TCW #010 | Debugging your Job Search
Use data and humility to pinpoint the root cause of your job search issue, then fix it. By a top 1% job search coach with a 93% candidate success rate (who's debugged >200 job searches).
In today’s issue, I’ll teach you how to figure out what’s going wrong in your job search and what to fix (if you’re not getting the results you want).
Over the last 2.5 years, I’ve helped over 200 candidates land their dream jobs by:
identifying and targeting companies that match their career goals
supercharging their career stories (and resumes)
networking and applying strategically to land interviews
outperforming their own highest expectations in interviews
landing offers and negotiating life-changing compensation
My candidates have a 93% success rate landing jobs at exceptional companies like Google, Apple, Airbnb, Mastercard, Uber, Cruise, Salesforce, Square, Shopify, Zoox, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and more.
I’ve worked with people who couldn’t get a single callback after applying >50 times.
I’ve worked with people who failed important interviews not ONCE, not TWICE but up to NINE times before coming to me.
In 1-2 months, I helped them debug their approach, ace their interviews, and negotiate life-changing compensation at the company of their dreams.
Given my results, I’m likely one of the best “debugging” tools out there for any Tier 1 tech job search.
With that intro, I’m delighted to kick off this new multi-week series at The Career Whispers: Debugging Your Job Search.
Through this series, I’ll spill the beans on my best secrets and tactics so you can optimize, diagnose, and debug your own (current or future) job search.
This series will provide a ton of value for ✨ free subscribers, but 🙏 Paid subscribers will get access to step-by-step how-to guides and debugging tools that aren’t available anywhere else.
If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscriber yet, this might be the sign you were looking for 👀 🪧
Let’s dive in.
Job searching isn’t anyone’s core competency
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
As a job search coach who has helped >200 people land top-tier jobs in tech, I can tell you this: no one feels well-equipped for a job search.
Most professionals do 5, maybe 10, job searches in their careers.
It’s not possible (or advisable, unless you’re a job search coach like me) to become an expert in job searching — you’ll only get to exercise your expertise a handful of times.
Hard truth: it’s unlikely that you are going to architect the perfect job search on your first try. No one does (not even me).
The key is to see your job search as an iterative process whereby you collect data to diagnose areas for improvement as you go.
Each week, you can use the data to diagnose one area for improvement and take action to methodically improve your job search outcomes.
Common job search issues and failure modes
The hardest part of debugging a job search is acknowledging that you’re probably not doing it perfectly.
Everything else is just a question of using data and your intuition to pinpoint what’s not working.
Let’s walk through the 5 most common job search issues, the data signals that will indicate this is a problem for your job search, the likely causes, and how to remediate.
If you’re getting rejected or ghosted on >11% of your job applications (more than 1 in 9)
There are many reasons you might not hear back on a cold job application, and many are out of your control:
they already have a strong candidate pipeline by the time you apply (and never even look at your application)
they pull the role (and don’t hire)
human or tooling errors (that falsely reject your application)
There are two fixes that are within your control.
First, ensure that your resume is:
applicant tracking system compliant (ATS optimized)
cohesive (has a clear plot line, shows progression and intent to contribute)
clear about your target role (your objective statement at the top must match the job you applied for)
chock full of key info (education, skills, experience, dates)
directly related to the applied role (titles, progression line up — don’t apply for a CTO role if you are currently a data analyst, and vice versa)
tip: we’ll go into resume debugging and remediation in great depth in next week’s post 🕵️♀️
Next, warm apply (get referred) as often as possible.
Go the extra mile to find someone at the company and network your way into a referral or warm intro to the hiring manager.
It will 2x-4x your callback rate.
If you’re not moving forward after the HR / Recruiter Screen at least 50% of the time
If you’ve gotten to the recruiter or HR screen, your resume and your written career story are not the problem. Instead, it’s the way you’re presenting yourself verbally.
Four common root causes:
Your verbal career story is lacking (the way you answer “Tell me About Yourself” or “Why do you want this job?”)
You gave comp numbers (and they are way off)
Your answers to screening questions aren’t satisfactory
You’re throwing red flags (unintentionally)
Remediations
Tell a Strategic, Compelling Career Story (read TCW #001)
Don’t share compensation numbers upfront. Instead ask for the comp bands (check out this YouTube video, start at 4:17)
Master common screening questions and formats (read TCW #001, TCW #003)
Learn & avoid the most common unintentional red flags (take the First Round Ready course to learn how to throw 🟢 green flags not 🚩 red flags)
If you’re getting rejected after First Round Interviews more than 1 out of 3 times (33%)
If you’re not invited to continue after your first round interviews, there’s an issue with interview performance.
