Welcome to the Just Get Hired Newsletter!

Welcome to the first edition of the Just Get Hired newsletter by Ramped! 

There are now over 1,000 of you subscribed, and our one goal is to provide you with tactical, insightful guidance to navigate your job search. Along the way, you should also learn a little bit about yourself, what you want, how to get it, and what it means to find fulfillment in your career.

If at some point you find a job you love and decide to unsubscribe, please send us a note – nothing would make us happier.

With the introduction out of the way, a few housekeeping items:

• Connect with me on Linkedin here for more content

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Let’s get into it.

The Job Search Formula

When navigating the job search or new career decisions, there are literally infinite tactics you might use to improve your odds of success. We’ll cover many in the coming weeks in this newsletter. 

But more important for you than any individual tactic is a fundamental understanding of how companies make hiring decisions and how the job market works. This will help you make the best decision on what tactics to use based on your current skills, experience, and network. 

The simplest way to break things down is with what I call “The Job Search Formula”. Here’s what it looks like:

Before we go through each part, I want to make one thing very clear: this formula may not be fair, right, or the best way to make hiring decisions. But if you’ve been in the job search for more than a week you already know that the system is rarely any of those things. It’s not your job to fix anything – just to take the steps that are required to get what you want. 

Expected Value Creation:

Every hiring decision starts with Expected Value Creation. This is a company’s perception of how likely you are to fill their need. More specifically, how much value they expect you to create for the company.

If a company is hiring for a role it means they have a problem that needs to be solved by a new employee or value they want created by a new employee. 

This is a CRITICAL thing to understand about companies that are hiring. Your job is not to communicate how awesome you are, all the things you’ve accomplished, or anything else. Your job is to communicate as specifically as possible that you can solve the problems they have / create the value that they want. The job search is like sales in this way. 

Think of it like this: imagine your toilet breaks. Someone shows up at your door talking about all their years of experience, the people they’ve managed, the title they earned, and more. A plumber shows up and says “I can fix your toilet”. Who are you going to hire?

You get it. You influence this during the application process by demonstrating specific expertise and knowledge (that aligns with the job description). 

The easiest ways to demonstrate expertise or knowledge are:

1. Having the same or a similar role at a previous company

2. Sharing specific examples of solving similar problems previously

If you don’t have one of those, you can:

• Get further education (an additional degree, skill certifications, bootcamps)

• Have high alignment with the company culture (i.e. show less skill but better fit)

• Research and solve company problems as part of the interview process

All of these provide signals to a hiring manager that you can solve their problems or add value to their company. 

Hiring Risk

Hiring Risk is a company’s perception of how likely it is that you would be a bad hire. Essentially, how confident are they that you would actually be able to deliver on your expected value without any extra headaches. 

Expected Value Creation is divided by Hiring Risk for a reason: no matter how great your potential value is to the company, it can be reduced to nothing if the risk of hiring you is too high. 

To be clear, this is a really hard thing for companies to evaluate with limited information – they’re not going to be able to talk to everyone you’ve ever worked with to find out if you suck. 

This is why most companies rely upon various (good or bad) methods of evaluating your risk. Things like calling references, looking at how many jobs you’ve had over periods of time, asking about why you were laid off, and more. Again, some of these aren’t fair or right, but it’s a company doing their best to gain certainty out of an uncertain situation. 

You influence this during the application process by providing overwhelming evidence of your quality. 

The easiest ways to prove your quality are:

1. Having an internal referral

2. Status of prior experiences (e.g. reputable company / university)

If you don't have one of those, you can:

• Have extreme diligence / performance during the interview process

• Join reputable organizations

• Provide references

Did you know that 30%+ of new hires come from internal referrals? This is why. And this is why most career coaches / companies (including us) recommend networking and trying to get referrals as a key part of your job search strategy. 

Unfortunately (or fortunately), humans are social creatures that perceive risk / danger based on the word or status of others. Which means, most strategies here revolve around inheriting status from word of mouth (internal referral or references) or organizations (prior companies, universities, or community groups). 

If you don’t have that, your best bet is to create an overwhelming positive first impression by being well research and prepared for initial interviews.

Application Notability

Application Notability is whether your application gets noticed during the hiring process. It won't matter what your value or risk is if your resume never gets to the recruiter.

You influence this during the application process by making your application stand out from all the other 'mass appliers'.

While still important, notice that it is the 3rd and generally least important component of the Job Search Formula, but often generates the most content on how to optimize – things around your resume, cover letters, submitting applications, etc.

These things are all helpful, but should be optimized only AFTER you evaluate how you stack up on the first two components. 

So how do you stand out?

The easiest ways to make your application stand out are:

1. Favoritism (someone puts your application at the top of the pile)

2. Applying with contact (i.e. talking to the manager / recruiter with your app)

Other things you can do:

• Network on Linkedin

• Personalize your application (i.e. update keywords, style, etc.)

• Apply directly on a company’s website vs. mass applying on Linkedin / Indeed

Consider this: if someone’s parent owns the company – their resume is going straight to the top of the stack. Again, not right or fair, but true. 

In a similar (albeit less impactful way), any human interaction you can create in the application process is going to improve your chances of success. 

And of course, some small things can make a difference as well – things like ensuring you have the best resume format, catering your content to the job description, applying directly on company’s websites, and more.

Closing Thoughts

Your goal within your job search should be to:

• Communicate the value you will create if hired

• Signal low risk

• Get your application in front of a recruiter

In the coming weeks, I’ll be covering more specifics on all of the above, but please reach out if you have specific questions or want me to cover specific topics in upcoming newsletters. 

Now go out there and crush your job search!