Rookie Mistakes: Job Hunting

1. Not seeing the job hunt as an active process

Your full time job is looking for a job, and job hunting is work. Cruising the job boards alone isn’t enough. You gotta get out there, attend meetups, connect with the industry/community and make sure people know you’re on the job hunt. It’s all about hustle. This can be tough if you’re not a naturally outgoing person but in today’s day and age it’s a lot about who you know (or who they know… see #3).

2. Not keeping your skills sharp

There is no easy way around it, job hunting can take some time before you secure something. Don’t let your skills get rusty. You need to spend your time applying for jobs and continuing to do projects to keep your skills sharp. If you are applying for a Ruby position but haven’t really used Ruby in 6 months, how well do you think you’re going to do on a tech test if you manage to score an interview? Keep your resume up to date with your current projects. The longer you’re on the hunt the bigger your resume gets, which eventually will lead to you landing an interview.

3. Not going to the right job boards

Not all job boards are created equal! There are tons of industry specific boards that go as general as “tech jobs in Canada” to as detailed as “Node.js Jobs in Vancouver”. Spend some time researching job boards themselves, see what kind of postings are on there, and gauge their relevance.

Some go to Tech Job Boards: TechVibes

Stack Overflow

BC Tech Jobs (this one is national despite its name).

DEV.To

4. Forgetting the power of second-degree connections

You get the guts to go to a meetup and you have a really great conversation with another dev who is passionate about React.js too! They don’t mention that their company is hiring so you don’t give the conversation another thought. The thing is, this dev’s company may not be hiring but they may have a friend whose company is… always follow up! Send them a quick email or LinkedIn connection thanking them for the conversation. Mention that you’re looking for work and if they know anyone hiring you’d love the chance to work with React.js (but you’re good at Ruby too).

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