🎧 Never Search Alone vs SPRINT for your Product Job Search
In this episode I compare the Never Search Alone process, including job search councils, to the SPRINT Product Management Job Search Program so you can make an informed decision on which one is right for you.
(Hint: SPRINT is probably a better fit if you're looking for your first, or next, PM role.)
Key takeaways:
SPRINT is designed specifically for the unique aspects of a Product Management job search. Job search councils are career agnostic.
SPRINT is led by me, Jess Sherlock, an experienced Product Leader, Co-founder, and Product Coach with 10+ years of experience in the field. Job search councils are volunteer-led, often inconsistent, and may or may not include folks with product experience/expertise.
SPRINT is proven to help PMs get faster and easier traction in their job search through proven templates, techniques and training that has worked for 125 PMs and counting. Job search councils do not include training and preparation for Product-specific interviews such as case interviews, product sense questions, and take home assignments.
Could you use some support on your product job search?
Whether you’re new to Product Management or looking for your next role, the job search can be tough. If know you need guidance, strategy, and end-to-end support, learn more about my SPRINT coaching program that helps Product Managers land their first (or next!) role.
-
Jess Sherlock (00:00)
There's nothing wrong with job search councils. And in fact, we share a lot of the same values between the Never Search Alone process and the SPRINT We look for good fit. We want to make sure that you are targeting roles that leverage your strengths and interests. also...
really encourage community and literally not searching alone.
Jess Sherlock (00:18)
Welcome to another episode of AFTER THE CERT the career podcast for product managers who've collected all the certifications and taken all the courses and still feel stuck in their product career. I'm your host, Jess Sherlock, product management career coach. I know firsthand what it feels like to be overwhelmed, lonely, and stuck in your product career. And I'm on a mission to help you feel confident and empowered to take the lead your product career and achieve your unique career goals.
on me for practical and actionable advice, plus relatable stories from PMs navigating the messy middle of their career.
And remember, if you're feeling stuck with your product management job search, worried about making a great impression during your first 90 days in a new product job, or you want to position yourself for a promotion at work, I'm here to help. You can check out my coaching programs at jesssherlock.com/apply.
and book time on my calendar so we can chat.
Let's get into it.
Jess Sherlock (01:15)
Hey everyone, today I have a quick FAQ for you because I get this question so often I thought it was time to share what I think. So when I'm talking to folks about SPRINT my job search program designed specifically for product managers, I often get the question, how is this different from Never Search Alone Or should I just join a job search council? Now, if you've never heard of Never Search Alone, it was a book written by Phyl Terry, and I actually fully agree with the process.
But SPRINT is very different and I wanted to take some time today to talk about the pros and cons of each one might be a better fit for you. So the Never Search Alone process is based on a book by the same name and it's a volunteer-led community of folks who are searching for their next job and they self-organize into these groups called job councils. Now, job councils are generalized.
They may or may not include product managers. And this Never Search Alone process is not just dedicated to product managers. However, SPRINT is. Inside the SPRINT program, it's focused and 100% all the unique aspects of a product management job search.
curriculum, all the templates, worksheets, group events, everything is geared directly towards product management job searches and includes only product managers. So when you're joining the SPRINT program, you don't have to worry about being surrounded by folks who don't get it or being given advice or content that doesn't apply to a product management job search.
Now, the next thing that I think is important to know if you're considering joining a job search council is that these councils are entirely volunteer led. They're led by whoever steps up to lead them. And so your experience is going to vary. And this is something that I've heard from folks many times who might have joined a job search council before joining SPRINT is may have had a really great job search council, but then the momentum sort of teetered out as time went on or there wasn't really anyone who ever stepped up to lead things. So
If you get lucky and you have someone who really takes the reins and maintains that momentum, then you may have a great experience. But if you're looking for someone to lead your experience through your job search, who has been there before, who is always going to be you the next most actionable important step in your job search, and being led by someone who has over a decade of experience on product management and in leading teams in product and in hiring product managers,
then SPRINT's gonna be the way to go.
