You Are a Ferrari

Imagine you own a Ferrari.

It is capable of driving really fast.

Unfortunately, your Ferrari got a flat tire.

You can continue driving but only so fast, safely.

Remember, you own a Ferrari, so let me ask you this...

Would you keep driving it with a spare tire for months or even years?

Or would get that spare tire swapped quickly to get back to performance?

You wouldn't show up to your friend’s house driving your Ferrari with a spare tire.

Why have a different approach with your job and career?

You are overworked, underpaid, micromanaged, doing something you don’t enjoy, or maybe in a toxic environment and know you are capable of so much more.

You know you can have a job that brings you so much happiness, joy, excitement, fulfillment and financial wealth.

Yet, you choose to limit your potential because switching jobs is time consuming, frustrating, exhausting and confusing.

Especially when you apply for jobs you know you are perfectly qualified for and continue to get ignored, rejected or ghosted without understanding why.

I get it.

You keep on putting up with whatever bothers you hoping the problem goes away, but the reality is that you know it won't by itself, you need to do something about it.

The question is: what?

You have tried being selective with the jobs you apply to, tailoring your resume for every job posting, researching organizations and writing cover letters.

You have applied on company websites feeling like a monkey copying and pasting the same information found on your resume filling out endless forms.

You have even networked hoping that those coffee chats would lead to something but made no difference in the end, you are still in the exact same place.

So you wonder... what am I doing wrong?!?!

Let me tell you, we are in 2024 and technology has made it both easier and more difficult for qualified candidates like yourself to be able to get the job.

There is way more competition out there, which means that for every job there are now dozens, hundreds and sometimes even thousands of applicants within hours.

Which means... you need to get several aspects right if you want to get yourself in front of employers, and I don't mean just one interview every now and then.

The key to getting the job you want is to be able to land a lot of interviews in a very short time frame and convert these into multiple job offers.

Why?

It's simple, so you can negotiate with multiple employers at the same time, demand the job conditions that you want, and select the best job for you.

Over the last six years I have identified three key areas professionals struggle with:

1. Landing lots of interviews they want in a short time frame
2. Getting multiple job offers in a short time frame
3. Negotiating a fair and high compensation

And it all starts with having clarity from the start.

Most professionals who reach out to me apply to a bunch of different job titles.

They believe they are being smart by trying to attract more career opportunities but don't realize they are hurting their chances.

Not only they confuse themselves but also the employers.

If you know what you really want to do, why look for anything else?

Because you can't get the job you truly want, right?

So you are willing to settle for less.

How does that make you feel though?

Does that excite you? Probably not.

Okay Brian, I get your point, so what should I do?

Understand first of all what you are struggling with and fix it.

Are you unable to land the interviews you truly want and are qualified for?

If yes, understand why, what is preventing you from landing those interviews?

There are four key areas to landing interviews:

• Resume (compliance and keyword matching)
• LinkedIn profile (public content and private settings)
• Job application strategy (speed and quality)
• Meaningful networking (referrals and introductions)

Some of my mentees have applied to more than 1,000 jobs without landing a single interview or less than a hand full, and they are not even the ones they want.

They assure me they are 100% qualified for those jobs; however, when we assess their resumes against the jobs we see why the ATS is putting them to the side.

One thing is whether you know you are qualified for the job and another whether the software that processes your job application agrees with it.

I have been sharing this concept for years now, never forget it:

Just because you applied for a job, it doesn't necessarily mean that someone is going to see you

When you are given the "You have successfully applied for the job!" message it doesn't mean that employers will actually see your job application.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?!?!

Yup, unfortunately there are several reasons as to why they may not even see it:

1. Resume ATS compliance (i.e., the ATS cannot even see the contents)
2. Resume ATS match rate (i.e., the ATS determines you are not qualified)
3. LinkedIn contents (i.e., LinkedIn determines you are not qualified)
4. You are applying too slowly (i.e., the employer already made selections)

Employers pay a lot of money to use ATS solutions that enables them to focus on the most qualified applicants. Seriously, who has time to go through 750 of them?

Even 250 of them would be incredibly exhausting.

I wouldn't want to go through 50 of them, even if they are qualified.

So the ATS, whether some software solution you never heard of or even LinkedIn, help employers be a lot more efficient and effective with the use of their time.

I know you are perfectly qualified but if the software disagrees...

You used jobscan and some other software tools thinking they would save you.

But you are still seeing no results.

My dad, may he Rest In Peace, used to say (going back to the Ferrari analogy):

One thing is to move a vehicle, another is to drive it

Meaning, just because you have access to tools it doesn't necessarily mean you know how to make the most of them.

Wait a second Brian, you said software a few paragraphs above?

Yes!

And software can be manipulated, right?

Yeaaaaah...

So if I know how that software actually works...

YOU GOT IT!!!!!!!! You can make it work to your advantage.

Let's be real, 80-90% of job applicants have no clue what they are doing.

I'm not just saying it, I have data to prove it.

No one has published anywhere close to the number of polls, posts, articles and events I have over the last six years and collected so much job search data.

• 100 million views
• 3,547 pieces of content
• Thousands of hours on events

I meet with 50-75 professionals one-on-one every week and also organize LinkedIn Audio events to share insights and speak to even more professionals.

I find that half of them struggle to land interviews while the other half struggles to convert interviews into job offers, and all of them struggle to negotiate effectively.

