Rant: I finally stopped chasing job postings and started using my network last week

I spent 3 years applying to maybe 200 jobs online, got like 4 callbacks, zero offers. Last Tuesday at a coffee shop in Austin, an old coworker from my last gig asked what I was up to. I told him I was stuck in the application loop, and he said, "You're doing it wrong, people hire people." That night I messaged 5 contacts, just asking about their days, not for jobs. By Friday, two of them forwarded my resume to their teams, and one set up a phone screen for this week. I always figured networking was for sales people or extroverts, but seeing it work in real time flipped my view. Has anyone else had a bigger win from a random chat than from a dozen polished applications?

1 comments

1 Comment

paige5143d ago

Oh wow, that's wild how fast it moved once you stopped asking for stuff directly! 🤯 What did you even say in those first messages that made them want to help without you bringing up jobs?