The Hiring Update: The Mystical, Elusive No JD Job

I thought I should write too- tell me if I shouldn't haha!

Ever seen a friend or someone you know land a ‘Job with no JD’? They just show up one day with a killer role working closely with a cool person, and you’re left wondering, ‘How did that even happen?’

I’ve had the good fortune of landing a few of these roles, and I’m here to tell you—you can too.

Here’s how ⬇️

(Usual caveats on access, caste, class, language, and institutional privilege all apply)

First—What is a ‘No JD Job’?

It’s when you meet (or are introduced to) a cool founder or builder and realize you could add value to their life. You’re solving no specific problem for them, but they need someone who can quickly iterate on things that don’t scale but add value. Some of these roles might be labeled as Chief of Staff, Founder’s Office, EiR, etc., but many don’t even have names because they haven’t been ‘created’ yet!

Second—Why Would Someone Want Such a Job?

There are a few reasons:

• You’re a generalist who wants to dive deep into your top strengths.

• You aspire to be an intrapreneur.

• You want to take risks but in a staggered manner.

• You enjoy working with cool people.

• You want to make money.

All these are valid.

If you thrive in ambiguity and are great at setting personal goals, this could be perfect for you. But if you need constant external validation, it might not be.

Third—You Have to Know People to Do This

Yes…and no. People are hired for these roles based on what I call ‘leveraged trust’—I may not trust you implicitly yet, but you’ve shown you have the characteristics of someone I would trust.

How do you build this trust? By borrowing it.

The easiest way is through a warm introduction by someone who can genuinely vouch for you. But let’s face it—this kind of vouching is hard to come by. As someone who has occasionally benefited from it but mostly hasn’t, I can tell you that it’s often a double-edged sword.

So What Are the Other Ways?

Identifying problems well.

Many of us think we’re ‘solution-oriented’ when we’re really just ‘answer-oriented.’ If a problem is proposed, we can usually figure out a way around it. This is great! But it’s not enough.

It takes someone smart to articulate problems. You need to be that person. And these problems don’t always present themselves like, ‘Ah, a person I admire tweeted this problem. Let me solve it for them.’

Spend time, dive deep, and get to the first principles of the problem. What causes it—not just at an individual level, but at a collective one? Look at the fundamental ‘why’ and articulate it succinctly.

Then, figure out the jobs to be done. You’ve identified the problem. It has 20 plausible solutions. Each solution has a lot of moving parts. You need to show that you can think strategically, stack-rank these solutions, and break them down into actionable steps.

Finally—Show, Don’t Tell

Offering one solution is great. But it’s even better to say, ‘Hey, you have this problem. I dove into it, and here’s a solution I think you can execute quickly and cost-effectively. I could implement this for you. Would you be interested?’

Understand this—people who have made a lot of money or gained power don’t want to spoon-feed others. They want people who can run the value chain of problem identification, research, solution, and post-mortem for them.

The moment you show that you’re that person, you automatically win.