This post is part of a series. See the
<a href="/blog/2022/08/04/anatomy-job-search">introduction</a> for additional context and
<a href="/blog/2022/08/04/anatomy-job-search#disclaimers">disclaimers</a>.
The job search process is rarely linear, but I start in the same place every
time: reflecting on what I want out of my next job and what I bring to the
table. This provides a critical framing for everything else. Early on, it helps
me decide what companies I am interested in and what roles to apply for. During
interviews, it enables me to tell a cohesive story about who I am, what I am
looking for, and why people should hire me. If I have multiple job offers, it
gives me a framework for making decisions.
<h4 id="table-of-contents">Table of contents<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#table-of-contents"></a></h4>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="#my-process">My process</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#why-it-works-for-me">Why it works for me</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#takeaways-for-job-searchers">Takeaways for job searchers</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#takeaways-for-employers">Takeaways for employers</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#general-takeaways">General takeaways</a></li>
<li><a href="#takeaways-for-people-who-want-to-hire-me">Takeaways for people who want to hire me</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="my-process">My process<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#my-process"></a></h2>
Most people at least implicitly reflect early on in their job search. They think
about companies they want to work at and roles they are interested in. I take
this a step further and make it explicit by writing it down. Documenting my
thoughts forces me to introspect more deeply and produces a durable artifact
that I can reference, share, and reuse.
These are the prompts I used for my current job search. The answers have changed
over the years, but the topics have been pretty stable since I originally
<a href="/blog/2015/04/23/for-a-limited-time-only-looking-for-work">put them together in 2015</a>.
<ul>
<li>When: When am I open to start interviewing? When do I want to start a new
job?</li>
<li>Where: Where am I currently located? Where am I willing to work?</li>
<li>About me: Who am I? Why should you hire me? This is sort of a mix between
a resume objective, a personal mission statement, and parts of a cover letter.</li>
<li>What I'm looking for
<ul>
<li>Main things: A short list of top level priorities for me in my job
search and why.</li>
<li>Location and work hours: This is an elaboration of the "where" section
that goes into details about preferred work hours, travel, and other related
topics.</li>
<li>Size: What size and scale of companies am I most interested in?</li>
<li>Type of work: What type of work do I want to do? What roles will I be
interested in?</li>
<li>Culture: I use this section to call out a few top level values that
matter to me and why.</li>
<li>Extras: This is a new one I added this time. They are benefits I am so
excited about that they go above and beyond the "pros" section and will put
a job at the top of my list.</li>
<li>Pros: Things that excite me about potential jobs. They are not
requirements, but I am unlikely to take a job that does not have at least a
reasonable number of them.</li>
<li>Cons: Things that turn me off from potential jobs. They are not
dealbreakers, but I will expect them to be offset by higher pay or other
benefits.</li>
<li>Dealbreakers: Things that are a no-go for me.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Why did I leave my last job?: This is a question I often get asked,
especially after quitting my job without a new one lined up, so I like to
prepare for it. It can be tricky to answer if you had a bad experience because
unfiltered honesty can come off poorly and hurt your chances of being hired.
Thinking through an honest, but professional answer ahead of time helps me
field these questions in interviews.</li>
</ul>
If I am performing a public job search, I will turn my reflection into a reverse
job posting on my personal site. I then use this as a tool to promote myself
through social media and my professional network during the sourcing stage. I am
doing this for my <a href="/blog/2022/08/03/looking-for-work">current job search</a> and
did so for two out of my three previous job searches <a href="#user-content-fn-privatesearch" id="user-content-fnref-privatesearch" data-footnote-ref="" aria-describedby="footnote-label">1</a>. Below are
links to the associated blog posts.
<ul>
<li><a href="/blog/2022/08/03/looking-for-work">August 2022</a> - My current job search.</li>
<li><a href="/blog/2022/04/21/available-for-work-late-2022">April 2022</a> - A preview that I
shared at the beginning of my summer vacation.</li>
<li><a href="/blog/2020/06/30/looking-for-work">June 2020</a> - My previous job search.</li>
<li><a href="/blog/2015/04/23/for-a-limited-time-only-looking-for-work">April 2015</a> - My
first public job search.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="why-it-works-for-me">Why it works for me<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#why-it-works-for-me"></a></h2>
As noted <a href="/blog/2022/08/04/anatomy-job-search">in my introduction</a>, my personal
process is not an off-the-shelf tool that will work for everyone. The public
aspect of my job search is probably the biggest example of this.
You can only get away with a very public job search if you are unemployed or in
a special situation because most employers will not react well to finding out
you're looking for a new job. All of my periods of unemployment have been by
choice, which many people cannot afford to do, either financially or
