• Discovering 'The Third Door' led to career success at Google and Meta for Andrew Yeung.
• The concept involves finding unconventional paths to achieve goals and stand out.
• Yeung used four steps to find the "third door" and launch a successful tech and hospitality career.

Up until a few years ago, I thought I was going to have a mediocre career.

School was difficult for me. Math, English, and science were hard. I didn't think I was terribly smart, and I had below-average grades all the way from middle school up until the point I graduated from college.

It wasn't because I didn't try. In fact, I tried pretty hard. My brain just couldn't grasp basic STEM concepts. Beyond that, I lacked the typical traits associated with success, like charisma, confidence, and genius-level intelligence.

No matter how hard I pushed myself, my results were always below average. I'd spend hours studying in school, only to end up with bad grades. This pattern repeated itself throughout college, where I'd spend months applying to jobs without any kind of response.

I realized I needed to change things up, or I'd end up with below-average results for the rest of my life. I had to stop doing what everyone else was doing because it wasn't working for me.

Everything changed for me in 2019 when I came across Alex Banayan's book, "The Third Door." It completely transformed how I did everything and eventually helped me land lead roles at Google and Meta.

What is "the third door"?

Picture yourself trying to enter an exclusive nightclub. There are three doors: one general entrance that everyone goes through, a second door for the VIPs and celebrities, and a third door that nobody tries.

After learning about this idea, I made it a habit to solve every problem by finding the third door.

I became almost allergic to conformity, ignoring common wisdom. Whenever I saw someone do something a certain way, I would try to do it differently, and I was convinced that there was always an easier, unconventional, non-obvious way of getting things done.

Here are the four things I started doing to improve my likelihood of having a fulfilling, high-growth career.

1. I started creating magnets to attract the attention of decision-makers.

I always had trouble getting into the room, whether it was an interview room with the hiring manager, a private dinner with executives, or a boardroom with decision-makers. To get into the room, you often had to know the right people, have a top-tier résumé, or be exceptionally smart or charismatic. I was none of these, so I realized I needed to create the room myself.

Instead of trying to get into the private dinners with CEOs, I hosted my own.

Instead of trying to get on stage and grab the attention of business leaders, I created my own stage and invited leaders I wanted to speak alongside.

Instead of chasing people, I learned to create valuable things that would attract the attention of those I wanted to meet.

2. I started differentiating myself with my speed of execution.

Throughout my career, I've used my execution speed as a competitive advantage, and it's always paid off.

By replying to her email within 10 seconds, I landed an internship with the CEO of a company with over 20,000 employees.

At Facebook and Google, I had the opportunity to work on the highest visibility projects because I was the first person to raise my hand.

I've also made introductions within a minute of being asked. Being faster is the easiest way to differentiate yourself.

3. I started investing in decadelong relationships when everyone else focused on transactional relationships.

In the last few years, I've interacted with thousands of people, and I've observed that most people take a shortsighted approach to building relationships, especially in fast-paced, metropolitan cities like New York and San Francisco.

It makes sense — there's a high density of remarkable people, giving you what seems like infinite options for relationships, but in reality, this false sense of optionality can hurt you.

Early in my career, I was rejected by dozens of hiring managers. Each time, I accepted the rejection with grace, thanked them for their time, and offered to provide value by introducing them to other candidates. Eventually, it came back around.

I graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in finance and economics. My first job out of school came after I was rejected from a company's internship program. I took this opportunity to build a relationship with their hiring manager and nurtured that relationship for over a year.

My path into Facebook was from a cold outreach that turned into a mentorship relationship lasting over three years, and my entry point into Google came from building a long-term relationship with someone I met spontaneously.

The strongest professional relationships are built when you think in decades.

4. I started giving without the expectation of return.

My strategy for gaining access to job opportunities, CEOs, and influential people has always been volunteering my greatest asset: my time. It's been my trojan horse for opening doors, building relationships, and accessing larger opportunities.

In my early 20s, I knew nothing about startups and tech, so I pitched myself to the CEOs of early-stage companies, offering my help and suggestions. Eventually, a few people took me on, and it became my method of breaking into the tech world as a non-tech person. This approach helped build my personal brand as a young, helpful, and hungry operator.

The third door helped me succeed

These four habits eventually enabled me to get access to opportunities, build relationships with prominent tech leaders, and "break" into tech without good grades or a strong résumé.

In reality, I see myself as an average person who isn't particularly gifted or exceptionally smart in a specific area, but I've managed to find some success by discovering the unfair advantages that are uniquely suited to me.

