Get the Job You Deserve
In a previous post, I mentioned I had a new job opportunity on the horizon. I am very pleased to announce that I have recently joined the Heretto team as the VP of Marketing!
While I have only just begun, I consistently feel “lucky” that we (Heretto and I) mutually selected each other. The reality is, however, that it was only 10% luck and 90% intention from both sides.
In this post, I outline (with experimental drop downs…) my approach to getting the job I deserve in the hopes that someone out there can also find their way into greener pastures. Don’t we all deserve to find that job where you will be respected, trusted, and heard? Absolutely, but setting your sights high takes hard work, laser focus, and patience.
Set your sights high
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This is arguably the most important part of the entire process. You have to deliberately think through what you want and you are the only one that truly knows what job can make you happy. Start by writing out a list of job elements that are both relatively realistic and make you excited — but don’t sell yourself short.
Here are some questions to get this personal brainstorm started:
What title do you really want?
What salary would blow your mind?
What sort of characteristics would your team or executive team exhibit?
What sort of skills are you excited to refine?
How about industry or product traits?
Remote / work from home / hybrid?
Do you want to be a large fish in a small pond or a small fish in a large pond? (i.e. company size, revenue stage, etc)
What do you want to get out of your next job?
Once you answer these questions, rank them to surface your most important job components. You might find title outweighs salary. You might find the people is more important than anything. Once you start interviewing, your list will likely evolve as you feel the excitement surface. The more truthful your list, the better.
Stay firm during your interviews
Your list is now your North Star. This is why evolving your list is a good thing, because if you’re going to stay firm on what you want, it better be what you really, really want! (Spice girls, anyone?)
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Companies will inadvertently try to push you out of your list and into their list. That simply means it is not the right mutual fit; No harm, no foul, but if you are serious about finding the right scenario, you cannot compromise on your top priorities.
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Even if you know in your heart of hearts it is not a perfect match, keep going. Why?
Practice makes perfect. You will get the opportunity to refine your answers and gain confidence.
You can end up with an offer that can give you an advantage in future negotiations.
Example: “Hey, this other company has offered me ABC (insert top priority). I would much prefer to work for you, however this part of their offer is very important to me. Is there anything we can do so I can sign without hesitation?”
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This is hard. Being rejected sucks and rejecting a company means you’re letting go of a (paying) job. Ultimately, none of this is a personal. You just have high standards (good for you!) and you are unwilling to compromise. Just remember: whoever breaks it off first is irrelevant (though it never feels that way).
Watch for flags
Most people will create a mental list of flags based on their own experience trauma. That’s a great starting point, but ultimately, you don’t know what you don’t know. Here are a few ways to tell the job opportunity is a “hard no”:
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Tragically, nothing in life is all rainbows and butterflies. If you only get pitched on how amazing the company is and the high growth potential, your red flags should be in a tizzy. Coincidentally, Heretto’s CRO, Dan Hurwitz, just wrote his own blog on this very subject.
TL;DR
Only take a job if your future boss paints a realistic picture highlighting the specific problems you would be hired to solve.
In every interview, always ask: “What question have I not considered that I should be asking?” Again, you don’t know what you don’t know, so just ask.
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Every human being has an ego; that fact is unavoidable. Like anything, there is an ego scale that can quickly go from annoying to truly poor business decisions. Business decisions should always be made with the end in mind (another kudos to Dan Hurwitz for that phrase). If the end goal is glory rather than solving a problem, well…the company will eventually be in trouble. It’s hard to sniff out, but ask about how decisions are made, when was the last time they were forced to do a project, or if there is a clear direction for the company.
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A good boss will often ask you what you need to succeed. As long as it’s within reason, your boss (and the company) should do their best to help you. For instance, I now have a rule that the most of the C-Suite (CRO, CEO, CFO, and COO) must be interested and willing to meet with me on a very regular cadence to review Marketing pipeline and spend metrics. This builds trust by providing transparency into Marketing priorities and outcomes, while simultaneously creating an opportunity for opinions and suggestions. Some companies I spoke with thought this was overkill and they were scratched off my list. I know this example is likely only applicable to other leadership level roles, but the lesson still applies. You need to not only do what the company hired you to do, but you need to have a platform to give updates to appropriate stakeholders. Will they enable you on both fronts to succeed?
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Hot take: “Treating people as humans” is a trendy thing to say, but is rarely actually realized in the workplace (even if they say it all the time). This flag is all about actions over words. In fact, do not trust any leader when they say they are empathetic or they treat people like people. Talk to the team and see if they actually have a work life balance. For example, are they reprimanded if they log off early or if they make a mistake? Do they feel they are overloaded? Are they feeling heard within the organization? Would they describe their boss / CEO as fair and empathetic? I had one direct report who found people within the company on LinkedIn and she asked to speak with them. This was brilliant because HR didn’t get a chance to impose a BS filter and she received an impartial truth. FYI - Glassdoor should be taken with a grain of salt, but this theme tends to surface often on Glassdoor.
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Sometimes jobs are posted without having unanimous internal support. You can discover the general sentiment by asking the hiring team their thoughts on the importance or impact this role will have on the team / company. If it is lack luster, that’s a flag and probe more until you get their real thoughts on the matter. Additionally, if high-impact people aren’t part of your interview panel, insist on speaking with them. As an example, I recall a VP of Sales did not interview me. I believe the CEO glazed over it and I thought nothing of it. Once I accepted, I learned the VP of Sales had not supported the investment in my role because they had been pushing for a different go-to-market strategy all together. It was nothing personal, it just was a different investment than that VP of Sales wanted. Unfortunately for me, that meant I had a major road block in my pathway to success. It’s not so much what he did to make my life harder, but rather what he didn’t do. He didn’t give me the access to the Sales team that I needed. He didn’t support or advocate my initiates. He was simply passive. I am pleased to say I succeeded despite my passive dissenter, but in retrospect, it was SO much harder than it had to be. Moral of the story: make sure everyone is excited about this role!
Heretto gets an A+
For transparency’s sake, here are my top three priorities during my recent job search:
A mature, business savvy executive team that is driven by truth and accountability
Leading a Marketing team that is enthusiastic for mentorship
A product that solves a real problem and fits my areas of go-to-market expertise (selling to enterprise, larger deal sizes, technical)
From the start, the Heretto team has aligned with my priorities:
The Executive team is filled with leaders who love to solve problem head-on
My Marketing team has welcomed me with open arms
Heretto has developed the gold standard for scalable and global content operations at large enterprises. We have amazing customers with a wildly high retention rate. It’s just time to hit on the gas pedal, which is where I come in!
On top of all of this, I knew Heretto was my top choice because I left every interview excitedly thinking “I would really enjoy working with that person”. Almost two months in to the job and I only feel more confident that I made the best choice.
Cheers to greener pastures,
Annette Ochoa
About Heretto
Heretto is a Content Operations platform that provides the foundations for premium customer knowledge centers. With Heretto, your customers receive personalized product answers in any website, application, or language. Learn more here.
Note: This advice requires a time investment. Sometimes it’s one month, sometimes it’s many more months. I do not talk about how sometimes you just need a job. Let’s be real, we have all accepted a job out of need rather than want and probably suffered for that choice. There is no shame in paying your bills, but if you can, build up your savings so in the next round you can take your time to be choosy. Patience is your enduring friend.