How did you find your current job?
A. Recruiter
B. Job portal (which one?)
C. A referral (from a friend or co-worker)
D. Sent resume to the target employer
E. Direct outreach from an employer
F. Other
C/E - I actually had quit my current job a few years ago, because I was no longer interested in working for the guy who my boss at that time. Literally the day after he left the company, they called me and asked me to come back. So I did.
F: I went to a careers fair and had a chat with the CEO and an early employee. 2 years later, we’re a 100+ person company :D
C and D. I applied on the job portail and sent an email. Ten minutes later, I got a call from the CTO. He sent me a test. I saw the file was a .tar.gz file, and I liked that.
Other employers replied, asked how much I was getting paid (which I declined to answer), proposed they pay more than whatever I'm paid at my crurrent job, which I replied to that it was generous, but that I liked where I worked. I had given up an offer in the energy sector that paid soooooooooo much more, as in ridiculously not even funny more, to get that job. I'm still there.
F: Emailed the company after seeing their post in a HN: Who's hiring thread
B/D :Found job posting in LinkedIn with Visa sponsorship. Contacted manager directly as I was "overqualified" for the role.
Job requirements was for "4 years of experience" as engineer and I was working in Indian IT services company as Associate Architect for 11 years without any on-site experience.
B. Job portal. Funny enough I applied on two sites without realizing it. They accepted me quickly from one, and rejected me from another.
I've had a 100% ghosting rate from that other portal, including the company that hired me. That portal even sent me a rejection email once, while I was in interviews with the company.
A. I contacted my recruiter network, which is a small list of recruiters that have proven to not suck. Only send me jobs that make sense and that I have had a conversation with that convinced me they knew what they were doing. One of those referred me to their co-worker who had a position that fit what I was looking for.
A / E - A recruiter for a contract firm found me, and rented me to a client. The Client decided he was tired of having contractors and offered me a job.
F: Saw a job posting from one of the founders on Twitter. Almost didn’t apply but then I did and it all worked out, best job decision I’ve ever made!
C. Wife's childhood friend's husband.
A. And I'm currently using A for my next role(though maybe not with Who's Hiring happening in a few days)
Sent Resume to target employer through a Job Portal (LinkedIn)
C. A good friend knew the CTO at the company and recommended me.
F. They acquired the company I founded. Now I work for them.
A + B
I applied to a job posting on Dice that was posted by a recruiter
C, kind of. Fellow OSS maintainer recommended me.
A. She did a very good job.
in reverse chronological order: C; A; B; B; B.
In 2005, I answered a craigslist ad and got a job for $12/hr photoshopping decals for tourists at a kiosk at a mall. 12pm-8pm. The kiosk owner asked me to build a website for him. So I did. His cousin who was starting a new non-tech business saw the website and asked if I could write custom business software for it. I said I didn't have any experience in that, but if he paid me $30k up front and the rest on the back, I'd move to south america and spend a year figuring it out. He did, I did, and now I make $160/hr writing their software, and still have freedom to take other clients when I want to.
The best advice I can give is to never say a job is beyond your knowledge - say you will figure it out, and then mean what you said and figure out how to do an excellent job so you get hired again.