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I've been in and out of interview processes for months now. Some good, one where I withdrew myself, a couple that taught me more than any article could have. Looking back at the whole stretch, there are two things I wish someone had handed me before I even opened LinkedIn Jobs.
One: what to actually check before you hit apply, because most of the signal is sitting right there in the posting if you know where to look. Two: that your first few interviews were never supposed to be the ones that land, and treating them like they were just about wrecked my nerves for months.
Let's go through both.
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A few months ago I made it to the case study round with a company I was genuinely excited about. Built the deck, ran the framework, felt good walking out of the room, the kind of good where you replay it on the drive home and think "yeah, I nailed that." Then I withdrew.
Not because I failed the round. Because that round showed me something the job posting couldn’t: how the team actually thought about the problems they were solving, and it wasn't how I think about problems.
Small thing. Big thing, actually.
And getting there, three rounds deep before I caught it, is exactly why I now think about applying completely differently, from the very first click.
💡Most of what you need to know about a role is visible before round one, if you actually look. And most of what you need to know about yourself in this market, you only learn by being in it.
Before you apply
1. Job posting specificity.
Vague bullets like "drive product strategy" or "collaborate cross-functionally" with no mention of team, metrics, or what you'd actually own is a sign the role might not be fully scoped yet either. If a posting could apply to five different companies, it probably describes a role nobody has fully defined. Which is totally fine, and gives you a great first question to ask the recruiter during the screening call.
2. The reporting line.
Who you'd report to and how big the team is. If it's not in the posting, ask. Being the first PM hire under an eng lead is a completely different job than joining an established product org. And again, both are totally fine; it’s really “what’s more important” question - ambiguity or mentorship?
3. Comp transparency.
Whether a range is posted, or how the recruiter answers when you ask directly. Evasiveness this early is rarely a one-off; it's usually a preview. Ask for the range in your first conversation, not your third. There are some tactful ways to ask this too. (Maybe a topic for a future newsletter issue)
4. How specific the outreach is.
A templated message with your name pasted into a generic script tells you they're optimizing for volume. A message that references something real about your background tells you someone actually read your profile/ at least had an AI agent skim it before hitting send.
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Once you start interviewing
5. Chase the first interview, not the first offer.
For your initial round of applying, the goal is simply getting a recruiter call. Any recruiter call. Not your dream role, not the perfect fit. If your first application is also your dream company, you're walking in blind with way too much pressure riding on one conversation.
6. Treat your first three to five interviews as practice rounds.
This might be counterintuitive to what you've heard elsewhere, but I mean it. They teach you where your story sits, what people resonate with, and what quietly falls flat, none of which you learn from prepping alone in a Google Doc, no matter how good the doc is. Rip the band-aid off early. Get the rejection while the stakes are low enough that it stings but doesn't sting for months.
7. Volume still matters, but aim it.
This isn't spray-and-pray, apply-to-everything energy. Take a fine-tooth comb through the job description and look for a genuine 70 to 75 percent match before you apply. Save your "dream role" energy for after you've had that first real interview under your belt, not before it.
8. Let the early feedback actually change something.
If two different interviewers flag the same gap in your story, that's not a coincidence. That's a pattern worth fixing before round six, not something to brush off as one person's opinion.
🎯 This week, pick two or three roles you're a genuine 70 to 75 percent match for. Run each posting through the first four checks before you apply. Then apply anyway, even if it's not the dream role, because right now the goal is the rep, not the offer.
What I want you to take away from this
Read the posting like it's already telling you something, because it is. And stop treating your first few interviews like they're your only shot. They're not meant to land. They're meant to teach you how the next ones will.
P.S. If you're staring down that first application and want a gut check before you hit submit, that's exactly the kind of thing I help with in my mentor sessions
