Is my job searching strategy optimal?

Question

I am looking for new opportunities and based on what I am seeing on Taro. My strategy so far has been.

Create and polish resume
Prep for DSA and System Design
Apply to jobs.

This is the end of week 2. 8 Applications, 2 Rejections and not heard back from the rest.

So far I have been applying through LinkedIn and Otta only. I have intentionally avoided and not reached out for personal references. My thinking has been, that I don't want to waste the guaranteed interview opportunity if I am not ready.

My target at the moment is that I should be able to complete 90% of the grind 75 leetcode questions and at least a few system design mocks.

My questions to the community:

What are other good job listing services?
Is my approach sound or should I change my strategy?

With every rejection, I try to remind myself what @Rahul said. "We can only do what is in our control; that is to continue preparing."

Alex Chiou · Accepted Answer

What are other good job listing services?

LinkedIn and Otta are great, but there's many other good ones. Check this out: "What are the best websites for applying for tech jobs?"

Is my approach sound or should I change my strategy?

I think you have Steps 2 and 3 inverted, which is a classic interviewing mistakes I've seen countless engineers make. You will never be "ready" for interviews. Just apply a bunch first and adapt your studying accordingly. In this market, DSA is less relevant than ever before as FAANG is largely not hiring so don't gatekeep the majority of your applications on completing most of the LeetCode 75. You already have the strategy of applying to less prestigious companies first, so you can use those as training effectively.

To go super deep, I highly recommend going through my entire job searching course: [Course] Ace Your Tech Interview And Get A Job As A Software Engineer

Is my job searching strategy optimal?

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