Tips for Transitioning Between Jobs With Recruiter Support

Getting a job in this market is tough, but not impossible. I spent most of last year recruiting and these are the most effective things that helped me land a new job 👇 Spend more time tailoring your resume and networking instead of applying to hundreds of jobs and hoping to hear back. Why? Mass applying to jobs is not effective. ❌ It's very time-consuming ❌ You'll have a high rate of rejections ❌ For every application you don't tailor, someone else did (lowering your chances) Here's what I do instead 👇 ⭐️ 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 "𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐀" 𝐚𝐧𝐝 "𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐁" Plan A → Roles that you want to transition in, like your first PM role, a new industry, new technology, etc. (lateral move) Plan B → "Good Fit" roles for which your skills and experience are a great match. (vertical move) Use the ratio 1:3 → For every 1 "Plan A" job you apply to, apply to 3 "Plan B" jobs. Make a list of your Plan A and your Plan B roles - I use Google Sheets to track: - Company - Role Name - Plan A or Plan B - Link to the job posting ⭐️ 𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Tailor your resume, I can't state how important it is. For my Plan B (AI/ML roles), my resume has accomplishments related to the problems I solved with AI and the impact the models had on the business. For my Plan A's I grouped them by industry/technology and did a version of my resume for each one. Tip: Look at the required/basic qualifications of 3~5 job postings for each job category and write accomplishments based on those. For your LinkedIn → You can mix your Plan A and Plan But know that the more you align with one of the plans, there's a chance for higher success. → Turn on Open To Work. ⭐️ 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐝 Apply on the company's website first. Next, find recruiters: → Find the company's LinkedIn page → On the people's tab, filter for "recruiter" (Tech recruiters usually hire PMs) → prioritize reaching out to recruiters with purple banners, then those who are active on LinkedIn (posted recently). You don't know who is the recruiter for your role, so you'll send a message with this structure: Intro → quick intro about yourself and what you currently do Application → let them know the role (and ID) that you applied to Your ask → let them know you are aware they might not be the recruiter for your role, so ask them if your profile can be shared with the team. Why are you a good fit? → after the ask, let them know why you are a good fit for the role. Write 3 to 5 things about your experience that are RELEVANT to the required/basic qualifications of the job you applied to ⭐️ 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 On LinkedIn's search bar type "hiring Product Manager" and in the [all filters] menu use the [Author Company] to filter companies you are interested in. Send a similar version of the message above! --- 🚀 Need help with your resume and interviews? check my comment below!

Software to Hardware. Banking to Tech. B2B SaaS to ClimateTech. [insert basically anything] to AI. ↔ Career shifts come in all shapes and sizes, but shifting an industry can be challenging, particularly in a tighter hiring market where experience is valued. Over the years, I’ve interviewed hundreds of people who are looking to move into a new industry and I’ve found a few things influence whether or not someone will be successful at making the leap. 1️⃣ Find the thread - If you want to make a change, it’s your responsibility to craft a story that makes sense. Don’t force the person reading your resume or interviewing you to guess why you’re able to make this jump. At MuleSoft, I interviewed a program manager at a non-profit for a recruiting role. Sounds completely unrelated, but throughout the interview, she did the best job showing me how many of the things she had accomplished in her role actually translated incredibly well to recruiting. She took the guesswork out of it for me and actually convinced me over the course of the interview that she knew enough about the job and had enough of the skills that she could make the pivot. As you’re prepping for your interviews, make a list of all the things you’ve done that translate to working in the new industry and make it a point to share those in your conversations.  2️⃣ Do your research - I’m the biggest fan of benchmarking conversations when you’re hiring for a role on your team. The same logic applies here - find people who are experts in the industry you want to pivot into and ask if they’d spend 15 minutes with you so you can get advice on how to pivot. Come prepared with great questions and soak up the trends, lingo, etc. Doing even 3-5 of these calls will make you sound exponentially smarter and better researched for your interviews. 3️⃣ Ask great questions - Basic, surface-level questions, “what’s it like to work here?” indicate you haven’t done your homework and send a red flag that you’re potentially unable to make the shift. At Dropbox, I interviewed an equity analyst from a big bank for an Enterprise AE job. Sounds like quite a jump, but he asked the best questions about the product and company. He understood the role we were hiring for and sounded like he had been in our industry for years. His intellectual curiosity sold us on his ability to make the jump. 4️⃣ Network hard into companies - Part of the challenge in making a career shift is being able to get your story across on why you can make the leap. A reference at the company where you hope to work can do this for you. Maybe it’s not an obvious connection, but see if you can dig deep. For example, you may find a past coworker who knows an investor in a company you’re interested in, and that investor may be able to forward your information, with the appropriate color, to the hiring manager or recruiting leader so you get a proper look. What else have you all seen that’s been useful for those trying to switch industries?

Last week, I started discussing job hopping and what to reflect on if this may apply to you. Now, if you’re an SDR who’s gone through frequent job changes, you may be wondering how to address this during interviews. As a recruiter, I can tell you that we’re looking for three things: self-awareness, transparency, and clarity. To give recruiters a better understanding of your story, and increase your advantage against candidates with stable employment, here’s how to go about it: 🔸 How to address job hopping during interviews 🔸 Understand your situation: If your short stint was beyond your control or you left, recruiters want to know the reason to evaluate if you’re ready for long-term employment. For example, if you were at an early stage startup and there was a reduction in staff, focus on what you learned that will make you valuable on a larger team. It’s important you showcase self awareness, know what went wrong and why the job hops happened. State exactly what environment you prefer: If you left a much larger organization because you didn't like the office politics, you can mention how you’re looking for a more intimate team where you can work with various teams and at a faster pace. Be clear that you want a long-term role: Be honest about the work you've done, then say upfront that you’re looking to stay in your next role for X number of years. And remember, interviews go both ways; ask smart questions that will help qualify the company so you can land a role where you’ll remain for a long time.  It can be difficult explaining short job stints, but it should be tackled head on. Comment below your thoughts or questions on addressing job hopping during interviews.

Considering a Career Transition? Doing this one thing can make the difference between being overlooked or being selected for an interview and landing an offer. ✅ Be the obvious choice – Don’t assume recruiters will connect the dots. They’re often scanning for an exact title match. Your job? Bridge the gap for them. Translate your past experience into the language of your target role so they see you as a natural fit. Example:  Transition from a Project Manager → Product Manager Let’s say you’ve been a Project Manager for years but want to move into a Product Manager role. A recruiter or hiring manager might not immediately see the connection because they’re looking for candidates with direct Product Management titles. Instead of listing: ❌ “Managed project timelines, budgets, and stakeholder communications.” Reframe it to match Product Management language: ✅ “Led cross-functional teams to deliver customer-focused solutions, prioritizing features based on business impact and user needs.” Why this works: “Led cross-functional teams” aligns with how product managers work across engineering, design, and marketing. “Customer-focused solutions” signals an understanding of product development, not just project execution. “Prioritizing features based on business impact and user needs” shows a product mindset—something critical for a PM role. ✨ Bonus: 📎📄 Attached is an in-depth example of how to identify your transferable skills and effectively highlight them as relevant experience. This can be a tool that assists you with your resume, interviewing and negotiating. 💡 Need guidance? Assisting clients with career pivots and transitions is something I excel at. Plus - I’ve successfully navigated several transitions in my own career, so I’ve lived it. Let’s connect! #CareerChange #CareerAdvice #JobSearch #CareerTransition #Laidoff #CareerDevelopment #CareerGrowth #JobSeeker #CareerPivot