Standing Out to Founders: Nizar Zaher's Guide to Job Search Success
Jul 21, 2025
In this episode of Guidance Counselor 2.0, host Taylor Desseyn spoke with Nizar Zaher, 23-year-old founder of Mail Zero, about how job seekers can differentiate themselves in today's competitive market. Nizar's journey from law student to startup founder, including his creative approach to landing his first tech role at Cal.com, offers valuable insights into standing out through authenticity, building in public, and leveraging unconventional strategies.
The Simple Secret: Research and Effort
When asked about how developers can stand out in a sea of AI-generated resumes and applications, Nizar's answer was refreshingly straightforward: "It's honestly just doing a bit more research on where you're applying to."
This simple approach has become increasingly powerful as automation floods the job market. "The sort of AI applicants thing that we're in now where people are just using AI and everything sounds the same is actually an advantage to people that don't use it," Nizar explained.
The key differentiator isn't complex - it's effort. "Instead of an application taking you like ten seconds to upload your PDF file, you could just find a way to DM the founder. Maybe if they're in your area, you try to go to a meetup and try talking to them."
This approach requires more work than mass applications, but the results speak for themselves: "You may not get every job that you apply to, but you will definitely get a response. It won't be ignored by the people that are reading your applications."
The Founder's Hiring Philosophy: Can This Person Be a Founder?
As the founder of a small startup, Nizar approaches hiring with a unique lens that many job seekers overlook. His primary question when evaluating candidates isn't about specific technical skills or years of experience.
"Can this person be a founder? Can they start their own company? Are they agentic? Can they take matters into their own hands and work on things and be creative and not need me to handhold them?"
This perspective shifts the focus from credentials to capability and initiative. "It doesn't really matter what they build, whether they have email experience, whether they have one year of experience, six months of experience. The most important thing is, are they willing to learn and are they able to do stuff on their own?"
This hiring philosophy reflects the reality of early-stage startups where resources are limited and every team member needs to operate with significant autonomy and creativity.
Building in Public as a Differentiator
Nizar's approach to identifying talent relies heavily on observing what people create and share publicly. "Why I love Twitter so much is people post a ton of content and they post things that they're building."
However, he frequently encounters candidates who haven't embraced this approach: "Oftentimes when people DM me, they have nothing posted. So I don't know if they're building anything. I don't know if they're doing stuff on their own."
The candidates who stand out are those actively demonstrating their capabilities: "The people that really stand out are those that are either contributing to the repository or working on their own projects."
One example particularly impressed him: "I saw someone who worked on this amazing project. It was a beautiful, beautifully engineered app, tons of users, thousands of users. And I was so inclined to hire him, even though we didn't need him because he worked on something this crazy."
The Cal.com Success Story: Creativity Over Credentials
Nizar's own entry into tech demonstrates how creative approaches can overcome limited experience. After studying law in Canada and deciding against legal careers, he spent four to five months learning development through YouTube courses and building projects.
When he discovered Cal.com's unique application process - requiring a one-minute video instead of a traditional resume - he saw an opportunity to differentiate himself.
"I hacked the system and I saw that it didn't have a limit to one minute. And it didn't need to be just you talking. So I'm like, everyone applying to this is going to be standing there being super boring."
Instead of a standard video introduction, Nizar created a three-minute demonstration showcasing everything he had built, including his YouTube channel with 15,000 subscribers. He researched the founders' interests, particularly their commitment to open source, and aligned his presentation accordingly.
"I was like super junior at the time. I was not a great dev. But that got them interested enough to interview me."
The result? Despite competing against candidates from Microsoft and Google, Cal.com chose Nizar. "They just liked the stuff I built, I was interesting enough, my YouTube channel, my content, my engineering work. It wasn't great but there was something there."
Beyond Portfolios: Building Things People Use
Nizar challenges the conventional wisdom about portfolio websites and traditional application materials. "I get like five DMs a day with people just uploading their resumes. It's just like this page of a thousand words. I can't read through this. I don't want to read through this."
The same applies to portfolio sites: "It's cool that you built this beautiful site. But build something, have people use it because at the end of the day, you're going to be working for someone that's doing that exact thing."
This philosophy aligns with broader market trends where employers increasingly value demonstrated capability over documented credentials. "You have to find a way to stand out. If everyone's doing that one strategy, your chances are much lower to actually getting an interview or getting the job."
The Power of Video Communication
Throughout his career, Nizar has leveraged video as a communication medium, from his Cal.com application to his YouTube channel. This aligns with emerging trends in technical interviews and job applications.
"Video is a great medium for getting to know someone and it's different enough," he acknowledges. However, he emphasizes that the medium is less important than the substance: "Just being an interesting individual, building projects is so valuable."
The communication skills demonstrated through video content reflect broader capabilities that employers value. "Most engineers don't know how to communicate. Knowing how to communicate is very valuable, especially working with bigger teams. You're communicating all the time."
Twitter/X as a Professional Platform
Nizar views Twitter/X as an essential platform for both discovering talent and showcasing capabilities. "It's almost like a resume post place. People are always showing what they've built, and either directly or indirectly they're signaling to companies that this person might be good for us."
For job seekers, he recommends treating the platform as a daily showcase: "I would build as much as I can, build things interesting to me and what I might think would be interesting to other people and post about it. Demo videos, how I built this, screenshots. Just show and tell. Every single day."
This approach has practical benefits beyond job searching: "That's how I found my co-founder. That's how we found our first two and three engineers."
