Don’t hunt new jobs, let the jobs hunt you
Invest time in yourself; find what you love doing, then the right job will find you once you are ready.
Invest time in yourself; find what you love doing, then the right job will find you once you are ready.

The traditional way of getting a job is dead. The ways we get job offers changed drastically due to our different scenarios compared to the 20th century; yet, many great professionals apply the old techniques in the hope of getting a job offer, that doesn’t work anymore.
It’s gone the time where candidates send their CVs to multiple companies.
Companies don’t look for people to execute tasks. Instead, they look for people to produce value and solve problems.
Candidates with exceptional academic backgrounds have no job guarantee.
The world is different, that’s why we need to adapt ourselves so that we don’t hunt jobs; instead, we must prepare to become the professional the market needs, which means the companies will hunt us! Then, what should we do?
Focus on improving yourself.
Increase your network.
Let the opportunities come to you.
With just a few small changes to your life, you could enter into the top 5% — 10% of your field. The competition is extremely low! Amazing, extraordinary opportunities are abundant, because so few people ever take the steps to discover them.
— Anthony Moore, Focus On Learning and Creating Rather Than Entertainment and Distraction
Focus on improving yourself
Your focus must be on yourself; forget about focusing on getting a job. First things first, without understanding yourself, and getting to a point where you are relevant to the market, you can only get mediocre opportunities. Therefore, the chances are high that you might be unhappy and unmotivated fast.
I learned that discovering our strengths is the secret. Once we know where we are strong, we can find out what we can do better. The secret is to make our strengths even more robust, meaning that we can become a specialist in a specific domain. Another mystery, forget about your weaknesses. Investing time on them is a waste because it may take too long to turn a weak point into a strength; instead, spend time on your strengths.
“Who you are is a result of who you were, but where you end up depends entirely on who you choose to be from this moment forward.” — Hal Elrod
After you understand your strengths, you must understand how that can become relevant to the business world. That is the moment you need to research and discover how you can better use what you do best. Once the goal becomes clear, then it is time to focus on learning. Self-development is a crucial point to become successful.
Your income, relationships, and success are determined by your learning.
Most people spend more money on entertainment and gadgets than self-education. This is why they remain poor and broke with superficial relationships.
The quality of your learning and how much you invest in yourself directly determines the extent of your growth.
— Anthony Moore, Focus On Learning and Creating Rather Than Entertainment and Distraction
We are so lucky because learning today is too easy compared to some years ago. We can get knowledge from free sources and many others in an accessible way. It is up to us to improve ourselves. In my case, once I understood that my strengths are: organizing, analyzing, structuring, planning, and communication. I found my passion for Product Development. I did the following to improve myself:
Books: I read 100+ books about product ownership, agile, Scrum, innovation, business, startup, KPI, leadership, and so on.
Courses: I took place in online classes on different platforms, like, Coursera, Udemy, and Lynda.
Blogs: there are endless free content; I decided to read what the professionals say about the trends and practices; some examples are: The Liberators, Serious Scrum, Scrum.org, and so on.
Certificate: I understood how to validate my knowledge. Therefore, I got the PSM and PSPO certificates.
The main point is, focus on making your strengths stronger so that you become a specialist in a domain that is relevant. For sure, that is not easy, it will take you a lot of time and effort, but it’s your call; either will remain at the comfort zone with no change, or you give yourself a chance of greatness.
“Ordinary people seek entertainment. Extraordinary people seek education and learning.” — Benjamin Hardy
Increase your network
The crucial part of getting a great job offer is about who knows you. Therefore, we must be actively building our network. We cannot stop working on our network, otherwise we become outdated and irrelevant at some point in time.
“It’s not what you know or who you know, but who knows you.” — Susan RoAne

We should take every single chance to increase our network; this is so powerful that we should never underestimate. We can help the people in our network as well as get help from them. Some ways of networking are:
Meetups: there are endless possibilities of events all over the world. We can find options for any subject we want. Meetups are great to get to know new people, therefore, increasing our network.
