Find Your Next Job: 7 Simple Steps
“The answer to the question everybody wants to know. Lebron, what’s your decision?”
Being an Ohio (‘Ohi-ya’) boy raised on Cleveland sports in the mid-2000s (sad), needless to say, Lebron James was my hero.
Lebron has transcended basketball, so he needs no introduction. However, many folks -- even avid basketball fans -- tend to forget that, at 23 years old, he dragged the lifeless corpse of the 06-07 Cleveland Cavs to the NBA Finals…a year in which our second best player was Zydrunas Ilgauskas and we were giving crunch-time minutes to Daniel “Boobie” Gibson…BOOBIE!
Anyways, the shtick of supporting subpar Cavs teams for years on end, understandably, eventually got old for Lebron. So, in the 2010 offseason, he made a…very public and sloppy Decision…as to where to play next -- the Miami Heat. The rest, as they say, is history.
The day that ruined my childhood.
Ostensibly, Lebron joined Miami for a myriad of sounds reasons:
They had a much better basketball team than the Cavs
Their culture was league-leading
They were coached by a savant (Erik Spoelstra) managed by a basketball legend (Pat Reilly)
It gave him the opportunity to play with longtime friends (Dwayne Wade & Chris Bosh)
They were in Miami…Miami beats Cleveland 10 times out of 10
Lebron was certainly onto something with his endgame! And, while his first season there resulted in a loss, his next two brought two championships to South Beach.
While you and I aren’t Lebron, we do work in tech -- a hypercompetitive “league” of sorts with constantly shifting employees (players) and companies (teams) -- and thus have to be intentional and fundamentally sound when it comes to where we chose to work and why.
Below, I’ll outline the 7-step framework I use to answer that very dilemma. Note that this framework can apply to folks across the GTM spectrum, from Sales, to Marketing, to CS, etc., with core tenants surrounding (and being decided in order):
Skillset
Industry
Salary
Location -- remote v in-person v hybrid?
Company -- culture, size, stage, etc.
Networking power
Manager
Enjoy (please…all I can do is ask)!
Job Decision Framework
#1: Skillset -- What am I good at? What do I like? What do I want to learn?
Lebron James is and was a playmaker first.
In Lehman’s terms, this means that he prioritizes team basketball and passing over purely looking to score, which was impossible for him to embody in Cleveland.
Like Lebron (probably) did, when deciding where to go next, ask yourself the three questions found in this section’s header to identify what role you’d best fit:
Q: What am I good at? A: Toss aside your ego and look back at what you achieved with objective eyes.
Q: What do I like? A: Think about when you feel inspired at work (if you never do, well, there’s your answer).
Q: What do I want to learn? A: See the above, but purely for areas in which you know you need improvement/exposure to.
#2: Industry -- Radio Shack v. Apple
Radio Shack c. 2003
First of all, if anyone reading this is either a) currently working at Radio Shack or b) has worked at Radio Shack previously, I honestly mean no disrespect!
However: say you’re a prospective BDR, Account Executive, Marketing Specialist, etc., in 2003 looking to land your next role. In your search, you’ve done amazing and gotten offer letters from Radio Shack and Apple, respectively, with all things being equal between the two (salary, quality of manager, role description, etc.), etc.
What would you pick?(Really nervous one of you will say Radio Shack lol, but, regardless) Hopefully my point stands: industry/space matters. When looking for your next role, after figuring out your skillset concerns but before getting company-specific, carefully consider the industry you’re looking to enter.
To be frank, for me, it’s one-part eye test -- ‘Does this industry look like it has momentum?’ -- and one-part personal interest -- ‘Do I actually care about this industry’? If I can find an industry or three that embodies both, I’m in.
#3: Salary -- C.R.E.A.M.
Wu-Tang said it best: cash rules everything around us.
