No BS Career Advice: September 20 2026

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” ~ Maria Robinson

What a week! 15 sessions with people, 7 webinar presentations, recording a podcast for a client, responding to multiple messages from people, plus blocking a lot of spammers trying to persuade me they had a great opportunity. LOL!

Then Friday night after my wife and I had dinner in town, we stumbled into the Asheville Ballet performing in Pack Square. One of the things I miss about New York is not having access to world-class entertainment. These were nice dancers but not like what I’ve seen in New York. Regardless, it was a wonderful and pleasant surprise.

4 Micro-Actions to Create More Job Leads

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

High-yield job searches are rarely built on marathon application sessions. They are powered by surgical, 15-minute micro-actions deployed consistently during small gaps in your workday. By stripping away administrative clutter, you can systematically unearth unlisted initiatives, reactivate dormant capital, and force human review—all before your morning coffee cools down.

Here are four brand-new 15-minute executions to expand your high-leverage job search toolkit.

1. Execute an “Interim Director” Sourcing Pull (15 Minutes)

When an executive abruptly leaves a target company, the organization frequently hires a temporary “Interim Director” or fractional executive to keep operations running while conducting a formal search. These interim leaders are assigned to diagnose team bottlenecks and build the hiring blueprint for permanent roles.

Spend 15 minutes searching LinkedIn for: “[Target Department] + Interim Director” OR “Fractional [Functional Title]”, filtered by your target industry (or company).

Send a brief, peer-level note to an interim leader who recently stepped into that role.

“Hi [Name], I saw you recently took over interim guidance for the [Department] group at [Company]. Having stepped into scaling teams during transitional phases myself, I know the first 30 days are usually focused on identifying workflow drag. I specialize in [Core Value/Skill]. No immediate ask, but I’d welcome 5 minutes to share how we stabilized our pipeline during a similar shift.”

Interim leaders have direct access to decision-makers and love introducing pre-vetted operators who can solve the exact problems they are contracted to diagnose.

2. Mine Company “Help Wanted” Code Repositories & Tech Stacks (15 Minutes)

For technical, product, and data professionals, corporate career pages only tell half the story. Engineering and product teams frequently post open issues, technical roadmaps, or bug priorities on public platforms like GitHub or specialized developer documentation long before HR drafts an official job requisition.

Spend 15 minutes searching GitHub or public technical docs for a target firm (search: “[Target Company] + open issues” OR “contributor guidelines”).

Isolate one active bug, documentation gap, or open API issue, then draft a short message to a team lead on LinkedIn:

“Hi [Name], I was looking through [Company]’s public developer docs and noticed the open tracking issue around [Specific Technical Bottleneck/Feature]. We hit that exact data-sync issue during our last deployment and solved it by re-indexing our primary event queue. I put together a quick 1-page breakdown of how we handled it—let me know if you’d like me to pass it over to your team.”

This moves you out of the generic “applicant” bucket and immediately establishes you as a problem-solving collaborator.

3. Deploy the “Alumni Advisory Board” Reach-Out (10 Minutes)

Many university alumni networks maintain specialized advisory boards, industry groups, or regional chapter committees. The members of these boards are chosen specifically because they hold senior positions and actively want to support their university ecosystem.

Spend 10 minutes finding an alum on an industry advisory board via your university’s official network or LinkedIn page:

“Hi [Name], I noticed you serve on the [University Name] [Industry/Department] Advisory Board. I’m a fellow alum currently mapping out my next leadership move in [Specialization] and tracking the work your team is doing at [Company]. I’d value a 5-minute prospective chat on how you see the market evolving in our sector this year.”

Because these individuals have already raised their hands to mentor and lead, their response rates are significantly higher than typical cold outreach.

4. Audit Your Profile’s “Featured Project Media” (10 Minutes)

Most LinkedIn profiles rely strictly on text experience blocks, leaving the Featured section empty or populated with generic company posts. Adding direct, visual proof-of-work assets gives visiting recruiters and hiring managers an instant anchor for your skills.

Spend 10 minutes refreshing your visual proof assets:

Select a past project deliverable, anonymized slide deck, public talk, or published article that highlights a major career win.
Upload the file or link directly to your profile’s Featured section.
Write a punchy 1-sentence title focusing on outcomes (e.g., “Case Study: Scaling Cross-Functional Pipeline Efficiency by 35%”).

This simple visual addition turns a flat digital resume into a dynamic portfolio that demonstrates execution literacy.

The Bottom Line

You do not need to sacrifice entire weekends to build momentum in your job search. Pick one surgical 15-minute micro-action every morning, execute it cleanly, and let the compound effect force the market to bring opportunities directly to you.

