Developer job search — how to get interviews

5 ways to get noticed, without blasting resumes

Getting interviews at software companies doesn’t have to be challenging.

New and experienced developers alike occasionally have difficulty getting interviews at the right companies. The key to success is thinking about hiring from the company’s point of view.

You’ll have to get a little creative, but here are some resources.

1. Get specific

Don’t just say “I’ll work for anyone, anywhere doing anything!”

Pick:

• An industry, niche, or problem you want to help solve
• A city or two where you’d like to work — if you want to work remotely, then that’s also a specific location
• A role you’d like to fill — backend, frontend, mobile, data science, site reliability, embedded
• A tech stack or two you feel confident in

Here’s the new version:

“I want to work on climate change in Boston or New York. I’m a backend engineer who works in Python and JavaScript.”

That’s a much better description. When you tell that to people, they might think of roles for you or people you should meet.

Moreover, you don’t seem desperate for work. You seem confident in your ability to help solve a specific problem.

2. Actually talk to people

Blasting resumes is the easy (but soul-sucking) way to look for work.

Unfortunately, the resumes you submit to companies via their job boards just go sit in some digital pile somewhere. You’re undifferentiated from the rest.

A much better strategy is to have a warm connection somewhere. A person who can flag your resume & move you along in the process.

This is especially important given that 80% of jobs are never posted publicly. A large portion of the jobs will never be on job boards for you to submit your resume in the first place. You have to know somebody who knows about them.

Luckily, the common conception around networking is totally wrong. Rarely do you just happen to know someone who gives you a job. Instead, networking usually works when you know someone who knows someone who knows someone else.

Talk to whoever you know, tell them the specific job you’re looking for (as you defined above), and see who they might know who might know someone.

3. Reach out directly

If you see a job posting that seems perfect, don’t submit your resume via the online form!

A better strategy is to find a contact at the company and show your interest that way. LinkedIn is basically built to help you do this. Look up the company and try to find people in the roles of recruiter, engineering manager, or even senior engineers.

Share that you’re interested in working at the company and have some questions. Ask about various aspects of working at the company — anything you’re curious about.

Reaching out to senior engineers directly can be especially helpful because you can ask them about the quality of life on the engineering team. You can get into the problems they’re working on and get a sense for how the team feels.

By reaching out to someone, you’ve gone from a cold application to a warm referral.

4. Use recruiters wisely

If you put “web developer” or “software engineer” on your LinkedIn profile at all, chances are you’ve received messages from recruiters.

Here are my recommendations for leveraging recruiters:

• Develop a list of qualifying questions for the roles that recruiters bring to you. If there are certain locations, tech stacks, salary ranges, or job descriptions that are deal breakers, then the recruiter needs to answer those questions for you up-front.
• Spread your time around amongst different recruiters and don’t develop recruiter loyalty. They make money when you accept a position at one of the companies they’re working with, so they have an incentive to monopolize you. Don’t let that happen.
• Don’t rely on recruiters as your whole job search strategy. Make them part of an overall plan.
• Recruiters will act like everything is urgent and demand a lot of your time. Don’t be afraid to make them wait. The best recruiters will never pressure or pester you.

5. Refine your pitch

When you’re looking for a job, you’re essentially selling your skills and services. It’s worth refining and practicing your sales pitch.

Step 1, above, was an important part of that. That focused sentence is your positioning statement. It helps you qualify good leads that fit your target audience.

Now, you’ll want to continue to refine all your other resources. Practice and preparation make perfect when you’re sending emails about jobs, on phone screens with recruiters, or in interviews.

You want to have your story tight and well-polished:

• It starts with the resume. It should tell a story. There should be a clear progression in your career. Even if there doesn’t seem to be a progression or you have gaps in your history, there’s still a story to be told. Think of that story when you’re writing and refining your resume.
• Next, practice the short version of your story and what you’re looking for in the next job. It should take less than 30 seconds to clearly communicate your experience and intentions. You’ll get lots of practice at this story if you schedule many recruiter phone screens.
• Be prepared with a few anecdotes about coding challenges you’ve solved in the past few years. Bonus points if these anecdotes focus on the problem that was alleviated, preferably with facts/numbers to back you up.
• If there are difficult parts of your story — employment gaps, termination, etc — make sure you’ve rehearsed how you’ll address those.

Remember your worth

The most important part of arranging interviews and exploring new opportunities is remembering your worth and the value you create as a software developer.

Companies are struggling to hire good candidates right now. They’re excited and grateful that you’re interviewing!

Don’t feel beholden to companies. You actually hold a lot of power in the interview process and can turn the interview around. You can and should ask difficult questions of your interviewers. Make sure that the company is the right fit for you, not the other way

More Resources

Building a meaningful developer career — Email course on how to build a tech career with meaning and purpose

Be a 1x engineer — Why being a 10x engineer is a dangerous archetype & what to do instead

Think software engineers just write code? — All the hidden work, beyond coding, that make great engineers stand out