diaries from the job search w/ chantastic

full transcript

auto-generated from the audio, so expect a few typos. the audio is the source of truth.

good morning everybody happy Monday I say everybody no one's here yet good morning I'm glad we even got this live set up I was having some major technical difficulties major technical difficulties so good morning good morning happy Monday hope you had a great weekend um listen listen have some unfortunate news I may have already lost my pocket cam um so the the the camera I got um I was at a meal prep location yesterday and my CEO came up surprise me as I was putting it back in my bag I set it down and I don't have it so I'm waiting uh for that place

to call me back they don't open till 11: hopefully they have it hopefully no one stole it uh but if you were looking for my Vlog this morning on my new camera reason why it's not out is because it is temporarily missing so hopefully I find it if not gonna buy another one but uh it was just a big bummer um to end my uh my day yesterday but uh it's good to be with you'all today again some major technical difficulties this morning I didn't know what was going on um but uh we're here the webcams working my my browser was I tell you what

it's just electron last 24 hours between losing my my new my new camera and then the the electronics I was literally troubleshooting for last 20 minutes so uh Colin yes yeah literally I've had this toy for like three days four days and I've already lost it so pray that Colin it's clean eats and Green Hills so hopefully clean eats they don't watch this show but clean eats hopefully you call me at 11 when you open up and you have it in your position if not uh that is going to be a big bummer but uh for those who tuning in welcome say hey we love

to hear from you this is guidance counselor 2.0 it's a morning show that I do every morning uh to just hang out with you all and give back to the uh developer Community um Colin sweet I know yeah seriously seriously yeah exactly um so say hey we love to hear from you this is you know my guest had a reschedule today so I had the amazing Corey Jones he's a recruiter at Google down Atlanta um he is uh Mega viral on YouTube has over 100,000 followers on YouTube um for those of you trying to grow YouTube you know how hard that is and so he

was supposed to hang out with me today but he had a meeting it put on his counter so we had to reschedule so excited to have him the first week of June he's actually coming on um I think June 3D I believe but I want to say just again comment say hey um we're going to go over some things on the job search kind of what I'm seeing some General market Intel but also want to answer your questions as well and what I've realized over the last four years of me doing this is is really if you've if you can say hey and network in

in the DMS and network with my guests and just Network off the back of my shows like you'll be in a pretty good spot so but the only way to I I know that you're uh watching is if you comment right we're not in the metaverse yet I can't see who you are so again Tik Tok good morning Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Twitter we are all live this morning I want to get to two of my uh sponsors this morning first and foremost that conference um up in Wisconsin so I will tell you this I I believe I've sold all my tickets I may have one

more I may have one more so um but don't quote me on that um if if if you have um uh if you want to get to Wisconsin for that conference uh let me know I may have one more ticket left um so also g g to give a shout out to render ATL the premier Platinum Pro sponsor of the show render ATL thank you so much uh for picking up the show and just thank you so much for being an amazing conference I will be there I cannot announce to you how I'm going to be there yet very very excited but be there June

12th through 14th in Atlant it's going to be a heck of a time um Chris it's good to see you Amy it's wonderful to see you it's been minute hopefully you are doing well um and again Tik Tok Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Twitter good morning it's great to see y'all u h all right so I I'll answer some questions that you have about the job search right now but I do want to get into again some conversations I'm having right now right first and foremost and just things I'm seen first and foremost listen I get a lot of like job reports right and I I try

to subscribe to uh a lot of Labor Market stuff listen it's not good right now right this is a two- side thing a it's not that great right it's not that great but also B companies are still hiring right I literally have a call tomorrow with this company that's hiring a handful of Engineers right and so now you're probably like listening to this you're probably watching this or listening this in the future like Taylor why what what that makes no sense big big Tech and headlines always always uh oh my gosh y'all get this clean eats has my camera uh I could cry I am

