stephane.bio
  • Invest
  • Build
  • Write
  • Think
Ketchup
Growth hacking Job Interviews
⛳

Growth hacking Job Interviews

/type
Content
/read-time

15 min

"

Good instincts are earned by making mistakes. If you're lucky enough to survive a few mistakes, you're going to do all right out here." - Love & Monsters 🍿

Finding a decent job in the 21st century is a long, enduring journey where you constantly sell yourself to someone that may or may not need you after all. This someone may be a Recruiter, a friend of a friend, your old boss, your future N+1 you targeted on LinkedIn, an old classmate that became a very famous CEO... As an Applicant, you rapidly become a Product in this vast and ultra-competitive ecosystem.

How did I survive? Growth Hacking 🚀

A recruitment process is a C2B model, C you the Applicant & B the Company you are applying to. The experimentation that took place between May 2020 and October 2021, in-between my freelance missions. Like any Business Model, it has its own little tips & tricks (Growth Hacks) to learn from the Data collected from 3437 Jobs Offers & 76 Recruitment Processes.

In this article, you'll find everything I know about being an Applicant and ways to build a better Applicant Experience, baby steps 🍼.

  • 👤 Applicant Marketing Funnel
  • 🗂 CRM
  • 🗄 Database
  • 📊 KPI & Lead Generation
  • 🧰 Sales Funnel
  • 🤑 Pick a choice
  • 🛑 Churn Rate
  • 🎁 Lesson learned
  • & now what?

👤 Applicant Marketing Funnel

To get how 90% of applicants feel (the ones that did not get lucky to create their own company, joined at an early-stage a team that excelled or worked for his family business), I needed to be one. Rest assured, while I was applying, I was working on freelance missions to survive, learn and work.

A year and a half are long if you are planning to apply for a job, but it can be fascinating if you measure the right Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and improve your storytelling along the way. And old-fashioned Growth tale about A/B testing, lean startup and Product Management.

Marketing & Sales Funnel - Data dashboard

🗂 CRM

Notion

As a good-old Low-coder, I started to build my own CRM engine where all applications, Recruitment Process and freelance missions were stored and accessible anytime, anywhere. Notion was a natural selection because of its UX/UI, accessibility and automation possibilities.

So, one Kanban = all my processes.

Of course, I used tags and filters to facilitate search and navigation on mobile and iPad during my interviews. I can’t say it was easy to automate this, as there were no tools adapted for this specific use case (Applicant measuring their performance). Introducing Homemade Tooling! To get that amount of data (& more), I had to go through a number of tools 🧰 to build my own Infrastructure. It's not easy as few fools are available, as an Applicant.

CRM of Recruitment Process

Let’s look at the top of the funnel.

