How To Get The Job You Want

I'm going to tell you a secret.

Applying for a job doesn't really work anymore.

Yes, obviously companies are hiring, recruiters are interviewing candidates, and some of those candidates are getting hired.

But this is the reality: you find a job description on a website, craft the perfect cover letter, upload your perfectly tweaked resume, retype all that same information in the boxesfor some reason, maybe you connect with the recruiter on LinkedIn. Then you wait….and wait…if you are lucky you will get an email rejection. If you are super lucky you might even land an interview. More than likely you'll be ghosted. For this reason, most job seekers apply for anything remotely close to their interest and abilities compounding the issue.

It sucks for everyone.

Today, applying for anything outside of an entry-level job is a pure numbers game, and those numbers are high.

Resumes are about 5% of what's important in getting hired and promoting yourself. Having a good resume is like your Tinder date bragging about being a nice guy. Yeah, that's great, but it's the absolute minimum. And its not going to get him a second date.

Obviously your mileage will vary. However, in my experience and research, the further along you are in your career, the harder it is to land a job from cold applying.

During my MBA, I applied to well over 300 internships around the country. When looking for the full-time job I sent 145 applications, had maybe a half-dozen interviews, and received no offers.

I ended up with one of the best, most impactful, and frankly, most fun internships in my year. And later, when I needed that full-time job, I had 4 offers (and a potential offer to create my own department at a startup). All with salaries double what I hoped for at the start of my MBA.

So, what did I do?

I stopped playing the numbers game.

Let me paint you a picture:

Living in China was fascinating. Every day you would see a hundred things that you didn't have the context for, and every moment was a learning opportunity. A shift in perspective.

On my daily walk home from work, I'd pass several KTV (karaoke) venues. Unlike American karaoke, the Chinese KTV experience was typically a very classy affair, often with businessman having very classy affairs.

In huge venues decked out like Trump tower (envision huge golden chandeliers, double spiraling staircases, walls of mirrors, cherubs) I'd see dozens of young beautiful women waiting in line. Wearing high heels, perfect makeup, sullen expressions...and a number. The client would choose those he found most pleasing. The lucky women join the group of businessmen sing, entertain, compliment, feed fruit, and who knows what else (I never saw this part of the process, but read enough to make an educated guess).

What I could see from outside were the silent lines of women painfully shifting their weight from one high-heeled foot to another. Whether hoping to be chosen or hoping to be dismissed, who knows.

When you apply for a job, you are competing in that lineup. You might get chosen, but you probably won't.

Now let me ask you this — do you even want to be chosen to fill in that spot? Or do you want to do your own thing?

*****

On the first day of my MBA, everyone took turns standing and telling the room what they wanted to be when they grew up.

I said,"I want to make the world better at money."

Afterwards, one of my classmates helped me make a connection with a local financial technology startup where my background in education and writing intersected nicely with the above goal. It was absolutely not linear, but by the summer I had landed a paid internship.

How?

I interviewed people at the company to learn what the needs and opportunities, and wrote my own job description. Pitching a role tailored to my skills and the needs of the company allowed me to be the only applicant.

There were probably dozens of job seekers who would have been better.

But they weren't in line.

At a post-summer event, I asked every classmate how their internship (at Pepsi, Amazon, Goldman Sachs ect.) went, and nearly every person gave the same response; "I learned a lot. I'm grateful for the opportunity. I would not work there again."

They applied for a slot, filled the slot, performed their role well, and moved on. Some found full-time jobs from their internship, most didn't.

Whereas, I spent my summer doing a ton of random interconnected projects creating tangible value for the company. My self-written job description had very little to do with my actual work. It got my foot in the door. Once in, I found a dozen problems and volunteered to find solutions. Solving each problem required new skills, expanded my thinking, expanded my role. No job description could have covered the work I did, and the work I did was awesome.

Taking that internship was a risk. It started out as an unpaid volunteer role, but within 18 months I had a full-time position, a great salary, and a title that carried weight.

I pulled that same trick when looking for the post MBA full-time job. Of course I applied for everything under the sun. What actually worked though was pitching: interviewing companies to learn the needs and offering myself as a solution.

Out of the last five jobs I've held, not one did I apply for (other than as a formality). Each one has been amazing. And with each jump, I doubled my salary.

So, what should you do?

"The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want," Ben Stein.

Deciding what you want requires more courage, hustle, and imagination than mindlessly applying for jobs on Glassdoor.

Here are a few questions to get started:

What are you good at?
What do you enjoy doing?
What will someone pay you to do?

Connect your intrinsic motivation to an organizational need and you are in business baby — especially if you can create a unusual niche.

For example, I wanted to make the world better at money. I am good at and enjoy teaching and writing. Most people (not all!) who enjoy teaching and writing aren't interested in finance. I found a company that needed someone interested in teaching people about money. The company didn't know they had this need until I brought it to their attention. It was easier for the company to hire me than to look for other candidates.

Win, win, win.

Think about these things as a combination plate:

Example:

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*Good here defined as being better than average. You don't need to be an expert, just better than most--keeping generational differences in mind. A 22-year old with a moderate interest in social media is likely better than the average person.

