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If you're still sending in resumes cold you're doing it wrong. You need to either apply through connections or turn "cold" job postings into warm leads by find

If you're still sending in resumes cold you're doing it wrong. You need to either apply through connections or turn "cold" job postings into warm leads by finding someone in the company to refer you. How? You can find people on Twitter, LinkedIn, I've even found employees of companies I'm interested in on HN and reached out to them to establish rapport and get interviews. Get creative. I've also written blog posts about companies I'm interested in that lead to job opportunities.

seiferteric 8y ago
Even jobs I got through connections I still had to send in a resume.
- superhuzza 8y ago
  In my experience, if you're coming in through a contact, the resume is just a formality at that point. Make sure that you tick all the boxes, basically due diligence.
BMorearty 8y ago
It's not that black & white. It's fine to use both paths to a job. 26 of my 30 years in software were at jobs I applied to cold, with no leads or connections.
nikhizzle 8y ago
Strongly disagree. I got my first job at apple, and a job at another unicorn by cold submission. I find as an engineer, cold submission on a website will often get me in contact with a recruiter quicker than any other method.
- olegious 8y ago
  My experience has been the opposite- I haven't had a job via a cold application since I started in tech (2009). Maybe because I'm not an engineer.
- pmiller2 8y ago
  What’s the response rate on your resume? Mine was pretty abysmal in my last job search, and I don’t really know what the issue is. Maybe it’s my nice, PDF formatting, or maybe it’s the content; I just have no way of telling.
- jrockway 8y ago
  My experience is similar to yours. I found a couple jobs I was interested in the last time I did a search. I submitted my plain-text resume with no buzzwords (other than maybe "Go") and immediately heard back from both. My interviews were done within a week or two. I took one of the jobs. My advice for engineering candidates with some experience is to just talk about your past work in paragraph form. If Docker or whatever was an important part of your work, it will probably come up. If it's not mentioned, you're probably not the expert in that area that they're looking for. Saves everyone some time.
gav 8y ago
Couldn’t agree more. A long time ago somebody recommended Nick Corcodilos‘ book, “Ask The Headhunter“, and it changed the way I thought about job hunting. There’s a lot of great resouces on his site: https://www.asktheheadhunter.com https://www.asktheheadhunter.com
tvanantwerp 8y ago
Resumes: necessary, but insufficient.
the_jeremy 8y ago
Both of my jobs (though you can tell how new I am to the field from that number) have been cold submissions.

seiferteric 8y ago

Even jobs I got through connections I still had to send in a resume.

superhuzza 8y ago
In my experience, if you're coming in through a contact, the resume is just a formality at that point. Make sure that you tick all the boxes, basically due diligence.

BMorearty 8y ago

It's not that black & white. It's fine to use both paths to a job. 26 of my 30 years in software were at jobs I applied to cold, with no leads or connections.

nikhizzle 8y ago

Strongly disagree. I got my first job at apple, and a job at another unicorn by cold submission. I find as an engineer, cold submission on a website will often get me in contact with a recruiter quicker than any other method.

olegious 8y ago
My experience has been the opposite- I haven't had a job via a cold application since I started in tech (2009). Maybe because I'm not an engineer.
pmiller2 8y ago
What’s the response rate on your resume? Mine was pretty abysmal in my last job search, and I don’t really know what the issue is. Maybe it’s my nice, PDF formatting, or maybe it’s the content; I just have no way of telling.
jrockway 8y ago
My experience is similar to yours. I found a couple jobs I was interested in the last time I did a search. I submitted my plain-text resume with no buzzwords (other than maybe "Go") and immediately heard back from both. My interviews were done within a week or two. I took one of the jobs. My advice for engineering candidates with some experience is to just talk about your past work in paragraph form. If Docker or whatever was an important part of your work, it will probably come up. If it's not mentioned, you're probably not the expert in that area that they're looking for. Saves everyone some time.

gav 8y ago

Couldn’t agree more. A long time ago somebody recommended Nick Corcodilos‘ book, “Ask The Headhunter“, and it changed the way I thought about job hunting. There’s a lot of great resouces on his site: https://www.asktheheadhunter.com https://www.asktheheadhunter.com

tvanantwerp 8y ago

Resumes: necessary, but insufficient.

the_jeremy 8y ago

Both of my jobs (though you can tell how new I am to the field from that number) have been cold submissions.