🎧 How to Job Search When You Have a Full-Time Job
If you want a new product job but you’re already busy with a full-time role… this episode is for you.
The idea of starting a job search can feel, well, overwhelming. 😩
Having a simple, structured plan can turn a chaotic, stop-and-start job search into consistent momentum that *actually* gets you an offer.
Plus, you'll get to hear about Brendan: a SPRINT alum who was employed full-time during his job search, and landed a whopping 22% salary increase in just under 2 months from his first application to offer acceptance. The program not only secured him a new job, but it got him on a path to specializing in Growth PM roles.
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Jess Sherlock (00:00)
Structure matters so much when you feel like you have no time, because if you're working full time and you're trying to job search, your energy is already tapped So you're thinking, oh my gosh, where do I even start? And
imagining just googling endlessly trying to figure out where to start and then never actually making any forward progress.
Hey everyone. You know, if all you want right now is your next product job and the whole process feels daunting and absolutely impossible, this episode is for you. Because you're not lazy and you're not behind. You're just overwhelmed and there's a difference. So today we're going to talk about why a simple structured plan is the thing that's going to get you to your next job offer when your job search is feeling like an insurmountable task.
And I'm going to use a story from a SPRINT alum named Brendan to show you how that looks in real life. Because here's what I see most job seekers do. You have some reason to start job searching, inspiration strikes, maybe you have a frustrating day at work. And so you open up your last version of your resume, you tweak it a little bit, you pop open LinkedIn, you save some job posts, you start scrolling through your LinkedIn feed, you get overwhelmed.
you're imagining all the reasons why this isn't going to work out. And so you close the app, you swear you're going to send more applications this weekend. And then of course, you never get to it, right? You have a better next day or you forget about it by the time the week goes on. And by the time the weekend comes around, the last thing you want to do is job search. And so if every time you think about your job search, your brain is just like, my gosh, this is too much. I don't have the time for this. I don't even know where to start.
Or maybe you're saying, why even bother? The market is terrible anyways. Or even worse, you tell yourself, well, I tried, maybe I sent one or two quick applies. I didn't get any interviews, so it must just be me. I must not even be a good you end up bouncing between kind of distracting yourself with tiny meaningless tasks, making tweaks to your resume, quick applies, scrolling LinkedIn, and then eventually totally avoiding it.
And then at some point again, the pain of the job that you're working in now, it just resurfaces the hate that you have or the frustration that you have. And so the cycle begins again. So today's episode is all about how to get out of that cycle and how having a simple structured plan can help you get where you actually want to go, which is that new job.
Now, let me tell you about Brendan. He joined the SPRINT program after having a really tough time in his last job. He was in this product role for a few years and he had really strong skills, but his confidence was shaken because he was an accidental product manager. Maybe this is like you. I know it was me where you're working in a job. You happen to be the nearby person when the company realizes they need to hire a PM and you end up in this role without
really ever planning on it. And you build skills, because you've never been officially trained, it can be a little bit.
intimidating because you're never quite sure if you have the skills required. So he had been in this accidental product manager role for a couple years. He knew he was ready for a new challenge, but he had no idea what to expect in a PM job search because he had never actually been through the interview process. He had just shifted into this product role in his current company. So he had never actually interviewed for the job, right? Imagine that.
Self-doubt was creeping in plus he had this day job. He was super busy And so it's kind of like how the heck do you add one more thing? How do you find the time to do the job search and he wanted a new job? but he just didn't know where to start so he felt super stuck and This is where SPRINT came in it provided a structured plan for Brendan to follow and when I say structured plan You might be thinking like a rigid 20 page system. Maybe a notion template that you have to work your way through but
That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just referring to a short, clear, actionable list of milestones that tell you three things. What do I do first? What do I do next? And when do I stop tweaking and move on to the next thing? Okay? Because when you have a full-time job and you're not quite sure what to do, every little thing seems important, right? You can spend hours Googling for the best resume template that's gonna be ATS friendly.