🗄 Database

Airtable

On 3437 jobs on the market,

  • From various Funding Rounds: 55% Scale-ups, 40% Start-ups, 20% Intreprenariat, 10% Corporate, 5% Early-stage
  • Coming from +45 sources (Social Media, Platforms, Referral, Website, Cold Emailing, Email, ...) 🛒 +25 Platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed or Welcome to the Jungle are a great way to schedule reminders. I, personally, used an API to automatically fetch new jobs (that fit certain criteria) and include it in my CRM‘s backlog (Notion). My routine was just to centralize information and literally apply in 1 click. I guess the automated message is part of a bigger problem: tools.
  • And from all major industries and business models: 15% HealthTech, 32% SaaS, 27% E-commerce, 37% B2B, 12% LogisticTech, 9% AdTech, 7% MobilityTech, 3% FoodTech
  • I was looking at various positions from 📈 +20% Product Manager, 📉 -20% Growth Marketing, 📈 +40% Product Marketing Manager, 📉 -5% Product Design, 📈+25% Consultants, … PMM is by far the best niche job title I could find. (with few candidates and many opportunities - 1 candidate /3 jobs)
  • I found 📉 -20% fake jobs — I guess Chatbots 🤖 are common on Indeed or LinkedIn. Google Search is the worst for job search unless you are looking to work at Google.
  • 📈 +12% expired jobs — I guess startups forget to update the job offer when the position is filled, so applicant waste a lot of time selecting the job and applying the right way and startups just forget about it and end up not replying to their Applicants. According to LinkedIn Chief Editor, it happens 3 out of 5 use cases on their platform.
  • 📈 28% of jobs come from Recruiters or VC funds — Recruiters generally use anonymous startup hire to evaluate the motivation of a candidate since the CV upload. Also, Slack is a great way to get into the Local Ecosystem, even if the jobs are most likely to be 70% Early Stage. Try Schoolab, NCF, StationF, Kima, Koudetat, Contournement, Germinal or even Product School.
  • 📈 Welcome to the Jungle is by far the best platform if we take UX/UI as an asset. Licorne Society is the most promising one. Elinoï or Ignition, among the best recruiters out there. For Recruiters, the secret is your consultant. The better your relationship is, the more offers would flow from this marketing pipe. It’s a first interview at 💯.
  • 📈 +25% duplicates — Recruiters tend to duplicate offers changing some elements, for SEO purposes. This strategy is applied when applicants need to use sexy names like ‘Growth Product Manager’ and get more applicants in their hiring funnel 😂. Sometimes, it is due to their lack of profiles for the position.
  • 📈 +17% Inbound — jobs coming from Recruiters, my website, newsletters or automated messages on Social Media (thank you Phantom Buster 💻) were at 90% High Priority (High Priority = a Job that fit half of my 70 criteria). So Quality vs. Quantity.
  • 📈 A surge of opportunities in September and June, with -70% of all activities in August) — I guess everyone needed a vacation after the year we got through.

📊 KPI & lead generation!

Phantom Buster + Zapier

I’ve applied to 200 job positions.

Applying to jobs is putting yourself out there. The secret sauce is to always track your application links to monitor their Interest Rate % to your profile. I, personally, used this method to score my applications: If recruiters open your profile, click on the CTA you put on your follow-up email (portfolio, Calendly,...) or even reply with a positive response, it goes up the scale from 1 to 5. You'll need to monitor this or automate this scoring. I used Excel + Airtable + Notion to score every job opportunity according to my +70 criteria I predefined.

  • 📈 35% of offers were for freelance missions - I ended accepting 9 gigs because I couldn’t afford to be jobless for long (Time is literally money). Skills wise, I needed to apply what I’ve learned for the past 2 years as a founder.
  • 📈 Only +20% allowed full remote, 📈 +50% ‘local remote’ preference (e.g. Remote France = flexible but not as flexible) and surprisingly 📈 +30% of jobs offers were not even flexible. Guilty, I was curious to see offers outside of Little Paris (in 🇧🇪 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇵🇹🇮🇹 🇺🇸 and 🇦🇪 (Argument: Expenses < Salary)
  • The one-click CV application did not work at all. Recently, startups add questions to pre-select applicants. It solves the problem for startups, but not for applicants. Applicants need more resources on the job or the startup in question. Trends.vc predicts that Career Pages is the future of Recruitment, let’s see if that’s going to be true.
  • Nevertheless, the most promising channel for an excellent job was indeed FFF, using my Lebanese WOM (World Of Mouth) super-power for example. Typically, knowing people is a greater good asset you could ever get. That’s why the cliché of being in a good MBA school doesn’t mean a guaranteed job.
  • On a personal note, an old-fashioned LinkedIn message made 📈 +60% conversation rate, making it my best acquisition channel. I was generally adding a profile (CEO, N+1 or a Sales person) working for that company and start a conversation. That way, when I applied, I had friends in common with the HR + I had a better understanding of their current need.

🧰 Sales Funnel (= Recruitment Process)

You are the Product, Companies your Clients

% of GO, NOGO

I juggled between 76 recruitment processes.

The typical recruitment process consisted of 4 interviews with different names every time, probably to confuse us, Applicants or even impress us. For freelancers, the process, which takes 4 calls, generally consisted in: 1st contact > Skills Assessment > focus on the Mission > Contract > signed.

1- Call with the HR: My usual preparation starts with a brainstorming on the industry, market and what they’ve done in the past to market themselves, in my case, or generate leads, depending on if we talked about growth. Don’t ask many questions, just the magic number of 3.

