This article is for people at a career crossroads…
When navigating a job transition, it’s common to feel like the task is to “market yourself.”
That framing often feels off — and for good reason.
A more useful orientation is this:
A person expresses capabilities.
Hiring is a market of interfaces.
The work is alignment, not exactly self-promotion.
What follows is a working sensemaking map — a model that continues to evolve as it is tested against real situations and real conversations. It isn’t meant to be complete or universal. It’s meant to be orienting.
The Core Distinction
The person is not the product.
A person expresses capabilities:
- experience
- judgment under pressure
- pattern recognition
- capacity to relate, adapt, and learn
Everything else is an interface that helps those capabilities be recognized in a specific context.
For many people, the first signal that something is off isn’t intellectual — it’s energetic.
The process feels constricting.
Effort increases.
Flow decreases.
Language starts to feel brittle.
This is often a sign that lived capability is being forced through interfaces that aren’t tuned for it.
Defining the Terms (Plain Language)
The Person
A living system: experience, values, nervous system under pressure, capacity to learn and adapt. This cannot be fully represented because it’s you! And it doesn’t need to be.
Value
What becomes easier, safer, or possible when a person’s capabilities are expressed in a context.
Value Stream
How that value unfolds over time — from entering a stuck situation to enabling movement others can sustain.
The Product (in hiring)
The role-shaped expression of capability (e.g., Transformation Lead, Customer Success Engineer, Executive, Developer, Architect, Coach, Analyst, Project Manager, etc.). These are wrappers that make value legible to a buyer.
Product Marketing
Clarifying fit: who this is for, when it matters, and why it’s credible.
Marketing
Helping the right people recognize relevance.
Marketing Surfaces / Interfaces
Places where recognition can occur:
- resume
- cover letter
- referrals
- interviews
Each surface answers a different question.
The Interfaces, One by One
The Resume
A structured capability brief.
It answers:
- What kinds of problems has this person stepped into?
- Have they done it before?
- Can they be trusted in this context?
Different sections signal different things:
- Headline → problem space + level
- Summary → orientation and value focus
- Experience titles → how the market categorizes the work
- Bullets → evidence of value delivery
- Skills / certifications → searchability and risk reduction
Multiple versions aren’t dishonest — they’re tuning.
The Cover Letter
Situational alignment.
It reduces perceived risk at the moment of choice by answering:
- Why this role?
- Why now?
- Why this person?
Distribution and discovery.
It answers:
Is this person in my problem space?
Not:
Do I fully understand them?
Attention and Recognition
Attention isn’t the goal.
Recognition is.
Recognition happens when language matches lived experience.
Different audiences need different recognition:
- recruiters scanning quickly
- hiring managers under pressure
- internal referrers translating value
This is why variation across interfaces is normal — and necessary.
Learning Through the Process
Moving through these interfaces teaches things:
- what gets emphasized
- what gets omitted
- where language tightens
- where energy starts to flow again
This learning is developmental, not just tactical.
Where Tools and Training Help
Not hacks or scripts — but tools for:
- sensemaking under pressure
- tuning language to context
- practicing high-stakes conversations
- staying regulated when stakes rise
Some tools already exist.
Some are trained deeply in small, committed circles.
Some are now AI-augmented.
The aim isn’t optimization.
It’s coherence under pressure.
Closing Orientation
Marketing surfaces will keep changing.
Hiring markets will keep shifting.
The ongoing work is learning how to:
- stay coherent as a person
- express capability in legible ways
- move through interfaces without losing energy or integrity
An Invitation to Continue Sensemaking
If you’ve read this far, something here likely resonated —
or at least almost resonated. Or maybe it found an edge or a gap!
You might be thinking:
- “This makes sense, but I’m not sure what to do with it.”
- “This fits parts of my situation, but not all of it.”
- “This names something I’ve felt, but haven’t fully articulated yet.”
That’s a good place to be.
You might choose to sit with the map and notice what it brings up as you continue navigating your crossroads.
You might take this article and reason with it in conversation with your AI of choice, tuned to your local context, to see what clarity emerges.
And of course, if you find yourself inclined, you’re welcome to reach out and start a conversation.
⛩️🌿
