#JobSearchSuccessStories: Alright, folks – spill the beans! 🕵️♀️ What was it that finally landed you that effin’ job? Was it a killer resume, a standout cover letter, a valuable connection, or maybe just sheer luck? Share your secrets with us! 💼✨ What was the kicker that made it all fall into place? Let’s hear those success stories! 💪🏼🌟 Don’t be shy, we’re all ears! 🤩 Drop your insights in the comments below and let’s crack the code together! 🔍🔓 #UnlockingJobOpportunities #CareerSuccess #JobHuntingJourney 🚀🔥
Dumb luck, more or less. Rolling the dice enough times on applications on Indeed for about ten months before finally something came through with a local business in my area. That was about 15 years ago and pretty much launched the career I have now. But, yeah, no secret tip or clever thing in my resume – it was just cold applying until something panned out.
Had a personal connection to the organization/recruiter.
Dumb luck – the hiring managers in my last two positions knew someone I worked with early in my career and sneak asked them about me. I would have never gotten the jobs if it wasn’t for those connections – even though I was not the one using them….
Mostly luck as I admitted I have very little knowledge in the field as a recent graduate. But i think my style of “robust and reliable instead of fast results” was a good fit since it’s defence related.
Could be that I also had years of other unrelated work experience.
I realized that I didn’t have to tell the whole truth about my job history on my application.
I worked for an extremely toxic place that hated native Americans in a heavily native town and I was “encouraged” to part ways when I wouldn’t participate in the overt racism in the back. Then I didn’t get any response to my resume from the numerous jobs I applied to. So I thought about it, recognized that the petty front of house manager was almost certainly badmouthing me to callers and bang! I had job offers coming in from every direction.
I was out of work for about six months when I applied to my antepenultimate job as a second shift supervisor of mainframe operations. I got called in and was talking to the manager. He was telling me they were working on converting card input to tape input, but it was taking a long time. I said, “I’ve done that, it’s not hard. Why don’t you just do [simple action]?” He said to wait, and stormed out of the room. When he came back, he was grinning. “I just asked Tech Services why they’re not doing it like you said. They had no answer. You’re hired. You start tomorrow. Come in at 4 PM.” Six months later, he was gone, and I got his job and a 33% increase.
For me, it was taking temp jobs. Three of my previous temp jobs led to permanent positions, in fact, the one I’m in now was one of them.
Usually it’s pure luck, or companies that happen to hire multiple candidates at a given time.
I was in retail in a tourist area and a lady I worked with had a cushy office job that was hiring. She had me apply. I totally flopped the interview. 3 days later, they offered me the job. Found out later that the lady checked with HR and was told who they were offering it to and my lady said, “oh! I told her she had the job already!” That’s why they called me.
Remember I flopped? 11 years and 3 lateral transfers later, I resigned. They *begged* me to stay…
Lowering my standards.
Strange esoteric job application processes. Crystal balls, chanting mantras, abandoning all hope of a toxic free workplace.
They needed people and the manger liked that I could sell him a ballpoint pen really well. Also appreciated my honesty about wanting a job to fix my car.
Pure luck. Right place, right time etc
A personal connection. BIL offered me an entry level job when I was down on my luck and mentored me as I worked my way through increasing levels of responsibility. It took a leap of faith to go into a salary position where I wasn’t paid for my extra time but when I got to a point where that company didn’t want to pay me what I was worth, I had learned enough to take it somewhere else and then I finally started making decent money in my 40’s. Ended up as a VP with my current company and while not wealthy, have been able to invest and save so retirement looks possible by the time I am 67. Luck, timing, optimism and perseverance all played a role.
When I started applying and then reaching out to HR and the hiring manager on LI to connect & send a note—that finally got me interviews. After that it was a numbers game.
The only other thing I did was add metrics to my resume.
I went the extra mile to show up a project for my first data science job. This was before companies started making you do a project as part of the interview. That plus my research experience made it happen. I have never gotten a job through contacts so far.
