Episode 18: Navigating the Modern Job Hunt: Resumes, LinkedIn, and Interview Strategies

In this episode of Girl Gang, we talk about the modern-day job hunt, do's and don't's, and how to stand out among other candidates. 

Whether you're actively job hunting or simply want to stay prepared, this episode offers both reassurance that you're not alone in your frustrations and actionable strategies to stand out in today's competitive market. What job search challenges have you faced? Share your experiences and let us know what's worked for you!

Transcript

Rachael 0:34

Hi everyone, welcome to Girl Gang Podcast. My name is Rachael.

Sarah 0:36

I'm.

Sarah 0:37

Sarah

Brandi 0:37

and I'm Brandi, and we are your hosts for this episode.

Rachael 0:40

So I think we've all been there and struggled with interviewing for jobs in the past, knowing what to ask on job interviews, even following up with thank you notes. Do we send an email? Do we write a card? What's that process look like? So today we're really just going to dive into how do you search for jobs nowadays? What are we kind of thinking about as we're looking for jobs, and tips and tricks that we've used throughout the past couple of years that have worked out well for us. But, Kozy, tell us about your recent experiences with interviewing.

Sarah 1:12

I mean I think it's so weird because I can't really tell if this is just like stepping into like the real adult world when it comes to like work, or if it's like the things that we learned I don't really know if they fully like prepared us for this. Like I always compare things I learned like back in high school or in college through my business major Of like how to prepare for an interview. You know certain things you need to have prepared, things you need to ask for, certain things you need to do. You know cultivating your resumes for each and every job and I'm tired, like I feel like it's a whole lot, like we are doing a lot of extra work and it's

Rachael 1:50

a lot of extra work, like creating multiple versions of resumes?

The Resume Struggle

Sarah 1:59

You know, I don't know, because I think I fall in the fine line where, like, am I just, you know, applying for too many jobs and not, like, specifically cultivating you know, these five resumes for these five jobs that I find that I really, really want? No, I'm looking for a job. I'm applying for like 28 jobs at a time. You know, like I need to get out there. So

Brandi 2:15

are they all similar type jobs, though

Sarah 2:17

some

Brandi 2:18

okay

Sarah 2:18

some are similar, some are very different.

Brandi 2:20

Yeah, so that's your struggle.

Sarah 2:22

Yeah,

Brandi 2:23

it's just your broadness in your search.

Sarah 2:26

Very much so, but with that, you know, I find myself where. You know I don't want to seem like I'm lazy and just not wanting to put that work in, but also it's a lot of work and I feel like it shouldn't be this hard

Rachael 2:41

well and you submit it and then, like it just goes out into ether.

Rachael 2:44

What's what's going on there

Sarah 2:46

right?

Rachael 2:46

Are people seeing it? Is it getting

Sarah 2:48

exactly

Brandi 2:48

I think that depends on the size of the company.

Sarah 2:51

True,

Brandi 2:51

if you're at a smaller company, it's going straight to their hr.

Sarah 2:54

Yes,

Brandi 2:55

seen it immediately. If you're going to a big corporation, that's when you're going to have the bots that go in and weed things out, because they're getting hundreds of resumes a day,

Sarah 3:06

yes,

Brandi 3:06

and they physically could just not keep up with the influx and demand of that.

Brandi 3:12

So I think it really comes down to the size of the company you're looking for

Sarah 3:16

and you can always tell.

Sarah 3:17

I feel, like in the response emails too, like if it is like a bot-generated response email or if it's actually someone who, like, blind, cc'd you know 10 people and said sorry, we've decided to move forward with somebody else. Please, you know, look on our website for other opportunities, but it does. It seems like it's a lot. I feel like I'm taking each and every job application and putting it into chat GPT to help me find those keywords to include in my resume, just so that bot can pull out my resume and checkmark for, yes, this has all the qualifications Versus doing. What I'm better at is showcasing the things that I've done and can do and telling you about them and showing you that I can do those. So I feel like, once, once I get to the interview stage, I am golden. I can kill an interview. I love doing those, but

Rachael 4:09

you are really good interviewer.

Sarah 4:10

Thank you I really enjoy that, but I really hate the applying for job part because I feel like I'm just doing so much extra work when it's just as it's. It's an equal game for the employee to the employer. The employer needs to fill that position and someone to work for them just as much as I need a job. So why are we making it hard for each other? It's like we're making it easy, but it's actually hard.

Brandi 4:35

I think you're in a unique situation.

