Thread by @GergelyOrosz

For anyone looking for their first job in tech: it’s a beast to get - including the first in a new country.

The story of how I was a week or two away from leaving the UK, failing to get *any* response from recruiters, despite having years of work exp and a stellar CV. Thread.

I’m from Hungary and graduated top of the class at Budapesti Műszaki Egyetem with a degree in Technical Informatics. You probably never heard of it: neither have recruiters.

It’s the #1 CS college nationwide - perhaps phrasing it like this might have helped.

I worked fulltime for 2 years as a web (.NET) developer and placed #3 worldwide at Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008 - from 200K contestants.

A pretty good resume, if I might say so.

Odd enough, applying remotely for .NET positions in the UK for no responses. So I packed up and moved.

I had enough savings to rent a place for 3 months. I figured it will be enough to get a job.

I did not need a visa. My English was close to native. I had work experience and outstanding extracurriculars. Applied to all local jobs and agencies.

For a month I got ZERO responses.

What happened? Two things, in hindsight.

First: it was 2009, a year after the 2008 crash. Tech jobs were drying up. Some similarities with entry-level jobs and COVID.

Because of the crash, many entry-level positions were filled by local, more experienced folks out of a job.

Second, my resume triggered all biases. My first line said “Hungarian”, I had my photo, my birth date, used the Europass structure... recruiters never read it. My resume screamed “not local and has no clue how to eve write a UK resume”.

After a month, I got desperate enough to put on my suit and walk into recruitment agencies with my printed resume. I was politely shown the door.

I’d call agency recruiters I sent applications to who didn’t reply anything: who would pretend they are not around or hang up.

I was a month away from running out of money and kept thinking: “if only someone gave me a chance”

I got lucky & *finally* got a call from an agency recruiter who put me through to a client. I got an offer the same day.

I hated the company and the location, but I had an offer.

I asked for two days to think and called / emailed all other recruiters to tell them I’d gotten an offer at this company and I’m dropping out immediately.

Suddenly, some recruiters got back to me. Got 2 more interviews arranged to run as ASAP & offers from all of them.

There was a company of these I *really* liked because they had the most difficult/fun interview and the people I clicked the “most” with. They didn’t pay as much as another, but I didn’t care: took the offer.

Getting that first job is tough - especially today, as an entry-level engineer.

Keep on persisting, keep your skills sharp, and know it will get much easier after this.

Once I got a job? My phone stated exploding with the recruiters who ignored me. Now it was my turn to do so.