With this post, I want to share with many people who have asked me about my experience with Talently and whether what they promise actually works.
My experience
My experience began in the year 2020, in the city of Bogotá. I was a junior developer at a software factory. I didn't feel like the best developer or the least experienced. Just one among many. I didn't have good English, and I felt like my professional life was already settled. In short, I had no aspirations.
I can't exactly recall where I first saw Talently's advertisement, but their offer of "double your current salary" caught my attention. I'm always curious and very cautious about such offers. So, I scheduled an interview with them without much enthusiasm.
Interview
The first impression was pleasant. The person who interviewed me said that my profile was a perfect fit for what they were looking for and mentioned the price: an initial $300 to enter the program and 50% of my new salary once I had a new job. I did the math and decided to take the risk. After all, if I could double my salary, paying 50% wouldn't be so painful.
Once I made the $20 payment to secure my spot and divided the $300 into 3 payments, I gained access to the platform. My first impression was of a young team, all full of energy, motivating each other to find jobs. They assigned me a mentor, and I started with the course.
The Program
The course was very comprehensive and beginner-friendly. It had templates for just copying and pasting to make contacts on LinkedIn, creating bios for job portals, and explaining my experience to recruiters in a way that sounded better, and more.
In a matter of 2 weeks, I had completed the course and had my LinkedIn, CV, and Cover Letter highly optimized for my job search.
Something I was told several times was that I needed a goal.
"When you don't know where you're sailing, no wind is favorable."
This quote made me think and define exactly what I wanted: a large company with a robust and substantial project where I could learn a lot, and it would be a valuable addition to my CV, enabling me to take the next step, internationalize my work. SPOILER: Today, 3 years later, I can say that it was achieved.
With that in mind, my job search began. The changes I made and the motivation from the program pushed me to send up to 10 applications a day. I had the texts ready, and it was just copy and paste to reach out to recruiters. According to the statistics they provided, out of 100 applications, only 15 moved to a second stage, 5 to a third stage, and only ONE led to a job offer.
Something important, and a subject of debate, is that Talently did not apply on my behalf. They gave me the tools, but the applications were my responsibility.
Recruiters began reaching out almost immediately. I had focused my search on my home country, Colombia. I ruled out small businesses, startups, and small companies. Some large companies contacted me, but when I asked for information about the project, I wasn't convinced. I remember a small business that put in a lot of effort and offered shares and a good salary (double what I was earning at the time, a point for Talently), but the project didn't excite me. It relied heavily on investors, and I couldn't leave the company for 3 years without losing the shares.
In the end, I had two offers on the table, Global Hitss/Claro Colombia and a bank. Both offers were similar, but Claro's project was much more interesting and significantly larger. The decision was easy.
I worked at that company for about 2 years and learned a lot, enough to take the step of working in Canada, but that's another story.
Summary
The program worked for me; it helped me focus and improve how I presented myself to recruiters.
But it's not magic; you have to put in a lot of effort to carry it out, send many CVs, and learn to accept negative responses.
Postscript
I don't work for Talently, and I'm not being paid for this post.
My experience is from 2020. Whatever changes, additions, or removals the program has made, I haven't seen them myself.
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