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Act as the job you want: if you are looking for a job, you have time, so do the work in public, make it linkable, and let the people who want to help you help you

By Dinis Cruz · 2026-10-18 · article v1.0.0 · newsroom v0.12.115 · careershiringpublishinglinkableopen-sourceadvicearticle

Abstract: This is the advice I end up giving most often to people I know who are looking for a job. They are between jobs, or just out of university, or back from maternity leave, or still in a job with an evening free. Whatever the reason, if you are looking for a job, you have time. And the best use of that time is to act as the person in the job you want. If you want to be a project manager, find a startup or an open-source project and start managing something for them: add value, tag them, send them ideas, connect with the people there. If you want to be an artist, publish your art. Do it in public, because then it can be linked. I wrote this down in 2018, in a book for young developers: act like you are part of the company. It matters even more now. Do not worry about reach; most of what I publish is read by a few hundred people at most, and that is fine. The point is not to be read by everyone. It is to have something you can link, so that the people who want to help you can send it to someone and say: look at this. That is also why your CV should be online. And if you cannot yet open a GitHub account, connect it to Claude or ChatGPT and have it build and edit your site, learn that first. The bar is not high, and it is the skill that connects the rest.

In short

• If you are looking for a job, you have time. Whatever the reason you are looking.
• Use it to act as the person in the job you want. Do the work before you have the title.
• There are plenty of places to do it. Startups, open-source projects, companies you admire.
• Do it in public. So that it can be linked.
• Reach does not matter. Most of what I publish is read by a few hundred people.
• Let the people who want to help you, help you. They need something they can forward.
• Put your CV online. And learn the small set of tools that lets you do that.

You have time

I know a lot of people who are looking for a job right now. Some are between jobs. Some left one to try the next thing. Some have just come out of university, or just arrived in a new country. Some are coming back from maternity leave. Some are still in a job, with a few hours in the evening, and some have no spare time at all, which is its own problem. But for most of them, the bottom line is the same: if you are looking for a job, you have time.

And if you have time, the best way to get a job is to act as the person in the job you want.

Act as the job you want

I met someone at a startup summit who was doing work experience and wanted to become a project manager. She did not have the reputation, the track record or the CV for it. Every application asked for exactly the experience she could not get without the job.

My advice was simple: start acting in the role you want. These days there are so many startups, so many open-source projects, so many areas where you can just start working as that person. Pick one. Manage something for them: a release, a backlog, an event, a migration. Add value to that company. Tag them on LinkedIn when you write about it. Send them messages and ideas. Connect with the people who work there. The work gives you the CV you did not have.

Many of those companies, if you do a good job, especially in public, will give you a reference. Some will introduce you to people who are hiring. Some will pay you. And some will hire you.

It is the same for any job. If you want to be an artist, publish what you make. If you want to be a security engineer, find vulnerabilities in open-source projects and report them properly. If you want to be a product manager, write the product brief for a product you love and send it to the team. Act on the job you want to get.

I wrote this in 2018

This is not new advice from me. In 2018 I wrote a book for young developers, Generation Z Developers, and its chapter on getting a job says it directly:

And a few lines later: "What's interesting is that there is nothing stopping you from doing this!" That is even more true in 2026. The tools to do real work for a company, before they have hired you, are now in everyone's hands. I think it is time to update that book, and Generation Z Developers, again is the plan.

Do it in public

Do the work where it can be seen. A pull request on a public repository, a post that tags the company, an article on your own site, a project board anyone can open. Work done in private helps the company; work done in public helps the company and you, because it can be linked.

Reach does not matter

People sometimes look at what I publish and assume I have a lot of reach. I do not. Most of what I publish does not get read. On LinkedIn these days, most of my posts get a hundred views, sometimes five hundred, and every now and then one reaches a thousand or more. That is fine. If you write for reach, you will be disappointed, and you will stop.

Publish anyway, because reach is not the point. The point is that you now have something you can link. And that changes what other people can do for you.

Let people help you

There are people who want to help you: former colleagues, friends, people you met once at an event, people like me. Most of them cannot do much with "I am looking for a job in project management". What they can do is forward a link: "Have a look at what this person did for this startup." To do that, they need the link.

So give the people who want to help you something they can use behind the scenes: linkable work, a page that explains who you are and what you have done, evidence they can send to someone with one line of introduction. It is the same idea as the man behind the curtain: an answer is much more useful when there is something behind it that can be linked.

Your CV should be online

That is also why, if you are looking for a job, your CV should be online. Not only a PDF sent to whoever asks, but a page, with links to the work, that anyone can forward. The 2018 book made the same case for developers, in one of its outlines: your GitHub is your CV, because it shows how you work and how you collaborate with others.

The bar is not high

Going back to hired for the workflow: if you cannot yet open a GitHub account, connect it to Claude or ChatGPT, and have the agent build and edit a site for you, learn that first. The bar is not that high. It takes an afternoon, and your own newsroom describes one way to do it, by voice memo. It is a critical skill, because it is the one that connects the dots: the work you do, the page that shows it, and the people who can pass it on.

What this does not claim

• It is advice, not a method with numbers. It is what I have seen work, for me and for people I know.
• Not everyone has time. Caring for someone, a second job or illness can take it all; the advice is for those who have some.
• Unpaid work can be exploited. Choose projects where the work is yours to show, and stop if it is only taken.
• The person at the summit is not named. I have not asked her yet.

If you are looking for a job and try this, I would like to see what you build: write to agent@riskmandate.ai.

Where this comes from

A voice memo from me on 18 October 2026. My book Generation Z Developers, its chapter on how to get a job, read from the book's repository on 18 October 2026. Related: hired for the workflow, the man behind the curtain, your own newsroom, explorer coding, Generation Z Developers, again. Written up and checked by this site's agent, newsroom.writer; the editorial responsibility is mine.

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