Dharmesh Shah

Founder and CTO at HubSpot. Helping millions grow better.

Career startup guy.

Author of the book &quot;Inbound Marketing&quot; (http://InboundBook.com)

Specialties: Entrepreneurship, Software Development, internet marketing,SEO

Founder and CTO

Founder of HubSpot, a venture-backed software startup.  HubSpot offers the industry's first inbound marketing system for small businesses.  The software is available as a hosted service (SaaS).

Here's a quick tip on how to build an effective presence on LinkedIn.

Too many people on LinkedIn are "performing" for their current (and future) followers.

Instead of self-centered performing, focus on generous *sharing*.

We all have something to share that will be helpful/useful to others. Things we are experts in or passionate about. What's often even better is sharing mistakes we've made and lessons we've learned. 

Share, don't perform and you'll pull people in.

* I fall into this "performing vs. sharing" mode sometimes too.  

** "effective presence" is not just about the number of followers, likes or comments. It's about having genuine impact on somebody's thinking -- even if just for a moment.

Lots of people much smarter than me have been talking about this compelling new idea called the "Context Graph". I love the idea, but am a wee bit skeptical of far away we are from it being something businesses can use.

A concept is making the rounds in AI circles right now that has many people very excited: context graphs. Foundation Capital published a piece calling

Open article: Context Graphs: Capturing The "Why" In The Age of AI by Dharmesh Shah • 4 min read

Context Graphs: Capturing The "Why" In The Age of AI

We've long known that the best people have IQ + EQ.

When it comes to AI agents and their effectiveness, there's a new element — and it's multiplicative.

Agent Success = IQ  x EQ x  CQ

IQ = How well does it reason?
EQ = How well does it collaborate?
CQ (Context Quotient) = How well does it know YOU?

And because it's multiplicative, if an agent has a zero context quotient, it has zero value. (Apologies for revisiting grade school math).

Here's a quick thought exercise:

You can choose between two agents.

Agent A: 200 IQ. Bonafide Genius. Knows nothing about you.
Agent B: 150 IQ. Brilliant. Knows your business cold.

You pick Agent B. Every time. Why?

Agent A can solve PhD math problems.
Agent B can help solve YOUR business problems.

Raw intelligence without context is just confident guessing. (Also known as "management consulting"). 😀 

AI models know a lot about the world, but you need agents that know about YOUR world.

The real game isn't How smart is your model? It's How are you increasing the agent's CQ?

Imagine if it had...
...your top rep's call recordings.
...your angriest detractor's NPS comment.
...your happiest promoter's renewal notes.
...and everything else swirling around in your company

The agents that help you win aren't the ones with the highest IQ. They'll be the ones who know you best.

This is what we're furiously working on at HubSpot, because nowhere does context matter more than in GTM and nowhere is there more unified context than the HubSpot platform.  (Disclosure: As founder/CTO, I'm biased). 

We're excited about the progress the AI companies are making on delivering smarter LLMs  (higher IQ). We need that to build great agents. Meanwhile, we're working on delivering agents with higher CQ. (And stay tuned for the EQ part -- have thoughts on that too).

Anyhoo...

Key takeaway: In the age of AI agents...

IQ gets attention.
CQ gets results.

Woo hoo! Shipping an early release of a new AI app I've been working on. (Look at me, shipping something in the middle of the day instead of 2am!)

If you're curious about premium website domains and their underlying prices and trends, I think you might enjoy playing with this app:

domainsales .ai (yes, I like simple domains).

You can  ask questions like:

 "what were the top .ai domains sold this year."  

"what was the average price for .org domains every year".

"what's the sales history for chat .com "

All feedback appreciated. Feedback is a gift.

Thanks.

-Dharmesh

NOTE: I'm using this (and other) AI apps to test out new Agent.ai platform features that allow you to use any vibe coding tool to build apps and integrate them into the marketplace. That way, you benefit from 2.5M+ users, shared context and a bunch of tools you can use in your agents.  More on al this next week.

