How to get hired
As a followup to my piece on how to be laid off I felt it would be irresponsible to ignore the other (happier) half. Getting hired is, usually, the goal of being unemployed so completing the cycle in article form seemed the for the best.
My personal unemployment journey was thankfully short, ending with an offer about 3 weeks after being laid off and starting another week and a half after that. But how did that happen? What tools that I talked about worked? What didn’t? Is it repeatable? Luck? Well the desired answer for the large numbers in tech going through this right now would be that its completely repeatable, but the sad fact is that there is always luck and circumstance involved. So lets dig in and see what happened and what can be useful to you.
As a quick recap: I was laid off in mid December and per my previous post How to be Laid Off I took a day for myself, then focused on building a google sheet of my network and extended network. I tied names to companies and proceeded to spend the next week + reaching out to those people at companies with openings that looked like a fit. Once I ran through and categorized that list I moved on to Linkedin applying and making sure that my financials were sound through the time (setting up unemployment etc).
My job came through on of the earlier connections I made, the intention of the call had been networking but it worked out that they needed my skillset and I was a perfect pick as I had worked with all of the company leadership before. Being a known quantity is huge. That is granted an unusual level of kismet especially in this environment but its indicative of the primary way I have seen jobs being gotten recently, and it fits what my initial post pushed. Networking. There are jobs out there in all fields right now, this rash of layoffs across tech is more of a redistribution than a reduction, the numbers show it. Many workers today are too young to remember a time when this happened, we have had a booming job market for 15 years and until recently there was no signs of slowing, but with fears (real or imagined or self fulfilling) of recession as cover tech companies are looking to their books and realizing they have fat they have built up over 15 years that they can easily trim. And since everyone is doing it they won’t get in trouble. At the same time that they are laying off with their left hand they are hiring into actually needed roles on their right. So how do you switch hands?
I sound like a broken record here because thats the point, your network is the best option. In the short time I was out of work I reached out to roughly 150 people /companies, split 60/40 network connections and job postings. Every job posting I have blind applied to in the last year has either ghosted me or gotten back to me with a blanket rejection, not a single interview. 80+ percent of my network connections got back to me on inquiries, 100% of those that did put me in for a job if I was a fit, 60% of those ended in either interviews or at least custom rejections. The math is clear and is being demonstrated across my feed. Companies are hiring from referral pools, if not entirely than mostly. And why? Not because its the only place there is talent but because its a) lower risk (someone at least knows the applicant isn’t a serial killer) and b) a more manageable pool to recruit from with the innundation of resumes seen in every posting today. As a hiring manager I know I have missed great resumes just beause after reading the first 20-30 I have found enough people to talk to. Its simple math.
But Jeff what if my network just isn’t there? What if its too small? Too Junior? Well your network is bigger than you think. First off you need to look for secondary connections when looking on Linkedin at jobs you think are a good fit. It doesn’t make it intuitive on searching but when you are browsing a company you can find them. Those are still your network! Remember referrals are $$ and most people will refer a friend of an acquaintance. Next step? Make a web precense for yourself: comment, post, reshare on Linkedin, reach out to people in your field, as long as you put in the effort to make a genuine connection with teh person people tend to be good about connecting, A while back I had a great conversation with an enablement company CEO that led to a casual connection that I was able to reach out to in the time I was laid off. Building your network can be a big or even a bigger value add than applying to jobs day in and day out.
I know its not a roadmap but between my post on early layoff activities and this follow up I believe there is a framework that can work for most of us. The last two mostly unconnected pieces of advice I have from my time though are: reach out to and be nice to recruiters, and put more effort into fewer job postings, applying to one job in a day that you checked your network for connections, reached out to the recruiter, tailored your resume for etc is better than applying to 10 with a blanket resume and coverletter.
Hang in there, the jobs are out there.