How ThePowerMBA helped me land a great job during these difficult times….
There’s no question that the Covid-19 pandemic has altered our lives in unimaginable ways. Tens of millions of people across North America alone are jobless, job applications are in the thousands and HR departments are unable to keep up with getting back to potential candidates in a timely manner. So how do you land a job during one of the most difficult times in our history? How do you separate yourself from the herd and stand out as an exceptional candidate? In this article I’m going to show you how I did it, what inspired me and how ThePowerMBA helped.
In March of 2020, I was laid off due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The financial stress the pandemic has put on businesses caused an immediate reaction and the layoffs in the thousands began. VC’s weren’t speaking to start-ups, lenders put halts on further investments and loans and divisions were decimated to save the capital needed to ride this wave. Many of you fell subject to the economic downturn, not to downplay the health repercussions Covid had on many of our lives, and most importantly, not forget about those that lost their lives during this time, it has been an all around difficult 8 months with no clear direction in sight.
In March, I took a few weeks to strategize what my next move would be and shortly after that I began applying to numerous positions online, connecting with people in my LinkedIn network and putting the word out that I’m available. No responses. Nil, nada. After the first 3 months, it began to beat down my self esteem and slowly began to hear that I wasn’t the only one. I said to myself, “it’s time to step this up a notch” and I began to scour the internet for courses to up my skillset. I went from looking at certifications in data science, became certified as a product manager and still, no hits. I did receive kind emails that my experience is “extensive” but I don’t fit the requirements they’re looking for. Those requirements would match an android that has studied every computer science textbook, have a degree in management, be a sales master, an elite marketer and have tonnes of experience in that particular industry. I had to make a change and then came along ThePowerMBA.
After looking into ThePowerMBA and learning that the teachers are none other than the powerhouses of companies such as Waze, Tesla, Wholefoods, YouTube, Shazam and more, I had to take the leap. The classes started in September and in the meantime they supplied all prospective students with “meet the teachers” videos which inspired me even more to start the classes.
Now on to how ThePowerMBA helped me land my job. ThePowerMBA has grouped its courses into units and the first unit is the Business Model Analysis. After the descriptions of the business model canvas, value propositions and more, I thought to myself “why don’t I consider myself a business?”. The first job I applied for was a Senior Sales Consultant position with a reputable commercial kitchen equipment dealer, they had great reviews, excellent growth but required industry knowledge. I took the dive and applied and began filling out a Business Model Canvas analyzing the customer segments they are in and ones that I could possibly uncover.
After uncovering some interesting and new customer segments, I dove deeper and looked at the Value Proposition and again thought to myself “what value can I add, what pain points can I discover and how can I make my start in this organization a delighter?”.
My immediate thought was onboarding. The pandemic has caused us to change the way we work and onboard so I decided to put together a 90-day onboarding plan so management would know how I was going to learn about processes, product knowledge and get into the swing of selling as a key performer for their company. Link to the 90-day onboarding plan I used.
My first round interview went fantastic and I discussed the customer segments I’m aware of, have experience with and could uncover. My second round of interview was with the CEO and the President, this is where I presented the Business Model Canvas and my 90-day onboarding plan. To say least, they were thoroughly impressed! I received an offer the next day and I happily signed with the utmost excitement.
ThePowerMBA gave me specific tools that I decided to alter to give me the chance of landing a great job, with a great company. We are all too familiar with the teachings in business schools, how they apply to starting a business, etc. I looked at myself as the business, I’m an intrapreneur at heart, my experience is bringing to the table tangible strategies to add to the success of business. Having solidified that, I have since taken on the learnings from ThePowerMBA as an intrapreneur (I am very entrepreneurial but love and prefer to use my skills and talents to expand on existing businesses), looking at how I can act as a single unit with the greatest impact on a business. This mindset and the tools provided by ThePowerMBA separated me from the pack, I received a great package from a great company with great leaders within a week from using this strategy.
If you haven’t yet heard or looked into ThePowerMBA, I urge you to give it a shot and use my strategy of landing a great job during this difficult and unprecedented time.
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