Was recently on a podcast with Manny Medina from Paid.

Was a great conversation around business strategy, pricing and of course, AI.

I'm not used to being on podcasts (not my natural habitat), but I think it turned out pretty well. Hope you like it.

Dharmesh Shah helped write the SaaS playbook.
Now he’s explaining why parts of it are about to get ripped out.

In today’s episode of Get Paid, the HubSpot co-founder doesn’t sugarcoat it:

AI agents aren’t a feature.
They’re a platform shift.
Seats still matter. For now.
Credits are inevitable.

And most “AI strategies” are just SaaS habits in disguise.
They go deep on why reasoning models changed the game, why vibe coding won’t save you, and why pretending this is a normal upgrade cycle is how incumbents quietly die.

If you’re building AI and telling yourself “we’ll figure pricing out later,” this episode is a warning shot.

🎙 New episode is live. Link in comments.

Nice to see folks combining the flexibility of Agent.ai and its access to a rich set of AI capabilities and data with the power of HubSpot Workflows for automation.

Senior Software Engineer | HubSpot-Focused Integrations & CRM Automation

I've been having a blast combining Agent.ai workflows with HubSpot automation lately, and the results have been impressive.

Here's what I've been able to automate:

Buyer Intent Detection -> Agent.ai monitors signals across multiple channels and automatically scores leads based on engagement patterns, content consumption, and behavioral triggers. When intent spikes, HubSpot workflows kick in with personalized outreach.

Company Intelligence Gathering -> No more manual research. The system automatically enriches company records with technographics, funding data, org structure, and relevant news. Everything flows directly into HubSpot properties, keeping our CRM current without lifting a finger.

Lead Qualification & Routing -> AI agents assess fit based on ICP criteria, then route qualified leads to the right team members with full context. Sales reps get notifications with a complete brief, not just a name and email.

Follow-up Orchestration -> Based on engagement signals, the system determines optimal timing and messaging for follow-ups. It's like having a sales ops team working 24/7.

The real power is in the combination: Agent.ai handles the intelligence gathering and decision making, while HubSpot executes the workflows and maintains the source of truth.

For teams drowning in manual research and qualification work, this stack has been a game changer.

Huge thanks to Dharmesh Shah for making this technology accessible and for his visionary presentation on AI at INBOUND this year. The future he outlined is already here, and it's incredibly exciting to build with these tools.

Want to automate your workflows with AI? Whether you're looking to streamline sales processes, enhance lead management, or build custom integrations, I'd love to help. Drop me a DM or comment below with what you're trying to solve.

#AIAutomation #HubSpot #SalesAutomation #AgentAI #CRMIntegration #MarketingAutomation #SalesOps #AIAgents #WorkflowAutomation #B2BSales #RevOps #SalesTech #AITools #BusinessAutomation #LeadGeneration #INBOUND2025

I empower millennial & gen X job seekers in tech to land and pass interviews with confidence

Do you feel frustrated with the current job market?
Do you struggle to communicate in interviews?
Do you get rejected often? 
Do you get ghosted?

It usually takes a handful of interviews to warm up. 
But those handful of interviews are jobs. 
Jobs you might really want. 

For the last 20 years, I’ve been studying interviews. 
First as a candidate, then as a hiring manager. 
I’ve been in hundreds of interviews. 

I interviewed countless candidates and interviewers. 
I worked with interviewers to make hiring decisions. 
I learned what worked and didn’t work. 

And I learned that interviews aren’t about trivia. 
They’re about human connection. 
They’re about story telling. 

Interviewers want to experience working with you. 
Interviewers want to see if you’re like them. 
People want to work with people they like. 

I know what rejection feels like. I’ve been there. 
And I know what it’s like to crave feedback.
I know what it feels like to be ghosted. 

