🥇 Stop shotgunning your resume. Instead, Try the "Third Door"
The Third Door: How to stop shotgunning your resume and spend less time applying to jobs
Life, business, success... it's just like a nightclub.
There's the First Door: where the masses line up, sometimes in the thousands, hoping to get in.
There's the Second Door: the Exclusive VIP back entrance. Where elite billionaires, celebrity figures, and high-status people get entry.
But nobody tells you that there is always... the Third Door.
It's not easy to spot, because no ordinary person is looking for it. You have to think outside the box. Ditch the line, run down an alley, sneak in through the kitchen window, and find another way in.
Alex Banayan discusses this concept at length in his aptly named book, The Third Door.
And today, we're going to apply it to landing a job as a software engineer (but this could work in just about any career path you'd like).
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So where's the "Third Door" for finding a job?
First, we have to talk about the other two doors.
The First Door: Blast applying your resume to every job listing on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Google Jobs.
This is the route 99% of people take.
The Second Door: Asking a current engineer for a referral or DMing a recruiter for open roles.
A little better, but realistically, it's still a low percentage of success.
The Third Door: Attending a small recruitment event with 10 applicants or less. You can typically find these through:
- The company's newsletter for students
- In-person recruitment events
At these events, only a handful of candidates show up. It's far easier to stand out in a crowd of 5 versus 500.
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Whenever you’re ready, here's how I can help you:
If you’re a student or new grad looking for your first role in tech, I’d recommend pre-ordering my upcoming book:
→ How to Start Your Career in Tech: Go from broke college student to highly-paid software engineer with this ultimate guide to getting hired in Tech. This comprehensive course will teach you the system I use to get interviews and offers from Google, Apple, Amazon, and beyond during my college years.
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