That Monday Morning Feeling
Felt that familiar kick in my gut again. Opened my email. Same old story: “We’ve decided to move forward with other candidates…” Dumped like yesterday’s trash, just five days after starting. Classic. Coffee tasted like mud that morning. Stared at my laptop screen – blank, just like my future seemed.
Fed Up With The Usual Crap
Right then. Knew scrolling through boring job boards wouldn’t cut it. Felt like screaming into a void. Typed “fast job hunting tricks” into my browser. Page after page of corporate nonsense advice. “Update your LinkedIn!” “Network strategically!” Yeah, right. Pure fantasy land stuff. Felt like giving up. Almost closed the laptop.
Tried Something Stupid (That Worked)
Grabbed my phone instead. Stopped looking for job listings. Started hunting for the actual people. Scrolled through LinkedIn like a maniac. Ignored job posts completely. Searched for “CEO” + “Tech” + “My City“. Boom. Faces popped up. Real human beings running companies.
Picked three guys:
- CEO of a mobile app startup.
- Head dude at a web design place.
- Some guy running a tiny but cool software house.
Throwing Messages at the Wall
Wrote zero cover letters. Didn’t touch my tired old resume. Just went straight into LinkedIn messaging. Typed like a human talking:
“Hey [First Name],
Saw you run [Company Name]. Looks like you guys are doing cool stuff [mention one specific thing I saw on their page]. Got unexpectedly booted from my last role (started 5 days ago, ha!) and scrambling. Got serious skills in [My Skills]. Can I buy you a coffee sometime next week? Ten minutes of your time? Just want to hear about what you’re building.”
Copied that basic message. Pasted it to all three CEOs. Hit send. Fingers crossed. Figured worst case? More silence. Used to it.
That “Ding!” Sound
Phone buzzed before lunch. Lunch was sad leftovers anyway. First CEO replied: “Busy week, but maybe.” Okay, not a no. Second CEO? Ghosted. Whatever. Third one… ding ding! “Actually have 15 mins tomorrow 3 PM? Cafe down the street?” Hell yes!
Doing The Coffee Thing
Met the software house guy. Nice dude. Tired eyes, like he hadn’t slept. Told him straight: “Got dumped. Need something fast. Can code. Can fix your messy backend.” Didn’t beg. Showed him two screenshots of projects on my phone – real stuff I’d built. Talked about the problems I saw his company having based on their website. Took exactly 15 minutes.
Not The Ending You Expect
Walked away thinking: “Well, at least I practiced.” Three hours later? Phone rings. Unknown number. Answered cautiously. It’s him. “Can you start tomorrow? Contract stuff, messy codebase needs untangling ASAP. Pay is [he quoted a number 20% higher than my dumped job]. Maybe longer if you survive the chaos.” Laughed. Said yes.
Sent 15 jobs applications that week. Got 14 rejections. That single coffee meeting? Landed the gig. Still here. Sometimes finding the guy who actually signs the checks is faster than talking to HR robots. Just go find where people actually make decisions.
