Week Four
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.”
What a whirlwind of a week! Last week, I finally shared my website publicly on LinkedIn. I won’t lie: I was nervous. I knew nobody would insult me, but I kind of thought I’d just get some likes or vague, “nice job!” comments, and have that be the end of it. Like I said in my post, there is SO much career-related content already out there, and while I know I have valuable perspective, I worried it wasn’t all that unique or worth reading.
That might be true, but even if I’m not the only person saying this stuff, the internet is a big place and there are a lot of people consuming content. Even if someone else is writing the exact same things that I am, that doesn’t mean my network is seeing it. It’s also different when you know the person who is doing the writing; the personal aspect resonates differently than when reading some stranger’s blog.
All that to say, I was overwhelmed and warmed by the response I got from folks. Multiple people whom I haven’t spoken to in years reached out to reconnect, most of them going through their own search, and I am genuinely so excited to catch up with them. A few new people whom I don’t know invited me to connect, messaging me saying that they could relate to my experience. Two people contacted me about possible job opportunities. And my favorite, something that made my night: someone shared my “How to Get a Job” post to YC’s Hacker News, and a 16 year-old in India saw it and emailed me asking for advice on how to be successful navigating an engineering career.
I figured best case scenario, I’d get some positive feedback and support from my network, the post would help drive traffic to both my LinkedIn and my website, and that would be it. Never did I expect it to reconnect me with old friends and colleagues, get cross-posted on other message boards, and I certainly did not expect it to have an impact on a high school student on the literal opposite side of the world. Last week, I wrote about how lonely job searching can be; I’ve been trying to combat that by proactively reaching out to folks and through my accountability check-ins with Sarah, but I can’t emphasize enough how much my mindset has shifted after hearing from so many people this week.
So, I guess my big takeaway from this week is: get yourself out there!! It doesn’t have to be anything major - a short post sharing a takeaway, positive experience, or challenge might engage people. If you’re doing projects, self-teaching, or practicing your skills, let people know. Job searching is no time for humility or reclusion. It’s a little scary, but the risks are actually quite low - the worst thing that will happen is people will ignore you - and the potential rewards are so high.
Accomplishments:
I had six “networking” meetings this week - I use quotes because it was a mix of reconnecting with folks I haven’t talked to in a while and meeting new people. Of these meetings, three of them led to introductions to new people whom I’m super excited to chat with. Two of them provided very helpful feedback on how I’m thinking about my search and the types of roles I’m focused on.
I reached out to five people, and eight people reached out to me; some of these were the intros I mentioned above, and some are reconnecting with people already in my network. A couple were people who work at companies not currently hiring, but that are doing REALLY exciting work that I want to learn more about - maybe they won’t need someone with my skill set any time in the near future, but I’d want to get plugged into their work regardless. A perk of being a mission-driven person is I get pretty stoked when I see people making a real impact and thinking about old problems in innovative ways, and I want to learn more about how they think.
I applied to five jobs. I don’t have warm connections at most of the companies, but I did my best to follow up with folks who work there to try to learn more about the companies/roles.
Less quantifiable, because my list has gotten a little messy, but my list of companies of interest has expanded quite a bit; there is a lot of cool stuff out there, and while hiring is limited or nonexistent for some of them, I’m finding that if I can get in touch with someone there, they usually can introduce me to someone else or point me towards other cool companies in the space.
Week of 2/27 priorities:
I’m in a bit more of a rhythm now; my weekly priorities focus on researching companies, talking to people (both new and current connections), and applying to jobs. It might get a bit monotonous, but I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing, with a heavy emphasis on talking to people.
Now that I’m in a bit more of a rhythm, I need to stop being a potato. I went from exercising multiple hours per day, five days per week, to sitting at a computer for eight hours and barely closing my stand ring each day. It’s taking its toll on my mental health, not to mention my physical health - I’m noticing weird joint creaks and pain. So my goal is to exercise every day, even if it’s just a slow, easy yoga video or a long walk.
Organize my target company list: I use Notion to keep track of applications, informational interviews, company research, etc., but I have approximately 40 tabs open right now with companies to look into, so I need to clean that up a bit and follow up on the ones that I’m actually interested in.
