Ask HN: I found out that I'm about to be laid off. How do people find jobs?

14 points by wwwthrowaway256 3 hours ago | 7 comments

Using a throwaway account right now for obvious reasons.

I have a friend at my company that has access to some insider stuff who (subtley) tipped me off that I'm on the chopping block for upcoming layoffs.

Obviously, I'm trying to resume-spam now, but I am pretty sure that cold applying to companies doesn't work anymore, because every job posting is immediately botted to shit (and a lot of job postings are fake anyway).

So...what do people actually do to find work now? Is it really just going through your metaphorical Rolodex and bothering friends/previous coworkers and asking if that can forward your resume?

root-parent 3 hours ago |

Here are the things you should not waste your time on otherwise you find out after months: LinkedIn or applying to vacancies. To get a real sense of what is going on try to talk to people who are on the hiring side like agencies and HR.

But not in the context of showing up as a candidate. The only thing that will work will be personal contacts. Join user groups and do something without the actual purpose of finding a job. Volunteer for things in an IT context.

You might say this will mean weeks to months of wasted activities, but believe it will be way better than weeks or months of applying for non existing jobs.

Here is a tip that I dont find unethical, call agencies but as in the role of a job offer not job seeker. Have a conversation, and you will then have the full picture.

drstewart 3 hours ago | |

>Here are the things you should not waste your time on otherwise you find out after months: LinkedIn or applying to vacancies

Here are things that have gotten my every job ever, including one in the last year: LinkedIn or applying to vacancies

iamflimflam1 57 minutes ago |

Use your network. It’s the best way.

smackeyacky 2 hours ago |

I’ve had 3 jobs in the last 3 years. What didn’t work: cold applications mostly were a waste of time. LinkedIn has been a complete farce for job seeking.

However the last cold application did work, although it was to an agency rather than direct to the company.

It’s demoralising work applying for jobs. Good luck!

floor2 1 hour ago |

I'm a hiring manager. We post jobs on our website, along with LinkedIn and probably some others. We review applications from that, and interview and hire those people.

We get a lot of bots, but the software itself filters out 99% of that and then our recruiters filter out the rest. Referrals push candidates to the top of the queue for interviews, but otherwise it's literally just hiring people who cold applied to a job posting they saw online.

That's not to say it's not still terrible to be interviewing, just my point is, don't write off applying just because it sucks.

MattDamonSpace 1 hour ago | |

Have you noticed an increase in valid applications?

Presumably AI is helping some-to-many reasonable candidates apply to many more positions

qsxfthnkp2322 1 hour ago |

Going on four months here. Good luck.

I heard from one recruiter they had 800+ applications to a role

It’s rough out here.