Sarah 4:39

Could be

Brandi 4:40

Because you are looking at different industries, different types of positions.

Sarah 4:44

Yes,

Brandi 4:46

I have not.

Sarah 4:46

You have a more specific career and jobs that you do.

Brandi 4:50

In the last three years I've jumped more than I anticipated, but I am in a very specific field.

Sarah 5:02

Yes,

Brandi 5:02

so for me I had one resume that covered it and I was only applying to very specific jobs. So it's not hard for me to go out and apply to a bunch of places.

Sarah 5:14

Yeah,

Brandi 5:15

because well, it's hard in finding something relevant at my experience level in St Louis. I will say that. But I have one resume, I will upload it. I don't change anything on it and it's the same for every company, because I'm only looking for a set type of job.

Sarah 5:38

Yeah,

Brandi 5:38

if you are, and every industry has different credentials that they want to see and things like that.

Sarah 5:44

Right,

Brandi 5:44

so you are having to kind of cultivate those in that regard. But I think you could streamline it.

Brandi 5:55

If you're looking at three or four different industries, make three or four resumes for that industry and just

Rachael 6:00

call it good,

Sarah 6:01

true,

Brandi 6:01

good

Sarah 6:02

because the other part that I have too, which also could just be me you know, I like to use a lot of words and I never feel like I'm fully explaining something properly or enough. But you know, for some of the jobs and this might be for a lot of business majors, I don't know business is very I don't know if generic is the right word, but very versatile is a better word you can do be in a whole lot of different industries with a management degree or with something that's business. You know, like you said, your science is so specific to the roles that you do. If I want to apply for um, you know some sort of call like a, a call center, I have call center.

Brandi 6:41

I thought you were going to say cult.

Brandi 6:43

You have to apply to those.

Brandi 6:44

now,

Sarah 6:44

if I was to apply for a call center, you know I have call center experience. I have that written on my resume. Cool. If I want to apply for you know something in athletics? Well, I had the opportunity and I was able to work with an NCAA Division I football team. It wasn't the main part of my job, but while I was there I ended up doing a lot of that kind of responsibility. So I struggle with okay, how can I include that in my job description of the experience that I had?

Rachael 7:16

Are you doing cover letters?

Sarah 7:19

I do cover letters, but then again

Brandi 7:19

I never do cover letters.

Sarah 7:20

Sometimes I do If it's a job I really, really want. If it's a job I really, really want and I'm really interested in.

Sarah 7:26

I will.

Brandi 7:26

Can I tell you guys a secret?

Sarah 7:27

Yeah,

Brandi 7:28

they don't read them,

Sarah 7:29

right, they don't.

Sarah 7:30

They really don't.

Brandi 7:31

They're a waste of time.

Sarah 7:33

They're Companies who ask for it will probably read that more.

Brandi 7:37

I've never had anyone ask for it.

Sarah 7:39

Again, it depends.

Sarah 7:40

It's certain jobs that.

Sarah 7:41

I've applied for.

Rachael 7:43

That's where you get to hone in on your specific examples.

Cover Letters: Worth the Effort?

Brandi 7:47

I'm telling you, if you send it in, the only people that might read it is HR.

Sarah 7:51

Yeah,

Brandi 7:52

that's it.

Sarah 7:52

Or the hiring manager, because I've worked at some places where HR is involved, but the hiring process interview is entirely up to the manager.

Brandi 8:00

I'm going to say that's more of a boomer tradition that's phasing out

Sarah 8:04

Could be.

Brandi 8:05

I don't think millennials want that. They know that's extra work for the applicant.

Sarah 8:09

True,

Brandi 8:09

that's more work for them.

Sarah 8:10

True.

Brandi 8:11

They don't have time to sit there and read another document.

Rachael 8:13

Does it show that you're like, actually interested in that position though?

Sarah 8:17

I mean

Brandi 8:18

I mean, you applied you're interested

Sarah 8:20

Right. That's what I'm saying If you applied for it, you're interested. Why do I have?

Sarah 8:24

to explain, like why else

Brandi 8:25

I've never written a cover letter for any of my career.

Sarah 8:27

It's been rare

Rachael 8:27

I've written a cover letter for every job that I've had,

Sarah 8:41

but that's something I learned in college too was that you are supposed to do a cover letter for every single job.

