Naiman Labs Newsletter #47. Laws of the Jungle and how to job hunt.

Hi, my dear subscriber!

Recently, my mind has been occupied mainly by job search, or to name it better - job hunting 🐅. This has been an area of my interest for quite some time. I am an HR Professional afterward (even though I don’t hire people). I also joined an excellent team of professionals helping people improve their job search skills and find jobs abroad. 

So, I have been talking to many different people regarding their careers. The more I talk to them, the more I understand how much superstitions, stereotypes, misinformation, and misconceptions there are in the job search industry.

Over the recent year, I have coached 60+ people on improving their profiles (resumes, LinkedIn, Cover letters), 10+ people helping deal with job interviews, and 20 people shaping their career journeys.

I couldn’t help but notice that the job search area looked like a jungle. It is wild, not easy, and absolutely mind-blowingly confusing.

Look at the market today - it’s crazy. Since 2020 we have been observing:

• Rapid hiring with a growing number of companies hiring in bulk, hunting entire teams

• Mass layoffs all over the world

• An increasing number of people leaving their jobs voluntarily

• A growing number of managers want to replace everything that can be replaced with AI ✨ (have you also noticed that to make an app look “AI-powered,” you just need to add this sign?)

• A growing variety of pay components, benefits, and recognition programs

• Trends to increasing the transparency of pay

• An increasing amount of companies rely solely on AI and data for people-related decision-making

These are only to name a few. No wonder people are getting increasingly frustrated with their job search.

Moreover, suppose you search online for recommendations on creating your resume, working with your LinkedIn, approaching your interviews, and writing cover letters. In that case, you will find tons and tons of articles, posts, and videos openly contradicting each other.

📢 “Add your picture to the resume” vs “NEVER add your picture to the resume.”

📢 “Use design Figma / Canva template for your resume” vs “NEVER use Canva for your resume.”

📢 “Stop spending time on cover letters - nobody reads them” vs “Create a good cover letter to stand out of the crowd.”

The market is filled with information, and people get confused with the search.

This confusion comes a lot because all the advice is presented as a magic pill.

However, based on my experience, I can confidently say that the approach to job search should be adaptive, flexible, and tailor-made.

There are so many factors to consider. These factors will definitely influence the approach to your job search.

🌎 Market (Geography). Depending on the country/region of your search, you might want to change the way you work with your resume and profile. Also, different sources of jobs work for different countries. There are some local job boards and some countries where LinkedIn is banned (hello, Russia).

👷‍♂️ Market (Industry and profession). Your preferred industry most likely has its own standards and features regarding the job search. If you are a designer, you need to showcase your portfolio and curate it constantly. If you are a project manager or product manager, you must find a way to show your role and impact in every way you can. If you are a designer, your resume should be simply beautiful - it is the way to show your skills, too.

🤝 Cold approach or Warm approach. If you coldly apply for some jobs, you might want to use the leanest resume template possible to make it easier for recruiters and ATS systems to read it and find the right information there. Suppose you apply through the recommendation and give your resume in person. You might want to present a more “beautified” version in that case.

🪜 Your level. If you are a junior-level professional, you might want to check for internships, various student professional communities, or even special junior programs. If you are a senior, you might focus more on the network.

The only aspect I think can be helpful, irrespective of the factors mentioned above, is the high-level job hunt process.

I suggest structuring it in five steps:

Step 1. Prepare your mind 🧠

Many people skip this step, though I believe it’s crucial. Get ready to go the distance. The Job search process takes time. Especially when the market is that crazy. You are going to need to treat it like a full-time job. You need to do a lot of planning and self-coaching to understand what is crucial for your career and what you consider red flags. You need to consider the roles you are interested in and the tasks and projects you want to work on.

What really helps me here is to think with the characters. Where do I see myself? Is it a fancy office or a nice, cozy, quiet home office with a sea view? Is it me making a presentation in front of a big audience, or is it me crunching numbers? These examples are basic, but you get the point.

Step 2. Create your Hunting path 🐾

The Hunting path is the set of parameters for your search. You can consider it an “advanced filter.” It can be something like:

Role + Country + Industry + your expectations (projects, money, office/hybrid)

Step 3. Work on your profile 👔

I mean profile in the broader sense. You need to think of your presentation or your brand. What will you look like to anyone who comes across your profile on paper? This is about your resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, or your profile in professional networks.

Step 4. Build the system. Add operations to your Hunting path. 📲

I always make several tools:

1. List of relevant websites and job boards where I can search for job boards

2. Job Search Tracker - I developed a Notion tool for this.

3. Who can help me - my network? Who can help us with advice, recommendations, or even with referrals?

4. Templated messages. I know I will be sending many messages and writing many application comments. So, putting in some effort and preparing a few templates is always worth it.

Step 5. Start executing ✍️

• Treat your job hunt as a daily job - 3-4 hours daily for application and networking.

• Maintain regular LinkedIn activity (not only for your hunting time but in general - build your brand).

• Talk to your friends and colleagues and expand your network (again, not only for your hunting time but in general)

• Be attentive and catch all the opportunities you come across. Save them to your note-taking apps, and add them to your application backlog.

I will repeat this again. There is no magic pill, and no single approach can apply to every profession. 

If you are currently in a job hunt, prepare, be adaptive, be open-minded, and structure your search process. 

I hope the steps I described will help you.

That’s it for today,

🌴And as the Book of Jungle says: Have a good hunting!🌴Things I love this week

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