A successful job search takes more than just networking and applying to roles—it requires strategic thinking about your market position, realistic timeline expectations, and a systematic approach to finding opportunities.
Without a positive outlook, clear actions, and a focused strategy, even the most qualified candidates can struggle for months.
I’ve seen it first-hand, hundreds of times over the last year alone.
My mission is to help PMs build better products and do so by helping them in their careers. I want to democratise the methods I use to do that, not put them behind a paywall. But if you want hands-on help, I’m always here.
Today, I am going to share with you some of the questions I ask clients when we get started on a job search.
You should ask these of yourself, no matter if you’ve started your job search, or you’re struggling to get started.
Three things to cover:
Outlook. Actions. Strategy.
Strengthening your outlook
If you’ve been a reader for more than a month, you’ve seen my monthly jobs report. If you haven’t, here’s the latest:
The data is only one part of your outlook, though.
Yes, market conditions matter, but only as an input.
Here’s what to ask yourself:
Your position
Think about your position in that market. Where do you stand competitively? What is your experience level, the industries you’ve worked in, what is your unique value proposition against other candidates?
Write it down.
Your timeline
What’s realistic for you in your current situation? Could you withstand searching for 6 months? If you lost your job tomorrow, would you have the runway to work on the search for that long?
My clients normally land a job within 3 months of working together. Some take longer, some take less. But on their own, it’s taking 6 months or longer.
So how long can you work on this? And what’s your backup plan?
Write it down.
Your flexibility
How much does work environment matter to you?
Remote, hybrid, and on-site preferences dramatically impact your available opportunities. Each choice comes with tradeoffs.
If you’re thinking about relocating, this can open up some doors, but they can be more challenging to walk through—especially when visa requirements are involved.
What is ideal for you? What is non-negotiable?
Write it down.
Your mindset
Let me start with the hardest truth you need to accept and get comfortable with.
You’re going to get rejected. A lot.
You’re going to get ghosted by recruiters.
You’re going to sit waiting for replies that never come.
You’re going to be told no, when it felt like a yes.
You’re going to get feedback that hurts, even when it’s wrong (and sometimes when it’s right).
You’re going to see other people cross the finish line, and wonder why you haven’t.
I could share more examples, but you get the point.
On applications alone, most candidates don’t hear back or get rejected 99% of the time.
Clients I work with have cut that down to 70%.
In an upcoming workshop, I’ll show you how.
People you reach out to won’t get back to you. Most cold outreach has similar response rates.
The easy thing for people to say online is “don’t waste your time with cold apply, just get referrals!” which is bad advice. In this market, you need to do both.
But your mindset needs to be right first.
Are you comfortable with rejection?
Get comfortable with it, and do not let it stop you.
Acknowledge that it will happen, and get to work. What’s a simple way to get over this?
Write it down. And read it aloud to yourself.
Your momentum
The most powerful force in a successful job search is momentum.
When you’ve got it, everything else you need follows: confidence, energy, motivation. Establishing momentum is critical, accelerating it is how you win.
Here’s how you do it:
While working, celebrate every win, big and small.
A recruiter comes to you with an opportunity?
Put your hands up and shout “YES!”.
Made a new connection at one of your target companies?
Let out a “woohoo!”
Moving on to the hiring panel?
Give yourself a round of applause!
Or, tell someone else who will celebrate with you.
I love celebrating with my clients—every win, big or small.
Reply with a recent win and I’ll give you a boost!
Your network
When people think of their network, they often think of co-workers, ex-colleagues, and LinkedIn connections.
This is a narrow view of your network.
I want to broaden that for you.
But first, here’s why your network is so important:
They will support you.
They will open new doors for you.
They will remind you of what you’re great at.
They will keep you going when things are tough.
They will help you learn about things you can’t see.
They will tell you information that can be the next unlock.
Now, if you’re sitting there saying to yourself that you don’t have a strong network, you’re wrong. I’m in your network! And I am what they call a Super Connector. I connect PMs with each other all the time.
For my clients, I make direct introductions to any of the 8,000+ PMs in my 1st degree connections.
But beyond that, I introduce people to one another online, IRL, and more.
There’s probably another super connector in your network, waiting to be activated.
So that’s your business network—let’s look beyond that.
You’ve got family, friends, alumni. Think about the roles they can play to help.
Family and friends truly care about you, you can rely on them for motivation, encouragement, or to just vent about the struggles. Your alumni can open up new doors for you, foster new connections.
And then there are people like me, coaches. We can help you with accountability, calibration, negotiation, knowing what’s worth doing next, and how to do it.
You just have to do the work.
Prioritising the right actions
You’ve got your outlook sorted, let’s cover what else you need to do.
There are so many things you could be doing that feel like progress on the job search.
Then there are the actions that are proven to drive results.
Let’s start with the basics:
Your bandwidth
Whether working full-time or not, looking for a job right now is hard work.
How much time can you realistically commit to your job search?
If it’s an hour a week, it’s going to be incredibly difficult to build momentum and see results.
