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Career Perspectives
Welcome to the Career Perspectives Podcast, I’m your host Karyn Nesby of KMN Coaching and Consulting. I’m here to help you navigate your tech and design career. I will tap into my network and leverage my 20 years of experience in tech and design across multiple industries and bring my coaching and mentoring to you.
Career Perspectives
Transform Your Job Search and Learn Expert Insights with Tiffany Williams
Ever felt like your resume goes into a black hole, or wondered how to broach that awkward salary negotiation conversation? This episode with Tiffany Williams from PitchHR is your career GPS, plotting a route through the job market labyrinth. Tiffany's leap from healthcare administration to the helm of her own business provides a blueprint for adaptability and the power of professional networking. Together, we dissect the art of resume writing and strategic job searching, ensuring you have the tools to stand out and the know-how to navigate the nuances of workplace dynamics and financial discussions.
Are job applications and salary negotiations leaving you baffled? My own career journey, sprinkled with hurdles and triumphs, underscores the importance of mentorship and self-advocacy in these pivotal moments. Tiffany and I equip you with insider tips for aligning your skillset with job requirements, tailoring your resume to applicant tracking systems, and learning the art of asking for more in salary discussions. It's not just about what you're worth; it's about believing in that worth and conveying it effectively to potential employers.
Wrapping up our discussion, we delve into the psychological tactics of negotiation and debunk the myths of workplace loyalty that can hinder your career progression. We'll guide you through the delicate dance of work relationships and arm you with strategies for self-advocacy in the workplace. To cap off our chat, Tiffany extends a generous offer for her professional services to our listeners. This episode isn't just a conversation; it's a career workshop, complete with actionable advice that could be the turning point in your professional life.
Visit https://www.careerperspectivespod.com/ to learn more and signup for exclusive access to podcast videos!
Contact me: KMN Coaching & Consulting for Career and Leadership Services- https://www.kmncoachingconsulting.com/
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Hey everyone, welcome to the Career Perspectives podcast. I'm your host, Karyn Nesby of KMN Coaching and Consulting. I'm here to help you navigate your tech and design career. I will tap into my network and leverage my 20 years of experience in tech and design across multiple industries and bring my coaching and mentoring to you. Hello, I'm so happy that you're able to join me today on this episode, and, if you recall, in my very first episode, I mentioned how I was going to have Tiffany Williams of PitchHR join me to help us discuss resume writing, and I know that a lot of you out there are currently in the job market and trying to figure out how to improve your resume, or maybe you need to start or start all over and so I wanted to bring someone that could help you out. And so, tiffany if you also recall the story I mentioned on the first episode I met Tiffany back in 2020, when I was starting KMN coaching and consulting, and I knew at the time that resume writing was not going to be part of my services, and so I wanted to work within my sphere of genius, and I also wanted to find people who can do the same, and so Tiffany was definitely the person that I found and saw that she was offering these great services, and I also took advantage of her services as well. So it's someone that I know that can deliver and I definitely wanted to have her on to talk with you all. She has done for you services as well as an online course that she'll talk with us about, and there might be even a little surprise for my listeners if you keep listening to the episode, but I'll share a little bit about her professional background.
Karyn Nesby:Tiffany is a resume writer and a certified HR professional in Atlanta, Georgia so shout out to my ATL listeners and she has nine years of experience in managing talent acquisition policy, development and compliance, business administration, employee relations and employee onboarding in technology, biotech, real estate development, legal accounting and healthcare industry. So there is no question why I had to bring Tiffany on to talk with you all today. She has a long history in helping people across many industries. Also her educational background. So she has a PHR, which is she certified professional and human resources, and she also has a master of studies in law, with a concentration in business law and compliance, and a master of science in human resources administration. So Tiffany knows what she's talking about. She has worked with several companies and also individuals to leverage her knowledge and help them get a leg up on the competition. She enjoys just leveraging her network. She finds joy in using her skills and her professional experiences to also help job seekers.
Karyn Nesby:So I don't want to hold you any longer because I think that this is going to be a really great episode for you all, and I want to go ahead and introduce you all to my guest, Tiffany Williams Hello, welcome. So I want to welcome Tiffany from Pitch HR today to career perspectives and, as you might remember, on my episode one, I mentioned how I was going to bring Tiffany on to talk to us more about resumes and I gave a little short story about in 2020, when I was starting KMN coaching and consulting, how I knew that resume writing was not going to be part of my services and I had to go and search on social for someone who focused on resume writing and I found Tiffany, and she also offers a lot of different services, but I honed in on the resume writing. I found Tiffany. I thought she was very thorough, she had really great testimonies and so really happy to have you join us today. So welcome to career perspectives.
Tiffany Williams:Thank you, I'm excited to be here.
Karyn Nesby:Yes. So I just want to just dive right in, because I know you have a lot of great information to share with everybody. So if you could just give us a little bit about your background and how you got started in on resume writing, because resume writing is something that we all sometimes avoid and it's not something that people just jump right in to do. So I mean, this is something that's great and we're happy to have people like you. So if you want to just give us a little bit about your background, Sure.