And I know what it feels like to get the offer. 
What it feels like to crush an interview. 

Today, I help people make a lasting impression. 
I help them show, not tell, how they work. 
I coach them on how to tell their story. 

I give them the feedback they crave. 
So they don’t have to warm on when it counts. 

Dozens have worked with me so far. 
And they’ve seen results in as little as 7-8 weeks. 

So what are you waiting for? I’m here to help you.

Jonathan Corrales

"Would, say, bolding the keywords be additionally beneficial?"

No. Bolding keywords can be distracting. Instead, try to remove every word that isn't absolutely necessary around your keywords. Keywords will stand out more

As a hiring manager, I saw a lot of resumes with all sorts of formats and lengths. 

One format stood out for the wrong reason: the one with randomly bolded words. 

I understood the intent. It was supposed to help me see a match between my employer's job description and a candidate's resume. 

But many times it confused more than anything. It drew my eyes to random metrics and words that weren't what I was looking for at all. 

Lesson:
If your resume has random bolded words, it could be hurting more than helping. 

Application: 
Unbold those words. Instead, remove words that aren't needed from your resume. 

--
👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.
I empower people in tech ace their job interviews.

#techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #protips

"AI interview? Nope. Pass." 

 Job seekers hate AI interviews. Companies don't care. 

 Over the last two years, my clients have been invited to interview with AI. 

 Here is one example of AI interviews: an interview with an AI agent via a zoom call 

 The AI agent will ask candidates a question. The candidate, in this case my clients, will answer the question as if they're speaking to a person. 

 Instructions on the screen require things like candidates not looking away from the camera, and if the agent gets stuck to instruct it to go to the next question. 

 I debrief all of my clients after the big interviews. So I capture their experiences and feelings, and interview questions to to prepare them for future interviews. 

 Every single client reports experience as a negative. Not one has said it's a pleasant experience. That's consistent with the 293 job seekers I spoke to last quarter. 

 I've been in several threads where candidates say that the moment they see AI being used as part of the process, they end the application early. 

 I know some hiring teams see this as being a more fair approach because more people can be interviewed simultaneously. 

 But candidates don't see it as fair at all. They see it as dehumanizing. They see it as a sign that companies don't value them or their time. 

 There's already negative sentiment toward the use of AI in hiring. It's perplexing that employers are doubling down on the use of AI in hiring. 

 -- 
👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.
I empower people in tech to land offers worthy of them.

 #techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #protips

"How can someone with 40 years of experience in a field get no interviews or responses?"

My oldest client was 72. He struggled to get interviews. When he got them, he struggled to turn them into offers. He felt like his age was working against him.  

I'll never forget what he told me the first time we met: "I can hide my age on paper, but I can't hide my age on camera."

We only worked together for a handful of sessions. But he left an impact on me. 

Is that what's in store for everyone in the tech industry?

It's undeniable that the industry has a problem with ageism. It's not new. It's been a pain point for the last 20 years. I remember hearing about it as an undergrad. 

But job seekers are feeling it now more than ever, especially older tech workers that have been laid off and looking for a new role for months.

After working with my eldest client I kept an eye out for any sort of tactic that could be used to help older workers land more opportunities. 

Here's some of what I collected:
- reduce the amount of experience on the resume to the last 10-20
- include a statement that you have more the number of years of experience required
- remove any dates that can work against you, for example from your graduation date 
- remove labels such as seasoned from your CPR (cover, profile, resume)
- make sure recruiters know you're okay with the salary range being offered
- talk about your plans for the next 5 to 10 years, which should saying put

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

#jobseekers #interviewpreparation #techjobs #seasoned

"How do I stop being defensive in a coding interview?"

Years ago, I had a technical interview for a small development shop in Virginia. I met with a couple of folks from management and my would-be team lead. 

My would-be team lead asked me a straight forward coding problem. I talked about my solution and he asked me to write the code on paper. 