If it’s 10+ hours a week, you’ll make more progress than someone spending 1 hour a week. But you may struggle to see results as fast as someone spending 40 hours a week.
Set a target for yourself, then let’s fill it up with the right actions.
Your rituals
There will be repetition in your job search. So build your rituals around the repeatable steps you need to follow. Track your progress—ticking boxes gives you a dopamine hit and every bit can help.
Got 1 hour a day?
Spend 10 minutes finding new jobs. Find a match for your top pick criteria? Apply immediately.
Spend 20 minutes submitting applications. If you’ve properly optimised your CV/Resume, applying should be quick.
Spend 10 minutes sending connect requests. Target PMs who work at companies you’ve applied to. Follow the 3x3 rule.
Spend 20 minutes writing interview stories. You need a solid bank. More on that to come.
Your signals
Consider the signals in a job search as indicators of progress, optimise for what matters, squash what slows you down.
Application conversion rate
Rates above 5% suggest your CV/Resume is resonating well. If it’s below 5%, it needs work.
If it’s above 10%, don’t waste time iterating further, keep applying!
Time spent applying
Applying to jobs can be a big time suck (looking at you with disgust, Workday).
Here are tips & tricks to speed it up:
Configure your job search on LinkedIn (title, location, work environment, past 24 hours) and bookmark the URL.
Create a calendar event at the same time each day, include that URL in the event so you can quickly jump in from anywhere.
Evaluate how long it takes to submit an application. If it’s more than 15 minutes, find out what’s repeatedly slowing you down and fix it.
Interview feedback
Always ask for feedback. After each stage.
Seek to get the good, and the bad. Reflect on your own performance, too.
Take the feedback neutrally, use your judgment to decide if its worth actioning.
Negative feedback can provide valuable insights for improvement, if analysed objectively.
Your noise
I just shared the signals to focus on. Here’s the noise to ignore:
Applicants to a job
"100 people applied already!"
This metric is useless. Ignore it. Most of those applicants aren’t qualified. I know, I did the research.
Engagement on LinkedIn
I get this question a lot. No, you don’t have to be posting regularly on LinkedIn. If you’d stop after landing a job, don’t waste your time starting. It’s a grind, and there are higher value actions to prioritise.
Ghost jobs / Reposts
I read complaints about this all the time. Especially on Reddit when I post a jobs report.
“Half those jobs are ghost jobs!”
“This job has been reposted 3x!”
Yes, ghost jobs exist. No, you can’t identify them.
Yes, jobs get reposted. No, it’s not always because they haven’t filled it yet. Some companies just use a single job post as a funnel for more than 1 job.
Accept it’s part of the market and move on.
Executing a solid strategy
Your outlook is sorted. You’ve know what actions and signals matter.
Let’s talk strategy.
Most people navigate the job search aimlessly.
They know where they want to go, they just don’t know how to get there.
Your strategy needs to be better than that. And if you follow what I’ve laid out for you, it will be.
Start with accountability, then move between the parts of the funnel accordingly.
Your goals
I want you to establish two sets of goals for yourself:
Time dedication
We talked about bandwidth above, translate that into a goal. Use a calendar to execute (and measure it).
Keep it simple and realistic.
X hours per week is enough.
For certain tasks, do the reverse and time-box yourself. One client was spending weeks iterating on their CV before applying. Trying to get it perfect. Perfection isn’t the goal, so don’t let endless iteration stop you.
X hours working on a CV then stop, apply, and measure.
Momentum drivers
You achieve momentum in multiple ways, let’s translate these into goals too.
Apply to X jobs per week.
Complete Y connect requests per week.
Target Z DMs or networking calls per week.
I’ve built a mini CRM to help people with networking outreach. Let me know if you want it.
Your funnel
The job search is a 3-part funnel: Applying, Interviewing, and Closing.
Allocate your time based on which part of the funnel needs the most attention.
Here’s how to think about it:
Applying
The most important piece of funnel advice—always keep your top of funnel active.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve got 3 final stage interviews coming up, take the time to keep the top of funnel active.
Interviewing
When you’re actively interviewing, your time should be allocated to preparing to succeed.
Story development.
Product sense practice.
Research on the companies and their processes.
Talking with people who’ve recently interviewed there.
Do this when you’re actively in process, rather than before.
Closing
Once you’re reaching the final stages, pull back on everything else and focus on what you will do to close that offer.
What have you learned about the company so far?
What are their real problems?
How can you reinforce how you are the best person to solve those problems?
Similarly, have you validated that they are the right fit?
After all, you’ve defined what matters for your next role, haven’t you?
There it is. All laid out for you.
I don’t have to hope that it helps, I know it absolutely will—you just have to do the work.
I know this because I’ve worked with hundreds of PMs on these exact things and it helps each and every one of them.
It will help you too.
Need even more help? Give me a shout.
Finding this helpful? Share it on LinkedIn to help more PMs.
Wishing you success,
James