Sensay was the Back Channel That Landed Me a Job
How I used a chatbot to connect to the team who hired me
We’re shining the #AwesomeHuman spotlight on an a story about how one of our outstanding community members, Eli Schrank, used Sensay to get hired for a full time job… on the Sensay community team. #meta
Offering advice to community members in Sensay that I relate to and can share my knowledge with is a very empowering experience for me.
We built Sensay with a simple vision: connect people who want advice to others with relevant life experience to chat.
Tens of millions of conversations later, we’ve discovered Sensay connects people to chat about literally everything; from travel to relationships to shows to binge watch, to starting a company.
Sensay is bot that lives in your messengers. It’s one contact you can reach out to for anyone to you want to chat with.
When we launched Sensay bot inside of Slack, we knew professional advice would be a top use case. It still surprised us when one of our community members contacted our team to explain he had landed a gig as a developer using Sensay. We started to realize high value jobs could be connected quickly though our platform. Recently, we used Sensay to hire someone to work at Sensay!
What do you KNOW on Sensay?
English literature, writing, marketing, community management, growth, content marketing and management, gaming, music production, South Bay Los Angeles, L.A. events, dog training, L.A. Breweries, local live music venues, festivals, and so much more.
What tribes do you belong to on Sensay?
Startup, Foodie, No Bully, Gamer, just to name a few.
Where are you from? Where do you live and work now?
I was born and raised all over the South Bay, but I’m currently living in Torrance, CA. I just graduated from California State University, Long Beach with my Bachelor’s in English Lit. I now work at Sensay HQ in Santa Monica as part of the community team.
So how did you come to work for Sensay?
I was using Sensay to check out new startups, local things to do, music production inspiration, and recommendations for good underground hip-hop shows.
Sensay stood out as a great resource for me because I like chatting with people I can relate to, a void I was starting to feel from contacts in my social networks. As we grow older, social circles get smaller, it’s just how life goes. Offering advice to anonymous community members in Sensay that I actually relate to and can share my knowledge with is a very empowering experience for me. I played around on Sensay exploring other topics to seek and give advice.
Discovering numerous requests in the community for writing help with essays and resumes is actually what inspired me to seek advice for my own resume. And rather quickly, another community member was able to help me highlight the skills that would make me a more marketable candidate.
Ultimately, I took a chance and sent another request to Sensay detailing my experience. I said “need an internship in marketing or social media at a company in LA”. I connected with a team member from Sensay who asked for my resume. And just like that, two days later, I received an interview expediting a process that was much slower during my prior job search efforts.
So how did this differ from your other job search efforts?
I tried going to crowded job fairs and scouring Craigslist ads, but what I got out of it wasn’t really what I wanted. I was looking for something more fulfilling. It felt a bit hopeless as it was hard to stand out as I was still finishing college. There was a sense of hopelessness I felt as my resume was simply lost in the pile.
Who are you most passionate about helping on Sensay?
I love helping people I can relate to who could benefit from insights I can offer from my own life experience. Being able to help so many people through my iPhone is very empowering to me. I like to inspire people’s creativity, and sometimes just having another person to talk with manifests some of the greatest ideas!
What was your favorite experience using Sensay so far?
Besides meeting a helpful human who helped me land this job, I would say finding a local to sell my Akai keyboard to! I’ve had countless chats about writing and gaming and was given a ton of super useful resources for beat making.
What excites you most about being a part of the Sensay community?
I would say contributing my knowledge and being an active participant in this accessible network of human knowledge. I feel I’ve grown a lot in the past year working with such a stellar team and I’m looking forward to the future.
Connect with Eli
Facebook: Elias Schrank
Twitter: @EliasDSchrank
Instagram: @elivaded
Email: eli@sensay.it
#AwesomeHumans
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