I walked him through the code and he said he wasn't sure it would work. 

I felt this tiny sensation of "how could you" start to snowball into "I'll prove you wrong." 

I didn't see it as an exercise on how we'd work together. I saw it as a challenge.

Hours later I sat with my solution in front of my screen. I coded it. Tested it. There was a bug. He was right. I was wrong. 

That's when I realized he wasn't trying to poke holes in my solution. He was trying to work with me. And I blew it in the interview. 

I sent a follow-up with the solution. I admitted I was wrong. I attached my solution with  the bug fix and an explanation and location of the bug. I hit send. Closure, for me. 

The next day the hiring manager called me and extended an offer. I didn't want to talk myself out of an offer, but I asked why. 

My would-be team lead said I demonstrated how I'll work with him and the team. He appreciated the follow-up most of all. It showed maturity.

So if you find yourself getting defensive in an interview, remember that those are your future coworkers. Imagine you're working on the problem together, as a team. 

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

#techjobs #jobseekers #gethired #interviewprep

"300 messages sent, maybe three replies," she said. "Most just ignore me."

One of my clients sent 300 messages to recruiters and hiring managers because she heard networking is the only way to land an interview in that job market.

She kept a detailed spreadsheet of every attempt, including timestamps, replies, etc. She was very meticulous. She showed me the spreadsheet. 

"300 messages sent, maybe three replies," she said. "Most just ignore me."

"And how are your applications?" I asked. 

"Just as bad," she said.

When I took a look at her resume, I saw good skills and experience. But I didn't see what made her standout. She lacked positioning. 

She was going for a director-level position. But her resume and profile weren't showing off her leadership skills or her impact, both of which were impressive.  

On paper, she seemed like an individual contributor. Not a leader. 

My team rewrote her resume and profile to put her leadership experience front and center. We made sure she was positioned to standout. 

She got responses to her messages. She got recruiters reaching out to her. She turned applications into interviews. Interviews at places like Microsoft, Ford, and so on. 

She was getting about an interview a week. Luckily, we were working on her interview skills as well. She ended her job search with an offer for $180k base. 

And that's why when I work with job seekers that struggle to land interviews, I understand their positioning first. I look for the thing that makes them standout. 

Then I start working on their interview skills. That's what turns interviews into offers.

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

#techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #positioning

"It's really not that difficult," one recruiter said when talking about performing in an interview.

I was in a recruiter thread recently where recruiters were saying interviews are easy. "Just say what you did, who you did it for," one said.  

How hard could it be, right? It's easy. 

Everyone has the same abilities. Everyone can speak in front of a small group. Communication is everyone's strength. Everyone is assertive, confident, etc. 

Nah. Not even close. 

A couple years ago, one of my clients had a communication disability that made interviews particularly challenging for him. 

The way he described it was words arrived in his mind out of order. He had to put them in the right order before he could form a response. 

"It's like dyslexia for conversations," he said. 

Coincidentally, I saw a visual demonstration of what dyslexia looks like before our conversation. 

I can understand both disabilities, but I never experienced either. So I can only imagine how it might feel to experience them.

"Timed interviews make things worse," he said. "I have to unscramble messages and it takes time. It seems like I don't know the answer to questions because they expect a response right away."

When I helped him prepare for interviews, I showed him how to manage the time pressure. And we practiced for hours. 

He landed an offer but it was anything but easy. Especially for him. 

That's when I realized interviewing can be difficult for some and painful for others. 

I've worked with enough job seekers to say with certainty that interviewing is anything but easy. Even for the most confident, senior, job seekers out there. 

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

#jobseekers #techindustry #interviewprep

"I sent out over 4000 applications and I've only gotten 12 interviews. What can I do differently?"

I typically get this question from new grads. I've met recent grads that apply to well over 100 applications a day. 

I know many use a combination of automation, AI, and application services. New grads see the job market as a numbers game. 

