Notes from the Job Hunt: Day 2

I’ve decided to sort of “live blog” this with periodic updates to the post throughout the day.

10 a.m.

Woke up this morning, got myself some spam…

Woke up to three recruiter emails this morning, one in the spam folder, one that got put in the spam folder, and one in an ongoing conversation that started last night.

Spam 1: We need a mobile developer for an on-site contract in North Carolina.
Spam 2: We need a project manager and SCRUM Master for a 50% on-site contract in Nebraska.

Ongoing conversation…

Recruiter: (paraphrased for space) “You seem good for this role for head of dev rel at a big company with huge user community and great employee retention.”

Me: “What’s the company and product? Mission and product fit are important to me.”

Recruiter: “Here.” He attaches a job description that does not name the company or product, but gives a few more qualifications for the role, which are not enough to rule it out or rule it in.

Me: “To bring my best to the role, I need a product I’m excited to play with and explore. If I can’t get excited about it, I cannot represent it authentically. And at the end of the day, authenticity is currency in developer relations. The more you genuinely connect with your product, the better you can inspire others.”

Recruiter: “Greg, thank you for replying! Here is the JD. Please take a look and the company’s located in [major metro] area.”

Me: “[Recruiter name], I told you what information I need to make a decision on whether or not to proceed. I don’t need the city. I don’t need the same exact file again. If you cannot trust me enough to name the company and product, I cannot trust you enough to continue this discussion. Thanks.”

I’m not saying the third was spam, but it felt like as much of a waste of time, if not more. Also, when a third-party recruiter won’t name the company/product, it’s usually because:

• Their company doesn’t have the exclusive and they’re afraid you’ll run to someone else who could submit you (like an internal person so you and they can split the referral bonus).
• It’s just a fishing expedition. They’re only serious about gathering data from you.
• It’s something even more nefarious.

5 p.m.

Had a nice conversation with a recruiter for a position that would be internal facing developer advocacy, working across the company to make the developer experience better.

You know me. I like conferences and giving talks. There would be less of that with this, possibly way less, BUT I like the company’s mission and the opportunity to really influence the internal developer culture is intriguing.

I’m in the process of setting up a screening chat with the engineering director who is the hiring manager.

There was a “take home assignment” mentioned by the recruiter, but they also mentioned the demands of it would be respectful of my time. We’ll see. I’m really leery of take-homes.

My thoughts on homework assignments for interviews.

A measured homework assignment for a junior who doesn’t have a body of work to attest to their bona-fides is reasonable.

A homework assignment for someone at a senior or principal level feels like “yes, you have an album out and it’s good. But we want you to write us an original song you won’t be able to use on your next album and we want you to perform it live.” It feels disrespectful.

So that take-home is going to have to be REALLY respectful of my time or I will withdraw my application.

More recruiters…

Got hit up by a recruiter for a role I’d already seen on LinkedIn and to which I’d decided not to apply. I responded that I’d looked at it and didn’t really feel it:

“I’m trying to find a product I really connect with; one that fires my imagination and whispers to me about all the things I could help people do with it.”

Luckily there are one or two of those that are moving forward at the moment. One has the full interview loop arranged. One looks like it will move to the arrangement of a full-loop.

A recruiter who had recruited me at his previous employer back in 2018 (though it didn’t end up moving forward) reached out again on behalf of his current employer. I’m not sure if I connect with that product, but I’m following up to investigate. Could be really cool, might not be my thing. Will investigate.

Also saw that a company I’d applied to last year was hiring again. I got on well with the person I screened with and we were going to head toward a loop, but I got an offer and withdrew.

I put in an application. Hopefully this time we’ll make it all the way through the process because I like the company and the product.

Right now, I’m trying to manage things so I’ve got enough loops to have good odds of getting one or more and to knock out all the loops in the space of around two weeks so I don’t make anyone wait or pull the plug on anything promising.

And on the spam side

Only one new spam. That was a 1-year contract with a company in the Midwest, remote, with a hard requirement for a skill I don’t have. And it’s from an agency that’s in my special “shitcanned recruiters” filter for agencies that have shown a history of sending me these clueless contract queries.

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