Brandi 8:42

And who's teaching us in college? Boomers

Sarah 8:42

So that's why, to your point too, I like the concept, but I I would personally rather do a video, like I absolutely love when companies have you upload a little interview, and it could be very specific to just the types of jobs that I'm doing in the industry that I work in, where I am more people facing. But

Brandi 8:57

I'm telling you right now.

Brandi 8:58

If someone asks for a video interview as part of the application, I wouldn't apply

Sarah 9:03

and that's totally fine.

Sarah 9:04

That's totally fine. But for for jobs that I'm in, where we are so customer oriented and it's all about customer service, I I don't want to read like how much of a team player you are in your resume or how personable you are, all these things like I want to see that, like you can, you can say that you're a team player and that you work well with others or that you are part of this task or did this job and have this skill, but like were you good at it? And like I feel like I can't really see that until, like you said, a cover letter where you're really reading their personality or that first interaction that I have.

Brandi 9:39

But I don't think even interact.

Brandi 9:40

Interview interactions can tell you if they're good at what they said on their interview

Sarah 9:44

people can fake it.

Sarah 9:45

People certainly can, and that's why I think

Brandi 9:48

always

Sarah 9:48

they do. Because interview processes are so generic, it's tell me about yourself, what are your strengths and your weaknesses. Like anyone can go into chat gpt and type in a typical interview question and a typical response and totally play that out. But if you, I like to ask the questions whenever I'm doing interviews. I love giving interviews. I love it so much. I love asking those personal questions that have nothing to do with the job,

Rachael 10:12

like what?

Sarah 10:13

Like, if you were a professional athlete, what would be your entrance song that plays when you walk into a room? What's the song that plays? You want to know how much you learn about a person, one by exactly what Brandi just did her face - Like the smiling and happy, like oh, that's such an odd question to ask, like it threw me off because you weren't prepared for it, and that shows your personality and that's what I want to see.

Sarah 10:40

How, and that shows your personality

Sarah 10:41

How do you, how do you handle under pressure?

Brandi 10:42

That's gonna come down to industry, because I don't care if you have a good or bad personality in my job

Sarah 10:45

yeah.

Brandi 10:45

I want to ask you a scientific question to see if you're

Sarah 10:48

true and that's why I think it's really going to be based on your industry

Brandi 10:51

if someone asked me that question in an interview I'd be like what part of the fucking company am I applying?

Brandi 10:57

for here, like you, clearly have no idea what this job's about

Sarah 11:01

you know, I applied for a job a couple weeks ago and they actually had me go through a personality quiz.

Brandi 11:06

I've done that

Sarah 11:07

and it was like 70 questions. It was really, really breezy and it was set up where it was like four different options. Here's the plot, you know would if someone your co-worker came up to you and asked for help on their work, are you most likely to turn them away because you have your own work to do and your own deadlines? Say, hey, let me finish my work and I'll come help you, Drop everything that you do and do your thing.

Sarah 11:30

Or go and like, tell someone like different scenarios, of which one you're most likely to do Once you've seen your answers. It also gave you back your results of just like hey, from this test that we had you take, this is what we looked for and this is what we could tell from your personality, based on how you scored on this.

Brandi 11:46

Yeah, I've done that before too.

Sarah 11:48

Oh my God, If we're going to use AI and computers, do that. Do that, versus just looking for the keywords that I added on my resume.

Brandi 11:56

So for the company I did it. They actually had two steps, so they had a section like what you did. But then it also did you know how we did our personality tests where it was like most likely or like least likely and it had like five bubbles.

Sarah 12:11

Yeah.

Brandi 12:12

It was another section of like 50 to 60 questions around that kind of stuff of you self-evaluating, like

Rachael 12:19

s this for your current company?

Brandi 12:20

No,

Rachael 12:21

oh, okay,

Brandi 12:21

no, no, no, um, I didn't, uh, I didn't. I got an interview for that company but I didn't take it. It was out of state.

Sarah 12:30

Yeah,

Rachael 12:30

okay I

Brandi 12:32

now I'm okay doing something like that.

Brandi 12:36

as opposed to like a video or something, and I'm 100% on board with using that as a way to filter people out.

Sarah 12:43

Yeah.

Brandi 12:43

Because you have a culture at your company. You have an idea of how you want your people to work with the rest of the team or cross-functionally and all of that.

Brandi 13:04

And I think that is a good indicator, because you're self-reflecting and answering questions.

Rachael 13:05

I think it depends on the company, because people in other countries don't really resonate with personality tests as much.

