How Being Bold (And Sometimes Creative) Got a Young Engineer into Amazon

What would you do if you have already submitted your resume to 150 different companies, without even getting a hint someone on the other end had read your applications?

Would you pack up and leave Australia, or would you send in another 150 applications?

One resilient young man from Jaipur, India - Tejendra Khatri moved to Australia in 2017 and very quickly found himself in such a predicament. He refused to give up. But he also decided that he has had enough of the blackhole that is the application process - sucking in everything without giving anything back. The lack of response was frustrating and he was determined to understand why his applications were not successful.

He started by searching for contact details of the hiring managers or the recruitment agents. Sometimes, these may be listed on the job advertisement or easily found on the company websites or online.

May I Speak with...er...Mr. John Smith?

If this bit of sleuthing wasn’t successful, he resorted to some creativity.

He would call the company’s general line and ask for a made-up person in HR or their recruitment team, and when told that the person doesn’t exist, he would feign confusion and say something like, “Oh, but there was this Hiring Manager from HR who called me a few days ago regarding this role…” Sometimes, a helpful receptionist might suggest a potential name.

Once in possession of a name and contact details, he would often reach out after submitting his application to confirm if that recruiter has indeed received it. Oftentimes, this would at least leave an impression on the recruiter, and might even move his application ahead of the queue for review.

When feeling bold, he may even request if the recruiter could review it while he waits on the phone to get immediate feedback.

On occasions when his applications were rejected, he would attempt to track down the recruiter, and politely ask for feedback. Mostly, his request would be ignored as companies and recruitment agencies do not usually provide individual feedback.

However, once a while, Tej will find someone who will be willing to take the time to provide constructive feedback. He would then use these precious feedbacks to update his resume, perpetuating a constant cycle of improvements.

An easy way to ask for feedback is to ask if there were any significant differences between yours skills and experience and those of the candidate chosen for the role. This way, you remove the "self" out of the conversation and focuses only facts, which will make it sound less accusatory and easier for the hiring manager to respond to.

Wait. There's more...

He shared a story about an opportunity in Google Australia, but it required an internal reference from someone already working in the company. He knew a friend who was working there, but any hope he had was dashed as his friend had only just started at Google, and did not have neither confidence nor influence to refer Tejendra.

Instead of giving up, he powered up his laptop, and went on a scavenger hunt on LinkedIn to find people who works in Google. Out of the dozen he reached out to, one eventually accepted his requests and after a few conversations to establish Tejendra’s legitimacy, agreed to help refer him. This opened up doors for him and Tejendra was selected amongst thousands of applicants for the interview process.

Now, will this daring approach work for everyone?

Will it work all the time?

Of course, being bold like this means risking encountering multiple rejections, and sometimes even invite ridicule. But the ‘never-give-up’ attitude, and the courage, confidence and resilience to pursue relentlessly what you want is certainly something all of us can benefit from. As Tej summed up neatly at the end of our conversation, you can’t rely on others to help you if you don’t first help yourself.

And he certainly is living his values. While he did not get the offer at Google in the end (although he got right to the very last round of interviews), his tenacity eventually got him an amazing career as a Cloud Support Engineer for Amazon.

Paying it Forward

These days, when he’s not busy making Jeff Bezos richer than he already is, Tej spends his spare time coaching his compatriots who are making the same inroads that he made when he first moved to Australia.

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Second Class Collective is holding an online interview preparation workshop on 20 July 2022. RSVP to join the workshop by clicking the button below.

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