Getting a job is often about finding the hidden bullet point.

Job descriptions are always imperfect, so rather than pitch what is written, pitch what makes sense.

Recently, I’ve been helping out at a company where many of the senior leaders didn’t have updated job descriptions. This isn’t uncommon at high-growth startups, where hiring competent generalists and letting them loose on the things that need doing often works surprisingly well. 

Until it doesn’t. Growth means a constant balance between creeping scope and new hires, so at some point, a lack of defined swimlanes is a recipe for the Type 1/Type 2 of workplace errors: too many things that no one owns and too many things that everyone thinks they own. Periodically refreshing job descriptions helps avoid both, while also allowing for employee growth and succession planning.

But writing good job descriptions is hard. Ideally, they spell out both the outcomes over which someone will be accountable as well as the levers they’ll pull to accomplish them, while somehow packaging that in an external-friendly format that is readable by people who aren’t familiar with the details of the business.

That’s why finding the hidden bullet point is so important. 

When interviewing for jobs, most of us fall victim to the tendency to “teach to the test” – you assume that the hiring process is a perfect assessment and then optimize for the highest possible score. This is due in large part to the education system’s emphasis on standardized testing, which rewards this type of behavior; you apply to work what you learn in school.

But by accepting that job descriptions are imperfect representations of what the work actually is, you can change your strategy. 

Rather than looking at the bullet points as a series of checkboxes, imagine them as brushstrokes, meant to give the impression of a scene without being photorealistic. Your job in the hiring process then becomes to place yourself in the scene by looking at the gestalt and convincing me that you fit.

Take this job at Oceans. I’d like to think that I did reasonably well at describing the role: I talk about the legs and arms of your T, what you’ll actually be doing, and how you’ll be assessed.

But this is a 600-word summary of someone’s entire worklife; there is no way I could possibly fully describe every detail. Ultimately, the bullet points are not prescriptive but rather descriptive; they are meant to give you an impression of the role overall, rather than a detailed checklist that you’ll wake up and follow.

And so the candidates who impress are the ones who find the hidden bullet point. You signal this by asking questions like “What about upselling across product offerings?” or “How will I be involved in hiring?” – these are key expansions that take the basic themes and extend them.

You then use those answers to demonstrate your fitness. “In other roles like this, I’ve…” or “My approach in situations like these is…” are the kind of phrases that show that you’re effectively pattern matching across larger experiences and that you fit in the scene.

This might be uncomfortable for some people, as it can feel like an overstep. But you want to work at the kind of places that welcomes this collaboration; places that hire people who are “teaching to the test” in interviews generally are the same places that fall victim to those Type 1/Type 2 workplace errors. Finding the hidden bullet point not only helps the right companies find you but helps you find the right workplaces that will support your growth and allow you to expand.