Sarah 13:06

That's true,

Rachael 13:06

like there was so I had in my current company. There was a new team that was formed and like I think the Americans were like, oh yeah, personality test it's fine, but some of the people that worked in you know Spain and other places they're like this is weird, like this is a violation of my privacy. Why are you asking me these questions? So I do think it depends on what type of company you are and if you're an international company.

Brandi 13:34

That's true, but even the international companies I've worked for like the US sites don't like. They don't like your company is, like I think, pretty unique in that regard because the international companies, I I do work for a French company, um, but how the US sites operate versus the French site completely different, whereas you work, like directly under the French site.

Rachael 14:07

Yeah, like everybody, our CEO, everybody, is based out of France

Brandi 14:13

and I mean ours is too, but like we have like VPs and like actual structures in the US ands that, and like the French team actually has different benefit packages than our US team and things

Rachael 14:25

which ours does too so I think it just depends on when you have people mixed together on teams that might be living in different countries.

Rachael 14:34

Potentially,

Sarah 14:35

yeah,

Brandi 14:36

and that's and again, I think you're in a special category now too, because these remote jobs are closing up.

Sarah 14:44

Oh yeah,

Brandi 14:45

most companies are getting rid of them because they're finding that their production levels of their team are going down. So most places that have brick and mortar are getting rid of fully remote positions. Yeah, I can see positions.

Rachael 14:58

yeah, I can see that it is nice to just be able to sit down and like talk to somebody face to face.

Sarah 15:04

Yeah,

Rachael 15:05

I feel like I spend so much time on Slack just being confused trying to figure out like what am I supposed to be doing, and

Brandi 15:12

100%

Rachael 15:13

yeah, so it takes way more time

Sarah 15:16

yeah.

Sarah 15:16

I need the balance. I mean even in like event planning, like it's all out and about and in-person facing. But there is, there are times where I just need that one day at home in front of my computer to just get out all the planning and all like the administrative things that I need to do.

Rachael 15:33

So are we saying that cover letters are out? I guess I'm like a boomer,

Sarah 15:38

I really don't know.

Sarah 15:39

I mean, I think that's, I think that's something that millennials might like. Maybe will change, maybe we'll find other ways of doing this. You know, I think, like Brandi said too, we're still kind of following these societal norms and traditions of doing things that were set before us, that we didn't necessarily choose, but I think it's

Rachael 16:00

well, and what's the line of like?

Rachael 16:01

how do you know if it's a resume? Versus like a CV, versus it goes on your LinkedIn, like how do you distinguish between

Sarah 16:09

right

Rachael 16:09

them? Brandi, you might have insight into this, because I was like I was always told a resume should be a one-pager

Sarah 16:18

Right

Rachael 16:19

Like no more than one page.

Brandi 16:21

Okay,

Rachael 16:22

Cv 's

Brandi 16:23

specify one page

Brandi 16:24

Just

Brandi 16:24

front?

Rachael 16:25

Just front I mean maybe front and back, but like usually just one page which like Just a front.

Sarah 16:40

Even the things that I did in a lot of my jobs. Like I can't put those in, just three or four

Rachael 16:43

one page goes by real quick.

Sarah 16:44

Yeah, especially just your like information and

Brandi 16:45

are you guys?

Brandi 16:45

using standard margins.

Sarah 16:47

No, I have to decrease them a little bit

Rachael 16:48

hella decrease them

Brandi 16:50

I use narrow

Sarah 16:51

yeah,

Brandi 16:51

um, I what I have found, um, because I still do just a front and back. Uh, I think colleges started kind of that one page because of career fairs. As someone that has run those, like you don't want to have like a staple packet that you're looking through. Like you, when you're at a career fair in college, you have so many people coming up to your table that you want to just be able to glance over anything that you had relevant.

Sarah 17:24

Yeah,

Leveraging LinkedIn Effectively

Brandi 17:25

and your, your experience in college is next to none, right, like you might have a couple of part-time jobs or you did some undergrad research

Sarah 17:33

oh and see, I worked all throughout college.

Sarah 17:37

A lot of my jobs were also while I was attending school.

Brandi 17:41

Yeah, but you could easily fit it on a page

Sarah 17:46

no, no.

Sarah 17:47

I probably worked

Brandi 17:48

you're probably putting too much information

Sarah 17:50

and that's where I'm like.

