Earlier this year I applied to PostHog.
I don't remember the exact role but I wanted in. I'd been using their product, building with it, genuinely excited about what they were doing. I thought I had a shot.
The recruiter sent me a rejection.
It stung. Not because I expected to get it, but because PostHog was one of those companies I actually cared about. Not just a job. A place I wanted to be part of.
So I did what I always do when something doesn't work out.
I kept building.
What happened after the rejection
I didn't stop using PostHog. That would've been stupid — the product is genuinely good and it was helping me understand what was happening on buildwithdani.com（在新标签页中打开） (opens in a new tab) in ways I never could before.
So I stayed active in the community. I answered questions in the forums when I knew the answer. I shared what I was learning. Not to get noticed — just because that's how I operate. If I know something that helps someone, I say it.
I wasn't thinking about the rejection anymore. I was just building.
Then Brittany reached out
One day I got a message on LinkedIn.
Brittany Joiner. Community Manager at PostHog.
She said she'd noticed how active I was in the forums. That the insights I was sharing were genuinely helpful. She wanted to thank me — and invite me to a private Discord they were building for the PostHog builder community. Not public yet. Just a small group of people they actually wanted there.
I sat with that for a second.
The company that rejected my application was now personally inviting me into their inner circle — because of the work I was putting in publicly, not because of anything I applied for.
What I posted when I joined
I introduced myself. Mentioned Astrix（在新标签页中打开） (opens in a new tab), mentioned Wren, mentioned that PostHog changed how I think about building.
Then Brittany replied publicly in the introductions channel.
She called me a legend. In front of 153 builders.
Someone else said Wren sounded useful.
It was 4am. I'd been up building.
That moment felt like something.
What I took from all of this
The rejection from PostHog didn't close a door. It just meant the timing wasn't right.
What opened the door was showing up consistently in a community around something I genuinely cared about — not to get a job, not to get noticed, just to contribute. That's it.
Brittany didn't reach out because I had the right resume. She reached out because she kept seeing my name attached to helpful things.
That's a different kind of credibility. One you can't fake and you can't buy. You just have to show up and actually care.
If you're job hunting right now: stop sending applications into the void and start contributing to communities around the companies you actually want to work for. The door that opens might not be the one you knocked on.
I'm still building. Still in the PostHog Discord. Still don't have the job.
But I know more people there now than I would have if I'd gotten it.