Friday Knockoffs: Where are the Senior jobs? How much time do you spend writing LinkedIn content? Do people really take culture over money?

In Friday knockoffs I’ll answer the questions I get in my DMs. These could be about resumes, salary negotiations, my favourite lawn mower or my top 3 tracksuit pant brands.

You can submit your questions at https://linktr.ee/mitchking

Q: How much myth is that candidates distinguish between salary and company culture? Aren't they always going ahead with a better remuneration offer?

A: 

It’s interesting that you would think everyone would do anything all the same way.

I do understand your scepticism though, would someone really take less money for what feels like a better culture fit - especially in 2024 when a packet of chips is north of $7.

But it happens, both ways. The largest pay cut I ever saw was $300k down to $180k to leave a big corporate with a toxic culture to a smaller company where they felt valued, energised, connected.

Then I’ve seen people go with the higher offer, sometimes for as little as $5k more even when they wanted the other company more. Often they’ve regretted it, sometimes it works out for the best as their instincts on which offer was better was actually wrong.

So it sounds like you would always take higher pay - which I have no problem with - but just because that is what you would do, it’s definitely not what everyone would do.

Q: After you have a good phone interview and after you've sent your thank you, what is the appropriate time to wait to hear back before following up?

A: 

It’s a good question and while there is no universal answer to this, I would say about a week. Ideally you want it to be quicker and it’s a common frustration on how long you have to wait but the reality is usually that we’re waiting for other interviews to happen, maybe a scheduled catchup with the manager to get feedback etc

I can’t promise you’ll get responses immediately or that other companies / industries might move even slower than that but a week is a pretty safe middle ground.

Q: Where are the actual head of jobs ? You never see them advertised so is it just word of mouth? People are hired for senior roles but those roles never advertised.

A:

When I first started doing Job Search coaching, one of the main drivers was I had so many Senior candidates who were struggling to find a job and even get interviews. Good quality people with great experience who in previous years would have had multiple offers within weeks.

When the Job Markets dip like they have, the Senior end of the Market is often the hardest hit. Think about what’s happening at these companies, they make layoffs to reduce costs and the most expensive salaries are the Seniors.

Who do they replace them with? Less Senior (i.e. cheaper) people already in the Business. It’s a promotion for the individual but often at a discount to the person who was doing that role prior.

Then in general, think of career progression as a pyramid like this:

The more Senior you get, the less opportunities there are in Markets. It’s a generalisation but you’re competing with a broader range of competition - People as Senior as you at other companies. People looking to step up to your level from other companies. People looking to step up already at the company.

So in tough markets, Senior roles are harder to come by. There is less movement, so people who would like to move on from the job you would want to take, aren’t moving.

It’s similar to property markets, there’s not enough houses to buy when not enough people are selling. Bloody boomers.

Q: How long do I need to spend on LinkedIn content for it to be worthwhile?

A:

It’s surprised me how often people have said something along the lines of “I wish I had as much time as you to do LinkedIn content”. It’s a low key insult as I pride myself on not spending much time at all on it.

I have had good results from content to help me find people for the jobs I’m recruiting for, finding jobs for myself and growing my profile for things like speaking events & partnerships.

But I only spend 5-10 minutes per post.

I timed how long it took me to write this newsletter - 15 minutes. I do that or the Sunday Scaries once every few weeks now.

So it’s around 1 hour per week on writing 3-4 posts & 1 newsletter edition. Newsletters probably isn’t worth doing until you’ve got momentum with the posts, which is good because they are shorter and faster to write.

So besides me bragging about how fast I am, it’s more about thinking of this like any sort of skill in that once you get in the habit, you’ll become faster at it but there are also a few tips I have that others have told me have helped them reduce their writing time:

1. I always write from an idea I’ve captured in the past, so I never sit down and try to come up with an idea and then write about it. I use Notion to capture ides when they come to me (often when I’m about to fall asleep or in the shower)

2. I write the content first then think about the “hook” (the first few lines of a post that gets people’s attention). People can get stuck on the hook but if you get the post out, you’ll often find the hook comes from there

3. I don’t review, edit, fix, muck around with, polish my writing. I write and post, that’s it.
   
   If it’s good, great. If it’s not, I’ll learn from it and adapt or experiment with a different version of that post in the future

If you have a question - about anything at all, the more random the better - send them through here.