Sarah 17:51

But I also did work lots of little odds and ends jobs, like lots of part-time jobs all at once as well. So I'm like I can put that. I worked at Lowe's Home Improvement. It's not the the best experience that I have, but if I'm actually looking at it like I did have a managerial title, I did manage 25 employees when I was there. I worked my way up to work to managing the customer service desk. Plus I was an assistant for their pricing and signing signage person there. That alone is four bullet points, for each one being the head cashier and the customer service job, and then one for the price and signage position, because they're very different too. But if there are certain jobs where they need a specific, they have a specific job or task that is relevant. Then I kind of need to go back and like change the wording for that specific job, because

Brandi 18:39

so here's what I think you need to do.

Brandi 18:42

I think you need a master resume copy and you need to go in and put all of your jobs

Sarah 18:49

yes,

Brandi 18:50

and all of the bullet points under it

Sarah 18:52

yes.

Brandi 18:52

And then that way they're all written. You don't change anything on them, they are generic enough, but they still highlight your attributes for those positions. And then you go in, because you are looking at such broad companies and things like that, you go in and copy and paste the relevant ones.

Sarah 19:12

See, so agreed. But then my brain says why can't I just send the whole damn thing master resume,

Brandi 19:20

because I don't want to read all that, as

Sarah 19:21

but no one's reading it. They're gonna pull, they're using a computer to go through anyway.

Sarah 19:26

So even if they go through a computer.

Sarah 19:27

I have more chances of having more of those keywords in that master resume to get in, get pulled out and then maybe actually get read by someone. I'm just, I'm just asking the questions because something just doesn't,

Brandi 19:38

but you're

Sarah 19:38

clicking my

Brandi 19:39

big corporations.

Brandi 19:40

Are you applying for like? Like large

Sarah 19:42

28 jobs.

Brandi 19:44

Okay, that's not answering my question. How many large corporations have you applied for?

Sarah 19:48

28,

Brandi 19:49

they're all large?

Sarah 19:50

28 large corporations.

Brandi 19:52

I need a list

Sarah 19:53

shit, you shit you not.

Rachael 19:57

Do you have an excel spreadsheet that you,

Sarah 19:58

oh god no because, honestly, some of them you don't even hear back from on either and again, I keep track of the more important ones, like there are some that I'm like okay, yeah, I'm qualified for this. I think this would be cool. Let's send in a resume. But the ones that

Brandi 20:13

of the 28, how many are in the same industry?

Sarah 20:14

Probably 10 ones that I actually sent a follow-up email for.

Brandi 20:17

Okay.

Brandi 20:18

And how many are in the same industry?

Sarah 20:21

See again, it's very different because some they're all relevant in some sort of community engagement. But that's where, if it's, some is more focused on like athletics, or some is more focused on like higher education, or some is more focused on property management, like. Those are the little tweaks that I have experienced in each one of those industries. I just will need to rewrite my resume, like you said, have four for those different industries and use that

Brandi 20:48

if you do all that work now, then it makes it easier when you apply for a job.

Brandi 20:50

You just label them different things and then you just upload them.

Sarah 20:53

Yeah,

Rachael 20:55

you gotta theme it out.

Rachael 20:56

Have like four themes and roll

Sarah 20:58

part of me is kind of like I am the theme, like like I am the theme, like I'm trying to convince this company to hire me, and likewise they need someone to fill this. So I kind of am understanding that, as a person who's gone through resumes too, I don't want to always read 10 pages of resumes, but if it's that good of a resume, that's gonna impress me. I can't be the only one who thinks that way

Rachael 21:22

what's the like?

Rachael 21:23

like, can you just create a quick video and submit it?

Rachael 21:28

I mean, what's the likelihood of you being able to add?

Sarah 21:30

So here's my question

Rachael 21:31

it won't allow you to do that.

Brandi 21:33

It's the wrong kind of file type,

Sarah 21:34

right? So? Here's my question is what we use social media for. I feel like millennials have been using even boomers have been using LinkedIn a whole lot more for like kind of more Facebook-y vibes, like kind of more posting what they're doing at work. I don't know, I've, just I've. I feel like traction for LinkedIn has kind of gone up in in the past couple years.

Brandi 21:52

That's how I've gotten my last two jobs,

Sarah 21:54

yeah, so

Brandi 21:55

sorry

Sarah 21:57

if we can do this if we can do this in LinkedIn or if we can find a way to just do this on other social media platforms. But back to like how marketing people or artists or anyone in the creative field have like their creative portfolios. Like I want a social media account that I can send this link to an employer and be like hey here's an all about me,

Brandi 22:18

so most applications ask for your LinkedIn account.