When I work with job seekers, they typically get offers in 200 applications and eight weeks on average. 

The biggest difference between the two groups are experience and positioning. Positioning is a bigger topic, so I'll focus on experience in this post.

Employers are looking for experience with tools and processes they use at work. Without that, you won't seem qualified. 

Despite all the "hire for attitude, train for skill" pleasantries that are pervasive on LinkedIn, employers want both on day one. 

Focusing on skill: there are plenty of ways to show that you're qualified for a role in tech. From contributing to open source projects to building side projects.

Brag about those things in your resume under a project section. 

Here's my recommendation for recent grads in tech:
- pick a target role, just one
- be prepared to show your work
- work on projects or open source
- practice your interview skills often
- apply to jobs within a week
- follow up after rejection
- track everything

--
👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.
I empower people in tech ace their job interviews.

#techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #newgrads #recentgrads

"Make content. If you post to your LinkedIn you will reinforce that you are a subject matter expert." If you're a job seeker in tech, check it. 

If you want to create content, I'm all for it. But you don't have to as a job seeker. There are better ways to invest your time and energy. 

ChatGPT hit the main stage November 2022. Since then I've seen everything from prompts to run a business to prompts for building a personal brand. 

Does every job seeker need to become a content creator now? Nope. Hard no. 

Fun fact: there's no place to submit a personal brand on a job application. 

For the last two years and some change, I spoke to job seekers that tried to create content to gain visibility without success. They give up after realizing it takes work. 

Building content, an audience, authority is a long game. You can't post and ghost. It takes hours and hours of trial and error. Is that the best use of a job seeker's time? 

AI is great at helping people blend in. Whether it's resumes, social posts, or articles. The  colloquial term for obviously AI-generated content is slop. AI slop, to be more specific.

And here's the kicker, a lot of that content doesn't accurately represent the person that creates said content. 

Recruiters and hiring managers complain that candidates look great on paper because of AI but can't answer fundamental questions in interviews. 

Recruiters and hiring managers feel duped when there's a mismatch between a candidate's content (like their AI optimized resume) and their interview performance. 

Candidates can easily misrepresent themselves with AI-generated content.

There are better ways to invest your time: polish your resume, polish your profile, work on your interview skills. Build a portfolio with samples of work you'll actually do. 

Show, don't tell, employers what you can do and why they should hire you. 

I have clients with less than 200 connections, zero content published, and gainfully employed six six-figure salaries after investing their time wisely. 


-- 
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

No AI was harmed in the making of this post. 
100% human-generated content. 🍃

#jobseekers #interviewpreparation #contentcreators #techjobs

If you've ever posted something remotely negative on LinkedIn, delete. It could be hurting you. 

Some job seekers on LinkedIn vent about their job search. Some with posts. Some with comments. 

The thing is recruiters and hiring managers look up candidates and skim through their profiles. They can see previous posts and comments. 

Companies are very sensitive to anything that can hurt their brand. Especially nowadays. 

Some examples: 
- complaining about being ghosted
- naming and shaming companies
- calling every opportunity a scam
- slamming a political party
- vilifying recruiters

I had one client that would create a post after every single interview to bash recruiters for not knowing that cloud providers were similar.

He kept getting rejected over and over and over. 

After I noticed the behavior a few times, I messaged him. I told him to delete all those posts and comments. 

I created a vent-here channel in my community's Slack just for him. Every time he needed to blow off steam, he'd post it there. Other clients would pile on. 

We kept everything else the same. 

After a couple of weeks more, he landed an offer. A remote position as a cloud engineer working for a US employer making six figures. 

He's still with his employer two years later. 

It looked like magic to him but it was just applied logic. 

Look, I get it. The job market is frustrating. It seems like no one is hiring. You have the urge to drop a negative comment or post about all of it. 

That's not what LinkedIn is for. If you're going around spreading that vibe, it can cost you big time. Opportunity costs + bills adds up quickly.