am so so excited um they just emailed me so shout out clean eats for having my camera praise the Lord uh that's great all right so uh so what does that mean first off listen y'all have a savings account and and the reason why I'm talking about this like listen I like to spend money right I love to spend money um uh I also love uh to take take trips right I will tell you this right now like my wife and I are having active conversations like I thought we'd be out of this mess right now like I legitimately thought the market right now I

thought we would be out of this mess at the moment and we're not and so my concern is this thing is probably going to go this Market is I I hate to say it probably going to go to the end of the year I think we'll see some activity in the market the closer we get to election season election time um but listen my encouragement to you all especially recruiting Engineers like if if you get laid off uh and you find a job like my first priority if I were you is to rep replenish your savings account now I get I'm not this is not

Financial advice like I said I'm not the best at savings right I'm having th is conversation actively but I want to let you know like we need to have more conversations no one's having this conversation right now like like you got to be prepared right I I have folks right now in the job search that are going six to nine months before finding their next job six to nine months so the question I ask yourself the question I ask you the question you should ask yourself is do you have a savings do you have a Runway to go six to nine months right and if

the answer is no then my priority right now especially if you have a job and you know you're safe for the moment is to focus on that listen I I I firmly believe that like anybody could get laid off at any time and that's not a great mindset to have but I think we all just need to get there the Market's crazy I probably Taylor this isn't the best uplifting Monday message that I want to hear this morning I get it but I want to be real with y'all right I'm never going to be the recruiter I'm never going to be the individual out here

saying the Market's great everything's great right but I do want to tell you this though is that companies are still hired now the big Tech is laying people off right because we saw that during Co if you've listened to unicorn finders my other podcast we talked about this a lot like there what happened during 2021 2022 was was unattainable it was absolutely unattainable so my what's happening is that big Tech who had all the money who hired so much are now laying people off but startups and high growth startups are hiring right now right so what I would do if I were you is I

would start following a lot of like emails literature blogs individuals on social media that keep up with startups like product hunt uh Angel list and really start getting more networked into the startup ecosystem now the argument here could be like Taylor well there's a lot of stuff in the market right now saying well people aren't writing checks right now right VCS aren't wri checks you are right ther e we have seen a downturn in VC's writing checks however checks are still being written right and I think I think a lot of people these days and even me right even me I do this live I

do this live and Amy thank you so much for your kind words um but for me um I thought I lost I totally lost what I was trying to say oh um when it comes to startups like I never really focus my time in startup culture right when I was at my last company we were very Enterprise heavy we didn't really talk to startups a lot now that I'm at gun like I am introduced to so many more startup ecosystems Founders entrepreneurs because that's that's where we really excel at gun iio and so like again I mean I'm telling you if if if I were

looking for a job right now look up like your local Entrepreneur Center right like Nashville The nationville Entrepreneur Center get involved you know startup Nashville right why do you think I'm a part of startup Nashville with Kelly Griggs right is that is that companies are still hiring they're just usually smaller companies because the big companies who had the money during covid ripped too hard and hired too many folks and so again that is that is what's going on right now Chris it's good to see you render Nashville yes I want to give I want to give kind of two announcements real quick and Chris brought

up here render Nashville so render Nashville is meeting the end of the month um at my last company believe it or not um I have a Meetup go to render I think it's render Nashville on meetup.com it is um I am blessed to speak on a panel um on this panel it's gonna be a great panel um and we're gonna be talk about the mental health on the job search so for those of you wanting to be in community um uh I I would highly recommend showing up to the render Nashville Meetup uh it is it is May 30th um I I have the meet

page set go check that out so Chris thank you for bringing that up my guy I appreciate you and yes the EC is fantastic so I want to give kind of a few more tips and tricks with what I'm seeing right now listen I I think uh uh good morning that be coffee mug yeah yeah yeah Bear yeah this I got this for my wife a while ago this is like the best it's like a big coffee mug you get a lot of coffee in this bad boy so um I I do want to talk about um again the power of networking right I will

never stop talking about about this right now if you apply to a job if you submit your resume to a job your resume most likely will not get seen unless it is within the first probably 24 hours of that job posting happening right what I would do is I would heavily rely on recruiters I would heavily rely on your network and I would heavily rely on meeting as much PE many people as possible I would try to meet one to two people a day if you do not have a job on your job search um and so uh Kent what's going on buddy t i

