`` title: How to find a job in tech? last_modification_date: 2025/01/18 creation_date: 2025/01/18 output_path: "/html/post/find_a_job.html" //status: draft summary: Trying to find myself a job in a compagny in which I will find fullfilment, I provide thoughs about the process. `` --- Edito The localisation in which I am is surely different from yours, in order to give you as useful information and ideas for you, I will write about the general realization I had. This article is destinated for programmers looking for a job and not knowing how and where to search. In general this is the result of not having the credentials or skills to set them apart from others. Lack of graduation in the field, lack of previous working experiences, or anything that will make compagnies skipping your profile. It can be very hard Depending of the computing field you choose, find a job can be hard. Realizing that is key because you have to be prepared to 1. not find it in the next month 2. having to spend time to pass asked examens. This is very important because it is easy to feel depress if the majority of the jobs you see are not a good fit for you for whatever reasons. But don't feel discouraged and start to act to pass this hard time. Your future job is key for your life, don't miss it We work more during our life than we don't, so work is a very important aspect of our life. Realizing that this is serious stuff will permit you to be happy in general. Everyone have their own goals so I won't be very specific, but you must understand what you want in your job. I am talking about the general aspect of it. For better understanding I will persona someone which have a primary goal of being a highly technical person at the end of his career, his next job must challenge him as much as possible and permit him to progress, having better people than him around him is key, because of that he wants to gain as much as knowledge in his future job as possible. If in contrast the job he founds is easy and never challenge him, it will be a waste of his time and makes him unhappy. So your next step is to: Assert what you really want The easiest way to do so is by starting to write about it. Keep a way to write for the time you're searching for a job, surely some revelations will come from that. Why they're not for you Several reason why you can't apply for them: 1. The compagny mantra is not aligned with yours. 2. You don't have the required skills for the application. 3. The localization is not near the place your are. 4. The computing field is not the one you want. 5. The salary is too low. Knows you want it The worse thing when you try to find a job is to search anything, maybe this is because you have to pay your bills and have no possibility to wait. This is understandable but in my experience I think we have all solutions to avoid try to pick anything and apply for most jobs. I advice to try to find ways to be able to wait one month, it can be on the form of letting go something you have to pay every month and can't anymore, this is ok to let it go for some time. Which takes me on the next thing: Survive financially If it wasn't for money we would all do our own thing which interest us, so money is the primary goal for all of us, without jobs we would not be able to survive for life. Being unemployed for some time is then a set of emotional distress: stress, fear and more. Preparing for this not usual time is key, because money is the majority of the preoccupation during that time, you must be prepared and find ways to survive this time in that regards. Unemployment program Most countries have these cellules for people which don't have jobs and can be of very great helps to survive for quite some times depending of your work past. This is the very best and easiest way to survive this time financially. Cut everything not needed Stopping your Netflix subscription will maybe hurt you, but take in mind that all your cuts will be temporarily, you may even found out that you don't need it. Analyze your spent by finding a free way to do so, your bank may have a way to do it with categories, graphs and more, use spreadsheets (banks usually can produce it for you) or other softwares which can be free, I have used `Wallet` which was great but it fails time to time to synchronize with my bank. Short missions Finding small mission which can support your earnings, take in mind that it could be unucessary if you are on a unemployment program, because they deduc your earnings, I advice you to prefer to use your time to own your skills if you can avoid this one. Recognize the usual skill needed but you don't have [#1]_ After several jobs you see, you will start to see a specific redundant skill you don't have. Recognize it. Start learning it or earn an understanding of it The best is to start to learn it with a small project, that way you will have an understanding of what it is and can talk about it on the technical side. More, you will be able to show what you made. Start a new project If you're are serious about programming, I think you should have a personal side project to work on, which is motivating and permit to learn the skills you have previously targeted [#1]. Resume When it comes to find a new job, a resume is mandatory. I think most candidate will not give extra care to details when it comes to them, including me, but if you think about it, what will a person which will recruit will do first? The only way to demark from other is by how you write your CV. Some of it is not