Candidate-Market Fit
Reframing the job search as a product problem.
read time 8 minutes
The job search today isn’t a numbers game, it’s a clarity game. A test of how clearly you can name your value and match it to someone else’s need.
You're not just competing with other candidates. You're competing with confusion (both yours and theirs), about what you solve, how you operate, and where you belong.
This is my story about not only getting hired, but about getting clear. And treating a job search like the most important product you’ll ever work on: you.
The Insight: You're Solving a Matching Problem
At first, I treated the job search like a performance. Tweak the bullet, polish the intro, say the right thing, and hope to get picked.
Then I heard something that changed my approach. Peter Trinh (P.T. throughout) said:
P.T. - “Every open role is a symptom. Something’s broken, blocked, or under-resourced. Someone’s betting on growth, but the path isn’t clear yet. Your job isn’t to be hireable everywhere, it’s to be impossible not to hire, somewhere.”
So I stopped performing and started reflecting. It became a 3-persona process:
Historian: asked myself, “what have I done so far?” Tiny wins, big milestones, hacky solutions, messy drafts that led to something real. I pulled everything: prototypes, launch notes, write-ups, slack threads, performance reviews, and more. I hunted for moments I created value.
Writer: pieced a story together. Not just a list of jobs, but a reflection of impact, growth, and strengths over time. This became part-essay, part-resume, and part-cover-letter. Long, honest, and unedited.
Editor: edited relentlessly. I iterated it down a 1–2 page version that felt holistic. Something that told my story and communicated my value, without fluff.
Kept this a living document, not something I wrote once and forgot. My story evolved as I did.
With this foundation, I looked outward (this time to find the right fit):
Understand Pain: studied the job posting. What’s not working for them? Why does this role exist? What’s the hidden pain?
Match Patterns: matched it against my story. Have I seen or solved something similar? Can I explain how and what changed?
Align Values: asked the basic questions. What does this company do? What do they care about? How do we overlap?
You only need one yes. But you need enough clarity to earn the right one.
The Game: Two Parts to the Process
Once I had clarity on my story, I started studying the process. Turns out the job search isn't one funnel, but two. Each needs a different strategy but one should inform the other.
Clarity gets you started, but context gets you through.
Part 1: Don’t Get Filtered Out (Applications → Screens)
This stage is about being the needle in the haystack. Your job now is to translate your value into their language. It’s not about exaggeration. It’s about believable relevance.
A great application is just a believable match story.
Tactics:
Use a 1–2 line fit statement at the top of your resume to frame your alignment.
Fit statement: 1-2 lines on exactly why you and your experience are a good fit for this problem/ role and what relevant value you bring to the company.
Apply fast. Speed > referrals. You can always get referred post-submission.
The dreaded “100+ applied” within 5 mins of a job posted is common now. If you don’t have a reference already, prioritize getting a quality application in first, hunt for the referral after - the system still bumps your profile.
Update your LinkedIn headline, summary, and engage where recruiters hang out. Write stories of your wins in public, this also helps with signal.
Fit also works in reverse: it helps the right people find you (majority of my interviews were outreach once I started writing my value in public.)
Once you’re past the ATS filter and your application is through, the next filter is human: recruiter screens and early rounds.
Tactic:
Start every interview like a conversation. Talk human first, and shop second.
Begin like you’re talking to a friend, not a hiring panel. Interviews are easier when they feel like conversations instead of auditions
Anchor your “tell me about yourself” with intention and lead with it. Your story makes you memorable.
If you ramble, you raise doubt. If you show clear intent, you buy trust. Use my 3-part structure: How I started → What I learned to love solving → Why I’m excited to solve for this role.
Don’t try too hard. You’ve done the initial work, just practice bringing your clarity with you.
No need to dazzle. Just be coherent, confident, and clear.
P.T. - "Filtering is an elimination game. They’re scanning for risk. Your job is to make the yes easy."
Part 2: Get Filtered In (Mid → Final Round)
Now, the game shifts. You’ve already shown you’re a fit - so have others. Now you need to make them believe you’re the best one. This stage isn’t about standing out, it’s about locking in.
Interviewers aren’t just listening for what you know. They’re watching how you think, how you adapt, and how you show up under pressure.
Being great here isn’t about sounding smart. It’s about being present, prepared, and genuinely invested. It’s caring out loud.