And that's why today when I work with job seekers that have been on the market for months, I audit their profiles and give them access to our vent-here channel. 

It works remarkably well. 

If you want to vent here are some options that won't cost you opportunities:
- blind
- Reddit
- private journal
- friends only on all socials
- email to no email address and delete it after
- Twitter/Facebook but set everything to private

--
👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.
I empower people in tech to land offers worthy of them.

#techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #protips #venthere

Gearing up for a job search? Be ready to interview with people in all moods, especially bad ones.

I've been on both sides of the interviewing table for well over 20 years. 

The biggest lesson I've learned: interviewers might have had a terrible day leading up to the interview.

Bad traffic. Arguments with family members. Issues with coworkers. A bad performance eval beforehand. Some have great poker faces, and many do not. 

Still, they show up and do the interview because they have to.

If you're unfortunately in the hot seat with someone that's in a funk, you're an easy target for their ire. Here's a good way to handle it. 

If you find yourself in that sort of situation, don't recuse yourself from the interview. That'll cost you the opportunity. 

Instead say, "It seems like this isn't a good time. Should we reschedule for later?"

It'll either snap them out of it or give them an easy out so they can get back to baseline.

Neither side wants to make a bad first impression. They're incredibly difficult to overcome.

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

 #techjobs #interviewtips #gethired #jobseekers

"People just don't want to work anymore." Heard that one before?

After hundreds of conversations with job seekers in tech in the last two years, I can say with certainty that people want to work. 

What they don't want is to deal with a six to eight-step process, online assessments, take home assignments, and one-way video interviews that end in ghosting.

Yet, they still go through them in the hopes that one will end with a job offer. Because they need to, you know, earn a living.

Employers, if you're not getting the sort of candidates that you want, you could audit your process:
- where are you posting the job?
- is the hiring team in alignment?
- what's the candidate experience?
- are job reqs clear and reasonable?
- do you have a clear rubric to make hiring decisions?

--
👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.
I empower people in tech to ace their job interviews.

#techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #protips

Your resume isn't when you want to be creative or clever. It's where you need to be clear.

When it comes to resumes, boring is better. When you hit that interview, then be as creative as you want to be. 

I remember when creative resumes were everywhere.

Someone, likely a graphic designer or marketing person, decided to turn their resume into something that showed off their personal flair.

They included grids showing skill levels, like you'd find on the back of a baseball card.

There would be all sorts of colors and icons. I even remember some resumes were printed on heavy stock and colored papers to make them standout. 

Some resumes were turned into things like candy wrappers. 

The trend caught on. A lot of apps like Canva and Docs still have those creative resume templates. 

All that worked until it didn't.

Today it's more important to have a clear, boring, resume over a creative one. 

You can still show off your unique style by choosing combinations of font families, headers, and other sorts of formatting tweaks. 

But the person reading your resume has to see that you're qualified in 7 seconds or less. If they can't, you're not making it past them. 

The time to really show off your personality, your personal flair, is the interview. Or a cover letter, but I know a lot of people hate the idea of having to create one. 

In the interview you can show off your personal flair. How you dress, what you say, your mannerisms, etc. It's when you want to be creative. 

And it's when you're going to build the most leverage for your job offer and negotiation.

So if you're going to invest time and energy into any part of your job search, it should be your interview skills. Not a fancy looking resume. 

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

#protips #resumetips #techjobs #interviewprep

Employers: applications can be as simple as uploading a resume. I seent it with my own eyes.

Years ago, I was at a cross road in my career. I couldn't decide if I wanted to be a technical program manager or a product manager. 

I knew it was time for me to leave engineering behind. I saw a product management position at a big company: Netflix. 

Before I applied, I assumed it would be a complicated process like some of the other big companies, and many of the smaller ones. 

I wanted to apply but the thought of sitting down for ten minutes or more to upload my resume, then copy-paste all the information into tiny boxes, didn't motivate me. 