modifyable, like your graduations. But the way you write every details of it matter. The person hiring will typically review fifty resume in a short amount of time, when a human do things repeateadly it will start to try to find pattern in the thing. On a resume it will be a specific details that will caught his attention, it could be something he want to target or really nothing. If his brain see something different than the other resume, the resume will catch during a short time his attention. When you have it, your resume must be well design to use this attention: be very short and clear on what you can bring to them. Target your resume You have to modify your resume according to the compagny you target. Check most boxes Now you know what you are lacking in the job you find interest and Get a sense of the hiring process Usually compagnies have a similar hiring process, which can be time consuming, stressfull and more. Being prepared of that makes it easier for you and permit you to give a better impression. This information is usually hidden on the job application but from my experience this is always a service in which they will be able to review a set of coding exercices ranked by the service, something similar to "https://leetcode.com/"(leetcode.com). You can start to do 15 min of Leetcode per day in order to familiarize with the process. The goal is to reduce the stress during the hiring process in order to avoid any clunkyness you may present because of that. Provide small time to search like a normal person Allocate a small time to keep looking applications job on usual job searching platforms (Linkedin and more). Avoid compulsive application Most job application will tell the required skills they can't make compromise for, if you don't have one of them you can still try but if you don't just don't apply, because 1. you will loose energy for nothing 2. compagnies can "talk" each other and if your resume comes and has nothing to do with what they are looking for, you can be black listed for other job applications. Refrain yoursef to apply to a job if the details mostly don't fit what you want. Consider internship Internship permit to be more easily "hired" from serious compagnies, because if someone has the skills to apply for a real job in them, he will not want them. That way you are not in concurency from them when you apply. Usually internship will permit flexible time consacred to them, I have seen from 10h/week to 30h/week. You may think that this is wasting your time, but if the work is challenging, it can permit you to learn skills you would never be able to learn alone, may be because of the products they are making or something else. You need keywords to search for compagnies Because famous platforms are saturated from applicants, you want to find ways to sneak behind the lines in order to gain a bit of visibility. Target small compagnies Small compagnies will not hire as easily as a big compagnies, because financial expenses are counted. Which means that they will potentially go to hiring plaforms when they know they need someone. If you apply before that, then you have big chances that they will keep your profile if it fit their potential future needs. So you will have to look for them in unconventional ways Use web searchers extensively Web searchers are powerfull technology to be able to find what you need, you need to know how to search though. Rassemble keywords You need to put yourself in the shoes of the compagny. Make a profile of your ideal compagny(ies) Ask yourself these questions: 1. Which size is the compagny? . Who will search for new candidates? . Where will he looking for? Then write keywords which comes to your mind and put them inside a text file in order to be able to compose web search with them. Keep a trace of your web search You must keep all the keywords combinaison inside a text file, you will keep the ones that works _and_ the ones that does not, that way you avoid wasting times later for unfructufull searchs. Here is an example: ``` Keywords =============== POOL -- hiring Headcount growth Building a team Actively searching Open positions Onboarding Talent-seeking Sourcing Scaling Expanding Staffing Recruiting Hiring -- skills Generalist Versatile Flexible Language-agnostic Intrinsic Systematic Architectural Conceptual -- compagny target Startup Indie Microbusiness Compact Tightly-knit Scrappy Hands-on -- environment Lean =============== GOOD =============== BAD ``` Ommit specific domains We don't want to search inside a hiring platform, so we want to ommit them: `-site:linkedin.com`. All web searchers use this token to ommit them. Use different ones Google duckduckgo and others. Use web search's settings Change everything that matter: from time, etc. Repeat the process frequently Finding new keywords is key to have new searchs content, of course it will be harder to find the more you find ones, but a target of one good keyword is a good one in my opinion. It will force you to think differently when you try to be in the place of the hiring persone. Read Hiring domain articles In order to know what a hiring person is looking for, you must first understand how they are taught to find someone. This is more inclined to big compagnies, as small ones will surely not have specialized person even if they can hired "chasseur de tete". Use LLM As this is the main way it works, LLM can help in order to find correct words, this is especially true if you're not a native english speaker and look for an english compagny.