Yes, I Can Help You Get an IT Job.
Looking for work in the IT industry? If you can follow the steps below, there’s a great chance I’ll be able to get someone to consider you.
- Check out my profile on LinkedIn, and note where I’m working currently. (As I write this, it is Climate, a digital agriculture company. But you may read this article 10 years from now, and I could be elsewhere.)
- Do you want to maybe work at my company? If not, my feelings aren’t hurt. But basically, do your own research and decide that you want to work at my company before continuing these steps.
- Look in the Careers or Jobs section of the website for that company. Do you see a job there that you are qualified for? Your actual skills and experience should match the listed requirements on the job description.
- Assuming you’ve found a job that suits you, apply for the job following the instructions there. Copy/note the link to the job description. You can apply to multiple positions like this too.
- Send me a brief message on LinkedIn (it’s okay to send me a connection request and add the message to that). Just say “hi” in a professional, friendly way. And let me know that you’ve applied to one or more positions at my company. You can paste the job description links into your message.
- I will then find your application in our recruiting system and review your resume to make a reasonable guess about whether you’re qualified for the position you applied to. E.g. If the job description says you need 3 years of full-stack development experience and you just barely graduated bootcamp, then I won’t continue.
- I’ll send a note to the in-house recruiter of the position you applied for. It will be something like this: “You may want to take a look at Your Name’s application. I haven’t worked with her, but I talked to her a bit on LinkedIn and looked at her resume. She seems like potentially a good match.”
Step 7 is almost certainly enough to get a recruiter to look at your resume. In fact, I’ve got a 100% success rate of getting resumes considered. And if your qualifications are a match, chances are very good you’ll progress to an initial call.
If You Get Hired
Well, then… Yayyyyyyyyy! We did it!
But also if you get hired, I’ll probably get a referral bonus. You can decide to donate my referral bonus in one of two ways. It will be your choice:
- I can donate my referral bonus on your behalf to the Tech Access Foundation. It’s a great organization that prepares students in underrepresented groups for careers in STEM. I’ve worked with the people at TAF and know they are very worthy of support.
- Or I can donate the referral bonus to an open source project of your choosing. The project must be ready to accept donations, e.g. they’ve got a PayPal link or something like that. If the project is doing something I’m morally opposed to, I may ask you to pick a different project.
What I Won’t Do
In general, I very much want you to come through the front door as a proper candidate. So please know that there are some things I won’t do for you:
- I can’t tell you about openings beyond what is listed publicly on my company’s website.
- I can’t tell you if something good comes along later that you should apply for. (You can just look at openings again later on your own.)
- I can’t give you updates on what happened with your application. And if you progress to a call with an in-house recruiter, you should direct all questions about the process to the recruiter after that point.
- I can’t give you any advantages beyond that initial act of getting your resume noticed by a recruiter. I am 100% committed to letting our hiring process find the best candidates for jobs.
- I can’t give you career advice, emotional support, or do any aspect of your job-hunting work for you. If you need career guidance, I understand, but find it from somewhere else before you approach me or any potential employer.
These “won’t-dos” also hold for my friends, except maybe the last point. I want everything about my company’s hiring process to be fair and unbiased.
More Doors Open than Can Be Seen
My offer stands for strangers, friends, and acquaintances. I want to help the people I know and like. But I also want to help people from circles outside my own.
When I was in my early twenties, it felt like everybody else had things figured out. And me… I was floundering. The World didn’t seem to care what I wanted to do or could do. It was content to let me wash dishes, push carts, sand floors, pack boxes, or chop heads off fishes. (no disrespect — these are all jobs that I did)
Back then, in the angsty “What Is my Life” times, I drew this picture below. I call it “Applicant”.
Things got much better for me later. I feel very lucky. I wish you the same kind of luck.