Lesson 4 of 1220 minutesFree

Your personal search plan

Your positioning in three lengths, a LinkedIn headline search consultants can find, and a twelve-week plan built on activity you control.

Goes with Chapter 4 of How To Get Your Dream Job. Everything saves in this browser only.

Before you start

Your path

Choose your field and level. The examples and suggestions in this lesson change to match.

The story

Nine months of “quietly looking”

Marco · Engineering manager · ten years' experience

Marco led fourteen engineers at a payments company and had been quietly looking for a head of engineering role for nine months. Some weeks he applied for five roles. Then he'd hear nothing, feel flat, and do nothing for three weeks.

His LinkedIn profile still described the job he'd had two roles ago. When people at a conference asked what he was looking for, he said something different every time.

“I’m trying. It just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.”

Marco wasn't lazy. He was working without a plan, and judging each week by good news he couldn't control rather than by activity he could.

Step 1 · Three lengths

Ten seconds, thirty seconds and a written bio

Different moments need different lengths. If you did Lesson 1, bring in your thirty-second pitch and sharpen it.

Your ten-second line (introductions, events, the first line of a message)

Your thirty-second pitch (search firms, “Tell me about yourself”)

Your 100-word bio, in the third person (shortlist reports, programmes, board applications)

Step 2 · Your LinkedIn headline

Be findable by the people who fill senior roles

Search consultants search by title, sector and keywords. Use the pattern: professional identity | speciality | the value you bring.

Professional identity

Speciality

The value you bring, with a number if you can

Preview

Step 3 · Twelve weeks of activity you control

Measure effort, not luck

Set weekly targets for the things you control, then log what you actually did each week. At senior level, fewer applications and more conversations is normal.

Weekly log

Week

★ Core activity

Your search plan

Your three lengths, headline, weekly targets and progress so far, on one page. Review it every Friday: what did I do, what moved, what's my plan for next week?

Before you move on

Three questions

Five minutes, in English or your own language: whichever lets you think most clearly.

How did it feel to say your ten-second line and thirty-second pitch out loud?

What's one thing on your LinkedIn profile or CV that doesn't match your positioning yet?

What's most likely to stop you keeping your weekly plan, and what will you do when it happens?

What to remember

Five things to keep

Your positioning is the core message everything else is built from.
Have it ready in three lengths: ten seconds, thirty seconds and a written bio.
Your CV, LinkedIn and conversations should all point to the same target.
Judge your week by the activity you control, not the replies you don't.
A simple tracker shows where your search is working, and where it's stuck.

Lesson 5: Target employers and the hidden job market

Rank thirty organisations by fit and access, write outreach that gets replies, and become findable by search firms.

Start Lesson 5 All lessons

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