🐋 How to stand out in a crowd (and in an interview)
Plus: Some SVB nuance, and open roles at LEGO, Chegg, & more.
🌱 Happy Spring, Tech Pod!
With the dawn of a new season, it’s a good time to reflect on how we tell our story – especially in a job search. So, this week, we’re giving some storytelling tips.
❗️But first things first – Our NYC HQ is hosting a resume workshop + happy hour and you’re invited…
Thursday, March 30 – Brew Your Best Resume: Positioning Yourself for Today’s Tech Market
Who: This workshop is open to all and is $20
What: We're pouring drinks and dishing out wisdom for your job search. Sit down with Free Agency’s team of resume experts for a happy-hour-meets-workshop.
Why: Learn how to position yourself in today’s job market. The best part about our team? Their advice comes from a focus on outcomes, because Free Agency’s core clients only pay when they land a job.
How: No fluff, just result-generating wisdom.
⏰ When: March 30, 6:30 pm EST.
📍 Where: Our HQ (Flatiron, NYC).
⛹🏻 It’s time to think competitively.
There are a lot of nerves right now. With SVB’s collapse and continued layoffs, tensions are high when it comes to the tech labor market’s future. In such a tight space, how do you make progress in a market flooded with talent?
You can’t ever know who else is interviewing for a job against you, but we’re still taking some tips from the theory of Competitive Analysis to zoom in on how to stand out. It is March Madness, after all.
Not all research has to be done via blog posts, Twitter threads, and LinkedIn long reads. Sometimes it’s all about keeping an eye on your competition.
1. Imagine who you’re up against 💭
Theoretically. Think about who else could be applying to the jobs you want – are they early in their career? Do they have similar titles to the one being applied to? What are their strengths? Figure it out – who is the ideal candidate for this position? Then, set yourself up to compete with them.
Once you have an idea of who you might be competing with, measure every comparative weakness on your resume and prepare yourself to fill that gap in your interviews and storytelling.
For example:
💭 The ideal candidate has management experience.
🚨 You have only ever worked within a team.
🔗 Be prepared to speak to how you’ve driven decision-making, even if on a small scale, on a project, or through indirect management
OR
💭 The ideal candidate has helped launch a product
🚨 You have no proven product outcomes
🔗 Be prepared to speak to your experience partnering with a product team, working within a roadmap, or launching a marketing product.
2. Analyze how your competitors (or your role models) market themselves 🏷
LinkedIn is a social media platform, so use it like one. Find people with the title you want at the companies you dream about and see how they shaped their career arcs. Notice the paths they pursued, the certifications they got, and the risks they took.
Use their pasts to understand what a company might really care about, or what patterns and analogies they already seem to understand. This can inform what was emphasized compared to what didn’t seem as vital to their hiring.
🧠 There’s no direct path to most careers, but it does hurt to take note and keep in mind the way others got what they wanted.
3. And finally, ask questions. 🙋🏽♀️
When people are trying to figure out how to market their product, they ask big questions. When you’re trying to market yourself, you have to do the same.
Most of the time, people love being a positive example. If you want to be a product marketer, find some product marketers to talk to. Reach out to them on LinkedIn. Ask your friends about their coworkers. They’ll probably be able to connect with you, and more often than not, they‘re more than happy to tell you all about what they do.
Try this:
“Hi there, [NAME]!
My name is Paige, and I’m currently working as a [JOB ROLE] at [COMPANY]. I’m on the lookout for how I could level up my career, and noticed that you’re a PMM at Chewy. This is a really similar path to what I’d like to take, so I’d love any insight or advice you have about product marketing that could help steer my goals! If you’re available, could I ask you a few questions about it?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best,
Paige”
🤔 Time for Context: So, how did SVB become Silicon Valley’s bank?
There’s a lot to understand about how funding works and how bank collapses happen. But how did SVB become so synonymous (literally and figuratively) with tech in the first place? This WIRED piece gives a detailed rundown, and here are our takeaways:
First, it all traces back to the unique relationship between Stanford and Silicon Valley, and how Stanford helped the Bay Area become what it is. This Tech Crunch article recaps the interdependency of their missions, the military, the impact of Fred Terman, and ultimately, their tandem growth.
Then, only 40 short years ago, Stanford University professor Robert Medearis teamed up with expert bankers after he saw university students struggling to finance their aspirations, seeing startups as too high risk. But innovation is nothing without risk, and thus Stanford’s tech aura bred the bank that helped grow mainstays like Cisco, Etsy, and Coinbase.
SVB’s shtick was offering the type of hand-holding usually only provided to huge, high-net-worth companies and clients. It gave simpler terms, lower fees, less-strict penalties, and developed personal relationships with VCs. They worked harder to ensure representation for underrepresented founders. Pretty soon, they became the cool aunt, willing to hang with the kids and listen to their problems. Traditional banks were stuffy, strict, and boring. SVB embodied modernity and progress. New money, so to speak.
So, everyone wanted in, and as tech boomed in the late 20th century, so did SVB. The more its client portfolio succeeded, the more startups flocked to it. Tech was cool, new, risky, and exciting, and the desire to cash in on the risk-taking shaped the bank’s strategy. They drew in young founders with meetups, ski trips, and exclusive perks. Given that tech was on a seemingly unstoppable rise, it was all about making sure they were present from day one. Cue 2023.
The Mammoth retreats and flashy parties weren’t why SVB failed. Interest rates, inflation, tech’s plateau, and bad bond investments – a perfect molotov cocktail for a bank run. The risk-taking probably didn’t help, but the legacy of SVB will remain their willingness to go where traditional institutions wouldn’t.
What does this all mean now, in terms of tech growth and job opportunities? Who’s to say? The world naturally fluctuates between times of progress and restriction. Maybe tech markets needed an example of what could go wrong after almost totally unchecked, rapid VC fund growth. Many are theorizing that with the rise in layoffs, coupled with a tough banking situation, innovation might slow. But the best have always thrived in hard places – more pressure, more diamonds. 💎
🕵🏼♀️ What’s open? Here are some hand-pick opportunities
Junior-level:
Coinbase is looking for an Associate Product Manager
DraftKings is looking for a Communications Associate
ModeSyns is looking for a JPM
Burnalong is hiring a Junior Customer Success Manager for their SMB clients
GoodUnited is looking for a JPM
LEGO is looking for a Content SEO Specialist
Internships:
Chegg is looking for a Product Management Intern
Apex Fintech Solutions is looking for a UX Design Intern
SAS is looking for an IDeaS Product Management Intern
Growth:
Pathrise is looking for a part-time Design Admissions Specialist to support their admission process for product design fellows
And don’t forget to hang out + figure out how to get your foot in the door with our Brew Your Best Resume: Positioning Yourself for Today’s Tech Market workshop.
Just want someone to write a resume for you? We do that, too. We’ve got an extensive resume service with our experts to hone in on what you do best, and market that to the rest of the world. Inquire here.
🐋
Written by Paige Connelly from Free Agency