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Deep Dive with Ali AbdaalHow to Land your Dream Job - Chats with my Team (@kaelynthehistorian)
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WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Networking, visibility, and public work as unfair advantages in hiring
- Kaelyn Apple explains how she approached networking as getting into the “ecosystem” of people doing work she admired, rather than trying to extract a job from any single conversation.
- She argues that visibility only matters when paired with credibility, built through repeated evidence of thoughtful engagement and high-quality work over time.
- Ali Abdaal and Kaelyn discuss how public work (YouTube, podcasts, blogs) serves as a portfolio that can create recognition and trust during hiring decisions.
- Kaelyn describes her first weeks on Ali’s team as highly collaborative and energizing, while also noting the challenge of boundary-setting in a fast-moving, startup-like environment.
- They explore gaps and opportunities in productivity content and business models, including making productivity content more accessible and considering neurodiversity and longer-term behavior change.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasNetworking is about increasing probability, not forcing a direct outcome.
She described networking as increasing the chances of serendipitous opportunities by being around people and communities you genuinely find interesting, rather than pushing for a job in a single interaction.
“Be seen” works best when you’re seen doing good work.
She emphasized that visibility only helps if it’s paired with credibility—people should associate your presence with thoughtful questions, reliability, and strong output over time.
Put yourself in the right rooms long before you need an opportunity.
She joined the Part-Time YouTuber Academy partly to learn and connect, and also to be in the broader ecosystem so that when the right role appeared, there would already be recognition.
Being memorable in a normal, non-pushy way can materially change hiring outcomes.
Ali Abdaal said prior familiarity from a meetup and her online work gave her a major advantage in the hiring process versus applicants he didn’t recognize or who came across as overly pushy at events.
A public body of work can be a repeatable hiring advantage.
Both discussed how having a YouTube channel, podcast, or blog functions as a public portfolio; Ali gave examples of multiple hires where “publicly sharing work” mattered more than audience size.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesIf you can be seen and you can be seen doing good work, then you are more likely to get your foot in the door if there is an opportunity.
— Kaelyn Apple
The way I thought about networking was, let me just find ways to be in the general ecosphere of people that are doing things that I think are cool.
— Kaelyn Apple
Networking is about relationships and long-term connection and reliability.
— Kaelyn Apple
It's thinking, okay, I just wanna make sure that I have interactions with people that are doing work that I really admire and that I really enjoy and want to be a part of in some way, but I don't necessarily know what that kind of interaction's gonna be yet.
— Kaelyn Apple
Get your foot in the door. Be seen. Be seen doing good work, and be seen doing work that you really care about. Ask thoughtful questions, and lead by example.
— Kaelyn Apple
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SPEAKERS
Kaelyn Apple
guestYouTuber and Ali Abdaal team member (community manager) pursuing PhD research in London, with prior experience in professional athletics and medical device regulatory research.
Ali Abdaal
hostYouTuber and productivity creator who hosts the Deep Dive podcast and runs the Part-Time YouTuber Academy.
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
