Turn Your Career Around in 4 Weeks… Here’s How

If you are tired of sending resumes into the void and dreading Mondays and feeling underpaid, there's a better way. I'm going to show you how I've helped people land jobs at Google, McKinsey, Bain, and spoiler alert, it does not mean mass applying to jobs online. If you have sent out more than 25 resumes, stop and watch this video right now. This is also how I landed offers at Google, Intuit, and a multibillion-dollar hedge fund. This is about flipping the job search on its head. So let's get started. Week 1. Most people search for a job by putting together a resume, going on Indeed and LinkedIn, sending their resume out, and then waiting. Hey, everybody, when are you going to send me a job? That's not how it works. That's not how the best jobs are found. That's how the worst candidates apply. And it's actually really demoralizing because you're giving all your power away to a random recruiter or what's worse, some AI screen and simply sitting around waiting, feeling worse and worse every day. This is actually not the way that top jobs get filled. You don't need a shinier resume. You don't need some inside knowledge from your grandpa. You need a strategy. And that starts by getting radically clear on what you want. I want you to think about your job search like dating. You wouldn't just swipe right on everyone. Well, maybe some of you would. I've seen some of you in the comments. But what you really want to do is to become highly selective about what you want. That means you need to get specific. Something like this: I'm looking for a company in the healthcare industry, specifically health insurance, in the Northeast. The company probably has between 100 to 500 employees. Job titles I'm looking for include project manager, program manager, and the job salary is probably around $150K. Okay, now we can find all the companies that fit that criteria and we can go hunting. So how do you get specific? Well, you can start as simply as typing in a search term like introduction to healthcare program manager. But just getting a basic understanding of the job is the beginning. It's time to get even more specific, and the way to do that is to ask the right questions. Here are some that I want you to try asking: What is the career progression of this job? What type of experience do people who land this job typically have? What is the workload like? What are the salaries like? Then you want to get even deeper. What kind of skills and experience do you need to land this dream job? For example, if I'm like, I want to be a nuclear engineer, I'm not going to land that job. I'm not qualified for that job. But if you start to look at job descriptions on sites like LinkedIn, you can actually reverse engineer the job you want by showing you the skills you need and the range of roles out there. Some of these roles are going to appeal to you more than others. That's actually a good thing. Quantify how to get there and then make sure everything in your resume and your cover letter and your overall pitch ties back to that skill set and those job requirements. Week 1 action step: I want you to write a 1-page clarity document for yourself, and this becomes your filter for everything that follows. If you want a template that we prepared for you, you can download it for free. I'll put the link below. Week 2: It's funny that in America, so many of us say, "It's not what you know, it's who you know." "Okay, fine." But then the next part of the sentence goes, "That fucking sucks." No! The correct answer to that is, "Then you better learn how to know more people." That's what I'm gonna show you here. You wanna know the truth? The best jobs are not really getting posted online. They are in what I call the shadow job market. Those shadow jobs are the best jobs out there, and they're passed around quietly through coffee, text, Slack. I'm hiring for a job right now. Yeah, I posted it publicly, but I also sent my friends a message saying, hey, do you know anyone who would be a great fit for this? And of course, if they personally recommend someone, that person is getting the first interview. Now you can try to find these jobs, but the best way to land these jobs is to get referred. And I know what you're thinking. I hate networking. Well, I hate networking when it means going into a room of of other unemployed people and handing out business cards. I don't like that networking, okay? But I do like strategic relationship building, and I'm gonna show you how to do it. Number 1, make a dream 10 list. I want you to write down 10 companies or 10 people you would love to work with. And don't limit yourself. Go big. Be honest. When I did this in college, one of the people that I wanted to work with was Seth Godin. Well, I ended up being his first ever intern. I flew out to New York to meet him. Next, after that, I decided, hey, maybe Malcolm Gladwell would be somebody I wanted to work with. And I had this list, but over time I realized, ooh, I'm going to refine who I want to work with. And it became this guiding vision that helped me decide on my next steps. Number 2, reach out authentically. Find experts or business leaders in your potential field and start following them. Now, this doesn't mean you have to cold email them on LinkedIn and ask them for a job. But it probably means you should be interested in what they have to say if they are leaders in the industry you're going into. You want to comment on their posts, perhaps DM them something smart and specific. "Hey, I really admire the work you're doing at Acme Corp. Love to ask you a couple of questions about your role if you're open." Yes, these are busy people, but if you are communicating in a way that adds value, you have a better chance of capturing their attention. Number 3, ask smart questions. When you connect with experts in your target field, the best way to stand out is to ask really thoughtful questions that show you have done your research. For example, what surprised you most about working there? Or, I notice in your last role you worked at Beta Company, but now you're working at Acme Company. Which of your skills were transferable? That shows you've really done your homework. People want to know smart people. That's exactly how I landed amazing jobs. That's the same way you can do it by setting an intention, who are my Dream 10 list, by being smart, surrounding yourself with the questions they're asking, commenting on their posts, adding value, and then when you get the chance, ask them some really intelligent questions. Week 2 action step: set a goal to have 3 to 5 informational