Looking For Looking For

January 3, 2022 by Jay Cuthrell

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Happy New Year!

Over the past few months I’ve been catching up with peers. Some are at their same companies, others were just starting new roles, and a few asked me a simple question as they are looking for something new in their career.

Do you know anyone that is hiring?

As a matter of fact, I do.

However, it’s myopic to think peers would want to apply ONLY for where I happen to be gainfully employed or that their dream role already exists.

(BTW – If you are reading this and you have a dream role in mind that’s not listed here… please let me know!)

That got me thinking about the question again – this time less selfishly.

Do I know anyone else that is hiring?

Applicant Tracking Systems and math

First, applicant tracking systems are where one applies for a job on a website in much the same way that one can purchase a lottery ticket. So, while finding a job and applying online might seem intuitive and straightforward, in the realm of knowledge work — you are literally 1 in 1000 or 1 in 10,000 odds territory.

Indeed, the chances of a winning outcome are a bit slim. So, how would you change your odds?

You talk to people. You leverage whatever network of people you know to triangulate to talk to the person you need to reach.

Easier said than done? Yes.

Easy for me to say? Yes, and I absolutely acknowledge this fact.

I know this much but I am still ignorant. I am the default recipient of a societal system that compounds historic patterns, unchallenged norms, (un)conscious biases, and outright predjudices that continuously benefit me in terms of access to opportunity in both stark ways as well as unseen signals that I may never fully fathom, accurately quantify, or ever justify.

(BTW – If you are reading this and you have suggestions for my fact encapsuplation above or suggestions on being a better example of allyship… please let me know!)

Perhaps finding the where, what, and who is hiring might be possible by using a social network. Severeal peers have shared anecdotes of how Twitter or LinkedIn got the right person talking to them that resulted in learning what roles where open where that turned into a new job.

LinkedIn searches

My first thought was to run through LinkedIn which is the social network for people that create work related content to find the “people I know that are hiring”. However, I was not successful in my quest.

Apparently, there is no button or link to get this on LinkedIn or finding one is beyond my searching patience. This seemed really odd but since the Jobs part of LinkedIn is monetized, perhaps I was naive in thinking such a simple link might exist.

My next thought was the search for posts from my 1st degree network for phrases like “we are hiring” or “we are looking for a” but realized the approach was a fuzzy search at best. Then I noticed a pattern of automation.

Social activation platforms seek to generate earned media impressions by activating the employee base on social networks. Since the creation of grassroots tools for centralized publication, LinkedIn and Twitter have seen more use of hashtags like #hiring or #jobs and a tracked URL (to remind Finance that earned media is high ROI) that deep links to a specific role on a applicant tracking tool or company careers landing website.

Formats for search

My next thought was that search parameters on posts may be effective by looking for recent “hiring” or “looking” or references as a keyword that is filtered by 1st degree connections and time bounded to the most recent 24 hours.

Aggregate Job Sites

Surely there are some smart folks that have already chased this topic? It turns out, a few have.

Dell Technologies Capital

Currently, I’m working at Faction which is a portfolio company of Dell Technologies Capital (DTC). The thinking would be that after 10 years with Dell Technologies through concurrent nested mergers I might know someone that knows someone.

As you might expect, the DTC folks are pretty smart.

DTC took the time to invest in an aggregate job site for their portfolio companies that is powered by Getro

https://careers.delltechnologiescapital.com

But what about other VC firms?