Ghostpunch Games Recruiter 👻 🥊 Public Speaker📣Mamax2🖤🖤Moms in Gaming Founder 🦋Women In Games Ambassador🎮 Spidey Superfan 🕷️Taco Bell Connoisseur 🌮 🔔
✨ I wanted to share some additional data from my job search. ✨ There is a delicate balance and dance to do right now. It's the balance of "snipe" vs. "spray". I define "snipe" as the intentional targeting of my most coveted roles. Spray is the mass application/ "easy" apply feature used to generically apply to jobs. I intentionally sniped my game industry jobs. I worked my connections, asked for introductions, sent modified resumes as needed & put myself "in the room where it happens" to follow job leads. I went to an industry event during my job search and showed my closest friends a linkedin page & photo of a hiring manager for a role I was super into and said "My only goal here today is to find this guy." I eventually found him and opened the conversation. We talked for a solid 15min unrelated to the job and I made a lasting impression and connection. I found out later, that role was cancelled. I ended up connecting with someone who would later hire me at the same event (a story for another day!) Compare that above strategy to say.... SPRAY. I'm not going to lie, hitting easy apply on Linkedin was just that. Easy. It was a little hit of dopamine, it made me feel productive, it was instant gratification. Still, the Recruiter in me knew better. The likelihood of me hearing from those roles (outside the few I had referrals for) was pretty low. Statistically speaking I was right. I chose to invest my time and energy into sniping games/ games adjacent roles. I cold applied to 6 roles. I applied to / was referred to the other 26 for a total of 32 applications of which I was able to move into the next stage of 18. My Snipe success rate? 56.25% And Spray? I applied cold, via linkedin / the company website to a total of 40 non-game roles. I also had referrals for 8 companies for a total of 48 applications. I had 10 companies willing to chat with me beyond my application. My success rate here was only 20.83% percent. If you EXCLUDE the referrals? It drops down to 5% even. Assuming you don't have a referral and rely on a professional resume, decades of experience, and you're a known industry leader---there's a 5% chance of getting a call back. This is similarly inline with Amir Satvat's stats on those trying to get their first job in games. I was applying to roles recruiting for fintech (I see you Arman Jivani!), aeronautical & automotive industries. I needed a job, I needed to expand my search beyond games, I needed to provide for my family and these roles would accomplish that.... if I could land one. There's a time to snipe and a time to spray. Exercise each method with intention and logic. Know the stats and likelihood of a callback, gamify your search & determine what strategy makes sense. Spray FELT productive at times, but the returns are always less. Snipe is more work and more reward. Above all, try to stay persistent. I have more to say but the character limit! AMA below! (thanks Jess for helping we with my data charts)
I've been doing similar, but my smaller network makes the sniping much harder. The contacts I do have are doing their best for me, which is very much appreciated. I tend to try and find two positions a day to apply to, but only positions I'd actually want to work at. I know a lot of folks believe in the total saturation/carpet bombing thinking that even if they get an interview it is good practice and the worst that happens is they turn down a position, but I'd rather reserve as much energy a possible. The unfortunate part of being selective is that every time I customize a resume and cover letter, it introduces the risk of errors getting added in! There have been a few times I've looked back and been like, "eek! I can't believe that slipped through!"
Christina-Marie Drake serious question though (well actually two) first off how do you managed not being introverted? I am a stone colds introvert and even though I’m 24, social media I have never been friends and talking to people I.e making connections has been supper hard! How do you talk to people so easily? And finally, have you been in the ghost punch studios yet! If so can we see pictures please? Asking for a friend.
I find it hard to “network” when I’m an introvert. I’m in Amir’s Discord community. Unfortunately due to its large number of people I feel discouraged to participate or strike conversations. Discord is flooded with so many people’s messages it’s easy for me to lose track of where my conversation went. In a way it’s discouraging to see the low probability of callbacks from the pure spray-and-pray approach. It kind of makes LinkedIn useless as a job search medium. What advice would you give to those who are directly introduced to a potential employer? Some contacts have done this for me and I find it awkward to follow up
This is a cool visualization but sorry to hear about your application challenges, happy to hear that you networked your way to success! I hope you are still in that role! But also, are you asking for feedback from the interviewers (if you are still searching)?
This is wonderful insight. Thank you for sharing. Your story confirms that you need a good network to get anywhere. My network is trying to help as much as possible, but it's much smaller. What advice do you have for folks outside of a tech/game hub?
Love seeing the data-driven approach to telling your job hunting journey. The data nerd in me has to ask: are these user flow visualizations built in Redash? It's the most comprehensive data visualization I've utilized. Additional props for it being open source.
Data QUEEN 😁
How to open up a conversation when the connection is a 2nd degree on LinkedIn? :)
Ghostpunch Games Recruiter 👻 🥊 Public Speaker📣Mamax2🖤🖤Moms in Gaming Founder 🦋Women In Games Ambassador🎮 Spidey Superfan 🕷️Taco Bell Connoisseur 🌮 🔔
1moCharles Stuard ask and you shall receive.