Turn conversations into applications
Between a good conversation and an interview sit a handful of small steps people fumble. The referral, the tailored application, the tracker and the recruiter screen.
Do cold applications work?#
Rarely. For most roles, so many people apply that a cold application is a lottery ticket. Eric Posen landed a director of product role six weeks after a layoff. The roles he wanted had 500-plus applicants on LinkedIn, so he put almost all his effort into his network. Think about it from the hiring manager’s side: with five hundred cold applicants and four referrals, who gets looked at first?
Cold applying is dead. I really think it’s dead. ... Just try to think a bit from the perspective of the hiring manager. If you have five of those candidates and you have four or five referrals, who are you going to prioritize?
That doesn’t mean never apply cold. Alex Rechevskiy, a career coach and former Google group PM, says his clients’ callbacks come from both cold applications and outreach. He still calls outreach “the name of the game,” with far higher callback rates, but his point is fair: if you only network, you’ll miss things.
All the time we get like, I actually got a callback from a cold application. ... So it’s always half half. If you’re only doing cold applications, of course, you’re missing out. If you’re only doing networking, you’re probably also missing out.
So: take every opportunity, apply to roles you find even when you have no contact, and set a weekly goal. Just expect warm applications to convert far better, and spend your time accordingly. Cold applications do better in a few situations: smaller companies with fewer applicants, very specialized roles, and structured early-career programs.
How to ask for a referral#
You get here two ways. Either you spotted a role and then found someone who works there, or someone you talked to brought the role up. Either way, ask them to refer you.
Don’t treat this as a bigger ask than an introduction. Most of the time there’s little judgment involved, and many companies pay referral bonuses, so people are usually glad to be asked. Do it well, the same way you’d make any other ask: specific, easy to say yes to, easy to say no to.
Not all referrals are equal. Posen found the best ones came from people who work directly with the hiring manager and would message them, not just drop his resume into the referral system. A few of those let him skip the recruiter screen entirely.
The most effective referral will be somebody who directly works with the hiring manager. Not just someone who’s going to drop your resume into the ATS referral system, but somebody who will ping the hiring manager on their internal Slack and say, hey, I have a really good fit for this role.
So when you can, ask for both: “Would you be comfortable submitting a referral? And if you know the hiring manager, would you be open to sending them a quick note too? I’ve written something you can paste.”
“I’m applying for the Senior Product Operations role on the marketplace team (link below). Would you be comfortable referring me? We worked together on the Atlas launch, so you saw the cross-functional planning that’s at the center of this role. I’ve included the posting, my resume and a short paragraph you can use. Totally fine to say no if you’d rather not, or don’t feel you know my work well enough.”
For templates for every kind of relationship (a close coworker, a former manager, someone you barely know), see the referral request guide. Include everything they’ll need in one message: the job link and requisition number, your tailored resume, two or three results that match the role, and a short paragraph about you in the third person that they can paste into the referral form.
Tailor your resume to the job description#
Budget about 30 minutes per application to tailor your resume to the job description, with AI help. This isn’t a rewrite of your resume.
The goal is to think through what’s top of mind for the company right now, and how that shapes the job description and the role they’re actually hiring for. A company that just did layoffs framed as “we need to be more nimble and sell differently” is hiring for the world it’s moving toward. Show them you already live in that world.
Diego Granados, an AI product manager at Google, describes the job description as a cheat sheet: the company is literally telling you what they want to see.
You have to give them exactly what they’re looking for. You go and read the job description. ... Think of the job description as a cheat sheet. They’re giving you an exam. You have the cheat sheet.
Then read your resume and ask: does it point toward that north star, and does it back it up?
- Reorder bullets so the most relevant evidence comes first.
- Use their language for things you’ve genuinely done.
- Adjust your summary line so it speaks to the role.
- Cut anything that distracts from the match.
How well people do this varies, and that’s fine. The better you do it, the more success you’ll have, but don’t boil the ocean. Thirty minutes, then send it.
I'm applying for this role: [PASTE JOB DESCRIPTION] Company: [NAME]. Here's anything I know about their current situation (recent news, funding, layoffs, strategy, what people there told me): [PASTE OR "nothing yet"] My base resume: [PASTE] 1. In 4–5 bullets, describe what's top of mind for this company right now and what that means for this role. Separate what you can source from what you're inferring. 2. Name the 3 things the hiring manager most needs this person to do in the first six months. 3. For each, point to the evidence in my resume that best supports it, or tell me it's missing. 4. Suggest specific edits: a new summary line, which bullets to move up, wording changes that use their language for things I've actually done, and what to cut. Don't invent experience or numbers. Keep it to what I can do in 30 minutes.
