I’m an experienced CEO. I applied for 1001 positions. This is what happened.
After Covid, enormously tough personal years, a devastating divorce, the full-scale war in my country, heartbreaking evacuation stories I was involved in, very little external help, and the necessity to settle in a new country to start my life over at age 35, I decided to leave my job as a hired CEO in a profitable company.
I was so burnt out, devastated and cracked that this decision brought me release and comfort.
I had no equity and all my possessions were savings of less far than 100k. I was in a country that warmly welcomed me as a Ukrainian refugee, but I knew literally 4 people here.
All my professional network told me that with my experience and toolbox, my next outstanding career leap is guaranteed to happen soon!
Just for the record: I’m a guy who scaled creator economy fintech up to a $250M valuation, record GMV and net profit. I have spent a decade in the consulting business, and hold all essential experience from startups to M&As, product, marketing & leadership expertise, vision, passion, and attitude… Stay with me.
To give myself some time to restore, I took a gap period, created the first version of my CV, updated my LinkedIn profile and began applying for vacancies.
I was thrilled by the abundance of opportunities and the quality of companies on job boards. Every day, hundreds of new positions were added for the UK market alone.
There were countless remote jobs available! The majority of vacancies I applied for seemed like a perfect fit. The compensation rates were far higher than what I made as the CEO of a multi-million company. (Well, indeed, I never made millions)
I was more than inspired by the success story of my fiancée. She landed a new job in less than 3 months, was interviewed by Meta, Inmarsat and Comscore and eventually accepted an offer from a prestigious influencer marketing agency in London.
So my story would be even brighter! I cheered myself up:)
I started receiving some interview invitations and met a few investors and headhunters.
But very soon, things began to look weird.
I began my active job search in February 2023.
February, March and April flew by. In May, after returning from our scheduled retreat, I realised that after two weeks, my inbox was empty.
Meanwhile, the number of positions I had applied for reached 700. The idea for this article had already crystallized in my mind.
In May and part of June, I easily reached the milestone of 1000, and I am now ready to share all the detailed data.
1001 applications. The data-driven journey.
There’s a spreadsheet containing all the vacancies I applied for, along with a dashboard that demonstrates the results and includes links and job descriptions.
Now, it’s time to delve deep into each step I took.
As a C-suite executive, I have reviewed thousands of CVs and conducted an equal number of interviews with candidates from different cultures for different roles, speaking in three languages in which I’m fluent.
Indeed, I researched the UK market and did my best to adjust my profile and CV for the market and the different roles.
The initial versions of my CV were non-standard and designed with the following idea: “This is how I think and present myself. I want to find people who will appreciate it and who’s looking for a person like me.”
– I’m looking for vision-driven, world-class teams and empathic leaders dedicated to solving global problems and making meaningful, industry-changing products
I divided my 20 years of expertise into different layers and created CVs for the marketing, product and operational leadership positions.
And, of course, for VCs.
After another few hundred rejections, I made changes and created the 3rd and the 4th versions of the CVs.
Then, I created a concise one-page version.
I adjusted the CVs for the most exciting positions, utilized plugins that highlighted the percentage of alignment of my CV and the job description, used services for improving CVs, changed titles and descriptions, and chatted with carrier coaches and headhunters.
I received a lot of admiration for my expertise and profile from headhunters, recruiters, and experienced C-level executives whom I approached on LinkedIn to seek their opinions.
Everyone I reached out to provided inspirational and flattering feedback.
However, the rejections kept piling up by the hundreds.
I created a list of 200+ headhunters and executive search recruiters, connected with them on LinkedIn and wrote personal notes.
I asked for referrals and pursued executives from VCs and some startups I’d like to work with.
As a guy who worked in the Creator Economy industry, I also began to connect with industry leaders and companies within the sector who may need my expertise.
I read every article I could find and approached people on LinkedIn to give me a hint. Everyone was puzzled by my situation, and the only thing that was in common in their feedback was that I could look overqualified or too expensive.
I paid $1500 to a high-profile career coach and got nothing but depreciation (“you have nothing specific to offer”).
I even decided to add a compensation level in my CV to let the market know that I’m affordable and even expect less than many vacancies offer.
The last set of CVs looked much more classic but did not influence the outcome.
Nothing works
I had hundreds of rejections and very few invitations for the interviews.
I even googled my name in case someone mentioned somewhere that no company on Earth should ever hire me.
But obviously, nothing like this. You can find my name and my last company in Forbes, Inc, Crunchbase, my public speaking materials from global events, mentorship profiles and kudos on LinkedIn.
The silence was confusing and sad.
No one from more than 1000 companies recognised in me the person every founder is looking for — the one who will treat business like their own.
As an experienced, hands-on hard worker, I’m so in love with creating and scaling products.
Why are all those lazy bastards hating their jobs and wasting the company’s budget still occupying their chairs?
And I, passionate and qualified, still have no team and no product to scale?
