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Job searching as a generalist pt 1

Job searching as a generalist pt 1

This article will be a bit different.

Usually, I write about my reflections - the best advice I received, things I wish I knew, or processes that have helped me in different areas of life.

But this time, instead of reflecting, I'm taking you along with me for a ride.

A job hunt ride lol.

At the time of writing, I am in the very first week of applying for jobs, and I thought it might be much more fun (and motivating) if I document it as it unfolds.

That said, if you've been reading these articles for a while or have been watching my YT videos, you know that if there's one thing about me, it's that I hate to work through things unsystematically.

I always need a plan and a clear process to follow to feel that I am on top of my stuff.

But, since this is very much work in progress, the process might evolve, get messy, or need some tweaking as I figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Ok, so to give you a bit of an overview, we're going to talk about the overall plan to find a job, I’ll share the options I’m considering after leaving strategy consulting (and if you’re also in consulting, this part could be helpful); I'll share the different avenues to find a new job and which ones I'm focusing on at the moment.

If you're also job hunting, it is my hope that this article will give you some inspiration on how you could potentially plan this process without getting overwhelmed.

The plan

Let's start with the overall plan.

The initial timeline I set for myself is three months, but this doesn't mean I intend to have a job by then—it's more of an orientation timeframe for scheduling all necessary activities.

The plan is made of roughly five stages, which will likely overlap.

The first stage is about getting to grips with what’s out there—which industries I want to focus on, which companies, and what kind of roles I might be interested in and be a good fit for. I allocated 1-2 weeks to do this sort of landscape mapping.

The next phase is reach-out prep and reach-outs.

These days, I rarely (if ever) apply for jobs without first speaking to someone from the company. It's so much easier to write compelling applications when you understand the company from an insider's perspective, and you might also get referred, which almost guarantees getting an interview.

Yes, it might prolong the whole process, but the return on time investment disproportionately favours this route. So, in this stage, I will strategically (no, it's not random) identify people to reach out to from each and every company I have on my list and cold message them. I go into more detail about how I did it when applying for consulting jobs in this video:

On top of this, I also want to try something I've never done before. I learned about this method from an ex-colleague, and apparently, it's well worth the hustle because he's been getting amazing results. For the companies I really care about, I will do research and create some sort of market analysis and insights document relevant to their industry and the challenges they face, which I will then attach to my cold message.

I think my colleague's idea is brilliant because going the extra mile shows commitment and would help differentiate me from other candidates. I’m guessing I’ll have 3 to 5 favourite companies that really stand out. It should take me about a week to put together each market research document, so I’m setting aside 3 to 5 weeks for this activity.

The third step is preparing for conversations that (hopefully) come from these cold reachouts. This means getting my questions ready and doing some research on the companies. I’ll be using a cheat sheet I put together when I was prepping for consulting interviews two years ago—it has a list of questions to help me understand what their day-to-day work looks like and how they feel about their roles. The exact process I'll be using is described in this video:

The fourth stage is preparing and sending out applications. For this, I’ll rely heavily on a resume and cover letter template I’ve created, customising only the relevant details.

Finally, the fifth stage is interview prep. This will cover everything from getting ready for fit interviews to prepping any job-specific tasks or assessments.

I’ve intentionally left these last few phases open-ended because I’m not sure how long they’ll take or when they’ll start—it all depends on how the earlier stages go. For now, I just wanted to have a placeholder for the steps I’ll need to take later.

That's pretty much the plan.

The types of companies I plan to target

Before we dive in, let me quickly outline the industries I’m considering.

I’m not set on any specific industry or job type because my background is pretty broad, so I could potentially fit into various roles. For example, during my time in strategy consulting, I worked with pharmaceutical companies, international organisations, and medical technology manufacturers, so any of these could be options.

Now, depending on who you ask, my broad background could either be an advantage or a pitfall, but that's a topic for another time. It is what it is, and here is how I'm going to try to make the best out of it:

Consulting Jobs

I’d be happy to stay in consulting for a bit longer since I don’t feel I’ve fully satisfied my “consulting itch” yet. My previous team was focused on customer strategy, and now I'd like to work in a broader variety of projects, such as pricing, market entry, product launch, etc.

There are some consultancies I’d love to work for, but in Switzerland, there aren’t many that don’t require either French or German, and I don't speak either, so I’ll need to see how that plays out.

Industry Jobs

An alternative is exiting consulting. Based on my experience and background, these are the options I'm considering:

  • Startups: I’m especially interested in early-stage startups where the team is just forming. I love the idea of being part of something from the ground up.
  • International Affairs: I’ve worked on projects in this area before, and it feels like an interesting space to explore further.
  • Consumer Goods (Nutrition): With my MSc in Nutrition and experience at a nutrition-focused startup, companies in this space are definitely on my radar.
  • Pharma: Given my biomedical science background, pharma companies make a lot of sense as a potential fit + I worked with a few pharma clients in my consulting job.
  • MedTech: I’ve worked with a MedTech client in the past, so this could be another option.
  • Venture Capital: I recently chatted with someone who moved from consulting to VC. Based on what she shared, it sounds like the type of work I could really enjoy and be a fit for.

As you can see, the options I'm considering are very broad. I'm staying open-minded to see what kind of opportunities would align best with my experience and future plans.

