Jeff Horn Software Development Engineer Remote Job Search
Every Hire a Headhunter engagement begins with an assessment by email, presentation of proposal, and then a strategy consult call for free. This is not a sales call. The purpose of the consult is to ensure that we can solve for the professional’s goals because we only take searches that we know will deliver interviews in the first 5-days of launch and then consistently produce great matching interviews for the goal position within the timeframe.
These calls are a find out why you’re coming to us today, what you’re attempting to solve for, a walk backwards and forwards through your resume like a recruiter would, and then talk about what your goals are and what we’re trying to accomplish.
Professionals typically want big shifts that require re-positioning you for the goal which is otherwise known as a career change in many cases.
Jeff explained that he has been in software programming for about a decade and he also has a background as an economist and teacher where he has led a general assembly coding bootcamp.
Jeff recognized that his diverse background was fragmented and requiring optimization to achieve a programming leadership role.
We covered Jeff’s income goal which required remote programming leadership and that teaching would not achieve his ask of being remote and a high earner.
This is an important part of the consult because there is a marriage that occurs between the skills a person has, income goals, and their work style and lifestyle needs. Not all of a professional’s skills pay the same amount or support remote work.
Jeff fleshed out the last item he developed which was a platform for patients and providers, some health care related,
Health care in general, and health care tech is hot right now, so his solution was uncovering itself in our conversation.
Jeff can also work in other industries that will translate well to his skills.
We discussed his previous compensation to determine how close it is to goal and if we need to manage any apparent discrepancies. If a professional believes they are worth more but have not been earning that amount, we need to explore how to elevate the presentation on paper and in the interview narrative to ensure goal attainment.
We may all think we are worth a certain dollar number but that may not be true or it may take 2-3 steps to achieve goal.
However, the opposite is also true. Sometimes a candidate has been operating at the higher level but has been limited by their employer via nonstandard title structures or forcing a person to use their lower paying skills.
In addition, not all skills can be done remotely. For instance, teaching is not a traditionally remote role nor does it pay over 150K.
Jeff also worked in big insurance, or the enterprise level of that industry which is also extremely well paying.
Jeff was mostly working at a great individual contributor wage as a programmer but has worked in leadership and mentoring teams and wants to be compensated for those experiences.
This professionals love of teaching would be a limiting factor in achieving goal.
As a father and an economist, Jeff is also seeking to combat macroeconomic pressures of inflation and preparing his children for the future.
Generally speaking, a salary over $150K will require team leadership and not individual contributor. There are some professions, industries,Fortune 100 sized organizations, and skill sets that pay over $150K with no management duties but it is not common.
Therefore, the strategy for the combination of his ask will require leadership in software engineering.
There is one more thing that is unusual about this search. Typically software engineers get many interviews regularly.
Jeff also talks about how little the recruiters really examine his resume causing a mismatch in his skills to the roles they are representing. Once again, not getting calls for the jobs he wants which requires repositioning on paper and in his narrative.
Another important strategy is to ensure that the recruiter screening call does not decide your fate but getting past gatekeepers is coming up in a future episode.
In the next call, we follow Jeff’s journey through VIP week which is the campaign development piece, the solution that matches the goal.
The solution, or resume and LinkedIn, is a specification of matching information to ensure the right recruiter calls and to help move past the screen.
Hiring is a lot like speed dating. We need to give the recruiter and hiring manager what they need to put a ring on our finger. They want to make sure it is a good match, and the professional does too.
This is all but always a career change. We’re either changing professions or industries or titles. To do that we need to reposition from old crusty narratives about what a professional’s past looks like to perform a career change in profession, industry, or rank. The resume is a marketing piece that says “Hey, this is what you need, this is what I’ve done that you need, let’s talk. And it’s a new narrative, not a false narrative, but a new narrative because we’re leaving the stuff behind
If someone said, okay, write about a Shakespearean romantic tragedy, you wouldn’t write about Macbeth, right? You would choose Romeo and Juliet. They’re both Shakespeare, but the point is it’s marketing.
It just, something feels icky about not being overly honest and giving too much irrelevant information early on.
Going back to the dating example. Are you gonna spill your guts about everything that’s true about you on the first date or are you gonna pick the things that can build trust and confidence?
Now it is time to build the solution and reconvene for Episode 2 – the Repositioning Solution.