Applying to jobs online that are going to ghost you isn't your only option. There's another path: optimizing your LinkedIn profile for inbound.
It's a shame no one regularly does it. (And that's why it works.)
Here's what the standard guides don't tell you:
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1. Job Applications are a Black Hole
Using traditional routes of job searching puts you in the same job pool as everyone else.
It's a job pool with tons of job seekers and very few available jobs. The latest BLS data found US job openings are back to as low as Covid levels. And layoffs have been brutal.
The result is, you're most likely result is to get ghosted. No matter how much work you put into your applications.
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2. Referrals and Work Products are Tons of Work
There's a way to differentiate from the job pool. You earn lots of referrals and build work products.
Many people who are getting jobs in this market use those tactics. They're much more effective than simply applying.
But they take an enormous amount of time. So the impact is there, but the ROI less so.
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3. Inbound is the King Channel
Inbound, on the other hand, is by far the biggest bang for the buck. Simple, regular optimization can result in roles coming to you.
Plus, when it comes to conversion rates, inbound typically has the highest rates. You're much more likely to go from recruiter screen to first round especially.
On top of all that, it's the only way to land the most coveted, senior roles. Most of those aren't listed.
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This is Why Inbound Optimization is Key
Putting it all together, Inbound is by far the best job searching channel. It's kind of the "SEO" - slow and steady.
So, it's a shame that very few people optimize their LinkedIn, and just keep applying to more jobs.
For a company founded in '93, Nvidia's ascent to $2.7T market cap has been FAST. But what really is Nvidia's moat?
Let's break it down.
PART 1 — SOFTWARE
The story starts all the way back in the early 2000s. That's when Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO, and his team were out meeting researchers using their products.
Most researchers were hacking graphics packages to run complex parallel compute tasks. It was not ideal. To say the least.
So, when the Nvidia team met Ian Buck, who had the vision of running general purpose programming languages on GPUs, they funded his Ph.D. After graduation, Ian came to Nvidia to commercialize the tech.
Two years later, in 2006, Nvidia released CUDA.
C ompute
U nified
D evice
A rchitecture
CUDA made all those parallelization hacks the researchers were doing available to everyone. Over time, CUDA became the default choice for researchers.
CUDA allowed accessible customization of the low-level hardware. So developers loved it.
Nowadays, when startups like MosaicML evaluate the available technology vs CUDA, they inevitably choose CUDA.
The ecosystem around CUDA has grown so robust that its lead is virtually unbeatable. This software layer is at the core of Nvidia's moat.
PART 2 — HARDWARE
The other side of Nvidia's moat is hardware. But it's not graphics cards for crypto and gaming. The hardware that matters is AI supercomputers.
The story of these supercomputers begins in the late 2000s. As Nvidia was developing CUDA, Jensen asked the team to build a supercomputer to help him build better chips.
The result was a massive supercomputer that weighed 100 pounds and strung together many GPUs with world-class networking for ultra-fast computing.
In the early 2010s, Jensen gave a talk at a conference about this AI supercomputer. Elon Musk got wind of it and said, "I want one."
So, in 2016, Jensen actually donated one to Elon Musk's relatively unknown nonprofit, OpenAI. He hand delivered it, and there's photographic proof.
OpenAI quickly learned the supercomputer worked really well. Especially for training large neural networks. That 2016 Pascal architecture delivered an impressive 19 TFLOPS of FP16 operations.
That's 19 trillion floating point operations per second. It's a massive amount. But that was just the beginning.
Since then, Jensen and the Nvidia team have been lapping the industry in delivering more TFLOPS, growing them at an exponential rate.
The latest Blackwell architecture delivers a massive 5000 TFLOPS. That's >260x AI computer in 8 years. And sells for more than $75K. But buyers like Meta, OpenAI, Google, and Amazon just can't get enough, as their internal ASICs are nowhere near Nvidia's level.
As a result, Nvidia's profits and market cap continue to soar, cementing its position as a leader in the AI hardware and software space.
Jensen is one of the most impressive entrepreneurs alive.
He spotted the AI revolution before any other semiconductor CEO and bet the company on it.
That's a rare trait.
And he has a rare management style as well.
He has over 60 direct reports, and doesn't have 1:1s with any of them.
He believes in sharing feedback in public, so everyone can learn from it. And he also does it to remove layers.
Spoiler alert: You shouldn't just immediately try to transform the company.
That a recipe for disappointment at best, and getting exited at worst.
Instead, figure out which of these 3 approaches is best for you:
1. Guerilla Tactics 2. Soft Power 3. The Long Game
They all can make you happier, but are totally different.
OPTION 1 - Guerilla Tactics
The reality is that most PMs don’t have the clout to drive transformation for everyone on their own.
So instead of trying to change everyone, you can just change your immediate vicinity.
For instance:
1. Organize 'innovation labs' that champion product model practices. 2. Offer to manage small 'side projects' that run in the product model, showcasing rapid progress. 3. Embed Agile principles subtly, using phrases like 'quick syncs' and 'priority check-ins' to avoid bureaucratic pushback
These are all little, tactical things that you don't have to be super public with. But they make your life better.
The key with all of these is to have a mindset that “I can shape my job.”
OPTION 2 - Soft Power
Another option that has worked for quite a few people is not to go guerilla - but go soft power.
So you're not under cover. You're out in the open.
You do things like:
1. Bring customer discovery and solution iteration into the process 2. Empower your designers and engineers in the what and why 3. Think like an owner about outcomes to drive 4. Then, you document and share those wins.
This is a really nice middle ground that PMs use to get promoted by bringing state of the art practices to their product domain.
Instead of just bringing happiness to your job, you also try to move the company along.
Especially with that step 4.
OPTION 3 - The Long Game
This final option is a long-shot... and too many content creators jumpt to his.
But it can be done by PMs who want to stay at a company--and also effectuate change.
The idea is you:
1. Get in with some execs: you find and win sponsors 2. Patiently prove out the process: you slowly keep showing proof points of success 3. Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate: act as the on-the-ground cheerleader for the initiative
And you try to be that unicorn IC PM who helps drive transformation org-wide.
But beware: the odds are long. Options 1 and 2 also can make you happier.
Too many people underrate them.
I see so many PMs saying stuff like this. It's a shame.
The books idealized too much. Enjoy what you have.
Too many people get the advice, 'if you're not in this ideal, move to it' and I just think that's too one-size-fits all.