Finding the perfect job post-grad is often a daunting process. Throughout my time engaging with enterprise sales people as a summer analyst at a software-focused growth equity fund and countless hours spent applying for internships throughout my college career, I’ve realized there are many parallels between the sales world and the job-finding world. I wanted to put together a guide for new grads or people who are interested in exploring new options.
Step 1: The Product: You!
To build sales, one must first build out a solid product based on customer feedback. To find a job, one must first build a solid idea of what their strengths are and what they’re interested in. Take five minutes and write down your top twenty strengths. Think about how your experience has correlated or helped build these strengths.
Then, take this list to a trusted advisor or friend that isn’t afraid to be critical and ask their opinion. Are these right? Are there other skills you’re forgetting?
*Don’t worry about your resume quite yet – we’ll get to that!
Step 2: The Top of the Funnel: Qualified Companies!
In sales, building a large “top of the funnel” with qualified leads is crucial to your success. Likewise, building a large funnel of qualified companies is crucial to your jobhunting success. The qualification component is the most important:
Make a list of industries you’re interested in, then a list of geographic locations you’re interested in. Try to be specific here, you can always broaden your search later. Also think about the possibilities of working remote – is that something you would like to do? The size of your ideal company – Start-up? Mid-sized business? Big enterprise? Do you want to be in a company that has a philanthropical lean(ie a B corp)?
By specifically identifying your needs and wants in a company, you’ll be able to carry with you a sureness about the companies you choose that will reflect well in discussions with their employees.
Now use this list to filter through companies listed on websites like Crunchbase, Angellist, Indeed, Monster. Check out local newspapers’ “Best Places to Work,” do some digging on what past employees have said. Don’t be afraid to add or subtract some of these filters as your search progresses.
Add the companies you’re interested in to a Google Sheet, complete with a short description, their linkedin, their company website, check boxes for your different wants and needs, any mutual connections you may share, and empty columns for “Intro call, discovery call, interview, follow up, negotiation” where you’ll insert dates and notes as you progress through your notes.
Step 3: Mid-Funnel: The Discovery Period!
So, what do these companies do? Here’s one of the fun parts of the process – testing! Enterprise Software? Set up a demo for your “company”. Ask the salesperson lots of questions. Consumer Software? Try it out. Consumer Packaged Goods? Buy one. Make a list of what you’d improve. Remember, be tactful with these thoughts. As Mike Davidson, former VP of Design at Twitter and current VP of Partnerships & Community at InVision, pointed out in this excellent article (design peeps, would definitely recommend reading this) “you don’t know what factors went into a given product decision.”
This is a crucial step in your job-hunting process because if you don’t believe in the product or service or the vision the company is selling before you’re hired, it will be difficult to be excited about going to work each day after you’re hired. Passion, in these cases, usually can’t be forced.
Step 4: Explore the Positions & Tailor your Resume
You’ll notice I didn’t mention looking for positions in step 2 when exploring the companies. In sales, companies rarely know exactly what they need at that exact moment. In job hunting, sometimes companies can take months to figure out what they need, and then those needs might be poorly translated or overstated in a LinkedIn job post.
First, you’ll go through the companies you picked out as qualified leads and vetted through your “discovery” period and find the jobs they’ve posted online that sounds interesting to you. Copy those job descriptions and insert them into a word cloud. Word clouds will visually help you identify the top skills the job poster is looking for. I would set aside a tab on your Google Sheet CRM for different job descriptions with their word clouds, and a link to your tailored resume.
Importing LinkedIn Job Description 
Word Cloud generated!
To build a tailored resume, you’ll take your master resume, which should be everything you’ve ever done – online courses, college, volunteering, organization positions, past jobs – with thorough descriptions, and customize it. Note that you shouldn’t look at your master resume as the end product, it’s merely what you’ll use as the building blocks.
Using the word clouds and the list of strengths you generated, cross-reference them with your experience to build the perfect resume for this opportunity. Change your description’s action words for each experience depending on the company you apply at – you may want to bring in their native way of communicating through what you’ve seen on their website, mission statement, etc. Leave our experiences that don’t apply at all, and highlight the ones that did. Rinse and repeat.
