[probinso]

A random article on hacker news completely changed how I job search. This has led to several jobs I don't think I would have found otherwise.

The article was not about job search, it was a post reviewing a tech talk about technology that as you say may have been "too technical" for me at the time

This is not to say that I use hacker news for job search

[rak00n]

Which article was it?

[probinso]

It was on a talk about HalVM that was given at Microsoft Research. Had nothing to do with jobs

It changed how I find companies to work with

[wikibob]

Can you tell us more? How did it change the way you look for companies?

[probinso]

I found that the hardest part of cold applications was identifying companies. In any major city you can probably think of 20 companies off the top of your head that exist there. Fewer with your expertise or interests in mind, fewer that are currently hiring. Additionally, identifying companies (without references or a network to pull on) for job search is a labor intensive and often boring process.

Since I would rather be "always learning" it is far more fun to watch technical talks at conferences and track any company that sponsors a speech I enjoy. I am doing this constantly (not just during active job search).

Since it is the norm for technical conferences to post to youtube, this strategy only costs time.

When you have a list of companies large enough, then it is easier to find competitors or get appropriate suggestions from networking platforms like linkedin.

I never track large or obvious companies, because I probably already know their name.

Now I've been in the field long enough to pull on my network, but don't really find it necessary. I have a list of 300+ companies that I can pull on reflecting my interests/expertise at different points in my career.

The only downside to this is it doesn't usually grow proportional to your geographical region, but there are ways to bias your results with other strategies.

I might have come across this without HN, but it definitely would have happened later. People post things that interest them on HN, and I find things interesting that others do.