Mix and match until you find a niche with a need. The weirder the better. You want to be a study in contrasts. A ton of people who love art also love working with kids. Therefore, jobs combining kids and art are typically oversaturated and thus undervalued and underpaid.

Consider what people who love working with kids typically dislike: computers, technology, math, sitting at a desk for 10 hours…Just spit-balling here but I can already see some intriguing opportunities.

Don't teach kids art — teach kids how to make an app. Better yet, design a course teaching kids to make an app and sell it to an educational company. Connect with homeschooling groups to teach kids to build computers. Use social media to create and share resources to support teachers in talking to students about social media.

Pull a Freaky Friday

Why should the company have all the power? Be bold and interview them first.

After identifying some potential opportunities, look for companies that might be interested. Find a person (not a recruiter) who has a job title that seems close to the one you want — then find the manager of that role and connect with them on LinkedIn. Reach out and ask a unique and genuine question related to your interest.

Going with the above example, I'd look for a educational technology company, find and connect with someone that has a title like "Head of Curriculum" or "Director of Learning Technology" and write:"Thanks for connecting! I'd love to learn how XYZ company is thinking about educating kids on social media skills. Do you have 15 minutes next week to chat?".

In business-school speak, this is called an "Informational Interview" and it's a powerful tool in your arsenal.

Don't go in with the intention of getting a job. Go in with a sincere question. Right now, your job is to learn all you can about the industry, this company, their needs, problems, and struggles.

Your goal here is to fill out the third column. As an off-the-cuff example:

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You might have a ton of ideas while chatting with the person, but don't pitch yourself then. Be sincere about making a connection. Establish yourself as a peer, as a useful contact. Send an article that might be interesting. Make a friend.

And do your research.

Once you feel you have a solid need identified: how can you solve it? How are you the perfect puzzle piece to their organizational hole? Build your case. Write a few articles dancing around that need. Establish yourself as an expert.

Invite the person out for a (virtual nowadays) drink and have a conversation to talk about their need and your potential solution. Then pitch yourself, offer to send over a job description.

The goal here is to make it easy for the hiring manager to build a case to hire you instead of the other way around.

Play the Game You Can Win

As I wrote earlier, I had 4 offers when graduating, but this took a ton of effort and time.

I interviewed 70 people in my area to get to that number. I wrote 8 job descriptions, I created and sent several business cases, I did a ton of unpaid research.

However, let's do some math here.

I applied for:

145 jobs
Had 6 interviews with recruiters
Received 0 offers

I interviewed:

~70 professionals
Wrote 8 descriptions
Received 4 offers

Bonus!!! As a result:

I made a ton of connections
I learned the specific salary range for my interests and area enabling me to make more informed decisions — its no surprise that each of the offers I had came with a salary 20% or higher than those with applications
I learned which companies were awesome to work for and which to avoid
Finally, each of these opportunities were a better fit and more interesting to me than those that I applied to.

Isn't this a lot of work?

Yes, at the start. However, once you start clarifying your own purpose, your own strengths, your own interests — it gets easier.

And, once you understand the needs of the market — you can be strategic.

When you are the one interviewing, its easier to ask for this information. You aren't an applicant, but a peer. Asking what the average person in these roles earns isn't weird or pushy, its accepted and expected. And since the company isn't trying to hire you at this point, the manager isn't hiding flaws as much. And you aren't hiding yours.

In a job interview, you give your perfectly scripted responses to their scripted questions. You aren't lying of course, but you are putting on a front. But when chatting with a peer, an acquaintance, a friend — you can be more honest about your weaknesses. When you learn the organizational needs and connect to the opportunities, you are better able to design a role around your weaknesses. Laugh about them. You can be transparent. Be real.

As an example, I suck at networking. I can't schmooze for the life of me. Meet-and-greets give me anxiety. At parties you will find me eating shrimp and sitting a corner with the owner's pet. At events, I hype myself up by saying"Just talk to 5 people Sam, then we can go home".

Clearly this brand of connecting with people isn't my strength and it would be a mistake for me to focus a job search strategy on these type of events.

However, I am good at interviewing, at asking presumptuous questions. I'm good at digging deep, asking "why" too many times, and ferreting out problems.

I can't beat an MBA-bro at the schmooze-game. And I don't want the jobs that require this.

I want the jobs I had the offers for.

So What Now?

Whether you are looking for a job today, looking to increase your job security, or just keeping your eye on the market — pitching yourself is invaluable. And in the long run, it's far, far, easier and far, far, more fun than tediously applying on job sites.

You can do this outside your organization, but doing it from within is much more effective. You know the industry, the needs, the lingo, the players.

Either way, to be effective, you MUST:

Decide what you want
Understand your strengths
Clarify what you like to do
Connect to a need someone will pay for
Make genuine connections
Find cool opportunities that play to your unique strengths
Be bold enough to pitch yourself for said opportunities
Get over being rejected

Who knows what the market will look like in three months, let alone three years. For years, the job market has been shifting dramatically, but 2020 accelerated this pace. Jobs that are available today will soon be extinct, and jobs that don't exist today will be plentiful with a dearth of skilled applicants.

Tying yourself and your career to a job description is like being one of those KTV women sullenly holding up a number, waiting to be picked or rejected.

Find opportunities that have no line.

They are way more fun.