Tiffany Williams:So originally I worked in I guess you would say like, healthcare administration and I worked for physicians around the Atlanta area. I started training people when they joined the team. I wanted to get into the department that focused on training and onboarding at the hospital systems. That was almost impossible to do. People never leave those jobs, literally, however many years ago that I worked. There is the same people in those same positions. They do not leave.
Tiffany Williams:And from that experience of training and trying to help write training manuals that we use in the department, I was like you know what? This isn't working. I have to go somewhere where it makes sense. And so I kind of pivoted into HR. I took the you know path towards joining an HR team that was part of another healthcare focused organization and then I just kind of grew from there and branched into technology. I kind of always wrote resumes along the way, just helping people as I met them and they joined the team because I you know I would practice with my writing and it just kind of grew from there.
Tiffany Williams:I never had a website back then. I didn't even advertise anything back then, so I was kind of very much worried of them out. So like that movie Hitch, where he just kind of passed out this random car. That's what it was like. And then 2020 hit and I took a pay cut with my company that I was with at the time and I was like, all right, things are weird. I'm stuck at home still writing resumes and something said all right, let's make this official. And I, you know, formed the actual business, set up a website, decided I would have to have some sort of online presence so people would think I wasn't a scammer, being in the great city of Atlanta, you know so, and it's just kind of grown from there and just sort of taking that path towards being more official and having a web presence. It helped me meet people like you and, you know, meet more clients across the US, and it's just kind of grown from there.
Tiffany Williams:Very organically and I love it, you know yeah, I mean I'm glad that you did.
Karyn Nesby:I'm glad we started around the same time because you've been very beneficial for people that I've sent your way and I know that you've worked across different industries and I think that brings a lot to the table when there's somebody in this profession as well. So this year and you mentioned how you're in tech and tech and a lot of other industries have experienced just like an overwhelming number of layoffs this year and I know just from just a short story I can tell it's like back when I started my career and hadn't really gone through layoffs personally, just also just seeing it from family and people like that. Growing up, I remember going into a workforce where people were starting to get laid off and they had been in their jobs for like 20, 30 years and I remember this one lady in particular. She had not touched a resume and I don't even know how many years she had not been through an interview process Because she just continued to get promoted based off of her performance.
Karyn Nesby:And I just remember the look on her face just realizing that she had to figure out how to get back into the world of interviewing and resumes. And right then I said to myself very early on this is something that I'm going to have to stay up on, because you just have to stay ready, not just because of layoffs, but also for opportunities, because those days are just getting promoted. Sometimes it happens, but also now we have recruiters that reach out, and so you want to stay ready. So what are some of the advice that you can give the job seekers right now that might be in that position, that are working on their resumes today?
Tiffany Williams:Yes. So the thing I think that's most important for people in that position now is sit down, think about what it is that you really do and the impact that you've actually had. Jot down all the metrics that you can think of. If you trained eight people, if you trained 10 people, take it a step further and jot down okay, I trained 10 people, but you trained them on what? I trained them on a new system we implemented in 2022, focused on XYZ.
Tiffany Williams:You have to think about it in that way, because that's the way you need to translate what your impact is on your actual resume, because that's the only way people will care. We don't want to know you trained people. We want to know okay, well, what was the result of that? And think about it in the way that everything that you do matters, but think about that big picture. So start thinking about yourself like if you were a C-suite executive. If you wanted to go brag about yourself, what would you want to relate? Do you want to say, oh, I just fill out paperwork all day? Or do you want to say you streamline processes and minimize downtime by XYZ? You have to really start kind of moving throughout the process with a boost of confidence and understanding, first of all, what it is that will be of value to the other organizations. So we're all in sales. That's something people say. We're all in sales. So think about selling yourself to someone else.
Tiffany Williams:But also, on the opposite side of that, think about what does a company need to sell to you? Because you are also the commodity. That's what you also have to have in the mindset of, like you're not thirsty for work. We know layoffs can happen, but you have to move about saying okay, I have this skill set and it is valuable to someone. Let me see what companies are out here that would be thinking of that as being of value.
Tiffany Williams:Right, and I always tell people you can start as small of thinking okay, what tools do I use at work? I use this software. Let's say, hypothetically you work at the front desk at a hospital, which is literally what my first real job was. You work at the front desk, you're checking people in. What software are you using? Okay, think about who would value that software tool that you're using. Could you go work for that company next? Absolutely that's a possibility. Or could you look up and see what other systems or what other hospital systems I mean would use that tool, look that up. So always just think bigger. That's the thing. Think bigger, don't think of just the minute details. Think bigger on what your overall impact and value is.