Tactics:
Study like you’re already on the team. Go beyond just browsing the product, dissect it.
What’s working? What’s broken? What’s next? Come in like someone who’s already thinking about their problems, not just your resume.
Anchor in lived thinking. Approach everything with a real world angle, not theory.
Product sense? Analytics? Leadership? Share how you think in your world, and map it to theirs. What tradeoffs did you navigate before? What metrics did you move? What tension do you look for?
Connect like a future teammate. What would you look for if you were hiring for that team?
A final round isn’t a test, it’s a two-way fit exercise. Bring curiosity, not choreography. Show you’re already thinking like one of them.
P.T. - Hiring managers aren’t trying to eliminate. They’re trying to choose. When they ask, "Tell me about yourself," they’re not looking for a perfect answer. They’re listening for who you are, how you think about their problem, how you adapt when things shift — and whether you might be the teammate who helps solve what they’re holding. This is your moment to connect your story to their need. Not by reciting your history, but by showing that you’ve understood their challenge and can speak to it with clarity.
How I Played (And what actually made a difference)
I didn’t crack this immediately. But once I stopped guessing and started treating it like a strategy game, things started to click.
I still applied broadly, but never applied blind.
I didn’t limit myself to roles, I just scanned for the real pain behind them - if I couldn’t clearly see a 50%+ match between their pain and my story, I skipped it. No vibe-based applications.
I stopped asking “how do I sound impressive?” and started asking “how do I sound like me?”
That didn’t mean unpolished. It meant rooted. Clear. Like someone who knows what they’re talking about, because they’ve lived it.
I practiced in voice mode.
Literally. I’d share out loud to ChatGPT, or record voice notes. Not to memorize, but to hear myself. You’d be surprised how often we sell a version of ourselves that doesn’t even sound like us.
I shared my value until it felt obvious.
Not rambling, but being thoughtful. At the top of every resume, or the first 60 seconds of any call, I made it undeniably clear what I solve, how I think, and why that matters for them.
I linked everything back to them.
What I knew, what I’d solved, what I still didn’t, I mapped it to their world. If I had an insight, I tied it to their product. Even when our spaces were different, I found the overlap.
I treated rejection like radar.
Every "no" gave me intel: Was my story unclear? Did I miss their real need? Was it just not a match? I'd adjust and keep going.
Here's the thing about rejection when you're not performing - it doesn't sting the same. You're looking for fit, not validation. Sometimes you find it, sometimes you don't. Both outcomes are useful.
Eventually, one hiring manager said, “It feels like you’re already on the team.” That’s when I knew I wasn’t performing anymore. I was contributing.
In Game 1, I optimized for precision.
In Game 2, I optimized for presence.
You need enough precision to earn the call. But it’s your presence that earns the offer.
The Outcome: Yes, It Was About the Job
Let's not romanticize this. I wanted an offer, ideally the right one. That’s never easy. And ultimately, I did get multiple offers. What helped me most? Treating it like a product loop:
User research: What are they really hiring for?
Positioning: What do I solve best? Why me?
Execution: Can I show up like I already belong?
Go-to-market: How do I signal clarity at scale?
Iteration: What did I learn? What would I do differently?
Asking these questions showed me where I create real value, what I won't compromise on, and how to tell my story with depth.
P.T. - The process isn’t about proving your worth. It’s about discovering it — and standing in it. Confidence doesn’t begin in the interview. It begins when you name what you solve. And when you trust it has something to offer — that’s when it starts to carry you.
The job was the outcome, the clarity was the upgrade
When the offers came, I wasn’t choosing blindly, I was choosing with alignment. The work I did before made the decision feel obvious - like I’d already met the version of me that belonged there.
We treat the job search like a transaction. But it can actually be a transformation.
You don't just land a job, you build your compass.
The market doesn’t hand you clarity, but when you bring it, when you trust your value and speak to it, people feel it. That’s when matching becomes inevitable.
We're all rookies now. The rules keep changing. But clarity compounds.
Share this with a friend in the search →
See you out there.
— Akash
P.S. A big thank you to Peter Trinh, a mentor and friend, for the countless conversations that shaped this piece. He has this way of asking the questions you've been avoiding - the ones that actually matter.
Someone who builds people as intentionally as products.
This was such a helpful read! You tend to forget these lessons when you first start recruiting - you’re so overwhelmed and desperate that intentionality goes out the window.