Last week my client told me: “I’m putting everything into my search.”
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No hobbies
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Goal: 20 applications by noon every day
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Rest of the day spent on interview prep
No no no. This is the wrong approach.
You don’t need to sprint. You need to marathon.
The magic number? 80%.
Give 80% of your energy to the job search, consistently, every single day.
Why 80% works better than 100%:
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It’s sustainable. You can keep this pace for months without burning out.
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You stay sharp. When you’re exhausted, your applications get sloppy. Your interview performance drops.
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You preserve relationships. Your family and friends still recognize you at the end of this process.
Good news: AI makes the 80% approach even more powerful.
1/ Use ChatGPT for deep company research.
✍️ Use this prompt:
“What are the top 3 challenges facing [company] in their industry right now?”
2/ Use Claude to double check your outreach emails.
✍️ Paste your message and ask:
“Does this sound genuine and specific?”
3/ Use Teal to optimize keywords before submitting your resume.
These tools handle the heavy lifting while you focus on strategy.
I’ve watched too many people flame out after two weeks of “going ham.”
They apply everywhere. They say yes to every networking call. They research until 2 AM.
Then they quit.
You’re going to land better roles by pacing yourself.
So show up every day, yes.
But always end the day with energy in the tank.
For you, your family, and your friends.
🛍️ Spotlight: Shopify
🔬 Deep research is the secret to standing out in your application, cover letter, and interviews. Every newsletter, I’ll do that research for you with one company with open roles from this newsletter, so you can skip the work and improve your application.
🏢 What they do:
Global commerce platform providing tools to start, grow, and manage retail businesses
📍 Headquarters:
Ottawa, ON
👤 Employee count:
24483
📈 Employee growth:
24% YoY growth (19697 → 24483 employees)
🗒️ Company reviews:
3.3/5 ⭐ rating (3524 reviews) | 46% CEO approval
💸 Funding stage:
Exited
⚔️ Competitors:
Amazon (Marketplace / seller services), WooCommerce / Automattic, BigCommerce, Wix (e-commerce)
📓 Three key initiatives:
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Ship with Shopify (Fulfillment upgrade): A major upgrade to built-in fulfillment capabilities with carrier partnerships and bulk order workflows, aiming to reduce reliance on third-party apps. Source
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USDC / Stablecoin Payments: Enable merchant acceptance of USDC stablecoin payments through integrations with Coinbase and Stripe to offer frictionless, borderless payments. Source
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Shopify + OpenAI / ChatGPT commerce: Integrate Shopify merchant catalogs and checkout into ChatGPT to allow purchases directly within chat conversations, expanding commerce touchpoints. Source
✈️ Remote work stance:
Shopify is a fully remote-first company with a “Digital by Design” (DxD) approach 🌎. Employees can work wherever they work best, with optional access to physical office locations called “Ports” for drop-in use and team collaboration. While the company embraces remote work at the organizational level, many job postings have geographic restrictions (like “Remote – Americas” or “Remote – India”), and some positions remain location-specific.
❤️🔥 Featured AI Tool: Lovable for Resume Reinvention
Elena Verna recently rebuilt her entire resume on Lovable. And it looks great.
Rebuilding your resume on Lovable is perfect “10% project”: something you can tackle with just a fraction of your job search time but could deliver outsized results.
Rebuild your resume AND learn how to vibe code. Win win.
Bonus: There’s an upcoming women-only SheBuilds on Lovable cohort this December; includes 48 hours of collaborative building with unlimited credits.
Join the waitlist now or follow Elena on LinkedIn for the announcement.