tactics for the job search from conversations - solo show

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All right, so let's go ahead and dive in this morning. I'm kind of some topic. So spoke with a few folks this week. One of the recent conversations, I'm actually at my calendar in front of me just to make sure I can trigger my brain. But the first conversation I had this week that I want to talk to you all about is a conversation with a senior engineer, a senior engineering manager, right? So this senior engineering manager said basically that he was freaking out because the first three weeks there was nothing happening. Nothing happening. And he was really freaking out. And so I said, well, what changed?

Like what changed? And so he said activity. He said the first thing is his activity. And I agree with him on that. The job search right now is all about activity based. Are you reaching out to people? Are you submitting your resume? Are you going to meetups? Are you on Discord and Slack channels, right? How active are you always, right? Every single day. But the one thing he said is that he was mass applying to jobs. And he says I was literally like, he literally was like, I've stopped applying to jobs. And he goes and he goes and I've started to DM hiring managers of the companies that the jobs were open with.

And he says my response rate went from basically 0% to he said I would say I'm bad in 50% right now. Now, there is one thing that he said, like, cause you're probably like watching this now in the future like, well, Taylor, I can message people too. It doesn't mean I'm going to get responses. You're right. However, however, what he did is incredibly important. He basically came, he figured out his like mission statement, right or his about me statement. And I talked about this and I posted that this was some of my content earlier this week, but he dug into like who he is, what he provides.

And what he would do is he would message the hiring manager on LinkedIn and he would say, hey, Mr. Mrs. Manager, I saw a job posting. Here's why I'm a good fit. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And he said with implementing that tactic, his response rate went from about 0% to about 50% just in regards to getting people to respond to him. Right now, I'm not talking interviews, not talking anything like that. I'm just talking about people responding to him in the DM. So again, like I said, I've talked about this a ton of times. Like hiring managers and recruiters are super busy right now.

In my opinion, to more information in the more direct you can get in the DM's and either give up information about you and or collect information about things in the DM's, the better. I get so many DM's on a daily basis and their vague, they don't ask for anything. And they just are not productive DM's. I will tell you folks, if you want to really get a response out of people, keep it short, keep it direct and actually ask this freaking question. So many folks just don't ask questions. And I don't know why. And so again, my goal for you and my hope for you is that you really drill this into your skull this morning is if you need to be active in the DM's and DMing people, but then you also need to provide value, give specific information and ask specific questions, as incredibly important.

So it's great to see you this morning. Again, y'all comment. We'll love to hear from you. Another thing, and I was talking, so I continue to talk with this engineering manager. And the one thing he talked about is the emotional swings that can occur on the job search. The emotional swings are crazy and is very, very hard to control. He was like one week, he goes, my wife was crying. Like I was freaking out. I was gonna respond to those, I was like, I'm not gonna ever find a job again. And then three weeks later, he's like, hey man, I'm pretty good now. When I originally scheduled a call, like I don't really need your help as much anymore.

Let's just stay in touch. That is a major, that is a major pendulum swing when it comes to the job search. And so like again, I'm telling you, try to breathe through this, try to relax as much as you feasibly can. Now, moving on to another conversation I had yesterday with the senior engineer as well. This lady was on the job search. We had a great conversation. A few things we talked about, first off, like, breathe, right? When you get into the job search, so many folks just, and we're taught this, right? We're taught activity, I mean, I'm out here talking activity. Well, you gotta give yourself time to breathe, right?

Like being laid off is a traumatic event, right? Like I think a lot of people are like, oh, I just got laid off, you know, it's time to go find another job. Like, no, like that's a traumatic event. I was laid off in July of last year. I was shaken to my core. You get, you question yourself, there's a ton of emotions, fear, sadness, excitement, and anxiousness, right? All of that is like flooding into your system. That is not a good place to be when interviewing and looking for a job, right? And this applies to anything in life that I've realized if I make any decisions, like based off of pure emotion, it never goes well, right?

It never goes well. I don't know if y'all get hangry at all, anyone get hangry, right? Same thing, right? Last thing you wanna do is like make a decision when you're hangry, right? I mean, my wife and I, a lot of our arguments come when one of us is hungry, right? Same thing with the job search, take time, breathe, like give yourself a day or two or three or depending on how long of a severance you have, give yourself a week, like relax a little bit. You just have worked. You know, this one individual I talked to yesterday to see in your engineer, she had spent eight years at this one company, right?

I spent 12 years at one company, right? Like that, you put your heart and soul and that long of something into an organization, you gotta give yourself time to breathe. Yeah, Janet comes in here and goes, go to therapy if you've been laid off, if you can swing it. Yeah, absolutely. I think this is incredibly important again. It is a traumatic event get laid off, breathe, go seek help, go talk to somebody. You gotta get your mind right before you start the job search game, because I can't tell you the amount of people I've talked to that are just angry and bitter at their last company.