Kent I love you I love you Martin's get the W I hope we get the W tonight five to2 Kent's calling I love it Kent you should show up tonight and Coach Us big dog show up tonight and Coach us um the boys have a game two final championship game tonight we could win the championship for the first time ever um after going to the championship for three years in a row we're kind of we're starting to become like the the the the Buffalo Bills um all right so what else uh networking again meeting people networking with people and like also uh I know I

talk a lot about like going to professional meetups and all this stuff listen literally just like hanging out with people that like have your same per like same interest is networking right I feel like everyone's like I gotta go create a Meetup about Java or I gotta go create a Meetup about Donnet listen at the end of the day like like Kent Kent's my guy from hockey like Kent Kent was about to sell me a car right and like by the way if you do need a car Kent Kent's great guy to talk to but like like I know Kent through hockey I don't know

Kent through a Java Meetup right and so aga in like I I want to encourage you all today I feel like networking gets a really bad rap and I totally get it it's really awkward but like really really leverage the people in your life that you have similar interests to because I feel like a lot of times we go into job search again I'll never forget I had coffee with my biggest competitor who's a recruiter in Nashville and I was like how's this person going to help me find a job as as what I do because he only recruits developers right and so that's why

I'm saying like I I think you need to become BFFs with a lot of people a lot of Recruiters in your area because like they're the ones that like keep in keep keep things in mind for you right um another thing too work smarter not harder when it comes to the job search like Leverage social media right now I'm not asking to turn into a Mr Beast but I would document your job search listen it is not a coincidence folks it is not a coincidence that the folks that have been documenting their job search on Twitter and Linkedin that I follow have found a job

quicker than than than other people who aren't doing that literally two people I know that I've interviewed on this pod have messaged me recently in the last 30 days and said hey believe it or not I you are right I got literally one guy on the job search recently he he has been struggling to put out a video and I keep encourag him keep encouraging I said do it dude just put it out he finally put out one video I'm not kidding you I am not kidding you he messaged me and he goes you won't believe this my former boss saw this and he re-offered

me the job because they needed somebody they and I was top of mind and they reached out to me I mean guys listen I everything I say I I tell people this listen I'm not the end all be there's a lot of recruiters right I'm I'm live on Tik Tok on my phone like Tik Tok there's a lot of recruiters out there right LinkedIn there's a lot of recruiters out there right and listen they all say some good things they really really do I will tell you this the folks who have gone and done my blueprint right the five things of the job search networking

right having one or two conversations a day right two I'm holding at my second hand for Tik Tok here second posting on LinkedIn and or Twitter right to documenting your job search right third thing slacks slack discords get involved in at least one Community the fourth thing is meetups try to get to one Meetup in person or try to do something in person and then the fifth thing I forgot the fifth thing but there is a fifth thing I promise there's a fifth thing right so again incredibly important do the work be active get in front of people Etc Elliot it's so so good to

see if you'all have any questions please ask them um I'm trying to like rack my brain um and trying to figure out other questions that I may have one of the questions I get I get a lot of too is just like again I got laid off how do I find a job it's overwhelming the first thing I would do is hit up everybody in your network right hit up everybody in your network everybody you know again I found the job at gun iio because I message people in my network right like start with who you know first everybody that I've talked to recently on

social media Twitter LinkedIn Etc you name it um uh basically I I'm going to be honest with you I'm having a hard time with this live this morning because I'm so excited that that that restaurant found my cam that I lost so I'm v ery very excited about it uh um is most people I've talked to lately when it comes to the job search is um they have found the job because people they know because of people they know I think that's just that that just it is that that is that is just the way the market works right now right referrals are huge referrals

