Applied for a job. Imagine that

This was a while ago. My college didn’t have a CS major (small liberal arts college) so they brought in an adjunct professor who was a Director of IT of a small market research firm. After 4 semesters as his student, he offered me a job my senior year. Longest interview ever.

That was over 20 years ago.

My current job (big tech) was from my friend who I worked with coming up to me and saying “A recruiter from [company] is calling you tomorrow. I gave them your name.” Never in a million years did I think I was at that caliber, but I went through it anyway because the worst they could say is “no”.

They said “yes”.

Nuclear engineer. Went to school for dual degrees in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, got decent grades and had two relevant internships. Interviewed at a college job fair, had some follow-up interviews, and likely stood out because I was computer literate.

The player clicked on the Builder button, then clicked on me, so now I build a staircase into the sky.

All but one have been via “networking”. Friends and old co-workers. Getting started was the hard part. Now I have a resume full of accomplishments, but when I was fresh out of school I didn’t have anything. Probably should’ve made more friends in school or joined more groups.

I did customer service at the start and now do software development.

A friend got me my job.

Construction Management.

10+ years at the same company.

Temp to perm for the two “real” jobs I’ve had. So much less stressful to audition than to interview. Started as a temp, got hired on. Twice. Oh, and I am accounting/systems. Office stuff.

I’m a software dev. I went to a recruiter and shouted “ME WANT JORB!!!1” and they gave me one.

However, I was only able to get my foot in the door because of friends I made in school.

Networking. Kept in touch with a former peer. He offered me a position that was a promotion in another industry related to what I came from. Went from Retail > Trade Manager. Got a significant pay increase and better hours.

Graphic Designer

Friend left his job just as a contract was ending for me so I just took over for him.

Since this is probably a young person asking whose looking to start their career: I applied to a lot of jobs and lied on my resume until I got lucky with a small business that took a chance on me.

I work for a customer service call center. I just went on their website and filled out an application. After that there was a phone interview then an in person interview, then I had to do a drug test then I was hired!

Currently, I’m a cabinet maker, and I was referred to my current employer by my state’s department of labor representatives. I’ve done damn near everything though: been a dishwasher, a chef (my longest held position at about 10 years), worked retail, was a pharmacy tech, delivery driver, the list goes on.

I interview well, always go in willing to admit what I don’t know but highlight what I do know, have a good attitude, and a decent sense of humor helps a lot (at least in my experience).

The thing that’s helped me find work the most has been my status as a veteran. Checking that box has opened more doors for me than anything else in my life because, to employers, it shows I’m more “mature” than those around my age, I’m dependable, learn quickly, don’t argue, and will get the work done if it needs to be done. It’s not surefire, by any means, but it has usually at least gotten me an interview with most places I’ve applied. Veteran employers like to see it because it’s something we can both relate to, and civilian employers like it because they know you learn a lot of soft skills through the military, and the maturity thing.

As an example, I was hired as a cook for a local brewery, but during the interview, the guy kept mentioning my time in the military and how he’d like me to start pushing their kitchen in a more professional direction than it currently was, despite the fact I had about 5-10 years less experience than their current supervisor and my military experience wasn’t related to cooking at all.

Not everyone has that on their resume, but it’s definitely helped me since I separated almost 10 years ago now.

I work in Cybersecurity, Incident Response specifically.
I started off in IT and spent a lot of years as a sysadmin (Windows, mostly). A couple jobs ago, I often worked closely with the security team and when they had an opening, they all but held a gun to my head to get me to apply to move over. Some years and a few internal promotions later, I got a message on LinkedIn which (in part) read:

I came across your LinkedIn and thought you might be a great fit for a Sr. Information Security Analyst role that my team currently has open. It’s a fully remote opportunity with one of our top clients. Would you be open to a brief call to discuss further?

I said yes and now I’m a making good money while reading other peoples’ email in my pajamas.

I’m a programmer, which is in a pretty bad spot if you’re looking for work right now.

I was laid off in January and had to start looking again. While it’s important to be able to demonstrate your skills, the only way I got an interview for my new job was by being referred by an old colleague. Turns out maintaining relationships with people who can vouch for your work is a very big part of the process.

Sysadmin. I keep an eye on governmentjobs.com (US) and university/school system websites in my state whenever I’m looking for something new. I have a generic resume that I rewrite for each job I apply for using keywords in the job listing. I also always write a cover letter that details why I’m interested in the job and why my experience makes me a good fit. A lot of people say hiring teams don’t read those, but I’ve been told numerous times that my cover letter set me apart. I don’t apply for jobs I’m tepid about, so I don’t waste a lot of time applying dozens of places. I’d estimate if I’m called for an interview, I also get a job offer 75% off the time.

A lot of people discourage from public sector jobs, but in my experience they pay almost as well as private sector ones and come with better benefits, less stress, fewer mandatory overtime situations, etc.