Job hunting tools I've been using

The market is flooded with knowledge workers. I'm in the devops and security field, which still has plenty of openings, but also a lot of competition. Here's some resources I've used when applying.

Resume Building

First I paid $99 to run my resume through Levels.fyi's resume review. I don't think the results were that great, though there was some good advice. Basically they review your resume and give suggestions. You can see what they suggested for me.. I did feel like my suggestions were from ChatGPT and edited by humans, but maybe that's just the wave of the future now

I did make a bunch of edits and went from this to this.

The big difference is the new version can be scanned by ATS, application tracking system, and follows the results-driven STAR format that hiring managers like.

Now I'm trying Jobscan.co, which is much more sophesticated, and also made some suggestions to my Linkedin profile. They use the same ATS resume scanners to scan what the job you are applying for is vs what is on your resume, and make suggestions so you'll get a higher score. It's expensive though, about $72 for 3 months. But less than the resume review I had done. Jobscan also has a job tracking form so you can see where you've applied so far.

Job postings

On the first business day of the month, YC's Hackernews posts a Who's Hiring thread that gets about 500 postings from startups and established companies looking for workers. I go through post by post, because sometimes there are Devops jobs when you click onto the company's website. Sometimes you have to email the founder if it is brand new startup. It's more work but I've gotten better quality leads this way since there's often no hiring manager using ATS to play games with.

I like Jobot because once your resume is uploaded, there's nothing really else to do than wait for emails from the recruiters. It takes about 5 minutes to answer some questions from the recruiter AI and you are done. Alas, I've gonne no leads here.

Working Nomads has sent me some good leads, but pay attention to the geographical restricts. LATAM hiring is booming and often the jobs are for only that region of the world.

If you are looking to move to Europe, Denmark has a really good job site for finding jobs. The hiring packages include moving you and your entire family, including your car, to Denmark with the espectation that you'll stay there forever. With Denmark's high standard of living, that might not be a bad option.

Finally, I'd like to mention Braintrust. The onboarding to join is a little legthy, but isn't a slog like Toptal. The companies that list here tend to be names you know, but there are also some startups in there too. You have some power to select your pay and type (W2 or 1099) as well.

I hope this has helped someone, and if you are looking for a Devops expert yourself, setup a quick zoom meeting so we can chat.