In a podcast with Tim Ferriss, he talked about the “long game” of building a world-class network. He took the anecdote of going to South By Southwest, the must-attend festival for any curious person who geeks out about film, music, and technology. Moreover, when attending and being surrounded by all these world class influencers there, he recommends not playing the numbers game, but instead trying to make just 1 meaningful connection at it. A friendship or just someone you find interesting and could chat with for an hour. No need to worry about how you can “leverage” them. Just a human connection.
This struck a chord with me because with job searching, it’s tempting to play the numbers game: apply to 50 jobs, slightly tailoring your resume in hopes that maybe a hand full will get back to you. A shotgun approach. But what I’ve been trying to do instead is take my time and really feel out a company. What’s their mission statement? Do they look like serious professionals or down-to-earth goofballs? Do they care about their employees or are they more about impact and numbers? Does this match with me and what I care about? Do they have jobs that play to my strengths? Would I be stretching myself to make a fit?
Thus, it’s a slower but more satisfying process. I’m playing the long game.
Anyway, this past week’s assignment: apply to 2 jobs & do Gallup’s Strengths Finder Test. From the strength’s finder test, I found my top 5 to be:
- Activator
- Strategic
- Learner
- Ideation
- Input
All interesting when really broken down. They’re able to breakdown the “why” while also giving recommendations of how to leverage each strength. Very valuable exercise I recommend to anyone who wants to know themselves better.
And the 2 jobs I applied to were PayScale, a company that allows you to calculate how much you should be making, and Bit Titan (again), for their Content Specialist role.
Other news: found an amazing resource for designing resumes & cover letters called Canva. Strongly recommend if you’re looking to make your resume standout from the pile.
Till next Monday.
~JK