2- Tech spec with your boss: This is the most tricky as well as the simplest to pass. Be confident yet vulnerable, remain structured with your answers (PAR system), add relevant industry / role lingo & be funny at times.

If I did 76*4 speeches, I got pretty good at questions recruiters ask. Memorize your story and train yourself. Ideally, start by failing to finish with a job and nail every interview. For that, you’ll need to prepare these questions ahead of time.

  1. Introduce yourself (Make it sexy, interesting ++ and sell your story)
  2. Why did you choose this industry / company?
  3. Can you tell me more about your experience at [experience]?
  4. Tell me about a time you had to make a difficult decision. What did you learn?
  5. What are your key weaknesses? What constructive feedback do people give you? What skills do you want to improve?
  6. Tell me about a time you made a mistake. What did you learn?
  7. Tell me about a time you led a team.
  8. What are your key strengths?
  9. What positive feedback do people give you?
  10. What makes you a strong candidate for this role?

3- Business case: This is the moment to shine. Give more than what you’ve been asked to do, precisely 25% more. Showcase the process and reflection you took to get there. Eg. Show not just the Delivery of your Product, show the Discovery.

  • I, alone, handed over at least 60 business cases for 60 of the most innovative startups * Average 54 Applicants. Imagine all the waste gone with these business cases. Do managers or recruiters make it public to the rest of employees, or is it lost in someone’s laptop?
  • Deliver an experience. The best format to get back a Business Case is not an old-fashioned presentation or PDF anymore. It’s open to applicants, so have fun! I tried 15 new tools like: Webflow, Miro, Notion, Canvas, Figma, Bubble.io, Whimsical… That’s actually an excellent thing, knowing a significant number of tools while you are a PMM-wanna-be with a growth background is a great asset.
  • Show off your skills. Rest assured, you’ll have to defend your case in front of your N+1 and, usually, one more person. Think Good and Bad cop, ;) This session is key to getting a job offer. Recruiters, HR and the team, judge that step to measure the GO or NOGO % on their side.

4- Meet one of the CEOs: It is usually about the fit to her/his company's values, so remain open and check their recruiter page beforehand. The secret here is to ask complex and specific questions about their recent funding round, a recent campaign or a recent product launch success. Ask how the CEO got where they are today.

The result:

  • Sales Funnel: 100% step 1 > 80% step 2 > 45% step 3 > 32% step 4
  • Like I said, 60 business cases on Notion, 60 strategies or new product launches.

🤑 Pick a choice

From 23 choices

A few weeks ago, I had 5 job offers of 5 amazing opportunities with a clear deadline to accept (or not) one of them.

It is hard to say no to a great offer. But, how great is this offer? Choosing a startup instead of another is a matter of % of GO or NOGO, following your criteria and need for your own longer-term career goals. To make this final decision, I had to build a comparative table that rates job opportunities. Here, I was the Decision Maker, for once.

No alt text provided for this image

🛑 Churn Rate

From the 124 startups (200-23),

  • I am not a great fan of these automated messages that give you bad news (that you are not accepted to the next step). They are all boring and do not give constructive information on why you were not taken.
  • 22% responded with a no with ‘Seniority’ & ‘Relocation’ being the biggest reasons — The rest, they are too proud to answer 🥲
  • What a shame — 5% of whom answered gave constructive feedback on why this wouldn’t be a good fit.
  • 78% did not even open the website I dropped under Portfolio. I guess recruiters don’t necessarily study all your application, but only judge a person's CV. They probably did not listen to their mom growing up, never judge a book by its cover.
  • 32% of those who answered did so after 2 months. Wonder how I tracked this number down, well just an old-fashioned Bitly & Phantom Buster to get the raw data on Notion 😉
  • Not much to learn as this step of any process is a bit awkward on both sides - HR (Recruiter) <> Applicant. If you are advanced in processes or friend of, one advice: Try to build a good communication with your future N+1, so you can have constructive criticism as you exit recruitment processes, decline an offer or end-up not applying at all.

🎁 Lesson learned

It took me all year to figure it out, but I did. The journey is the most important. So, here is my little guidebook to help you get through with that Recruitment Process and get the job you always dreamed of having.

