How I was able to land multiple interviews without ever filling out a job application
Since publishing my last few articles about job hunting as a developer, the biggest response I have received is:
How did you get so many offers to interview if you weren’t applying?
So here I am now, giving away my secret sauce. The answer is simple: networking. I have built my professional network in a few different ways but always with one umbrella theme: Give as much as you can, when you can.
In Person Events:
When I was starting out in tech, I didn’t have a lot to offer in terms of technical skills, but I offered what I could, when I could. Pre-pandmic, I started becoming a regular attendee of a few local meetups, and I put myself out there and volunteered to help with easy things. Coatcheck, setup, creating google events and docs and sheets, things that were accessible to me when I wasn’t feeling like a real developer. Volunteer organizations always need a hand, and it’s the boring unskilled stuff that often gets left behind for the busiest person to manage. If you can prove yourself to these people as a dependable and positive volunteer, you are immediately opening doors for yourself.
Online Persona:
I personally know nothing about marketing and social media, and I don’t pretend to. I started writing articles at the start of the pandemic simply because I was having a lot of friends reach out with the same questions and it was simply a time saver to publish articles. My three guiding principles are as follows:
Be authentic:
The world isn’t all sunshines and roses and I think most people are tired of toxic positivity.
Be consistent:
You don’t have to post every day, but try to find a cadence that works for your schedule. I used to post every three months and now I try to release something once a month. This is beneficial for the almighty social media algorithms but I personal just like holding myself accountable in my own communities.
Be focused:
Don’t try to cover everything under the sun. A friend in marketing once told me to focus on 2 causes and build from there. One day I would like to do more technical writing, but right now I recognize I am stronger and more knowledgable about career advising so until I run out of things to talk about I am going to try to write on topics that I think will really benefit others. One day I’ll be a more experienced dev and then maybe I’ll have something new and exciting to post about.
Networking is about give and take
And that brings us back to where we started: contribute what you can, when you can. Everyone is going to have times of limited capacity and other times of wide open availability. If you’ve been following me for a while, you may have seen a post I made last year about saying no to one-on-one meetings. While I really loved making those connections, I was rapidly burning myself out and really needed to pull back for my own sake. These days I am feeling more able to have conversations, but I am now more aware about what my personal capacity really is.
tldr;
You aren’t going to be able to give back 100% of the time, and that is expected. You are also going to go through times of need when you aren’t in a place to give and you will need to lean on your network for support. I have made some amazing connections in my tech communities over the past three years, both online and in person, and I have helped and have been helped. I have watched people go from totally new to tech to becoming teachers and mentors themselves and it is so rewarding.
Be open minded, be excited, and build community on your own terms. Networking is one of (if not the) best way to grow your career and find new opportunities, so there is no better time than right now to get involved.
