfortunately. Some people may turn your application down simply because you have a rainbow emoji in your bio and they've heard conservative bullshit about some inexistent LGBTQ+ lobby that wants to chemically castrate every single child on this planet.

People are dumb. Better be safe than sorry.

btheunissen• 3 years ago

Some good points but 3) is terrible advice. If you list a technology and I use it frequently, and if I can tell you added it for the sake of padding your resume, that is going to weigh on my decision pretty heavily.

I value honestly over bullshit.

gtirloni3• 3 years ago

This is the shotgun approach, right? In our field, you will quickly be participating in 10+ hiring process and it'll be a nightmare.

mooreds4• 3 years ago

* embellish your resume and work history. If you’ve read a tutorial on a technology, you list it.

I've learned through experience to never list something on your resume you don't want to get asked about in an interview. If you're comfortable saying "I put down C++ because I read a tutorial" that's fine. As a former hiring manager, my reaction would depend on how much I needed you to know C++. If it was a C++ job, it'd be an immediate no. If it was tangentially related, maybe it's okay.

* start applying for anything you might qualify for. Interviewing is a skill and a process you have to get used to.

Sure, but get used to no replies or no interviews. That's not a bad thing to get used to, but playing the numbers game isn't usually successful.

Here are some ways to stand out, esp if you are a new dev: https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2022/09/19/ways-to-stand-...

tayo42• 3 years ago

How is someone suppsed to be able to make any slight career changes then. Go all the way back to being a junior developer becasue they happened to have python or java jobs instead of cpp?

dsr_• 3 years ago

"Do you know of any open positions?" is asking someone else to do an unknown amount work for you.

"Can you introduce me to the hiring manager so I could ask some questions?" is asking them to do a specific small favor.

"Can you implicitly endorse that I will do good work for your company?" is asking them to lie on your behalf.

JJMcJ2• 3 years ago

a specific small favor

And risk their reputation if you aren't that good.

There is a gradation from people who will tell everyone they know that the most hire you if they can, to people who will finally cough up a name with the request that you not mention their own name.

Depending on their opinion of you.

throway43n30a• 3 years ago

What's the H1B version of this? I'm not from India.

nonethewiser• 3 years ago

The 20 minute networking meeting has lots of thoughts on this kind of thing. Many linkedin gurus talk about this too.

Frankly I find these sources overfit their experience a log and are far too dogmatic bit there are still some good insights.

paxys• 3 years ago

100% of "does your company have any open positions" requests I have received are answered with "take a look at the careers site and let me know if something is a good fit, and I'll refer you". There's really no other way to do it.

drBonkers2• 3 years ago

The author recommends this resume builder [1]. Everything I've learned about resumes tells me that this style will not be taken seriously— which makes me doubt the veracity of the rest of his post.

Am I wrong? Do hiring managers like to see this style of resume?

[1] https://novoresume.com/

rovr138• 3 years ago

Here's a scanner, https://www.open-resume.com/resume-parser

You can also build a resume with it (and you can self host it if you want)

dewan235• 3 years ago

@rovr138, thanks for the pointer. I've updated the post and replaced the previous option with this one.

toastedwedge• 3 years ago

I've been told by recruiters directly that the multicolumn layout style can mess up applicant tracking systems, so it's best to go with the standard format. It looks boring, but it won't cause the system to reject your resume because of extra spacing or formatting.

dewan235• 3 years ago

@drBonkers, you're correct about multi-column resume not to be the best option. although I've used the resume generated from NovoResume to get into multiple big tech companies and startups, I agree that a better template is the one from Google Docs --> Resume template. I've updated the post and replace NovoResume with Google Doc resume template. thanks for the note.

drBonkers2• 3 years ago

although I've used the resume generated from NovoResume to get into multiple big tech companies and startups

Interesting counter point. Thanks for the tips!

throwaway2023513• 3 years ago

I've gotten some complements for my resume's layout and it's basically the exact opposite of that.

It's based off of some latex template that looks roughly like this: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/cv-template-using-t...

wrboyce• 3 years ago

My CV is styled as a manpage and always seemed to be well received by technical interviewers. I’m not sure how successful it would be with recruitment agents though.

The first time it landed me a job, I eventually went to introduce myself to the CTO and he said “oh I know who you are, you’re the guy with the manpage CV”.

kartoshechka• 3 years ago

I'm not a hiring manager and never been on the interviewer side of interviews, but I'm gonna try to elaborate on OP comment, as I'm of similar feelings about most templates - they try to be memorable/standout or focus on wrong things instead of simply being informative and straight to the point

allocating a literal third of space to a self-rated list of skills is kinda bad move, it might seem like you're trying to be honest but to me it speaks ego problems, and that you're too focused on tools instead of solving problems at hand. I would much rather prefer having skills/tech used listed together with each job

imo the most important info on resume is

1. work experience (pet projects/contributions to open source if you're big nerdo)

2. location/timezone

3. name and contacts

tetha• 3 years ago

Oh interesting, I recognize like 3 or 4 of these CV templates from current candidates, haha. Curious to know where they come from.

But on topic - as an admin or developer, style just doesn't matter to me beyond an initial notice of "This looks nice" or so. To me it borders more on a good sign if I can recognize that someone just shoved something through asciidoc to get a PDF.