Andrew Yeung is a former Meta and Google employee who now throws tech parties through Andrew's Mixers, runs a tech events company at Fibe, and invests at Next Wave NYC.

• Andrew Yeung landed roles at Google and Meta by perfecting his résumé.
• Yeung submitted a one-page, black and white résumé with clean formatting and bullet points.
• He said job candidates can stand out if they customize, simplify, and quantify their résumé.

I was able to land a six-figure role at Google as a global product lead and Meta as a business planning and operations lead. I also made it to the final rounds at highly competitive tech companies like Amazon, Uber, and Spotify — not because of an Ivy League education or a stellar background, but because I perfected the craft of creating an impactful résumé to sell myself.

While there may come a day when your LinkedIn profile, personal website, or X account is all you need to land a job, your résumé is still the standard document required for the majority of jobs today.

A résumé is often the first point of contact between a job candidate and a company — they'll usually review it (for an average of six to seven seconds) before speaking with you, so it's crucial to have everything in order and avoid common mistakes that most people don't realize they're making.

Here's the résumé template I used.

Master the fundamentals

Remember to nail the essentials: Make your résumé a one-page, black-and-white PDF with a clear name (e.g., "Andrew Yeung's Resume"). Use well-formatted bullet points, proofread for typos, and include your contact info, LinkedIn profile, and personal website (if you have one), and make sure the layout is clean and visually appealing.

Nothing else matters if you don't have the fundamentals in place.

Customize your résumé to the role

During my job search, I created three distinct résumés tailored to the roles I was pursuing: strategy and analytics, product management, and sales. Each résumé included specific verbs, phrases, and concepts that were relevant to the role I was applying for, often pulled directly from job postings.

Most job seekers send out the same résumé everywhere, but recruiters and managers can easily spot the "spray and pray" approach. Even worse, applicant tracking systems may even flag your profile and auto-reject you if your résumé isn't relevant enough.

Lead with impact

Don't just do what everyone else does on their résumé: list their responsibilities. Instead, emphasize the impact of your work by using the following format:

"Achieved [insert impact] by [quantitative metric] by doing [insert activity]."

Example:

• OK: Responsible for reaching out to new distributors for the men's apparel category.
• Good: Increased sales for the men's apparel category by reaching out to closing distributors and onboarding them.
• Great: Increased sales for the men's apparel category by $10M annually by reaching out to 15 new distributors and onboarding them to the platform with a closing rate of 85%.

Generalize and simplify

The hiring manager and recruiter will often have much less context than you do on your previous experiences. They will know far less about your specific projects and initiatives, meaning you will have to simplify concepts, explain technical jargon, and elaborate on acronyms.

When in doubt, start by generalizing a concept to make it widely applicable, then narrow it down as necessary.

Example:

• Too specific: Launched Company X's GBM FY24 CX initiative to 5,000 EG customers and increased our NPS by 15, ICSAT by 15% while reducing regrettable churn by 20%.
• Simplified: Launched Company X's customer experience initiative for our global business marketing function to 5,000 enterprise customers to increase our NPS by 15, internal customer satisfaction metrics by 15%, and reduce our customer churn by 20%

Quantify as much as you can

The easiest way to spot a rookie résumé from an experienced one is by evaluating how many numbers are included.

Rookies leave numbers out. Pros try to quantify the impact of everything because they recognize the value of a P&L and know that is how business decisions are made.

Quantifying your impact not only proves you made a difference but also demonstrates good judgment and critical thinking. For every line item in your résumé, ask yourself: "How does this impact the bottom line of the company?"

Ask yourself: What attributes do you want to demonstrate?

If you're great at working with clients, prove it by including line items on your client management and customer service skills, and your coachability.

If you're a data wizard, include line items about your analytical abilities, excel prowess, and technical coding competence.

If you're a rigorous operator, include line items about your project management, leadership, and communication skills.

Recruiters and hiring managers will form an impression of you based on your résumé. It's your job to shape that impression.

Finally, remember to be creative — think outside your résumé

Though your résumé is an important piece to the puzzle, you can't solely rely on it for a successful job application. You need to build your network, often before you need it (see: career cushioning). Learn to pitch yourself effectively, master the interview process, and find sponsors within the target company.

Take the time to polish your résumé, and you will see a significantly higher response rate from hiring managers and recruiters at your target companies.

Good news: Once you've perfected your résumé, you likely don't have to do it again for a while.

Andrew Yeung is a former Meta and Google employee who now throws tech parties through Andrew's Mixers, runs a tech events company at Fibe, and invests at Next Wave NYC.