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At 20y you will do better reaching out to people who respect you, especially people who were more junior that are now advanced in their careers, and see if they

At 20y you will do better reaching out to people who respect you, especially people who were more junior that are now advanced in their careers, and see if they know of opportunities. While you might get something from a recruiter still, they usually don’t fill senior roles from cold outreach on LinkedIn. It happens but usually even then it’s a reference from someone you worked with in the past.

jghn 3y ago
It's this. At this stage in one's career you're much better off relying on your personal network than anything else. The last few times I was looking 100% of my conversations were either people I knew or from intros by people I knew.
xtracto 3y ago
This. My current job I found vía linkedin, but from someone I would had never imagined . After the previous company I was at, burned to the ground (figuratively... kind of) I wrote a short text in linkedin saying that I was looking for a new job. A guy I've barely met (he is cofounder/ceo of a friend of mine who is CTO at their startup) wrote to me via LI message telling me about someone (VC fund with new project) he knew was looking for a CTO. Turns out I knew them from before, and my friends co-founder referred me, so I got in easy. Point is, you write in linkedin not only for recruiters. Actually in my experience, recruiters are mostly useless and waste of time for candidates. Instead you write there so that your network and extended network see you, and your work search get mor reach.
g4zj 3y ago
I feel like this is probably the best approach for me. I've maintained connections on LinkedIn with people I've worked with, many of whom would likely be able to help me find work. Perhaps I'll reach out to a few of them and just see what they have going on. :) Thanks for the comment.
- fnordpiglet 3y ago
  Good luck! I wouldn’t just reach out to a few I’d reach out to everyone that you know had a positive view of your work and abilities. Lead with a normal catching up and ask if they want to meet on zoom or something. Then in that conversation lead into your search. Prioritize in small batches to keep your sanity, weighting by their proximity to things you want to be doing (employers, tech, domains, etc). Go in knowing the role you want and other constraints (remote, etc) and have answers … “I don’t know whatever you’ve got” isn’t the right way to start a discussion. When negotiating you always should be the first one to lay out what you need. Whoever offers something first establishes a ceiling, and the respondent establishes the floor. You should always be the one setting the ceiling. Also, I would suggest once a year as you near or pass your work anniversary do it again. First this makes sure you don’t end up settling due to inertia, keeps you sharp in terms of what’s out there, and keeps your network robust. In those annual revisits you don’t have to have a goal, it can just be catching up and see what others are doing. Invariably folks will offer stuff along the way and how you feel about it tells you whether you’re ready to move on.
  - g4zj 3y ago
    I think this is really good advice. Everything you've said makes a lot of sense. I'll have to take stock of my connections and consider who among them I think might really have a positive view of my work and our previous interactions. I'm not the most social person and struggle to establish meaningful connections with people, but I'm confident that there are a handful of people who have appreciated working with me and would recommend me for positions that open up around them. I've already settled due to inertia, but it's a hole I can dig myself out of with enough effort. I think it'll mostly just require a better understanding of what I am looking for, beyond just something new, challenging, and fulfilling. But I'll have to do some more thinking on that end. Thanks for your comment. :) I really appreciate it.

jghn 3y ago

It's this. At this stage in one's career you're much better off relying on your personal network than anything else. The last few times I was looking 100% of my conversations were either people I knew or from intros by people I knew.

xtracto 3y ago

This. My current job I found vía linkedin, but from someone I would had never imagined . After the previous company I was at, burned to the ground (figuratively... kind of) I wrote a short text in linkedin saying that I was looking for a new job. A guy I've barely met (he is cofounder/ceo of a friend of mine who is CTO at their startup) wrote to me via LI message telling me about someone (VC fund with new project) he knew was looking for a CTO. Turns out I knew them from before, and my friends co-founder referred me, so I got in easy. Point is, you write in linkedin not only for recruiters. Actually in my experience, recruiters are mostly useless and waste of time for candidates. Instead you write there so that your network and extended network see you, and your work search get mor reach.

g4zj 3y ago

I feel like this is probably the best approach for me. I've maintained connections on LinkedIn with people I've worked with, many of whom would likely be able to help me find work. Perhaps I'll reach out to a few of them and just see what they have going on. :) Thanks for the comment.

fnordpiglet 3y ago
Good luck! I wouldn’t just reach out to a few I’d reach out to everyone that you know had a positive view of your work and abilities. Lead with a normal catching up and ask if they want to meet on zoom or something. Then in that conversation lead into your search. Prioritize in small batches to keep your sanity, weighting by their proximity to things you want to be doing (employers, tech, domains, etc). Go in knowing the role you want and other constraints (remote, etc) and have answers … “I don’t know whatever you’ve got” isn’t the right way to start a discussion. When negotiating you always should be the first one to lay out what you need. Whoever offers something first establishes a ceiling, and the respondent establishes the floor. You should always be the one setting the ceiling. Also, I would suggest once a year as you near or pass your work anniversary do it again. First this makes sure you don’t end up settling due to inertia, keeps you sharp in terms of what’s out there, and keeps your network robust. In those annual revisits you don’t have to have a goal, it can just be catching up and see what others are doing. Invariably folks will offer stuff along the way and how you feel about it tells you whether you’re ready to move on.
- g4zj 3y ago
  I think this is really good advice. Everything you've said makes a lot of sense. I'll have to take stock of my connections and consider who among them I think might really have a positive view of my work and our previous interactions. I'm not the most social person and struggle to establish meaningful connections with people, but I'm confident that there are a handful of people who have appreciated working with me and would recommend me for positions that open up around them. I've already settled due to inertia, but it's a hole I can dig myself out of with enough effort. I think it'll mostly just require a better understanding of what I am looking for, beyond just something new, challenging, and fulfilling. But I'll have to do some more thinking on that end. Thanks for your comment. :) I really appreciate it.