I much rather care if the CV is put together well and doesn't look sloppy. We had one CV come in that had just broken formatting - linebreaks in headings inside words, typos and such. That's not a good flag. Like, if you can't care to move a linebreak in a CV 8 characters earlier for the same overall space used, what'll you do with critical production data?

And beyond that, the focus in CVs to me is to be easy to skim. A good CV allows me to look at the positions for a minute or so and I can get an initial idea that they're a good fit for something the team needs and I should spend more time on this candidate.

But that being sad, the CVs I got based on novoresume minimalist or elementary were on the good and effective side.

bamfly4• 3 years ago

Everyone in recruiting and hiring has a different opinion of what makes a good résumé—formatting and content, both. Many of these are mutually exclusive. You can't realistically know which set of preferences you're dealing with before you submit an application, so you've just gotta hope that whatever you've picked doesn't get your application round-filed for arbitrary reasons. Even if you hire a genuine pro to put it together, the result's gonna make someone roll their eyes and toss it in the trash.

(then, of course, there are cultural differences between countries re: how a résumé should or should not look, but that's another matter)

[EDIT] My point is that it's entirely possible this style is loved by some readers, and hated by others. Any (reasonable) formatting or content you pick is going to impress some readers while turning off others. It's dumb, it's frustrating, it's inefficient, it's unfair—but that's how it is.

doix• 3 years ago

I think some things are subjective, I personally dislike colour, multicolumn layouts and those arbitrary scales of skills (4 out of 5 stars nodejs!) things. But I appreciate that it's an opinion and some people might like that.

But I think you should never put your picture on a CV. I think it just puts you at a disadvantage, you have no idea what unconscious biases people have when reviewing CV's. Definitely not worth the risk.

mwhitfield• 3 years ago

Can you elaborate which parts of the style you feel "will not be taken seriously"? It looks like a pretty standard resume to me.

yieldcrv• 3 years ago

“what are you qualified for”

I’m a hard worker willing to learn and just need a chance!

ok, you and everyone else buddy, if you think that’s unique its because your crowd and support system was even less qualified, so just ask your friend’s parole officer for open positions because they know where to send their parolee

samtho• 3 years ago

A related pet peeve of mine is when people use the subject/title/first-message as a useless statement of intention or a useless greeting, sometimes made very annoying by futile efforts to communicate urgency. For example, an email where the subject is “question”, a slack message that just says “hi” and absolutely nothing else, or a Reddit post who’s title is “[very urgent] hi I have a question pls help”. More often than not, the question is ill-informed, lacks any meaningful context, with the author either disappearing or frantically answering follow ups with “idk”.

If you’re going to request/demand someone’s time, at least do them the small courtesy of communicating clearly in the title/subject (for search and visibility), and be prepared to demonstrate that you put in effort. If they are unsure what question, they are free to ask what kind of question is appropriate or what might be a good way to think about a problem.

Uninformed queries or requests that demand the helper(s) to think on behalf of the asker are insulting to the helpers time and usually demonstrates willful ignorance and entitlement.

gtirloni3• 3 years ago

Utilize job search tools: Make use of LinkedIn’s robust job search features to find relevant positions

I LOL'ed

dewan235• 3 years ago

What's your preference? Glassdoor? Indeed? Pls let me know (with data) if those job search engines are significantly better and then I can update the post.

warent• 3 years ago

Some anecdotal data for what it's worth: I've applied to many (hundreds probably) opportunities on Linkedin, Indeed, Hacker News, and Wellfound (Angel.co).

Only applications made on Hacker News and Wellfound lead to offers and jobs! Meanwhile, my applications made on LinkedIn almost never even get a reply.

gtirloni3• 3 years ago

My preference is HN's Who's Hiring monthly thread or specialized job boards (e.g. WeWorkRemote and others). At least those have real jobs.

LinkedIn is full of spam, position that have already been closed, open positions that are used only to gather contact info, desperate recruiters, startup founders looking for a lead, etc.

The most grotesque I've seen on LI was a few companies posting separate jobs for each major city in the country in order to attract candidates that might be looking for positions in those cities (the "real" position was somewhere else).

The signal-to-noise ratio in LinkedIn, Glassdor, Indeed is too high. Last time I was looking for a job, I tried them and it was a complete waste of time.

Pls let me know (with data) if those job search engines are significantly better and then I can update the post.

Please contact me in private to discuss my hourly rate.

diego_moita• 3 years ago

I agree LinkedIn is not the best job search tool (e.g.: it doesn't allow to block stuff I don't want like blockchain and Web3).

But is far from being the worse. I gave up on Google Jobs, it is unusable.

LightBug1• 3 years ago

Same reaction. LinkedIn Jobs is a joke. Reaching out directly on the platform has more value.

Beyond personal networks, I'm curious what's working for people in 2023?

cvhashim04• 3 years ago

Levels.fyi seems decent

Also: https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/11n2ruy/...

dewan235• 3 years ago

Thanks for the constructive feedback; I've updated the post based on some comments. If anyone needs a free resume/LinkedIn review, send a DM: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diahmed/. Only heads-up is that all of my reviews are posted as public LinkedIn post.

mooreds4• 3 years ago

This may be of use too: https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2022/09/05/how-to-find-co...

I love the point of this post. There's so much information available now that just asking "do you know of any positions" is, frankly, lazy. People want to help, so help them help you by targeting your questions.

Going beyond ‘do you know of any open positions?’

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