When I clicked on apply. The application appeared. It had four or five fields and an upload resume step. 

"This can't be the whole application," I said to myself. "This is probably the first page." 

I filled out the application. Uploaded my resume. Then clicked submit. 

"Thank you for applying," showed on the screen. That was the entire application...

That's when I realized job applications could still be as simple as submitting a resume. A lot of application processes are needlessly complicated. 

I was conditioned to sit for 10-15 minutes creating an account, a profile, uploading a resume, watching the system fail to parse my resume or not try at all, then copy-pasting everything, and having no clue when the next page was the end. 

Netflix nailed the application experience. 

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

My number one priority is making job searching less frustrating for job seekers. 

That way they can perform better in their interviews.

I speak to many job seekers regularly and one frustration comes up often: how overwhelming job searching is today. 

A lot of job seekers don't know where to start, or how to start. 

The best place to start will always be deciding what you want to do next. 

But it's not always easy. Especially for folks that want to make a career change. 

If you don't have a destination in mind, creating a road map is impossible.  

So start by defining what I call your north star: 
- where do you want to work 
- when do you want to start
- what do you want to do 

Once you've got that, you can build a road map to get to your ideal destination.

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

#techjobs #jobseekers #wheretostart #roadmap

Here's the difference between subject matter expertise and fit: fit turns interviews into offers.

Years ago, I worked with a talented engineer. He worked hard to be a talented engineer.  He was so good, he built and maintained a critical part of our system all alone. 

This engineer was talented, no doubt. He knew all sorts of frameworks, languages, algorithms, you name it. He went to a school that consistently ranked number one for his engineering discipline. 

But there was one problem. The reason why he ran a critical application alone. 

No one got along with him. He was abrasive. He was prickly. He had little patience for anyone that knew less than he did about a particular topic. He voiced his frustration often.  

He landed the role because of his subject matter expertise. No one interviewed him for fit. 

By the time I took over the hiring process four of my five team-leads urged me to include a fit interview in our process. A vibe check, if you will, to avoid making the same hiring mistake again. 

And that's why today when I work with job seekers, I make sure they can show they're competent and pass vibe checks. Both are important, especially in a competitive market like this one. 

Here's the lesson: 
No one wants to work with a smart jerk. 

Here's the application: 
Be excellent to your interviewers, they're your future teammates.

You don't have to be best friends or 100% agreeable. But be respectful and willing to work with them. Focus on doing the right thing, not being right.

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

#interviewpreparation #techjobs #jobseekers #fitinterviews

"Every rejection is stripping away my confidence," he said. "And making me question my entire career path." 

Last summer I worked with a client that got nothing but rejections for a year. 

"Every rejection is stripping away my confidence," he said. "And making me question my entire career path."

After I helped him position himself, he got two to three interviews per week. He finished his job search with two job offers. He took the one that was better for his career.  

And that's why I make sure that job seekers can position themselves properly to get traction.



If you're wondering how to position yourself, here are three key ingredients to get started:  
1. Problems you solve
2. What you're good at
3. Why employers need you

Put them together into a positioning statement. Here's an example: 
I lead remote-first B2B SaaS engineering teams in adopting modern CI/CD practices that cut project delivery time by 30% while reducing critical bugs by half.

Now you know exactly what to say to stand out. You can use it in your professional summary, your introduction, your headline, and so on. 

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers. 

#techjobs #jobseekers #protips #rebuildconfidence

In December I showed job 37 seekers how to position themselves to land interviews. Here's some Q&A.

1⃣ How do you define a brand when you are job hunting, and isn't it easier to do when employed?
Think of a personal brand simply as your reputation. It reflects how reliable and dependable you were to those who worked with you in the past. Positioning, however, is specifically about showing how you deliver value and solve an employer's problems. What sets you apart.

