My Foolproof, Very Detailed 10-Week Roadmap To Get a New Job

Follow this and make shit happen, please.

Nov 06, 2024

[This is a free post created for the community — if you’d like to support my writing, please consider subscribing for $5 a month!]

Today it is November 6th. Let’s say that you’re looking for a new job, and have no idea where to start. Well, you sort of know what you want to do, but have been putting off actually taking action. I’m here to help!

In today’s post, I’m going to share a free 10-week plan — from now until the first week of the New Year — to get a new job.

Week 1 (Week of November 4th) — MENTAL PREP

This week is all about mental preparation. Listen, you’re about to do something crazy. Most people look at November and December as the wind-down. As downhill. As a time when you can relax, eat turkey, sip egg nog, and generally chill the F out. Let me tell you something. When everything else is relaxing, you can be working on yourself and getting ahead. All you need to do is remember why you’re doing it. What are the reasons that you are motivated to make a change? The way we’re going to approach this, we’re just going to do a little bit every week. Little by little, you’ll create more momentum. And if you fall off and get distracted, get busy with work, have a mini mental breakdown, don’t worry. That’s normal. Just get back on the horse and try to accomplish the next goal.

For this week, you’ll be doing some journal prompts. Just grab a piece of paper or a laptop and answer these questions:

Describe what kind of change you want to make. You want a new job? What kind? What would the title be? Are you pivoting? What elements are staying the same? What ones are changing?
When was the last time you tried to make a change like this? What was the outcome? What can you do better this time?
What does success look like? Imagine it’s early next year and you have found a new job. Where are you living, what are you doing, what is your day like? Try to describe in as much detail as possible.

Week 2 (Week of November 11th) — RESUME, PART ONE

You’ll work on getting your resume in order. Start by doing a data dump, into a simple Google Doc or Notion page, of all the projects you’re currently working on, or the projects you’ve done in the past year in your job. Don’t be precious about this. Just dump everything you do, you can organize later.

Pick a resume template that you like. Look on Etsy or Pinterest for inspiration. Search for “professional template” or “modern template” or “minimal template.” It’s okay to spend like $10 for a template here. Don’t use anything too designed, not too many colors, shy away from headshots. Make sure the font isn’t too small. If you’ve been in a job for more than 10 years, you can go onto 2 pages. No more.

Prompts for ChatGPT: “Create a bullet point that summarizes this [content] using friendly, approachable language, with at least 1 statistic, in 20 words or less, starting with an action verb.”

Week 3 (Week of November 18) — RESUME, PART TWO

Find 5 jobs that you like (e.g. don’t want to throw up when you read them) on Indeed or LinkedIn. Copy and paste all of the job descriptions into a single document. Start a list of 8-10 keywords that seem to be used often in those job descriptions. Make sure those keywords are in your resume, organically inside the bullet points and the description in your header.

Write an executive summary for your resume, keeping it to 1-2 lines. Do not overwrite this part! Keep it simple and straightforward. Something like “Strategic, marketing leader with 15+ years of experience leading multinational teams for brands including Dove, Mars, and Tesla. Thrives in fast-paced environments and managing high performing teams.”

If you have clients, make sure to name drop them in your resume. Make sure your bullet points aren’t longer than 2 lines and are visually consistent. Add one line about a personal interest and make it specific (e.g. Cantonese cooking, long distance running, hot yoga).

Give your resume to a friend, who isn’t an asshole, to look at. Ask for their honest feedback and then incorporate it. Done is better than perfect! For now, we’re going to call your resume done. You may have multiple versions of it, tailored to various industries. Just save them as FirstnameLastname_Marketing or FirstnameLastname_PRandCommunications depending on what you want them for.

Congratulate yourself for getting this very hard, annoying part of the process done. You can always come back to it and update it as needed. Don’t be precious about it!

Week 4 (Week of November 25) — LINKEDIN AND REJECTION PREP

For LinkedIn, make sure that you have an attractive, professional headshot. No children in the photos, no random spaghetti straps, nothing too sexy. Pick a high-resolution background image, you can get free images from Unsplash. If you have no idea what to use, consider a skyline (NYC skyline, SF skyline) or abstract art or even just a nice gradient (e.g. pink to grey). Search terms include “modern” or “art” or “desk aerial.”

Now, at this point, you must also prime yourself for rejection. You might want to say the following things to yourself, so that they have time to sink in.