At the same time, all jobs I have landed started with the company reaching out to me, including my first job where I was invited as a grad student to participate in an annual conference which got me in the system and a recruiter reached out 2 months later.
For me it wasn’t about the resume. I got 3 in person interview and got offered 3 different positions. I think I’ll chose the one closest to home. I will make the decision when I see numbers on Friday.
An amazing at the time manager took a chance on me. She’s now been fully corporatized so I’d say look at smaller companies.
Lying to my boss to use medical leave so I could be well rested and available for the interview likely played a significant role for me. (he would make me work graveyard shifts, evening and day shifts during the same week and that would cause terrible brain fog)
A family member who has some pull basically yanked every string they could for me. Fifth ti e was the charm. No way I could have done it for myself.
added metrics & business impact to every single bullet point in my resume
I revised my resume to match job descriptions better and got more responses than ever focus on keywords and relevant skills
Little bit of luck for hiring spree, my experience aligning with the job and was coming off of three interviews that fell short. Vibed super well with my interviewer’s and after waiting a week, they extended an offer today for me.
Honestly, I think my current job I just got super lucky. I applied for the job on a whim on LinkedIn, the day it posted. Got a request for the interview less than 12 hours later, however, my first interview with the hiring manager, I had a migraine that morning, and ended up having to step away from the interview twice to throw up because of the migraine. I want to think that my willingness to persevere through that, along with my thirst for learning and willingness to learn 5 things at once helped a LOT
Ngl spam applying. I mean like 20-30 applications daily.
A rejection letter than I replied to
Quick apply on LinkedIn. Part of my routine when looking for a job was hitting all those quick apply on LinkedIn or other websites and then filling out the other job apps that needed more scrutiny. Got lucky and got the job 3 interviews later at a Fortune 100 company, almost 7 years ago.
I’ve gotten every job I’ve ever had by contacting the employer directly and inquiring, with one exception. Two if you don’t count the Army as that.
I’ve changed industry 3 times now and I can say it’s mostly luck but another big factor is knowing someone at the company or reaching out to the hiring manager directly.
I just got a new job teaching which I have no formal experience doing. I am an expert in my field and have held trainings and mentored junior employees but have never held a title like instructor.
What I did was applied for the opening and reached out to the director for the role. It took a little bit of researching to find a handful of people who I thought would be in charge of hiring for this role or at least have influence in the hiring decision. I emailed them and on my first try, I contacted the correct person. I had an interview a couple of days later and I just signed my offer.
Mine was luck – head of the division found my LinkedIn and contacted me about a position. I met with three other people and received an offer about a week later. We negotiated salary, and it was lower than I wanted/normally get, but the commission is better so I accepted. They never even asked for my resume, which is pretty unusual in my experience. Whatever happens, I’ll learn some new things and hopefully I can get salary increase as time goes on.
I got lucky. The hiring manager and I had a lot in common and he liked me
Getting an advanced degree and having internship experiences. Connections helped too, but also got offers without.
I go on craigslist and send thought out emails to posts I think are run by real people.
Have a real conversation, paint myself as the perfect fit, get the job.
Can’t believe it worked, but it did 🥲
Man with my current job I didnt even send them a resume just sent them a certificate I had pertaining to the work.
They then asked for a resume,
I SENT THE CERT AGAIN.
Then they asked for an interview,
Brought the hard copy of the cert.
Got the job lmao
Dumb luck. And I started applying for jobs that had nothing to do with my college major. I’m working in social services now and I have a Business Admin degree.
Having NYU on my resume 🤷🏾♀️
Connections and luck. A former regional boss moved to my country and becoming a CEO. I reached out and still go through the interviews with his team heads before landing the job.
I would say connections open the door for you, the rest is all on you to make it work.
For me, I applied to a job on LinkedIn. Then I searched for who my direct manager would be as messaged them letting them know when I would be available for an interview (did not say that I hoped to be interviewed!)
I’d then message him every week letting him know that’d I’d love to book a time since my schedule was filling up fast (which was true.) It worked.
Granted, I still was very qualified for the job and had a good portfolio to show but also there’s always an element of luck to it all.
Luck.