TL;DR

If there’s anything I’d love for you to take away from this post, it’s:

1. Being able to search for a job while employed reduces a ton of pressure that you would otherwise feel.

2. Browsing job boards, even if you aren’t looking, can help you understand the market and find ways to uplevel your skills.

3. Referrals are key. IF you have the opportunity to be referred to a role, make it happen. Though, I recommend against cold-messaging someone you’ve never met and asking for a referral.

4. Bored? Post something.

Intro

I’ve always felt a desire to remain active in my professional network, whether I’m employed or not. That’s why, for the past 8+ years, I’ve shared posts on LinkedIn, gone to more networking events than I can count, and had hundreds of calls with others in design or tech.

A lot of people, I find, wait until they need a new opportunity to start being more active in their network or in their search. At this point, the dynamic of the job search changes from “I think I want a new job” to “Sh**, I need a job!”

Despite LinkedIn feeling lightyears behind other social platforms in terms of functionality and visual design, browsing and engaging every now and then with those you want to stay connected with or, dare I say it, posting something yourself, can result in new connections made, new conversations had, and new jobs to be jobbed.

Here are a few things that proactive (and by this, I mean before something forces you to) engagement on said platforms can do for your search.

Removing Pressure

Job searching while employed removes a lot of the pressure you might feel if you need a new job immediately. This pressure could be mental, emotional, or, one of the most common causes of stress, financial.

The process of getting a new job is notoriously long, tedious, and unpredictable. I’ve experienced single-step processes for contract roles or startups looking to move quickly, and seven-step processes over the course of months for large companies.

When you’re employed, you’re not feeling a sense of urgency or scarcity, which I think helps your confidence remain high, and allows you to not settle for the first offer you receive. Heck, you might even feel as though you have even more bargaining power when it comes to negotiating salary with a company that really wants you as you don’t need to make a move.

With layoffs in tech and other industries becoming more and more common, you may also be competing with tens of thousands of others who have been impacted. All the more reason to be more proactive in your approach as opposed to having to play catch-up if, for example, you’ve been laid off.

Benchmarking Yourself

Passively interviewing can help you keep an eye on the market and identify your areas of strength and weakness.

Think about it. If you’re browsing job boards for a couple of hours each week, you could read through hundreds of job descriptions that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

You start to see patterns of specific skills or experiences that companies are asking for, and this gives you insights into how you might be perceived as a professional or a candidate in your market.

The things that differentiate candidates change from role to role, but outside of being somewhat fluent in AI tools, attributes such as proactivity, autonomy, collaboration, and embracing ambiguity are some of the most common that I’ve seen.

I say all this with the caveat that some job descriptions I’ve seen lately have gone off the deep end. Some want candidates who are unicorns, some only want candidates who have experience specific to that company, and others say that only 4 years of experience is required for Senior-level roles (something I think is not actually true, but is simply a way to make more people apply).

Referrals, The Secret Ingredient

Staying active in your network helps to create optionality before you actually need it. I shared one post on LinkedIn about how I was open to contract and full-time work, which resulted in three contract interviews and two referrals to full-time roles. Some of those were from people I was connected with but didn’t know or work with directly.

A referral is the not-so-secret, but in my opinion, an underutilized ingredient to landing interviews or getting offers. Moreso, getting those initial interviews.

I believe that one reality of applying in a world of Applicant Tracking Systems (Workday 🤮, Greenhouse, and more), is that so many candidates who would be great for the role are slipping through the cracks because companies are seeking perfection and see anything less as “risk.” I first saw this wording in a post from Carly Taylor, an engineering leader in the gaming space, when she was sharing about the gender gap (see below).

This is where being referred to a role can make a huge difference when it comes to receiving that initial interview. I speak about this from a lot of experience. I’ve applied to companies multiple times with no bites, but once I was referred, it got me in the hiring pipeline.

Her full LinkedIn post here.

Conclusion & My Playbook

If you’re browsing LinkedIn feeling bored because the platform looks outdated or you’re only seeing posts of job descriptions in Word docs, I challenge you to start sharing.

Whether it’s related to your expertise in your field, your experience in recent interviews, how you used AI to completely optimize every aspect of your life, or your thoughts on crypto, you’d be surprised at the number of people who are interested.

You might not go viral, you might not get any likes (some of my posts go likeless still), but the point of putting yourself out there is to be consistent. This consistency will naturally build connections and relationships, start conversations, and, as mentioned, can even lead to new opportunities.

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