To make this process more efficient, keep track of similar patterns you see for the same positions at different companies – this can save you a lot of time. Also, don’t be afraid to apply for a reach position, companies often put all their wildest dreams in a job description – not what they need at a minimum.
Step 5: Discovery Call
Congratulate yourself on all the hard work you’ve done – you’ve found some awesome companies where you think you’d be a great fit! At this point, the road diverges a little, as some companies have stringent recruiting timelines. I would still recommend getting in touch with the hiring manager there, you never know when a position might open down the road.
Regarding getting in touch with these companies: pick up the phone after you apply online! Shoot the hiring manager an email! In sales, it takes on average six touches to get in contact with someone and have a meaningful conversation with them. Focus on one introductory email, a call to their office to reach the hiring manager and introduce yourself. Continue touching base with one or two sentence emails if they don’t follow up. Don’t get discourage, get excited if they get back to you within six emails/calls!
I saw an interview with the founder of Superhuman, Rahul Vohr, who recommended sending an email with only content in the subject line (ie are you available for a call next week / reply yes or no). I wouldn’t recommend using this as a go-to strategy but it might be interesting to try out in this context.
Make sure to update your Google Sheet with how your efforts are going and any notes on the follow-up process.
Step 6: The In-Person Interview
Look the part: find out what people usually wear to work there, dress a smidge fancier but not too much you feel out of place. Do your homework on the interviewer – what’s their background? Any mutual friends? Hobbies outside of work? What do you have in common? You’ve already done your homework on the company, why it’s a great fit for you – make sure you articulate what makes this company such a great fit for you.
If you get nervous, that’s okay. Take a deep breath and remind yourself everyone else is just making it up as they go along, too. Make sure to review the word clouds and your resume prior to the conversation, and remind yourself why you’ve picked this company out of the many you looked through.
When they ask you to tell them about yourself, keep it short and simple: “I’m X, I have passions in the x, y, and z areas and experience in x,y, and z areas. I think I would be a great fit for this position because x. Outside of work, I enjoy x, y, and z.“ These will guide the conversation in a comfortable place for you, because the interviewer will have a better idea of you, the person, rather than you, the resume.
When they ask you if you have any questions, ask them why they’ve chosen to stay at this company or what they appreciate about it most. Ask them what skills they believe they’ve improved upon during their time there. Make sure to ask about the timeline of the hiring decision and their preferred method of follow up. This will save you from waiting on your couch cradling a pint a bucket of mint chocolate chip ice cream two weeks later when they haven’t called (I learned this the hard way). Reinforce at the end why you’d be a good fit, and make sure to shake their hand and make eye contact at the end of the interview.
Step 7: Follow Up with Red Envelope
This is one of my favorite sales techniques from Jordan Nazario, the Chief Sales Officer of Digilism, and one of Yahoo Finance’s 2019 Most Innnovative Entrepreneurs. To follow up, write them a thank you note on high quality paper and put it in a red envelope. Beyond the fact that no one writes handwritten thank you notes anymore, the red color evokes the emotion of passion and fosters a sense of empathy.
Step 8: Negotiate
After receiving an offer, don’t forget to negotiate your salary and benefits. There’s no loss here for you post job offer. Use a website like Paysa to check out what the average salary range is, and quote something on the higher end of he spectrum. Remember you can negotiate other things outside of just your salary range etc vacation time, perks, remote part time. Make sure you clearly underscore your why when making asks, base them on hard statistics or hard needs for you. If you’re interested in learning more about this process, would recommend reading Getting to Yes.
Step 9: Celebrate!
The job hunting process can be long and grueling, and a lot of time spent alone or with strangers. After you’ve accepted your offer, make sure to plan a “job shower,” a fun dinner/brunch with some close friends to celebrate your new job and laugh over what could have been I think increasing transparency into your process will increase the amount of opportunity and decrease the stigma for those in your friend group – so don’t be afraid to talk about it with your friends!
Happy hunting! And feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn here or by email : paigefinndoherty (gmail)