Finding a (Really Good) Job - is a Job!
By Boaz S. Moar
Most of us work in knowledge-oriented businesses. In such companies, the heart of the business is the people working in it. But, not all companies are created equal and not all jobs are equally a good fit for YOU.
How do you make sure you land the best job - the one that best fits your skills, capabilities, interests and career objectives?
The explosion of business, especially in the technology fields, in the past 20 years, has generated a multitude of new jobs. The most recent changes inflicted by COVID opened up even more opportunities for many people as companies shifted jobs from offices to WFH and changed the nature of many jobs. Statistics regarding “The Great Resignation” are indicative of the number of people looking for alternative jobs. In a survey Maranda Dziekonski ran in LinkedIn a few weeks ago, more than a third of respondents suggested they are actively looking for new opportunities, and another quarter were open to opportunistic job changes.
This presents challenges for employers, but also for job seekers. After all - if a lot of people are looking - competition is tough. How would you find the best job for you?
To help think through this challenge, the Customer Success Leadership Network (CSLN) dedicated our January event to this topic. Maranda and I shared best practices for hiring managers who are looking for the best candidates and for people who are looking for the best jobs. In our previous post, we shared highlights from that session related to what Hiring Managers should do. This short post provides highlights for Job Seekers.
For many of us, Q4 was focused mostly on the activities needed to finish the year strong: push through the last few renewals, squeeze a few more upsells, ensuring we meet or exceed all of our goals. At the same time, the holidays provided many of us with the mindset to rethink or at least refine our career objectives and re-assess if we are where we want to be, or in need of seeking a new job. A new job, by the way, does not necessarily mean in a new company, but the fundamentals for landing that best job are the same.
Best Practices for Landing the Best Job:
Just like in hiring - finding a job is a job!
And while it is relatively easier nowadays for people to find jobs, finding the best job for you requires a lot of dedication and effort. Here are some best practices in getting there:
1). Ensure your resume reflects who you are: A good resume will help you get your foot in the door, it’ll help you get discovered by a recruiter, but it’s everything that you do after that gets you the job. A bad resume can exclude you from even being considered. Don’t just write what you have done, be specific with what you achieved - use numbers as much as possible and stress what makes you unique and good: show you understand CS by smart use of numbers (NPS vs CSAT, Net versus Gross Retention, revenue retention versus logo retention, etc.). In particular, express something you are really good at - high touch versus tech touch, commercial versus advocacy, specific industry segment, technical versus business skills, etc. Make sure your resume does not put you in a negative situation when you are in the interview… Also, note that many of us in tech rely on reviewing your LinkedIn profile more than your resume - make sure i) Your LinkedIn profile is very well updated and ii) your resume and your LinkedIn profile are not in contrast with one another as that would be embarrassing at best and an opportunity killer at worse…
2). Proactively search for opportunities: Cast a wide net and reach out to multiple resources to look for potential job openings. One of the comments that won the most nods of approval in the session we ran is: many opportunities - and often the best ones! - are not posted. The hiring manager is quietly looking for them. Do not assume that if there is no job posting, there isn’t a job. Reach out to companies you are interested in and investigate.
3). Research companies and opportunities: Read Glassdoor reviews and reviews on other websites. Look at average tenure on LinkedIn and TechCrunch. Reach out to current and former employees about their experience. Look at the Leaders (and investors) LinkedIn Profiles and learn about them. Are you passionate about this industry? Are you excited at working with/for those people? Do you want to work in this place? Is the operating model (enterprise software versus SaaS, High touch versus low touch, etc.) a good fit with your interested and experiences?
4). You can Never be over prepared for an interview: Make sure you are ready to best show what you can do and make the interviewer want to hire you. How do you do that?
a) Be knowledgeable about the company and the people: who is the interviewer, what is the company, who else works there. (see “Research” section)
b) Establish quick rapport: practice your intro: the joke you want to start the interview with or the personal comment about the person you are meeting with, etc.
c) Mind your environment: especially when talking from home, make sure the background shows what you want it to show, noise is minimized, lighting is good… Those are small things that can derail a conversation and yet are easy to handle if only you devote a few min to think them through.
d) Who are you: Be very crisp when describing who you are. There are many ways to do (start with a background and get to today, start with what you want to do and then support with previous experience, describe yourself as a business person first or a balanced business-personal person, etc.). There are pros and cons to each option and you need to choose the one that works for you. What you can not do is fumble over a question like this… be ready for it. And - be ready to support those with anecdotes and stories.
e) Why do you want to work here: there are a lot of “basic interview questions” you should be ready to answer: your strengths, your weaknesses, etc. On top of those, be ready to nail the reason why you want to work at the company you are interviewing at. You are about to meet people who are excited to work there - you should convince them you really want - and are a good fit for - it too!
f) Questions are a powerful tool: A candidate that does not present thoughtful questions is a candidate that either or both i) not really interested in the company/position, ii) not thoughtful/smart. You do not want to be labeled as either one: prepare your questions thoughtfully.
g) Follow up: Jury is out on the necessity of a post-interview follow up, but it is common courtesy to send a quick thank you email. Besides, a thank you email can be a wise opportunity to further differentiate yourself with the interviewer(s).
Landing the best job is a job. It takes time, commitment, planning and execution against your plan. The good news is that we are in one of the best times in history for people to land jobs as companies struggle to fill in the open positions they have. So, as long as you work hard and smart - you should be successful. Good luck!
Also, If you are actively looking now, check out our Customer Success Leadership Network Slack Group, we have a hiring channel and a looking channel and it is a great external source for finding some great opportunities in the CS space.
