How to get a Job Interview call from any company (without getting lucky)?

Pay for an Interview-Call Insurance

Oct 16, 2024

An employee won’t refer you to their company because of your sexy LinkedIn DP or your punchline about farming potatoes 🥔 in free time.

A recruiter won’t schedule your interviews just because you’ve got 10+ years of ‘impactful’ experience on a fancy resume written with a best-practice template.

They have got hundreds of applicants with similar skills as yours.

Ouch! Painful to even get a chance to showcase your skills... right?

Tech job seekers need to digest these harsh facts when sending cold emails or LinkedIn messages to get a job referral.

No, the world out there isn’t evil.

There are legitimate reasons behind this, and I’ll cover a few.

But there’s a way out.

I call it “Interview-Call Insurance.” 🛡️

A few weeks ago, I shared a framework to land a $500k+ software engineer job without Leetcoding. But it’s important to get an interview before you can reach that stage.

That’s why today, I’m sharing a multi-faceted approach to getting that interview call. I’ll cover:

Why doesn’t cold emailing work? 📧
What’s an interview-call insurance? 🛠️
Four ways to buy that insurance. 💡

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind! 🧠

❌ Why doesn’t cold emailing work?

Short answer? Because they don’t know you.

People are generally more willing to do favors for those they know—both personally and professionally.

For instance, if folks like

hypothetically posted on LinkedIn today that they’re looking for their next opportunity, they wouldn’t need to cold-email anyone. 👋

Their LinkedIn post would be flooded with comments from people eager to help them out or make them their peer. 🫂

This is what happens when you cold-email or DM a stranger on LinkedIn asking for referral:

It get lost in their inbox. Tech job market isn’t what it used to be. Current employees are too busy saving their own asses and couldn’t get time to refer you. Referral bonuses—“free money”—aren’t on their priority list anymore.💼
Their image is on stake: It's tough for employees to justify referring someone they don't know, especially at senior levels where their reputation is at risk. That’s why you don’t hear back from senior leaders often.
Recruiting is screwed up right now: Companies downsized their recruiting teams in last two years. Limited recruiters are juggling multiple jobs with hundreds of candidates. This causes inefficiencies and burnout in filtering candidates.

🔥 Interview Call Insurance

The classic mistake candidates make is reaching out for help when they’re desperate.

Like “I need a referral now.” Immediately.

Well, you know there are no free lunches.

You pay the premium for car insurance before an accident happens. 🚗💥

The accident may or may not happen—hopefully, it doesn’t—but you still prepare for the worst.

It’s the same with getting an interview call. You need to “do the things” that buys you that “interview-call insurance” for yourself.

💼 Four ways to buy Interview Call Insurance

1. Build a personal brand and provide value.

The big problem is the internet doesn’t know what skills you have.

No, polishing resumes doesn’t work anymore. 🚫

To change that, you need to become more visible. You need to inform people.

Building a personal brand helps with that.

Today, you’ve got tons of options, thanks to professional social media. Here are a few, in increasing order of complexity:

Share your perspective on others’ LinkedIn posts via comments.
Post regularly on LinkedIn about something “valuable to others.”
Reach out to people, offering help without expecting anything in return.
Start a newsletter, like the one you’re reading right now.
Start a YouTube channel.
Build and teach others a course on a skill you’re an expert in.

Now, you might rebel and say, “I don’t want to be an influencer” or “I’m not a content creator.” 🙅

Yes, you are. You have to influence people every day at work to take action in some way. And you’re a content creator if you’ve sent an email, DM, or text message in the last 365 days.

Share your expertise in fields like distributed systems, databases, or system design. Your current projects. Your leadership style. The list of topics is endless.

But you also don’t need to be an expert to post something online. You can also write about how you feel working, the kind of work culture you like or dislike.

Trust me, I get way more job opportunities now than ever before—thanks to my writing.

2. Build friendships with leaders at work

No, not the kind of friendship where you gossip about others. Though funny enough, that works sometimes, too.

And definitely not the type where you break HR rules—if you catch my drift ;)

I’m talking about building relationships through supporting your leadership.

This is simple. Just do small extra things on top of your regular work at your current job:

Deliver results.✅
Make an impact.✅
Solve your leaders’ bigger problems.✅
Then ask them, “What else can I solve for you?”✅✅✅
Have regular 1:1s to catch up on life—both inside and outside of work!✅✅✅✅✅

When you solve your leaders’ problems, they’re willing to help you out. Sometimes even when you’re about to leave the company or get laid off.

I have a friend who got laid off due to bad luck—his entire project/org was shut down. Fortunately, a senior manager from a peer org reached out, gave him multiple leads, and connected him directly with recruiters from other companies.

Gone are the days when your managers would envy you for leaving.

3. Don’t lose touch with people who leave your company.

This one builds on the previous point. What if your leader friends leave and you’ve built a strong relationship with them?

Simple. Keep that relationship warm. 🔥

I’m still in touch with almost all the leaders from my past organizations. Actively with a few. Passively with others.

Just text them once a month to see how they’re doing. Offer help if they need it.
This can actually have a win-win outcome. When a leader moves somewhere else, they might need people they can trust—and they might vouch for you internally. This happened to me when I moved to Coinbase.

Building trust goes a long way.

4. Build relationships with recruiters

Wait, how? They don’t know you—and that’s exactly the problem we’re trying to solve.🤔

When your current job is stable, and the market is good, randomly apply and interview with companies once a quarter.

This has a few benefits:

You get to know some recruiters and grab their direct contact information.
You know your worth.

For this article, the first point is key. 🎯

Another way? Build rapport with recruiters at your current company. So, when they leave, you’ll know how to reach out—kind of like not losing touch with leaders.

Final thing: Never ignore a cold email from a recruiter during your good times. Reply with kindness, save their contact for future, maintain a friendly relationship.