Finally got a job (here's the do's and dont's)
Context: 10.5 YOE, Marketing lead. I've been looking for a switch since September last year. I'd seen signs of maybe my role or the company itself folding very early and knew 'twas time to bolt. But it's not that easy. Back then - 1 year in a startup meant hey not bad, people still spoke to you and considered your profile. These days, they treat you like Ebola if you've not had your ass stuck in the same place for 3-5 years.
Anyway, so the majority of my time searching for jobs was the shitty Easy Apply or IIMJOBS premium account route. Suprise suprise. It doesn't work. But hey I was still employed and not nearly as motivated as someone who's unemployed.
Cut to layoffs: Got laid off with my whole team and a huge chunk of other leaders. My first layoff, felt hilariously like the last day of school. To the org's credit they gave us 3 month severance, leave encashments and extra months for those who'd been there for 2 years+. In hindsight hearing the horror stories of 2k severance from Byju's. I'm grateful for the nice golden parachute I got. I'll be honest, it contributed heavily to my mental stability. I had time, I had leverage, I didn't have to run for the first shitty opportunity that came my way.
The How I did it (why you struggled through the above stream of consciousness)
- Wrote to 159 founders with one pagers to 35 of them with ideas on how i'd lead their marketing function. 5 replies. 3 interviews. 2 offers - didn't take em cuz they were super early stage or diff cities. This is immediately in month 1 so I've already started feeling icky about not getting great brands to have in my set.
- Easy Applied to 768 (I ran a Gmail search, this is a real number) jobs. 99% no responses or you've been rejected. -Kept changing one letter on my Naukri.com profile, got me 6 calls, 3 interviews and 1 conversion
I think theres a word limit to posts 🥲 following up as comments below.
Part 3
- Add HRs and hiring managers on LinkedIn, send them free ideas and strategies. Its ok if they steal them it meant they were great. One of them will refer you, remember you or hire you.
- Have a CV and a summary (half a page) that gets people excited about wanting to read the CV. Only areas of expertise and bullet points for results
- Don't put the OpentoWork filter on your LinkedIn DP. Its radioactive. I know people actively avoid those profiles. But make sure to keep open to work beacon on for recruiters. It pushes you ahead
- Dont post low effort i need a job because im laid off, i dont have money, copy pasted by millions on Linkedin. If you're gonna publically ask for a job, make sure that post has enuff of your skillset screaming for a potential hirer to want to explore more. Else you'll get velle gadhe typing CFBR
- Dont be anal or choosy about interviewing, i literally gave 35-50 in 3 months that culminated in 4 offers. Each one taught me something, heck ive spoken to startups with 7 peeps in it
- The only one that can negotiate CTC is the one that can walk away. When the offer i wanted finally came, my fixed went down a tad, but variable increased. The role was worth it so i didnt bother negotiating. Places i wasnt excited about - oh i quoted 30% hikes and got it at one place :p
Part 2
-
Wrote to 20+ head hunters with a one pager summary of why someone should hire me (format was: area of expertise + quantifiable impact delivered, e.g.: led 7 launch campaigns across 360 marketing that delivered 5m USD in revenue). Got 4 calls, two interviews, 2 conversions. Did not take em cuz something that i liked was coming up.
-
Got one reference, one interview, converted, refused offer because of location.
-
applied for a junior position FFS, got rejected for it but HR said hey got a senior position for you instead. 12 interviews, 3 months later (while the above happened in the background) got an offer and took it.
How to find head hunters 👀
Micheal Page, Native, Scrabble, CxSearch Global Partners, Longhouse, Intecreus, HRBx, argyle India, TransSearch are some head hunting firms. See profiles of people from these and LI will start suggesting other headhunters to you.
As we speak, in a similar boat with a 45 day pipeline to find something soon. Worst bit being the severance package to be paid in November (and no salary paid out in June & July). 😡
Thanks for the detailed post!
Easier said than done. But throw the 45 day timeline out of your head. Be in the zone. Don't rush to a shit offer, you don't want to be in another social media darling that's burning business side. E.g - the offer i wanted and finally picked? They took 78 days from reaching out to me to offer (12 interviews in between). I got all the other offers during this time. Kinda nervy but held em off. Happy I did.
Lol. Wtf. 78 days :)
Were you working in that startup till now ? Or you left your startup/laid off last year only ?
Just wanted to understand if you have a gap in between jobs - did you did something constructive like consulting, etc .
Laid off about 3 months ago. Didn't do jackshit productive except the job search. And I inhaled manga.
@Barbaadeshwar awesome post, just the one I need it. Going to start job hunting soon. Btw you mention about a 1 page or half page summary. Could you share more on that. Sometimes I feel with everyone busy, people will just disregard the text and move on. How you managed to keep the summary crisp and attention grabbing.
So there's two docs. Diff audiences. Doc 1 is a one pager about seedha work. Ideas, strategies, etc that I'd like to deploy at said workplace. This is for founders.
The other one is a profile summary for head hunters. You wanna make sure they get the gist and a simple glance through helps capture your experience. So mine is half a page. Headers (social, brand, performance, growth) and under each no faff straight facts. Grew business from x to y. This basically helps head hunters sell you better for mandates that they're working on.
That’s good insight. Thanks for sharing.
Congratulations - may you have continued success! Can relate a lot here. It took me 1.5 years, 65 Easy Applys+ 100 Applys in IIM Jobs and finally 6 Interviews to get a decent role. I was still employed and hence I didn't do a lot of novel things to approach recruiters or recruitment managers.
If I may ask, what is your domain and new TC?
Oh man what a post Congratulations @Barbaadeshwar it was only a matter of time
More people need to see this and understand the hustle it sometimes takes!
Thanks brah, just hope this posts makes people stop reposting that it has been so many months, it's getting difficult now, hardly given 4-5 interviews, either budget is problem or role (huh then why did they interview you). That shit gets you down to the dogpile so fast. And genuine job seekers don't get that 99/100 are engagement farming and don't need a job.
Congratulations!
Couple of questions (because comparing notes)
Was your comp a step up in par with the current market or higher?
What was your mindset going into the interviews for offers declined. Were you already sure you were not taking it or did something else line up during the process which swooned you away?
Fixed was higher in previous role. Marginally went down for chosen role. I got one offer that was a good chunk higher than existing but a diff country and ram bharose startup so decided not to go for it. I give most interviews at 90-95% intensity, 99 only comes when I'm interested. My whole thing was I'm going to collect as many offers as I can, not leaving anything on the table so that finally when I have to make a choice. It's not because I ran to something in desperation but saw all the options. Also 3-4 came in one go, so I didn't know I'd get em, safety first.
When you tell them you're available to join immediately, did you decline all offers before accepting the final one or asked them for a delayed joining date ? If you asked them for delayed joining date, how did you convince them for it, since they knew you're available to join immediately.