While a bit hyperbolic, there’s a good point in that lyric, in that we can’t and shouldn’t work for less than we’re worth. When picking your next job, to ensure you’re getting paid what you’re worth, do the following:
Given the role you defined for yourself in Step 1, search the average salary for said-role
Layer on your experience + where you’ll be working out of (location -- more on that in a sec) to either go above or below average; if you’re more experienced than the average X role and work in the Bay Area, set the number higher and vice-versa
Once you have that number, if/when you get an offer from a prospective company, find you hardline number and always negotiate -- recruiters will extend you an offer in a banded range that you can always push back on!
So, we secured the big bucks…or are they pesos? Shekels? To determine that…
#4: Location -- PJs, blazer or both?
True lol
This one’s pretty simple.
Do you crave real human interaction, complimentary chip bags, and an unreasonable amount of La Croix? Choose an office-based role.
Do you crave setting up your desk next to your bed, wearing the same three outfits all week, and making your own half-assed lunches? Choose a fully-remote role.
Do you want to split the difference? Go hybrid.
In all seriousness, there are real ramifications to the above scenarios…including real positives and real negatives to each. While being in-office is unparalleled when it comes to making friends, forming a better bond with your manager, can often cover your meals, etc., it’s also a time-and-money-suck when it comes to transit, physically binding, and more. While being fully-remote is unparalleled when it comes to schedule flexibility, introvert-enablement, and cutting distractions (maybe), it can also be isolating and can leave you out of those stronger social ties colleagues are making in-office.
Speaking of location…remember where Lebron ended up (hint: it’s warm, sunny year-round)?
#5: Company -- what would Goldilocks do?
Ever hear the tale of Goldilocks the prospective SMB Account Executive based in the Bay Area?Goldilocks did a great job finding her skillset, an industry she was passionate about -- Soup Endpoint Security -- a base salary min. of $100k given her two years of experience, and a certainty in knowing she wanted something fully-remote.
When researching companies, she came across three:
Company A: 10k employees, public, lower base salaries but great benefits and a structured culture
Company B: 20 employees, Series A, high base salaries but poor benefits and a scrappy culture
Company C: 500 employees, Series E, medium pay and decent benefits and a scrap-meets-scale culture
If you’re Goldilocks, who do you pick? Each variable in each scenario matters and, while they’re not as binary as I laid out, I’d consider prioritizing how you feel about each.
To find most (if not all) of the info I laid out above, consider creating a Glassdoor account for free to start researching companies of interest!
#6: Networking power -- answer the damn recruiter!
While it may often seem quite the opposite, recruiters are your friends -- answer them!
I promise you that, however far you think you can get applying for a job via a general job portal, that going through that recruiter that’s reached out to you 50X times will make it infinitely more likely that you’ll have an offer in your hand in a few weeks, so use them.
But Gray, what if no recruiters from the company I want to move to have reached out to me? Well, inquisitive reader (hi Dad), I counter: have any friends/former colleagues there?If you do, even better -- get them to refer you! Don’t believe me? Consider that you’d be 15X more likely to get a job with a referral than without one.
But Gray, what if I don’t know anyone at the company to refer me? Well, inquisitive reader: that sucks
#7 Manager -- Luke is nothing without Yoda
You and your manager
Just like Luke Skywalker would just be a petulant teen from Tatooine without Yoda, so would Lebron be another great player without a ring without the management in place in Miami.
And, while we often think we can rise above poor managers, the truth is, we can’t…and we shouldn’t have to.
Inside baseball here but, like my company says, managers should be enablers, not detractors. If managers have your best interests in mind, work is pleasant, regardless of what that work actually is; if managers are miserable, well, you’ll be miserable too.
So, if/when you’re going through multiple interviewing processes at the same time at companies with all-things-equal except for the quality of manager…pick the one you want to work for 10 times out of 10
I’m taking my talents to…
…wherever fits your framework answers best! Hopefully the above framework I laid out can be of some use to you in your next job search -- if it is, don’t forget me when you get your offer!