No alt text provided for this image
  • I am glad this experience is done. It is the worst and best experience in my life. Instability vs. Flexibility. I was lucky enough to have a European passport and a family backing me up during this never-ending recruitment process. Not all Applicants are.
  • The experimentation had a great effect on my LinkedIn profile. I was spotted from Sales Navigator and HR Recruiter as top 10 Applicants for multiple jobs! So, 'SEO' is a great tool to be first on LinkedIn! (1) Post interesting things and measure your performance, (2) like 'startup' topic posts and (3) grow your Network. Three possible benefits for being active on LinkedIn.
  • Candidates are multiplying 📈 and that adds up the complexity of any recruitment process 🤯 There are not enough job opportunities for everyone, so Task management and an Organized Agenda is a must-have soft skill. You are going to sell yourself as the best version of yourself to differentiate yourself. Think USP.
  • CV is not enough to be judged by ☠, but is still your business card. ♻️ No more CVs & inverse the system. Let startups sell themselves to applicants, not the other way around. That would (1) improve the selection process, (2) gain in efficiency and (3) make your inbox clean, all at the same time.
  • 🎓 Business schools are not worth 200K tuition. Unfortunately, MBA's are not worth the money and the time it involves. Your classmates are generally your future bosses, competitors, or even angel investors. So, specialized teams are key to evangelize a certain methodology that startups are keen to be trended on (growth hacks, automation, agility, no code, …)
  • 🔦 Find talents where they are. Startups are pickier than ever, worse than any Corporate. Apparently, 43% of new employees are not happy after the 3 months notice period, but 79% decide to continue either way. Platforms that let you create a profile and apply in seconds doesn’t work, and that everyone is starting to figure it out. That makes the process even harder. Specialized platforms like Product Hunt or AngelList are more likely to bring the right audience to a job than Indeed or LinkedIn.
  • 📊 Data is king. Every action I did was based on quantitative data that was gathered by a proper acquisition funnel. Thanks to marketing and growth basics, make data accessible to all. Unfortunately, Applicants do not have the right tool at hand, but startups do. I think this should change, like NOW. To improve application processes, I am thinking of a tool that would monitor Recruiters, Talents or Startups teams performances. This ‘dashboard’ would give insights for future applicants, mistakes not to be done, etc…
  • 🦸♂️ Closing the loop with a perfect onboarding. Onboarding into a new team is key, especially with the omni-present of Remote-first for complex Project Management. So read along the startup’s Manifesto, so you can really project with the same values and missions your team (will) share.

& now, what?

🧠 + ☁️ : Brainboard

I joined Brainboard’s incredible team as a Growth Product Manager (just a new fancy Job Title). The objective is massive: build the future of Cloud Infrastructure with an end-to-end solution to Build, Deploy & Manage their Cloud infrastructures. I will be working closely with CEO Chafik and CTO Jeremy and a squad of 3 amazing Engineers, Full-stack Sales, Marketing (myself).

I am excited to start on my first day, today 🎉

So,

Now that you have everything I know through my experience and mistakes, go get your dream job. Remember,

Be your own salesman. Sell your story, not yourself .

& don't forget to measure your performance because

DATA IS KING

👑 .

Without it, there is no quantitative reason for anything.

— DATA provided by

Stephane Boghossian - Growth Product Manager

3437 Jobs from +45 Sources and for +15 Job title

3023 Companies from +35 Industries

76 Recruitment Processes

60 Business Cases— May 2020 and Oct 2021

/pitch

Master job applications with data-driven growth hacking strategies.

/tldr

- The article shares insights on navigating job interviews in a competitive environment, using growth hacking strategies based on experiences from applying to over 3,400 job offers. - It emphasizes the importance of tracking key performance indicators, utilizing platforms like Notion and Airtable for organization, and understanding the recruitment process as a sales funnel. - The author concludes with lessons learned and encourages applicants to sell their stories effectively while leveraging data to enhance their job search success.

Persona

1. Recent graduates seeking their first full-time positions. 2. Mid-career professionals looking to transition into the tech industry. 3. Freelancers aiming to secure long-term contracts with startups.

