4 steps to land your dream strategy & operations job

4 steps to land your dream strategy & operations job I'm going to share four things I would do to land a strategy and operations job. My qualifications are that I pivoted from three years in management consulting as a pure generalist into a media tech strategy and operations role. My background: MBB consulting to media tech strategy and operations role. I make videos about career and life in my 20s. Follow if you're interested and let's get into it. Step zero: build a recruiting wishlist. I'm scared before I even get into four steps. The first thing I would do and this applies only to people who aren't urgently looking for their next job is I would make a list of companies I want to work at and figure out by lurking on LinkedIn what they call their strat ops calls. Strat ops can also be called: biz ops, rev ops, corp strat, analytics/insights, product or marketing operations, etc. It doesn't matter if these companies have zero listings. This is going to be your recruiting wishlist. It's important to build relationships earlier because when a job does open up, it's so much better to have a warm organic intro than a cold transactional referral. First thing you should before you even touch your resume or apply is talk to at least one or two people on every company's strat and ops team. I would specifically look for working level people who can answer questions like what is your day-to-day? What tools do you use? What skills actually matter? What business function does your strat and ops team serve? For context, there are so many strat and ops teams out there. Some are focused on big picture corporate strategy, others on specific functions like supply chain, product, go-to-market, marketing, revenue. And for every team you're applying to, have at least one 20-minute conversation to get all these details you can't get from the job description. Step two: tailor your resume per team. Not only do strat and ops teams vary by what part of the business they serve, they also vary by what type of day-to-day tasks you're doing. In my experience, it's important to figure out who your cross-functional partners are going to be. Is it a corporate finance, analytics, marketing, product that then tells you what kind of expertise and experience you should highlight in your resume. For example, I would describe my current role product go-to-market strategy and operations for it. And if I were to apply all over again, I would emphasize experiences where I'm working with technical and showcase that I understand how to think about the customer/user experience. Step three: get referrals (the right kind). As awkward and tedious as it might feel, I strongly urge you to get that referral. And let me be clear, it's one thing to ask your random friend who works at one of these big tech companies to give you a referral. It's another thing to get someone who's on the team that is hiring to put in a good word for you. In addition to the referral, and that's why those coffee chats and the relationship building you've been doing in the weeks and months leading up to your application are so crucial. Cold applying can work, but a referral basically guarantees that a human will review your resume, which in today's age of AI is half the battle of getting the job. And finally, number four: show industry knowledge & interest in interviews. You need to walk into that interview ready to showcase industry specific interest, knowledge, and ideally some experience. There are many resources online to show up with opinions about the industry, the company, their competitors, their products. Final piece of advice: keep your head up. I know the job market is really tough right now. The best thing you can do is never stop applying, put your best foot forward every single application. Do not be afraid to reach out and ask people for help. The worst they could say is no. And for those of us lucky enough to be employed right now, if someone reaches out asking for help, just be kind because we could all lose our jobs tomorrow. I hope that was helpful. Drop a question in the comment section below and I sincerely wish you the best of luck recruiting.