An MVP approach to job hunting - Part 1
As I start my search for a new job, I decided to try the dog fooding approach by viewing myself as a product and to find the right product market fit. This would involve analyzing the current market needs and creating an MVP, testing it out and after collecting feedback, tweak the features and create a Go To Market plan. To do this right, I decided to view myself as a third person in an effort to be more objective. So going forward, I will refer to myself as Y(instead of X to differentiate from the rebranded Twitter). Here’s Y’s LinkedIn profile for reference.
If Y were fresh out of college, he could approach this as a blank slate where he could start out in a technical role to get hands on experience before moving to product management. But at this point in his career, Y can be described as a product that has carved out a niche. While completely pivoting is not out of the question, a better strategy might be to identify roles where Y would already be considered a good candidate. So first he can analyze market needs and then, fill in any gaps as well as lean into his strengths.
Self Analysis:
Strengths:
Good mixture of enterprise and startup experience
Exposure to multiple industries
Structured and logical thought process with good problem solving abilities
Willingness to do what it takes without getting his ego involved
Between his schools and prior roles he also has a really strong alumni and professional network
Good technical understanding as well as some basic coding experience
Weaknesses:
Gap in career to be a full time dad
Lack of direction in his choice of industries and roles
Good mixture of experience but not an expert on any given domain
Not technical enough for some roles, especially hardware oriented ones
Part of the process also involved taking a good hard look at whether product management is what Y really wanted to do. But describing that would take a whole other blog post so let’s just say, Y concluded that it was.
Market Analysis:
From a market analysis perspective, there are two aspects:
At a macro level, what companies are looking for
At a tactical level, navigating the interview process
When it comes to finding product manager jobs, there are 3 main stakeholders:
Recruiters
Interviewers
Referrers
The first two have different enough perspectives that they merit slightly different approaches.
Recruiter Persona:
Mack is a recruiter at one of the big tech companies. He is swamped by resumes for every single role that is advertised so to save time, he uses ATS(Automated Resume Screening). He posts his jobs across several job search portals and also actively searches for and contacts strong candidates. In his experience, some of the strongest candidates have come from referrals within his own company. He also appreciates candidates that show initiative and are able to distinguish themselves from the crowd. Finally, with the huge number of candidates that apply to each role, he may leave up the job posting for a few weeks but realistically, only the candidates who apply early have a good chance of landing the role.
To meet Mack’s needs, Y would need to:
Customize his resume to include terms relevant to Mack’s job posting and highlight relevant experience with impact made
Search Linkedin for shared connections, whether they be shared contacts, a shared alma mater or even interest in a common subject. In case of the former, they could make a referral or introduction or in case of the latter, Y could drop them a note on LinkedIn in addition to the job application
Create a website that showcases his portfolio and lets him express his personality beyond what a resume or website allows
Search for job postings everyday sorted by posting date and try to ensure he is amongst the first candidates for any role.
Interviewer Persona:
Emily is a product manager at one of the big tech companies. She sets aside a certain amount of time each week to help her company find the best talent by interviewing candidates. Having been through the process, she understands the challenges each candidate faces but is also motivated in helping her team find future teammates who will fit right in and bring new capabilities to the table. When she has a packed schedule, she might just glance at the candidate’s resume prior to the interview but when she has more time, she checks out the candidate’s LinkedIn profile as well as Googles them to get to know them better.
To meet Emily’s needs, Y would need to do the following in addition to what he did for Mack:
Look up Emily’s LinkedIn profile prior to the interview to understand their experience and potentially utilize parts of their experience or interests that overlap to showcase his skills during the interview
Ensure that he googles himself prior to the interview and do any necessary SEO or editing as appropriate for the role(for example searching for Y’s name surfaced a LinkedIn profile he had created for testing a while back and he had to take the time to delete it)
Prepare some instances relevant to the role where Y has made an impact previously
Referrer Persona:
Z is one of Y’s classmates from business school. He recently joined a company and is excited about the role but between his busy job and his young kids, he does not get on LinkedIn very often and only checks messages once every month or so. He would love to help Y with his job search but his reputation within the company matters to him so he may not want to refer somebody who is a bad fit or has obvious issues he is aware of. He also does not really have the time to write a referral letter or dig into details about the role because of his busy schedule.
To meet Z’s needs, Y would need to do the following:
Send in a note on LinkedIn and his personal email with the role in question, job link as well as a blurb about why Y is a good fit. If there is no response in 48 hours, consider texting or contacting via Whatsapp
Make sure that his resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile are polished enough that Z does not think twice about referring him
Enquire about his current circumstances and offer to help him in turn as relevant, e.g., making introductions to relevant contacts or pointing him to resources that he might need e.g., parenting resources for his young kids
Continued in Part 2
Note: This post is the result of an amalgamation of inputs from my friends, TryExponent coaches as well as my own thoughts. So credit to each person who has helped fine tune my approach