Sarah 22:20

They do, but I'm not posting videos of myself like being myself on LinkedIn. I just I don't. I don't think, I don't know

Brandi 22:27

why not.

Sarah 22:28

I don't know.

Sarah 22:31

can we do that?

Rachael 22:31

You can do whatever you want.

Brandi 22:32

People post their personal like I. Have an old co-worker who switched from being in a technical role and now he does personal fitness

Sarah 22:39

yeah

Brandi 22:40

even when he was still in his technical role and doing just transitioning to that other, he was still putting those, those videos and stuff on LinkedIn.

Brandi 22:48

So yeah,

Sarah 22:49

see, I want to like, I almost want to like make a TikTok. That is just kind of like think, go back to like Legally Blonde when you're sending in a video to get into Harvard like you could hey, Harvard, I'm Elle Woods and this is why you should hire me like can we normalize that though? Like can we do more of that and use like TikTok and social?

Rachael 23:11

I mean, I'm looking at LinkedIn right now. You can create a post, you can add media.

Sarah 23:16

I mean, I know it only takes one person to start it, but you know what I mean. I kind of want something.

Brandi 23:21

Do it.

Sarah 23:22

Can we move on from resumes and do something? Like that instead

Brandi 23:25

they're never going away.

Sarah 23:27

Who knows? I mean, they probably should

Rachael 23:30

it's like Hinge for jobs.

Sarah 23:33

Yeah,

Rachael 23:34

you should have like a profile and we could,

Brandi 23:36

that's what Linkedin is for you guys!

Brandi 23:38

you aren't utilizing full potential

Sarah 23:41

but and that's why I feel like maybe it's kind of like just a a structure, because me when I go on Linkedin it still seems very professional to me and like if I post something that's at least a little bit casual, it's gonna look bad

Brandi 23:53

no but I mean, it is

Rachael 23:55

it depends on, but it depends on the type of job that you're going for, like if you're more because even recently, like before, I was solely just this is my job.

Rachael 24:06

But recently I've put in because I'm looking at it now, like I put in that I'm a podcaster, I put in that I'm like part of these organizations now like I feel like it's like making yourself more authentic, of like oh, she has a life outside of her job,

Brandi 24:22

yeah,

Rachael 24:22

and she's doing other things.

Brandi 24:23

You can put your hobbies, your community service

Sarah 24:26

supposed to be for your job, professional work experience

Brandi 24:30

no, that's not what linkedin's all for

Rachael 24:34

I view it, I view it as professional,

Sarah 24:36

yeah, going through college we had a whole workshop about Linkedin.

Brandi 24:39

I went on a binge this weekend and got hammered.

Brandi 24:42

Like I'm not gonna put

Rachael 24:44

Are you doing that every weekend

Brandi 24:44

no, but I'm gonna put like, hey, like, if I had gone to the Mizzou game this weekend, I probably, you know, I could easily have put a clip like,

Sarah 24:53

yeah,

Brandi 24:54

glad to be home. And you know, see, all the fellow alumni beat KU, like what I've put hashtag fku. Yeah, I would have.

Rachael 25:03

I don't know

Brandi 25:05

I wouldn't.

Brandi 25:06

I wouldn't have spelled out, fuck

Sarah 25:08

yeah

Brandi 25:08

but I would have put fKU, because Mizzou grads are going to look at that and be like get a laugh out of it,

Sarah 25:15

right,

Brandi 25:15

and that expands your network.

Sarah 25:17

See, and that's where I'm with you, I feel like maybe it just it would take like a group of people to really like start doing that.

Rachael 25:26

Are we connected - Are you Kozy, are you?

Rachael 25:28

Oh, I found you.

Brandi 25:29

And that was one. So like when I was looking into doing kind of like a professional development for people and like doing the reverse recruiting and stuff, one of the things I was going to offer was like a LinkedIn, like revamp of your profile, like go in and do all that.

Brandi 25:45

But you can put social stuff like

Sarah 25:48

I do see more people, some people doing that.

Rachael 25:50

You don't have any.

Rachael 25:53

I feel like what your linkedin is lacking right now is like you don't have any bullet points. You don't talk about what you do for any of these things.

Sarah 26:00

No, because that's your resume.

Rachael 26:02

But but I feel like, at least in my mind, like my resume is like a two page and I went back to look at my resume, it was two, two pages like front and back.

Sarah 26:11

I've let my LinkedIn go. I used to be more active on LinkedIn.

Rachael 26:13

My LinkedIn is like uber robust.

