Finding open roles¶
Being an effective hunter¶
An effective job hunter keeps up with the daily stream of notices and advertisements, and also builds up an understanding of the longer-term trends and patterns. (In this respect it’s rather like being a keen follower of current affairs - you need to keep up-to-date with the news, of events as they happen, and also with the longer-term story in which they occur.)
When you first start looking it will feel quite overwhelming. You’ll see tens or hundreds of advertised jobs that could be right for you, and many people feel a sense of panic that the perfect job for them has just flashed by like a sign on the highway, too late for them to do anything about, and never to be seen again. And then another one! And another.
Until you have patiently seen a couple of weeks’ worth of job advertisements go by, carefully studying them, you are not really equipped to judge what you are seeing. Meanwhile it is almost guaranteed that you’ll worry that you have let the perfect opportunity slip through your fingers, multiple times.
After a while though you will start to see a bigger picture. You will realise that the reason you saw the apparently perfect job appear so early and so often is that in fact, such jobs appear all the time - and will continue to appear. The lustre of the early favourites will start to dim when you run into others that are an order of magnitude more enticing.
If you wait until at least a week has passed before you start submitting applications, that will help you.
Keep a record of your search¶
If just dive in and start searching, you will probably start to feel overwhelmed, discouraged and fearful that you are missing out, all at the same time.
You can manage that by imposing some order on your search, by keeping records.
As soon as you see an interesting job advertisement, save it, along with the date you saw it. If you eventually apply, note the date of that. When - if - you get a reply, note that. When appropriate, add a next action as a reminder to yourself. If you get a rejection message, strike out the whole line.
You will soon start to see patterns - about what’s available, and which companies are hiring. You’ll start to notice which jobs get reposted, for example under different names. Having a record like this will help you make more sense of the context and your own situation. It’s an interesting experience - and a very healthy reminder - to see a job that a little while ago seemed like a unique, unmissable opportunity is now nestled amongst several just like it, and that they are all cast into the shade by another that really is special.
Where to look¶
Companies’ own jobs pages¶
It’s worth it to go straight to the source. Every company that’s hiring will have a jobs page. It’s useful to see a job in the context of others at the same company.
Even if you discover a company’s job advertisement via another site, have a look at it on their site too. You might discover another role even better suited to you, or run into some other advantageous information related to the job. It’s also where the information will be most up-to-date.
Community-hosted listings¶
There are many online community forums (such as Slack or Discord groups) dedicated to particular groups, interests and disciplines - women in technology, Python, documentation, developer relations and so on, and many have a channel or board for jobs.
They are one of the very best places to find jobs. Often they are posted by someone who is actually hiring (or at least connected to the role) who is a real live person and a member of that community. That can be priceless; it’s rare to have a chance to communicate directly, in a personal way, with someone about a job.
Those communities also often have channels for career advice and job-seekers, and you will find yourself rubbing shoulders with people who can give you really useful insights and helpful advice - for example, feedback on your CV, before you apply for a job, from someone who is hiring for it.
Write the Docs job board; the Write the Docs Slack group has a superb jobs channel (and related careers advice channel)
DevRel Collective jobs board; the DevRel Collective Slack group is by application only, via the website
Sites for roles in particular disciplines¶
WorkingInContent, for writing/content and related roles, including remote roles. Not just a job site - WorkingInContent also runs a conference and has a Slack channel.
Sites specialising in remote jobs¶
General software industry job sites¶
Recruiter sites¶
Rather than just listing jobs, these sites want you to log in, create an account and provide them with lots of details. Often they promise that having uploaded your CV and other information, you’ll be able to apply to jobs “with just one click” (which is strongly not recommended).
General job sites¶
Indeed has an almost unusable search function, despite being one of the biggest job sites on the planet
Brian’s job search effectively turns your search parameters into a Google Jobs search