The CMF idea comes from Phyl Terry's book, Never Search Alone: The Job Seeker's Playbook. Simply don't offer to do a job that the Market isn't looking for nor needs: rather understand what is required and move forward with that.
My Candidate-Market Fit [CMF]
Seeking a remote Product Manager role with attention to UX at an early stage (Series C, Pre-IPO/ICO) Crypto B2C company with emphasis on social impact, real-life assets, music and media industries.
My Mnookin 2-pager
What am I very good at? Figuring out further in a
2-pager.
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My notes on Candidate-Market Fit [CMF] and Mnookin 2-pager
You may disagree, this is what I see works best.
Purpose and Communication
The main goal of the CMF is to summarize, if possible in a single sentence, what you believe is the best place for you in the market. Highlight the desired role with a specific typography, and some other important detail, focus on narrowing down. Example: Product Manager seeking in Crypto, real-life assets, B2B2C. You can add industry, company stage (if startup), and/or desired company/team size, by numbers, also if you have location preference.
The idea with the Mnookin 2-pager is to share your interests and strengths in a realistic way in networking. Keep it simple, Stupid [KISS]: what you show should be easy and quick to read. The aim is to have a 2-pager. Make it longer, and people may read it less. Make it shorter and you may not communicate well enough for others to remember your specifics.
Use Comprehensive Naming. Include, prominently: First and Last Name, and main purpose of the document, such as desired role. Apply this to document title, as well as to document file name. For instance “mnookin-benji-product-manager”. (I know, I don’t use my last name, that’s another conversation). This may come handy that people understand and remember you and your roles better, and can also search you easier.
Copywriting
Be explicit, avoid acronyms, at least explain them the first time you mention an expression. For example: state “Product Manager [PM]”, and only after use the short version such as “PM” This well help communicate across people that are not specialists in your area.
Measuring and Objective Data
One thing that I find many people miss the target is with Must Haves. I’ve even said “I want a place with no bureaucracy”. But how can you measure that, how can you find this about a company when you apply or when you’re in a interviewing process? Use SMART Items: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound as much as possible.
“I’d like to collaborate with many peers”. How many do you mean?
“I hate writing long documents”. How long is this? Is the problem rather that it isn’t read afterward?
Skillset
The higher you move in the corporate ladder, the more important team-leading becomes, as soft-skills. If you have this natural skillset, put it at the top.
A huge area for improvement for all the personal documentation I’ve read so far is that almost all people get their weaknesses upside down: they state things that they don’t like that aren’t bad, or was just one complaint by one manager of peer. Nine times out of 10 you can use these as an advantage:
“I’m not good at conveying ideas on the go”. Then this may mean that you think well and timely about something before speaking.
Many people want a mission-driven company, me too. However consider (this is simply my opinion, I'm aware) that the non-profit sector is less dynamic than the for profit, with less funding, and hence, somewhat less drive. So if too many people want to have a purposeful role, maybe we need to build it ourselves, instead of asking for it from someone else. Or find the (low amount of) companies that manage to make a profit while still purpose-driven.
Be careful about what you believe a company must have. Please distinguish that nice-to-haves can be set aside.
What’s at stake with building a document about what you love and love not? You’re re-evaluating your profile and career. Please review what you don’t like if it’s part of the job. Some Product Managers don’t like managing stakeholders: of course some roles/companies may not be a good fit for every person. Come as you are. Otherwise, train the skills that you need for the role you seek, or identify companies that don’t handle them as you like, and avoid them.
Wrap Up
All this is a personal exercise at my own UX interest and ambition: try to make things, like reading, as easy and clear as possible for the person on the other side of the screen.