Brandi 26:16

Yes, yes, because so my job that I found that I currently have. I did not find myself. HR was looking at profiles that had certain words in it

Sarah 26:28

yeah,

Brandi 26:32

and they was looking at profiles that had certain words in it yeah, and they contacted me and it's like, hey, you have the qualifications we're looking for, you should apply, okay, so

Rachael 26:37

they don't know

Brandi 26:38

people who might not even like they haven't seen.

Brandi 26:41

I didn't submit a resume until I was coming on site. No one had a copy of my resume until I arrived on site for my in-person interview.

Rachael 26:53

Interesting though, because I'm looking at your LinkedIn, Brandi, and you also don't have bullet points. But if you look at mine, I'm like to be honest. I didn't know you could add bullet points out the wazoo. I'm like explaining my whole life story on LinkedIn.

Brandi 27:01

Well, I don't need to.

Rachael 27:01

What summons Well? Yeah, I mean, you're in a very specific field.

Brandi 27:05

My title up at the top has most of the information.

Rachael 27:07

I feel like you would benefit, Kozy though, from doing bullet points.

Rachael 27:12

Okay. Because, if you okay, so maybe I'm off here, but here's what I would do?

Rachael 27:17

I would theme it out. Have four themes of your resumes, make it like two-page tops, but then you, at the very top of your resume, you have the link to your LinkedIn, and then they should go to LinkedIn, find the extensive bullet points,

Sarah 27:32

yeah.

Rachael 27:33

And then that's where they can find your posts and you can be doing some of those videos,

Sarah 27:37

yeah.

Sarah 27:38

Okay, so note taken. We need to spruce up LinkedIn because we're all still using LinkedIn and I know I've gotten

Rachael 27:44

I'm on LinkedIn every day.

Sarah 27:45

And I'm usually on there just looking at jobs that

Sarah 27:51

And I'm usually on there just looking at jobs. That's what's available, but

Job Search Resources and Company Research

Brandi 27:54

I'm a company advocate on LinkedIn. This is where you have a pilot program and they have certain posts that they want to share periodically.

Sarah 28:01

Oh okay,

Rachael 28:02

oh yeah. I share every company post that comes out for my company.

Brandi 28:05

I get to pick them.

Brandi 28:07

There's a board of them and I get to pick which one I share and they like to do it. Obviously I was on an extensive vacation, but they like to do me to do it, like they said, once a week, but they're not exactly populating enough news for me to share at this point.

Rachael 28:22

Actually, Brandi inspired me to put podcaster on my LinkedIn yeah,

Sarah 28:26

I didn't think about

Rachael 28:27

my LinkedIn but I added it and then somebody was messaging me and was like hey, I'm also in like customer success, but used to do this and I'm super curious about your podcast. So then we just started talking about podcast stuff,

Brandi 28:42

yeah,

Rachael 28:42

and so I feel like it's like opening conversations with people, because people are like what the heck?

Rachael 28:48

do you do for a podcast?

Brandi 28:48

I put travel agent on mine too,

Sarah 28:49

so people are still doing LinkedIn. Love that I love that

Brandi 28:51

yeah. Linkedin has transformed.

Brandi 28:54

I think from the time you were on it actively, Sarah, it has changed a lot,

Sarah 28:59

because my first experience, for it was we graduated college.

Sarah 29:03

In order to graduate, we had to do this workshop, and they all made us create a LinkedIn account. We had to follow certain professors, our vice chancellor and like really set it up as like our professional like

Brandi 29:15

yeah, and it still is.

Brandi 29:16

It's still professional, but you can put personality into it.

Sarah 29:19

Okay,

Brandi 29:19

you can put hobbies, you can be like, you know, if you do any kind of volunteer work.

Sarah 29:25

Yeah,

Brandi 29:25

you can put that on there.

Brandi 29:26

You're band,

Rachael 29:27

like you start up business like if you're doing your crafts, you know like all of that.

Sarah 29:32

Okay,

Rachael 29:33

this does not describe you. You say you're a project manager. You're not a project manager. You're so much more than that.

Brandi 29:40

And we'll get you an actual headshot too.

Sarah 29:41

Oh yeah, I need to get a new headshot.

Brandi 29:54

But yeah, no, there's you can, can put, you can add the Koziness into your LinkedIn, you just have to. You would have to just make sure it's professional, like it's something that if you went into the office and someone asked about your weekend, something you would share with them

Sarah 30:03

yes,

Brandi 30:03

you know like I said you're not going out on a rager and posting that You're putting. You know? I mean I've seen people put their home improvement,

Rachael 30:11

your About is so blah.