conversations this week. These are not job interviews. They're simply a way to connect with somebody. If you can't do them all in one week, Do it over 2. Now, sure, maybe your end goal is to work at their company, but it is important to build the relationship now to lay the groundwork for the future. Week 3. Holy shit. Do you know how many people I've interviewed where I can tell in the first 15 seconds they're not getting the job? Guys, I want to take you to the other side of the recruiting table. Let me just tell you instant no-hires for me. Number 1, you show up, you ramble. Goodbye. You're never getting this job. I go, tell me a little bit about your history. Well, it began under a palm tree on this beautiful day. The stars were actually shining while the moon— I go, I don't care. I'm talking about your work experience. Next instant no-hire: don't have answers for very predictable questions. Why do you want this job? Tell me about your experience. What did you do in your last role that would be relevant to this job? A classic mistake that people make when they show up to a job interview is they believe their job is to answer questions. Wrong. If you show up to an interview and your belief is that you're there to answer questions, you already lost. Top performers, on the other hand, they show up to communicate their key messages. They show up to collaborate. And I'm going to show you how to do that with something called the briefcase technique. Here's how it works. You research the company and the role in depth. You identify 3 to 5 challenges they are likely facing. You put together a 1-page document showing how you would help solve them, and then you bring that to your conversation, or you send it ahead with a little note that says, "Hey, I pulled together a few ideas that might be helpful." This flips the conversation. Now, you are not just another applicant. You are a problem solver. Now, let me just answer the questions that I know you're furiously typing in the comments. Ramit Sethi, so pretentious. I can't believe this. No one would— just listen. How do you find what the company's problems are? Well, you Google them in the news. You find out what happened the last time they reported earnings. You Google the CEO's name interview and you see what he or she is talking about. What are their biggest challenges? Where are the areas they're really proud of? You start to hunt. You start to understand the company that you are going after. That's the first way you do it. Second, you put together a short document with a list of what you think their challenge is and how your history and experience would help you approach solving it. Now, I know you might be thinking, like, there's no way for me to actually know this inside information, so my briefcase document is gonna be wrong. Yeah, your document is gonna be at least 40% wrong. That's not the point. The point is you actually did the work to stand out from all of the other applicants who just showed up like this. "Hey bro, what's up? Like, yeah, I love work." That's not an interview. That's not how it works. You show up prepared. You've already done more homework than all of your competitors. You pull out this briefcase document theatrically. "Oh, you know what? I actually know that the company is focused on improving conversion, so I actually put together a few thoughts on how I might approach it based on my experience." I have had people do this and land amazing top-tier jobs. I've had people land $25,000-plus raises. You can just search Ramit Sethi briefcase technique. And now you're not anxiously waiting, wondering what gotcha question the interviewer is going to toss out, catch you off guard. You are prepared. You're taking matters into your own hands. Interviewing like a top 1% candidate means knowing your value, communicating it clearly, and doing more preparation than everybody else. So when people say, "Tell me about yourself," you better have that answer ready to deliver in a crisp 30-second answer or their eyes are going to glaze over. In fact, I'm going to show you. Here's a bad answer to that question. Well, I grew up in Pasadena and I've always loved working with people. I've done a little bit of everything—marketing, customer service, product management, even some design. Mm, uh, mm, uh, mm, mm. I'm looking for a job where I can grow and Um, work with, um, a good, um, team. Please end my life. I don't want to be on this planet anymore if I have to listen to interview responses like that. I'm going to tell you why that answer is bad. Okay? We have 30 seconds to communicate the most valuable material that you, the interviewee, know that I, the interviewer, want to know. That answer meanders. It focuses on your needs, what you think is important. Instead of what the employer is looking for, and it doesn't get specific or granular. Now, here's a good answer. Well, I'm a content strategist. I have 10 years of experience growing traffic and revenue for media and recently e-commerce brands, and I have a track record of growing organic traffic by over 50% in one year. And I've developed a strategy that drove over $1 million in affiliate revenue over the last 12 months. I'm excited about this role because it gives me an opportunity to bring these skills to a brand that I admire and to learn more about how you do what you do. Do you see the difference? The value you bring to the table is front and center. No meandering, no ums and uhs. And not only that, there are specifics. There are metrics that back up what you're saying, and they prove your track record. Let's do it again. This time the question is, tell me about your last role. Here's a bad answer. Well, I was in charge of handling invoices and managing a team of, what do you call them, writers. I really like the team, tried to keep everybody on top of things. Do you see what's wrong here? It's generic, lazy, and sounds passive. Oh, you tried to keep everyone on top of things? I tried to brush my teeth this morning. Hope it worked. Come back to me when you have real results. Now, guys, before I go on to the good answer, I want to tell you why I am being so direct here. It's because I have seen so many people who are actually really good at what they do. They have great skills, great experience, they're good learners, and yet the way they present themselves does not communicate that at all. If you have landed job interviews and you didn't get the role, you are probably doing something that you don't realize. If you were to videotape yourself and actually watch your answers, you would discover that you are nothing in person like you think you are in your