In the sixth version of my CV, I decided to downgrade my achievements.
Yeah, usually, people exaggerate some accomplishments, and that’s a common thing.
But I had to downplay figures and some details.
Imagine hiding things you are so proud of just to avoid appearing too flashy and to look not so intimidating to potential employers!
I even decided to get rid of my title as a CEO to avoid confusing hiring managers and decided to name myself a Chief Growth Officer.
Maybe it will help me get more invitations to interviews where I can tell the whole story.
Nevertheless, this still had no success.
It’s hard to come forward with this.
And I’m not sure how many people will read my story. Being invisible means that your story will also be invisible. For the last two decades, I was so busy building up someone’s ventures that I totally failed with investment in my network and brand. Moreover, starting from scratch in a new market in an alien country is also a case.
Haters gonna hate
– “If you’re such a kick asser why don’t you have a network that immediately headhunted you?”
– “If you are so experienced why not launching your own startup, business, accelerator or fund?”
– “That is the sign that you did something very wrong in your life…”
– “I’m so glad that you experienced it! Now you’ve learned…”
Unfortunately, not all people wish you the best or offer you a hand.
As we learn from inspirational quotes
“Don’t tell your problems to people: 80% don’t care, and the other 20% are glad you have them.”
Society functions in a way where people usually reach you only when they need something from you.
As soon as I become a venture capitalist, investor or another resourceful guy, no surprise, my inboxes will be overloaded with requests and offers.
Conclusions
That’s a fascinating journey I have zero regrets about. I would resign from my previous company again if I should, and I wouldn’t change a thing in this journey.
What makes this story special is that there’s no happy end yet.
At the moment I am writing it, June 2023, I’m still unemployed C-suite with 20 years of experience.
A Ukrainian refugee in the UK. Live in London. Build my network. Pursuing my dream to help VCs and startups.
Open to new opportunities.
P.S.
If you’re still here, there is a short story about myself and what I’m looking for:
Growing up in a sadly famous Bucha region in Ukraine, I left school at 16 to support my family. My first job was in sales, and I made my first $100 in 2004. By 19, I had landed my first management position in a small advertising agency, and by 22, I had launched my first business with partners. Over the past 19 years, I have gained comprehensive, hands-on expertise in business strategies, financial modelling, product development, performance marketing, and inspirational leadership.
As a hands-on professional, I delve deep into every case, leading client negotiations and working with sales teams, marketing teams, data scientists, financial managers, business analysts, UX designers, and CTOs. My experience in product development, management, and marketing, as well as problem-solving and inspirational leadership, has allowed me to transform poor products and empower weak teams, resulting in the scaling of numerous successful ventures.
The last achievements
In my most recent position, I became CEO of AIR Media Tech, a creator economy player. Despite the challenges posed by COVID and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we transformed the company from a local YouTube partner to a global creator economy leader, achieving record GMV and NET profit growth of up to 180% YoY and a market valuation increase of up to $250M in just three years.
We made a few local M&As and acquired a US-based competitor (top 50 out of Inc5000)
We built a global performance marketing function that results in x3 ROMI YoY and a product portfolio of 50+ products (SaaS, FinTech, Web 3.0, DeFi, Blockchain, Tokenisation & Investment + Game Development)
We scaled our FinTech infrastructure to a global payments platform in 44 countries (SWIFT, cards, PayPal, Payoneer, crypto) + advance payments with an annual turnover of $100M
But more importantly, we built a servant leadership, ROI-oriented, no-bullshit culture with inspired high-performance A-players and Bureaucracy-free operations.
What I’m looking for
My main superpower is my toolbox. Combination of marketing, product innovation, and solution architecture. Ability to understand complex things and generate solutions on the go.
I have all the essential background of M&As, investor relationships, and a full-stack business development toolbox.
I’m looking for Marketing, Product or Growth/Scaling roles. Everything from Co-CEO and COO to VP of Product or Marketing Director.
Speaking about VC, I want to offer my expertise to increase the percentage of success within the VC startup portfolio in three possible ways:
- Growth leader: Being responsible for growing % for success within the startup portfolio (from search and investment to day-to-day hands-on operations up to successful scaling and exit)
- Leader or adviser within the portfolio or product (being responsible for leadership, product development, PL, and scaling)
- Incubator/Accelerator leader: responsible for idea development, implementations, team gathering, mentoring, leadership, product development, launch, and all the performance and traction of the portfolio.
The last year and beyond
The war caught me and my fiancé in Turkey.
We dedicate the first months to helping with evacuation and saving people from Bucha (my hometown) and other affected regions.
In April 2022, we moved to the UK and found a new home here.
And looking for the next outstanding chapter.
👉 Continue to Part 2. What happens next?
Join the community: unitedsolvers.com
Reach out to discuss relevant opportunities: linkedin.com/in/tedsky/
Sincerely yours,
Ted Skyba
