Is my job searching strategy optimal?
I am looking for new opportunities and based on what I am seeing on Taro. My strategy so far has been.
- Create and polish resume
- Prep for DSA and System Design
- Apply to jobs.
This is the end of week 2. 8 Applications, 2 Rejections and not heard back from the rest.
So far I have been applying through LinkedIn and Otta only. I have intentionally avoided and not reached out for personal references. My thinking has been, that I don't want to waste the guaranteed interview opportunity if I am not ready.
My target at the moment is that I should be able to complete 90% of the grind 75 leetcode questions and at least a few system design mocks.
My questions to the community:
- What are other good job listing services?
- Is my approach sound or should I change my strategy?
With every rejection, I try to remind myself what @Rahul said. "We can only do what is in our control; that is to continue preparing."
Discussion
(2 comments)- 1
16 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroWhat are other good job listing services?
LinkedIn and Otta are great, but there's many other good ones. Check this out: "What are the best websites for applying for tech jobs?"
Is my approach sound or should I change my strategy?
I think you have Steps 2 and 3 inverted, which is a classic interviewing mistakes I've seen countless engineers make. You will never be "ready" for interviews. Just apply a bunch first and adapt your studying accordingly. In this market, DSA is less relevant than ever before as FAANG is largely not hiring so don't gatekeep the majority of your applications on completing most of the LeetCode 75. You already have the strategy of applying to less prestigious companies first, so you can use those as training effectively.
To go super deep, I highly recommend going through my entire job searching course: [Course] Ace Your Tech Interview And Get A Job As A Software Engineer
- 1
16 days agoFounding ML Engineer @ Lancey (YC S22)In my opinion, I suggest to ramp up how many applications you send. From what I've seen you should have a different resume for each genre of job so one or product focused, one for infra focused, or backend/frontend, and so on depending on your skillset. Once you have this when you apply just send in the resume tailored to the job app
I would target minimum 100 applications a week. I use simplify.jobs and I can do 100 in about 2-3 hours. Dont bother sending in cover letters. Getting interviews is a numbers game so mass applying is the way to go.
Apply to any job you meet 50% of the requirements of. Good luck!
