As a fresh college graduate I was eager to jump right into the workforce just like y’all are now. I hit up all the online sources, sent lots of applications out, and tried to present myself as the perfect candidate for each hand picked position I thought I could ace. I had a wall of opportunities (WoO) for short where I pinned all of my in-flight applications. It didn’t take long before bills became due. I had a job via my college, so upon graduation I was without any kind of work. I wound up following a lot of my classmates to scrub radar parts at around $10/hr or something lower.

It took a year before something finally nibbled at UHaul. The manager there needed someone to take over a completely parked project that had no active engineers on it. The manager really didn’t know how to evaluate my abilities or anything. He literally said “think you can do this?” And turned his laptop around. It had a bunch of HTML templates. I’d never seen it before. But I remember thinking “I see a for loop inside of HTML, I bet I can figure this out”, and so I said “yes”. That was my technical interview. The manager needed someone, and I seemed like I could do it.

That was my first and last cold call job I’d gotten. One job in my career was facilitated via a recruiter (who aren’t relevant here since they don’t tend to invest time in unproven talent).

You’re probably tired of hearing that networking is what gets you jobs. I would be. You don’t have a network. You’re like a wizard looking for magic jobs but all you know are muggles. It’s rough. And you must fix it. Ruthie has told you about doing coffee chats. I second that. I’ll add to it (for PDX locals) that you need to get on calagator, find an event you think you might remotely like, and commit to going. Lots of people who are shy or even socially inept go to these things. I speak both as an observer and as a attendee of these things.

I was really into the idea of game development. I attended IGDA meetings religiously. I learned of a coworker at UHaul from another department was a kindred spirit. The people I met there enriched me, but also landed me three jobs directly, and a fourth indirectly. Only one of those jobs actually had anything to do with game development. Such is the odd flow of life.

If this feels like schmoozing or otherwise is a greasy thing to do, you need to revisit that. The basic things people are trying to figure out from a candidate are whether or not the candidate can do the job, but also if you’re an asshole to work with (often disguised as “culturally compatible”, “googliness”, etc). Folks from your network answer one of the two questions: they can say you’re a culture fit. They might even be able to speak to your ability. Having an awful coworker is a terrible fate, and the world at large goes to extreme measures to avoid it.

I’m not the most social person. Over a 1:1, ask me about “PI planning” some time and I’ll have some stories. When I go to these gatherings, I bring my laptop with me and hack on something. The PDX Angular meetup has photographic evidence of me doing this. Is it the fast road to networking? Maybe not. But people will curiously ask you what you’re doing. It becomes an ice breaker.

Places are still hiring. They need people of all skill levels. Believe me, I have tasks I can’t give to experienced team members because they are above it, but the less experienced members gobble it up. And all of these workplaces are behind, have mounting tech debt, or can’t move onto better things because it takes all of their effort just to keep the machinery running.

My workplace will be hiring soon after the merger it’s in the middle of finishes. But I can’t find places for the 60 or so of you that I know. And before you play that card, you’re all equally special to me :)

All that to say that there’s jobs out there, and you’ve been told the statistics are that a vast majority of jobs are not acquired through online postings. Sure, you’re always going to find the exception to the rule. Everyone has some story about how they got the job which differs from the standing advice. The real reason is that the stars aligned perfectly - opportunity met determination and skill and a job placement was born. That’s how all of them work. You need to enhance your serendipity, and the best way to do that is spend more time around (employed) wizards, even possibly at expense of social time with your favorite muggles. At least until your foot is in the door.

This is the edited post to get under LinkedIn’s 3000 character limit. Some of it is actually better.

This is directed at my prior students, recent graduates, etc. but if you’ve made it to the other side, especially those of you with established careers, please weigh in.

As a fresh college graduate I was eager to jump right into the workforce just like y’all are now. I hit up all the online sources, sent lots of applications out, and tried to present myself as the perfect candidate for each hand picked position I thought I could ace. I had a wall of opportunities (WoO) for short where I pinned all of my in-flight applications. Bills became due. I had a job via my college, so upon graduation I was without any kind of work. I wound up following a lot of my classmates to scrub radar parts at around $10/hr or something lower.

It took a year before something finally nibbled at UHaul. The manager didn’t have means to evaluate my abilities. He literally said “think you can do this?” and turned his laptop around. It had a bunch of HTML templates. I’d never seen it before. But I remember thinking “I see a for loop inside of HTML, I bet I can figure this out”, and so I said “yes”. That was my technical interview.

That was my first and last cold call job I’d gotten.

You’re probably tired of hearing that networking is what gets you jobs. I would be. You don’t have a network. You’re like a wizard looking for magic jobs but all you know are muggles. It’s rough. And you must fix it. Ruthie has told you about doing coffee chats. I second that. I’ll add to it (for PDX locals) that you need to get on calagator, find an event you think you might remotely like, and commit to going. Lots of people who are shy or even socially inept go to these things. I speak both as an observer and as a attendee of these things.

I attended IGDA meetings religiously. The people I met there enriched me, but also landed me three jobs directly, and a fourth indirectly.

If this feels like schmoozing, you need to revisit that. You need a job, and the schmoozers are beating you to it.

Not social? Bring a laptop and hack on a project. That’s what I do.

Places are still hiring. They need people of all skill levels. Believe me, I have tasks I can’t give to experienced team members because they are above it, but the less experienced members gobble it up. All of these workplaces are behind, have mounting tech debt, or are barely holding on with current staff.

There’s jobs out there, and you’ve been told the statistics are that a vast majority of jobs are not acquired through online postings. Sure, you’re always going to find the exception to the rule. Everyone has a story about how they got the job which differs from the standing advice. The real reason is that the stars aligned perfectly and a job placement was born. That’s how all of them work. You need to enhance your serendipity, and the best way to do that is spend more time around (employed) wizards, even possibly at expense of social time with your favorite muggles. At least until your foot is in the door.