🤖 Jacky Liang’s Post

View profile for 🤖 Jacky Liang, graphic

builder and sharer // ex: pinecone, infinitus, oracle cloud, singlestore, looker (acq. google cloud)

I got two job offers in this ultra competitive tech-industry-winter, and a few friends asked me if I could offer any tips. I don't have a "magic bullet" to offer; anyone offering one is lying to you or trying to sell you a course. But the following few things helped me get through it despite hearing all the layoffs news happening around me. 1. It is all currently a numbers game. Apply to as many places with all resources as possible. Turn on LinkedIn job search to on, get LinkedIn premium, reach out to your network, turn the banner green. Try to find the emails of hiring managers you're trying to get a hold of for a job; this type of outreach is much better than applying to a job posting on their site. Referrals is king; you will 90% of the time get at least a recruiter screen or HM call 2. Persevere, persevere, persevere. Know that there are thousands also in your shoes right now. Since it is such a competitive market, and there is significantly more demand for job openings than there any available at a time, you will receive a lot of rejections, especially automated, or just being ghosted in general. Persistence, resilience, and grit is key. 3. Prepare the hell out of each interview. Treat each interview as your last one. I usually do a bunch of research on the company, business, person I am talking to, etc, prior to chatting with them. I come prepared, and it really shows you went an extra effort for the interview, which in turns, helps you stand out. 4. If you have a presentation and/or take home assignment (which was common for my more customer-facing roles), put in the hours and make it polished. Get multiple professional opinions before you submit the assignment. Again, going the extra mile shows, and you will be rewarded for it. I spent at least 10-20 hours on each assignment/presentation, and I was happy I did. 5. Tune out the noise. It's easy to read tech news every week seeing and hearing so and so company is performing another layoff (in turn means more people are back on the market, competing with you on similar roles). Tune that out. Layoffs are beyond your control. Other candidates applying to the same role are beyond your control. What you can control is your resume, how you perform on interviews, your take home assignments, how many job applications you can submit, how many referrals you can get, your interview preparation, etc. Jensen Huang of Nvidia said it best, "greatness is not intelligence. Greatness comes from character. And character isn’t formed out of smart people, it’s formed out of people who suffered. I hope suffering happens to you. Unfortunately, resilience matters in success. I don’t know how to teach it to you except for I hope suffering happens to you." Another one of my very smart friends also once said to me "Jacky, you only need one win. That's it." That quote has always stuck with me. In the sea of rejections, you only need one offer. Just one. Good luck out there.

Dylan Pierce

Helping merchants prevent fraud & win chargebacks with modern ID verification

6mo

Solid advice. Congrats on the new job Jacky, Pinecone is doing big things.

Michael Ames, Veteran USMC

Reducing Carbon Footprint in Real Estate | Territory Business Development Representative | Real Estate Investor | Veteran Advocate | Furbaby Dad

6mo

Amazing!

Floyd Smith

Content Marketing | Product Marketing | Certified ChatGPT Expert | Quantum Computing | Databases | AI & ML | Open Source Software | Product-Led Growth (PLG) | Speaker & Author | Green Technology

6mo

Equally important: be able to say in one sentence one important and relevant thing you're outstanding at. Then have an example to back it up. Even if your skill is not the thing they're looking for, you're far more likely to get at least a brief conversation/exchange around it.

Trung Do

Senior Product Manager @SAP

6mo

Congrats Jacky. Kudos to you for showing perseverance during tough times 😊

See more comments

To view or add a comment, sign in

Explore topics