#69: How to spend your hours efficiently when looking for a new job
A guest post by Coach Erika from The Career Whispers
Hey friends,
Welcome to the 69th edition of the “Level Up Ladder” newsletter.
This is a special edition, as I have invited
from to help me write this post.Until then, a few updates from my side.
I had an interesting week, with one of my LinkedIn posts getting some traction. I knew it would, as I talked about a sensitive topic, a potential recession. It generated some interesting discussions and it’s very interesting to see different perspectives, from different countries, on the state of tech companies.
On a personal note, we are looking forward to a trip to the Danube Delta next week, as we have a few days off to disconnect (photos coming next week).
Other than that, a bit of training, a bit of homework for the MBA, a bit of (actually more) work at Deloitte. Consulting never stops, my friends.
The 4-hour Job Search
Helping tech people grow their careers is one of my passions, and I love both reading and writing about it. In my 14 years of leading projects and teams, I have hired hundreds of people, and this has helped me know what it takes to get a better job.
As I started becoming more interested in this topic I came across
substack, written by Erika Gemzer, and I instantly got hooked on her articles. It’s one of the fastest-growing tech career newsletters on Substack and while useful for anyone working in tech, it’s highly relevant for professionals in product, engineering, design, program/project management, and marketing.As I plan to start a series in which I share with you my favorite newsletters, Erika had the courtesy of letting me share one of her posts below, in which she talks about how you can best use 4 hours every day looking for a new job if you’re not hired and how to best use 4 hours a week if you’re looking for a new job while still having one.
I hope you sign up for her newsletter and enjoy it as much as I do!
Sometimes, you just have to work hard and put in the elbow grease.
Other times, you need to work smarter, be efficient, and zoom out to see the bigger picture.
Job searches are in the “other times” category.
It kills me when clients army-crawl their way to me, exhausted from their job search, feeling hopeless and tattered, and looking like they sprinted 26.2 miles through a marathon in a jungle during a typhoon — all before they even landed a job.
Job searching doesn’t have to be that exhausting. A job search can be an uplifting time of reconnecting with old colleagues, meeting new people, and reminding yourself of your abilities and competence.
And yet, every day on LinkedIn, someone reaches out to me with a spreadsheet of 150+ jobs they’ve cold applied for and been ghosted or rejected. They tell me they are tired, losing confidence, and searching for hope.
There’s a smarter, shorter, better way to job search. It has worked for dozens of my clients who used this exact job search routine to land top-tier jobs at companies like Uber, Airbnb, Apple, and more.
There are five things you need to do regularly while job searching:
Sourcing opportunities aka “Funnel Building”
Getting your name out there (so opportunities can find you)
Networking to get referred or get your resume passed along
Preparing for interviews
Interview follow-ups (thank you notes, pressing for updates, offer negotiation, etc)
Let’s dive into each and explore specific tactics you can start today ↓
Sourcing Opportunities, aka “Funnel Building”
Before you can even start building out your pipeline of opportunities, you need to get your head straight about what you’re going for.
identify the specific role you're targeting. You’ll want one resume version for each title you’re targeting, i.e. one for Senior PM and one for PM if you’re open to both levels.
customize your resume for this role. Treat this like an SEO optimization exercise. Use language and keywords from job descriptions you’re finding for this role title. Quantify your success using the key metrics for this specific role. Tailor your resume to the role like a fine suit.
Once you’ve done that, it’s time to start building your funnel and sourcing opportunities. This includes:
setting new job alerts on platforms like LinkedIn, Wellfound, or your favorite job search site. Your goal is to know within 24hrs when a new job is posted that matches your criteria.
checking the jobs page daily for your target employers. Just in case they don’t hit your filters.
letting hiring managers in your network know that you’re open to work and ready to interview.
responding to inbound requests from recruiters and headhunters. PS: in this market, it’s ok if you don’t have any.
organizing any leads that come through your networking efforts
Getting your name out there so opportunities can find you
This effort bucket includes:
Authoring LinkedIn posts to update your network about your job search. Try to do this at least 1x/week.
