#JobSearch : How This Millennial Skipped Applications, Landed His Dream Tech Job Using Social Media. “I would apply to 50 companies a week, and the outcome for each was the same: rejection”
As Jonathan Javier approached graduation, he knew he had an uphill climb landing his dream tech job. He wasn’t graduating from a top target school and didn’t have the traditional academic background, so he decided to try a radically different approach. He’d already tried the traditional method—applying like crazy and interviewing like your life depended on it, but the response was beyond dismal. “I would apply to 50 companies a week, and the outcome for each despite tailoring my resume to the job description was the same: rejection,” reflects Javier.
“This is when I realized that traditional approaches wouldn’t work. Simply applying to roles when thousands of others were doing the same wasn’t going to cut it, especially with popular tech companies.” So, he abandoned the job boards completely and instead curated an innovative social media strategy instead.
His strategy took some time, but after a year or so of persistent focus, he landed his first tech job at Snapchat, then later used the same strategy to secure interviews or offers from Google, Cisco, LinkedIn, Facebook, Electronic Arts, and more without ever applying. There were three key elements to his social media job search strategy: curating customized connection requests and posts, adopting a humanistic, friendly demeanor and relentlessly following up.
Curating customized connection requests and posts
Once he decided to move his search onto social media (specifically LinkedIn), he knew he had to roll up his sleeves and build the right network. He realized pretty quickly that randomly sending connection requests was a waste of time. In fact, his response rate was less than 5%, but when he pivoted to sending personalized invites, his acceptance rate soared. “I would send a personalized invite to 100+ potential connections weekly from those who shared common ground with me, whether it was the same university, organization or ethnic background,” shares Javier. “Out of those 100+ I sent almost 60% added me back because I’d thoroughly researched how their background related to mine.”
Javier also posted weekly on LinkedIn about events he planned to attend (related to his target companies). “I did this because my strategy was to meet professionals from my target companies and then tag them in LinkedIn posts,” explains Javier. “When they liked and commented on the posts, my hope was that their network would see it, and it worked.” Indeed, fully leveraging LinkedIn features like messaging, content creation and branding were key to his success.
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Article continued …
Projecting a friendly demeanor
Making initial contact was critical, but Javier quickly realized that developing real rapport was quite another challenge—one more reliant on EQ than IQ. Indeed, he understood that projecting a friendly, affable demeanor rather than a transactional one would be key not just for prospect cultivation but also for his own mental health during the sometimes-arduous process. “I knew that the more people I reached out to with a humanistic, friendly approach, the more responses I’d get,” explains Javier. “Instead of focusing on those who didn’t respond, I focused on those who did and who supported me.” Javier explains that he’d ask new connections about their story, their experience with their company, and then follow up. He also made sure he maintained a healthy mentality throughout the process. “The job search is a mental game; rejection is redirection as long as you react to it in the right way,” insists Javier.
Relentlessly following up
Virtually any professional who has cultivated strong business relationships through social media will attest that you have to prepare for the long game, and they key to success is really the ability to follow up so that you can move from connection to relationship to opportunity. Javier developed a fairly regimented approach to nurture these important relationships. He explains, “Every 3 months I’d update them with my progress regarding my career and would ask for an update regarding theirs.” Here’s a sample message he would send to a connection to follow up.
Hi (Name),
Hope you’ve been well since we last spoke in (month). Thanks again for all your help throughout my career.
I wanted to give you a quick update on what I’ve been doing for the past 3 months:
· Update #1
· Update #2
· Update #3
It would be great to hear from you (call to action). Thanks, and have a wonderful day.
Certainly, he learned that while social media is powerful, it’s not magic and turning a LinkedIn connection into a job offer requires relentless (but not annoying) follow up and persistence.
Javier had so much success using his method, that in 2019 he teamed up with Jerry Lee (first intern at Google from his alma mater, then hired as the youngest analyst in his organization) to turn their strategies into a business. He and cofounder Jerry Lee developed Wonsulting to teach unconventional methods for landing a dream job using social media. Their motto “turning underdogs into winners” reflects their desire to create new professional onramps for some of the best and brightest who may not have the rare academic pedigree and experience traditionally required for the most competitive positions.
Landing positions at Snapchat, Cisco and Google by the age of 24 is an admirable feat by any standard, and it’s certainly not “the norm.” Perhaps Javier’s smartest move was deciding to stop trying to win a game stacked against him from the start and instead find a way to reinvent it.
Stay tuned: My next article will reveal Wonsulting’s 5 tips for getting a job in 2021.
Forbes.com | February 8, 2021 | Careers