Karyn Nesby:Right, it's always those adjacent I always say, like the cousin to your job today, those tools that you can use and lean into to try to find that next opportunity. And what do you say about as far as like crafting that resume? Because I know when we talk before you're saying how people wanna use the same resume over and over again and apply to jobs like what are things that they need to like pinpoint when they're doing that and making those job applications and hitting submit?
Tiffany Williams:So the first thing you need to do is look at the actual job ad that you're applying for. Don't just say, okay, this is the same job title I applied for yesterday or this is my job title. Now I know I have the experience boom, submit. Don't do that because we use what's called an applicant tracking system and those systems help hiring managers and recruiters filter out applicants. Like when you see a job posting, just know that at minimum, that job posting is gonna get about 250 applications. So what you have to do to stand out is make sure that you are focusing on the skill set that they're asking for. So when you look at it, break it up right. Look at the job ad, read through it overall for understanding. But then there's gonna be a section that says preferred qualification. Look at that and say do I have any of these? Cause you know what that means. If you have some of those, you'll be ahead of the game. You gotta have the requirements, but if you've got some of those preferred, then you're even higher than the person who just meets the requirements. You exceed the requirements.
Tiffany Williams:So kind of think about it as reading in reverse and then what you wanna do is reverse engineer your resume. You don't have to rewrite your resume every time you submit. However, you should be tweaking it ever so slightly before you apply, and there are tools out there that will help you do that. Or you can enlist the services of a professional if that's not your thing and you just wanna toss it to somebody else to do. But that's what you have to do if you're gonna do it yourself. Don't just say, oh, I have all this experience, because the reality of it is the applicant tracking system is going to filter out about 75% of the people. For us, we don't even see your resume. Humans not going to see it.
Tiffany Williams:And then when a human does see it, you need to make sure that you're communicating quickly and clearly how you are I don't wanna say the perfect match, but how you are a great match for that role and then we're only gonna glance at it for maybe six to 10 seconds, that's it. And that's being generous with the timing six to 10 seconds on average, closer to six most times, especially because of the volume of applications people are receiving now, especially if you work in tech.
Karyn Nesby:Right, because I think the other thing to note is that when you are applying and you see, okay, this particular job post has 200 applicants, to keep in mind that that's not the only place that that recruiter has probably posted the job. So, to your point, you really need to focus in on those job skills and the preferred skills and make sure that you have those things up to date. So when you submit, you get that job, you go through the interview process and I know you have a really great story about just when you've been in your role and how to position yourself and your own salary journey and your own trajectory, and so I would really love for you to share that story with the audience here.
Tiffany Williams:Sure. So my journey was a fun one, right. Like when I started trying to build my professional career, I struggled in school, you know. I took like two years off. It was like on academic probation at the end there and then I said, okay, I want to give myself the best chance possible. So I went back to school and I finished, I got my bachelor's and then I was working.
Tiffany Williams:You know, when I was working in healthcare roles I just kind of was trying to make a path and made a way. You know, for me I thought I was just going to stay in healthcare related roles because, like my mom's a nurse, my aunt's a nurse is, it just felt right, like I actually was interested in the industry and I couldn't move around, I couldn't progress and it felt like there was a brick wall in front of me. And that's when I made that choice to go to HR. And the funny thing is, when I went to HR I kind of made the same salary, just a little bit more than I did working in healthcare. And then I made a step up when I got into tech. I think that then I was making like 42 or so thousand. And then I realized my colleague who didn't have any formal education, didn't have a degree in what we were doing. She made more than me and I loved her. Like you know, we used to talk about it. We were very open with each other. She is of different ethnicity than I am, so it was very interesting to hear her path of how she landed there and I said, well, why are we making this difference in salary? Don't you love that? I went back and got it. I love it, girl. So then I went and got a master's. So I got my master's in HR and after completing my master's, I still made the same thing as her. That's the one part.
Tiffany Williams:And it took my manager, who was she was either a director or a VP at the time and was also of a different ethnicity. She said, tiffany, I'm not dealing with this for you, I'm going to fix it. We aren't just going to watch this, I'm going to get this fixed for you. And she advocated for me to get more money. She said you guys, you have this person who loves working here. She just got her master's while working here with you all. You've got to give her more money.
Tiffany Williams:I had more work experience in years than my colleague and I had more education. We both, you know, were great employees. So then I think I finally got to like 47 or 48. And then we went through an acquisition. I jumped ship. After I'm going to say after I got my bonus I jumped ship and I switched industry.
Tiffany Williams:So I left tech and I went to an accounting firm. They gave me 50. I was like, ok, 50. I used to. In my head I was like, oh my gosh, all I need to do is make 50k. I'm going to get a loft in the city. And then I realized, no, that can't get you nothing. I was still living at home. I made 50. So I left there. That was an interesting experience. I left there after a couple of months, got a new job Guess how much. They paid me 50. I was like, all right, all right. So I went to I think I went to the law firm. After that, I worked at a law firm for a year. I was like what can I do to get more money Instead of just paying me more? They gave me a $5,000 bonus to make me feel better.
