How to Job Search Like a Marketer
Narrowing in on your "ideal employer profile"; turning the push into pull; and influencing the people making decisions about your future.
I’m in the middle of a job search myself, so I can’t promise that these X tips are going to land you a job in X days. I just started to realize as I’m connecting with other friends and colleagues in similar situations that there are some marketing concepts that apply to a job search that I hadn’t thought about in this way before. However, I do feel like my own search has started to accelerate since making some of these adjustments (I’ll let you know how that ends up.) And, in the spirit of this new corner of the Internet I’ve carved out, Work Mappers, when I feel like I’ve figured something out that can be helpful, I want to “draw a map” if it can help someone else.
Narrow In on Your Ideal Employer Profile
In marketing, there’s a concept of an ideal customer profile. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Who is the ideal customer for your product or service? If the answer is everybody, you’ve got a problem, because if you’re trying to sell to everybody, you are essentially selling to nobody. You can’t speak someone’s language or connect to the pain they’re trying to solve if you don’t focus in on a particular segment of the market and get to know them deeply.
I had an a-ha moment the other day as I was counseling a friend about her LinkedIn profile. She’s done so many amazing things in her career, but it means her background isn’t straightforward. She’s also not completely clear what direction she wants to go in. Does she want to pursue path A or B or C? She has experience in all three. As the words were coming out of my mouth, I realized how true they were, “If you don’t know what you want to do and the type of company you want to work for, the people looking at your LinkedIn profile aren’t going to know either. You’re making them do too much work.”
It’s tempting when you’re job searching, especially if leaving your last employer wasn’t your choice (due to a layoff or being fired or even needing to take a break for some other unexpected reason), to keep yourself open to all possibilities. But, your openness can create a lack of clarity about your background, skills, and career goals. Even if it feels challenging, you need to choose. It doesn’t mean you can’t be open to other possibilities, but which role and type of employer is the “ideal?” That’s what you optimize your LinkedIn for and spend the most cycles on in terms of your job search. You can always tailor resumes for other options as well and keep them handy for when you want to pursue those possibilities, but there has to be a primary so you can focus your online presence and job search accordingly.
A couple questions that can help narrow it down:
Are there commonalities about your past employers that can help you create a profile of the “ideal employer” where you’ve done your most impressive work (e.g. industry, total revenue, stage)?
Are there aspects important to you in an employer (mission, location, remote work policies, benefits)?
Answer the Key Questions Up Front
This applies to both your resume and your LinkedIn profile. I’m a big fan of Emily Kramer of MKT1 (fellow Substacker and marketing expert), and I’ve used some of the Claude skills she’s created for her paid newsletter subscribers when working with a couple marketing clients I’ve managed to pick up for small projects. One of those was a homepage audit since I was helping redesign a homepage for a client. Part of MKT1’s framework around building an effective homepage is to answer three questions above the fold:
Who is it for?
What is it?
Why is it better?
I added a fourth when working with my client: What pain does it solve?
I’d argue the same questions are a fantastic framework to apply to your resume and LinkedIn page. Once you answer these questions, make sure the key information is in the executive summary on your resume and the headline of your LinkedIn profile.
Who are you best suited for?
What type of employer are you best suited for based on your background. I was resisting initially pigeonholing myself as being best suited for a particular industry or company size, but the reality is, that’s how recruiters and hiring managers think about it. I’ve worked in B2B SaaS HR tech companies for 18+ years. Trying to apply to companies outside of that area of specialization, or at least not somewhat adjacent, was not getting me very far. I’ve also worked at companies between $5 million and $100 million in revenue, so applying to companies at $1 million or $200 million is not as likely to get me a call back.
What is it that you do?
Plain and simple, what do you do? Again, you may be capable of many things, but be clear about how you’re positioning your experience and what job function you’re targeting for your next role. In marketing, we’d call this a product “category” (e.g. productivity software, accounting services, restaurant.) For your job search, it’s essentially your job title or job descriptor. I can say “VP Marketing,” for example, or I can say “Marketing Executive.”
Why are you better?
