I am asked all the time on coaching calls, emails at live events by people who know that I know a lot about job interviews, getting hired, standing out. I'm asked all the time, what's the number one thing I could do to get the job? What makes someone stand out in interviews and be the one that gets the offer? And I pause here because I could give a quick answer of listen to the podcast. And while that's half a joke, it's also completely true. This show has helped listeners land roles at Fortune fifties, fortune five hundreds, make career pivots into new industries and even double their salaries. If you don't believe me, I'm not gonna show you my inbox, which is full of emails from all over the world. People telling me their stories. Go look at Apple reviews. They are all 100% real and there are people who talk about it, a ton of 'em. So go look at those hundreds of thousands of professionals in over 40 countries have used the strategies here to move up in their career. And the best step for you to hop on this ride is to make sure that you hit subscribe to the podcasts. If you wanna show some love, leave a five star review, leave a rating, and means the world to me. I don't want to give a surface level answer to a question that deep, right listen to the podcast is great, but. You're here and I'm here, so let's get to it. What I've learned from interviewing over 10,000 candidates leading national searches and coaching everyone from entry-level professionals to executives earning over $400,000 a year most in the 150 to $300,000 a year range. There's no simple magic sentence or one weird trick that gets you hired, but I do know some things that will make. A really big difference. If I had to narrow it down to just two things, two levers that you can pull, and I teach people to pull in coaching sessions that change everything, it would be these. The first is present yourself as the solution to the company's problem. Not every problem. The problem that. You can solve. So if they're having financial problems and you're a marketing person, maybe you can help with sales and help bring in more money, but you're not going to fix the books for them, right? Not fix the books in the gangster way, like in movies, fix it, make the books better. You're not going to solve that. So you're not solving everything. You're not gonna say, Hey, this company suffers from the, bad, this and that. I can solve all of that if you are an intern. Let's be real. No one gets hired for just having a great resume though. Companies are hiring to solve a problem, and we're getting granular here to the position that's open, that you've applied to. There is a problem there. It could be an opportunity, it could be a challenge, it could be a couple things at once. The, easy answer is the problem is that the person that was in that role quit left, got fired, and so it's open. That's the problem, but that role exists for a reason. If it's a marketing VP role, it could be to compete if you're Coke, it could be to compete with Pepsi. And the challenge and opportunity of gaining market share while not losing market share, right? Or entering new markets. If you are a tech person, the challenge or the opportunity could be using AI to obviously make this company way better, more efficient, or using AI to maybe make something more secure. You know the answer to that. It might be that the operations are stretched thin, marketing is underperforming. Their leadership bench is weak. They're missing a key skill on their team. Your job in the application and the interview is to position yourself as the answer to that. Most candidates don't do that. They talk about their job titles, responsibilities. They read their resume from beginning to end. I've seen that a couple thousand times. They ramble about how they're a team player, a fast learner. Meanwhile, hiring managers are thinking, if they're even thinking about you at this point, if they haven't tuned out, oh, you're a quick learner. Oh, you, you have a great work ethic. How are you going to help us win? How are you gonna help us grow? From what I've learned and gathered in this conversation, it seems like the biggest challenge here is scaling your client operations while maintaining that high touch experience. I've helped do that before at both Apple and Microsoft, and I know how to implement the systems and train the people to get you there. That's a different level, and it's simple. That's showing up as someone they can picture leading the work, not just shadowing someone else's work. And it's not just a theory according to. 2025 LinkedIn Global Hiring Trends Report. 74% of recruiters say they're more likely to advance a candidate who clearly connects their experience to the company's pain points, even if that person is missing a few preferred qualifications. I've been preaching it on the show for years. Everyone else starting to catch up. Interview coaches, whether they're any good or not, most of them aren't from around the world. Tell me. They're like, oh, I'm gonna steal that. That's so good. I'm gonna start using that in my coaching. Maybe I'm not the first person to use this ever, but I, essentially have created the solution method, connecting the dots of how you can help the company today and even more so tomorrow. Clearly, how you can do that, that is putting your skills, your ability, your past experience, what you've proven you can do to work for them, and even better is when you give clear examples. One of the things I focus a lot on is putting together a quick pitch deck on a key area, very short and sweet. Here's how I plan, or here's how I'll be able to get you from here to here. This is the opportunity that we've both identified. This uncapped, untouched, whatever opportunity. Here's how I can. Get that for you. Here's how I can grab that. That's being a solution. There's way more to it than that, but I'm, I'm trying to do surface level here. If you and I are in a backyard barbecue and you say, Hey, what are the two things I can do? That's what I'm trying to do here. It's gonna be a long answer, a lot longer than it would be at the barbecue, but hey, I think that's what you're here for. Number one, being, presenting yourself, showing that you are the solution to the company's. Not just problem, but opportunities, challenges, opportunities, problems. Don't just be the negative. You can also be in the positive. We can do more together, right? That's an opportunity. Number two, two of two. Know how to pitch yourself. This is where even strong candidates drop the ball. When I have coaching clients, and a lot of them get a lot of interviews and they don't pass 'em, they don't get offers, they're stuck. It's because they don't know how to pitch themselves. You can have a really good conversation and they like you. You can answer your questions well or perfectly, but if you never pitch yourself, never clearly communicate why you. You risk walking out of the interview as just a, a decent option, but an option that they can probably live without or keep looking around for. The mistake I see is that people confuse a pitch with a personal statement. They say things like, I've always, I've always admired your company. Sorry for laughing. I've always admired your company. You do great work. I admire the culture. I'm looking for a new challenge. That's their pitch. I'm looking for a new challenge. This role aligned with my