Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete
1. Research, research, research
2. Take a sniper shot, not a shotgun blast approach
3. Be a doer, not an idea guy
4. Anyone can point out problems; try to focus on actionable solutions
1. Research. Research the company you're applying to, the position, the team. Find the hiring manager / recruiter on LinkedIn. Find their Facebook / Instagram / Blog / Youtube channel. What are they interested in? What catches their eye? What are their side hobbies? What charities do they donate to? What's the company mission? What's the market / competition like? What products do they sell besides the obvious? Why do you want to work for them? What's an improvement you could make to their products - or a market they could expand into? What's a gap they have that you've identified? Etc, etc, etc. I highly doubt you've done this for 3 companies a day - most people don't even do it for a single company they "really really really want to work for" and that includes FAANG.
2. Once you've compiled all this, start hunting their job postings. Find one at least closely related to what you think you can do - don't worry about meeting 100% of the requirements, but aim for at least 70-80%. Then tailor your resume to that job posting. You may end up with a few different versions of your resume - that's fine. Get the meat and potatoes in there and then dress it up with tweaks for each position / hiring manager you're trying to appeal to. Reach out to someone at the company you know on LinkedIn or Facebook and see if they can give you a quick intro to the hiring manager or recruiter. Personality and culture fit DO matter. Once you make the connection, save the job listing link / # and have it ready along with the corresponding resume. Give it directly to the recruiter / friend / manager if the conversation goes well. Or try to have it passed along to them. You may need to be persistent - being local always helps.
3. Active language / projects that demonstrate quantifiable progress on something. It's easy to spot the bullshitters - "facilitated this" "helped with" that etc. Put it in terms of "I did [x] with [y] to achieve [z], utilizing [a] and [b]" When the interview - even if it's just an initial phone screen - comes, have stories ready about projects / times you've been that person of action. Even if you failed and it didn't pan out. You can always spin failure into lessons learned and fail forward.
4. Following on from #3 + #1. If you can identify what you think is a gap with the company, come up with a potential solution, and propose that as the reason you want the related position, it will come across well even if they disagree or are already working on closing the gap. Or even if you've misinterpreted the way they're taking the company (though that might be a small yellow flag, so do try to learn what you can about their industry and competition).
There is almost always work for those who DO and take action. You may indeed have to move for it - that's good that you're already accepting that and being flexible. It can help to target large companies with offices in multiple states - especially if they're primarily located in heavy population centers (VHCOL areas). Often, they have a difficult time getting current employees to move to remote locations for roles, so for example if you look up someone like Google, Facebook, Cisco, WalMart Labs, etc they have offices spread out across the US. Contrast that with Amazon, who are primarily in Seattle / SF Bay Area and anything outside of that is data center or distribution center. Apple similarly is primarily just the bay area, though of course they have Apple stores everywhere if you're looking at that. Picking a field as well will be useful - a discipline like Global Supply and Logistics will have far more location possibilities than software engineer, but sales will have even more locations available.
Figure out what you want to try and get your foot in the door for that first job. Be hungry, helpful, and knowledgeable, and you'll gain mentors in no time who can show you the ropes and boost you further.
Good luck.
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