Tiffany Williams:But, guess what impacts their bonus taxes so. I still only made 50. And they wouldn't commit to paying the 55 as my actual salary. So not only that, I had to pay to park because I worked in Buckhead, so my parking wasn't even free in our very fancy building. Traffic sucks, in case anyone doesn't know, in Atlanta. So that was the second job with 50, second year at 50. So I left again and went to a different organization and landed a better title and guess how much? They paid me 50.
Karyn Nesby:Oh, my gosh.
Tiffany Williams:That was like Am I crazy? Is this the cap, is this it? And I had a better title I think I had an HR manager title there and they still only paid me 50. And they justified it in some weird way where they were like well, let's see, you know, we've only ever had one person in this position. 50,000, I thought, was it.
Tiffany Williams:Mm-hmm and I was like this doesn't make any sense. I have a master's degree, I have the experience. I have not just HR experience but other valuable experience that I'm bringing to the table, you know. And so I got a different position. After that I went back to tech and then I hit 60 and I was like, baby, we made it, I got, I got out of that 60 cap and I was like, alright, now, being an HR, I have pretty much I don't want to say complete visibility into things, but usually I do, especially when it comes to salary, and I knew that I was the lowest paid person in the entire Company. Right, oh, wow. But I didn't let that bother me because I'm like, you know, everybody's bringing something different to the table. That organization, the manager that I had at the time, who was a C-suite executive he literally, out of his mouth, has made statements like, well, you don't make the company any money. So you know, I can't really justify paying more. And when I tell you I took my laptop with me on a trip to Greece, I was in Greece for 10 days on a boat Connecting, trying to do work because they wouldn't leave me alone.
Tiffany Williams:I was in Cuba for a few days. Cuba doesn't have Google. First of all, he couldn't process that in his mind. I was like I'm in Cuba. They don't allow Google there. You can't even access it.
Tiffany Williams:Right it was a Google partner company that I worked for that went over his head. I was like, stop calling me. I'm roaming. This call is costing me a ton of money, stop calling me. But I was so committed to be the rock star that all tech companies say they want. I was like, okay, this 60 feels good. I finally moved out of my parents home Because you know the student loan debt that I accumulated along the way and still have. So I was like, okay, I'm out the house. I have my little studio apartment in Buckhead. You know, this feels pretty okay.
Tiffany Williams:It was down the street from work, but that's 60. I was like, it's saying enough. I know what I can make. I see it online tells me what people in HR make and you know, honestly, what changed life for me was we hired a consultant. I shouldn't even say we, cuz I ain't picker. I did not pick this woman. This woman came in and Suggested changes that I had suggested Multiple times over and was shot down. Hmm, the changes that she suggested, or that I suggested, fell on deaf ears. She came in and suggested my same, exact ideas and they gobbled it up. They were like, oh, this is great. I was like, excuse me, I suggested that eight weeks ago and I was told no, why are we approving this now? And I forced them to have some difficult conversations and at that moment, you know, I looked at what we were paying her to come in and consult. She was getting paid $250 an hour.
Karyn Nesby:Oh wow, to do it.
Tiffany Williams:You already suggested to do what I already suggested at my $60,000. And when it came time for performance reviews, I Was told I wasn't good enough to get the full 3% increase. They tried to give me a percent and a half. That didn't go well, to make it short and did not go over well. And to be completely transparent, I was told I couldn't get the full percentage. And I said well, why? And they said because you procrastinated. And I said procrastinating on what? I'm here when I wake up. I'm here till nighttime almost every day because I enjoyed the company so much and they gave them an example that I took too long to take some packages back to the Mail carrier that had been returned. These were some Christmas gifts we sent out company-wide that I physically had to drag to my car. Nobody helped me. Oh, I was told I procrastinated with that so that would cost me the full 3% increase.
Tiffany Williams:I've never Been so livid, but I didn't quit immediately. I didn't quit because I was like I know I can surpass this 60, whatever that they gave me, but I'm gonna keep my paper trail. I'm gonna document everything I've done and that's the key part about this document everything you've done, your wins. Take a moment every week and write those wins down, because I did that. So you know what I turned around and did. I said, okay, I keep them, keeping my list, I'm jotting it down.
Tiffany Williams:And one of my final straws was one of my colleagues in sales technically part of the sales group wanted to send some handwritten cards to our customers and they approached me. And this young lady approached me and was like hey, your manager said to come ask you to write these cards. And I looked at her and I looked at the stack of hundreds of cards and I said I'm not doing that. And she's like well, he said that you would do it. I said, well, no one asked me anything, I'm not doing that. And she went and told my manager. My manager came and found me doing my working in conference room, just doing my HR stuff, right, my full-time job right.
Tiffany Williams:And he said you told her you weren't gonna do this. I said yeah, because I'm not going to do it, mind you? C-suite executive, founder of the company. One of the founders. I didn't care in that moment. I said I'm not doing that. I have a master's degree in HR. So guess what I'm going to do HR. Okay, you can get someone else to do that, or better. Yet why don't you have her do it? It was her idea. And he raised his voice and said I am the executive of this company and I'm telling you you're gonna do it. I said I can raise my voice higher than you if you want to play that?