head. I've done this. I was horrified. I videotaped myself. My dad actually helped me, and I looked at myself. I thought I was Mr. James Bond. Oh, suave, debonair. I looked like shit. My answers were long, meandering, rambling, and I fixed them. And that is how I landed job after job after job. And that's what I want for you. Now let me give you a good answer. In my last role as managing editor of a major e-commerce site, I led a team of writers and editors and I grew our monthly readership by 30% while at the same time improving SEO performance. I also developed a series of high-converting articles that drove approximately $1.2 million in affiliate revenue. So knowing the difference between bad and good answers, here's the game plan for you. First, tell your story with strategy. I started in X, then I noticed Y, So I took the initiative to do Z, which resulted in measurable outcome. And focus on results, not simply responsibilities. Next, build rapport fast. You can mirror their language. If you've done your homework, you know some of the keywords that people in the company use. Use them and find points of connection. Oh, I saw your team just launched X. What was that process like? Finally, avoid the deadly trap, do you have any questions for us? If you don't have any questions, why would they hire you? I don't hire people who are not intellectually curious. Companies don't. There's a million other candidates that have great questions because they are legitimately curious. If you do your research and you really want to work for this company, you should actually have plenty of questions that you genuinely want answers for. At the very least, you can say, "Yes, I'd love to know what success looks like in this role 6 and 12 months from now." So here's your week 3 action step. I want you to create one briefcase document this week and use it in your next interview. If you want examples of actual briefcase techniques that have gotten incredible results, I'm gonna put a link below. And I'm gonna give you a bonus action step. Set your iPhone up on a little tripod and answer these 3 interview questions and then walk Watch yourself. Leave a comment below telling me what you noticed when you watch your answers. Week 4. All right, I know you're all clicking off this video. My video team is pissed off at me right now. Ramit, we just killed our retention. Nobody believes they can negotiate a $25,000 raise. Well, guess what? If you clicked off this video, you're not watching this anymore, so you're right. You can't negotiate a $25,000 raise. But for those of you who are still here, for the 3 to 4 people who still are, I'm gonna show you how to negotiate massive raises. Oh, and how do I know this works? Because I've helped tons of people do exactly this. When it comes to salaries, most people just take what's given to them. But why are you giving all of your power away? You know, if you went to a restaurant, you wouldn't simply take what they gave you. Oh, here's a moldy burger. Mm, yum. No, you go into a restaurant and you decide what you want. Now, if you are in between jobs and you start to feel a little bit desperate, I understand that it is easy to lose sight of the value and power that you have in this process. But I want to be clear with you, because not negotiating your salary can be costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your career. See, a company's role is to maximize their output while minimizing their cost. That's just how the system works. So it's up to you to understand your value and advocate for the compensation that the market tells you you deserve. Now, I'm going to give you a simple 4-step framework to negotiate your salary. And I'm going to give you the data on your side. Number 1, know your market rate. You can use salary.com, levels.fyi, Glassdoor. You can even reach out to your peers to get more data points. So you want to work in this type of role at this type of company. Great. According to Glassdoor, here is the typical range for that job. And of course, total compensation can include non-salary benefits, stock options, health insurance, all kinds of stuff. Number 2, anchor high. Know your worth and aim high so that there is room for negotiations. Based on market data and the scope of this role, including my experience, I'm targeting $85,000 total comp. Number 3, be ready to pause. If they say no, don't flinch. Say, is there flexibility in a signing bonus? Or here are some other things you can respond with. Is there flexibility? Could we revisit comp after 6 months based on my performance? Can we add a signing bonus? Number 4, don't be afraid to walk if the offer undervalues you. Not every salary negotiation is going to result in a $10,000 raise or more, and that's okay. Don't take it personally. If a company has a hard salary ceiling, that's not about you. They simply have their matrix internally. However, you can continue to negotiate other aspects of the role. Such as base, bonus, equity, PTO, even start date. Maybe the company will only pay you $75K when you were looking for $90K, but could it offer more flexibility with remote work in exchange, or more equity, or more PTO? There are times where you are more likely to be able to negotiate and times where you are less likely. When you have power, meaning when there is an industry shortage of people like you, you can negotiate your salary. That's actually exactly what happened during COVID People, particularly low-wage earners, saw their wages go up because people didn't want to work low-wage jobs, and so their wages went up. That's the way Econ 101 works. On the other hand, when the economy is not doing well, you might have a tough time negotiating your salary. So be aware of the industry dynamics. Week 4 action steps: prepare your negotiation script now. Be ready. Don't wait until you get the offer. Now I know what's about to happen. If you've ever Googled how to negotiate a salary and you end up on some old Reddit thread from 2011 with a bunch of incels saying you can never negotiate your salary, then you know that is not who I want to take advice from. Instead, hit subscribe. I'll teach you how to actually do it with examples, scripts, and I'll show you real people who negotiated $20,000+ raises. You know, a lot of— they stuck for years because they don't actually believe that they can change. But in just 4 weeks, you can change everything. Your job, your income, your confidence. I've seen it happen. I've done it myself. I've helped other people do it. Now it's your turn. Click here to go deeper on negotiating your salary with real examples and scripts you can use today.