Land a Chief of Staff job (AMA Edition)

I had a blast on my first LinkedIn live series last week, answering dozens of questions from Chief of Staff job seekers.

I had 50+ folks tune in from Malaysia, Spain, Dallas, Denver, India and Arkansas, among others.

Q&A highlights below:

Get an MBA (or not)

Larger organizations might require an MBA. What they are looking for is solid business acumen and an ability to know the fundamentals of every business unit - marketing, sales, operations, product, finance and legal. But usually it’s not a hard requirement. Startups do not typically require an MBA.

Use “de facto Chief of Staff”

I advise folks to use the term “de facto Chief of Staff” to highlight experiences where they are serving a leader in the Chief of Staff capacity, but do not have the tile. Of course, you’re going to want to back it up with specific experiences and outcomes you achieved, as well as demonstrable recommendations from your colleagues.

Develop a CEO relationship

Get to know the leader over a series of conversations. It’s like making a new friend, it doesn’t happen overnight. Ask them what their personal values are. Understand their family dynamics. Go deep into their work history and then ask them what keeps them going today.

Then ask what problems they’re facing in the workplace and how you can help them with a small project to build trust and demonstrate your capability. Finally, based on what you know about their pain points, you can make the case for you as their #1 candidate.

Develop your career first

Take on any project related to serving a senior leader in a strategic or operational capacity. They may have a special project or cross-functional initiative that you can run - volunteer yourself.

Define your motivation for the job

The Chief of Staff job is an amazing development opportunity to skiplevel in your career while also uplevelling your skills and experiences. You also get direct mentorship from your boss on becoming a leader. Finally, you develop relationships across your industry, including investors, board members and partners.

Position yourself as an A+ candidate

You have a breadth of experiences that you can draw from when providing counsel to a CEO, both on the tactical side of building a business, and also the emotional side of dealing with the highs and the lows. Your pitch is that you’ve been there and you can help them not make the same mistakes that you did along the way.

Get a Chief of Staff job

My community-powered course for aspiring Chiefs of Staff is live!

What you’ll get out of my Chief of Staff Job Seekers Masterclass:

1. Identify your ideal target Chief of Staff job

2. Make a plan to become an A+ Chief of Staff candidate

3. Create a unique story for your Chief of Staff candidacy

4. Update your resume, cover letter & LinkedIn

5. Define a LinkedIn outreach strategy

6. Receive direct feedback from your peers

7. Attend live Weekly Office Hours with me

Sign up here, my first cohort closes this Friday.

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for next week’s edition.