Tiffany Williams:game. I ain't doing it, okay. And he told me to my face in that conversation she can't write these cards, even though it was her idea, because she's too valuable to the company. Her time is too valuable to spend writing cards. And in that moment I closed my laptop. I think I just walked past him, went to my desk, grabbed the keys and went home that day. That wasn't the day I quit, but grabbed my keys and that's when it really settled in. These people don't value me. I'm already the lowest paid person at the company. I'm doing dirty work. I'm saving us from being sued all the time. I'm saving people from suing them individually All these things and nobody cares. So guess what I need to do? I need to go somewhere. Somebody cares and I quit. I had a new offer four days later.
Karyn Nesby:Oh, wow.
Tiffany Williams:Because one thing once you have that confidence in yourself and you decide you can make a shift, and when you know how to write your resume so that it gets the results that you need and the traction that you need, we're interviewing oh, they will call you the people I had the next job with. They actually ended up knowing the people I worked for, so I was a little nervous, but I also knew that there was somewhat terrible people, or at least that one individual was a terrible person, and I increased my salary by 20, it was like almost $20,000 at that point.
Karyn Nesby:So you went over the cliff of the 50, the 60. And then got 20 grand plus.
Tiffany Williams:Cause they didn't ask me flat out how much I made. But they sort of came up and they were like that's all you make.
Tiffany Williams:And it was the end that I knew I wasn't crazy. People weren't as transparent as they are now. So hearing these other C-suite executives say to me this doesn't make any sense. Why is that? All you were making and that company was great to me, but I did move on and I have surpassed that. And now I do earn six figures because one that company gave me real increases whenever it was warranted. It wasn't just you can only get an increase, you know, after you jump over the mountain and swim across the river.
Tiffany Williams:They paid me my worth. You know, once they realized the value I brought to them in the work I was putting in, they paid me my work. So I'm elsewhere now and I make a good way into the six figure, and I don't think that's the last stop for me. You can always make more.
Karyn Nesby:Right. So you had really good sponsors along the way, advocates. You advocated for yourself, you knew your worth, and I think that's something that a lot of times, when you find yourself in a laid off situation and you've gone through multiple rounds of rejection and you are trying to just find your way back, that's something that you really try to instill in people is that nothing has been taken away except you don't have that job, but you are who you are and you still bring that value that you have right. So I think, like you were saying, that confidence and we'll talk about that just a little bit later but I did wanna talk to you about because, as you mentioned, right now we have a little bit more transparency into salary ranges, and so I think that's been very helpful for people at least to try to know what they're applying for and to go out there and do that. So, outside of that, just within the resume building, and, like you were saying, you're counting your wins and you're writing those things down, and that also helps you build your resume.
Karyn Nesby:What are some of your thoughts about some of the newer technology we have out there? Now? We have these AI tools that are also now being leveraged to help people with their resume building. I don't know how recruiters are feeling about that. I've seen some posts out there where recruiters are like I can tell when people are using AI to answer questions. But I'm also like if you're gonna be biased and maybe put a blurb up there about not using AI because there's so many questions people are having to answer before they can even submit and people are really trying to apply to jobs right now and you wanna ask them 50,000 questions before they can even apply I think you have to kind of know they're gonna leverage the tools that are out there. But as far as resume writing goes, what do you think about some of these new tools out here?
Tiffany Williams:So I was originally one of those people who the AI thing kind of freaked me out in the beginning. I was like so somebody can just say, write me a resume for XYZ and it'll spit out a resume, but it doesn't know your metrics, it doesn't know your accomplishments. So I've tinkered with it and I'm like don't rely on the AI. It is absolutely a fantastic tool. I actually show people how to leverage one of those tools in my course as well. But I would never tell someone oh yeah, just plug in, make me a resume to be an engineer and then turn that in. That's gonna do nothing for you. Like, what is that doing? And everyone can do that. And so the power of it is that it can help you formulate your words when you want to see if there's another way to say something, or you wanna make sure you are using the proper key words or pulling out what's most important in the job ad. But you never want to rely solely on it.
Tiffany Williams:I equate it to like a self-driving car yeah, it sounds cool, but until you crash like that's not what you wanna do Exactly and don't shortchange yourself. You can write your resume. You just need to know how to do it. You can write your resume, you can update your resume. You don't need to rely 100% on a robot to do that. Give yourself more credit than that. That's sort of my thought on it. I think it's great to use it to your advantage. Everyone can use it to their advantage in their workplace. But don't shortchange yourself by using some generic resume. That's not gonna get you any results anyway.
Karyn Nesby:Right, be smart about it, basically, and add your own take on it and just not have some crafted voice. That's not your own Cause when you hit those interviews, they're gonna say okay, I know that this does not sound like you. The math's not math and the words aren't wording. So I think to your point.