I have met professionals who landed 18-50 interviews and were able to get ZERO job offers; they all think they are one interview away and it's just a matter of time.

But is it?

Not really.

You may have heard me explain the following concept before:

If I want to make my office larger, I can lean against the wall for an hour or a century and it won't make a difference, it won't move.

But if instead, I was able to recognize that a home hardware store is five minutes away and I could either buy or rent the right tools and learn how to use them...

I could potentially make my home office larger — hopefully not destroy my home. Alternatively, I could call a contractor and see how much that costs.

But wait Brian, either way that costs money and takes time!

And not having the job you want that would bring happiness, excitement, joy, fulfillment and financial wealth, wouldn't cost you time and money?

You have to decide how important it is for you to not have the job you truly want.

It's your career and your life.

If you are unwilling to take action to fix this then it is not a problem for you, yet.

But guess what...

You have read an article that is up to two lines above 1,403 words long.

I'm not kidding by the way, I copied and pasted the text above with the title in some website and that's how many words you have read.

And I haven't even talked about why it is so hard for professionals to negotiate.

In simple words: land a lot of interviews in a short time frame and stand out from the crowd if you want to be compensated significantly more than everyone else.

People think that in order to negotiate and make a lot more money you need to just ask, bluff or play hard to get, but guess what... there's no need to play games.

Your job is basically to become an Interview Sniper.

What is a Sniper first of all? A sharp shooter.

Your mission is to walk into an interview and walk away with the job offer — not with the actual contract but the confirmation that the job is yours.

Why is this critical? Because while most professionals believe that their job is to move from round to round, your job is to make the employer stop the process.

You want the employer to think: WOW, I have never met anyone like you, I need to give you a job offer immediately or someone else will give it to you.

You want the employer to be so obsessed with you that they no longer consider hiring anyone they interviewed before and even stop interviewing anyone further.

Oh... you think that's impossible, right? That it sounds like a fantasy.

I have done it seven times (that I can remember), my mentees have done it also.

Talk to Adriana, seven job offers in seven weeks, including the Government of Canada without having her PR, and even the company that fired her weeks earlier.

Talk to Leo, used to be micromanaged and underpaid, and got a 137% salary increase in a month and a half with a Managerial title in an amazing company.

Talk to Dylan (the first one in my recommendations) 4x his compensation and even got a truck and gas paid for — he's on track to 5x his original salary at $200k.

Talk to the other Dylan (the next one down in my recommendations) VP at 27 years old and 3x his income, also negotiated an extra 50% increase overnight.

Talk to Jon, was laid off for five months, interviewed for a job with $100k-140k and walked away with $275k plus $800k in stock options, blew them out of the water.

Talk to Peta-Gaye, rejected her dream job with the Miami Heat NBA team because another company was willing to pay her $50k more, walked away with $70k more.

Talk to Francisca, four job offers in four days, the first job offer coming less than 24 hours she met me after months and months of being rejected constantly.

Talk to Charles, reporting to the CISO at Princeton University in Cybersecurity and able to send his daughter to Princeton for FREE ($90k/yr he doesn't have to pay).

Talk to Jenn, job offer from Harvard University and also as CEO position somewhere else without having ever worked in a C-suite role or even VP.

Talk to Udayraj, had recently had a baby and got an 83% salary increase, was able to purchase his first home and then get hired by Google for even more money.

Talk to Khadjiat, got a job and four days later got another job that was even better aligned with her career path and paid her even more, I advised her to quit, she did.

Talk to Eric, so underpaid when he got his job offer from Huawei it increased by 1,429% (yes, really) and now is able to live comfortably with his family.

Talk to Tetiwe, used to work at Deloitte and felt stuck in his career in Zambia, got three international job offers and moved to Jersey to work for the UK Government.

Talk to Mitadru, who had applied 22 times to Bell for his dream job and got rejected and on the 23rd time after we taught him how got the job offer.

Talk to Richard, who got rejected 18 times in nine months, planned to get a Masters unnecessarily (I stopped him), got his job three days after meeting me.

The list goes on, and on, and on...

I'm sorry to any of my 500+ mentees who are not in the list above, I love you, I love your stories and what we have accomplished together, but can't include all.

To summarize, why would employers pay you more if you sound and behave like everyone else? They need to perceive you as higher value to offer you more $$$.

Only 254 words (15%) to go...

So maybe it is a problem and that's why you want to fix it.

I'll tell you what...

Since you have taken the time to read this, you care to fix your problem and I would be happy to understand whether I can help you further.

Once we have a quick chat, I can give you the clarity and insights you need to know exactly what you need to focus on.

My objective when we meet: to give you lots of value, blow your mind and make you feel your time was well spent with me.

Who knows? Maybe we end up working together, or maybe not, it doesn't matter.

We'll see... one step at a time.

If you want to book a time for a quick chat, here's my calendar. When I see your appointment come through, I will know whether I can guide you or not.

There are more than 100,000 professionals subscribed to this newsletter and more than 230,000 professionals follow me, spots get filled quite quickly.

I have said this a million times and won't get tired of saying it:

LinkedIn has changed my life personally, professionally and financially, and I am committed to those I strive to serve

Whether this is the time for you to reach out or sometime in the future, just know that I sincerely care and love changing people's lives when I am given a chance.

The LinkedIn community has changed my life with their support so I have left my career in Technology after 23 years to empower, inspire and educate others.