Small Market Job Search: A Strategic Shift for Success

You can’t approach a small market job search like a large market one.

In the large market job search, your opportunities are plentiful:

• You live in NYC or Bangalore
• You’re qualified for several types of roles
• There are plenty of companies hiring for those

But there are a lot of cases where you have a small market:

1. If you’re not in a big city (now that RTO is here to stay)
2. If you’re going after a specific function
3. If you’re targeting 1 industry

In these cases, you need to employ the small market approach.

The small market approach isn’t a bad one. It’s just different. In fact, it’s worth more people adopting.

It’s perfect for aspiring PMs, career switchers, those with a career break… even if they live in a large market.

So how do you go about executing on this small market job search?

I go deep on the top misconceptions, tactics, and first principles in my latest newsletter issue.

Your process just needs to completely change:

1. You have to go from starting with jobs to starting with companies
2. Instead of applying and then studying, you study first
3. Instead of referrals, work products, and customized resumes, you get intros and create demand
4. Then you keep doing the process even if you fail at first

It’s a complete 180. But it works.

Why listen to me?

1. I got my job at Epic Games in North Carolina using a small market approach.
2. I’ve coached several laid off PMs on this approach (even some who lived in big cities) to get interviews in the past few weeks.
3. I’ve helped several PMs get jobs using these techniques over the past few years.