2⃣ How do you see AI chatbots and automated interviews shaking out in the hiring process?
Some large companies, like FedEx, are already experimenting with AI-driven interviews and chatbots for the initial screening process. While companies use these to supposedly remove bias, most job seekers say it's a terrible experience because there is no human connection. I suspect companies will continue to experiment with it. 

3⃣ Is there a danger in being too specific in a positioning statement?
No, being specific is actually better than being generic. The more specific you are about the types of companies you help and the results you deliver, the easier it is for a recruiter or interviewer to see you as a perfect fit for a role. The more specific you are, the more you'll standout from the crowd. 

4⃣ How should you position your impact if you don’t have specific quantified data?
If you lack hard numbers, you can qualify your impact by using descriptive labels. But you can ballpark your impact based on publicly available data. For example, you can research a previous company's revenue and estimate your personal contribution based on those numbers.

5⃣ How can you make a "How" or "Why" statement sound unique rather than like a cliche?
To avoid sounding cliche, go a layer deeper than your first answer. Instead of just saying you "I like building products," identify a deeper motivation, such as helping people with specific needs or a specific obsession with the customer experience. For example, "I like to build accessible products for ..." It's hard to copy someone's motivation exactly because of differences in background. 

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

#interviewpreparation #techjobs #jobseekers #positioning

Here's how I tackle: "Are you interviewing anywhere else?" 

Spoiler: I don't always say yes. 

Recruiters and hiring managers ask this question because they want to know if they have enough time to run you through their process. 

For example, if you expect an offer in a week but their process takes a month, there's no use in starting the process. 

But if their process can be compressed into a week? Then it's game on. 

Here's how I handle it: 
If I'm interviewing somewhere else, I say yes and tell them exactly how many other companies I'm interviewing with. I don't name names.  

If I'm in the early stage (phone screen/first interview), I tell them. If I know how many rounds are left, I let them know. 

That gives them the time frame they need to make the appropriate arrangements.

If I'm in the final stages anywhere or expecting an offer, I say exactly that. Including how much time I have until I get a final decision. 

If anything changes while we're working together, I'll send them updates. Including when I accepted an offer elsewhere. I want to build a long-term, professional, relationship. 

My goal is to make their jobs easy by eliminating surprises. They don't like that. 

Because of that, I've had the recruiters share multiple opportunities on different occasions, and I've had companies rush their process to get me decisions quickly.

--
 👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan. 
 I help job seekers in the tech industry land interviews and offers.

#techjobs #jobseekers #interviewpreparation #protips #recruiters

Today's job market is a numbers game. No, it's not a numbers game. It's a game of strategy. 

 And the group of job seekers fall into the trap of thinking it's a numbers game most is recent grads. 

 Last quarter my team and I interviewed over 300 job seekers. One clear pattern emerged. 

 Recent graduates are submitting hundreds of job applications a day. Many go months without interviews using this strategy. 

 Most recent grads that I speak to have been looking for a job and their respective fields for over a year. 

 To cover their necessities, many are underemployed. Typically doing gig jobs like Uber, GrubHub, etc. 

 But it's easier to see why the strategy doesn't work. Many resumes aren't tailored to the job description before submitting an application. 

 Most of these resumes are the output of AI optimization. They seem too good to be true. Especially for recent grads without work experience. 

 That pattern emerged in our 2024 interviews too. But it seems more prevalent in 2025 interviews. 

 And that's why when I work with recent grads, one of the first things that we fix is how they apply to jobs. Less applications but higher quality. 

 That tends to turn applications into interviews in weeks, not months. 

 So if you're a recent grad and you're playing the numbers game without seeing results. Try playing the strategy game for at least a month. 

 Application: 
 - jump to the qualification section of a job description 
 - ensure the top 35% of your resume has those quals 
 - submit that resume with your application 

 -- 
👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.
I empower people in tech to land offers worthy of them.

 #techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #protips #recentgrads

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