Now, the next thing that's worth pointing out is speed. Job search councils tend to move slowly through the early stages. So typically they're advising you to do some discovery work and go through a discovery phase where you learn about your career strengths. You go out and do a listening tour where you meet with previous coworkers, maybe previous bosses, and ask them for feedback on your strengths and weaknesses so that you can figure out what type of role you might want to target next. Now,
What I've heard from folks is if time is of the essence or maybe you just got laid off and you're feeling really eager to find your next role, job search councils don't necessarily move as quickly as you would want to. I've heard anecdotally that these job search tend to meet once a week and that can sometimes feel really slow. On the other hand, SPRINT is literally designed to help you get traction in your job search fast.
week one, you'll meet with me so that we can get your job search strategy put together. We're going to decide exactly what types of jobs you should be applying to or not, and exactly how we're going to position you to have the best possible chance of success. From there, we're going to get your resume sorted out, and our goal is to have you applying within no more than three weeks, ideally two important to you,
I would encourage you to consider opposed to a job search council.
All right, the next thing I'll say is that job search councils include a variety of folks. So it's a great thing if you're looking to build your network and you're open to industries and level of experience of the folks that you're connecting with, but you never really know what types of people are going to be in your specific job search council. It might be folks who don't even work in tech. It might be folks who don't even work in the industry you work in. so folks who are partnering with you on your journey and providing support,
may or may not be able to provide helpful feedback and they may or may not speak your language. So your experience will vary depending on the group you're a part of. Now, on the other hand, SPRINT includes all the templates you're going to need, all the tools, all the techniques to nail every stage of a product management job search. We take you from an ATS approved resume to proven outreach strategies.
to a personalized job search strategy, to interview prep, including not just behavioral questions, but all of those product specific interview questions, whether that is case interviews, take home assignments, or product sense questions. help you with offer negotiation. And so if having that targeted help to save you time, to save you that trial and error is really important to you, again, I would encourage you SPRINT.
frequency of meeting and support. So in job search councils, I said before, they typically meet once a week, but it's really up to the members of the team to ensure consistency and to ensure of all of the meetings. And so the support you're going to get out of the group is really going to vary by the folks who are in it. Anecdotally, I've heard from folks that they got lucky. They got in a group that was really well organized, super productive, and that's awesome.
But that's not always the case. I've also heard of situations where it feels like you're trying to drag along all these folks in your job search council. And so it's really going to be just so influenced by the folks that you're in a group with. And so if you're looking for support every step of the way,
We are going to be here to answer your questions, to help you with those curve balls that come up. You can post questions into the community and get async answers. We love sending you a DM. We love sending you voice memos. And so if you're looking for really hands-on support when you need it and you don't want to be at the mercy folks that you're grouped up with in a job search council, then I'd strongly encourage you to consider SPRINT.
hope your takeaway from this episode is that There's nothing wrong with job search councils. And in fact, we share a lot of the same values between the Never Search Alone process and the SPRINT process. We both look for good fit. We want to make sure that you are targeting roles that leverage your strengths and interests. We also...
really encourage community and literally not searching alone. So inside of SPRINT, we're doing that with everyone who's in the SPRINT program supporting each other along the way. We don't do cohorts, so you can join any time. And that's really neat because you might come into the SPRINT program today and associating with folks who've been on the job search for a few weeks or a few months. And so you can kind of learn from what those folks are seeing out on the job search themselves.
So if you're interested in getting support like this through the SPRINT program, I'd encourage you to check it out at jesssherlock.com/sprint, and you can book a call so we can chat. I'd love to talk to you about how we could help you from end to end with your job search, get you set up with a personalized job search strategy, get your resume going, get your LinkedIn optimized, and get you out there applying for your next job. And as always, you know how to reach me. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn, send me a DM. I'd love to hear any other questions that you have, and I just might cover them in a future episode.
I'll see you next time on AFTER THE CERT.