Job search avenues - where to look for jobs

Ok, so when it comes to finding job opportunities, there are three main avenues in my mind:

1) Job Boards

I’m not a huge fan of job boards because they tend to lack structure, and I feel they’re less helpful if you’re not focused on a specific role, like a software engineer or graphic designer.

That said, I’ll still use them, but they won’t be my primary focus.

2) Company Pages

These include company websites, their LinkedIn page, and other platforms where they list job openings. 

But the thing is, not all jobs are listed publicly. Some are only posted internally or are filled through employee referrals, which leads me to the third avenue:

3) Contacts

You might think that to access this “hidden” job market, you must have a strong network, know a lot of people, or come from a well-connected family.

Nothing further from the truth.

Sure, it can be very helpful to use contacts from uni or your last job, but you can also build new connections while job searching.

And just to illustrate this with an example, when I was looking for a strategy consulting job two years ago, I spoke to over 50 strategy consultants from Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London, Stockholm, Zurich, Dubai, Geneva and more.

How many did I personally know?

2.

I connected with the remaining 48 on LinkedIn, had a chat about their experiences at a particular consultancy and got referred by some of them.

So yes, it is completely possible to access the hidden job market and dramatically increase your chances of getting an interview even if you don't have a strong network just yet.

To sum up, I’ll focus most of my job search on the last two avenues: company pages and contacts, which will go hand in hand.

Now, let me explain the steps I’m following in the first stage of my job searching plan

Job search stage 1 - orientation and figuring out what's out there

Step 1

Since I’m not entirely sure what roles might interest me, my first step is to figure out what kinds of positions I would enjoy and be a good fit for.

To do this, I’ll start by breaking down what different types of companies do and the roles they typically need to accomplish these tasks. It’s a basic approach, but it helps me map out where I might fit.

For example, let’s take a very general, high-level company structure. In my mind, there are three main buckets:

1) Delivering Value
This is how a company creates and delivers its product or service. Very simplistically, the main departments might include:

  • Research and Development: Comes up with and develops new products.
  • Operations: Makes and delivers the product.
  • Marketing & Sales: Spreads the word about the product and convinces people to buy it.
  • Finance: Handles money—payments, budgets, and more.
  • Customer Service: Helps customers and keeps them happy.
  • Business Development: Finds new ways for the company to grow, like new markets or partnerships.

2) Running the Business
This bucket ensures the company operates well internally. Broadly, main teams include:

  • HR: Hires people and supports employees.
  • Legal & Risk: Makes sure the company follows the rules and avoids problems.
  • Admin: Takes care of day-to-day tasks to keep things organised.
  • IT & Tech: Sets up and manages the technology that everyone relies on.

3) Strategic Direction
This bucket decides where the business is headed:

  • Corporate Strategy: Decides what markets or industries the company should focus on. For example, as a consumer industry corporation, should the company be in the chocolate, candy, or crisps business?
  • Business Strategy: Figures out how to stand out and win in those markets. For example, how to compete in the chocolate business?

With this framework, I can look into the typical roles within each department using chatGPT. From there, I can immediately see that the roles I could be interested in are within:

  • (maybe) R&D, specifically roles around innovation
  • (maybe) Marketing
  • Business Development
  • (maybe) HR, specifically roles around learning and development
  • Corporate or Business Strategy

From there, I'll build a list of job titles within each of these buckets that I might be interested in.

For example, the roles I might be interested in business development could include:

  • Business development / strategic partnerships manager
  • Market development manager
  • Entrepreneur-in-Residence

This list obviously won't match what I'll find in the marketplace to the dot, but it will at least give me an idea of what I'm after.

Step 2

Once I know the roles I’m interested in, the next step is understanding which companies might offer them. I’ll create a list of companies by type (e.g., startups, pharma companies, etc.). 

For example, if I’m looking at Swiss pharma companies, I’ll make an Excel spreadsheet with their names, locations, potential job openings and contacts I could use to get in touch with an employee.

Step 3

Next, I want to check if the companies I have listed have any job openings on their websites or LinkedIn pages.

Step 4

I also want to be alerted to any new job openings for the companies I have listed, so I'll create LinkedIn job alerts.

Step 5

And finally, I will want to figure out who I should connect with from each company.

  • If there’s a job opening I’m interested in:
    I’ll look for people who work in the same department or, ideally, someone currently in the role I’m applying for.
  • If there’s no relevant job opening:
    I’ll focus on finding people in departments I’m broadly interested in—like business development, strategy, etc.

In this step, I will use my contacts to the best of my ability, but will also branch out beyond my network if I don't know anyone who could be of help.

Once I’ve compiled this list, I’ll decide how to approach each person. For example, I might send something more elaborate to the senior employees (e.g. a piece of research). For people with a grade closer to mine, I’d likely keep it more straightforward and send a tailored cold message.

The idea is to be strategic: senior people are often very busy and receive countless messages, while those closer to my level might have more bandwidth to chat and be open to a conversation.

Wrapping up

And that's about it.

This is the process I’ll be following for the first two weeks of my job search.

Next week, I’ll be sharing a vlog-style video where I walk you through these steps in real time, so feel free to check it out if that sounds interesting.

Speak next week xx