Authoring thought leadership posts relevant to your craft and areas of expertise. These can be on Medium, Substack, a private blog, LinkedIn, or wherever you please. The goal is to remind people that you’re an expert at the things you’re trying to land a job doing. It happens to offer a triple-dip effect of establishing your brand while crystallizing your methods for your craft and improving your interview performance. You’d be surprised how quickly this works, and how effective it is at building your professional brand and opening doors for you: “Oh, you’re looking for a platform PM? A friend of mine has been writing these awesome platform blog posts on LinkedIn, let me share their profile with you.”
Networking to get referred or get your resume passed along to the right people
People are at the heart of every successful job search, so even if your inner introvert is shuddering right now, you need to consider this a core part of your job search.
Networking during job searching includes:
reconnecting with old colleagues and letting them know you’re looking (and being specific about what you’re looking for so they can easily help you.)
sourcing key people to connect with (and finding creative ways to connect with them). This can include hiring managers for roles you’re interested in, people who work in the department you’re targeting at a given company, or a specific recruiter.
connecting with new people without any specific intention. These can be folks you meet in online communities, IRL events, who write comments on your Linkedin posts, etc. They may help you with various aspects of your job search, from opening doors to giving you tips on what’s working for them to passing along connections to roles they aren’t interested in themselves
Preparing for interviews
Once you land an interview, you need to prep for it. I’ve written extensively about how to prepare for first-round interviews (and really, any interview). See the Resources section at the end of this post for helpful guides on interview prep.
For now, consider it a key activity during your 4-hour-a-day job search that will need to be balanced against other tasks to keep your funnel full and keep those fishing lines out in the water!
Follow-ups
Similarly, you’ll need to carve out time to follow up with recruiters and thank people who help you navigate your job search, including friends, connections, recruiters, and interviewers. Every minute spent on gratitude and reflection will pay itself back many times over, whether in this job search or the next.
The 4-hour daily job search (if you’re unemployed)
Your job search daily routine is going to generally include all of the elements above, though some will take more or less time at different phases of your job search. You’re going to use judgment around how much time to invest in each activity.
For example, in your early job search, expect to spend more time setting up your job alerts and relatively little time on interview prep. I recommend holding off on interview prep until you have line of sight for a real interview, it’s not the best use of your four hours.
In your later job search, when you’re actively interviewing, you won’t need to spend any time on setting up job search filters, and if your funnel is robust with opportunities at various stages, you can focus most of your time on interviewing and follow-ups (rather than on applying and networking).
Some rules of thumb for your sanity and wellness
🔷 Focus on networking and getting referrals or warm intros to roles (rather than applying at large volumes). Limit yourself to one cold application per day.
🔷 Limit yourself to 4 hours. Even though you are unemployed, you should spend no more than 20 hours per week job searching. Burning yourself out before you even have a single interview is bad for your mental health and your job security.
🔷 Invest in your whole self, not just the working person. Use the remaining time in your day or week for fun, family, and learning new skills related to the jobs you're seeking. Think of this period as one where you are investing in yourself, not just looking for a job.
The 4-hour weekly job search (if you’re employed)
If you already have a job, your sense of urgency might be exactly the same as someone unemployed, but most likely you’re feeling a lot less urgent. You also have a lot more on your plate with a full-time job.
You still need to do the same activities, but you likely need to spread these tasks out over the full week. Permit yourself to scale the hours up or down, depending on how demanding your current job is (and how urgently you want to land a new one).
But do the same activites.
Closing thoughts
If you were looking for a reliable job search plan and structured routine that yields results without working you to the bone, you have it now.
More often than not, people overdo their efforts in their job search, toiling away and doubling down on tactics that aren’t working for them. These plans were designed for the current tech job market. They have worked for many others in the same position as you are, and navigating the same job market.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes.
Thanks Erika for sharing
with us. Looking forward to your comments.Recommendations:
For nostalgics born in the 80s, like me, this amazing site where you can play a bunch of 90s era MS-DOS games in your browser.
Hard Work DOESN'T Equal Success…THIS Does... | Former Netflix CEO
I’ve been watching the Olympics closely and this might be the best race I’ve seen this year
Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ll join me in the comments section for further discussions!
I hope you have a great weekend!
Leo Alexandru
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Thank you so much for being here!
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