✅ WEEK 4: The Pipeline Technique (Job Offers On Demand)

It’s time to build the machine that drives job offers consistently.

🎯 Objective:

Build a personal job opportunity pipeline that puts you in control. Instead of applying and hoping, you’ll attract and create conversations with the right people — reliably and repeatably.

This is the system that makes interviews and offers inevitable.

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🧠 Why a Pipeline Beats Blind Applications

The goal is not to send resumes. The goal is to have 5–10 active conversations that lead to offers.

Traditional Job Search Funnel (broken):

1. Apply to 50 jobs

2. Get 3–4 HR responses

3. Maybe 1 interview

Pipeline Job Search Funnel (precision):

1. Start 20 conversations

2. Get 10 responses

3. Convert 3–5 into interviews

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🧱 The Pipeline Structure

Your Opportunity Pipeline is like a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager), but for hiring relationships.

🔁 5 Stages of the Pipeline:

Stage	Description	Example Contact
1. Target	Companies + roles you want	Razorpay SDE3 Backend
2. Contacted	You’ve reached out (DM/email)	Engineering Manager at Razorpay
3. Engaged	They replied or liked/commented	Manager said “Let’s chat next week”
4. Interviewing	You're actively in process	Interview rounds started
5. Offer/Closed	Offer received / Not moving forward	You accepted or declined

✅ You’ll track these in Notion, Airtable, or a spreadsheet.

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🔍 Step 1: Create Your Target List

Use your Career Bullseye from Week 2:

• 10–15 companies

• 3–5 job titles

• Match your non-negotiables

Tools:

• LinkedIn (search company → “People” tab)

• Crunchbase (find fast-growing startups)

• Wellfound, Glassdoor, TechCrunch

🎯 For each company:

• Add 2–3 potential contacts (Hiring Manager, Team Lead, Peer Engineer)

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📬 Step 2: Begin Controlled Outreach (Don't Spam!)

Your job is to start warm, human conversations, not send resumes.

Prioritize 3 Tiers of Contacts:

Tier	Who They Are	Goal
1	Hiring Managers	Conversation + referral
2	Teammates / Peers	Warm intro or advice
3	Internal Recruiters (last)	Process assistance

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💬 Step 3: Use the 3-Step Outreach Message Formula

Step 1: Personal Context Mention something specific about them or the team “I saw your talk on scaling microservices at XYZConf...”

Step 2: Value-Aligned Pitch Bring in your CVP “I help teams like yours scale payment infra using Java, Kafka & Spring Boot...”

Step 3: Light Ask “Curious if your team is exploring hiring or open to a quick chat on how I can help.”

🔥 Example DM:

Hey Ankur, I really appreciated your recent post on backend system stability at Razorpay. I help fintech teams scale and secure high-throughput APIs using Java, Kafka, and Spring Boot. Curious if your team is growing or would be open to a quick chat—would love to explore where I can bring value.

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🧊 Step 4: Don’t Go Cold. Warm it Up.

Ways to warm up before outreach:

• Engage with their LinkedIn posts

• Comment on articles, podcasts, or talks they did

• Mention mutual interests or communities

👥 Use LinkedIn “People Also Viewed” to find more contacts at the same org.

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🧮 Step 5: Track Your Pipeline Like a Pro

Build a tracker with these fields:

Field	Example Entry
Company	Razorpay
Contact Name	Ankur Shah
Title	Director of Engineering
LinkedIn/Email	linkedin.com/in/ankur-shah
Stage	Engaged
Last Action Date	20 June 2025
Next Step	Follow-up if no response by 24 June
Notes	Mentioned interest in platform scaling

🧰 Tool: Use Notion, Airtable, or Google Sheets. I can provide templates too.

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🔁 Step 6: Follow-Up Without Being Pushy

If no reply after 4–5 days, follow up with this format:

Hey [Name], just checking in—no rush if timing’s off. I’m still very interested in exploring if/how I can support your team’s backend goals. Let me know if a quick chat makes sense.

Send 2–3 nudges max. Then move on. Keep building the pipeline.

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🔥 Pro Tip: Aim for 10 Active Leads Per Week

“Active” = Contacted or Engaged.

• Focus on quality over volume

• Set a weekly Outreach Goal (e.g., reach out to 7–10 new people)

• Watch the compound effect kick in by Week 6–8

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✅ Action Steps for This Week

Task	Status
Create your Opportunity Tracker	[ ]
List 10–15 target companies and roles	[ ]
Identify 2–3 contacts per company	[ ]
Send outreach to 5–7 people this week	[ ]
Record responses + set follow-up reminders	[ ]
Engage with 3 hiring managers publicly on LinkedIn	[ ]

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🧠 Reflective Prompts

• Where do I feel hesitation about reaching out? What story am I telling myself?

• Who could benefit from my skills that I haven’t yet considered?

• What if each outreach opened a door I didn’t know existed?

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📘 Resources for This Week

• Pipeline Tracker Template (Notion, Sheets, Airtable)

• Outreach Message Scripts (DMs, Emails)

• Warm-Up Strategy Guide (commenting, engaging)

• LinkedIn Search Cheat Sheet

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🔚 Week 4 Summary:

You’ve now:

• Built your Opportunity Pipeline

• Learned how to open real hiring conversations

• Started bypassing the noisy application channels

In Week 5, you’ll master the art of building relationships with strangers (especially managers), so your outreach turns into referrals and interviews — not ignored messages.