Busy week wrapping up interviews with a great outcome! A total of 44 job applications over the past ~8 weeks.
The final tally: 44 companies, 12 interview processes, 5 offers.
Referrals and networking will 100% increase your chance of getting an interview. Yes, having a relevant background will help of course. But how you tell your story, how you talk about the impact you've had and CAN have, and the ambition you bring to a role will absolutely get you advancing through an interview process.
TL;DR: your network matters, and so does your storytelling.
Here's how it all worked out:
19 applications didn't even get a phone call. Part way through I shifted my focus, revamped my LinkedIn profile, which stopped the auto-rejections. A small handful of these were referrals, most were cold "apply with LinkedIn" submissions, all with a customized resume and cover letter.
13 companies didn't reject me, but didn't call either. Mix of Sales Engineer, Solution Engineer, and Developer Advocate roles. In many cases, I've been (or currently am) a user of their products. Their loss.
The remaining companies, 12 of them, worked out this way:
2 companies sent rejections part way through (you always burn a few interviews getting back into the pace of telling your story and figuring out what you want)
I withdrew from 4 companies after at least one phone call:
- One company found me through my "open to work" post.
- One company, I had done a cold apply to back in July but it took them 8 weeks to call me and by then wasn't a good fit for what I had re-focused toward as a career goal.
- Another was a referral but I already had offers coming in and they were just getting started with the process so I withdrew.
- The last was a referral but neither the company nor I could figure out how I would fit into what the company needed. (hey, sometimes smaller startups haven't really thought things through when they set up a job post)
Of the remaining 6:
- Company 1 one was just a part-time advisory role that is delayed until 2025 that I may or may not help out with some career curriculum in the future. I had cold-applied, but had colleagues there who submitted a referral after the fact.
Company 2, the hiring manager was a previous manager of mine.
Company 3, I've been connected with the hiring manager for a while, cold applied, and then DM'd them. They got the ball rolling.
Company 4, I cold applied, but bugged the recruiter until they called me, because the company was full of people I'd worked with at a previous job. Several of those people vouched for me along the way. (thank you!!)
Company 5, I cold applied and found one of the team members in a mutual Slack community and asked them to make a referral after the fact.
Company 6, a colleague outside of the company referred me to someone inside the company, which got the ball rolling.
Of the remaining 5 companies (companies 2 through 6), I got an offer from EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.
More details to come soon!