Try to find some in-person events: I signed up for one on March 8, and am going to look for other relevant tech talks, presentations, or even just social events in the area. There’s a ton happening in Boulder, and I want to meet people in person, even if it’s just socially. I hesitate to assign numbers to this, because I have no clue how active the meetup scene is here, so I’ll say that if I can find two in-person events to go to in the next month, I’ll be satisfied.
Tl;dr and pro-tips:
LinkedIn views, showing increases after posting
Like I said above, get yourself out there. It can be scary, but it is so worth it. Some stats, if you don’t believe me:
LinkedIn:
85 people viewed my profile in the last week, compared with 44 the week prior, when I didn’t post anything. That’s a 93% increase.
My post sharing my website made 5,400 impressions within a week of posting
Website: I have no previous stats to compare it to, since I was only using my website personally and sharing with family/friends before last week, but the first day I shared my blog, I had 131 unique visitors, and I’ve had a total of 354 unique visitors in the past ~30 days. No more than 15 of those unique viewers can be attributed to friends/family.
Other: I shared my website in a Slack channel for the Boulder/Denver tech community, someone liked my “How to Find a Job” post enough to share it, and posted it on YC’s Hacker News. That is now my third largest source of traffic, which might not be saying much because I’ve only shared my website on LinkedIn, but it stands at a non-trivial 56 unique views.
Takeaways:
My profile views increase markedly after posting something, and then drop steadily in the following days
It’s not enough to post once in a while, you need to post regularly to stay on top of people’s minds
If I really wanted to play the self-promotion game, I’d try to post daily, spend time tweaking my SEO settings, do a lot more cross-posting on other platforms, and test out different formats/content/writing styles to see which garner the most engagement. However, that’s not really my brand, nor is my goal to get as many profile views as possible - I’d rather spend my time on other higher-impact things. My goals with posting are a) to help others in the job search while processing my own progress, b) to help my network remember that I’m job searching, and c) highlight my perspective, writing, and skills to potential employers. So while it’s interesting to track engagement, I think I’ll stick with posting once a week, or as the spirit moves me.
Website traffic after sharing my blog publicly on February 21
Sources of website traffic: someone shared one of my posts on Hacker News, which resulted in 56 unique views
Other tips:
Avoid approaching networking with the agenda of getting a job. I’ve coached so many people who feel like networking is inauthentic, and it certainly can be, but definitely doesn’t have to be. I am looking for a job, yes, and I have become way more active on LinkedIn and with my network because I’m looking for a job, yes. But when I’m going into conversations, I’m trying to think of it as an opportunity to learn, vs. hoping I’ll get a referral out of it. Many of the people I’m talking to aren’t even currently hiring for roles I’d be a fit for, but I’m still interested in what they do and/or what their company does and I want to learn more. This helps remove a lot of the pressure around the conversation - I’m able to be myself and ask the things I really care about, rather than worrying about impressing them. I’m not hiding that I’m actively searching, or that I am interested in opportunities at their company, but those aren’t the things driving the conversation.
For folks interested in startups, check out VC websites and see if they have an option to join their talent network. Some proactively reach out to schedule exploration calls with possible candidates to learn more about your skills and interests. Of course it may not lead anywhere, but it’s better to connect with a human directly than to just submit your resume into the ether and wonder if anyone ever looks at it.
How I’m feeling:
I’m feeling buoyed by the number of conversations I’ve had this week, both face-to-face and over email, LinkedIn, text, etc. Some of these conversations have led to new introductions, and I’m getting a pretty good response rate to my cold outreach, too (around 80%, but my n is small). I haven’t heard back from any jobs I’ve applied to, but people are replying to me in other ways, which helps me feel like I’m making progress.
The anxiety I felt last week is still there, but it’s at a low simmer instead of a rolling boil. I feel like I’m able to sign off at night and think, “I got a lot done today,” instead of, “I should have done more.” And I feel like I can take a step back and assess my situation more objectively without my emotions clamoring for attention.
My hunch is I’ll ride this wave for another week or two, and then, if I keep up with the same routine and still don’t see any movement in my applications, start to slip back into the pit of existential despair. I’m saying it out loud to mentally prepare myself, but I know that if I do arrive back there, no amount of rationale will outweigh the gloom. It’s like a fun little social experiment with myself to see these things play out. And by fun, I mean it’s dreadful, but at least I’m learning something from it!