professionally. The primary reason I quit my job before looking for another one
is that the interview process is incredibly stressful and time-consuming. It is
a full time job, and I struggle to find the time and energy to be successful at
it when I already have one of those. Quitting your job is also the easiest way
to get a long vacation because most companies don't allow sabbaticals.
Even if you can afford to be unemployed or are unemployed for reasons outside
your control (e.g. folks impacted by the <a href="http://layoffs.fyi/">recent layoffs</a>),
the public part of the process still may not be a good fit for you. It works for
me because I have a significant professional network that will see and boost the
post, and I have significant experience and expertise that helps me stand out. I
cannot speak to how a post like this would work for someone early in their
career or with a smaller professional network.
<h2 id="takeaways-for-job-searchers">Takeaways for job searchers<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#takeaways-for-job-searchers"></a></h2>
The public part of my reflection process is not a good fit for most people,
but the explicit introspection part is good for just about everybody. Thinking
about what you are looking for before you start interviewing helps you build a
framework you can use throughout your search to focus on jobs that are the right
fit for you. Reflecting on who you are and what you have to offer helps you
build a narrative about yourself that you can reuse in cover letters and
interviews.
The prompts I shared might be a good place to start, but remember that they are
based on what matters to me and organized in the way that I think. Identify and
answer questions that are important to you in a way that makes sense for your
brain. The core questions are: "what do you want out of your next job?" and "why
should people hire you?" Start there and explore in whatever ways work best for
you. For example, I know people who do mind mapping or make a spreadsheet.
You can do this just for yourself and use the document as a private reference
when going through your job search. You can also share it with trusted people
like mentors or career buddies for discussion, feedback, and support. There
isn't really a right or wrong way to reflect before your job search. The
important part is that you do it.
<h2 id="takeaways-for-employers">Takeaways for employers<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#takeaways-for-employers"></a></h2>
<h3 id="general-takeaways">General takeaways<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#general-takeaways"></a></h3>
People think a lot about where they are going to work. Work is a huge part of
your life from a time and energy perspective and getting it wrong can range from
mildly annoying to life-altering. Keep this in mind when interviewing people. Do
your best to give them the full picture of what they are signing up for, so they
can compare it against their expectations.
Note that I said job searching is so exhausting that I only tend to do it when I
am unemployed and can give it my all. While most people cannot afford the
unemployed part, many engineers find hiring so exhausting that it holds them
back from looking for new jobs. You could see this as a good thing because your
employees are less likely to leave, but it also has the down side of missing out
on potential hires stuck at other jobs or retaining people who really don't want
to be there any more. The software engineer interviewing process is really
broken, and you could be competitive by making your hiring process less
terrible.
It is also notable that my secondary reason for quitting my job is to get
significant time off. I've seen an increasing number of engineers leaving their
jobs for similar reasons in the last few years. Companies could keep some of
these people by having better policies around sabbaticals. Even unpaid
sabbaticals would probably help if people were able to keep their
employer-subsidized health insurance. Sabbaticals that require 4+ years of
tenure are almost useless in a field where people tend to change jobs every few
years and times where people are dealing with increasing amounts of stress from
the world around them.
<h3 id="takeaways-for-people-who-want-to-hire-me">Takeaways for people who want to hire me<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#takeaways-for-people-who-want-to-hire-me"></a></h3>
I put a lot of thought into what I am looking for in a new job. I want to end up
somewhere that is a good fit for me where I can do my best work. I try to
communicate this in my reverse job postings, so that potential employers can get
a sense of me and if I am a good fit for their team. It is not personalized for
your company like a cover letter, but hopefully it provides a lot of useful
information.
<section data-footnotes="" class="footnotes"><h2 id="footnote-label" class="sr-only">Footnotes<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#footnote-label"></a></h2>
<ol>
<li id="user-content-fn-privatesearch">
The search where I did not do this was a special case. I left a job much
earlier than expected and quickly found a role at a company I interviewed
with the year before, but had not worked out at the time because of
headcount (see part 1 of
<a href="/blog/2015/08/15/job-search-retrospective">Job Search Retrospective</a>). If
that role had not worked out so quickly, I would have done a public job
search. <a href="#user-content-fnref-privatesearch" data-footnote-backref="" class="data-footnote-backref" aria-label="Back to content">↩</a>
</li>
</ol>
</section>

/vercel/path0/content/blog/2022-08-04-anatomy-job-search-reflecting.md

Reflecting on what I want out of my next job.

Anatomy of Julie's Job Search: Reflecting