career goals. Yeah. Apple started 50 years ago, or 70 years ago, or whatever, 30 years ago, to, to help Adam align and achieve his career goals. That's why they exist. That's what they're gonna launch the new VR car headset so that Adam can get something new on his resume. That's how it works, right? No, that's not a pitch. That's a vibe. That's a doesn't matter thing. Like they don't care that okay, it's great you admire our company. I would hope so. Otherwise you probably wouldn't apply here. I think that's a given. That's not a pitch. Here's what a pitch sounds like. I am excited about this interview because I believe there's real potential here to expand your market presence and streamline operations at the same time. My work at Microsoft led to 22% increase in efficiency in just two quarters, six months, and I believe we can do even better here. After studying what's working for you and in the industry, I'd love to walk you through my approach. Demonstrate how I can get you exactly to where you want to go while keeping best practices and keeping, our finger the pulse of what our competitors are doing. At the same time, you're setting a vision. You're showing them why you're in the room. One of the things I coach on when people talk about, tell me about yourself, tell them why you're there. You could say, I'm excited for the interview. I like to also say, I'm here today. I applied because I believe there's real potential here to expand your market presence potentially more than even what you've outlined, you believe is possible. You've given them a reason to keep you in the process and ultimately extend the offer even more so you have. Connected the dots for them, not just, oh, this person has these skills and we need these skills. So that's a good match. That's what gets you the interview, but that's not enough to close the deal. You need to connect the dots between what they want today, what they need tomorrow, what you did yesterday, and what you can do for them next week. Connect those dots when you get granular. Granular like that, like a surgeon. With a scalpel. When you get that exact, they can't connect those dots. That's your job. A really, really good recruiter like me, I can connect those dots. That's why I've been uniquely successful and help companies hire C-suite leaders and VPs and directors that they didn't think they could hire. And I've gotten people into those roles hundreds, if not thousands of times. 'cause I have that skill. That's why I'm here talking to you. The hiring manager who's focused in on their technology, their marketing, their artwork, their budgets, their deadlines, that's not their job. It's yours. A couple nuances here. Pitching yourself takes tact, so does presenting yourself as the solution. Because we, we have to do all this, it's really hard. We have to do all this and remain humble. You don't want to throw their current employees under the bus. You're not there to say, Hey, everything you're doing is wrong. Everything I wanna do my way is great and right. That's bad. Instead, you're aligning yourself with your mission and showing how they can. Enhance what's already working or accelerate what's not moving as quickly as they'd want. Some people might say accelerate what's moving too slowly. I wouldn't say it that way. I'd say accelerate things to the speed that they want it to get to. Accelerate things to the pace that their desired pace. When you pitch yourself, don't make it about your needs. Saying, I need a job. I'm hoping for a higher salary. My my last, my last company had layoffs. That might be true, but it doesn't sell you. Those are your motivations, not your value to them. Hiring managers want to hear what they get, what the company wants. I'm gonna say that again. Hiring managers, recruiters for sm. Those of you that are interviewing and talking to maybe smaller companies, or you are further along in your career, most of you are tuning in today. Directors, VPs, C-Suite. How to sales folks tune in into the show. Successful salespeople, when you're talking to the company owner, president. CEO. They want to hear what they get. You are solving their problem. That's the frame. They did not open this position to solve your problem. I recently coached someone, a IT systems director, who had very solid experience, but kept getting passed over. She was answering questions correctly. She had a clean resume, felt good after interviews, did a good job, but no offers. So we just rewrote how she pitched herself. It's all that needed to change. Some other things, some of the answers were, a bit. Rough, but that wasn't what was holding her back from getting offers, to be honest. Instead of saying, I wanna grow in my career in a larger environment, we worked out and she started saying. I know uptime is everything at your company and in our industry. At my last company, I cut our downtime by 47% in less than a year by overhauling their ticketing system and automation process. I believe that approach will work here too, especially since you're scaling your help desk team. I can't wait to roll up my sleeves, get to work, and make the change so you can get what you want. She got an offer two weeks later, and it wasn't about her resume, it was about the pitch and positioning. She wasn't figuring out what they wanted. That's what they wanted. She knew how to do that. What was crazy is how like she was better than what they wanted. They just didn't know it because she didn't tell 'em because when else would you tell 'em except in a pitch? If so, here it is. If you forget everything else I've taught that you've listened to. On the Move Up Careers podcast, remember this, present yourself as the solution and pitch yourself clearly and confidently. I can help get you there on one-on-ones, it's what I do. But if you can gather these two things together, really think it through and nail the pitch so that it's about how you help them without throwing the team under the bus. That'll get you really far remember, present yourself as a solution. Pitch yourself clearly and confidently. That's how you stop getting ghosted. That's how you move. Past interviews, that felt good, but went nowhere. If that sounds familiar, that's how you close, because here's the truth, companies won't connect the dots for you. Like I said, that's your job, and when you do it right, they'll realize you're not just qualified. You are the one they've been hoping would show up. I go deeper in these strategies. I'll continue to talk about this, but if you want to end your week strong and prep for your next interview with more clarity. Rehearse your pitch, rethink your value, show up ready to solve a problem, not just answer questions. This should challenge some of you to grow more, to get a little smarter, a little more tactical. The pitch. Yeah, that's that. When I say tactical and grow, that's the solution. How you can solve their problems. The pitch. Yeah. That takes a little salesmanship. It's gonna take a little work. Some of you, if you're not in sales, I get it. It's hard. All you gotta do is practice it. Look 'em in the eye and say it confidently. That's what they want to hear. They want someone to fix it. I'm here to fix this for you. I know how perfect. Let's do it. Rethink your value. Show up ready to solve a problems, not just answer questions. Thanks for listening to the Move Up Careers podcast. Talk to you next time.