BigTech and BigSchool most certainly get you in the door.

You still have to leverage connections at BigSchool and your previous BigTech though, many ex-FANG fail to do this.

People without these obvious advantages should be looking into other industries outside of direct tech. Oil/gas/energy, Supply chain/logistics, Automotive (Ford etc), Retail tech (Walmart Global Tech), and so many other industries where they still need SWEs.

Many people overlook these options. Pay may not be big tech level but being jobless is worse.

I assume ppl aren’t looking for big tech money, there’s enough posts out there telling you exactly what to do to get in at those places.

I’m curious, was there anything you recall from those posts that differentiates the general experience with applying to those places versus big tech?

Connections, Connections, Connections. Also nepotism.

The real trick is to not even interview. Just call someone you know and call in a favour. Very unpopular and controversial but this works for certain.

I am not talking about referrals. This is more direct and blunt.

Buddy works at X company : "Hey buddy, I need to join you at X company ASAP, I have been out of work"

Buddy pulls some strings and gets you in the next week.

What level does your buddy need to be to successfully pull these strings?

I actually had this happen to me one time, and my buddy was the CEO, got funding, and we worked together in the past. I don't think it would happen in any other setup.

Yeah a CEO can obviously make this happen but VPs of departments, principal/senior engineers, even senior hiring managers can make this happen.

Most don't know this but people in business/operations/HR roles in tech companies have a lot of pull and direct access to CEOs or even boards.

Regional Directors/Heads are also very influential and can get you in e.g. Head of EMEA, Director of APAC, for big tech I have seen these roles based in Ireland, Switzerland and Singapore.

In the AI/ML world, senior researchers can make this happen too, if you were together during research days at university or the senior researcher was your PhD advisor etc.

say a team is working on some core product, consisting of PMs, Engineers, etc. If you are the senior most engineer in that team, you could go up to the right person and say "Hey, someone I know really well just applied and I need that person on this team to make this product a success. No questions asked."

Remember, reputation is everything here. If you get hired this way and not perform, you not only ruined your reputation but the reputation of the person who vouched for you.

Mario Can you please expand on the comment that you agree with, "the UK Tech scene is dead".

What's actually going on within the UK tech jobs landscape? What about certain sectors like fintech? What about all the recent AI startups hiring? What are your on-ground observations?

Within my LinkedIn feed bubble, things are not that bad in the UK, but what is actually happening?

A career pivot sounds interesting. Any ideas or recommendations for others considering this? I have seen someone leave SWE to become a commercial pilot which was pretty cool.