A techie living in San Francisco is calling the traditional job application process “the dumbest s**t you can ever do” after his own grueling experience with the market. After sending out 670 applications and DMing 1,000 recruiters with zero results, he decided to stop playing the volume game. He shifted his focus to building products and networking in person in SF and NYC. Eventually, he managed to flip the script, resulting in over 80 recruiters reaching out to him instead.
“Applying to jobs is the dumbest shit you can ever do. I learned the hard way. dmed 1000 recruiters/engineers. did 670 apps. didn’t get me anything. Cause its not equally distributed: the top 10% of people take 90% of the jobs,” Marmik Patel, whose LinkedIn profile says he works as a software engineer at Meta, wrote on X.
In the following lines, he explained what he did instead. He shared, “So this past year I stopped wasting time on applying and started doing whatever gave me the biggest impact. Did hella trips to SF/NYC, built products, did content, made friends. And soon the dynamic flipped. Jan-May, 83 recruiters dmed me. AI labs, YC companies, unicorns.”
He continued, “It’s a winner-takes-all world. You have no choice but to become the winner. Or waste away your life fighting for scraps.”
What did social media say?
An X user wrote, “Dude, you’re such an inspiration to me. I watched all your videos, and it was so touching because what you described your life to be like was exactly mine. I’m 22, and I got through exactly what you’ve been through. I’m not sure if you recall, but I emailed you a few months ago, asking whether I should move to SF or New York, as I was living with my parents, and you responded. Well, I took your advice, and now I actually live in New York. I’ve uprooted and changed my whole life, and now I’m starting to build up my Twitter presence to get into the position you’re in. You’re a huge inspiration, whether you realise it or not, and I really appreciate you whenever you post anything like this. It’s very incredible and inspiring.”
Another added, “Love the shift. For someone who doesn’t live in SF or NYC, do you think ‘building in public’ online is enough to bridge that gap, or is the physical presence mandatory?”
A third expressed, “Felt that. My 1000+ rejections taught me hustles beat applications any day.” A fourth disagreed, “I’m sure this is true, but… what are you really saying here? If applying to jobs and reaching out to recruiters is dumb, then what should people be doing?”
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)