
How to get a job when you have no connections - luu
http://www.karenx.com/blog/how-to-get-a-job-when-you-have-no-connections/
======
bromagosa
«Write a song about the company and send them a video of you singing or
rapping it. Like to bake? Send them a homemade cake decorated with the
company’s name and your contact info. Love to run? Use a phone GPS running app
to draw your route on a map, then go to a large field and run a path in the
shape of the company’s logo. You get the idea – anything goes.»

Seriously? I stopped reading here. What kind of company will hire a
programmer, an architect or a lawyer that bakes a cake with their logo in it?
I hope none, for the world's sake...

~~~
pathy
Now programmers/software engineers are in a quite special position, especially
in SV and similar locations, where it is a seller's market.

For most others it is about getting noticed, if a hiring manager has 100 CVs
sent to him or her, how will you stand out? Baking a cake will not help you if
you don't have a good CV/qualifications but it will help you get noticed and
stand out.

Another way, which is just as silly as baking a cake is to buy adwords with
the hiring managers name [1]. It is a novel strategy to get noticed.

Point is that it is much easier if you have a network to rely on for
introductions, weak ties are very important when job hunting. So if you don't
have any network to support you, you have to become creative in order to get
noticed.

[1]: [http://mashable.com/2010/05/13/job-google-ad-
words/](http://mashable.com/2010/05/13/job-google-ad-words/)

~~~
Aqua_Geek
> especially in SV and similar locations, where it is a seller's market

I keep hearing this, but it's not at all what I experienced last time I went
on a job hunt.

~~~
46Bit
What is your background and skills?

~~~
Aqua_Geek
My skill set consists mainly of lots of iOS (worked on over 2 dozen apps in
the store, including _major_ brands), Mac development, Ruby + Rails (more
experience in the backend side of things than the HTML/CSS/JS portion), but
I've dabbled in a lot of things over the years.

------
danso
Just in case it wasn't obvious, the OP is the same person who was on the HN
front page recently for her "Dance in a Year" site:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6017758](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6017758)

Programmers, designers, etc., should follow her example. I don't mean create a
site about yourself dancing...but _create something of interest about
something you care about_...web devs have a huge advantage here in being able
to disseminate their work in a cheap, creative medium.

------
wisty
The simplest solution - make connections.

\- Find someone who works for the company (on their website, or linked-in,
whatever). Tell them who you are, and ask if there's any jobs available.
They'll probably send you to a hiring manager, along with some kind of
recommendation. If you've already been vetted by a team member, you're streets
ahead of all the anonymous resumes the hiring manager gets.

\- Go to a meetup, conference, or some other industry event. Talk to people.

Everyone with a job knows a hiring manager, and the hiring manager will trust
them more than all the job seekers banging on their door.

This might fail if you want to work for Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft,
etc. I've heard Apple employees tend to get stalked a lot by people who want
to work for Apple, so they've got the same kind of defences that hiring
managers have. You'd probably need to really stand out to convince them you're
the kind of person they should introduce to their boss. But these companies
already have pretty active recruitment. You want to target the companies with
poor recruitment (i.e. most companies).

Most companies kind of know they need more staff, but can't be bothered going
through the process of advertising, weeding out hundreds of unqualified
candidates, then having to pick between the 2-3 good candidates who get on the
shortlist. It's almost as stressful for them as it is for the applicants. If a
good candidate presents themselves before they've bothered advertising,
they'll often take them without bothering to advertise (expensive), weed
through the chaff (time consuming), and picking from the shortlist (stressful)
... all of which creates the risk that they'll either not find the right
person, or hire someone who doesn't quite fit simply because they felt they
were the best of a bad bunch. And if they don't like you, it's easy enough to
say "sorry, no positions are currently available".

~~~
nandemo
> _Find someone who works for the company (on their website, or linked-in,
> whatever). Tell them who you are, and ask if there 's any jobs available.
> They'll probably send you to a hiring manager_

Have you actually tried that? Did it work?

I tried getting an introduction 2 foreign tech companies in Japan. One from an
ex-coworker and another from a friend of a friend. In both cases the position
was not in their team, and they told me there was nothing they could do for
me, I'd have to apply by sending my resume via the company's website. Which I
did, and then got no response.

And these were people I know and am in good terms with, e.g. I have met
person1 several times since he left the company, and have been to person2's
place. I wouldn't even bother contacting a random person.

To be fair, I have managed to get introductions at 2 other companies, but in
both cases they weren't highly-sought tech companies.