And it really comes through in the interview process and it is a major, major turn off. Alex is gonna see this morning, Robert, it's good to see you as well. Anthony, it's great to see you as well. So let me continue this, excuse me. I think it's a conversation, senior engineer yesterday who I talked to, spent eight years at one company. I again, like the conversation we were having, she was like, I don't quite understand like, how can I provide value to a company, right? And this is what I told her, I said, listen, I said, first off, you need to figure out what you can bring to the table for another company and work that into your mission statement, right?

Same thing with the senior engineering manager, but I also told her, I said, you also need to look at job descriptions, you need to look at job descriptions of roles. Because this individual is kind of in a weird spot, like a kind of a weird role. I said, you need to look at job descriptions of companies, positions that you really like, figure out what you like about those positions, and then work that into your mission statement, right? Like you really, really need, when you talk to a company, you gotta figure out in your mission statement, how to answer the mission statement where you can showcase your talents and show them, how you can be a value out within the organization, in the initial mission statement, right?

So that can be the tell me about yourself question, right? But like one of the things that I got, I was like, hey Taylor, what do you do? Right? When I was laid off last year in July, so many people were like, well Taylor, what do you do? Cause I was in a weird role, right? I do content, I drive sales, I do community, I do social media, right? So everybody's like, what do you do? And so I had to have a lot of conversations and figure out where people's pain points are. So what my mission statement was, and again, I think this is a little bit different than tell me about yourself question, is for me, I was like, hey, I am the intersection between content, community, and sales.

So if you need a sales person, if you need a content creator, and or you need somebody who helps run community within your organization, that is where I can come into play. And so because I kind of formed that mission statement early on, I was able to get a lot of conversations and a lot of interviews, because I was very to the point, right? So when somebody gets, it's just said, hey, what do you do? I could tell them immediately, then it would then lead to a conversation. So who else? Let's see here Becky, it's good to see you this morning. Janet says, we transform our anger into a duty as a to kick ass.

Now, yeah, 100%, again, again, don't go in the job search, angry, turn it into enthusiasm, and then go crush it. What else have I had a conversation with? Another thing too, listen, resume LinkedIn, you have to have, like resume your LinkedIn, I talk about it all the time. If there's a cornerstone of your job search, it is your resume's gotta look good, and your LinkedIn's gotta look good. Be careful of resume riders, be careful resume riders, because like a lot of resume riders, actually, in my opinion, hot take here, most resume riders that only do resume riding are so disconnected from the hiring process, and what hiring is actually wanna see their resumes are shit.

In my opinion, I would go to an agency recruiter and be like, hey, I'll pay you to help me write my resume. I do that, I help people write their resumes, but I know what hiring managers look for because I'm in it. A lot of career coaches and resume riders aren't really in it anymore. They just sit in their office and help people write resumes, and they're not dealing with hiring managers every day like I am. So again, be careful if you're gonna pay for a resume rider, do the research, see about their experiences with resume riding, like, hey, listen, have you been a recruiter, have you been a hiring manager?

What are your qualifications? Right, again, in my opinion, the best resume riders are gonna be agency recruiters. Another thing as well, like I was talking to the senior engineering manager, this week, going back to that conversation, he was like, I have all this data written down because I created this Excel sheet, because this is a data problem. And it really is, like a lot of the job search is data. Are you keeping up with people? I mean, I can tell you this, I didn't do a good of a job keeping up with the data side of things. In my job search, when I was laid off in July of last year, and I'm pretty sure I probably missed down some conversations I would have probably enjoyed because I wasn't keeping track of anything.

Another tip that I would say for folks, and I haven't talked about this in a second, like the job search is all about follow-up. And one of my tricks is, I called the BCC trick, where, which by the way, I just learned the other day, it's called Blind Carbon Copy. Like, didn't even realize what the B-stood for. So there we go, if anybody was interested about that. So, what I would do is, is every recruiter you talked to that you like, right, that you like, put them in like an email list, right? And then what I would do, every month, every month, send an email out to all the recruiters that you like on one email, put them on a BCC, and just say, hey, checking him, you know, again, a little bit about me.

I'm a five-year developer, specializing in a React and Ruby. I'm open to contract, contract to hire direct hire, and I want a minimum of 150 K plus, right? And do that every single month. I will tell you, you're gonna have a ton of success. Listen, recruiters are overwhelmed, hiring managers overwhelmed, checking in and constantly reminding people who you are and what your skill sets are, is going to be the best thing for you and your job search. So use the BCC trick, highly recommend it. Another interesting tidbit that I found out about. So the senior engineering manager, he was saying that the salaries that he's seeing the difference right now is about $30,000 difference.

So he was basically like originally, like at the 230 mark, and now he's like at the 200K mark, and, or he was getting the interviews at 200K. Now, a few thoughts on this. One, I hate to say it. It is an employer's market. I've talked with a lot of senior engineers who I think would have probably demanded 175 recently. They're probably, they're now like, I'm at 150K plus. Right now, here's the deal. It just sucks. It is what it is. But I will tell you this, like you need to be open to a salary range right now. I know a lot of people who are still just so damn dead set, on it's like, I am only taking this much.

