Don't let your pipes get empty

Almost every process in business—and many in life—can be modeled as a pipe.

Whether you are looking for a job, trying to hire a new engineer, closing sales deals, or raising capital, you are effectively pushing items through a funnel. Things enter at the top (Application, Sourcing, Prospecting) and hopefully exit at the bottom (Job Offer, Signed Contract, Money in Bank).

The Confidence Trap

The most common mistake people make is stopping the flow when things look good.

Imagine you are looking for a job. You’ve applied to ten places. Three of them reject you, five ghost you, but two of them invite you to a final interview. You really like one of them. The interview goes great. You vibe with the team, the hiring manager talks about “when you join”, and you leave feeling like it’s a done deal.

Psychologically, you have already “won”. You stop applying to new jobs. Why would you waste time sending out resumes when you’re about to start your dream job?

The Gap

Two weeks later, you get the email. They went with an internal candidate. Or they froze the headcount. Or they just didn’t like you as much as you thought.

Suddenly, your pipe is empty.

Because you stopped feeding the top of the funnel three weeks ago, you now have nothing in the ‘phone screen’ stage and nothing in the ‘technical test’ stage.

If the average time-to-offer is two months, you have effectively reset the clock. You aren’t just back to square one; you are facing a mandatory two-month wait before your next likely success.

Always be filling

The only way to avoid this “feast or famine” cycle is to decouple your activity from your optimism.

If your pipe is full at the bottom—you have three final interviews next week—that is fantastic. But if the top of your pipe is empty, you are creating a risk of a massive future gap.

You should always focus your energy on whichever stage of the pipe is emptiest.

If you have 100 applications but no interviews, focus on converting (or improving your resume). But if you have pending final interviews, you should ironically be spending your spare time applying to more jobs, or sourcing more candidates.

If the deal closes, you can happily apologize to the new leads and withdraw. But if it doesn’t, you won’t be staring into the abyss of a three-month drought. You’ll simply move to the next item that is already halfway down the pipe.

Don’t wait for a “No” to start working on your Plan B. Your Plan B should already be in the pipe.