How did you get your current job?

I'd love to hear from some people on here about how they got their current role. I've been trying a few different strategies for finding new work, but the job market has changed so drastically from the last time I was looking for anything. So I figured the best way to figure out what works is to just ask everyone what tools they're utilizing.

Are you finding work through your network? Through a specific strategy you're trying? Through a specific website? What was it that got you the interviews?

reignfields·Nov 22

For my last 3 jobs, recruiters have reached out to me directly on LinkedIn. I never applied or knew about any of them before the recruiters reached out. I tell everyone to make sure their LI page is optimized for recruiters to find them.

Iynna·Nov 22

Queen! That’s great and great to hear a recruiter success story :)

nicolechampagne·Nov 22

This is also how I landed my current role, except I didn’t get the job the recruiter originally reached out for. This recruiter was self-employed and very dedicated and when I didn’t land the role they originally had in mind for me, they started asking me more about what I was looking for and said they had a different role that might be a good fit. It was!

Iynna·Nov 22

YAY Nicole! get it! More success stories, love to hear it

kchasarik·Nov 25

How did you connect with the recruiter?

daniellemalone·Nov 28

Would you be able to share the recruiter’s contact information? I am having a difficult time finding a recruiter that is not real or AI 🤖

kchasarik·Nov 25

Amazing! Is there any advice you can give or advice that helped you in making sure your LI is optimized for recruiters? Anything that helped specifically?

lindsayhemings·Nov 27

I noticed keywords in my subject line did make a difference - I added my industry to mine as one. I am a lifecycle marketer but I also added "Growth" as a keyword. You could upload your resume to ChatGPT and ask for keyword suggestions, and eye other linkedin profiles similar to yours to see!

kaitlingraham·Nov 22

That's amazing! How did you optimize your LI?

Cyn·Nov 22

My skip boss reached out via LinkedIn! I'd never heard of the company, much less the opportunity. The job before that was advertised in the Slack community for one of my networking groups. The job before that was advertised in the Slack community for one of my networking groups. I'd already met the company's president at an organization-sponsored breakfast. I sent over my resume and had a new job in a couple of days.

kchasarik·Nov 25

Do you know what made the skip boss reach out to you on LI? Was there anything you did that made you easy to find?

Cyn·Nov 26

He was looking for someone with experience in technical writing, QA, and enterprise support. I mentioned all three in my summary, and my history showed that I had experience in all three.

SoRo·Nov 22

I was laid off for 7 months, so looking for a job became my full time job. I found most of my leads on LinkedIn. I had job alerts set up on key words that only showed new job postings from the past 24 hours. I also had alerts set up on companies I was interested in so I’d see all of their new job postings. Once I found a role I was interested in, I checked first to see if I had any connections who worked there and could refer me. If the answer was no, I’d apply right away to be first in line, so to speak. For my current job, I knew someone at the company as I used to work with her husband. She didn’t even know a job was posted. Turns out it was on her team in a role that would be a peer to her. She was able to be an advocate for me after confirming with her husband about the caliber of my work. Now, we carpool together!

Shelley25·Nov 22

Current: an industry-specific job board. Before that, a role-specific Slack networking group. Know what you want (industry/role) and find spaces online. Maybe unpopular opinion: I don't think posting asking for jobs or making it known that you're looking is the best strategy in those groups. I've found participating and waiting for the right opportunity to be shared is best. That way, when your app is received, you're not that person looking for a job, you're the person who also happens to love GOT and shared that cool resource a couple months ago.

kchasarik·Nov 25

Do you have any advice in finding industry specific job and slack boards/networking groups?

annieli·Nov 28

I also found my current job, a product manager role, on a product-specific job board called weloveproduct.coI don't remember how I came across this job board specifically, but it was probably a combination of just googling "product jobs", and following a bunch of product people on Twitter and seeing links posted by them. Same with Slack/networking groups

kchasarik·Nov 28

Thanks for sharing the job board, that's extremely helpful!

natalielieurance·Nov 22

Through a cold app! This was about a year ago. I used so many different strategies, from networking groups, to Elpha, to reaching out to recruiters. The list could go on. However, it's funny that the way I landed my position was actually probably the strategy I put the least amount of effort in. I will say though, I never did cold apps on LinkedIn. I'd used LinkedIn to farm leads for companies I was interested in, and then I would go directly to their website and look for roles/apply on there. Anyway, people are so caught up in referrals today that I wanted to say don't completely overlook this! Good luck!

kchasarik·Nov 25

It's so interesting to hear from someone who got a job through a cold application. Was there anything you did that you'd say really wasn't a good strategy or you wish you spent less energy on?

rachaelplz·Nov 27

I had tweeted about some of my interests/experiences along with things I had noticed while dabbling in tech. The then COO at my current company DMed me on Twitter and asked if I was interested in hearing about a People opening they had. We had a few calls and I was offered a role! Been with the org about 2 years now.

kchasarik·Nov 28

Wow! That's really impressive. Was there any particular thing you said that the COO said stood out?

rachaelplz·Nov 28

Candidly I don't quite remember 😂 , but I know I had written about providing positive experiences and creating a "culture of care." I know I also wrote about some negative experiences and how they could have been improved. So it could have been some mix of those things.

lindsayhemings·Nov 27

Plant seeds - continuously network so that each time you job search, it's easier than the last. When I was in my first job out of college and wanted to make a jump, it was peak covid, hiring was frozen. I found a women's group for my industry and started volunteering for them, I wrote articles about women in the industry each week, expanding my network AND my knowledge. I loved this work and also gained B2C experience which really helped me land the next job. I've been in 3 jobs since then, and the most recent one, I had written an article about 2 years prior - a full circle moment. I job searched through Linkedin, I saw they were hiring, was the first person they interviewed and got hired pretty quickly! I mainly see open roles on Linkedin and don't apply, I try to get a referral through my network. If I can't get one, and the company is smaller, I'll work hard to make my application stand out and take time to write something original, message the hiring manager or talent team with a catchy subject line/bullet points or a blurb on why I'd be a good fit.

