Barbaadeshwar

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.

15mo ago

Barbaadeshwar

Stealth15mo

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

arbitdxc

Mentor/Advisor15mo

Helpful post, amazing. Congrats on getting an offer! You have the gift of writing.

An name barbaadeshwar se aabadeshwar kar do 😀

Barbaadeshwar

Stealth15mo

Hahahaha 🤣 not a bad idea.

Barbaadeshwar

Stealth15mo

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.

Killitwithkindess

TCS15mo

How to find head hunters 👀

Barbaadeshwar

Stealth15mo

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.

Killitwithkindess

TCS15mo

Sounds like a a lot of hustle bro 🫂

now you can spend your time here guilt free 😂

Barbaadeshwar

Stealth15mo

Still not as much hustle as my friend who got 3 offers rescinded 🥲🥲🥲

AITookMyJob

Startup15mo

Wow, that sounds like a painful situation. Tell us more about that in a comment too!

ZoomD

Dunzo15mo

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!

Barbaadeshwar

Stealth15mo

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.

ZoomD

Dunzo15mo

Lol. Wtf. 78 days :)

Wagewala

Stealth15mo

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 .

Barbaadeshwar

Stealth15mo

Laid off about 3 months ago. Didn't do jackshit productive except the job search. And I inhaled manga.

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