~~~
tonyarkles
My (admittedly limited, but not null) experience with Japanese business
culture suggests that things may be a bit different there. From my
understanding, it takes a very long time for trust between businesses (in my
case), or between businesses and employees to be forged. The people you talked
to may not have had enough pull yet to make anything happen outside of their
own teams.

~~~
nandemo
Sorry if it wasn't clear, but I'm talking specifically about Japanese branches
of _foreign_ tech companies like Google and Facebook (though the actual
companies were different).

> My (admittedly limited, but not null) experience with Japanese business
> culture suggests that things may be a bit different there.

On the contrary, if a Japanese company is hiring and I know someone who works
there then I'm 99% sure my resume won't be redirected to /dev/null. Very
likely I'll get an interview, otherwise at least a polite but human-written
refusal letter.

~~~
wisty
As I said, the less broken the recruitment process, and the more desirable the
company, the harder it is to create a backdoor.

For most companies, recruitment is so broken that a lot of managers will try
to hire staff in a way which avoids the formal recruitment process.

------
_mulder_
Some other Ideas:

\- Find out some info about someone influential in the company you want to
work for, camp outside their office, follow them home, then make a big design
of the company logo (slightly improved) on their front lawn, using gasoline,
and set it on fire! It'll be memorable, take time and effort and show a
penchant for fun.

\- Inception, make them think that it was their idea to hire you. Ref: Darren
Brown/Inception

~~~
shrikant
You left out throwing a rock through their window with your CV wrapped around
it. And changing their desktop wallpaper to an image of you doing something
funny. And modify their cellphone ringtone to a musical piece of you singing
"Hire me maybe!".

(Restraining orders and getting hired are the same thing, right?)

------
Jdfmiller
I got the job I have now from meeting the CEO of the company on a train to
London. He was sat next to me and saw me applying for a job at one of his
competitors & politely asked me what I thought I was doing. After 40 minutes
of me showing him my C.V, my university work and explaining why I really
wanted my job in digital marketing, he offered me an interview for an
internship.

Of course I had to impress him enough to get the internship and impress the
company enough to work there full time now, but it was meeting the CEO that
got me the opportunity in the first place. I thank that random moment of pure
chance for making that connection.

Connections are great, but most of us don't have them from the get go. So I
guess we have to make them.

I love this article though. Deffo something I'd do if I was trying to break
into an industry or area where I know no one.

~~~
dystroy
Being lucky is hardly a strategy, though.

~~~
_mulder_
Unless Jdfmiller was sitting next to the CEO on a train, applying for a job
with a rival competitor in his clear view... by design!

------
joelrunyon
I'm surprised they didn't recommend the best job hack of all: work for free.

Seriously, find some business you're interested in (less than 10-20 employees
ideally), work directly for/with the CEO or main decision maker and work for
free for 3 months. Entrench yourself in their business & make yourself
indispensable. THEN, when your time comes up to leave, they're not only going
to feel the pain of physically missing you, but you'll also have LEVERAGE so
you can actually negotiate a salary (rather than just taking whatever they
give you).

~~~
pathy
I personally find it unprofessional to work for free. If you do not create
enough value to warrant at least minimum wage, the company shouldn't bother
hiring you in the first place. Working for free is exploitative and skews the
job market.

That said, your strategy may work, making yourself indispensable is a
brilliant strategy in general but how will you live for those three months?
Especially if you are just out of school or similar. I am also not sure how it
will affect your salary - compared to a person who would get hired (with a
salary) straight away.

~~~
coolsunglasses
Rich people / daddy pays for my cellphone/car/rent tactic.

People find it distasteful because they can't "compete" on that level. Having
even just the basics covered indefinitely goes a long way, especially if
you're actually working on a career of any sort. Opens up unpaid internships
and fun little entrepeneurial experiments that wouldn't be possible if you had
to work a paying 9-5 to cover the rent.

I know this because there were tactics I had to pass up because I've had to
pay my way (food, rent, bills, the works) since I was 17.

~~~
pathy
This is very true. If you have the possibility to do entrepreneurial
experiments or similar, do it! I don't wish to begrudge anyone that, I am of
the opinion that you should just any competitive advantage you have in your
favour. Be it rich parents or a very creative mind. It is unfair, for those
who can't 'compete' in that advantage but that is life I guess?

