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Hi and welcome back, brave human!
How are you!!! We're almost at Friday, and today we are going into the play by play you are going to steal. 👀
I got two job offers. Both 2X my current salary. In under two months. Without quitting my job first.
And before you say "that's lucky", it wasn't luck. It was a plan. A very unglamorous, 5am-alarm, skip-your-birthday kind of plan.
I'm going to tell you exactly what I did. Not the polished LinkedIn version. The real one. The one that cost me tears, money, time with my family — but in the end it was worth it.
And if you are looking for a sign to find a new job... LET IT BE THIS. 🔥
Step 1: Decide the date you're leaving.
Not "someday." Not "when the time is right." A real date. Write it down.
Whether you're chasing growth or you simply can't take your VP's 4pm Friday meetings anymore , pick a date. That date becomes your north star. Every decision you make from that point forward gets filtered through it. Once you decide, don't look back.
Mine was written on a sticky note on my monitor. I stared at it before every single interview.
Step 2: Eliminate the friction between you and applying.
Make it embarrassingly easy. Download Simplify. Let it autofill applications so the only thing standing between you and your next role is your actual qualifications — not a 47-field form asking for your middle name.
Your job is to apply. Not to manually type your phone number 200 times.
Step 3: Know where to actually apply.
LinkedIn is the obvious one — but don't stop there. Here's where I actually found opportunities:
LinkedIn — set job alerts, apply within the first 24 hours of a posting. Early applicants get seen.
Wellfound (AngelList) — great for startups, often direct access to founders
Welcome to the Jungle— feels like Tinder for jobs
Newsletter with Lists - Ben Lang, Hannah the non-linear , Steph The Founder
Perplexity - Add your CV then tell it to find jobs for you on the daily
What content do you want to see?
If you have thoughts on what you want to see, hit reply. I actually read every email.
Step 4: Cold outreach is not cringe. Ghosting is.
LinkedIn is not just a job board. It's a direct line to hiring managers, recruiters, and people who work at companies you want to be at.
Here's what actually worked for me:
Find the recruiter or hiring manager for the role you applied to. Connect with a note. Keep it short — two sentences max. You applied, you're excited, you'd love to connect.
Use RocketReach or Snov.io to find email addresses when you want to reach someone directly outside of LinkedIn. These tools let you verify emails so you're not sending into the void.
Don't ask for a job in the first message. Ask for a conversation.
My cold outreach open rate was unusually high. Why? Because I made it personal every single time. No copy-paste templates. Real sentences. Real reasons I wanted that role at that company.
Step 5: Go find your people IRL.
This one surprised me. Some of my warmest leads came from in-person events — not applications.
Search Meetup, Eventbrite, and Luma for tech events, hiring mixers, and industry meetups in your city
Follow companies and communities you admire and show up when they host events
Conferences, hackathons, demo days, these are networking goldmines with way less competition than LinkedIn
When you meet someone in person, you're not a resume. You're a human. That changes everything.
Step 6: Schedule interviews before or after work. Never during.
I'm in PST. I scheduled every interview with people in CST or EST. Their 9am was my 7am. Did I wake up early? Yes. Was it worth it? You already know. 🤓🤓🤓
Protect your current job. Don't take calls in your car during lunch if you can avoid it. Be strategic about when and how you disappear.
Step 7: Pay for advice. I swear its worth it!!!
Free resources will only take you so far. At some point, you need someone who has seen hundreds of candidates and can tell you exactly what you're doing wrong.
I paid for a communications coach. She helped me stop underselling myself in conversations and actually own my story. Worth every penny.
I also used dedicated interview prep services:
Prepfully — mock interviews with people who have worked at the companies you're targeting. Not generic prep. Real insider knowledge.
interviewing.io — anonymous mock interviews with senior engineers. You get honest, brutal feedback without the awkwardness of someone who knows you.
The people who win in competitive processes aren't always the most qualified. They're the most prepared. If you can invest in your job search the way companies invest in finding you, do it.
Step 8: Accept that you're going to sacrifice personal time.
You already have a job. You now have a second one: finding a new job. 😭
I sacrificed Halloween. My birthday. My best friend's wedding. Christmas at home.
Was it painful? It was. 😭😭😭😭😭
But here's what I learned: it's more painful to not make a decision than to make a hard one. Staying stuck hurts longer. It just hurts quieter.
This is temporary. Repeat that to yourself.
Step 9: Constantly remind yourself why you're leaving.
The job search gets hard. It will. Rejections pile up. Ghosting stings. Some weeks nothing moves.
Come back to your "why." That toxic team meeting. That flat performance review. That Sunday night feeling in your chest. Let it fuel you — not haunt you.
You already made the decision. You just have to keep showing up until the right door opens.
The exit plan isn't pretty. But it works.
Two offers. Both 2X. Under two months.
If I did it while employed, exhausted, and winging it half the time, you can too.
You just have to start!!!!!!
Cheers to your succes!!!!!!!!
Denisse