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Mallory Chowansky
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My wife, Kristen Hege, and I will backpack the 2,600-mile Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexican border to Canada beginning on March 25th. I started a second Substack newsletter to share progress with friends and family, and you are welcome to follow our progress, too.
Based on these conversations, two months into my search, I could describe what I was looking for: a VP Product role at an emerging, high-growth consumer internet company focused on entertainment, education, or productivity. The description gave me sufficient focus but was also broad enough to include opportunities I might not have considered at the start of my search.
In my job search, I focused not on finding and applying for jobs but on extending my network to set up an active perimeter where I received alerts when high-potential roles triggered my network. Instead of applying for jobs, I pushed myself to set up two high-quality conversations daily. In doing this, I made the job search an optimization problem. Each week I would sit down and think about all the people I needed to meet in the next few weeks, then begin the outreach to schedule meetings with them.
I became efficient at email correspondence and scheduling. Unlike the inefficient job application process, I maintained a focus and pace mainly within my control. I began to enjoy meeting and learning from new people in my network, and each conversation provided insight into potential future roles.
Over time, I discovered job opportunities before they became public. Through these many conversations, I developed insight into companies and roles and could communicate my passion for them. From time to time, I applied for jobs, but I️ maintained low expectations and always tried to connect with the hiring manager through my growing network.
The job fit the bill. Netflix was a good company, filled with bright people knowledgeable about creating customer and shareholder value. There was a vision that once the company got big on DVDs, it would invent a new worldwide streaming industry. Although Netflix had less than two million members then, there were many clues that the company would someday become great. I had used the DVD-by-mail service for years, and loved it, as did many of my Silicon Valley peers. There were a lot of 7 a.m. meetings between Neil and me, but I eventually got an offer and joined the company. It took me six months to find the job.
I recognize that my job search was unusual. On the downside, I was rusty from a two-year break. On the upside, I had substantial VP Product experience with startups, I could dedicate myself to a full-time job search, my wife had a high-paying job, and we had saved enough money not to worry about paying the mortgage. This financial cushion allowed me to be patient.
In building towards two meetings/day, focus on building connections with VCs, recruiters, entrepreneurs, peers with similar jobs, and contacts on your target list of companies. Use loose ties (neighbors, alumni, past colleagues, and acquaintances via shared activities) to extend your network continually.
These job-hunting techniques gave me a degree of control as I faced the inevitable peaks and valleys of my job hunt. And in the end, they helped Netflix to find me. I hope they will help your next great job to discover you.
I answer a few monthly questions, drawing from my experience as VP of Product at The Learning Company, Mattel, Netflix, and Chegg. My free \u201CAsk Gib\u201D product newsletter now has 30,000 subscribers. A few notes before I begin:
Our next Product Leader Summit will be on October 12th, and we\u2019re accepting applicants now. The event is designed to help 120 exec-level product leaders connect. Each year we have 1,000 applicants and build a 120-person class of 50/50 male/female and 20% black/Latinx product leaders. If you are a head of product, a VP or CPO-level product leader, or a director-level product leader at a large company, apply here.
You can purchase my self-paced Product Strategy course on Teachable for $200 off the regular $699 price. The first two modules are free, so you can \u201Ctry before you buy.\u201D There\u2019s no expiration date for the materials; you\u2019ll receive an invoice you can expense with your employer and a certificate of completion. Click below to learn more:
Over forty years, I have developed solid job-hunting skills, mainly because I searched for a new job every five years or so. These skills gave me the confidence to look for a new job whenever I became unhappy in a position and couldn\u2019t figure out how to improve it. Too many employees become dissatisfied with their job but don\u2019t dare to make a change. I hope this essay helps product leaders build the skills and confidence to find their next great job.
Job-hunting is both time-consuming and inefficient. From past searches, I remembered the frustration of applying for jobs and never getting a response, along with the debilitating series of \u201CNOs\u201D once you begin interviewing. As a past hiring manager, I remember posting a job, then the painstaking work of sifting through 200 applications for qualified candidates. I\uFE0F also recalled dedicating 1\u20132 days/week to \u201Csmiling and dialing\u201D for additional candidates. It\u2019s a frustrating process for everyone.
I started by creating a list of companies that interested me, then searched for themes within the list to help identify my interests. The following groups of ideas jumped at me: entertainment, education, and productivity/creativity software. I also noticed that almost all companies were consumer- and internet-focused. And although it\u2019s not apparent today, many companies were startups with a proof-of-concept ready to scale. At the time, I believed this stage was my sweet spot.
After beginning my career in marketing, I transitioned into product. I loved building things and eventually grew into VP Product roles at multiple consumer tech companies. At the time, I thought the next step in my career was to become CEO. I\uFE0F had office hours with Irv Grousbeck, a fellow Amherst College alumni and entrepreneurship professor at Stanford Business School. Halfway through our conversation, he said, \u201CGib, can I tell you something you may not like?\u201D He continued, \u201CYou\u2019re too nice to be a startup CEO.\u201D The feedback resonated with me \u2014 I thought myself too thoughtful and deliberate to be a startup CEO. Irv gave me the license NOT to take this next step and to focus instead on finding another VP Product role.
I also met Ron Hoge, another Amherst College alumni. His advice: \u201CGib, you\u2019ve talked about building an industry in the past. But it takes twenty years to build a company with that much impact, and you keep joining early-stage startups, scaling them, then selling them to larger companies.\u201D He continued, \u201CWhat if you join an established company you believe is good and help to make it great?\u201D This advice stuck with me, and I began to look at companies that were more mature than the startups I had joined in the past.
Letting go of the \u201Capply and see what happens\u201D mindset learned from our early academic careers is hard. Finding the right school was simple: we applied to many schools and then chose among those that said \u201Cyes.\u201D
In job-hunting, this mindset causes frustration. You apply for a job, get no response, then hear lots of \u201CNOs\u201D when you finally land an interview. And unlike school applications, few job opportunities pop up simultaneously \u2014 it\u2019s hard to line up choices in parallel. For all these reasons, finding a great job requires a different mindset and approach.
It didn\u2019t happen right away, but I eventually achieved the two conversations a-day pace. This effort helped extend my network to get the word out about what I was looking for, but my meetings with folks like Irv and Ron also gave me meaningful insight into best-fit roles.
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