10+ YOE engineer/architect moving to CA advice needed
35 year old, architect-level experience in web/cloud dev, some ML experience (in finance). First half of the career spent outside of the US. In the US couple of startups and a job as a developer in a financial institution. US citizen. Looking for general advice on how to go about connecting into the ecosystem in order to find a job in SF or the valley (top tier companies or startups). Contacting recruiters? Contacting companies directly? Going to meetups? Thanks!
You won’t magically connect overnight. Get a job in BA. work for a couple of years. Mingle with your (smart) coworkers and recruiters. They will be the foundation of your network.
Thanks for the advice. What’s BA?
Bay Area.
Finding a referral in your desired companies, FAANG or PAUL. It’s the most effective way of getting an interview. Start a thread requesting referral on specific companies, or google referral sites, there are tons.
I could tell you how to do this for startups, based on your skill set. I don't understand hiring at all for larger companies. Super curious how someone with very senior experience would even go about finding the right people to talk to at such large companies.
How would you do it for startups? Especially post Series-A/B with product/market fit and revenue.
Post series A/B is typically where companies seek to expand their engineering teams aggressively. - find companies that just raised A or B rounds. - identify the person or persons at these companies that you think are most likely to need your help - optionally identify the primary recruiter if they have an on staff - figure out how to get in touch with these people They are actively looking for senior talent to help lead new engineering teams.
You are moving without a job lined up? Best approach would be referrals but just cold applications also work. Could try contacting recruiters on LinkedIn but they probably get 300 messages a day...
Not moving yet, just thinking about it, looking to understand more first. From my experience, referrals works better vs cold. I’d like to see if I can get connected into relevant people before cold-spamming. I’m not looking to rush, but instead take time to find a great, highly relevant position.