Finding the Right Puzzle: My Approach to the Job Search

I applied to five jobs. Just five.

Everyone told me I was doing it wrong. "You need to cast a wider net," they said. "It's a numbers game." But that approach has never worked for me. It's exhausting and inefficient.

About six weeks into my new job, I found myself reflecting on whether I'd made the right choice. I decided to grade myself against my own criteria from this post:

• Does this place have the steepest learning curve? Absolutely! So much to learn, so much value to add.

• Will I be surrounded by my people? Still early, but so far everyone I've worked with has been incredible at what they do with refreshingly low egos about it. Very high density of exceptional talent and just people I enjoy working with.

• Can I continue pushing the boundaries of what's possible with AI? Yes! The team I joined was my first choice when I was job searching particularly for this reason. We're at the intersection of product and research within a frontier AI lab that's focused on building AI safely and responsibly. I struggle to think of many other places that could check this box as well as my team does.

I've now been at Anthropic, my top choice, for three months working on features like file creation in Claude and my grading still stands. The truth is, the whole process started long before I sent those five applications.

Finding the right puzzle

I'll caveat upfront that this approach may not be feasible for everyone, and I appreciate that I had the luxury of being able to take time off work to rest and then dedicate focused energy to my job search.

I view the job search as finding the right puzzle. I see myself as a single, perhaps quirky, piece. My shape is defined by my strengths, the value I bring, and the environments where I thrive (or, crucially, where I don't). My entire goal is to find the puzzle where my piece can truly fall into place, contributing to the incredible, developing picture it's revealing.

This meant quality over quantity. I applied to five jobs and gave each one the attention it deserved.

My Job Search Framework

1. Tap Into Your Network (Strategically)

I reached out to people I knew and trusted and asked them what companies or sectors they were excited about and what working at these places was like. This wasn't about asking for referrals right away. It was about gathering information about the companies and their cultures.

Once I narrowed down jobs and companies that aligned with what I was looking for, then I reached out to my network to see if they knew of opportunities that matched.

I also used TrueUp to get notifications for jobs I was interested in. I found it had the best signal-to-noise ratio for what I wanted.

2. Journal Your Way to Clarity

This was probably the most valuable thing I did. Writing down and reflecting on my career helped me identify patterns. Identifying when I was happiest, what I enjoyed, what I valued etc. This clarity was especially important for Anthropic's culture interview, which requires you to have a deep understanding of your values and what's important to you.

I found that without this reflection work, I would have struggled to articulate why certain opportunities excited me and others didn't.

3. Build a Comprehensive Resume, Then Customize

I created a comprehensive resume braindump where I didn't care about page limits or formatting. I just wrote down all my past roles and everything I could remember that was significant. Then I used Claude (yes, really) to help me pick and choose what to showcase for each specific job.

I tend to get in the weeds and focus on what I did without tying it to why or the outcome/impact. Claude was incredibly helpful for reframing my accomplishments to highlight the right achievements for each role. This made a real difference in how I presented myself.

4. Build Interview Momentum

I started by interviewing with companies I cared less about to get the nerves out of my system and get a feel for what kinds of questions were being asked. This was more valuable than I expected. Companies seemed to have more involved processes than I remembered, with a wide range of interviews: LeetCode-style coding, speed coding, debugging, OOP, architecture design, project walkthroughs. It was all over the place.

I focused on one company at a time so I could prepare for whatever wildcard interview they had in addition to the standard coding, system design, behavioral, and leadership questions.

Out of five applications: I got rejected from two, I rejected two, and I accepted Anthropic.

5. Prep, Prep, and more Prep

Coding prep: I did 100 questions on Grind75 (39 easy, 60 medium, 1 hard) because 100 felt like a good place to stop. But when I first started, I quickly realized I needed a refresher on LeetCode question patterns. I signed up for Educative.io and worked through the coding portion of their personalized interview prep plan. I highly recommend this. After going through the topics there, I was able to breeze through the Grind75 questions and felt much more confident about coding interviews.

System design and storytelling: I used HelloInterview. I really loved the guided practice for system design interviews. Speaking and drawing my answers in a time-bounded environment felt more representative of actual interviews. I initially tried just watching YouTube videos, but they gave me a false sense of confidence. I thought I knew the material but struggled to reason through details under time pressure.

I highly recommend their delivery framework. It made it easier to focus on the core parts during interviews and helped interviewers follow my thought process. Their story builder was somewhat useful but a little clunky. What I appreciated was how it helped me narrow down to a few core stories and figure out how to piece them together to answer different questions and highlight my skills in a level-appropriate way.

6. Track Everything (Including Red Flags)

I kept a Google Doc where I logged information and outcomes from interviews with each company. If there were yellow flags, I noted them so I could get clarity during the interview process. If there were things I could improve upon in how I structured my answers, I noted those too so I could work on them for the next interview.

And if there were red flags, like the one interview where I walked away thinking "working with this person feels exhausting," I noted it and immediately pulled myself from the process. This might sound dramatic, but life's too short to ignore clear signals about culture fit.

Reflections on the Journey

Looking back, the biggest lesson is this: know yourself, and trust that knowledge. The time I spent journaling and clarifying what I actually wanted wasn't wasted. It was the foundation that made everything else work.

The "quality over quantity" approach only works if you genuinely understand what quality means for you. For me, it meant a steep learning curve, exceptional people, and the ability to push boundaries in AI. For you, it might be something completely different.

I'm excited to have found the right job for me and am looking forward to the journey ahead. If you're in the middle of a job search right now, I hope some of these strategies are helpful. And if you've found approaches that worked well for you, I'd love to hear about them.