Top 5 Coaching Tips for Job Seekers
The best insights I have for people looking for a new role
1️⃣ Aim higher! Apply for jobs one or two levels above your current role, especially at a smaller company. Remember that you are competing against people with less talent but more hubris. Do not let them win!
If you have a solid first interview, you can say “I’m really excited about your company and this role sounds great! I am talking to other companies about a role one level higher than this. Is there any chance this role could be leveled up?” The answer could be yes. If you keep the inquiry low-stakes early in the process, it shouldn’t cost you anything to ask. If you continue to press the matter as you advance in the process, and they don’t want to bring you up a notch, there’s a chance they’ll start to think you’re not the right fit. So use this wisely.
2️⃣ If you have been working in one field or at one company for a really long time, it can be a little bit tough for a potential employer to look at your resume and think “This person is going to be a great fit at my company” unless that company is very similar. This is something that people making a career transition are very aware of and worry about a lot. You should be aware of this, but do not let this stop you!
Look at your resume with the fresh, naive eyes of somebody who does not know anything about you. Ask yourself “What does this resume say to me?” You need to make it as easy as possible for the company you’re transitioning into to see what is relevant about you. You have to do this the extra work for them by simplifying the story of your transition as much as you can. Ask yourself: How would somebody who worked at that company describe my background? That’s what your resume should say!
3️⃣ For people who are transitioning careers, and for everybody else: Eliminate jargon. As much as possible, use general terms that will be easy for a potential employer to relate to their own work. Don’t give project names, acronyms, or other details that don’t mean anything to anybody outside the company. Say what you did in terms that are relevant to everybody. The only exception is that you should use acronyms and technical terms that recruiters will put into search engines to find candidates with qualifications that match requirements.
4️⃣ Reduce the level of detail and simplify your experiences. Most of the resumes I see have too much detail. Talk more about the role, less about individual projects. Describe the impact of your contribution, not the activities and tasks. “Redesigned new user onboarding for a B2B product, increased conversion by 32%.” not “Created 24 new pages of web based software that went wow.” Try to always quantify impact. If there is a number on every line, you’re doing it right.
5️⃣ Some job titles can be misleading, and this unfairly punishes people without them even knowing it, because of search engines and applicant tracking systems. I once worked at a bank where my title was “Analyst” but my actual job was “Web Developer.” Today I’d be screwed, because the robots would never guess I was a developer. This is also a problem for many people who do Product Manager jobs but have totally irrelevant titles.
Don’t lie about your title. Do not take this as permission to experiment with your level! It’s fine to put your role (“Product Manager”) where the title would go. Here’s a test: If making this substitution seems like an honest choice that nobody you worked with could ever fault, do it.
If it makes you feel squicky, consider putting your actual title in there somewhere — maybe in parenthesis. But put it far enough away that the search engine doesn’t do anything stupid with it.
A resume is a marketing document. It’s not a historical record of fact. Its job is to get you an interview so you can get started on the hard work of explaining why you’re going to make a great fit for the position.
Be well, be safe, and good luck.