Determining the Next Right Role for You
Discovering the right type of opportunity to pursue is just as important to your future career as building an effective resume.
The past year has been interesting to say the least in the tech community. Recently over 94,000 tech employees have lost their jobs, but with that said, competition for top talent is still incredibly high. With so many different opportunities on the market (and a growing number of tech workers looking for their next position), it is more vital than ever for less seasoned technical professionals to be crystal clear on what they are looking in their next opportunity and then be able to effectively convey those nonnegotiables in a resume.
Many jobseekers start writing their resume by downloading a template and adding experience, bullet point by bullet point. I would argue we should slow down on the actual resume crafting and start with the end in mind… discovering the right type of opportunity to target, and only then move on to building a resume that aligns with that opportunity.
As someone who has hand reviewed a fairly decent number of resumes in the past two years (over 8k), I have seen quite a few different approaches to how to make this first impression effectively, from one pager PDFs with profile pictures to twelve page technical essays. You are not alone if you are feeling overwhelmed with the entire resume writing process and just read this “end in mind’ approach as extra homework. However, extra intention in the early stages of your jobseeking process will save quite a bit of time and frustration when it comes time for final interviews or even the first few months in a new role.
A few housekeeping thoughts before we dive right in: I am of the strong opinion that there is no such thing as a perfect resume, just like there is no such thing as a perfect role or a perfect career. A resume, no matter how eloquently written, will never be able to give justice to all the color within a person’s professional experience. There is no perfect formatting template for a resume, or types of experiences that will guarantee a candidate gets the job. With that said, the quality of resumes DO matter, especially when applying for positions within solid organizations that provide mentorship, work life balance, and growth opportunities.
Grab a cup of coffee, pull out a blank sheet of paper or your tablet, and join me as we decide which roles are NOT solid choices for your next step, which types of roles and organizations are, and how to convey that in your resume.
Problems and Products
Why work in tech in the first place? Ask this question to a hundred different candidates, and it is likely you will hearing quite a few different answers. However, one answer and its variations seem to stand out above the others…
I like the challenge of solving problems. I like to find things that are broken, then figure out why they are broken, then work on fixing them. Then I like to rethink the solution, and break pieces of it, and optimize it to be even better. I like to build things (software, processes, mindsets) that solve actual problems people face, that make people’s lives better.
You could be a software engineer, writing code all day. You could be a product manager, figuring out which problems actually can be addressed effectively and which solutions will most effectively move the needle for people. You could be a salesperson, discovering what creates an Aha moment between a person with a problem and an intangible piece of software. But at the root of it all, you see problems as opportunities, and throw everything you have into turning the opportunity into a reality.
Here at Popmenu, we call this a product-driven mindset. This is the first quality we first look for in any candidate. As a job seeker deciding which types of environments to pursue, consider whether this mindset resonates with you. If so, target product -driven environments, as these workplaces usually challenge workers and provide ample opportunity to make an impact and to grow. This mindset comes out pretty early on in a first round interview, but the first piece of advice I would give any product-driven candidate is to help the hiring team connect these dots before the interview, by calling them out in your resume.
In your experience section, paint a picture of the problems you wrestled with and the products you helped bring to life. What parts of your role went smoothly, and in what parts were you stretched? Where and when did you have to think instead of just having to do? How did you struggle, and how has it shaped what you bring to the table for your next opportunity?
Oftentimes, job seekers steer clear of highlighting anything that could be perceived as a struggle in their resume, but this does such a great disservice to both the seeker’s experience and the strengths they have one out of those struggles.
If we truly love problem-solving, let’s not be afraid to talk about real life problems and how we overcame them.
Experience and Growth
A match in job seeker and open role is truly a two way street, and finding the right opportunity will open so many doors for the future of your career. A bit of a controversial thought: the right role for your current situation is probably not your dream role. This one stings a bit, but it is vital that emerging professionals think through what sort of positions provide support and growth for the future and target these types of positions with how the resume is built.
Our People Leader here at Popmenu often talks about employees having three zones that we live in and transition through daily: the comfort zone, the growth zone, and the panic zone. Target roles that give you ample opportunities to live in the growth zone. Get crystal clear about how this would look in your specific area of expertise or job function. Call out these growth specifics in your resume.
Living in the comfort zone for a product-driven individual will end up feeling unfulfilling and bland. Living in the panic zone for a product-driven individual will lead to poor performance in a role and shaky confidence. Ambitious individuals often fall into the trap of going after the type of role that unbeknownst to them, will lead to the panic zone; when instead there are quite a few opportunities out there that would lead to sustainable professional growth. If a job seeker hasn’t taken the time to sort out their own personal zones though, they could be targeting a mismatch of a role, or worse yet, end up in a position that damages their career.
There are few things more disappointing for a hiring team then having a qualified candidate who just isn’t hungry. Call out your hunger for growth (and the specifics of how it looks in your role) from the beginning, which will lead to much more fruitful conversations through interview processes. Likewise, get clear about your experience in a very straightforward manner in your resume. Describe what your comfort zone has looked like and the responsibilities you can confidently handle without oversight.
Transparency and straightforwardness in resumes is increasingly rare and incredibly attractive to hiring teams. Employers should also know what a growth zone candidate looks like for a specific role which, paired with a candid resume and a dynamic conversation, leads to either a quick understanding of a misalignment or a match. Job seekers: if the roles you are applying to are either all comfort or all panic, they probably aren’t a fit for you. Also, if a company you are interested in is only looking for comfort-zone candidates, you might want to continue your search.
Culture and Values
Company (and employee) values and culture are not the same thing. Values should remain steadfast amidst change, while culture should grow and expand with each new employee added to the team. Solid values influence and inform a culture. If values are broken, culture falls apart and is very difficult to rebuild.
From an employer perspective, finding “Value Alignment, Culture Add” candidates is imperative to architecting a productive work environment. What are your individual core values that you would bring to work every day? Are they aligned with the core values of the organizations you are interested in working for? Call them out in your resume so we can talk about them in an interview! This is especially important when applying for companies that practice values-based hiring.
To Sum it Up…
No, I haven’t given you a step by step for how to craft the perfect resume or exactly what to say to land your next role quickly. These thoughts might even be a bit more abstract than the way most people would approach resume writing. With that said, these concepts are important. Important to think about and to question your own reasoning for. Important to solidify and articulate in whichever way is most true to you. At the end of the day, the goal isn’t to land a role. It’s to land the right role. The one that will allow you to show up authentically to work every day, to challenge yourself, and to grow as an employee but more importantly as a human.
Have you taken the time to think through some of these concepts and wrestled with putting them to paper (or the screen 😊)? How did it turn out? I would absolutely love to hear any inspiration, pushback, or questions, let’s start the conversation! Also, we are hiring here at Popmenu. If working for an organization that values growth and meeting candidates at eye-level resonates with you, feel free to reach out!
Check out our open roles at Popmenu.
Sara Leubke is Popmenu’s Engineering Recruiter.