You can spend time in Reddit forums or in ChatGPT trying to get tips and tricks about how to make sure that your LinkedIn is optimized. But imagine if you just knew exactly what to do and you knew exactly when it was good enough. And so
in SPRINT, that structured plan looks something like this. Number one, we're going to get crystal clear on your job search strategy. So that will include things like target roles that you should and should not apply for, industries where you can be competitive, or even different tech or specific skills that we should highlight that would be particularly competitive at your stage of career. Number two.
We're going to rewrite your story so that it actually matches those targets. I call that your pitch and package. So we want to get clear on the story we're telling. Even though you've done a lot of different things, we want to draw attention to the select set of things that are going to help you stand out when your resume is in a stack amongst other resumes.
And then
we're going to create and have you follow a weekly job search routine that fits your real life. So for every client, I will help you decide how should we structure our job search strategy week in and week out. So we'll take into consideration things like your availability. For someone like Brendan who's working a full-time job, he had limited hours, we had to make the most of it. So we will
look at whether you should be focused more on cold applications, maybe more on outreach, or what the balance of those two things should be. And we'll also give you targets that you want to hit each week for your job search. So how many applications, how many outreach messages. And then we want to make sure that you're ready when that traction starts to hit. So we're going to start prepping for interviews, prepping for answering the tell me about yourself question.
prepping for potential case studies, prepping for take-home assignments so that when you do get that traction, you're ready.
And so instead of thinking every day, well, I just need a new job. I just need to scramble, but I'm not sure where to start. You're thinking, okay, this week I need to update my LinkedIn. That's it. I celebrate that win. It's a small step in the right direction. so SPRINT day in and day out is helping you turn that big daunting mountain into...
actionable steps that are going to get you to where you want to go.
So once Brendan had those milestones laid out, he knew what he was gonna be focused on week in and week out, and he had a support system in place so he wasn't going it alone, a few things changed. He wasn't asking, what should I do anymore? He was asking, okay, how do I get this one next step done in the time that I have this week? And in his case, when it came to his job search strategy,
We talked a lot about what he had been doing and where he wanted to go in his career. And we decided to position his media and editorial background as a strength. And then we tightened up his resume. So it spoke specifically to those types of product roles. And then we shifted immediately into getting ready for interviews because for him, this was not anything he had ever had experience with. He really needed to make sure he understood what to expect from end to end. And the good news was he got results.
Super fast. the offer he ended up accepting was one of the first few applications that he sent out and He secured an interview that led to an offer.
His salary increased by 22% and the whole process was over in two months from his first application to actually accepting his offer. And you might be thinking, okay, how many hundreds of applications did he send, right? he didn't even send a hundred, he sent 65. Yeah, 65 applications. And like I said, I'm pretty sure that the job he ended up accepting was in the first one or two dozen applications that he sent out. the cool thing is,
Not only did SPRINT help him secure a new job, but it also got him on the path to specializing in growth PM roles because he knew that at some point he wanted to consider a move outside of the publishing industry, but that in the near term, he just really wanted to get into a new role and it was okay if it was in publishing. But what he ended up accepting was a role in publishing with a focus on growth, utilizing the skills that he had built in his previous role.
and knowing that in this next role, he could continue to specialize and open up other opportunities down the road. And don't just take it from me. Here's Brendan telling you for himself. Take a listen.
So I hope you can see Structure matters so much when you feel like you have no time, because if you're working full time and you're trying to job search, your energy is already tapped - you get home. If you're anything like me, your brain is absolutely fried. And the last thing you want to do is start a giant project, right? The couch is calling your name, your dog needs to be walked, you got to get dinner together. So you're thinking, oh my gosh, where do I even start?
And you're...
imagining just googling endlessly trying to figure out where to start and then never actually making any forward progress. So a good plan is going to be one that respects your time, one that makes the most of whatever time you do have. it's going to tell you what is worth doing, what you can ignore for now, and what a good week looks like so that you can celebrate the wins along the way. And a good week might be as simple as
one networking message, one outreach message. It might be X number of tailored applications. It might be 30 minutes of interview prep on a specific type of question that you've been stuck on. And there's something really calming about knowing the path you're about to walk. You don't feel like you need to start from scratch every day. You can just follow the next steps.
even on the weeks that feel heavy, where you feel like you don't have the energy to get started, maybe you have family in town visiting. Maybe life is just lifing that week. But it feels like, OK, I can inch forward because I know what is important.
