Ask HN: How do you find hiring managers to talk to when job hunting?

Easy. Find the xompany you want to work for, do a little sleuthing for the org structure via LinkedIn, the company's about us page, calling the company and asking for the hiring manager, etc. Once you have a name, use a chrome plug in like Nymeria and/or rapportive to find their email address or contactt them via LinkedIn.

As a web dev, basic social engineering should become an essential part of your toolkit.

You need to build up your network. Go to meet ups, get involved in open source projects, make sure to keep your online presence up to date (linked in, github).

If you're quite new, it will take some time to build a strong network of people in the industry that can refer you to current job openings.

When looking for actual jobs to apply for, I'd recommend sticking to recruiters at least at the beginning of your career. There are some good recruiters out there that will help you get jobs to advance your career.

So just send your CV to some local recruiting agencies, search for jobs online (LinkedIn, stack overflow careers and other job sites) and submit your CV there. This should generate a lot of leads, you should get some emails and calls from recruiters. Take it form there.

Later in your career when you will have built a strong network you will often be sent leads for good jobs by people from your network (ex colleagues etc).

" I'd love to be able to find more people to talk to..."

The age old problem. Every future employee would like to beat the paper system, while employers want a process that let's them not waste so much time talking with unqualified people.

You really need to attend MeetUps. Hiring managers need to get a recommendation from someone to take you seriously. The fact that you're "self-taught" is against you as well, so getting a few developers to Vouch for you is critical.

Go to Meetups. The rest will take care of itself.

Have you considered just applying through the jobs pages of the larger tech companies? Apple, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn are all on the peninsula and more accessible than startups in SF.

I have a friend who goes through a list of most common first names and tries emailing them all @<companyname> for companies he's interested in working at. There's bound to be at least one person with Michael or John or Robert or Mary who works at the company and is hiring, right?

(While I really do have a friend that does this it should go without saying that I'm just sharing this story because I find it humorous, and this is in general, probably a terrible idea.)

Here is the "how to find a job?" answer for you:

1. Build a network in the bay area

2. Ask details about their employers, work, teams, projects, etc.

3. Apply through referral

The easiest way to find the right person is to call and ask. Even better if you can find out who his/her boss is and then mention to your target that so-and-so told me I should contact you about a position.....see what I did there :-)