How to Get a Job

For the record ... I'm not looking for a job ;). But never say never.

Over the course of the last 3 months, I've had at least half a dozen people (some I know, some I don't) reach out to get my thoughts on job hunting. In typical lazy engineer fashion, I've decided to write it down and then just point future prospects here. The normal caveat ... this is free ... so treat it as such ... meaning it is just as likely to be worthless as worthwhile for you.

In order of importance:

Navel Gazing

I highly recommend that you not just jump back in the pool. Spend a week or two just relaxing and ideating. Consider what it is that you want to get out of your next move. Maybe it's just money, but that would be sad. You should get something that is more lasting, preferably skills and contacts. Many years ago, I thought it would be fun to explore either electrification of vehicles, biomechatronics (think Hugh Herr at MIT) or Mixed Reality/Augmented Reality. This led me to Magic Leap. Exploring what if with a clean canvas is pretty inspiring and you should spend a few hours, or days doing it. Write it down. More about writing later. However, don't get in a paralysis by analysis mode, because you already have a secret weapon that will get you the next job.

Your Network. Your Network, Your Network

In my opinion, it is useless to cold call a bunch of job ads with your resume. Your network will find a spot for you. Contact some of your marketing friends and get a handle on lead generation. It's similar. You need a big funnel. You need to identify your target audience (maybe based on current skills and also navel gazing), you need to create engaging content (some you may already have, some you may need), you need to qualify these leads, ... . I'd much rather have 10 good leads than a shotgun approach of 100's. If you can truly engage with 10, then you will have your hands full. If you don't have a great network, then make it better. Most importantly, it is not just your network ... it can be your networks network. Don't be shy to ask for introductions. You may get them, you may not. Keep frustration to a minimum.

Growth

We've all been part of shrinking organizations and it is no fun. Alternatively, it is a wild ride to be part of a rapidly growing company. Look for that. How do you find them? Just look around you. Here's one, Firefly Aerospace. They landed "Blue Ghost" on the surface of the moon over the weekend. That sounds fun. Look at their career page. They have 4 pages of openings. Here's another idea, LiveOak VC. LiveOak is an early stage, Texas focused venture group. Look to see what they are investing in. Look at all their portfolio companies for inspiration and possible connections (you may already have them in your network). Here's another one, Endeavor Real Estate. They were featured in an Austin American Statesman article that I saw over the weekend. They are launching a hotel group with new construction after a recent acquisition. Here's another idea, on an annual basis watch Google I/O, Apple WWDC, Meta Connect and Amazon re:Invent. Look at the trends. They will be similar and they will be in spaces that they are all investing in. If you don't want to join a FAANG company, then there are plenty of smaller ones that are builders in the same space close to you. You get the idea.

Write

Get really good (and fast) at writing and communicating with other humans. I'm all about the great new AI tools, but you need to be able to influence real people. Read, write, communicate everyday. Write in a journal, write on LinkedIn, writing can include coding and put it up on GitHub. If you're not skilled in the software arts, then use one of many AI assisted code generators and experiment. You need to be able to bang out good copy quick. I allocated 15 minutes to writing this post ... but have gotten carried away with the length and scope. But I'm not going to spend more than an hour on it. I'm just spewing out words as fast as I can type. No AI generated here. I want my original thoughts first and then maybe I'll run it through ChatGPT to get more clarity and some ideas I've missed that I find important. Presenting in front of others is another mandatory skill. I wrote a post about this years ago. If you aren't in a position to easily give presentations, then join Toastmasters.

Resume (this one is not in order of importance because it's low on my list)

You need one, but don't obsess over it. You get your foot in the door with your network. Your resume goes along for the ride. Just make sure there are no spelling errors and that every word on it is defensible. You'd be shocked what people get stuck on as the interviewer, including me. A new college grad asked me to review their resume. It had Pascal on there and we spent 30 minutes talking about Pascal and why it was there? I was recommending deletion. I have Pascal on my resume, but I really used it ... decades ago. I used Pascal in college, used it when Borland's Turbo Pascal came out, the Apple Mac Toolbox was rooted in Pascal calling conventions. It was a thing for me and I can easily discuss and transition to more modern programming languages. Languages are just tools anyway, I'm more interested in if you grok the bigger concepts. But if you put it on your resume, then it is fair game to dig deep. Be warned. We may talk about Pascal for the entire hour ... and very unlikely you get the job if we do that.

Show Your Work

Build something, create something, share something. After you watch some of the Amazon re:Invent sessions from December 2024, then dive into AWS and build a quick prototype project. Think Bedrock, DMS Serverless or Q. It doesn't matter which one. Pick one that gets you excited while watching one of the keynotes. Maybe tie it into one of your hobbies ... like tennis analytics or electronic health record aggregation. Play with different foundation models. The key here is to spin up something real (and quickly). Start with their demos. I've had an AWS account for almost 20 years. I remember a quick demo I put together spinning up a LAMP server and connecting to Twilio services. It was all just for fun. Another was using FastAI to build up a realtime demo of training and deploying a real image classification model in less than 5 minutes. My monthly AWS bill is less than $1 per month. Be careful and teardown down your instances. If you start spending real dollars, then start a business.

Start a Business

We started a small business called OpenRoads Consulting LLC last summer. We're in the ideation phase, but it certainly ties together my wife's medical journey with resources for other transplant patients and caregivers, our interests in Airstream and vanlife travel and my interests in technology. It's a container for anything and the ideas are limitless. Find an attorney, spend $1000 and set it up. If you need money quickly, then this is not the recommended path. BTW, our little company fully supports remote work! There are many benefits of starting your own company and most should probably have one ... even if it sits alongside a traditional job.

Nobody Cares More than You

Own your career path. Own your compensation. Give yourself a bonus. Own your retirement savings plan. Don't rely on me or anybody else. We're unreliable. Sometimes we're there, sometimes we're not. A good friend once told me, "That which angers you, controls you". It's true. Don't give the anger from a layoff or bad management change too much air. Getting ghosted is simply part of it. Move on. Always be building something great for you. You may find others are interested in what you build too.

Preparation (this one not in order of importance, but high up on my list)

It's fun to look for a job. You will meet some great people that work at great companies. Be ready for some hard work and you won't be paid a dime for it. Be prepared and learn some new skills in the process. If you don't get the job, then at least you've learned a lot. I can't tell you how much I prepped for the interviews at Apple, Magic Leap and Amazon. Those interview loops were insane. If you don't like an answer you give in person, immediately followup with a clarifying email. You probably will not get contact info for the people that interview you. A solution is to get LinkedIn Premium for a free trial. You will be able to send people direct messages if needed. Last tip in Preparation, record yourself when doing a mock interview. You can even have ChatGPT do the interviewer prompts via voice ... but record yourself and address any annoying tendencies.

That's a Wrap (My 1 hour timer just went off)

This topic may be more important to me than I originally thought. I'll revisit this and make it better. But for now, off it goes to get published.