How to get a better job as Software Developer (without sending a single CV)?

If you're a software developer reading this text on LinkedIn, then you probably know how easy it is to get flooded by job opportunities from companies you've never heard of. On the other hand, the ones that interest you the most are busy rejecting people like you, because they have much more candidates to choose from. So how to get their attention by attracting them to your profile and discouraging the wrong ones? Following the Smartly.io culture values I will try to show how to improve your chances for landing a better job as a passive candidate.

Humble Hungry Hunters

Working for a small startup could mean wearing many hats at the same time, working on code review, infrastructure, deploying and building… marketing landing pages. Executing a small set of goals takes precedence. Does it allow you to dive deeper into a particular technology? Probably not. On the other hand, working for a tech giant could mean, that you are just a cog in their machine. By working for Amazon you can get narrow expertise in AWS and… not much beside it. That’s why stating your current tasks could help recruiters see how you can develop further your skills.

The biggest challenge for technical sourcers is finding relevant profiles of highly skilled professionals. If the only information you place on your LinkedIn profile is company name and job title, you may be easily overlooked. Not everyone goes to GitHub or StackOverflow to decipher the tech stack. We might know what kind of software your company is working on, but it still doesn’t tell us much about your specific team, the individual contribution, what you achieved and what are you capable of doing in your next endeavors. Thus, it can lead to misfitting jobs or no contact at all.

So how can I know what you can do (and what you can’t do)? The best way of figuring it out is by asking. So we setup the initial call to learn more about expectations from each side. Sometimes there will be an instant match, sometimes we will need to re-align. Maybe some skills are trainable? Maybe there are some projects you forgot to mention, which could bring an elevating angle to our product domain? Or maybe you are bored with PHP? Let’s talk about it during the call to learn more about each other goals.

Take Ownership

Profiles on LinkedIn often lack accurate information. When writing about your responsibilities, think about your future job, not about your past. A common mistake is mentioning what you can’t do and won’t do. If you love to work on databases only, but mention on your profile the company tech stack (not used by you or your team), it can lead to many false positive matchings. I will not write to Rails Engineer working for Deutsche Bahn, but I might assume you know .net if you work for Microsoft as a backend developer, right?

Is there is a particular tool or technology you don’t want to work with anymore? John Somnez - who authored “The Complete Software Developer Career Guide” - tipped how to deal with recruiter spam, which is affecting LinkedIn experience. But even recruiters get spammed, if they mention some tech keywords on their profile. So if you don’t want to be contacted about SharePoint job opportunities - like John - don’t mention that skill at all! Otherwise it will be still detected by the search engine. Makes sense? Find a way around of implying the same skill by adding more description to your actual tasks (“improved the site's performance and usability by creating custom .NET components, helped minimize downtime by improving the process for deploying”). John argues that getting any interest is still better for the purpose of building your pipeline of potential employers. Every now and then you might get a great job among lots of irrelevant ones. Why to risk getting none?

Maximize Learning

Nothing is more frustrating as having a dead-end job in a technology which nobody - beside your employer - cares about. David Xiang in his book “Software Developer Life” explained the fear of feeling left behind by the tech industry faced by millions of developers. Working for years for a great company like IBM looks great on CV, but it can be stressful when you have to deal with codebase from 1995. Would your skills be still hot commodity after working there longer? Pick up new skills to stay ahead of changes. One of the best way to learn new technology is not by introducing it to your company, but by joining the one which is already using it.

Some people believe, that if they’re good enough, the right opportunities will find and reward them. And sometimes it’s true, but you never know how much time it will take. Did you know that passive or referred candidates are perceived as more qualified? Who knows, maybe your friend will receive a financial bonus for referring you once you get hired? So allow yourself to be found. Or maybe you can refer someone strong in his area of expertise, who would be pleased to hear about great job? Great opportunities can often surprise us when we less expect it!

Think Customers First

Did you hear about Diva Developers? They are usually good coders, but incapable of cooperating with a team. As a result, they could alienate co-workers, even forcing them to leave the company. Beside strong technical expertise software developer should be also good in soft skills, i.e. interacting with fellow colleagues and customers. Nobody wants to work with a genial jerk. Notice that the best employers hire for attitude and train for skills. Think about how you present yourself, online and offline.

Are you updating your profile each time you learn new skills or get promotion? Remember to fulfill your online profile not for self-appreciation, but for showing others what you’re really good at and being open to networking. You can always respond with “thanks, but I’m not interested” or not reply at all. To filter-out the ‘recruiter spam’, you can clearly specify on your profile ‘not interested in relocation’ or ‘looking only for freelance projects’. Believe me, such sincerity will make the lives of both of us much easier. There are still some recruiters who read your profiles carefully before reaching out.

Trust by Default

Every career coach will tell you that it’s good to speak with recruiter to understand your market value and see what is out there. Even if there is nothing frustrating in your current job, being active in your network helps you be visible and maybe hire future colleagues for your own team?

Are your skills matching for our job? During the call it’s good to state what might interest you now and it will make a win-win situation. Will we lose some time? Probably, but both of us will know that we tried not to miss the great chance. Who knows, maybe in the near future our product will offer you just the right career opportunities or your skillset will be expanded by sought after technology.

Helping your recruiter do the job - as noted in book Gayle Laakmann McDowell "Cracking the Tech Career" - can bring you good results in the long run. She mentioned a case of Ravi, who went through 5 interview rounds with Microsoft and didn’t receive an offer. But he remained in contact with the recruiter who remembered his skills and shortcomings. Few weeks later she invited him for another set of talks, this time for a different team. And the story repeated itself, 5 more interviews and no offer. But upon receiving the feedback he heard from her, that there is another team who might be interested in hiring him. 2 more interviews and he made it. Try to build the connection with the recruiter and they will be grateful. And hey, recruiters are also changing their jobs. With existing relation it’s easier to re-connect and continue the talks.

Work Smartly

You don’t need to write in your headline on LinkedIn “Open to new opportunities” – there is a more subtle way to let recruiters know that without alarming your boss and coworkers. Simply go to your settings to “Job seeking preferences” option. After activating it only recruiters with paid licence will be able to browse your job seeker’s profile – they don’t need to second guess if you are still on probation, bored, or if your company finances are going south. In the note you can specify job titles, locations and skills which are interesting for you. License for the Recruiter account is not cheap, so only companies who value quality approach will contact you. And it makes sense, they want to be quicker than their competitors.

Before continuing the talks with the recruiter passive candidates usually check the job openings of his company. And quite often they can’t see themselves in the described jobs due to some misinterpretations (also, not all jobs are published immediately). Women apply only when they match 90% of the job requirements, while men are ok with matching only 50% of them. Job ad is more like a marketing text: showing some promise to attract the right talents. Imagine that time to fill the position could take 3 months – will the company wait with starting a new product before hiring someone? Or will they work the best way they can to hit the goal? Between the time the job was posted and when candidate was hired the situation in the team and in the company can vary a lot. Pivots are done during the interviews and – quite often – it is candidate who can greatly influence how his future job will look like. Are you open to talk about your options now?

--Michael Talarek