“I’m being strategically focused, but I’m not finding many opportunities.”
Miranda is a senior operations leader. Very experienced, very smart. She created her own search tool to gather all the jobs in her industry, at her level, and in her function.
She was doing what she’d learned to do at work: be targeted.
Take the time to get clear on what you want. Identify what fits your criteria and leave out the rest. It’s a recipe for success in most areas of business.
But it wasn’t working for her.
And it might not be working for you either.
I’ve been the problem.
I know this from the other side of the table.
As COO at a growth-stage company, I thought we needed a Vice President of Marketing. We wanted to host a major conference. We needed to start marketing and not rely only on organic word of mouth. I couldn’t do it. Neither could the CEO.
We agreed on it on a Friday. I wrote a job description and was reaching out to my network by Monday.
Three weeks later, we decided to double down on hiring more in sales. To find the money, we cut the job I’d been so certain we needed. The budget we had left allowed me to hire a manager-level events project manager.
I rewrote the role. We found the person, but then realized we had scoped for a short-term need, not a long-term role. Six months later, we eliminated the job, and four months after that, we reposted for the Vice President of Marketing again.
A VP of Marketing searching only for VP roles would have seen us twice in a year, and missed everything in between. The person who’d been talking to me about our marketing problem, regardless of title, would have been my first call.
That’s the part most job seekers don’t see. When you narrow your search to roles that match your criteria, you’re assuming the company is as clear as you are.
Often, they aren’t. I wasn’t.
When narrowing works.
The standard business advice is to get specific. Know your target. Say no to everything else.
It works, but only when four conditions are true:
You’re clear. You know exactly what you want and you can say it in a sentence without hesitation.
You’re consistent. Your career has an obvious arc, and it points directly towards that role. A recruiter can see the path without you having to explain it.
You’re getting traction. The market is already responding. Recruiters are calling. Interviews are turning into second and third rounds.
The buyer is stable. The companies you’re targeting know what they need and aren’t likely to change their minds.
If all four are true, narrow. Focus will serve you.
But before you nod, look hard at that fourth one.
No one can see it from the outside. Remember my VP of Marketing? Anyone watching from outside saw a job posted, a job pulled, a smaller job, then nothing, then the original job again. None of it was visible until it was already over.
Which means for most senior leaders, a narrow search isn’t a strategic move. It’s a bet on certainty that doesn’t exist.
If any one of the four is false, specificity won’t work.
It’s time to widen your aperture.
What widening looks like.
I’ve watched this shift with several clients now. It usually goes like this.
They start out like Miranda. Targeted, organized, frustrated. They have a spreadsheet, or a search tool, or a very precise answer to “what are you looking for?”
Then they loosen one thing. Level or industry is usually the opening move.
And instead of asking people about open roles, they start asking about problems:
“What’s keeping your leadership team up at night?”
“Where do you see opportunity that you aren’t staffed to address?”
“Where is the company stretched thin right now?”
The conversations change.
A former boss brings up a founder who is currently looking for someone who has your skills. A friend has a tennis buddy looking for a leader with your background. A past colleague was waiting for you to be available and now has a role that seems tailored to you.
More than once, the role they landed was one they never would have found on a job board, because it didn’t exist yet when the conversation started. Sometimes the role gets shaped around them.
None of them gave up what mattered to them. They simply stopped excluding the companies that hadn’t figured out they needed them yet.
Miranda’s search is still underway. Most senior searches are longer than anyone wants. That’s exactly why you need an approach as fluid as the companies you are looking to join.
Take Action.
If you’re in a job search, use this as your assessment each week.
Stay narrow only if all four are true:
You can say what you want in one sentence.
Your career tells a consistent story toward your target.
You’re already getting traction that’s showing up on your calendar.
The companies you’re targeting have stable, defined needs.
If any one is false, it’s time to widen your criteria:
Loosen one lever: level, function, industry, or location.
In your next three networking conversations, ask about problems, not open roles.
Check back in two weeks. If your calendar is still empty, loosen another.
And if you’re worried about wasting time, I get it. Widening has a cost. You’ll have more conversations that go nowhere, and your story may get fuzzier before it gets sharper. That’s the price of being in the room early.
You don’t have to pick one approach and stick to it. Like flying a kite, you adjust to the conditions.
Check the wind this week. Adjust. Then check again.
May you lead without limits,
Kathy
Thank you for joining me this week. If this piece resonated with you, consider giving it a ❤️. It helps me reach more leaders who are searching for their next step.
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