Sample mantras:

I am strong and smart and attractive and worthy, this job search is not a reflection of my value
I will apply to jobs and not hear back from them. They will ghost me. This is part of the process.
I will apply to jobs, have interviews, meet people who are nice, meet people who are rude. They will bring me to the 2nd round or 3rd round interview, and they will ghost me. Again, refer to bullet point #1, and yes, this is also part of the process.
I am putting myself out there so I can do better for myself, improve my situation, get more aligned to a job that I’m better suited for, increase my happiness, and increase my wealth. This is not easy and most people give up. I will try my best not to give up.
I am allowed to take breaks and rest and reset. I will find a few people that I love and trust to support me the process. Sometimes people will be rude and question me, including my parents or random strangers, and it’s none of their business. Parents, I love you, but I will be fine — stop planting stories in my head. Random strangers, F off.
Etc., etc.

What I’m trying to tell you is that this is a mental game. The process if full of trap doors and sand pits and it will eat you alive if you’re not careful. Keep your mind strong and stay well-rested. You can do this.

Week 5 (Week of December 2) — COMPANY RESEARCH

At this point, you may be like, OK I’m ready to give up. I don’t want to do this anymore. Mandy, this is hard! Yes, I know. Keep going. Literally, just shut off that part of your brain and keep going.

This week, we are going to do a deep dive into company research. Come up with a list of 10 companies that you want to work for. It doesn’t even matter what they are. This is practicing being in the driver’s seat and choosing for yourself, companies that you like and you value. Or, if you might realize there are no companies that you want to work for, because fuck corporate America, in which case, you are probably an entrepreneur and most of this goes out the window, haha! We can save that for another article.

In the meantime, this week you are going to break the seal and apply for a job. Omgomgomg I am not ready. Don’t worry. No one is ever ready. We are just getting you used to it; dipping your toe in the water. Just pick a job, any job really, and hit submit. You probably will never hear back from this job. But that’s okay. Literally just apply to one. You need to know what it feels like to fill out all those stupid forms and cut and paste your resume and create a username and password, and want to pull out your hair.

From the 10 companies that you want to work for, make a shortlist of people you know who work at those companies. Even if you can find one or two people, that’s excellent, you’re doing great! In short time, you’ll reach out to them and be like, “hey, it’s been a while since we worked together at [insert random company], I see you’re now at [new company], I was wondering if you might have ten minutes to catch up — I see an opening that I want to apply for and would love your insights — or if you are busy (I know the holidays are coming up), I’d be happy to send just a few questions via email.” Oh actually, when I say “in short time,” I mean — now. Do that now.

Week 6 (Week of December 9) — WRITE YOUR BLURB

Now you have a list of companies, your resume, your LinkedIn, and a shortlist of people who either work at those companies, or know people who work at those companies. You likely also have a splitting headache, an impending sense of doom, and thinning hair. This is all so normal, sweet pea. Oh maybe you’re also recovering from family dynamics at Thanksgiving, and bloat from all that turkey. Take it easy!

Except we’re not really taking it easy. Now would also be a good time to take up something athletic, to calm your nerves and anxiety which might be spiking up. The voices that tell you, it’s not so bad, you don’t have to make a change, let’s just stay perfectly still and NOT CHANGE A THING, they’re going to be very present now.

So this week is about writing a blurb about yourself. It’s just that paragraph that you’re going to have, at the ready, anytime someone is like “sure, I’d be happy to intro you to the hiring manager — do you have like a little description I can send over?” And instead of panicking and being like I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO WRITE OR HOW TO TALK ABOUT MYSELF, you will be like, “oh yes, week six, I did write that blurb.”

It will go something like:

“Alison James is a brand marketer with 10+ years of experience leading digital experiences and strategy. She currently serves as VP of Marketing at NBC Universal, where she oversees global marketing, social media, and brand. Prior to this, she led direct to consumer marketing at American Express and Visa. She has her BA in finance from Columbia University, and lives in New York with her husband and two kids.”

You could even add a line that says like, “Alison is currently looking for new opportunities in the marketing and direct to consumer space,” or something that nods to what you want to do next.

You may never need this paragraph. But trust me, better to have it at the ready than scramble when/if people ask for it.

Week 7 (Week of December 16) — CREATE TRACKERS

Now we’re almost at the holidays, and it is really probably not the best time to actually be reaching out to people to set up coffees. You can try, if you know them or are friends with them. But if you’re reaching out cold, play it by ear.