I don’t know about you, but I have not always been the best about tracking actual numbers and outcomes related to my career. You aren’t typically thinking about a future job search when you’re in the midst of just doing your job, but those numbers can also be helpful for performance reviews or advocating for a raise. Having specific numbers to point to tied to meaningful outcomes you helped produce for your employer help make a case for why someone should hire you over another candidate. Talking in generalities about what you’re capable of will never land as impactfully as citing a percentage or revenue number or something else that aligns to business outcomes. (Side note: when you’re leaving a job, make sure you’re taking copies of your performance reviews. Most employers won’t have an issue with it, and you likely cited some good evidence of your accomplishments in those documents closer to when the work actually happened. They can act as a sort of career index.)
What pain can you help solve for your employer?
In marketing, leading with a buyer’s pain is always more effective than simply describing a solution. The same concept can apply in a job search, because even if AI is giving your resume a screening pass, a person is hopefully looking at your resume or LinkedIn at some point as well, either because you were able to get a connection to pass your resume along to a hiring manager or because your resume successfully makes it through the ATS hurdles. Buying decisions and hiring decisions are as much emotional as they are logical — sometimes even more so. Call out the thorny problems you’re a wiz at solving that you know cause headaches for employers looking for a talent like you (and of course, back that up with your proof from above.)
Leverage the People They Already Trust
This is true for potential buyers of a product, and it’s true for your next potential boss. People are much more likely to listen to people they already know and trust when it comes to making critical decisions. Hiring is one of those decisions, so like it or not, playing six degrees of Kevin Bacon is a much better bet in terms of getting your resume seen than blindly sending it in via LinkedIn or some other online job application tracking system. You should do that, too, because people like to have resumes in their official system, but figure out who you know who may be connected to someone at the company you’re applying to. There are many paths to your “Kevin Bacon.”
You know the hiring manager or recruiter personally (Jackpot! Rare, but it happens.)
You know someone personally who works at the company and can pass your resume along.
You know someone who knows the hiring manager (or who you suspect is likely the hiring manager) or is at least in the department/function in which you’re interested.
You know someone who knows the recruiter managing the search at the company or you know someone who knows someone in recruiting/HR at the company.
This is what LinkedIn was made for, and it can feel a little awkward to reach out to someone you haven’t connected to in a while to ask for a favor. But, generally, most people want to help. You’ll figure out the ones who don’t pretty quickly, but don’t let it stop you from making that next ask. Just remember to circle back if you get the interview (and especially if you get the job!) and thank the person who made the connection. And, remember it next time someone reaches out to you. Asking for help is hard. The least we can do is give someone else a fighting chance in a tough job market.
Shine a Light on What Sets You Apart
In marketing, there are many ways you might highlight what’s great and unique about the product you’re selling. You may let customers help tell your story (e.g. reviews, case studies), you may put up product pages highlighting key features that set you apart from competitors, you may publish something meant to educate your audience and showcase thought leadership. You can do the same type of thing in your job search.
Ask past colleagues for LinkedIn recommendations — most people you’d think to ask are willing if you make the request. Showcasing on your profile that past colleagues (bosses, peers, direct reports) have great things to say about you and would work with you again goes a long way.
Put up a basic website highlighting your work — this is so much easier to do now with AI tools, and there are 1,001 tutorials out there that can walk you through how to do it. I created a website for a marketing consulting business in just a couple days using a $20 subscription to Claude, GitHub (free) and Vercel (free) + a domain that cost me less than $10. And, I created a portfolio section on the website I could link to from my resume as well so it kills two birds with one stone. It shows both potential part-time clients and potential employers for fulltime roles what I can do.
Keep learning, doing & “showing your work” — you don’t have to stop doing what you do well simply because someone stopped writing you a check. If you want to showcase that you’re worth hiring, show them what you’ve done lately. Write something, build something, create something. And, make it visible. Put it out into the world. Being able to speak to what you’ve done recently is powerful, even if it wasn’t for an employer. In the marketing world, for example, every employer wants to know their next hire is not just AI fluent but can build things with AI. So, I built a tool I wish I had in my last job with dummy data and posted it up on GitHub so others could use it if they like. But, that gave me a link to share on my LinkedIn profile and at the top of my resume demonstrating that I can follow through on what I say I’m capable of. Think of what that might be for you. What could you showcase?
I don’t have all the answers, but the more I’ve been thinking about this approach, the more it makes sense. I’ve been doing these things in my own search recently, and what at first felt like pushing resumes into the void feels like it’s turning into a more consistent pull of interview requests into my inbox. If this helps even just one other person, it was worth the time to spill the thoughts out of my head and into this Substack post.