I left Fern and started a new job a few days ago, a job I got solely from networking.

My first experience with finding a new job

Back in 2018, I got a job with Google right out of college and stayed there (same team, even) for 6.5 years. I thought I’d “made it” and would be set for life in terms of my network. When I left Google in January 2025, I realized that although I’d met a lot of people there, the vast majority of them were still at Google with no plans to leave. (That’s still true today!) Having Google on my resume is still a huge help in terms of credibility, but the network stuff just didn’t pan out the way I assumed it would.

When I left Google in January 2025, it took me 6 months to find something suitable. I’ll admit, I was in a position to be picky; but also I had to be picky because I didn’t have a backup option in terms of full-time childcare. It was part time or bust! I eventually got a good gig that disintegrated (political reasons, apparently) a few weeks in; and then I got a cold DM from someone at Fern. The rest is history!

Looking to leave

I started casually looking to leave Fern in June 2026. Even though Fern was acquired in January, the actual integration didn’t start happening until June; that’s when a lot of people started leaving. I realized that I really wanted to keep working with a small startup, not a bigger, more process-driven company. I started to mention to a few people in my (existent!) network that I was looking. This network was almost all people I’d met while working at Fern (former and current employees, vendors, etc).

Within a few weeks I got three warm intros to interesting startups (plus 2 reach-outs on my behalf that didn’t go anywhere because the companies weren’t interested). Again, I was specifically looking for a part-time contract role.

  • Company 1 is a YC-backed Series B startup based in SF, five days a week in person for FTEs. A friend of mine (okay ironically I met this friend through another friend while we were all working at Google, but I hesitate to count this as part of a “Google network” because we never worked together. A gray area, perhaps!) connected me to someone in marketing that she’d gone to college with. We had a casual video chat, then I did a take-home writing assignment; I got an offer that I declined because I’d already decided to accept the offer with Company 3.
  • Company 2 is a YC-backed Series A startup based in SF, five days a week in person for FTEs. Someone I worked with at Fern connected me to the CEO, who connected me to the head of growth. We had one casual chat, then I completed a take-home casual writing assignment; I dropped out of the process before hearing back because I’d already decided to accept the offer with Company 3.
  • Company 3 is a YC-backed Series A startup based in NYC, five days a week in person for FTEs. Two different people connected me to this company, actually; both were people I’d crossed paths with while working at Fern. This company is also a Fern customer so were pretty familiar with my work already. I had two casual chats with someone in marketing, then got an offer that I accepted.

I started my new role at Extend a few days. My last job search took 6 months: many interviews, a lot of no-replies, and it was very difficult finding anyone willing to consider part-time at a decent rate (imo, >$60/hour). This one took 6 weeks, with zero applications and three intros that all actually went somewhere — two good offers, and nobody batted an eye at me wanting part-time.

Part time, no problem!

A lot of the ease with this job hunt came down to my experience with Fern (vs. Google). I already had a job, so I wasn’t searching from a position of pressure. I had a full public portfolio to point to (had nothing public post-Google!). One of the intros was a Fern customer, already familiar with my work. And having someone vouch for me made the whole interview process casual and friendly — none of these companies even had a posting for what I was looking for, so it was easy to just dictate my own terms.

But it also worked because I knew exactly what I wanted this time, instead of considering jobs that, realistically, weren’t a good fit. I want part-time. I want a specific (high) hourly rate. I don’t want to be an employee, though I want to move fast. And I want an easy out if it’s not a fit. That ask turned out to be smaller than I expected, especially with startups that are post-Series A, have money and visibility, and are flexible enough to bring someone on without a formal recruiting process (Fern was in that exact spot when I joined). Someone vouching for me meant they could skip that process; going in as a contractor meant it’d be easy to undo if it didn’t work out. Low-risk for them, exactly what I wanted for me. Win-win.