Karyn Nesby:Just be really smart about it. And to that point, as far as job boards go, and as you've been working with your clients across these past few years, I know we all know a lot of people go to LinkedIn and it's really still surprising to me. Some people are like, hey, I just now started my LinkedIn profile, so I'm like that's great. I wish you would have been only then already. But hey, no time to start like the present. But what are some of the other job boards that you feel like people should also take a look at? Because, like we said, people are not just posting on some of your main job boards, like the LinkedIn and Indeeds out there. So what are some other places that you find your clients are having success at?
Tiffany Williams:So I've been directing people a lot to Ata. I always wanna say it's Ata and not Ota. I think it's Ata O-T-T-A. That one's really great because you can put in the range that you wanna be paid. It focuses on tech industry experience and it kind of acts like your own job search agent and the people who run Ata. They verify everything. So there's no just a job sitting up there for six months Like they are. If a person feels their position, they make them take it down. It has to. It's super, super up to date.
Tiffany Williams:The Muse is another one that I like to use, and the Muse is just great because they have tons of great articles. People talk about their salaries on there. That is a resource that I always direct people to. They also have things that will help you with like answering interview questions, like real life answering interview questions. Career Contessa is another one and then, if you are interested in like specifically working remotely, there was one that I used to use where we post our positions. I think it was like remote work or remoteworkio, something like that. So I think those are the four that I tend to direct people to. I still use LinkedIn because LinkedIn is great. It can work for you while you're asleep. You know I've been contacting numerous times via LinkedIn and interviewed and received great offers from just my LinkedIn profile. But those four if you're not using them, start using them.
Karyn Nesby:Yeah, so that's great and so I hope people kind of go out there and start looking around, and I definitely know that I've used the Muse and Career Contessa, so it's good to know about Otta, so I'll definitely make sure to note that for my clients as well. So I know we talked a lot about the job seeking side of things, but I definitely want to utilize your expertise on because you've been on all sides of it, from the hiring manager side, recruiting side, and so right now, with just the mass amounts of folks out there that are applying and I know that recruiters are being inundated with messages and applications and there's a lot of frustration on both sides because you know to your point the ATS systems that are out there that are just kind of reviewing quickly and you're getting, you know, some of those declines and things like that. It's just it's a tough market right now. But do you have any advice for you know, those hiring managers and recruiters to help make this process better, just for everyone?
Tiffany Williams:Absolutely. The first one is just make a decision. That's like what drags out the process so much is people not making decisions. You're not going to ever be 100 percent sure that the person you select is the one. But make a decision. Interview people, schedule, reschedule quickly if something comes up, communicate better, but make a decision, whether it's to pass on someone or it's to hire someone. Make a decision and make it sooner than later.
Tiffany Williams:It doesn't take a year to pick a person. Then, if you pick someone and it doesn't work out or it seems like their skill set is not matching with what they told you they can do, let them go. Pivot, let them go, whether you have to just say, hey, this isn't working. Start including probationary periods if need be. If it's a high risk role and you don't know if the person is going to be a match, operate well within the law and include a probationary period. It could be 60 days, it could be 90 days, although you need to understand it takes a person about 18 months to actually fully onboard into any role and understand everything when you're coming in usually. But if you realize there's a problem early on, then let them go early on and pick somebody else. You just have to make decisions and move, otherwise you risk dragging out the process and people go in a glass door and leaving you terrible reviews. So just make choices.
Karyn Nesby:Right. And another thing is that you always especially for those who are out there looking for jobs right now, you always hear the phrase looking for job is like a full-time job and a lot of people can get burnt out. It's easy to get burnt out just in the field trying to look for jobs. So do you have any thoughts around how to make your job search more manageable?
Tiffany Williams:Absolutely. What I tell people is, especially if you've been laid off or you've been terminated, there is that sense of urgency, like let me just go to apply to everything because I just need a job. But take a minute and write down really what you want to do, because otherwise you're going to turn around and be looking for another job two months later and you're going to be frustrated again. Think about what it is that you want to do. Think about what you're willing to accept salary-wise, job-duty-wise, and just make sure that you are focused in your search, because job search fatigue is real. It's real. So make sure you're not just throwing to see what sticks. Take some time if your finances will allow you to think about it and move strategically.
Karyn Nesby:Yeah, that's great, and I think one of the things as we're talking through this is just Tiffany has a lot of great advice and I just would love for you to kind of frame up, like what are some of the five hot takes that you think all job seekers should remember as they're going through this process.
Tiffany Williams:Yeah. So you know I've got a ton of them, but sticking to five, I would say the biggest thing is confidence, and if you're not 100% confident, maybe fake it. Okay, fake it. I'd say always ask for more, doesn't matter what it is.
