My clients and I have been chatting a lot about proactive job searching.

To be honest… I love talking about it. It’s my bread ‘n butter.

One approach that I keep going back to is what I call the “Super fan strategy.”

It’s what helped me:

• Break into Hollywood after a decade of waiting tables

• Then to break into education and courses

• Then break into tech

And I’m going to break it down for you.

Here’s what you’ll learn today:

• How to detect five specific “hiring signals” from companies using AI tools

• Exactly which tools to use for each signal (all with free options)

• Simple workflows to put these into action

OK, we were talking about the “Superfan strategy.”

Here’s how I described it to my clients.

(This is from my Land A Remote Job Membership program, btw The best conversations and learning experiences happen here. Or at least, that’s what I’ve been told 🙂)

“This platform is genius. There’s no better way to learn these skills.”

Here’s the “Superfan strategy” in a nutshell:

Find a company you’re genuinely passionate about

Become their most engaged supporter

Follow their progress closely

Give thoughtful product feedback

Do deep research on their business

Reach out proactively

Keep engaging until they create a position for you

(If you’re trying to stand out early, here’s a proven way to 10x your reach before the job is posted.)

There have always been two limitations on the strategy:

1. It requires patience – the process typically takes weeks or months of consistent engagement.

2. Success depends on careful research to identify promising signals and then, knowing how to effectively act on those opportunities.

BUT…

What I realized is that AI tools can solve for both these constraints.

You can spot opportunities faster AND scale your outreach efforts more effectively with AI.

So instead of spending months manually tracking companies, AI can do the heavy lifting in minutes 🤯

This means you can focus your energy on what really matters: getting good at what you do and meaningful connections.

This is a game-changer for how you approach your job search, and there are two parts:

Today I’ll cover Part 1 and show you how to use AI to detect hiring signals, e.g. the signs that a company might be hiring soon.

Part 2 are the exact workflows and plays you can run once you spot these signals to land interviews.

🚨 Why Traditional Job Hunting Doesn’t Work

First, why do you even need proactive job search strategies?

Because job hunting today can feel like finding one needle in a haystack of more needles.

(This post walks through how to use AI to stay one step ahead of the market… even during downturns.)

One of my clients applied to 97 roles before we started working together. She got three responses. Zero interviews.

It wasn’t her resume. Her experience was solid. The problem was her approach.

(Still, if you’re wondering whether your resume actually signals ‘remote ready,’ this guide breaks it down.)

The traditional job search is broken because:

• Public job boards are flooded (average corporate job receives 250+ applications)

• Remote role competition is fiercer than ever

• Most roles (70-80%) never get publicly posted

Companies are filling positions through:

• Internal referrals

• Quiet outreach

• Network connections

This means the best opportunities are happening before they hit LinkedIn or job boards.

🔍 5 Job Search Signals AI Can Help You Detect Opportunities Before They Hit LinkedIn

1/ Funding Announcements

Why it matters: New money = new hires.

When companies raise funding, hiring inevitably follows.

One client, Lin, got an offer from a mobile gaming company shortly after they raised their Series A.

I personally experienced this: I got hired at both Noom (Series E) and Persefoni (Series B) right after their funding rounds were announced.

🛠 Tool recommendations:

Perplexity AI (free)

👉 Use this prompt:

List 10 startups in [industry] that raised venture money in the last 30 days. Include the funding round, round amount, and what functions they are likely to hire for.

✅ Basic workflow to get started:

1. Open Perplexity AI (no account required)

2. Paste the prompt above

3. Perplexity will search multiple sources like Crunchbase, TechCrunch, and PR Newswire

4. Copy the results into a spreadsheet

5. Note the company stage (e.g., Series A typically means building core team fast)

2/ Geographic Expansion (Signal = New markets = Local hires)

Why it matters: New locations = team growth

When companies expand to new regions, they need people who understand those markets. This is particularly valuable for remote workers who can bridge headquarters and new territories.

🛠 Tool recommendation:

Feedly (free with limited AI features)

Perplexity AI (free)

👉 Use this prompt:

Find 10 companies in [industry] expanding into [your target city/region] recently. What hiring plans might follow?

✅ Basic workflow to get started:

1. Create a free Feedly account

2. Set up a keyword feed with this search string:

“expands into” OR “opens office in” OR “launches operations in” [Your City/Region]

3. Add relevant news sources like TechCrunch, PRWeb, BusinessWire

4. Set a weekly reminder to check this feed

5. When you spot a company expanding to your region, add them to your target list

3/ Leadership Changes

Why it matters: New executives often means rebuilding their team

This one’s cool 😎

It’s a way to spot openings before they happen.