Four common root causes:
You have fuzzy memory and lack detail when asked about your past projects
Your response structure for behavioral questions is insufficient
When they dig deeper, you lack the experience they want
You’re unintentionally throwing red flags
Remediations
Walk Down Memory Lane to remember 3-5 past projects in high-resolution detail (read TCW #002)
Master the 3 types of behavioral interview questions and ideal response formats (read TCW #003)
Don’t apply to roles where you lack key skills or experiences (or if you do, make sure to do your research and tell interviewers how you will acquire them).
Learn & avoid the most common unintentional red flags (take the First Round Ready course to learn how to throw 🟢 green flags not 🚩 red flags)
If you’re getting rejected in late-stage interviews more than 33% of the time (1 in 3)
If you’re not getting invited to Final Round interviews, it may be one of the 4 issues above (for getting past First Round Interviews). But it can also be something new.
Later round interviews move beyond the basics of Tell Me About Yourself, “how do you prioritize competing tasks?” and culture fit.
They probe your toolkit of skills and experiences to see if you are able to demonstrate domain and role-related expertise.
There are two ways candidates fail at demonstrating role-required expertise.
First, they oversell their expertise on their resume. When probed about their expertise in interviews, these candidates struggle to demonstrate claimed expertise.
Two remediations
1/ Only put your expert-level skills on your resume (litmus test for expert-level skills: you can write a 1000 word blog post in one sitting, with no added research or Google searches)
—or—
2/ Explicitly label skills with proficiency levels. Share if you are novice, intermediate, or expert for every skill listed on your resume. An example:
A second failure mode is not answering Theoretical Behavioral Questions well. This behavioral interview question format is designed to unveil a candidate’s principles and structured approaches to work — something that only comes with expertise in a given role or domain/job discipline.
Remediation
If you know you have the skills you’re being asked about, but still not moving to Final Rounds, mastering Theoretical Behavioral Questions is often an effective remediation.
To start, read TCW #003.
If you’re not getting an offer after Final Rounds at least 25% of the time (1 in 4)
Not getting an offer after running the gauntlet is frustrating, and frankly I see 25% as the bare minimum. Even at 25%, you will be frustrated by the imbalance of effort going in vs outcomes. Aim for 50% or better rates on Final Round to Offer.
Two common root causes:
Competitive talent pool (some companies will bring 2-5 candidates to final rounds and bake-off based on interview performance)
Sub-optimal interview performance (despite being qualified for the job)
Remediations
Be more competitive next time. Work on:
🔹 a more strategic, compelling career story (read TCW #001)
🔹 formulating high-signal Qs for interviewers (read TCW #004)
the above, plus:
🔹 walk down memory lane (read TCW #002)
🔹 master behavioral questions (read TCW #003)
🎉 Ta-da!
Those are the the 5 most common job search issues that I encounter with my clients.
I’ve been able to help each of them debug their issues and improve their job search outcomes, with a 93% candidate success rate. Now, you can debug your job search and get similar outcomes!
Below is an eye chart summary table of the most common job search issues, along with the likely cause and the remediations that have worked for 93% of my job search coaching clients:
🎉 That’s a wrap!
Debugging Your Job Search is a multi-week series at The Career Whispers. In this series, we explore how to use data to pinpoint what to fix in your job search (to get the results you want). All posts in the series:
TCW #010: Debugging your Job Search
TCW #011: Debugging your Resume
TCW #012: Debugging your Networking Approach
TCW #013: Debugging a Lackluster Career Story
TCW #014: 3 Questions to Ask Before Sharing Your Compensation Numbers
TCW #015: Simple Response Frameworks for 3 Common Job Screener Questions
TCW #016: How to Throw Green Flags, not Red Flags (in Job Interviews)
TCW #018: 3 Things You're Doing Wrong in First-Round Interviews (and how to avoid them)
Subscribe to stay tuned!
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When you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
→ First Round Ready Course — An affordable 77-minute course that offers the exact job search and interview prep tools, frameworks, and skills that landed 93% of my clients into their dream roles and tech companies…plus it comes with a Quick Wins interview prep workbook to immediately translate your learning into action.
→ 1:1 Job Search Coaching — I offer packaged bundles with pay-for-performance pricing so you know our incentives are aligned, and we win together when you ace your interviews. I also offer on-demand 1:1 sessions that you can book up to 4 weeks out, with a minimum of 24hr notice. Check out my testimonials.
→ Resume Glow Up — I fully transform your resume to tell your career story more powerfully and land you more interviews. The resulting resume is optimized for applicant tracking systems (ATS) and for human readers alike. I will also Fairy Godmother your LinkedIn profile to get you more inbounds and more traction with recruiters and interviewers.