Getting started on Haystack

Tech Stack We’ll use your tech stack to match you to the best roles for you, so you should ensure you’re only entering techs that you’re actually willing to work with. We know there’s a temptation to enter every tech you’ve ever worked with, so you can show off the full range of your technical ability. However, if you’re not actually willing to work with those techs, your matches won’t be as relevant as they could be. We recommend 6 - 8 techs in most cases, and anything over 12 is going to harm the relevancy of your matches. Companies aren’t looking for techies that know an endless amount of techs - they want candidates that are proficient in the skill set they’re looking for, which is usually a maximum of 4 - 6 techs. In short, keep it relevant - you’ll see better matches, and you’re not going to harm your chances of landing a role.

Role Interests This is where you let us know which areas you want to see roles in. Similar to the Tech Stack previously mentioned, this is used to match you to roles, so should only enter areas you’re actually willing to work in. You’re not doing yourself any favours by selecting more than you’re actually interested in, so keep it relevant!

Experience You can only select two continuous experience levels, as any more than this will result in irrelevant matches. Where you set your experience depends on how you’re using Haystack - if you’re looking for a new role, you should enter the level you’re currently at. If you’re using Haystack to research the skills needed to take a step up, you could enter a level up from where you are currently to figure out what you need to develop next. Don’t enter a level above where you actually are if you’re applying for roles however - it will quickly become obvious from your LinkedIn profile or CV that you don’t actually have that level of experience, and it’s not going to do you any favours in the long run!

Location & Remote PreferencesYou have three options for your working preferences - remote, hybrid or in-office - and you can select all that are relevant to you. As before, we use this to inform your matches so don’t enter something you’re not actually willing to do. Hybrid can mean anything from 1 day in-office every few months, to a set number of in-office days per week, so if you’re happy to work in an office occasionally you should select hybrid to make sure you don’t miss out on any roles.

Salary We often find that techies enter a higher salary than the actual minimum they’d be willing to work for, as they’re worried about being low-balled by a company at the offer stage. This isn’t something you need to worry about - the minimum salary you enter isn’t visible to companies at any point, and the info is only used to match you to roles. You should enter the absolute minimum you would be willing to work for if your dream role came up, as you won’t see roles below the salary you enter. Remember, if you’re ideally looking for roles within a certain salary band, you can always use the filters to further refine your matches.

Excluding Sectors This is your chance to tell us about any sectors you would never consider working in. This will remove roles in those sectors from your feed, so make sure you’re comfortable saying you’d never accept a job in those sectors. If there’s a sector you’d never work in but you can’t find it on our list, drop us a message and let us know and we’ll see if we can include it for you.

Once you’ve filled these sections in, you should only be seeing relevant roles on your feed. Remember, all of this info informs your matches, so if you’re entering info that isn’t applicable to you and your situation, you’ll see roles that aren’t applicable.

Keep it relevant to what you want to work with and your actual ability and you’ll be able to cut out the noise from your job search and focus on what’s important to you.