A beginner's guide and reading list to jobhunting and networking

K

kitlolz123

Pigeon
Wow first of all thank you redbeard for bringing this gold thread back, swear I had seen this earlier last year but never went and look.. Secondly, thanks to Thomas I will also be reading all the links as well! This is freaking gold for someone like me who is about to graduate with a business degree! Much thanks!
 
T

tonysoprano

Sparrow
Thanks for this amazing info man.

I've been stuck in a rut for the past month as a recent graduate looking for his first real job, and knew there was a better way to do this other than just applying blindly to job postings on indeed.

All the other resources online advise not to take a proactive approach and I got sucked into their shitty advice. "You'll be bothering the hiring manager, they have a system in place for a reason, yada yada." BULLSHIT. You're doing the hiring manager a huge favor by cutting out the middlemen who probably have no idea what it takes to succeed in your given field. Sure there will be the occasional office drone who will shun you for not following procedure, but fuck em. If you can prove to the hiring manger that you can solve their problems and you're a good fit, you've done them a service by filling the position for them. They no longer have to worry about it.

When I was blindly applying to jobs and waiting to hear back, I had a few interviews but they were at low quality companies and startups who expected you to put 60 hours in a week for shit pay. I want a 9-5 clock-in, clock-out type of job so I can work on my business after hours. Something where I can keep my head down, do good work, and pay my bills so I can move out of my parent's basement.

So I said fuck it and started reaching out to some friend and family contacts over the past few days and now have a couple good leads for the exact type of position I've been looking for.

What has worked for me so far is searching on LinkedIn for people I have formed any semblance of relationship with in the past (sports teams, school, grew up in the same town, alumni, family friends, anything), then going to their company's job board and checking if there's an open position in the role I'm interested in. If there is, I reach out to them directly and ask them about the hiring process, how they like working there, and telling them that I was interested in so-and-so position. Most of them offered to pass along my information to the hiring manager and put a good word in if they could. Even if there isn't an open position at their company, I'm still going to reach out and see where it goes, if they know anyone, etc.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg, the first few people I've reached out to. Going to do this hard for a month and if I don't have a job by December I'd be very surprised.

I'll keep you updated.
 
The Man w/ the Golden Gun

The Man w/ the Golden Gun

Kingfisher
Gold Member
I work with a public figure (whom I will not name) who writes his copy and email chains with the idea that people everywhere are too busy to realize your value, so you have to go out there and raise your value for them. Just as you wrote in your intro post.

He has been very successful with it in business. Of course, he's not the only one to use this idea, but more social proof for your thread!
 
Thomas the Rhymer

Thomas the Rhymer

Ostrich
Gold Member
tonysoprano said:
then going to their company's job board and checking if there's an open position in the role I'm interested in.
Click to expand...

Bear in mind that some of the best job opportunities are not advertised, and sometimes it's easier to get a job that's about to become available as opposed to one that is now openly advertised.

Don't scratch out companies just because they don't have jobs advertised. If it's a good company to work for, go ahead and contact them if only to find out if they will have opportunities available for you in the near future, even if not right now. You still might end up with a job offer on the spot, because if you are the right person at the right time at the right place, why would anyone bother going through a recruitment process when you are already on offer?
 
MaceTyrell

MaceTyrell

Pelican
This thread is amazing. Inspired me to just show up at a bar I had applied to on Craigslist earlier this week, saying I applied for a job there and that I wanted to put a face to the application.

Eventually spoke with a manager who told me that if I applied, HR should get back to me by Monday. I subsciously LOLed, knowing that that was his way of indirectly just passing me to a system that will overlook me.

But man, do I feel better about just taking charge.
 
Thomas the Rhymer

Thomas the Rhymer

Ostrich
Gold Member
MaceTyrell said:
This thread is amazing. Inspired me to just show up at a bar I had applied to on Craigslist earlier this week, saying I applied for a job there and that I wanted to put a face to the application.

Eventually spoke with a manager who told me that if I applied, HR should get back to me by Monday. I subsciously LOLed, knowing that that was his way of indirectly just passing me to a system that will overlook me.