lindsayhemings·Nov 27

I've also found slack groups for my industry/niche have great job postings with people willing to make referrals.

kchasarik·Nov 28

Thank you so much for the insight. A couple people have recommended finding an industry specific group or slack. How did you find the ones you were able to get involved in?Also I love that your story is also about propping other women up in the industry. It's so important we support each other!

missprinted·Nov 27

I got both of my last 2 roles through cold-applying (one via LinkedIn, one from the company's site). But both were to companies I was pretty familiar with (one had a lot of former colleagues and one was a vendor I'd worked with previously as a client), so I think that familiarity with the company/product helped give me a leg up. The second role was actually listed as being in a different state than I'm in and didn't say anything about remote, but I applied anyway and they let me be remote (granted, this was about a year ago and I don't know if I could get away with the same today now that they've forced a RTO for people in reasonable distance of the office).

kchasarik·Nov 28

Oh! I don't often hear cold-applying working for people but I love this! Did you use any specific job boards or tips or tricks for cold-applying that you think helped your search outside of familiarity?

missprinted·Jan 11

Just general LinkedIn with keywords! And I have a doc of companies I'm interested in and links to their job boards that I check periodically

Celesta29·Nov 28

I saw the job posting on LinkedIn, but emailed them instead of just quick applying haha. It’s funny because originally I was going to pass it up when they reached out for an interview because I thought I was going to be promoted at the job a had at the time, but they ended up passing me over, so I reached out to the interviewer. So glad I did, this is a much better position with much better pay

NicoleM·Nov 30

I’m probably an outlier here, but I’ve cold applied to every job I’ve ever had. That’s about… 7 roles now.

evelynvela·Dec 19

That was me too, but the current job market feels very different. I think that anyone looking for a job right now might agree with me on what feels like a broken hiring process.

jphosho·Dec 07

Referred by a friend. Before I was officially put into the system I requested an informal coffee chat with the hiring manager to level set expectations and ask questions in a safe environment. 12/10 would do again.

rochelleturner·Dec 18

My last 3 jobs have been: LinkedIn application (2015 - 2019), Recruiter outreach via LinkedIn (June- Dec 2019), and then knowing the founder of my current, very small company (2021-2023).Currently working on a mix of strategies including a Job acquisition program, outreach for referrals and informational interviews, and cold applications in a targeted space (event marketing) as well as a reach/goal space: Brand and experiential marketing. Trying to get out from feeling 'stuck' in small companies.

cattxx·Dec 19

My first job on the sort of track I'm on was a 100% cold lead on LinkedIn - I applied to tonnes of places and wrote a genuine cover letter for each of them (pre Chat GPT too!!) I spent about an hour on each cover letter and tailoring each resume, so yeah it was disappointing that I didn't hear back from some places, but I did get 3-4 interviews and one of them, the best option, ended up being the one I was at for 2.5 yearsThe job after ^ one, I relocated and I looked for jobs based on the location within the portfolio of the investors of this previous company. Also heavily used LinkedIn to reach out to individuals on at the company to discuss with them what working there was like and expressing my interest.The job I have now, I also got through LinkedIn from someone I knew posting an opening, and I also got 2 other offers, one also a 100% cold lead through LinkedIn, and another through a referral link when I checked the company openings and knew someone who worked there.Overall I think a couple things about finding work through my journey -1. It's about what the market values, the skills that you have and how many people are trying to fill the positions with the same skills. This will always be the biggest determinant in the likelihood of landing an interview/job2. Next is about the story/narrative you've built around the job search and being precise and specific to what you're looking to accomplish, and how realistic that outcome is/how much it makes sense with your story3. Your character and attitude is always going to be an underlying unspoken factor.Pound the pavement when you're in a position where you don't have skills and use 2 & 3 to do it, relentlessly and using LinkedIn is really helpful for this. I also used LinkedIn premium and I think that helped as well - both during my time not working using LinkedIn Learning to supplement my skills, and to float my application to the top for recruiters and companies. I intend to continue to build on these same methods to continue to get me places.

DominiqueEn·Dec 19

Both my current and previous jobs I got by cold applications. Referrals have never done anything for me, I don't think I even got an interview via those. The first one was via a LinkedIn application and this current one was via a conference career website.

Iynna·Feb 05

this was such a buzzing thread and I really enjoyed coming back to it! Was there anything that jumped out for you @kchasarik and that you were able to implement subsequently? Let us know if there's anything additional the community can do

kchasarik·Feb 07

I was surprised by how many people still find cold applications to be working for them. I would have thought those were more rare, but it's wonderful to see. If you're brave enough you can turn that cold application into a warm one by reaching out to someone in the company when you apply. I haven't found much success with either of these strategies yet, but I'm glad others have. I also have found joining a Job Search Council to be particularly helpful at staying motivated and helpful in creating a plan for job searching. It's super helpful to be able to talk to your peers about the struggle of finding a new job. This has been the best thing I've done to help me. It's really blossomed my network, too, which is so important.A lot of people also suggested joining slack workspaces for the industry that you're in, which I find to be an incredibly smart strategy. I'm not the best as staying up with slack, so this one may not help me as much as other people, but I think it's a very good strategy.

Iynna·Feb 07

thank you so much for taking the time to share these thoughts with me/us! I agree with you re: how cold app are still working for people! I'm the same as you they have rarely panned out for me and I've always had to either have an initial lead OR turned them into a warm lead myself. I am glad you found an avenue that worked for you! Let us know how we can be helpful as per usual!

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