The Hidden Job Market Reality
Nizar's hiring experience illustrates a crucial market reality that many job seekers miss: companies are always hiring for exceptional candidates, regardless of posted positions.
"People are always hiring. They're just not posting the roles anymore because there's so much out there. Even if there's no posting and they say that they're not hiring, if you find a hundred dollar bill on the road, you're still going to take the money. It's valuable."
This perspective reframes job searching from responding to posted opportunities to proactively demonstrating value: "If there's someone that's so valuable to your company that you think will change everything for you, you're going to try to hire that person no matter what."
The Eight-Month Cal.com Experience
Nizar's eight months at Cal.com provided accelerated learning that would have taken years to acquire elsewhere. "I was working directly with the founders every day, absorbing so much lessons that would take me like five or six years to learn."
This experience demonstrates the value of seeking roles that provide direct access to decision-makers and significant learning opportunities, even if they come with trade-offs in compensation or traditional career progression.
His departure wasn't due to dissatisfaction but entrepreneurial drive: "Every founder is attracted to your own company and you want to do something. I just had this idea of building something with email, made a few posts, got some social validation, eventually just started working on it more and more."
DM Strategy and Outreach
When asked about cold outreach to founders, Nizar's response emphasizes the asymmetric risk-reward ratio: "There's no downside to doing it. It doesn't cost you anything to send the DM. The return on that is infinite if you do. Best case scenario is you get a job. Worst case, just no response."
While he receives numerous DMs and can't respond to all, he remains active on public posts and appreciates thoughtful outreach. The key is demonstrating value and genuine interest rather than generic requests.
The Shift Toward Demonstrated Capability
Nizar's hiring philosophy reflects broader industry trends toward valuing demonstrated capability over traditional credentials. "As companies get smaller and skill sets matter less because of tools like AI, these things are gonna be the differentiators for getting a job."
This shift means that the ability to build, communicate, and demonstrate value becomes increasingly important relative to formal education or specific technical experience.
Mail Zero's Vision
Nizar's current venture, Mail Zero, aims to revolutionize email through AI-native approaches. "We want to sort of change how email is made. With tools like AI and all the other cool things that we have today, we think that email is one of those things that will change in the next few years."
The company's vision extends beyond incremental improvements: "Reading emails, responding to emails, cluttered inboxes will be a thing of the past in a few years. And we want to be the company to actually solve that problem."
Remote Work and Team Building
Despite preferring in-person collaboration, Nizar has adapted Mail Zero to remote operations to access global talent. "I typically prefer onsite and having that sort of ecosystem where everyone's in person. But there's talent outside of just the area you're in and remote might be the move."
This decision requires intentional culture building: "You have to put in the effort to build the culture and you just have to be chatting all the time and making sure that you're talking as much as you can."
Career Advice: Embrace Uncertainty
Reflecting on his journey from law student to startup founder, Nizar emphasizes resilience and opportunity recognition. His missed law school deadline, initially viewed as a setback, ultimately enabled his tech career.
"Whenever something goes wrong, it's like the end of the world. But most of us know that you'll be okay. Even if you don't get the thing you want, just always being grateful for being in the scenario you're in."
His advice centers on action and experimentation: "We all have access to the internet. That's the biggest gift. And utilizing that gift is the only thing you can really do. Just try. Try shit. And even if things don't go your way, you'll be fine."
Key Takeaways for Job Seekers
Nizar's experience and hiring practices offer several actionable insights for job seekers:
Research and Personalization: Invest time in understanding companies and roles rather than mass applying. The extra effort creates significant differentiation.
Build and Share: Create projects that people actually use and document the process publicly. This demonstrates capability more effectively than traditional portfolios.
Leverage Video: Use video to showcase personality and communication skills, whether through applications, content creation, or project demonstrations.
Embrace Social Platforms: Treat Twitter/X as a professional showcase platform where consistent sharing of builds and insights can generate opportunities.
Think Like a Founder: Approach applications and projects with the mindset of someone who can operate independently and creatively solve problems.
Direct Outreach: Don't hesitate to reach out directly to founders and decision-makers, especially when you have something valuable to demonstrate.
The Future of Job Searching
Nizar's perspective suggests that traditional job application processes are becoming less effective as AI automation floods the market with generic applications. Success increasingly belongs to those who can demonstrate genuine capability, creativity, and initiative.
The combination of building in public, strategic networking, and direct demonstration of value creates opportunities that don't depend on posted job listings or traditional screening processes.
Conclusion
Nizar Zaher's journey from law student to startup founder illustrates that career success increasingly depends on creativity, initiative, and the ability to demonstrate value rather than traditional credentials or application processes.
His approach to both job searching and hiring emphasizes substance over form - building real projects, developing genuine skills, and communicating effectively rather than optimizing resumes or following conventional wisdom.
For job seekers in today's market, Nizar's experience demonstrates that standing out requires effort and creativity, but the returns can be transformational. By focusing on building, sharing, and connecting directly with decision-makers, professionals can create opportunities that transcend traditional job market constraints.
The key insight from his story is that in a world where everyone has access to the same tools and information, differentiation comes from what you build, how you communicate, and the initiative you demonstrate - qualities that no amount of automation can replicate.
This blog post summarizes insights from Guidance Counselor 2.0, a live streaming show hosted by Taylor Desseyn that explores career development in the tech industry. Find the full video of the episode and more here: How to Stand Out In Your Search to a Founder w/Nizar Zaher