Job Search Step 1: Resume & LinkedIn Profile Updates
This week, I started dipping my toes in the water. I know I want to interview for product leadership roles in late spring/early summer.
I am going to share my journey as a means of coaching. While my journey will be slightly different from yours, 85-90% of what you need to do will be the same. There are some steps I may skip as I will already have an idea or have mastered the skill(s).
TL;DR - I aggregated my experiences over the last two years and put them in one role rather than 3 different entries. I want to test the effectiveness of the new format. If it doesn’t work, I will take another stab at it. My goal is to make it easier to see the bottom line of what I accomplished and any key experiences I added to my career story. I made these changes to both my resume and my LinkedIn.
The Resume
For most of us, this is the most despised and scariest part of the job search. We love talking about our products but hate talking about ourselves. We often want to list more than is necessary and omit the metrics and outcomes we need to impress prospective employers.
I have paid a few people to write my resume, but it has never worked out. I feel like the $250 platform option was only slightly less impressive than the $1,500 executive resume writer. I haven’t (despite extensive searches) found a good product-specific resume writer.
I have written a bit on resume writing. See the links below. I recommend you experiment with different formats and keywords, etc.
Here, I took a two-pronged approach: one short-term and one long-term. In the short term, I made simple changes, mostly aggregating my experience over the last two years. I removed my small business logo from my LinkedIn banner to see if it would help; so far, the jury is out.
In the long term, I took the Needle in a Haystack course with Lisa Kostova It is forcing me to self-reflect and focus my search. For many in the course, the goal is to fix LinkedIn before making a big push. But I am getting started with my search while working on my LinkedIn.
Market Note: It is tough right now. If you have been looking for a long time, 6 to 24 months, it can be difficult to see rejections, so don’t follow my path if you want to be more targeted and only go for close fits. As you follow me, you will see I test both blanket and targeted approaches to share with my readers.
Consider Custom Resumes
Most career-focused sites and products heavily advocate for custom resumes. I personally haven’t seen a huge ROI when I customized my resume for each application in the past. It is a lot of work.
For now, I am more focused on jumpstarting my search and shaking off the cobwebs, as they say. As I move forward, I will experiment with customizing my resume based on the roles I really want. But at this stage, I wanted to test to see if recruiters would find me with just a few changes.
But, if you were hoping for practical advice on resume customization, this list comes from from Product Growth Newsletter, I have added my own commentary to help you think about each recommendation.
Recast our experience to become ideal Re-write your experience to meet what the hiring manager is looking for. In my case, if they want a leader, I emphasize differently than if they want an IC. (As just an example)
Re-tell our story to be a straight line. Drop or reformat existing experiences. In my case, I hate FinTech, so I should drop LendingClub from most applications, if I follow this advice.
Customize every bullet for the job Speaks for itself. I personally think this is more time-consuming than it is worth. But I would need to run a test to prove it out.
Use the keywords the ATS seeks Use any number of tools to compare job description to resume and add missing keywords that are crucial. Most of the time, you have the experience, you just used a different description or they are self-evident to a human but not a machine.
Drop examples to intrigue Create compelling reason to be interviewed. Not sure I agree on this one. If you recast your experience you should naturally do this.
Flip your weaknesses Spot check for weaknesses. If you can address them by adding a bullet or description, do it. But in some cases it will never work. Don't make anything up to cover this item.
Resources