This week I released a number of new blog posts, including:

Your Professional Currency | Career Angles Excerpt: There are two types of professional currency. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/your-professional-currency-career-angles/

What’s Required to Build a Strong Personal Brand? #shorts Excerpt: This is the key to building a strong personal brand. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/whats-required-to-build-a-strong-personal-brand-shorts/

Should I Bring My Resume to Job Interviews? #shorts Excerpt: Bringing a resume to an interview just in case they can’t find it is a legacy of a bygone era. But there are circumstances where you’ll be happy you did. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/should-i-bring-my-resume-to-job-interviews-shorts/

The Good Soldier Trap: Why Playing it Safe Kills Your Career Excerpt: Playing it safe and blindly taking on grunt work doesn’t earn promotions; it conditions management to treat you like a permanent task-doer. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/the-good-soldier-trap-why-playing-it-safe-kills-your-career/

Your Social Media Presence #shorts Excerpt: A warning about your social media presence . . . No, I am not a scold warning you about anything. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/your-social-media-presence-shorts/

The 10-Step Guide To Making A Career Transition Excerpt: In this article, I’ll share 10 steps to researching a new career that goes beyond the usual advice you’ll find on the first page of a Google search Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/the-10-step-guide-to-making-a-career-transition/

Greatness | Career Angles Excerpt: Greatness comes in all genders, sizes, races, colors, religions, sexual orientations Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/greatness-career-angles/

The Skills First Fallacy: Engineering a Career You Actually Love Excerpt: This episode delivers a pragmatic framework to audit your capabilities and execute a safe, calculated career pivot based on your hard life constraints. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/the-skills-first-fallacy-engineering-a-career-you-actually-love/

It’s Business #shorts Excerpt: Too many people lose track of an important detail that hurts them professionally. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/its-business-shorts/

Defeat vs. Defeated #shorts Excerpt: There is a vast difference between experiencing a setback and internalizing it as your identity. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/defeat-vs-defeated-shorts/

Support | Career Angles Excerpt: I will state unequivocally I don’t have all the answers. I suspect the same is true for you, too. The hard thing is admitting it. After all, the three hardest words to say for many people is, “I don’t know.” Asking for support and advice rather than always… Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/support-career-angles/

The Top 10 Hiring Mistakes Managers Make Excerpt: Statistics show approximately 46% of new hires fail within 18 months. There are mistakes occurring that result in failures with hiring. Here are the top 10. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/the-top-10-hiring-mistakes-managers-make/

They Don’t Want Me to Tell You This #shorts Excerpt: What I am going to tell you in 34 seconds may save you from a career mistake. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/they-dont-want-me-to-tell-you-this-shorts/

How Executives Should Explain a Career Pivot Excerpt: If you’re an executive stumbling over how to explain why you’re pivoting, you’ve already lost ground Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/how-executives-should-explain-a-career-pivot/

Defeat vs Defeated #shorts Excerpt: You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/defeat-vs-defeated-shorts/

Using AI to Job Search Excerpt: This YouTube video is based on a video from the WGU Career & Professional Development channel⁠ is a presentation on utilizing AI tools to enhance one’s job search. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/using-ai-to-job-search/

Going Through Hell? | #shorts Excerpt: A great reminder Sir Winston Churchill Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/going-through-hell-shorts/

4 Micro-Actions to Create More Job Leads Excerpt: When mid-career professionals hit a plateau in their job search, the default instinct is to increase raw output. They block off Sunday afternoons, open dozens of browser tabs, and spend hours submitting resumes into corporate portals until decision fatigue takes over. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/4-micro-actions-to-create-more-job-leads/

Your Resume Needs to Communicate One Thing #shorts Excerpt: Most think it has to get you hired. WRONG! Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/your-resume-needs-to-communicate-one-thing-shorts/

Coasting | Career Angles Excerpt: I stumbled into a show on Showtime about The Comedy Store. Episode 1 was about the very early days of The Store and some of the early comedians. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/coasting-career-angles/

Learn Your Lessons | Career Angles Excerpt: The New York Yankee baseball team used to buy up talent at whatever the price necessary Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/learn-your-lessons-career-angles/

Ask Me Anything About Job Hunting Excerpt: Ask Me Anything About Job Hunting By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter I answered 6 questions from people: Should I Tell The Interviewer That I Already Have A Job Offer? How do find a job in America if I am from outside of the US? How should I show a job in my familys… Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/ask-me-anything-about-job-hunting/

Every Great Athlete and Entertainer Does Something You Don’t #shorts Excerpt: Every great athlete and every great entertainer does something that you dont. Its why theyre great and you arent. I know that’s harsh but hear me out Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/every-great-athlete-and-entertainer-does-something-you-dont-shorts/

No BS Career Advice: September 13 2026 Excerpt: No BS Career Advice offers help with job search, job hunting, career advice, Interviewing, salary negotiation, resumes, and more. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/no-bs-career-advice-september-13-2026/

What Do Employers Look For In a Resume #shorts Excerpt: The answer is really very simple and never changes. Link: https://thebiggamehunter.us/what-do-employers-look-for-in-a-resume-in-2025-shorts/