Conferences: you can take place at conferences to gain more knowledge as well as get to know recognized people in your industry. This is an excellent opportunity to get closer to relevant professionals.
Social Network: the social networks are robust; there are endless possibilities as well. Mainly there is more professional content on LinkedIn, but don’t forget about other great places as Twitter and Medium.
Sharing knowledge: you can share your ideas and exchange experience with different from all over the world. It is another authoritative source to increase your network.
Most people will like you if you begin by showing interest in them. Asking them about their opinions, experiences, and interests is a great place to start.
— Michael Thompson, 59 Conversation Starters to Get the Most Out of Networking Events
Let the opportunities come to you.
The opportunities will come to you once you are ready for them. They may come in different ways, through someone who knows you, recommendations, or even from a recruiter who found you. So you need to work on it.
One way of starting is with LinkedIn. However, don’t fall into a trap; don’t think that LinkedIn is your online CV. This time is also gone; LinkedIn is a business network, so you should be active on it.
Most users are not clicking your profile, they stay in the newsfeed of the app to consume content. Your LinkedIn headline tells people what you do for a living, meaning they don’t need to click your profile. The data I’ve collected on this phenomenon backs it up too.
People are not clicking your profile anymore so quit endlessly messing about changing job titles, tinkering with your summary and trying to get endorsements. It. Just. Doesn’t. Matter.
Share stories; be useful.
— Tim Denning, How I Completely Changed My Career Using LinkedIn
To increase the odds of expanding your network on LinkedIn, you should:
Share content: post your ideas; don’t be afraid.
Engage: there are so many people active. Therefore, you should engage with the posts; you should often comment, like, and share.
Add new people: keep connecting to more people, so that you can learn more and increase the power of networking.
You can understand your progress from the LinkedIn Sales SSI, which can lead you to better understanding where you can improve. My Sales SSI is the following:
I am super active on LinkedIn, though I have a good score, that was never the goal. I always aimed to increase the power of networking as well as learn from everyone out there; consequently, the more active you are, the more relevant you will become. Use the Sales SSI as a guidance, but don’t limit yourself only to that. There are many opportunities also outside LinkedIn.
There is much content about how to become more relevant to LinkedIn. Therefore, I will not go in-depth about it. One article I would recommend is 13 Easy LinkedIn Hacks That Will Boost Your Profile Views from Larry Kim.
Let the jobs hunt you
Don’t apply to jobs; let the jobs hunt you. Use the power of the network. I have never applied for a job, yet, I have worked in more than ten places. My opportunities appeared in different ways, let me share some examples:
My first job as a Product Owner: I was 22 and decided to do an English immersion course for seven days. I met great people there; we always kept in contact; two years later I got a call from one guy I met there, he invited me to work as a Business Analyst, which became later a Product Owner position. That’s how I moved from a small town in Brazil to São Paulo;
MBA Teacher: I am passionate about knowledge sharing. Therefore, I keep in contact with some of my MBA Professors. One of them had to stop teaching due to health conditions. Then he invited me to do an experiment and give lessons instead of him; it seemed so challenging for me. But I accepted because one of the professors I respected the most trusted me to do that.
Moving from Brazil to Germany: I always dreamed about living and working in my area in Europe. However, I was not sure when that would happen. Then without any expectations, I received a contact from a Head Hunter; one position in Munich matched my skills, so after a round of interviews, I ended up in Germany.
“The goal of life is not to relax on the beach, sipping mojitos all day. The purpose is to find something you love that adds value to the world.” — Ben Foley
Wrap-up
If you want to get a great job, then focus on yourself, become a specialist on a domain, then the job will come to you.
Understand where your strong points are and make them even stronger.
Understand how you can use your strengths in the business context.
Consistently build your network.
Be active in the community, don’t worry a lot about your brand; instead, share relevant content, and engage with the others.
Be attentive to the opportunities; they will come in different ways, then the question will be if you are ready to take it.