Thursday, August 20, 2020

Targeted Job Hunting | Leveraging Your Contacts

Several years ago, I had a student (lets call him Jeremy to protect his privacy) with an accounting background in my WebDev Javascript and CMS courses at SAIT.  Jeremy was keen to learn and had lots of questions and actually sat beside 'Hermione' from this post of mine.  The story of how he found work after school was rather interesting, so I thought I'd share it.

Several weeks after school, Jeremy messaged me on LinkedIn and asked if I could connect him with one of my LinkedIn contacts - an HR manager at a company called Benevity.  Our initial correspondence on LinkedIn looked like this:

From Jeremy: 
Hi Perry, I was wondering if you can introduce me to xxxxx xxxxxxx? I'm looking to stand out among the applicants for their intern program and ask some insightful questions.
Thank you,
Jeremy

From Perry:
Hi Jeremy, 
I'll see what I can do but I can't guarantee anything. She works remotely in xxxxxx and frankly I found her a little difficult to get a hold of (some people work better remotely than others) I send her a message and refer you to her - we'll see what that does :-)
Perry
 
From Jeremy: 
Hi Perry, 
I understand, that's actually all I was looking for. Just an introduction through linkedin.
Have you ever written any coding tests through testdome? There's a preliminary screening interview I have the pleasure of taking by this Monday for xxxxxxxxx(some other company). The test itself is around 37 minutes and from what I've heard from Gary it was two questions on JS using for loops and if statements and one java question to solve some math problems. I think I may be overmatched but I'll still give it a shot.
Thank you Perry for reaching out to her.
Jeremy 

From Perry:
Jeremy, I sent her something like this:
Hi xxxxxxxx,
I had a student recently for several weeks at SAIT that is keen on getting an internship at Benevity. If possible I'd love the chance to refer him to you. His name is Jeremy XXXX. He is well spoken, seeks to understand and be understood, and was one of my top students.  Here's his contact info: xxxxxxxxx Let me know if there's anything else I can do to connect the two you.
Thanks,
Perry
I think Benevity would be a super cool place to work. They have a fantastic client list and a cool business. Good luck!
I haven't done any coding in testdome. I've never done a coding interview myself. Good luck with that too!
Perry
 
From Jeremy:
Hi Perry, 
Awesome, that's more than I could have asked for!
I'll keep you posted on how things go. 

.... and then several months later.....

From Jeremy:
 Hey Perry how's the teaching going this semester? Are there a lot of students? I'm not sure if I told you but I got hired on in October after the internship ended.
Jeremy
 
Jeremy then reached out to me and asked to take me out for coffee.  He wanted to thank me for setting all of that up for him as well as get some advice on his career path forward.

At the appointed time and place, we met for coffee and I got the back-story I had been missing...

After an education in business finance and becoming an accountant, he worked for a few years when he felt he needed a change.  A significant change.  He ended up travelling overseas and teaching English.  While he was doing that he got interested in web development and scoped out a school to learn from - it turned out to be SAIT, the school I was teaching in.  Not only did he scope out a school, but while still teaching English overseas he had discovered and investigated Benevity and decided to try and get work there when he was done.  

I have to say, when I discovered this, I was rather surprised with how he had planned things out, set goals for himself, and then made them happen - all the way down to targeting the place to work after school and leveraging me as a contact to get 'in the door' so-to-speak.  Its a great example of targeted job hunting and networking.