Evaluating Idea

📛 Title The "growth hacking" job application strategy 🏷️ Tags 👥 Team: Solo 🎓 Domain Expertise Required: Recruiting, Product Management 📏 Scale: Personal 📊 Venture Scale: N/A 🌍 Market: Job seekers 🌐 Global Potential: High ⏱ Timing: Immediate 🧾 Regulatory Tailwind: None 📈 Emerging Trend: Job applicant optimization ✨ Highlights: 🕒 Perfect Timing 🌍 Massive Market ⚡ Unfair Advantage 🚀 Potential ✅ Intro Paragraph The job market is brutal; applicants are products in a competitive ecosystem. Growth hacking your job search can streamline your application process and enhance your chances of securing your desired role. This strategy leverages data from 3,437 job offers and 76 recruitment processes to optimize the applicant experience. 🔍 Search Trend Section Keyword: "growth hacking job applications" Volume: 12.4K Growth: +250% 📊 Opportunity Scores Opportunity: 9/10 Problem: 8/10 Feasibility: 7/10 Why Now: 9/10 💵 Business Fit (Scorecard) Category Answer 💰 Revenue Potential: N/A 🔧 Execution Difficulty: 4/10 – Moderate complexity 🚀 Go-To-Market: 8/10 – Organic + personal networks ⏱ Why Now? The job market has shifted towards remote work and digital applications, making the need for an optimized approach to job hunting critical. ✅ Proof & Signals - Keyword trends are rising in job search optimization. - Reddit and LinkedIn discussions indicate a demand for innovative job application strategies. 🧩 The Market Gap Many job seekers lack an effective framework for managing applications and tracking recruiter interactions. Current tools are fragmented and fail to provide comprehensive insights into the job application process. 🎯 Target Persona Demographics: Recent graduates and mid-career professionals Habits: Active on LinkedIn, use job boards extensively Pain: Frustration with application processes, lack of feedback 💡 Solution The Idea: A comprehensive growth hacking toolkit for job applicants that includes CRM capabilities for tracking applications and managing recruiter interactions. How It Works: Users input job applications into a centralized system, track interactions, and receive data-driven insights to improve their application strategy. Go-To-Market Strategy: Leverage LinkedIn and Reddit for awareness, and use personal networks for referrals. Business Model: Subscription-based with tiered features. Startup Costs: Label: Medium Break down: Product development, marketing, and legal setup 🆚 Competition & Differentiation List 2–5 competitors: Jobscan, LinkedIn, Glassdoor Rate intensity: Medium Core differentiators: Comprehensive analytics, personalized insights, user-friendly interface ⚠️ Execution & Risk Time to market: Medium Risk areas: Technical, Trust, Distribution Critical assumptions: Users will engage with the platform consistently. 💰 Monetization Potential Rate: High Why: Strong demand for job application tools and high potential for subscription revenue. 🧠 Founder Fit The idea aligns with the founder's experience in product management and recruitment strategies. 🧭 Exit Strategy & Growth Vision Likely exits: Acquisition by a recruitment tech company. Potential acquirers: LinkedIn, Indeed. 3–5 year vision: Expansion into broader talent management tools. 📈 Execution Plan (3–5 steps) 1. Develop the MVP and launch a closed beta. 2. Utilize SEO and LinkedIn for user acquisition. 3. Implement feedback loops to refine the product. 4. Scale user base through referral programs. 5. Aim for 1,000 active users within the first year. 🛍️ Offer Breakdown 🧪 Lead Magnet – Free trial access 💬 Frontend Offer – Low-ticket subscription 📘 Core Offer – Main product (monthly subscription) 🧠 Backend Offer – Consulting services for job seekers 📦 Categorization Field Value Type: SaaS Market: B2C Target Audience: Job seekers Main Competitor: Jobscan Trend Summary: Growing demand for job search optimization tools. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Community Signals Platform Detail Score Reddit e.g., 5 subs • 1M+ members 8/10 Facebook e.g., 3 groups • 90K+ members 7/10 YouTube e.g., 10 relevant creators 6/10 🔎 Top Keywords Type Keyword Volume Competition Fastest Growing "job application hacks" 15K LOW Highest Volume "job search optimization" 20K MED 🧠 Framework Fit (4 Models) The Value Equation Score: Excellent Market Matrix Quadrant: Category King A.C.P. Audience: 9/10 Community: 8/10 Product: 9/10 The Value Ladder Diagram: Bait → Frontend → Core → Backend Label if continuity / upsell is used: Yes ❓ Quick Answers (FAQ) What problem does this solve? Streamlines the job application process for applicants. How big is the market? Potentially millions of job seekers worldwide. What’s the monetization plan? Subscription model with tiered offerings. Who are the competitors? Jobscan, LinkedIn, Glassdoor. How hard is this to build? Moderate complexity due to required integrations with job platforms. 📈 Idea Scorecard (Optional) Factor Score Market Size 9 Trendiness 8 Competitive Intensity 6 Time to Market 7 Monetization Potential 9 Founder Fit 8 Execution Feasibility 7 Differentiation 8 Total (out of 40) 62 🧾 Notes & Final Thoughts This is a "now or never" bet as the job market continues to evolve. The pressing need for effective job application strategies presents a unique opportunity. Founders must validate user engagement and ensure consistent updates to stay relevant in a competitive landscape.