Keep a job application tracker#
You don’t need a system, just a sane spreadsheet or folder. For every opportunity, track:
| Column | Why |
|---|---|
| Company and role | Obviously |
| Source | Referral, intro, recruiter reached out, cold application |
| Date applied | So you know when to follow up |
| Current stage | Applied, screen, interviews, offer, closed |
| Resume version | So you know which one they’re holding when they call |
| Contacts | Everyone involved, including whoever referred you |
| People to update | Anyone who helped, so you can close the loop at each stage |
| Next step and date | The single most useful column |
| Notes | What you learned in each conversation |
Set a weekly goal for how many applications you’ll send. The tracker is also how you’ll see what’s working: if warm applications turn into interviews and cold ones don’t, that tells you where to spend next week.
Download a free job application tracker template (CSV). It opens in Google Sheets, Excel or Numbers. The tracker guide explains each column and a weekly review routine.
How to pass the recruiter phone screen#
The recruiter screen, usually a 20 to 30 minute phone screen, has one goal: get to the next round. The recruiter should finish the call thinking “this person’s great, let’s move them forward.” You’re there to give them evidence, not to gather information for yourself.
Don’t treat it as box-checking. Anneli Scopazzi, who has recruited at Figma, Notion and Palantir, points out that recruiters sit in the debriefs with hiring managers. If you treat the call as a formality, you’ll probably still pass, but you lose the chance to have the recruiter argue for you.
If your experience is perfectly aligned, that recruiter, unless you say something really offensive, is going to pass you forward. But it does risk the opportunity for that recruiter to champion for you, because the recruiter is in these debriefs with the hiring managers.
Act like a candidate who’s in demand#
Confident candidates don’t grill the recruiter about timelines and process details. It can read as desperate. A well-run recruiter will tell you the next step anyway, and it’s fine to ask if they don’t. Urgency can come up later in the process, not here.
Answer “What are your salary expectations?”#
Ask what the range for the role is. Many postings now include one, so reference it if it’s there. You don’t have to say what you make now or what you want. There’s only downside: say a number too low and you’ve capped yourself, say one too high and you might be screened out.
In a growing number of US states and cities, employers have to post salary ranges and can’t ask about your pay history, so you’re on solid ground. Hold firm, politely.
Josh Doody, author of Fearless Salary Negotiation, has a script for “what are your salary expectations?” that you can use nearly word for word:
“That’s a good question. I don’t really have a number in mind right now. I want this move to be a big step forward for my career in terms of responsibility and compensation. I look forward to hearing what you suggest when we get to that stage.”
That’s a good question. I don’t really have a number in mind right now. ... I want this move to be a big step forward for my career in terms of responsibility and compensation. I look forward to hearing what you suggest when we get to that stage.
If they keep pushing, point to the market rather than a personal number:
“My understanding is that the market range for this role and level is roughly X to Y. I just want to make sure this role is in that range.”
You’re not committing to a number, and you can keep the range generous. If they push a third time:
“I’m genuinely flexible and more focused on fit right now. I’d rather not anchor on a number before we’ve both decided it’s a match, but I’m confident we’ll land in the market range if we get there.”
Online applications often ask the same thing in a required “desired salary” field. Leave it blank or write “Negotiable” if the form allows it. If it insists on a number, use the posted range, or the market range for the level if nothing is posted. The salary expectations guide covers every version of the question.
Questions to ask the recruiter#
Each one should leave the recruiter more excited about you. The recruiter isn’t an expert on the team’s work, so ask what they can answer: who specifically they’re looking for. Don’t ask what the job description already says. Ask them to confirm your read on the one or two areas where your fit is strongest, such as experience level, industry, technology, type of work or a specific skill.
“The posting reads like a zero-to-one role, which is where I’ve spent most of my career. When the hiring manager pictures the ideal person, is it someone who’s done that specific motion before, or are they weighing something else more heavily?”
A fill-in version: “The posting reads like [your read on the role], which is [your matching experience]. When the hiring manager pictures the ideal person, is it [that], or are they weighing something else more heavily?”
Send a thank-you email#
Same day, two or three sentences. Thank them, restate your interest in one line, and mention something specific from the call.
- Every role you want has a referral attempt, ideally from someone who knows the hiring manager.
- Each application got 30 minutes of tailoring to what the company needs now.
- Your tracker is up to date, including who to update at each stage.
- You have a script for the salary question you’re comfortable saying out loud.
- You have one or two recruiter questions ready for each role.