Yesterday I had an interview at an office building, third floor. When I got there I noticed two other companies on the same floor doing pretty much the same thing as the one I was interviewing with, all fintech. I told myself that after the interview I'd walk into those offices too and ask if they were hiring.
The interview went fine. I answered everything and they said they'd get back to me in two weeks.
After I left I paced around for a bit, googled the first company and saw they do payments. You couldn't just knock and walk in, the door was the kind that locks itself, so I waited until someone came out and slipped in behind them. There was no receptionist. I asked the guy who'd let me in where I could find one and he just ignored me, which was a bit rude. The cleaning staff were nicer and went to get the operations manager. I talked to her and she gave me an email I could send my resume to. Honestly the whole thing left me pretty embarrassed, but I was already in too deep at that point.
I got the email, walked out and decided that was it, I wasn't going to the other office. I got as far as the elevator and stopped. I'd already done the hard part, which was walking into a company uninvited. So I said fuck it and went to the second one. Their door was just open, no biometric lock or anything. I talked to the first person I saw, he was kind and pointed me to the operations coordinator. She was really nice about it. I asked if they had any openings, she said not right now, but she took my number and LinkedIn and told me to email her my resume.
That one went so much better than the first. When I walked out I could feel the shame leaving my body. I get it now when people say it's a numbers game. The more people and companies you actually talk to, the more likely one of them says yes.
I know this isn't the normal way to do things. But I've made peace with being embarrassed. I'm fine looking stupid if it gets me what I want.
There's a Swahili saying, "sifa nzuri ni za maiti" – praises are for the dead. Nobody's going to say nice things about you while you're alive anyway, so stop worrying about how you look and just do the thing. Be shameless, especially in this job market.