Career Hustler 6: How Dan Friedman’s Product Passion Got Him Hired

This is the sixth interview in our ‘Zealify Career Hustlers’ series. To learn more about the series and why we are sharing these interviews, have a read of the series launch post.

Our sixth interview is with Dan Friedman. Dan is a Growth Marketer in California. We first found out about Dan’s hustle from his post on Medium, “Shoot for the job you can’t get”. It’s a great account of how he went from a fan of a brand to an employee, the non-traditional way.

In this interview we talk about how Dan hustled his way to a job, the benefits of helping others, and Dan gives some great tips for anyone currently looking for a job.

Hi Dan. Let’s start with a bit of background about yourself?

Hi — I’m passionate about improving urban transportation, specifically through the development of electric vehicles and added safety features. I am also interested in finding clean energy solutions and robotics.

I most recently worked at Boosted in marketing and sales. Prior to that, I worked at a couple of startups and graduated from the University of Michigan. I currently live in Mountain View, California.

Where did the idea for your hustle come from?

I was hunting around for jobs but not terribly enthusiastic about the places where I was interviewing. When I discovered that Boosted was hiring, I got really excited because I loved their product and thought more people should experience the ride on their electric longboard. I had only ridden it once before for five minutes. However, if I had the opportunity to try it out longer, I would have been more comfortable with my purchase. And I had talked to others who felt the same way.

Can you give us a brief outline of what you did?

I created a website called Try Boosted Boards in which people could schedule appointments to test ride my Boosted board in San Francisco. In just a week, I built the site, launched it on Product Hunt, Facebook and Twitter and it drew a lot of attention. I instantly collected over 50 signups.

People loved the experience! I taught people with no prior longboarding experience to ride a Boosted board. Afterwards, I became friends with many who demoed and a few of them bought boards, too.

This was a great way to show how much I cared about the product and gain feedback from potential customers. The Boosted cofounders greatly appreciated these insights during my initial interview.

Were there any unexpected outcomes from your hustle?

Many people who demoed the product admired my hustle so much that they expressed interest for me to join their companies.

What’s the top skill that you have learned outside of education, that will help you in your career?

Try to help others out as much as you can. I love helping friends and colleagues by dispensing advice — it provides a sense of accomplishment and helps build my network of strong leaders.

When I was interviewing at Boosted, the CMO called up my three references and they all gave rave reviews. This is credited to the fact that they considered me a great team player who helped them whenever I could. And then they paid that back.

What is the one best tool you would recommend to a job seeker?

LinkedIn — using your network of connections to get introduced to companies.

What are the steps you would recommend to someone currently looking for a job?

1. Establish a narrow focus on what you would like to do. I’d recommend focusing your job search on one or two specific roles. When you interview, you’ll sound more genuine that you desire that role versus a different position in the company.
2. Create a personal site. Even if you’re not a designer, you can create an attractive professional-looking site like dfriedman.co in just a matter of hours. Highlight your background, work experiences, personal projects and skills. Make it easy for someone to quickly scan your site in less than 10 seconds and get a sense of who you are and what you’re good at.
3. Create a professional email address from your personal site such as dan@dfriedman.co. Use this address to email companies, rather than an informal gmail or old school address.
4. Find companies for whom you want to work. You can use Angellist, LinkedIn, Indeed or just read about companies featured in news outlets. Ideally, you should love their product or service. If you find an interesting B2B company, try to relate to how this service helped you or could have potentially helped you at a past company. If you find an interesting consumer products company, consider if you would use the service or if you actually do. All too often I see people gloss over this point and just spray-and-pray — applying to any company they see. I’ve been employed by companies whose products I had no personal interest in using so I was less motivated to put all my energy and efforts into my work. But since I felt passionate about the product at Boosted, I was eager to produce great work every day and loved what I did.
5. Find the email address of the company employee for whom you’d be working under or who would be responsible to hire you. For example, if you wanted to work at a small startup and do marketing, you should likely email the CMO. Usually, you can find the name of the person with that title through LinkedIn, and then use a service like FullContact for Gmail to find their address.
6. Email that person. Express why you’re interested in working work there, what skills you bring to the table, and propose a specific day and time to meet briefly to talk about how you can help their company. Your proposed meeting location should be near their office to make it convenient for them. When you propose the meeting, I’d recommend you end the sentence with a question mark. That makes it very clear to the reader to check their calendar for their availability and reply to that question.

Do you have any daily or weekly routines that help keep you productive / focussed?

I wake up early — usually around 7:30am — to start work. I work best when it’s light out, ideally in a room where I can be exposed to natural light. This helps me stay alert and feel as if I’m working outside.

I do cardio exercise almost every day — usually biking or longboarding.

Who inspires you most and why?

Professor Richard Feynman. He was a physicist and professor at Caltech. He had a curiosity to learn new skills and work on projects based on anything that interested him: painting, learning drums and more. He also collaborated with many people through meeting them on his wild trips. And most of all, he always had fun. I believe more people should venture out, meet like-minded people, pursue projects, and most importantly, have fun doing so.

What’s the one book or piece of content that has shaped your thinking about your career?

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman.

What would be your biggest piece of advice to someone starting off in their career journey?

Try to advance your personal growth as much as possible. Learn new skills, observe how businesses operate and get results with your work. You could always work for a company that pays you a high salary, but you may sit around, not do much and be uninspired. I’d opt for a smaller salary where you can learn and achieve more, a better position for your long-term career success.

What does a successful career look like to you?

I have two criteria that come to mind. 1) Personal fulfillment — you’re happy in the work you do on a daily basis. 2) External fulfillment — you get satisfaction from others that what you’re working on is or can be helpful to the outside world.

Ultimately, you want to wake up and say, if this were the last day on earth, would I want to go into work today? If you haven’t found that yet, don’t worry. But eventually, I hope you find it.

Dan can be found http://dfriedman.co. You can also email him at dan@dfriedman.co.

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