Career Tips from a PM (14/30) – Competitive research is a shortcut to success.
No doubt you’ve been taught to not miss a beat and shoot for perfection. You know, get an A+, 100%, max points. But, the truth is, you just need to be good enough.
I could go into this topic for hours, but the crude (perhaps dark) metaphor to visualize this is this:
Two men are in the woods. A bear comes out and chases the two of them. “How do we outrun this bear?” says one man.
The second man says, “I don’t need to outrun the bear. I just need to outrun you.”
Competitive research is a lot like those two men and the bear. Every company and their offer is trying to get away from the bear (failure) and survive (success). In that, you don’t need to be the absolute fastest runner in the world; you just need to be better, even marginally, than the others.
For those of you job hunting, this all translates into 2 simple points:
1. You don’t need to hit 100% of the job description.
Sure, ideally you hit a bit more than half of it; preferably the most critical half. But, my point still stands, even if you’re only 60-80% of their ideal candidate, GO FOR IT.
2. You only need to outrun the others by a centimeter (or an inch, in freedom units).
You do this by learning about your competition. Who else is applying? What do they have to offer? You don’t need to run twice as fast as them to win; you just need to be even the slightest bit quicker.
Competitive research is a shortcut to success.