New leaders bring new visions and priorities, and they typically spend their first 90 days evaluating their inherited team. During these first 3 months, they look at who fits their plans and who doesn’t.

And therein lies the opening.

That 90 day window is your chance. If you reach out during this time, you can show you understand what they need and could be a great fit for the team

🛠 Tool recommendation:

Perplexity AI (free)

Clay (free trial)

LinkedIn (free)

✅ Basic workflow to get started:

1. Pick 1-2 industries or 4-5 companies to target

2. You any of the tools above to find signals of leadership changes. Search on Perplexity, use Clay to monitor job changes, or do it the old fashioned way on LinkedIn 😊

3. For promising leads, check the executive’s LinkedIn profile to see if they’ve posted about their new role

4. Start engaging and building a relationship

Two more signals to go. But real quick…

Once you’ve identified these signals and built your target company list, the real work begins: turning these insights into actual opportunities with specific workflows, like

• How to use these insights to become a “super fan”

• Exactly what to say in your outreach

• How to position yourself as the solution to their growth challenges

• The follow-up system that converts conversations to interviews

Should I cover the execution workflows in a Part 2 next week? If there’s enough interest, I’ll write it

Yes, I want a part 2

No thanks

4/ Product Launches & Partnerships

Why it matters: New products create talent needs.

Different launches require different talents.

When Reforge pivoted to creating an AI product, they needed a different engineering team.

When Noom started selling their program selling through benefits, it required a brand new team.

After I launched our free carbon accounting tool at Persefoni, we immediately needed more (and different) hands on deck.

The same happens across industries. New initiatives always create staffing gaps.

🛠 Tool recommendation

Visualping (free for 2-3 pages)

Perplexity AI (free)

👉 Use this AI prompt: “Find companies that announced new partnerships or major product launches this week. What kinds of roles will they need to support the rollout?”

✅ Basic workflow to get started:

1. Sign up for Visualping’s free plan

2. (Or use the above prompt in Perplexity)

3. Add the “Newsroom,” “Blog,” or “Press Release” pages of your 3-5 target companies

4. Set the monitoring frequency (I recommend daily)

5. Receive alerts whenever new content is published

6. Look specifically for announcements about new products, features, or partnerships

This signal works especially well for customer success, support, and implementation roles, which are often the first to scale after a major launch.

5/ Revenue Growth Signals

Why it matters: Growing companies need growing teams.

Companies crushing their targets invest in more people… but you need reliable signals, not social media hype.

While LinkedIn and X are flooded with #humblebrags and inflated success stories, that’s less likely in public company financial statements (10-Ks and 10-Qs) and earning calls.

Regulatory filings are much harder to dress up or exaggerate, making them one of the more reliable indicators of true business performance.

🛠 Tool recommendation:

FinChat.io (free for most features)

Perplexity AI (free)

Clay (free trial)

👉 Use this prompt: “Based on quarterly earnings, what public companies in [industry] are likely to increase headcount?”

✅ Basic workflow to get started:

1. Create a FinChat account, use the above prompt in Perplexity, or use Oakie.AI integration in Clay

2. Use their earnings call search to pull quotes from recent calls

3. Search with prompts like:

“What hiring plans were mentioned in the last earnings call of [Company]?”

or

“Show me growth commentary from [Company]’s Q2 call.”

4. Look for phrases like “hiring aggressively,” “investing in GTM,” or “doubling headcount”

5. Add these companies to your high-priority target list

If you’re targeting publicly traded companies, this approach gives you direct insights from leadership about their growth plans.

💫 Next Steps: From Signals to Interviews

That’s it. Here are the signals we covered.

1/ 💰 Funding Announcements

2/ 🌎 Geographic Expansion

3/ 👔 Leadership Changes

4/ 🚀 Product Launches & Partnerships

5/ 📈 Revenue Growth Signals

And that’s just the beginning!

If you want to see a Part 2, remember to vote above.

For now, pick just ONE of these signals to start tracking. Set up the tool, run the workflow, and build your initial list of target companies.

Remember, the best time to get on a company’s radar is BEFORE they post a job. By the time the listing hits LinkedIn, you’re competing with hundreds of other applicants.

Which of these signals seems most relevant to your job search? Hit reply and let me know!

Talk soon 👋