are huge right before you submit to a job go on LinkedIn go on LinkedIn and see if you have any common connections with that person on LinkedIn right so if you're going to submit to gun to find a job go to gun's LinkedIn profile and see if you know anybody right hey I know Taylor right message me I'll always like if I know you I will put in a good word for you yes speaking of finding things Jason they found it they found it Jason I just got the email see not a waste of money jerk uh Jason's not a jerk anyways listen I want

to give a shout out to Jason as well Jason host an amazing series called Tech commute on Twitter it's gonna be Twitter spaces I'm going live with Jason this afternoon um for uh for an hour so Jason Jason I kicking off at 3:30 Central today 3:30 Central Twitter space it's gonna be a great hang Jason's gonna be facilitating it um again I give Jason a lot of props he's doing it the right way go support Jason hang out with us this afternoon on Tech commute on Twitter space I always love doing Twitter space I don't do enough of them so Jason appreciate you yes very

excited they found it uh what else um uh let's see here just found out I made a second round interview was a referral interviews listen folks listen I I don't I don't make up I don't this this is it Jason congrats to you also can you text me let me know where you're interviewing can I help you at all just found out I made a second round interview was referral both both my interviews as re referrals exactly question on uh Tik Tok and we'll get to Read's question here in a second um Tik Tok question again y'all keep ask questions I'm going to wrap up

here because I got to email back the restaurant that found my uh found my camera um because I gotta go pick it up would this work with common connections I don't know should I still reach out um I don't know which part you asked me this because I I was running my mouth really would would would this work with comic connection I don't know if you are trying to get into a company and you just like have connections but you don't know those connections I would say that doesn't work as well right you have to have an advocate you you have to have an advocate

in your at that company to speak for you now what I would do um uh Tik Tok user is what I would do is I would message that individual that you have common connections with at that com like Hey listen let's say you and I are connected at and you want to submit to gun you would message me and go hey um basically uh gun um Taylor want to submit to gun do you have a moment would love to chat with you about your time there things I should keep in mind I will chat with you right but if you say Hey Taylor can you

use me can you use me as a reference I don't know you right so like again you have to know that person um let's see here any tips Reed my guy hey y'all listen very excited Reed my boy is joining me tomorrow on the show 9:30 a.m.

Central Reed I'm super pumped to have you Reed re to Jim y'all he's in Knoxville he's fantastic so please come hang out with us Reed is a a fantastic engineering leader um and he's doing his own thing now Reed I think right so we're going to talk about that going on your own it's going to be good um so again Tik Tok if you have any more job source questions let me know uh Reed comes in here any tips tricks for having those networking conversations about feeling like you're being too sales pitchy yes ask questions ask questions right people feel networking is salesy why because

you need something let me rephr let me say that again networking is awkward for 99.9% of people because you you need something from that person i t doesn't become awkward when you're actually just trying to be their friends right so ask them questions right listen um a a Tik Tok user who asked me that question I don't know you right or maybe I do but I don't think I do if you message me like Hey Taylor listen I love your stuff right flattery we talk about this all the time right I've really kind of gotten away from how to construct a good DM flattery right

noticing something they do right so Hey Taylor love what you do in the community really love the content you're putting out this one thing at with me can can can we have a three minute conversation I just want to hop on call real fast with you to ask this one question get and then and then ask the question go call right that is how you do not be salesy right you know read read for example right I wanted Reed to hire from me for a while at his at his last company right I didn't like call Reed and be like yo bro just hire from

me I just like I I went to Reed's uh keynote at uh um Scenic City Summit years ago right I liked his comments on LinkedIn I invited him in onto my podcast right like like you got to understand something like in this market people got to be romanced a little bit right I mean you got to be romanced and so again ask questions be genuinely interested the people who are genuinely interested listen I I I I can definitely um uh I I I can definitely um tell if you're trying to get at something the folks who are generally interested in me I I I will

