Get the job & pay you desire - #HackTheJobHunt

A young engineer recently approached me on LinkedIn asking for advice on how to get a role in the field of her choice while also ensuring that she received the compensation she desired.

I hadn't seriously thought about the issue before, but knew a few heuristics that I've used in the past, and that successful applicants that I've interviewed have used. 

I decided to treat this request as an opportunity to document these heuristics to share it with my correspondent and with others.

1. Build Relevant & Credible Experience: Ensure that you're proficient and have a history of credible of work in the area that you'd like to find a role. For instance, if your experience is in the field of text analytics, it would be easier to get a senior role in text analytics rather than another field of data analytics - such as image or video analytics.

If a customer, manager, or a person respected in your field can recommend you **with specific examples of your competence**, that is worth its weight in gold (or bitcoins :).

2. Document & make publicly available a verifiable body of work: Have a body of work that is publicly available that documents your competence in the area of interest. Maintain a blog, a GitHub repository, create video tutorials, or a vblog that showcases your competency.

3. Self-Confidence: Do not be overawed by designations. Don't ever feel that a senior software engineer position is out of reach. Or for that matter the role of an architect, management, VP, CXO, or other senior leadership position. If you have documented, credible competence in your field of work, it will be recognized and rewarded by the right people.

4. Approach decision-makers directly: Gravitate to organizations that value competence over years of experience. Usually HR gatekeepers filter people out or in on the basis of number of years of experience alone. Try and identify the hiring manager if possible and approach them directly.

Beware, though, that approaching hiring managers is difficult and risky. They are also often busy individuals and have low patience threshold for people who they perceive aren't relevant or competent enough for their teams.

5. Inbound the hiring process: Flip the hiring process by making hiring managers approach you. Increase your public profile by speaking, helping, sharing your work and your knowledge (without violating any confidentiality clauses you might have signed with your employer). Curate your public profile, generate interest from people interested in hiring you and have them contact you.

Hopefully this will help you getting the position that you desire and ensuring that your work is valued by your organization financially as well as in providing growth opportunities.

Good luck with that job hunt!

#HackTheJobHunt #LoseTheImposterSyndrome #RoleChange #GetTheJobYouWant