What we want to do at this stage is to prepare everything. Like you’re about to make a great cobb salad, but you’re boiling the eggs and cooking the bacon first, and setting aside everything in those little glass bowls — and once the clock strikes, you can compose the salad with great ease. That’s all we’re doing. Just chopping and organizing and getting things ready. That way, come the new year, all you have to do is EXECUTE.

This week, you’re basically going to make a series of lists. I love a good Google Doc or Excel spreadsheet tracker, or you can use free tools online, but basically:

List of people you want to reach out out to, including name, company, title, how you know them
List of companies you have applied to, including company, title, link to the job, and status

You want a place for all of this to live, so that you can keep track of what’s happening once you start really applying. You can also see a history of your areas of interest. I know keeping track of it is a pain in the ass, but think of it as data. A record that you’re actually doing something. You can also add a mood tracker, so that you track your energy levels, excitement levels, blah I hate this levels.

Week 8 (Week of December 23) — APPLY TO ONE MORE JOB

There are only two things that you have to do this week, because I know this is peak holidays. First, I need you to apply to one more job. Just one. Any job, it doesn’t matter. Don’t overanalyze the job, or scrutinize it, or come up with reasons why you’re overqualified or underqualified. Literally just apply. Because you are doing something NOBODY does, which is work over the holidays on yourself. So just one is fine.

Second, I need you to clear a space in your room or home office, and dedicate it to the job search. Maybe place a candle or a crystal or a special journal in that place. You want to create a space for this change to live, so that when the new year comes, you can just take off. You already have your resume, your trackers, your blurb, and by this point you’ve already applied to not one but TWO jobs. So you’re already one million thousand gazillion miles ahead (not that we are trying to compete with others, but you know). OK that’s it! Enjoy yourself.

Week 9 (Week of December 30) — JUST KEEP APPLYING

Guess what, finding a new job isn’t an art. It’s just work. It’s just getting up, applying to jobs, doing a bit of networking, and continuing to look and have hope even when it feels hopeless. It is like lifting a series of heavy logs from one part of the yard to the other, over and over again. It’s not glamorous, it’s not fun. There’s not a lot of support. It’s mostly a lonely experience.

So as we run into the new year, I want you to just get into the habit of putting yourself out there. If you can find a friend who’s also looking for a job, and keep each other accountable, that’s even better. From here on out, you’re just going to put your head down and try to apply to at least five jobs a week. That’s one a day. Now, if you’re in a very niche area where they don’t even post one a day, fine, then make the adjustments as necessary.

But the number one question I get asked is, “oh do you think I should apply to this kind of job, or that kind of job? What should I do first? What should I prioritize?” My answer is: it doesn’t matter, just apply to everything. This is just throwing your hat in the ring, and sometimes they pick up what you put down. Just keep doing it, over and over again, until you make progress.

Week 10 (Week of January 6) — ASSESS AND KEEP APPLYING

You’re still here! You’ve got this! Now would be a great time to pause and assess for a hot minute. How have things been going? What’s been particularly challenging? And here’s the most important thing: what has come EASY for you? Whatever has come easy for you, I need you to double down. I mean it. If networking is easy, then do more of it — pour gasoline on that thing. If cold applications is easy, then keep going and don’t stop, Terminator style. Whatever is WORKING for you, I need you to keep going with reckless abandon. Do you hear me?! We all — the universe, your friends, your colleagues, your siblings — want this for you!!! Find what’s working and keep doing it.

Then, figure out what’s NOT working, where you’re getting bottlenecked, and take it verryyyyy slow. Like, painfully slow. Look at it. Really look at it. Examine it with both hands. Bring your eyes up very close, and figure out what the reason is for it not working. If you can fix it, try. If you can’t fix it, move on and try something else. That’s right, this is the time for you to pivot and do tangential things or semi-related things, or switch up your strategy. Have you been applying to only front-end engineering roles and getting nowhere? Try something else!!! Have you been getting to second round interviews and keep hitting walls? Grab a friend and ask if you can practice interview prep with them, watch videos about it on YouTube, record yourself, do whatever you need to do.

You won’t change without changing something about yourself. So embrace the weirdness, the discomfort, the I really-really-really-don’t-want-to and DO IT ANYWAY.

That’s it! That’s the roadmap. Please print this out, keep it with you, share it with a friend, and if you have any questions, just reply to this email or you can submit a question to the “I Have a Burning Question” form —

Thank you so much

Mandy aka Career Coach Mandy

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?