I will try to move mountains for you for sure uh Garrett comes in here last year another ten of this live connect me LinkedIn this summer he got an internship Hey Garrett that's awesome look at this folks again this is really really cool this is why I do this show this is it this is it this this this is this is it Network when I tell you network with people in the DMS on this show this is why folks this is freaking why this makes Mak me so excited between my camera being found after leaving it a $600 camera being found and this comment I'm

super jacked up this morning so excited except I have the dentist I have the dentist after this I hate the dentist uh Colin I'll send you a picture Erica good morning Elliott took a lengthy disability leaving just now coming back to work Elliot I do apologize hope everything's okay to be honest I feel terrible job searching for another job because my company took care of me I think I need a new boss within my company what can I do all right lot just Lots unpacked ell I'm so glad you asking this because this is real stuff so thank you first off I off so I

all right so working with Bad Bosses is hard right I've been there done that I unfortunately think you have to skip level and have a conversation with the skip level boss your skip level for those of you skip level that's like your B your boss's boss and what I would do is I would absolutely like I would come so if you have a so Elliot if you truly believe your current boss is the problem I would write down specific things of what this boss is doing or not doing and come prepared with the meeting with your skip level manager and sit down and be like

hey this is in confidence I am concerned hear my concerns bang bang bang bang bang the more that I work with senior leadership throughout my career and the one thing I'm continually improving on and shout out to my CEO Tasia right now for helping me challenging me in this is creating being very specific right I feel like especially for me I like to talk a lot I like to and and bless tas's heart when he hired me he was I'm sure he was like Jesus Christ this guy just talks all the time I have to process outward but one thing my bosses my CEO is

helping me do is being like if you if you want to come I'm all about bitching but if you like really want to get something across like please come with specifics right so that's my suggestion with you Elliot sit down be thoughtful write things that this boss is doing or not doing then have a meeting with your skip level boss um and I'm sure some HR people on Tik Tok or LinkedIn that may see this may disagree with this but in my opinion that's just what I've done um and then uh and then if that doesn't work then it's time to look for another job

um and here's the deal if you want to play with fire you could say if if if I can't get another team I'm going to have to leave I don't recommend saying that unless unless you're ready to say that but sometimes sometimes uh that could absolutely um uh that can absolutely uh make things happen if you kind of like show your hand a little bit uh Chris what's the best way to get in touch with me uh email email Taylor desen gunio um or shoot me shoot me a a message on LinkedIn but email is always best Taylor gun.io so um all right y'all this

is good I'm gonna email back the place that found my camera I'm so excited they found it I I hope you got something out of this if you got something out of this live please share this with your community um again I I want to be a tool a resource for you for your network so if you got something out this please please um please share it again my guy Reed coming on the show tomorrow morning 9:30 a.

Central Reed is awesome it's gonna be a great conversation and then Wednesday uh Tom Redmond so I don't know Tom Tom just was watching my show and commented about how he found a job and he did it the right way so I just slid into Tom's DM said hey do you want to call my show and talk about it so we're gonna talk about how he found a job uh a very different way so that's Wednesday um oh also before I finish out before I finish out I know most people aren't watching now at this point because we're kind of late in the show but

gunio we released a a product that's really really freaking cool think LinkedIn recruiter but in our own database we've basically turned our database of thousands of Engineers into a public database and so now you can search within our platform like for free obviously like we get pinged if you want to talk to one of our people right but like you can go on you can use this tool for budgeting you can go on and see who's available you can go on and see you know what the Market's kind of demanding on our platform so if you are a this is really good for hiring managers

and recruiters both internal and agency recruiters so if you want to give this uh product a go shoot me a DM I'll set you up with our sales team for a product and we can kind of run through it real quick so again appreciate yall youall have a great one uh happy Monday