I've held 6 "normal" jobs (W-2 employee) in my career. I've never submitted an unsolicited resume or a CV...I've never gone through HR (except for onboarding after I was hired). I was asked to join and worked from the beginning directly with manager (or board of directors) that I'd be reporting to.
Here's the dirty secret: A hiring manager ALWAYS has more political power than ANYONE in HR. But in larger organizations hiring managers are also very risk averse (and political cowards) and therefore will always defer to HR. This is why HR is so out of control in most companies!
So either avoid large organizations and focus on startup, growth phase and SMB companies...or find a way to directly reach the ear of the hiring managers in a manner that reduces their level of perceived risk in choosing you.
Here are strategies I've used:
1. First understand how businesses and hiring managers perceive value (it's NOT as obvious as you might think!)
Then:
2. Write - blogs, articles, comments in places like LinkedIn groups where hiring managers might be loitering
3. Talk - conference talks, training, do a podcast, do webinars...but always with an eye towards message and audience (junior programmers will NOT be hiring you)
4. Network - take any opportunity to be visible and demonstrate expertise and knowledge. And tell everyone you know what it is you're looking for.
It not unlike marketing a product. Find where the audience hangs out, figure out what they value, and then communicate that value and be visible.
This isn't a "next week" solution, but could certainly be a 90-120 day solution!
As an example of one possible direction, I've seen some awesome product managers that came out of development. Did they have the Marketing degree or the 20 years of experience...NO!
But brought a unique understanding of how products were built and how to communicate the needs of the business back to the development team in a way that NO non-technical person would ever be capable of doing.
So don't compare yourself apples-to-apples with those already in the job (whatever role you're shooting for). In a certain sense, you have to BE what you want to become, even before you get there.
The truth is, there's nothing easier than doing tomorrow whatever it was that you did today and yesterday. Change is hard, and the hardest part of change is mastering the interior game. Knowing what you want and becoming that person.
Here's the dirty secret: A hiring manager ALWAYS has more political power than ANYONE in HR. But in larger organizations hiring managers are also very risk averse (and political cowards) and therefore will always defer to HR. This is why HR is so out of control in most companies!
So either avoid large organizations and focus on startup, growth phase and SMB companies...or find a way to directly reach the ear of the hiring managers in a manner that reduces their level of perceived risk in choosing you.
Here are strategies I've used:
1. First understand how businesses and hiring managers perceive value (it's NOT as obvious as you might think!)
Then:
2. Write - blogs, articles, comments in places like LinkedIn groups where hiring managers might be loitering
3. Talk - conference talks, training, do a podcast, do webinars...but always with an eye towards message and audience (junior programmers will NOT be hiring you)
4. Network - take any opportunity to be visible and demonstrate expertise and knowledge. And tell everyone you know what it is you're looking for.
It not unlike marketing a product. Find where the audience hangs out, figure out what they value, and then communicate that value and be visible.
This isn't a "next week" solution, but could certainly be a 90-120 day solution!
As an example of one possible direction, I've seen some awesome product managers that came out of development. Did they have the Marketing degree or the 20 years of experience...NO!
But brought a unique understanding of how products were built and how to communicate the needs of the business back to the development team in a way that NO non-technical person would ever be capable of doing.
So don't compare yourself apples-to-apples with those already in the job (whatever role you're shooting for). In a certain sense, you have to BE what you want to become, even before you get there.
The truth is, there's nothing easier than doing tomorrow whatever it was that you did today and yesterday. Change is hard, and the hardest part of change is mastering the interior game. Knowing what you want and becoming that person.