But man, do I feel better about just taking charge.
Click to expand...

Great work! If you do get through to the interview, the guy already knows your face and that you have initiative. If not, you at least scratched off a lousy workplace from your list (i.e. the manager doesn't care enough about the place to get an obvious go-getter like you onto his team).
 
T

tonysoprano

Sparrow
Thomas the Rhymer said:
tonysoprano said:
then going to their company's job board and checking if there's an open position in the role I'm interested in.
Click to expand...

Bear in mind that some of the best job opportunities are not advertised, and sometimes it's easier to get a job that's about to become available as opposed to one that is now openly advertised.

Don't scratch out companies just because they don't have jobs advertised. If it's a good company to work for, go ahead and contact them if only to find out if they will have opportunities available for you in the near future, even if not right now. You still might end up with a job offer on the spot, because if you are the right person at the right time at the right place, why would anyone bother going through a recruitment process when you are already on offer?
Click to expand...

Yeah good point, definitely not going to limit myself to just companies with openings. My network is much larger than I thought so I've just scratched the surface really.

I have 3 interviews set up for next week so we'll see how that goes. Might not be unemployed for long.
 
wojak

wojak

Pigeon
How does one go about collecting contact information for purposes of "cold-calling?"

I'm currently looking to transition from corporate finance into banking, which seems to be a highly nepotistic and relationship-heavy field. I've been out of school for a couple years and have relevant experience in a fairly competitive development program, so I feel confident about my resume/technical ability. It's the networking that will be the sticking point for me.

I come from a large university, and I'm hoping to leverage our alumni base to assist in my search for more information/potential opportunities. The university, believe it or not, has no centrally-managed directory to get in contact with alumni. There are a couple LinkedIn groups for alumni, but I haven't really used LinkedIn in the past, so I'm not able to see any of the members or where they work (you can only reach out to people with whom you share mutual friends, it seems). How can I find alumni working in my target field to cold call?

Any guidance, if anyone has been through this, would be fantastic.

Side note: It seems like many links from older posts, for example those at the top of this thread, are now broken. Is this a problem for others as well?
 
redbeard

redbeard

Hummingbird
Catholic
Gold Member
wojak said:
How does one go about collecting contact information for purposes of "cold-calling?"

I'm currently looking to transition from corporate finance into banking, which seems to be a highly nepotistic and relationship-heavy field. I've been out of school for a couple years and have relevant experience in a fairly competitive development program, so I feel confident about my resume/technical ability. It's the networking that will be the sticking point for me.

I come from a large university, and I'm hoping to leverage our alumni base to assist in my search for more information/potential opportunities. The university, believe it or not, has no centrally-managed directory to get in contact with alumni. There are a couple LinkedIn groups for alumni, but I haven't really used LinkedIn in the past, so I'm not able to see any of the members or where they work (you can only reach out to people with whom you share mutual friends, it seems). How can I find alumni working in my target field to cold call?

Any guidance, if anyone has been through this, would be fantastic.

Side note: It seems like many links from older posts, for example those at the top of this thread, are now broken. Is this a problem for others as well?
Click to expand...
If I recall correctly, LinkedIn Premium gives you people's contact information (including phone numbers) and allows you to send them InMails as well. If you're taking the job hung seriously, that would be the way to go.

However, make sure you exhaust your nearby connections first before you start picking up the phone. It's possible someone around you would be able to help out, which is much easier than cold calling.
 
wojak

wojak

Pigeon
redbeard said:
If I recall correctly, LinkedIn Premium gives you people's contact information (including phone numbers) and allows you to send them InMails as well. If you're taking the job hung seriously, that would be the way to go.

However, make sure you exhaust your nearby connections first before you start picking up the phone. It's possible someone around you would be able to help out, which is much easier than cold calling.
Click to expand...

I see that LinkedIn Premium is available for a 30 day free trial. Once I figure out my approach, I'll use this to search for alumni in my targeted field. Thanks for the tip.
 
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