Tiffany Williams:They offer you $50,000. Ask for 60. Ask for 70. They may not give that to you. And the way the human brain works you ask for something, the other person's automatically going to try to give you less. So shoot for the stars. The worst that can happen is they'll say no. If they give you a little bit less, ask for more. Pto Negotiate wherever you can Ask for a different work schedule. So always ask for more. I'd say they're not smarter than you, which is related to what I just said.
Tiffany Williams:The person you're talking to don't let them get you misconstrued that you're not doing your best and that you're not the right person for the job or that you don't belong there. They're just doing the confidence thing and they always ask for more. Whether it's asking for more work out of you or asking for more at work, they're just asking for more and you have to do the same. And then one that people they know, but it scares them, is there is no loyalty out here. I have quit a job in three months or less. Okay, there's no loyalty. Wherever you interview, they're like we want someone who's going to stay long term, grow with us. Guess what? If they have a change in their business status. They will let you go. They will let you go real quick.
Tiffany Williams:Someone you thought advocated for you or was your friend. There's no loyalty. So just remember that doesn't mean go around the office. You know, feel like a person who thinks everyone's out to get them, but just know in the back of your mind that there's no loyalty. Okay, you don't need to be loyal to them. If anyone asks you to talk to them about a position at a different company, go ahead and take the call. There's no harm in taking the call. And then probably the last thing I would say is the people at work are not your friends. I have developed long term friendships with people from my jobs. However, I need you to understand that we're all sort of here to do the same thing. I'm here to do my job, you're there to do your job. You know. I especially always hear people talking about like, oh, don't go talk to HR because they're not your friend. I see that online all the time and.
Tiffany Williams:I'm petty so I'll comment and say, no, I'm not paid to be your friend, I'm paid to do my job. You know, and I think people forget that, especially when they're in a toxic work environment or they get frustrated, they'll run to their work friend to complain or to tell them what they're going to do or that you're interviewing. Don't do that. Just do what you're doing and say nothing, because you may want that person to be your friend, because they understand what's going on. But they may have ill intent. So you can be friendly. It could be bubbly if you want to. Don't, like you know, take on a persona of being this mean, cold person, but just know you came into the job by yourself. You're going to leave by yourself. Everyone's, you know, natural thing to do is to save themselves, so just remember that.
Karyn Nesby:And I was going to talk to you a little bit about diving into the services that you offer and your own way that you work with your clients, and so I've been a client of Tiffany and so I can kind of attest to just how she makes experience very smooth. It's a lot of fun because, as you can tell, tiffany is going to tell you how it is. She's going to speak from, just talk from the cuff, and she's going to give you really just like the down and dirty of what it is and what you're not seeing and what you're not communicating and what you need to add. And so I think it was a really great experience for me, which is why I was like, ok, I have to make sure that I like her in to help in my other clients. But just from your own words, what are some of the things that you find separates your experience and working with your clients and things that you enjoy working with people?
Tiffany Williams:Yeah. So what I'd say is so my process. I try to make it as simple as possible and as straightforward as possible. When you opt in for my service, you have the opportunity to schedule a pre-console. First of all, they're free for now. They may not be free towards the end of the year or going to 2024. That's the difference.
Karyn Nesby:The price is not the price.
Tiffany Williams:There you go. So when you sign up for a console, I answer all your questions about how the process works, what you can expect. I try to find out what it is that you're looking to do, and then you book your service through my website. It's called the Facebook service. That's the done for you service.
Tiffany Williams:You want to have your resume written by a professional who has insight, like myself, so you'll sign up for that, and what I encourage people to do is send me maybe two, max three positions that they're interested in, somewhat similar positions, so I can see what it is you're targeting. Because what I do, I don't just write a random resume for you. I focus on what those roles are asking for. I analyze the key words that those positions are asking for. I do target your resume right, because I want to give you the best opportunity of getting a call to interview or being pre-screened, and that takes a balance of wordsmithing which is what I like to call it and actually being very, very intentional about the key words being used in your resume. Right, because that's what triggers you making it past that 75% and being in the top 25% and getting a call back, and from there we communicate via email, but you do have the option to add on live calls if you have questions, and then I typically return a draft to you within 10 to 15 days Usually closer to 10, just depends on the workflow.
Tiffany Williams:And I do tell people. I'm very honest. If you send me positions that you just told me on that console call that you don't want to do, or there's something very specific you said you don't want to do and I see it in there I will tell you I'm not writing your resume for this. Go back and try again, find another one. You just told me you don't want to do this, and the reason for that is I do work full time, so I balance my work with pitch, with what I do full time, and also I don't want to waste your money. I don't want to waste your money and I don't want to waste my time or your time.
Tiffany Williams:So why are we trying to write a resume for a job you just let out, told me you don't want to do? I'm not going to do that. Period. I will make you go back to get me another one and try again. And that's pretty much what it comes down to. I'm going to give you what you want you get to review it, send it back until we get you what you need. So I try to make it very smooth, very straightforward and try to get you something new. New opportunities are out there. You just have to get it done right. That's great.
