Laid off in Nov (2024), and despite my 17 yrs of sales experience and proven quota attainment, I’m still unemployed. I’ve been interacting more on LinkedIn. When I submit a job application, I’m trying to make it a habit to send a LinkedIn message/email to sales leadership wherever I apply, as a sort of cover letter/giving them a heads up that I applied. I know the job market is brutal for everyone right now, but does anyone have any tips??
Job market is near impossible. Here are my stats I got laid off back in the summer due to a restructuring. Took me 10 months to land a job I actually want to do. Almost 4000 applications 3,900 were cold and I got 100 referrals from networking on LinkedIn, blind / past workers. Out of those 4000 applicants I got 40 interviews at 40 different companies so a 1% interview rate. After getting rejected over and over finally ended up landing a role after 10 months of interviewing. I did withdraw 5 applications after a couple calls because it wasn't the right fit for me so I won't know if I would have got the offer from those places. so lets just say 1/35 offer 2.8% interview to offer rate. Here are my tips: set alerts for jobs and titles you are qualified in and you want to be within the first 50 people that applied for a role. Do you your best to apply for roles that have the same title, industry/ similar product / ICP/ decision makers that you were selling in your last role. You want to ideally relate 1:1 transferable experience into your new company. I know this is cliche to say but getting a job is honestly who you know not what you know at this point. So network and build relationships to standout from the sea of applicants that's on the market right now. As for interviews, I know it can be defeating getting rejected multiple times and getting ghosted but you need to always put your best face forward and maintain your composure during interviews. Always have an upbeat, high energy, positive attitude. Nobody wants to hire someone that seems desperate/down during an interview. Even if that's the case you need to show confidence and not give off the vibe. A lot of these interviews they are always evaluating you on body language and non verbal cues not just what you are saying. Make sure you practice all your interview answers and do mock rounds and have all your data and experience down to a T when asked questions about examples / metrics etc. Last piece of advice is treat getting a job as having a job. Wake up at 9 am (network, learn, revise, apply to jobs ) then take a 1.5-2 hour break for lunch, go for a walk / go to the gym then come back to your desk at 2pm and do another 3 hours of applying/networking/prep etc rinse and repeat and analyze your metrics. how many applications am I sending a day? how many interviews am I getting, where am I getting stuck in the interview process and then improve on the bottle necks and practice where you are struggling. I would advise sending at least 40-50 applications everyday if not closer to 100 jobs per day if you want to seriously land a job. I know this was a long rant but hope this helps!
Great insight, thanks for sharing! You mentioned there were some opportunities you passed on because they weren’t a right fit. Considering the difficulty of the job market, what made you make the decision to reject puritanical offers? Was it the role, compensation, flexibility, industry, company, or else? I’m considering taking a step back in career progression and maybe a career change (AE to renewal manager) to avoid this job market. Curious to hear your thoughts!
Honestly, your best shot is getting referred in somewhere, which after 17 years you should have some colleagues at a company you’re interested in.
That's a great start and if you've applied you may not know the specific hiring manager on LinkedIn so it's best to engage with and message multiple sales managers / leaders of the type of role that you applied to. Make sure your LinkedIn profile has specific metrics and successes that you've had in your most recent roles and paints the picture that you want it to paint for hiring managers. Be very active and make sure to not put your eggs in one basket. It only takes one 'yes'. Also if you haven't done it yet make sure to fill out a RepVue candidate profile - it's going to be the future of sales hiring so good to get that started now - more coming soon on that! Good luck and stay active. ✌️
I got popped last August after less than 90-days to make space for a friend of the CRO. So it put me in a bad spot looking like a "job hopper". I also have a lot of experience in the field and in market (read: I'm north of 40). I applied to probably 100 openings. In the end, what made it for me was connections to former co-workers. The only ones that I got a reply on were where I knew someone that could tell me who specifically to reach out to (the HM). From there, I figured out their email address and built a very custom "why me" email for each HM. Good luck out there!!!!