Rethinking the Job Seeker's LAMP List

The business school standby only looks forward. Can we learn more from a tool that helps us look back?

In business school, they taught me to make a "LAMP List" when I went looking for jobs.

• List: Write down 40 companies where you'd like to work
• Advocates: brainstorm classmates or colleagues who could refer you at these companies
• Motivation: Score each company 1–5 on how much you'd like to work there
• Postings: Find job postings at the top companies where you know someone, and ask your advocate to help you get an interview

LAMP is a framework popularized by Steve Dalton, a former director at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Fuqua is a pretty good business school. And I recognize that a job seeker has to start somewhere. But there are two problems with the LAMP List.

Problem 1, the L in "LAMP List" stands for "List." I lobbied hard to change this at UCD, but business schools resist change. So you're starting your job search from a place of cringe-worthy awkwardness.

Problem 2, you start out by listing 40 companies you can think of. Here comes the "famous big company" problem. Everybody puts "Apple" and "H?agen-Dazs" on their LAMP List. Nobody puts "Acme Wholesale Locksmith Supply" on their LAMP List, even if Acme might be a fantastic employer for you.

If you work through Dalton's full LAMP framework, you will expand beyond the limits of the 40 companies that happen to be fresh in your mind. However, a different limitation remains: the LAMP List, at best, only helps us decide where to apply. It doesn't help us figure out why we didn't end up getting the job. It doesn't alert us that we've been applying for jobs that are too ambitious (or not ambitious enough). We need a different tool for that.

I've created the SHADE List. It's a follow-up on the LAMP List, something you complete AFTER you've applied for some jobs.

• Stalk Hired Applicants: Look on LinkedIn to see who got the jobs you applied for six weeks ago
• Determine Eligibility: Rate those people in terms of education and experience compared to your own

When I miss out on a great opportunity, is it because I wasn't qualified? Was I overqualfied? Was it a mistake for me to even apply? Or did someone very similar to my own level just get the job first?

Like any dutiful MBA, I made a spreadsheet to try to answer these questions.

I went through over 100 firms that rejected me, and I tried to find whom they eventually hired. I was able to find 27 people who got the jobs I had applied for.

How does one figure out whom to put on a SHADE List?

Imagine, five weeks ago, you applied for a role as Associate Ecommerce Manager at H?agen-Dazs. By now, they've probably hired a candidate, so go to the company's page on LinkedIn. Search People for: "associate ecommerce manager." You might also search for "senior ecommerce manager" or just "ecommerce manager" in case H-D found a strong candidate who negotiated for a higher job title. Like so:

Click on the first two or three names that come up. If Xavier Xample has a recent post announcing that he is "humbled and honored to be starting a new role as Associate Ecommerce Manager at H?agen-Dazs," then BINGO! Xavier got the job instead of you.

So you've located the successful candidate. Now what?

Well, for starters, be a good sport and give Xavier a thumbs-up. Well done to him!

Next, take a deep breath, set your ego aside, and look at Xavier Xample's profile. This is the profile of the successful candidate for a job you had sought. You can't change that decision—please, do not try!—but you can learn from it.

• How much education does Xavier have?
• How relevant is his training to the role? (Like, does he have a certificate in cold-chain logistics?)
• Is he a newcomer to the frozen dessert industry? (Did he work five years for Ben & Jerry's?)
• Is he a newcomer to work generally? (Is H-D his first "real" job?)
• Does he know the local area (was his last job in the same city? Did he attend school nearby?)

Here is my prototype SHADE List. I have removed the real names and LinkedIn profiles of the people who "beat" me, but I've left up the company names, the job titles, and—most importantly—the points I used to compare those candidates to my own qualifications.

My scoring is simple: for each category that I measure, I award 1 point if the person appears more or equally qualified. I award no points if the candidate appears less qualified than I am for a particular category. (In the "rookie" category, a point is deducted, not added.)

Don't overthink this. If you worked for four years in an ice cream factory, and Xavier worked for three years in a sorbet warehouse, Xavier and you are equals in the "frozen dessert industry experience" category.

If you notice that many of the successful candidates have less experience or less education than you have, consider that you may have set your sights too low. Re-read some of the original job postings. Was there language in there that should have tipped you off that they were looking for somebody less experienced? Apply that insight to the next job posting you encounter.

If the new hire appears to be more qualified than you, is there something you can do to emulate that person? That certificate in cold-chan logistics that Xavier has—is that a difficult credential to get?

Also, look at the firm Xavier recently left to join H?agen-Dazs. They may be hiring a replacement!

The big drawback is that I only have public LinkedIn data to "score" my successful rivals. Did they graduate from college? My sheet reflects that. Are they "rookies" in the workforce? My spreadsheet captures that. Are they golf buddies with the hiring manager? My spreadsheet doesn't capture that.

The SHADE List isn't a replacement for the LAMP List. SHADE is an after-action report, a framework to assess what didn't work so you can re-tune your approach. You don't want to dwell on the past—I'd advise you not to work on your SHADE List more than once per week. But you do want to learn from the past, especially if a systematic approach can shorten the path to eventual success.

Stay strong, job-seekers! One more time, here is my anonymized SHADE List for you to copy. If you have any tips or recommendations for how to improve it, please share them in the comments!