Finding a job with tryneedl.ai
I Built a Tool to Find a Job. Then It Found Me One.
I use Sentry to find and fix bugs in tryneedl.ai. Then tryneedl.ai coached me through the interviews for a job at Sentry — and I got it.
Here’s how that happened.
The unruly Google Doc
When I was building tryneedl.ai, I was testing new functionality. Friends of mine who were trying it out sent in some great ideas, some of which I’ve since incorporated into the app. But even before then, I had been interviewing fairly actively for a new role. I had set up LinkedIn filters to send me an email every day based on my search criteria. I had four of them. Every day, I’d look through anything new or novel, do my research into the company (if I hadn’t heard of it), the team, and anything else I could find — and apply if I thought it was something interesting.
In a Google Doc, I kept a record of every company I applied to, a link to the job posting, the resume I used, and so on. If I heard back, I’d record the recruiter’s contact information, their LinkedIn, and any context I had about the person or the interview. If I interviewed, I’d do the same. Needless to say, my Google Doc became unruly pretty quickly.
I wasn’t alone in this. Friends who were also job searching were looking for better ways to keep track of everything. I thought: tryneedl.ai could do this fairly easily. So I built it.
So I built it
It’s not the prettiest interface on the planet, because I haven’t spent the time to make it look and work as well as I’d like. But it’s functional, and that’s what I needed for myself.
The next idea was to use the profile tryneedl.ai built for me to serve as my agent at tryneedl.ai/chat/ben — something that could compare me against a job description and give me a study plan.
What exists now gives you a score out of 5, plus coaching tips on how to position yourself in an interview based on your skills and your gaps. It tailors a coaching regime for each interview based on the person you’re meeting, any notes you get from a recruiter about that specific interview, and anything else you send as context.
The job
So when it came time to test out the workflow, there was a job: Head of Technical Program Management at Sentry. When I plugged the job description in, it came back a 4.8 out of 5, with very few gaps. I was surprised. Most other roles I was testing scored in the 3s or low 4s, but 4.8 was pretty high. Having worked through numerous bugs along this particular workflow in the product, I was sure the 4.8 was a bug. It wasn’t a bug — and since I built the whole thing, take it with a grain of salt that I scored this highly.
I took a break from building and testing, and looked at the job. I use Sentry in tryneedl.ai, after all. I was using the free version, including alerts, user feedback, and the rest, so I was familiar with the product. And “Head of TPM” was perfect for what I was looking for. I applied.
When I applied, tryneedl.ai customized my resume and offered to make a custom cover letter. Cool. When I had a couple of phone interviews, I used tryneedl.ai to coach me through them.
In one of those prep sessions, it had me answer five questions with no feedback at all. Then it gave me pointers on how to tighten my responses. Then it ran five different questions and told me where I’d taken the feedback and where I still had room. I didn’t nail every answer, and I could have kept going. But in the interview itself I was surprised: I knew exactly which story I needed to tell. Running questions on my own, or with a friend, has never done that for me.
Another benefit: although I have a human job coach I meet with every week, I could pull up tryneedl.ai at 2 a.m. if I wanted, to run me through one last time.
I don’t have the money to do that with a human coach (yet).
I got the job!
And that’s why I’m writing. Very little has been done outwardly on tryneedl.ai since I started at Sentry. I don’t think it would be fair to them not to give it my all as I onboard, so I’ve been queuing up a lot of ideas, fixing bugs quietly, talking with users who’ve hit issues and filed feedback (via Sentry, I might add), and making sure all of the legal scaffolding of the company is in place.
What’s next
One of the reasons I built tryneedl.ai is to elevate and advance how we connect to our careers. The resume and job description are imperfect but necessary today. I think there’s a future where they’re not necessary, and we can push toward a better connection between job seekers and job creators.
That said, I’m getting antsy. I’m planning to change the name (tryneedl.ai? It’s good, but not great. I think I have something great), but I need to fix a few more issues and work on a branding and UX overhaul before I roll that out.
I also want to start marketing, slowly. Word of mouth has been great so far, but I know there are many more people out there who need tryneedl.ai in their lives right now.
I’ve talked to veterans who don’t want to work in the trades — tryneedl.ai can help them get to the bottom of what it is they’re looking for and how to position themselves to have the best chances they can. New college grads who, like me at the time, haven’t thought about what to do after they earn a degree — tryneedl.ai can help them too. And peers in my network here in Silicon Valley tech are wondering whether this frothy time is going to mean the end of the career they’d hoped to rely on for the next 10–20 years. I think tryneedl.ai can help them think that through as well.
Many of the friends I mentioned who were also job searching are using tryneedl.ai now. Some have since found dream roles, as I did. Some are still looking, but have told me that tryneedl.ai has challenged their own story in fundamental ways — to the point where they’re considering career changes or time off, when they weren’t before. I’m not saying time off or career changes are always positive, but they are when you’re doing it with a clear head.
So stay tuned. As usual, ping me at ben@tryneedl.ai if you have any questions, comments, or ideas.