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.

I made my own job.

I run my own ride service. I work the apps like uber but I also have a large (and growing) list of private clients that call me for airport runs or to see if I can get them to and from a dinner with friends/colleagues/etc.

I’m a professional photographer. I’ve been a photographer for about 15 years but I started my own LLC in 2021. I studied the business side on YouTube/ googling stuff and listened to a TON of podcasts on the subject. Now wedding photography is my full time gig and I have a studio where I do boudoir, newborns, and rent studio space to other photographers. My future ambitions include hosting workshops where I teach other aspiring photographers. When I started in the industry it was male dominated and now that’s changed dramatically and it’s nice to see. I struggled a lot to be taken seriously in the early days. That’s why I was so inclined to start my own business/be my own boss.

IT service desk at an MSP.

Put in my resume on the company site, conducted an interview and showed up on the first day.

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”.

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!

I am an IT guy at a medium sized company. I took some computer classes at a community college and I guess I impressed one of my teachers, who encouraged me to apply for a job she heard about. I got hired right away. This was a year ago. I’m in my 40s and never had an office job before, but have always been into computers.

I know what RAM looks like. That’s literally what got me hired over the other candidate at my current MSP job. Other candidate didn’t know that RAM doesn’t have screws and removed the SSD of the laptop in the practical interview. I’d never seen an SSD before, but knew RAM didn’t have screws. I took out the RAM and put it back in and was offered the position an hour later.

I had been fired from a tech support job 4 days before that very suddenly got absolute bullshit reasons and I was having a terrible time psychologically. This job is a million times better than my old one, so getting fired was actually the best thing to happen to my career.

I’m a level one helpdesk tech rn, but will probably become level two in a year or two. My company is really pushing me to grow and advance my career and it’s so great.

I still struggle with the emotional damage getting fired in such a devastating way caused, but I’m going to be getting therapy so I can finally get over it.

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.

After graduating I couldn’t even get an interview for a relevant position. I took whatever random jobs for a while until I got sick of it. Getting a good job in the city was impossible so, I started looking for jobs anywhere and everywhere. Before long I found one 600 km away from where I lived at the time. Turns out, it’s very difficult to find competent people willing to work in the middle of nowhere, so even fresh graduates will do.

I needed money, they needed people. The job was also a pretty good match to my degree, so it was a win-win for everyone.

Pro tip: if you want to compete with all the PhDs with 10 years of experience, stay in the city. If not, be open to relocating. Don’t be afraid of small towns, they are actually pretty nice. Oh and the rent! I’m paying peanuts for a very nice flat, because it’s so far away from all the big cities.

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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.

I’m a power plant operator, specifically now a ZLD operator. Basically I run the little water plant that pulls the solids out of our cooling tower blowdown and sends the (relatively) clean water back to the cooling tower. I also do routine operation of the RO-EDI system which gets us ultra pure demineralized water for the HRSG feedwater.

I was working for a major water chemistry company as a service tech. A coworker was running a few accounts which included a plant about 2.5 hours from me and he was having me come give him a hand here and there while I wasn’t busy running his whale account (which was a big nuclear plant I’d been around for like ten years). I asked why we were cancelling a visit to that other plant and he said it was because they just lost a guy or two and the supervisor we were gonna meet with had to go on shift while they were short-handed. So I applied.

I came prepared for a lot of “classic” interview questions. One of them was what is my biggest weakness. Tip for you guys, don’t just identify your weakness; talk about what steps you’re taking to make it not a weakness anymore. I said my weakness was problem-solving and conflict resolution in a group, but I was enrolled in a weekly group meeting with diverse (but mostly STEM) professionals to work on communication, problem-solving, conflict resolution, critical thinking, and resource management. So, in a way, playing in that D&D group in my thirties was a big part of how I got my 6-figure job.

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

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.