7 Mistakes of a Tech Job Search: Part 2 of 3
by Jeremy Schifeling
Continues from Part 1 with mistakes #4 and #5:
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Focus on titles and not roles – Here are the things to remember:
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How do you find the perfect role? Get a deep understanding of these different roles to identify where you can contribute:
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Business Operations
- People who crunch the numbers and determines if the specific product that they will build has a market, if it will sell in the market and forecast sales growth.
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HR
- Hires the right people
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Corporate Development
- Composed of people with experience in M&A (mergers and acquisitions) and investment banking.
- They can be asked to identify and buy a company that already employs a team of specialized experts.
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Research
- They come into action after hiring is completed.
- This team coordinates with the group to share the results of the market research that they have gathered though their surveys and focus groups.
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Product Management
- Molds the specification of the product based on the data gathered by the research team
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Project Management
- Gather the high-level concept and split it into individual tasks, delegate and monitor for progress until completion. They need to ensure that the project ships on time.
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Operations/Supply Chain
- Ensures that there is enough capacity to bring the project to life.
- They also make sure that there is a large enough supply chain for every single part and the capacity to put together every single part.
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Marketing
- Is in-charge of producing content and communications campaigns for the launch of the product.
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Sales / Business Development
- Develops and manages the strategy on how the product will sell in the market.
- Builds partnerships with suppliers, dealers etc. for the product launch and ongoing sales.
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Customer Service
- Ensures the satisfaction of customers from start to finish.
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Finance
- Crunches the numbers on the forecast and actual sales and earnings.
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How do you format your resume to fit the needs of what Tech companies want. Change the language of your past roles to conform to the language used by tech companies.
- MBA is a transformative degree. What you did in the past does not necessarily have to be the same as what you will do at a tech company.
- Translate the role that you want into a language that is universal and that will correspond to your previous roles.
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Turning yourself into a commodity – transforming your most prized asset which is your talent into a human capital version of a commodity by:
- Using generic resumes
- Copy and paste cover letters
- Using standard interview answers
What needs to be done for your talent to be recognized and desired?
- Avoid jargon and buzz words
- Make your language easy for the recruiter to understand
- Find points of differentiation that will make you stand out
Jeremy Schifeling is the Founder + Chief Nerd at Break into Tech (https://www.breakinto.tech/), a site for anyone who wants to land an awesome tech job, no matter their background. Previously, Jeremy interned at Apple, hired at LinkedIn, and served as an executive at a VC-backed startup - all after starting his career as a kindergarten teacher! Contact Jeremy at jeremy@breakinto.tech.