More tips for finding a good software engineering job

On July 8th 2021, I had written down some tips for finding good software engineering jobs. I had just got my first full time software engineering job. I got to know about BigBinary in February of 2021 and over the next 2 months I went through couple of interviews and ended up getting a job there. In fact I had published this post the day before I started at BigBinary.

This is a spiritual successor to that post based on everything I've learnt in the past four years. Over the course of the last six months, I started job hunting again, quit my job at BigBinary, took a small break and finally joined DigitalOcean. I've gotten wiser in this time and have realized that I only got my first job because I got lucky and was at the right place at the right time. This is outside of your control, however there are a lot of things you can do to increase this surface area of your luck. My post from 2021 talks about the things I had done to get lucky then. This post talks about the things I learnt from my job hunting experience the past six months.

You needn't get the job just because you're a good fit

Job hunting will be hard depending on a lot of external variables you have no control over (economic conditions, global pandemics, geopolitics). Ultimately it is a matter of how you bring value to the employer and more importantly whether they need it in the first place. You might not necessarily get a job just because you're good at it.

Over the last 6 months, I applied for 38 different job openings. These were highly curated from a pool of even higher number of openings. I meticulously read through all of the job descriptions and made sure that I was a good fit for the role based on my experience, where I wanted to take my career in the next couple of years and what each company expected from these roles. Out of these highly curated applications, I only heard back from 10 of them.

Having a good network helps

Out of the 10 companies I heard back from, 8 of them were companies where I had a referral or knew someone, either in person or online. Your network increases your job hunting velocity A LOT. Although you might feel hesitant, ask people for help if you believe that you can make a case for it. If I hadn't known as much folks as I knew from open source and via platforms like Twitter, my job hunt would've been moving at a much slower pace, hearing back from 2 companies instead of 10 in this same period of time.

Also out of these 8 companies, 2 of them were results of me cold emailing folks after I came across their profiles or blogs. The rest 6 of them were thanks to recommendations from folks I knew from the open source community or from managers I met at conferences.

Know what you want

When you send a cold email, knowing what you want in your career, what you can offer and how these two align can go a long way. Spend some time asking yourself what exactly you want from your job and how you want to shape your career. Pitch this to your interviewers. Companies hire to get their requirements delivered, not because you think they're cool. The first priority will always be can you can deliver what the company expects out of the role. Being clear in your expectations will make the recuiters' lives easier and they'll appreciate it.

Put yourself out there more

Put yourself out there more, whether it be conferences or social media. If you have a good track record you no longer need to prove your worth or skill. If you've made contributions to a large open source project or have created something used by a lot of people, it gives the interviewer or the person you're cold emailing confidence that you know what you're doing and that you deserve a chance. Having good leverage gives more reason for folks to not give you the cold shoulder.

Be ready to face rejections

Even after doing all of the above and doing everything right, you'll still get rejected. It is part of the game, don't dwell on it. When I started my job hunt, I wasn't expecting to get a good job right away. I knew I had to get into the rhythm of giving interviews. But of all the places I interviewed at, there were several companies which really aligned with what I wanted in my career and what I could offer to the company. I ended up not getting an offer even after I performed really well in their interviews. At one company, the interview went really well that I was really confident that I'd hear back. I was doing everything they were expecting from a candidate and they were offering exactly the kind of work I wanted to do. It was a perfect fit (at least as far as I was concerned). I ended up getting rejected because of issues with timezone, even though it was a remote role.

Also I learnt that if a recruiter is moving ahead with your candidacy they'll move fast. If you're waiting for more than 2 weeks emailing recruiters and being told that they'll will get back soon, you most likely haven't made the cut. Move on. For the one offer I got, I was called by the recruiter literally a minute after the interview was over.

Be kind, help people

Even outside of job hunting, you should be a good and faithful person. Help people and be kind. Give people reasons to help you and never feel that you're entitled to anything.

Have fun

Do things you find fun, there is no set path. Don't do things for the sake of it. Be keen and question yourself the moment you find yourself doing things which you don't want to do 100%. Remember that if your answer to something isn't a yes, then it is a no.

You will get a job. No matter how hard or far-fetched it seems. Do me a favor and write a blog post of your experiences when you do. Share it with me if you do. You'll get a job you'll love if you keep at it.