When 17 Years of Experience Still Isn't Enough
Lakshmi, a senior engineering leader with 17+ years of experience, wasn’t clearing ATS filters. After reframing her resume around business impact, aligning her profile to Director-level problems, and rebuilding her LinkedIn, she secured two offers, $425K from Google and $378K from Tesla. Experience alone doesn’t get you hired; how you position and translate it into impact does.
Client outcome
- Total compensation$378K+27% vs. previous role
- Competing offers2Both above target band
- Interview loops4Opened after repositioning
- Days to signed offer95From strategy call to signed offer
Where it started
Lakshmi, a senior engineering leader with 17+ years of experience, wasn’t clearing ATS filters. After reframing her resume around business impact, aligning her profile to Director-level problems, and rebuilding her LinkedIn, she secured two offers, $425K from Google and $378K from Tesla. Experience alone doesn’t get you hired; how you position and translate it into impact does.
What we changed
- Rewrote the resume around measurable impact so Lakshmi's experience led, not the noise recruiters were stuck on.
- Rebuilt LinkedIn for the keywords hiring managers actually search for in engineering management roles.
- Replaced volume applications with targeted outreach to teams researched in advance.
- Ran mock interview loops until the narrative matched the level of the roles being pursued.
How the search ran
- Week 1Positioning reset
Resume and LinkedIn rebuilt around impact, not chronology.
- Week 3Targeted outreach
Warm messages to pre-researched teams instead of mass applying.
- Week 7Loops open
4 interview loops running in parallel.
- Week 14Offers, one signed
Landed at Tesla at $378K.
