Resume Won’t Land You Your Dream Job

No one was ever hired just because of a nice-looking resume.

So what works? Showing value before they even ask. 

That’s what a Value Validation Project is.

What is a Value Validation Project (VVP)?

It’s a small proof of your skills, designed around their problems.

Not a portfolio.

Not a demo app you built for yourself.

A VVP is:

1. Find one real pain in the company’s product.

2. Do a short analysis, mockup, or code idea that shows how you’d fix it.

3. Send it with no strings attached: “This may or may not be useful for you. If it is, happy to chat. If not, thanks for reading.”

You’re not asking. You’re proving.

• A resume = “I want a job.”

• A VVP = “Here’s proof I can make your product better.”

Steps to Create a VVP

1. Pick the company → from your Ideal Employer Profile (target industry, right geo, good team signals).

2. Spot a pain point → slow login, missing feature, bad crash reviews. Trustpilot, Reddit, App Store reviews are gold here.

3. Draft a solution → code snippet, design mockup, process suggestion. Doesn’t need to be perfect. Just relevant.

4. Write a short doc → 1–2 pages with:

   • The problem.

   • Your idea to fix it.

   • Example of you doing similar before (ROI metric if possible).

5. Send it with a no-pressure DM or email.

My Example

Here’s a Value Validation Project I created for Goodnotes — a company where I didn’t know anyone inside.

The challenge I noticed: Older iPads were crashing when running on-device AI and real-time collaboration. App Store reviews showed frustration, 1-star ratings, and users leaving because the app felt slow or unstable.

My proposed solution:

• Compress the AI model from 8-bit to 4-bit → saves ~40% memory without losing accuracy.

• Detect older iPads at launch and automatically load the lite model so they never run out of memory.

• Implement a “Lite AI mode” based on Apple’s WWDC guidance for on-device ML.

The value this brings:

• Crash-free sessions → steady App Store ratings.

• Prevent churn on older devices.

• Lower support costs.

• Higher engineering velocity.

Why I know this works: In a past project (the Juke live-radio app), users on slow 3G links kept losing the stream and leaving 1-star reviews. My fix:

• Switch AVPlayer to a 48 kbps AAC track when 3G is detected.

You can see my VVP here:

Why This Works

• A resume = “I want a job.”

• A VVP = “Here’s proof I can make your product better.”

That’s why resumes get ignored. And VVPs open doors.

It’s up to you.

👉 In my Stop Applying Randomly system, I walk you through:

• How to spot the right pains.

• How to structure your ROI Vault.

• How to send no-pressure DMs that get replies.

Subscribe to my free daily iOS career strategies — I’ll show you how to build your first Value Validation Project step by step.