Comment by skippyboxedhero

...if you get it in front of the right people.

I have tried to do this twice over the past ten years. The first time was in equity research. It was actually easier for me to start a business myself than get people hiring to just look at my work casually. And when it came up, almost always suspicion: why are you doing this? Is this legal? Actually showing interest was almost regarded as negative (in one of my last interviews, I remember turning up with a deck that I had deliberately made look amateurish..."best research I have seen"...but we don't hire grads...I had a subsequent interview with the same guy in which I pitched a stock that doubled in the next six months to give him the hard sell, I knew the idea was good, I knew it would double, he said he didn't invest in the industry because he lost money in that sector once in the 90s...I stopped looking for jobs in finance after that).

Largely the same experience in tech (but worse, in tech you find that people are more prone to invent reasons to say no, in finance people said no but told you...in tech, they will say "you don't have experience in X"...as if the tech is going to exist in five years, like what is going to happen when no-one uses X anymore, lol).

So you have to work outside interviews, once people get into that scenario they are looking to say no (and you will need to hard sell). Things that you think would be important aren't. Spending your time doing something useful is less important that more visible, arbitrary factors (get a degree from X, look like a Y, be friends with Z). It is actually easier to do your own thing than get hired this way (and btw, for some people this road to nowhere will suck the joy out of it...I loved investing, I researched stocks when I had no money to invest but the experience of putting years into it with the hope of work and getting nothing...it felt like being suffocated by a parent).

Btw, my experience is based on doing this for ten years across tech and finance. It was a very hard lesson for me because I believe heavily in presenting people with choices/information...this isn't how most people work. You have to bring the horse to water, and then force its head in the trough, the horse won't drink itself.

...I will offer positive advice too: use your personal identity. I didn't because of a family issue, and it really hurt down the line. I got a job, had to shut down what I was doing before, came back...had to start from zero. People should have a name and a face to put on you (unf, this will hurt some people who don't look the right way...it isn't fair).