The Job Hunt

Use when — the search feels endless because it literally has no edges.

Pick employers before polishing materials. A finite, prioritized list of 40 turns a fog into a queue — and this week’s work into five names.

1. One sitting, 70 minutes. List 40 employers you’d actually join.
2. Mark Advocacy: where do you know someone (1st or 2nd degree)?
3. Gut-rank Motivation 1–5. Note where a relevant Posting is live.
4. Sort. The top five are this week’s targets — postings or not.

✓Done when — Forty names ranked, top five chosen — and outreach started on those five.

Steve Dalton, “The 2-Hour Job Search” (2012/2020) — the LAMP list.

Use when — your CV is full of “strategic,” “results-driven,” “expert” — and nothing a manager can click.

The single most predictive hiring method is a work sample — so manufacture the evidence an interviewer would otherwise have to extract from you. Two or three pieces of proof a stranger can open without you in the room pre-empt the “does this person actually do this?” doubt that adjectives can’t.

✓Done when — You can paste two links that each demonstrate the core skill of your target role and stand on their own.

Schmidt & Hunter (1998) — work-sample tests are among the highest-validity predictors of job performance.

Use when — you’ve told your five closest friends and run out of network.

Your close circle knows what you know. The job-moving information lives with people you see occasionally — confirmed from 1973 to a 20-million-user experiment.

1. List 15 dormant contacts: ex-colleagues, classmates, acquaintances.
2. Message five a week: “I’m exploring [function] roles — your read would help. 15 minutes?”
3. Every chat ends with “who else should I talk to?”

✓Done when — Five messages out this week, two conversations booked.

Mark Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties” (1973); Rajkumar et al., Science (2022) — the LinkedIn causal test.

Use when — the opener lands and you start reciting your CV from 2014.

The first answer sets the frame for the whole interview — and people read warmth first, competence second. Present → past → future, warm and tight.

✓Done when — Your present–past–future is written, timed under 90 seconds, and rehearsed aloud.

Present–past–future formula (Skillings / Zhang, The Muse); warmth-then-competence: Fiske, Cuddy & Glick (2007).

Use when — the verbal offer just landed and you can feel the urge to say yes right now.

Get swept up and accept in the same call, and you’ve committed before valuing the equity, reading the clawbacks, or comparing it to anything. Show real enthusiasm — then ask for the terms in writing and a few days to decide. Employers expect it.

1. When the number lands, show real enthusiasm — then ask for the full offer in writing.
2. Ask for a reasonable window — a few business days is standard.
3. Use it to normalise total comp, read the contract, and check comps before you respond.

✓Done when — You have the offer in writing and an agreed decision date — and you used the time to value the package, not just sit on it.

Alison Green, “Ask a Manager”; Malhotra, “15 Rules” (HBR, 2014) — think through the timing.

Use when — the “we went with another candidate” email landed — and morale went with it.

Daily lows after rejection are normal and self-correcting — low-progress days even predict more effort the next day. Shrink tonight’s spiral; don’t deny the hit.

1. The 24-hour rule: tonight, feel it fully.
2. Before bed, queue tomorrow’s single first action — one email, drafted.
3. Log it in the tracker as pipeline data, not identity data.

✓Done when — Felt it, logged it, queued tomorrow’s first move — spiral cancelled.

Wanberg, Zhu & Van Hooft, “The Job Search Grind”, Academy of Management Journal (2010).