Josh Payne's Unstructured Thoughts

I recently started a new job at HubSpot. It had been over 6 years since my last job search so I thought I’d pass along some observations from the experience in the hope that others will benefit from my experience.

1)   Practice Interviewing.  Like any skill, to be a good interview, you need practice. It had been a long time since I had been in the job market and interviewed (2004). And when I was interviewing back in 2004, I was looking for software consulting jobs. Since then, I’d made a move into product marketing/product management inside IBM. I’d never interviewed for a product management job before. Two things helped me here: One, I took a few phone screen-type interviews (via recruiters) for product management roles that didn’t necessarily appeal to me fully (likely because the company profile wasn’t what I was looking for). Two, I just plain talked to myself at my desk and practiced my “pitch.” Like any marketing message, you need practice to flesh out your interview answers and work out the kinks.

2)   LinkedIn is your resume. Not a single interviewer walked into an interview with my resume in hand. And they rarely had read it in advance. I typically had a copy for them and we worked off of it. But that beautifully manicured resume wasn’t as important as my LinkedIn profile. Far more people had read it in preparation and some even came in with a printout of it. Make sure it’s up to date.

3)   Be Persistent with Your Network. I’m simply joining a chorus here when I say that the best jobs at the best companies will be found through your network. I came to HubSpot through a mutual friend of one of the VPs. Recruiters are a good but not great method of accessing exceptional opportunities. But what I learned (or really had reinforced) is that you absolutely need to be persistent in leveraging the network on your behalf. After I was introduced to that HubSpot VP, t took 6+ weeks, multiple reminder emails and a talk at a cocktail party before I got through for a phone screening.  It wasn’t because I wasn’t qualified. The guy was just busy. I was polite . . . but persistent.

4)   Social Proof Extends to the Job Search. Social proof is an idea I’ve heard bandied about most frequently by the VC industry in recent months. The idea is that high quality angel investors will be more likely to talk to you (and by extension invest) if you are already associated to a high quality individual, such as another high quality angel investor.

I experienced the same phenomenon during my job search. As the HubSpot hiring gauntlet was nearing its end, I indicated to a recruiter that I was close to an offer from HubSpot. That recruiter took that fact as a sign of quality – there was now social proof that I was worth his attention because HubSpot had shown substantial interest.  The recruiter kicked into gear and was aggressive in pitching me to higher quality opportunities.

5)   Mark Suster, on his blog, speaks to entrepreneurs about the idea that in business in general, you are most vulnerable when there’s a tentative agreement but the ink on the contract is not yet dry.  I’ll simply say to job searchers that I definitely perceived this dynamic in the job market and I was able to better navigate my negotiation with an awareness of this dynamic.  I was generally vulnerable to the whims of the hiring companies before a written offer was issued (especially when verbal expressions of interest were floating in the air). And as soon as a written offer was in hand, the pendulum swung in my direction. The hiring company was most vulnerable.

Hope this helps the current job searchers out there. What do you think? Any other ‘modern’ considerations searchers need to take into account?

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