Ask HN: Finding work for a significant other
8 comments
Why didn't she write this post herself? Don't get me wrong, it's great that you want to help her out, but it would probably make a better impression if she went out there herself.
She's done plenty of writing herself of late. I'm turning to the community that I know and understand and that I knew would be a valuable resource for feedback.
> Let this be a reminder to you all. Build the hell out of your network.
Not that this is bad advice, by all means, but I think there is a more concrete lesson here:
> I went so far as to convince her to quit a great gig back in Chicago (knowing she could work remotely)
In most cases - including this one if I understand correctly - you don't need to quit your old job and then find a new one. You can and should do it the other way around.
Best of luck on the search.
Not that this is bad advice, by all means, but I think there is a more concrete lesson here:
> I went so far as to convince her to quit a great gig back in Chicago (knowing she could work remotely)
In most cases - including this one if I understand correctly - you don't need to quit your old job and then find a new one. You can and should do it the other way around.
Best of luck on the search.
Confluence of events really made it natural to leave the job. But agreed on principle - I don't think I've ever quit a job to find a new one before...
Hi,
There is this little article in Inc. about the benefits of meeting people in person:
http://www.inc.com/rene-siegel/five-reasons-you-need-to-meet...
The author, Rene Siegel, is the owner of http://www.htconnect.com, which looks relevant for your SO skills.
In the end of the article she invites the readers to a kind of a meetup in Faz Restaurant lounge in Pleasanton - it may be worth your SO time.
Good luck!
Good luck!
If she left on good terms, have her try and get her old job back working remotely.
you should provide a way for people to contact you privately ;)
And just in case the OP is unaware: the "email" field in your profile is not publicly visible. You must put anything you want people to see in the "about" field.
OP didn't know. OP is now informed and updated. Thank you!
Sent an email with some info :)
itay, if you emailed iwritecode with general advice, can you forward it to me. I'm guessing I'll be in his partner's position in 4-5 months.
I pointed him at Splunk's career page and said if anything is a good fit for his SO, send me the information and I'll forward it internally.
No general advice, unfortunately :)
No general advice, unfortunately :)
Write up a list of 10 advertising companies in the Bay Area smaller than Google, figure out who inside needs to say "Yes" for her to get hired, then get a warm intro to that person. Possible avenues would be convincing any of the 432 startups in that space to take a coffee date with you, then asking for an intro after demonstrating credibility. Given that most of them have nothing but time that shouldn't be a terrible imposition. An offer of Real World Experience Selling This should strike most as attractive.
Sending resumes into the firewall may bear superficial resemblance to productive work but does not make forward progress enough to justify doing it. If that's the best idea for a day, that day goes into the No Work Done On Job Search column. That is OK, but you don't want to accumulate lots of them.
Sending resumes into the firewall may bear superficial resemblance to productive work but does not make forward progress enough to justify doing it. If that's the best idea for a day, that day goes into the No Work Done On Job Search column. That is OK, but you don't want to accumulate lots of them.
"If that's the best idea for a day, that day goes into the No Work Done On Job Search column."
+ 1 - wonderfully put. Thank you.
+ 1 - wonderfully put. Thank you.
"Your resume is great, anyone would be lucky to have you, but we don't know how we'd use you here." That makes sense, her primary experience for the past several years has been in a hybrid consulting/strategy/sales/marketing role..."
It sounds like you need to really define the position she is gunning for.
It sounds like you need to really define the position she is gunning for.
Agreed. We've been talking about this. She's had to shape her resume a few different ways based on the type of job she's applying for to highlight specific experience relevant to the particular position but it still hasn't yielded much. I dont' know if it's the resume so much as not knowing the right people/perosn in an org to vouch for her even if she applies for something 'out of band' so to speak.
I think that usually means "we can't see our business evolving in ways that benefit from the input of people we hire". My view is that if someone you hire does not change and leave a mark on your business they were a mistake. Too many people just have really narrow roles in mind.
This is where my head was on this whole undertaking. I assumed that the people she'd engage with would immediately see the potential in the individual - not whether or not the intersection of the resume and job description was a 100% match.
Yeah it just doesnt work like that with most startups. But you can find those people eventually. Thy have been in the business for a bit longer in my experience. Look for companies that have grown self funded for five years or so not new startups. They have worked through the people give us new potential thing more.
Have her create a list of value propositions she can offer a company. Start from there.
Oh and I'd recommend scoping out potential fits and figuring out how the match up would make sense. Basically any company who's hiring is looking for a ROI > 1.0. If she can prove that the ratio is significantly higher than 1.0, it shouldn't be a hard sell, especially if she has a warm intro.
Oh and I'd recommend scoping out potential fits and figuring out how the match up would make sense. Basically any company who's hiring is looking for a ROI > 1.0. If she can prove that the ratio is significantly higher than 1.0, it shouldn't be a hard sell, especially if she has a warm intro.
Long-time lurker - first time asker. Seeking a bit of advice wrt helping a significant other find a job.
We recently relocated from Chicago to the Bay Area (around August of 2011). The decision to move was largely my own and I perhaps softened the blow of leaving 'home' a bit by assuring my significant other that she'd have no issue finding something here in the valley. She's got a rock solid resume and wonderful dotcom experience - it seemed like a no-brainer. In fact, I went so far as to convince her to quit a great gig back in Chicago (knowing she could work remotely) because she'd grown a bit tired of it after a number of years - and the West - if nothing else - still holds the romanticism of a fresh start (at least for me.)
So here we are, six months in - and she's still looking for an opportunity. She's had a couple of interviews thanks to some of the folks funding our endeavor who were able to put her in touch with other portfolio companies but the consensus thus far has mostly been: "Your resume is great, anyone would be lucky to have you, but we don't know how we'd use you here." That makes sense, her primary experience for the past several years has been in a hybrid consulting/strategy/sales/marketing role - she essentially traveled around the country helping old media move advertising spend online. It seemed that most of the folks she was being lined up with were largely business to consumer which her experience didn't square with. Fine.
The crux of the problem - it seems - is that we haven't yet built a deep/rich network in the valley. I'm starting to build that network - I'm already leveraging my contacts to get a few referrals but by and large she's resorted to submitting resumes into the great resume firewall of consulting orgs which has yet to yield much.
So - I say all of that to ask this. Anyone have a strategy for helping non-hacking newcomers to the valley find work? One that keeps you from having to blindly submit your resume in a form post and hope that a human can discern what an awesome person you are on the other end?
Is it:
- Find meetups? - Go to networking events? - Live in LinkedIn and ask for introductions? - Volunteer? - Beg, plead? - All of the above?
Let this be a reminder to you all. Build the hell out of your network. Build locally, and build globally.
Thank you HN!!!
PS - This experience has definitely started making the wheels turn. Feeling like I should build something to support folks out of network/relocated. A few ideas have crossed my mind. Now gotta put some fingers to the keyboard.