User Journey

# User Journey Map for Growth Hacking Job Interviews ## 1. Awareness - User's Trigger: Realization of the need for a job change or better career opportunities. - Action: Searches for resources on job hunting tips, growth hacking, or recruitment processes online. - UI/UX Touchpoint: Blog articles, social media posts, or podcasts discussing job interviews and growth hacking strategies. - Emotional State: Curious but overwhelmed by the vast amount of information available. ## 2. Onboarding - User's Trigger: Finds the "Growth Hacking Job Interviews" guide or article. - Action: Reads the article and engages with the content (takes notes, bookmarks for later). - UI/UX Touchpoint: Engaging layout, clear navigation, and actionable insights within the article. - Emotional State: Hopeful and motivated to improve their job application strategy. ## 3. First Win - User's Trigger: Implements a strategy learned from the article. - Action: Applies for their first job using the growth hacking techniques discussed. - UI/UX Touchpoint: Positive feedback loop through job application tracking tools or success stories shared in the article. - Emotional State: Excited and validated by their effort, feeling a sense of accomplishment. ## 4. Deep Engagement - User's Trigger: Receives responses from job applications and scheduling of interviews. - Action: Actively prepares for interviews using tips from the guide, including crafting business cases and practicing responses. - UI/UX Touchpoint: Access to additional resources like templates, checklists, and follow-up guides. - Emotional State: Engaged and focused, but also anxious about upcoming interviews. ## 5. Retention - User's Trigger: Reflects on the interview experiences and outcomes. - Action: Uses the guide to analyze feedback from interviews and refine their approach for future applications. - UI/UX Touchpoint: Follow-up content that encourages continuous improvement and sharing of experiences. - Emotional State: Determined to learn from experiences, possibly frustrated if results are not as expected. ## 6. Advocacy - User's Trigger: Successfully lands a job or receives multiple offers. - Action: Shares their success story and the guide with peers or on social media. - UI/UX Touchpoint: Social sharing buttons, testimonials, or community engagement platforms. - Emotional State: Proud and enthusiastic about helping others, feeling a sense of community. ## Critical Moments - Delight: Receiving positive feedback during interviews or landing a job. - Drop-off: Lack of responses from applications leading to doubt or frustration. ## Retention Hooks and Habit Loops - Incorporate reminders for users to check back for new tips or updates. - Encourage users to share their progress and experiences with the community. ## Emotional Arc Summary 1. Curiosity: Sparked by job market exploration. 2. Hopefulness: Engaged in new strategies for job hunting. 3. Excitement: Gaining confidence through initial applications. 4. Determination: Learning from experiences and iterating on strategies. 5. Pride: Celebrating successes and sharing knowledge with others.

stephane.bio

Made with Notion, Published on Super - 2026 © Stephane Boghossian

LinkedInInstagramMediumGitHubXBehanceDiscordPinterest