It just, reminds me so much of having a strength coach. So for years, I went to a small group training gym. It was really cool. There were like, you five stations you'd go in and be able to do your own workout. But there were a certain number of other people there working out with you, but working on their own plan. And I remember the peace of mind I got just being able to lean on the system that my coach put together. He knew my, physical limitations. He knew my goals and
After a crazy day of work, no matter how I was feeling, all I had to focus on was getting to the gym. It was like a nine minute drive. I'd walk in, my coach Mark already had my day's workout ready. It was in a little binder waiting at the front desk for me. I knew he was there to answer questions, make adjustments if something didn't feel right, and to support and motivate me. He was known for his dance moves, which was always motivating.
He made sure my form was good so that I didn't injure myself. And he kept me focused, just knowing that someone was there, keeping me accountable was so helpful. So I stayed focused on the task at hand. And what was cool too is he had my back. So he noticed where I might've been, you know, compensating on one side or the other. So maybe I needed to focus on balancing out my strength and he would take the action of revising my ongoing plan. you know, here's the thing, I could have done all of that myself.
I am sure that I could have pieced together a workout plan from Google. I could have popped open chat GPT said, hey, you I have this old hip injury. What would you suggest? And I could have really worked up the motivation to actually walk into my home gym, try to pay attention to my form. But how much more work would that have been? Just talking about it, I'm like, ugh, that just sounds like so much extra work.
Jess Sherlock (15:05)
Okay, so if your job search feels heavy and just absolutely insurmountable right now, I want you to stop asking yourself, how do I get a new job? And instead, start asking yourself, what is my next clear step? So that you don't burn yourself out, you don't give in to that overwhelm, and you can start making meaningful progress.
To help you out, here is a tiny three-step version you can start with on your own. Number one, pick one target role to focus on for the next month. Give yourself some time to build up some momentum and targeted focus on one role. In order to apply to those, rewrite your resume, your LinkedIn headline, and your about section. Just those three items and make sure that they are speaking directly to that target role that you are trying to get.
And then number three, decide how many hours you can give your search each week and schedule that time in. That's it. No big spreadsheet required, no huge to-do list required. But here's the thing, be honest with yourself about the amount of time and energy that you can spend. If you only have three hours a week, cool, work with the three hours.
The key is that in those three hours, you are following a plan. You're not following vibes or your mood because as soon as your self doubt creeps in or your nerves creep in, it can be really hard to recover and you end up just kind of throwing away the week and telling yourself you'll start next week. Okay, back to Brendan. He didn't do it alone. He had SPRINT He had a roadmap and day-to-day support. And if you are listening and thinking, I want that kind of support. That sounds amazing.
That's the whole point of the SPRINT program. And it's so much more than resume writing, because honestly, resume is the easiest part. It's one tiny piece of the puzzle. SPRINT is for folks who want to land a new product job, and they feel like the search has become one big messy blob of overwhelming tasks. And the cool thing is you get a clear plan, you get personalized coaching on where you're at and where you need to go.
and supportive community of other PMs that are all on the same journey with you so that you're not doing this in the dark. So remember, your job search is not this unsolvable problem. You just need a smaller, actionable plan and a little bit of backup from folks who've been there. I'm cheering for you. I hope you can at least start with your simple tasks this week of identifying a target role and updating your materials and getting focused on a plan.
But if you'd like to apply for the SPRINT program, you can go to jesssherlock.com/sprint and you can schedule time so we can chat or send me a DM on LinkedIn. I would love to hear from you. I'd love to hear what baby steps you're taking or where you're feeling stuck. And I'd be happy to point you in the right direction.
Our spots in the SPRINT Program for December are all taken, but we do have spots opening up for January. Wouldn't it be cool to go into your holiday break knowing that you're coming back to a solid plan that you're gonna kick off and execute right at the start of the year get that new job? I think that'd be really cool and I'd love to help you. I'll see you next time on AFTER THE CERT.