But I still believe unpaid internships/work for free is a bad thing, with a
few exceptions such as unpaid internships in exchange for college credits. It
basically benefits no one in the long run. Not companies, not the economy, not
the individuals.

~~~
king_jester
> This is very true. If you have the possibility to do entrepreneurial
> experiments or similar, do it! I don't wish to begrudge anyone that, I am of
> the opinion that you should just any competitive advantage you have in your
> favour. Be it rich parents or a very creative mind. It is unfair, for those
> who can't 'compete' in that advantage but that is life I guess?

Oddly enough this is a form of using existing connections and social networks
to find work. You are simply using resources that aren't directly related to
the company you are working for.

That said, you are displacing workers who do not have existing wealth and
family connections to back their life. They cannot reasonably work for free
and compete with your existing resources/wealth/support. Doing this isn't
ethical and promote systemic unemployment of those who cannot work for low
wage or free.

------
freework
I think if you find yourself in a situation where you're baking a cake to get
a job as anything other than a bakery chef, you need to rethink your life.

~~~
jonnathanson
People are starting to take the whole "creative resume" thing to absurd
extremes. But there's a valid point hidden in this blog post, which is to say,
standing out from the crowd isn't easy. Startups need people with hustle, and
showing some hustle isn't a bad thing.

Hustle doesn't necessarily imply competence, however, which is why she
suggests #3 ("Show them you can do the job").

But the thing people miss about gimmicks is that they have to be _relevant_ :
to you, to the job, to the company. Gimmicks for gimmicks' sake (logo drawing,
cake baking, etc.) are just silly.

~~~
anonymoushn
Baking a cake probably makes a candidate stand out about as much as bothering
to write a cover letter. It might be more effort, though.

~~~
scrabble
I very rarely write cover letters, but I do remember getting an interview once
and being told specifically that they weren't impressed by my resume but loved
my cover letter.

Even after that I still rarely take the time to do it.

~~~
jonnathanson
N = 1, but whenever I've hired, I've definitely noticed cover letters, or lack
thereof. Not bothering with a cover letter tells the hiring manager that you
are just shotgunning resumes out there and didn't spend too much time thinking
about the company fit.

In fact, so few people seem to write cover letters these days -- let alone
compelling ones -- that they can be a strategic differentiator in their own
right.

------
jdmitch
If you "do something that obviously took a lot of effort and time" doesn't
that just make an employer think that you are a bit desperate, and sacrifice
any leverage you might have at a later point in negotiations?

~~~
edent
No. It shows you care. Would you send in a CV with spelling mistakes? No. So
why not spend some time and energy making your application stand out?

------
Nursie
Find job listings, write a professional looking resume, apply for job, no?

I've never got a job through connections, always through listings and agents,
and I've done pretty well out of it. Is this no longer good enough?

------
bane
Apply for lots and lots and lots of jobs. Make applying for jobs your job. The
few times I didn't use a connection to get a job I probably applied to
somewhere between 50-100 positions that I thought I might like.

Don't stop applying just because you get an interview. I walked away from a
number of good jobs because I didn't like the people I interviewed with.
Having more applications out there meant I didn't have to start the pipeline
up again.

Don't give up on places that don't hire you within a couple weeks. In those
cases where I did get a job this way, it was usually one of the earlier
applications a month prior where I took that position. Some places, even fast
and nimble startup like companies might take a few months to reach back.

Google usually takes among the longest in my experience. Months after I start
my job search they finally get back to me.

------
zachrose
4: Go on Craigslist. Find somebody who wants something done. Tell them you can
do it. Take their money and try to do the thing.

~~~
lrem
Are you sure you got the order right?

------
jmsbrwr
As someone who is entering the job market for the first time with no
connections to speak of, this was a nice read. I just wish it had been longer.

I think the hard part is coming up with an way of setting yourself apart. I
partially agree with other readers that baking a cake doesn't make much sense,
but the idea still holds. With so many resumes to go through, pretty much
anything that doesn't get you trashed immediately is good.

~~~
jasonlotito
> I think the hard part is coming up with an way of setting yourself apart

Do stuff.

It's really as simple as that. Do stuff. And by stuff, I mean stuff beyond
homework.

So when I ask what have you done, you can share stuff with me.

If you don't do anything, why would I hire you?

------
lysol
As soon as I read she got her inspiration from a scripted reality show, I
closed the page.

~~~
doug4hn
I and my wife posted comments to the author's blog and the comments were
deleted.

------
pseut
I'd find this advice a lot more credible if it were accompanied by examples of
it actually working. If someone spent a long time on some irrelevant GPS
drawing of a logo it would creep me out.

------
mathgladiator
OR, develop your skills such that you pass through their interview with no
problem.

