The 6 Best Ways to Find a Job Without LinkedIn or Indeed

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You’re probably familiar with the usual job search method: enter your desired position on a career site like LinkedIn or Indeed, add a few details, and then spend hours scrolling through a list of thousands of potential jobs. When you finally get to the point, download more. Often this can feel like a numbers game where you just automatically do a lot of tasks and hope that one of them sticks. But these sites only know what you tell them (such as job titles and years of experience), and while they may make some assumptions about what you might need, they don’t really understand what skills and experience you offer.

Job filters are not perfect

You are likely to be a great fit for many different positions and professions, and the years of experience required are usually less stringent than the computer understands. Job titles are also constantly changing, and different companies often describe the same job in different ways (human team vs. HR, customer experience vs. client success, community manager vs. social media manager, etc.). So, I love to complement the classic LinkedIn scrolling approach with some targeted tactics, especially with regards to identifying high-quality leads and utilizing actual human interaction with the people around you, whether online or in real life.

1) Create your personal “Dream Companies List”

Open a document or a new page in a notepad and brainstorm all the companies you think might be interesting to work with. A big dream! Companies on my personal dream business list include Quip, Oatly, TikTok, and Casper (I love their products), OkCupid, Hinge, and Match Group (I met my husband online), as well as random places that seem cool to be associated with. like the Guggenheim or Momofuku. Once you have enough companies signed up (about 15-20), set a reminder to check the job pages for each of these companies once a month. You will be able to keep a close eye on opportunities at a company that you would truly love to work for, and you could find a job that you would be great for and a position that you would never have found otherwise.

It was through this tactic that I landed my first job in tech. I had no idea what “head of community marketing” was, but the description sounded like I could do it. I applied and the rest is history.

2) Subscribe to the newsletter for industries that interest you

I love job search newsletters for several reasons: they curate content so I don’t have to surf the web myself, they arrive in my inbox so I can read them at my leisure and feel “done” when I get to them. at the end, and they often contain other news, articles, or headlines that I thought I wouldn’t be interested in (which also has the advantage of sounding smart and relevant in interviews).

Job or industry-focused newsletters are often a mixture of job openings and general industry news, such as if a company has just received a major investment or is starting a massive initiative. We know open positions are definitely important to see, but the news can also help you predict if a company is looking to hire more people soon. If Company X recently closed a large funding round, I may plan to keep a close eye on this careers page over the next few weeks in case that money turns into new jobs.

A partial list of relevant newsletters that I and my trusted friends subscribe to:

  • TechNY Daily : A mix of tech start-up and job postings posted about 3 times a week.
  • Built -in: Monthly national or local industry tech news with outlets in Austin , Boston , Chicago ,Colorado , Los Angeles, New York , San Francisco , and Seattle.
  • Jobs in social enterprises: job postings in the field of social entrepreneurship and social innovation
  • Interested?? : Bi-weekly announcements of vacancies focused on social justice.
  • Ruff Notes : Weekly tech company hiring roundups, news and articles.
  • Word of Mouth : Weekly opportunities for design, art, education, information, and the built environment.
  • The Bloom : weekly job openings, social impact news and tips.
  • Food+Tech Connect : weekly news and events in the field of food technology and innovation

3) Join relevant online communities

There are so many communities these days that live on platforms like Slack, Discord, Facebook and Twitter where people connect, share knowledge and promote opportunities. They are also great places to ask for referrals (perhaps to one of your dream companies), ask for inside information on any companies you might be interviewing with, and be the first to see people share new job postings. . When I left a job I found through my dream company list, I found my next job through a Slack group where the CEO was also a member and posted a position.

Another partial list of online spaces that I and trusted friends can vouch for:

  • Ladies Get Paid : Focuses on women’s professional and financial development.
  • Out in Tech : Focuses on LGBTQ+ people in all areas of technology.
  • Product Buds : Aimed at Product Managers.
  • Turquoise : Aimed at anyone who is looking for a job.
  • Women CSR : focus on women in corporate social responsibility and sustainability
  • Women in Hospitality : Focuses on women and non-binary people in the hospitality industry.
  • Design Buddies : Aimed at designers of all levels.

Online communities tend to become more specialized and niche than newsletters, so depending on who you talk to, you can get very different recommendations. If there is nothing on this list that resonates, I highly recommend doing a Google search for “[INDUSTRY] Slack group” or “[regardless of who you are (e.g. women, POC, or veterans)] in [INDUSTRY ] Slack group. ”

4) Join Curated Candidate Databases

While you are looking for a job, recruiters and hiring managers are also looking for candidates. LinkedIn is still a widely used tool for this, but many companies also choose to use specialized and curated databases that are smaller but more focused. Just as a company might partner with a college or boot camp to hire a certain type of person (in this case, someone early in their career with a standard education), companies can also partner with groups that curate candidates in a particular industry or are underrepresented. . personality.

A few proven databases on my radar (and some I’ve used before as a recruiter!) worth checking out:

  • Underdog.io : Mainly targeted at people in technical professions such as engineers or designers, as well as people from businesses and corporations.
  • Tech Ladies : Aimed at all women in tech.
  • Jopwell : Aimed at Black, Hispanic, and Native American professionals.
  • Jobs in Wakanda : Aimed at blacks, natives, and other people of color with a variety of careers.

Similar to online communities, these databases can be quite specialized, so you can use this list for inspiration to find groups that might be even more relevant to you.

5) Set a schedule for checking industry job boards.

Yes, I know it’s like scrolling through a big job aggregator, but industry job boards tend to have more relevant roles for the jobs you’re interested in and fewer of them so you don’t scroll. to oblivion. When I’m looking for a job, I like to check out the more specialized job boards about once a week or so. Whether the work that week suited me or not, I still did it and could cross that task off my to-do list.

A few job boards that I and trusted friends have successfully used (I’m sure there are many more):

6) Connect with people you already know (and love)

Often when we talk about networking, we seem to mean cold messages to someone and an invitation to an awkward conversation over coffee or visiting some professional mixer where we have to strike up a conversation with a stranger and hope it pays off. While this type of networking has its place, it’s just as valuable to connect with people you already know (plus, less stress).

Each colleague, classmate, and family member has their own network of people and opportunities they can connect you with, and that connection has its own extensive network, and so on. In these cases, you also don’t have to worry so much about showing your best or being charming 100% of the time – the people you trust probably already feel confident vouching for you as being good, kind, talented. person. . Not every call will turn into a recommendation, but you will still meet new leads with the added benefit of meeting someone you really like. And they don’t have to be your closest friends. I ended up getting the job I have today thanks to this tactic: I was recommended by a former colleague with whom I didn’t work closely, but with whom I often interacted via Instagram about our dogs.

Investing in these relationships will also continue to pay off in the long run. The next time you need a new job or help at work, you can continue to count on the support of these people. (Special thanks to my former colleague Lizzie Redman , a valued member of my network, who provided many resources for this article.)

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