Karyn Nesby:See, I told you all. She is going to be on point, she's not going to waste your money. She's like don't send me these things that you said you don't want to do. Period, I'm not going to do it. So yeah, that's Tiffany in a nutshell, and also now.
Karyn Nesby:Tiffany does a lot of things, but we're going to focus on this. Tiffany also has an online course that has been getting brave reviews If you follow her on her social channels, which I'll add in my show notes as well, but if you can just give us a little bit about that and she also has a special code for our career perspective podcast listeners.
Tiffany Williams:So go ahead talk to us.
Karyn Nesby:Yes.
Tiffany Williams:So what I, what I've learned from writing tons, hundreds of resumes, is people don't have the fundamentals down pack. Everyone writes resumes differently, but I wanted to create a course to teach people the fundamentals but also how to. So how to really optimize your chances and maximize your chances of getting a call back by leveraging some of this AI technology out there, right? So my course is only a one hour course. It used to be way longer and, you know, after going through a couple iterations, I was like no, we're making a one hour because people's attention spans and people are busy. So it's called winning six to 10. And it's called that because remember, I mentioned six to 10 seconds that's all you got.
Tiffany Williams:If you're a resident lands in front of me and as being generous, but the metrics are out there, in six to 10 seconds is all you've got to really catch my attention and want to call you for a pre-screen or for an interview. So I focus on walking you through the entire process. It's from top to bottom, and during the course you actually get to download my resume template and that template comes with my cover letter template as well, plus my LinkedIn guide. It's a bundle that is housed within the course, it's in my member area, on my website, which is pitch HR dot com. And, yes, as you mentioned, there is a code that I would like to offer to your listeners, and it is CP 20. And that code is good for 20% off of any of the services on my website. Well, that's great.
Karyn Nesby:We appreciate it and I know that so many people will be able to take advantage of that, and because I know that it's going to be a great online course. So for everybody who is a little hesitant to jump out there and start working on their resume, so we have Tiffany helping us through that process. So one of the things that I, as we get to kind of closing out the show that I love to talk to my guests about because, as I always say in our intro, we're not all about work here on the podcast is to kind of just share one of your best experiences of the year, just something that you think is just something to share with the audience about. You know how you relax and unwind and just gives the people some inspiration.
Tiffany Williams:Yes, so I would say, probably, when it comes to relaxing and unlining, travel is one thing that I love to do. Covid kind of ruined some things for us for a couple of years there, but I'm getting back out there now. Most recently, I went to New York and New Jersey. I have a lot of family there and that's sort of how I want to spend my time now. Time is so valuable. I'm like I just want to spend all my time doing things that I enjoy, and so while I'm in the New York New Jersey area, there's this spot that I tried out.
Tiffany Williams:I actually went for New Year's for the first time. They had this amazing rooftop party. It's called the rooftop at exchange place and you know it's like overlooking the Hudson and all of that. You can see the Statue of Liberty from the rooftop, like it's just. It's got the great feels. It's on the rooftop of a. There's like a hotel right there as well, and it is. It's just a great experience. Every time I've been, I love it right. Like the food is pretty good, your views are great, and I just always meet somebody interesting while I'm there, whether I'm by myself or if I'm there with, like some of my family. It's just a great time. I love it. Oh, shout out to the rooftop.
Karyn Nesby:I'll be back soon. I'm like I think every time I think about going to New York I'm always like where do I need to go? So I'll definitely add that. And for my friends in New York, I keep saying I'm coming, so I'm coming, and so we'll have to add that down to the list. But I definitely want to take a time to talk about it, take a time to say thank you, tiffany, for joining. Tiffany came. She had appointments this morning. She was doing things. She's booked and busy, but she sent me a picture of her sitting in traffic in Atlanta and those of you who are in Atlanta, have family in Atlanta and that traffic is no joke.
Karyn Nesby:So Tiffany came through the traffic to join us here at Career Perspectives and I appreciate you sharing your experience, your knowledge. You have such a great story and it's been really great having someone like you to work with, and because people are just out here trying to find jobs in these streets we are really trying to help advocate for people and Tiffany is one of those those people who's putting in the work. So I really appreciate you willing to share your perspective with us today. So thanks for coming.
Tiffany Williams:I appreciate being here. Thank you so much. This is great. You know I'll come anytime.
Karyn Nesby:Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I really enjoyed interviewing Tiffany today. She shared some wonderful nuggets for us to take along with us and talk to us about what to include in our resume. She shared some hot takes. She shared some really great job boards for us to keep in mind. She talked about confidence. She shared her story about her own salary trajectory and the trials and tribulations with that, which I know can resonate with a lot of people right now. So I really hope that you enjoyed your experience today. Keep in mind that she did share a code and it is CP 20, which you can use on her website across all of her services and also her online course, which is great, and you can find that in the e learning section of her website. So make sure to take advantage of all of that and I hope that you again enjoy the episode and I look forward to sharing more career prospectus with you soon.
