Jobhunting is Selling

... and You are the Product!

Your vacuum cleaner broke down...

Your faithful vacuum cleaner of 10 years broke down this morning and you need a replacement. You go to the nearest mall and walk into a home appliance store.

In the vacuum cleaner section, you spotted three brands:

Dyson (British brand, most premium)
Electrolux (Swedish brand, trusted brand; it is premium as well)
LG (Korean brand; good product)

How will you choose? All vacuum cleaners have the same purpose. Which one will you choose?

Personally, I don’t enjoy shopping a lot. I like to make decisions quickly. I might make a few quick reviews on the internet before I visit the store.

In the store, I look for promotions. Sometimes, I listen to what the store promoters say. They might share their experience in using the products. I don’t usually believe them unless they come across as very sincere and trustworthy.

I like quality products but I don’t choose the most premium and expensive ones. I seldom go to the cheapest products as well. In the vacuum cleaner case, I might play it safe and get an Electrolux.

Using the same analogy, when a hiring manager is looking for a candidate, he looks at many candidates and he has to make a choice. It is a difficult, risky, and stressful process.

Many hiring managers are not skillful in selecting candidates. They take shortcuts and rely on a stereotyping approach. I can’t blame them as they don’t know better.

In a jobhunting situation, you are the product and you need to sell the product.

As a product, you have a specific purpose.

You can perform certain tasks to solve problems.

Treating yourself as a product may imply that you lack humanity. It is not.

I invite you to bring your entire human into this product.

At the same time, I also invite you to be brutally honest to look at yourself as the product.

When you are sending your CV to headhunters or employers, your CV represents the product. Your CV is put against a list of criteria to check whether it meets the requirements of the job.

Often, this process can be 30 seconds or less.

Your CV needs to present the product in a way that satisfies the needs of the company and captures the reader's attention.

What is the function of your product?

Let’s go back to the home appliance store. If I’m buying a vacuum cleaner, I expect all vacuum cleaners to have similar basic functions. The same goes for juicers, rice cookers, or shavers. Every brand might try to differentiate itself with better features and benefits. But I don’t expect a juicer to cook my rice and I don’t expect a vacuum cleaner to play music.

Dyson tries very hard to sell us the most expensive vacuum cleaners that we can buy. The Dyson v15 Detect(™) Absolute includes lasers to detect particles. It has an indicator showing how much dust of different sizes it has collected, plus an AI function to adapt the power to dust levels. Amazing!

But, it is still a vacuum cleaner. It sucks in dirty stuff and helps to clean the surfaces of your home.

If I’m hiring a finance manager, I expect all finance managers to have similar basic functions as well. Your job is to take care of the finances of the company. I expect you to have an accounting or finance degree, understand the newest accounting standards, be able to perform financial analysis, and hopefully, you can manage a few junior accountants.

Well, I might expect you to know business intelligence tools like Power BI. It will be great if you have previous experience in being a business partner to the Managing Director. If you have good communication and presentation skills, that will be a good plus. Finally, if you manage finances in multiple countries and understand the challenges, you will stand out compared to others.

In short, understanding that you are a product and knowing that you have competitors will help you to prepare better for your jobhunting journey.