And it's like, yeah, how long have you been without a job, bro? Six months? Like, why wonder why you've been without a job so long? So be flexible right now. Talk to recruiters, right? And I get a talk about this. Recruit agency recruiters, the tech systems, the, I mean, Gun IOs, the, the, the VACOs, the Robert Haps. Like, most, a lot of recruiters suck. Like, I get that. I understand that. But we have so much market intel. Like, we can tell you like, how your salary stacks up. Like, what skill sets do you need to learn and make yourself more attractive right now? Hint, back end engineering, right?

Like, so really lean on recruiters and ask them your salary. Like, hey, based off, based off my qualifications in my resume, like, like, how, how much, how much, how much should I charge? Or how much should I like submit my resume for? And they'll tell you, they'll tell you. I do want to ask, I do want to tell you all this real quick. This is just talking my brain. So my, my biggest tip for you all when talking with agency recruiters, when talking with agency recruiters, Chris, what's up buddy? It's good to see you man. I appreciate it buddy. You're the best too. So when talking to agency recruiters, here are about four or five things because like the complaint right now I'm hearing a lot of is, I talked with agency recruiter, they can't help me.

Yes, most people can't help you right now. Most agency recruiters, even myself, we can only help 10% of the people we talk to, 10%. That's it. That's it. So here are some questions to ask recruiters. When you talk to them, even if they can't help you find a job. One, what is one tip that you have on my resume to improve my resume or improve my LinkedIn? Ask the recruiter, give me one tip. If you talk to 12 recruiters, you should be able to crowdsource your resume and write your own resume based off the suggestions from recruiters. So ask a recruiter, resume LinkedIn tip. Just give me one tip.

The second thing to ask recruiters is, how do I stack up compared to everybody you talk to? Am I above average? Am I in line? Am I underutilized? Where can I improve? That's the second thing I'd ask recruiters. Third thing I'd ask recruiters, kind of the same thing, but around salary. So you can ask a recruiter, where do I stack up a skills? And then where do I stack up a salary? So those are three questions right off the bat that you can ask recruiters that you will gain value for. Even if they can't help you find a job, right? Another question I'd ask recruiters to is, do you have any other recruiter friends who I should talk to?

Now a lot of recruiters, a lot of recruiters do have friends in other organizations. I always sent my friends to other people. So ask your recruiter, like, hey, I know you can't help me. Do you have another recruiter friend who you really like who I should talk to? So through four things that you can ask a recruiter and really it's six, give me one tip on my LinkedIn, give me one tip on my resume, give me advice on where I'm salary wise. What is one skill set I need to improve on to be more marketable? And do you have any recruiter friends? So five questions, five questions to ask recruiters right there.

There you go. Let's see here, Marie. What's going on? Good morning, happy Friday. I love it. And the show comes in, always keep up schooling yourself. Yeah, 100%. But again, going back to the shows comment though, always keep up, skill yourself. Talk to recruiters and ask them, what skills should I learn to up skill myself, right? That is incredibly important because we can talk about up skill in all day long, but if the skills you're learning aren't really up-skilling yourself, then you're losing out. What else? I'm trying to think of what else before I wrap it up today. Again, take a friend and out with me today.

I appreciate it. Fridays are just kind of quick into the point. I'm trying to think of any other nuggets. Again, lean on recruiters. Again, we can really help you even if we can't help you find a direct job. Look up talent marketplaces. That's another thing. Again, I had one episode about the difficulty of talent marketplace or recruiting company. I think talent marketplace is really untapped. Some of the marketplace, obviously Gun I.O. G2I, my buddy Gabe, who runs that company is awesome. I would say those two, I'd recommend the most. There is top towel. I've heard mixed reviews on top towel. They're kind of like the 800-pound gorilla in the room at this point with the agency, with talent marketplaces.

Look up talent marketplaces. I think they're another great tool and asset for you and your job search. Have patience. And just keep your head down, keep interviewing. And so again, it's going to take time right now. Most people aren't finding jobs in six weeks. So start networking. Do your thing. You'll be OK. Cool. Well, that is it for me today. I appreciate it. Thank you all for hanging out with me today. It means a lot. Again, we are all over the place today. We're on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, X, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Thank you all for hanging out with me today. If anything, shoot me DM.

My YouTube has all my lives. I so, so me with the help of Jason, who's my project coordinator, we have completely redone my YouTube channel. It is a lot easier to navigate. It's a lot easier to watch past episodes. It's a lot easier to gain more practical information on your job search. So go check out my YouTube. Again, y'all have a great one. We'll see you all next week for a ton of amazing episodes. And y'all have a good one. Peace. Hey, you did it. You listened to an entire episode. And I am very grateful. Because you know why? There's a lot of podcasts out there.

There's a lot of episodes. And I myself rarely finished an entire episode. So I appreciate you so, so much for listening. Quick reminder, please rate and review this podcast in the app store. I want this to be discoverable to others and the only way that happens is if you take the time right now and rate and review it. Please, like right now, unless you're driving, then don't do it. So thank you again. If you need to reach out to me at T-Dasting on all social media handles and I hope you have a fantastic day.