| Just my statistics: I don't have a valid working visa in the US and have been applying almost exclusively to American companies. My "interview" rate is 10%. 100% if it's with people I know, even if I'm completely unqualified. My "rejection" rate is around 50%, within 2 weeks. I assume the rest won't say anything if they reject. General job sites (the ones where you can also apply to be a carpenter, etc) are a waste of time. They probably get so many resumes they end up tossing half of them. Stack Overflow Careers gave me an awesome ~30% of interviews. As in I applied 6 jobs and 2 interviewed. Both of them were jobs I didn't fully qualify for. Generally, direct emails gave me a 100% (5/5) response rate. An email, like careers@company.com, not a form. Email lets me mention in subject line that I used to have a startup, so I stood out. Most of them rejected on lack of visa though. I do spend ~10 minutes per cover letter. I really dig deep, like an investor would. I convince myself that I'm doing the company a favor by joining before writing the letter. In the end, you just have to convince one company. If you have a lead, immediately latch to it... do research on the company, the interviewer, and write questions. There's a certain bar you have to cross to convince people to hire. It's better to optimize for a few companies than to try to reach out to as many as possible. If you feel unworthy, then optimize for the lower tier companies who have lower standards. |
Don't. Feel. Unworthy. Any person capable of programming their way out of a paper bag is someone every hiring manager in the Bay Area urgently wants to meet right now. If you're hirable at their firm that's fantastic, if not they'll chalk it up to "I now know one more engineer who I can keep tabs on over the course of the next few years and potentially place in the future."