#56 Every job looks like a fit right now
After a layoff or when you've been on the hunt for a while, every job that half-fits looks like one you can't afford to skip.
So you apply to all of them. Same level, adjacent function, the company you'd never have looked at a year ago. More applications feel like more chances, and when the clock is ticking, that's a completely reasonable instinct.
It's also the one that tends to make the search longer.
Every loose fit asks you to stretch your story a bit further. A paragraph of "here's why my background is relevant" before you've said anything useful. The hiring manager has thirty seconds and a shortlist of people who didn't need that paragraph.
An example I used in a session last week. Two people leaving Amazon Pay, both strong.
One goes after a role at Stripe. The story almost tells itself: same problem, at a company where payments is the whole business. The hiring manager hears "Amazon Pay" and already knows why you're in the room.
The other goes after a CPG brand. Could be a great role. But now the first five minutes of every conversation go on explaining why payments expertise matters to a company that sells shampoo.
Same skills. Same person. One story takes a sentence. The other takes a meeting.
If you're feeling the crunch in your job search, your best target is wherever your story takes the fewest words.
Translating Big Tech scale for a smaller company is table stakes. Everyone leaving has to do it. The edge is where your expertise and the company's problem overlap so cleanly that nobody needs convincing.
This is harder for Amazonians than it looks. If you've moved orgs a few times, you know you can pick up a new problem space in a quarter. Domain barely mattered. That's true, and it's a real strength. But the hiring manager outside doesn't have a quarter. They have your resume and a stack of other ones.
Applying to fewer things feels reckless when money's tight. But what you're actually buying is a shorter search. Start where your story is cleanest, and widen once you've worked that properly.
One thing to try this week:
List the companies or role types you're targeting. For each one, finish this sentence: "You need [the problem solved]. I've done that at [where]."
If you need a second sentence to explain why your background counts, it moves down the list. Start at the top.
If you're not sure what belongs at the top yet, that's exactly what we're working out in the Where You Win workshop next Wednesday, October 14 at 5pm UK/9am PT. Two hours, eight seats, $99. Everyone's draft gets a live read, and you leave with your sentence and the places it lands cleanest.
[Grab a seat → https://calendly.com/mfdcoaching/wuw]
Chat soon,
Mel