Rachael 30:13

I mean, I love you, but it's so blah.

Sarah 30:14

I haven't updated this in years. I really haven't.

Sarah 30:15

I've updated like my current work experience, and that's really all that I've done.

Brandi 30:19

Yeah, you could. I've seen people put their before and after after they've done a landscaping project on the weekend

Rachael 30:30

yeah,

Brandi 30:30

like you can put your like if you like gardening.

Rachael 30:32

Somebody at my company just published a book and he talked about his book and stuff.

Sarah 30:34

Well, yeah,

Rachael 30:34

that and yeah, I mean there's like you can make it talk about a bunch of different stuff.

Brandi 30:37

Okay,

Rachael 30:37

you got your LLC up and running awesome, talk about it. You got to do your um, you know your voice lessons with your broadway person. Like take a selfie with that person, be like, guess who I got to do voice lessons with your Broadway person - that's boosting their stuff too.

Sarah 30:54

Yeah,

Brandi 30:55

this is what I want you to do. I've got some homework for you

Sarah 30:58

okay give it

Brandi 30:58

actually anyone else.

Sarah 30:59

Yes, Miss Brandi

Brandi 31:01

go

Rachael 31:01

to our listeners

Brandi 31:03

. Go onto your feed on LinkedIn and just scroll. See what every what else is posting

Sarah 31:08

and that's maybe.

Sarah 31:08

Yeah, what I mostly see is like still more personal things, but it's still relevant to like their job and what they're doing, like they're still sharing, like their business is social.

Sarah 31:19

I see some more casual things

Brandi 31:22

but you have to be like

Rachael 31:23

but everything that you're doing like even though it's not like your job, specifically like this is what you're building your life to be

Sarah 31:28

right.

Rachael 31:31

So, like you're focusing on music, like a future job could be involving music.

Sarah 31:36

Right,

Rachael 31:37

a future job could be involving your llc. A future job like I think it's important that you talk about all of the facets of Kozy.

Brandi 31:44

Yeah,

Rachael 31:45

because that is what makes you your Koziness.

Sarah 31:48

Well, that would involve like actually having confidence in promoting myself which we're still working on

Rachael 31:54

yeah, but you got this.

Brandi 31:55

This is a good step in that direction.

Sarah 31:57

It's okay. We'll update LinkedIn profiles and use it more for self-promotion and using the things that you do and,

Brandi 32:05

honestly, there is a thing

Sarah 32:06

I'm still using one resume, though I still think that's crazy.

Sarah 32:13

I don't want to do so many different resumes. I think that's dumb. I do,

Rachael 32:16

You could have a couple of themes. I've only had two different versions of resumes. One was my actual, like professional one, but one was more just customer service when I was picking up extra jobs like yeah,

Brandi 32:26

I do have a different one for like my actual career versus like part-time stuff

Rachael 32:31

yeah, because part-time stuff like

Brandi 32:33

I don't need to tell them about all my science

Sarah 32:35

I don't even think I've given a resume, to be honest, for part-time jobs that I've gotten.

Rachael 32:41

It just depends

Sarah 32:41

just because those are all networking yeah, those are all just networking well, and that's the thing too, is

Rachael 32:48

do you feel like it's about who you know or is it about

Brandi 32:53

yes

Rachael 32:53

yes?

Brandi 32:54

yes,

Sarah 32:54

it definitely can be, it can definitely help

Brandi 32:57

95% of who you know.

Sarah 32:58

Yeah

Rachael 32:59

yeah, I mean, I think it is

Sarah 33:02

Networking is what will make you

Rachael 33:05

I mean I do. I do think it is important because, like when I was in higher ed, I I got like I was at one university and then I ended up at a different university because I had done an internship and knew somebody. And then when I had to switch jobs again, it was because I knew somebody, like somebody who said, hey, you should apply for this position. And then when I switched to tech, it was because hey, I knew somebody.

Brandi 33:30

Yes,

Rachael 33:30

so I really do feel like you gotta keep those connections going

Brandi 33:35

do not burn bridges, do never, don't burn.

Brandi 33:37

Your world is too small of a place.

Rachael 33:39

Yes, everybody knows everybody

Sarah 33:41

yes

Brandi 33:41

especially in certain industries.

Sarah 33:43

So what about references?

Brandi 33:45

what about?

Brandi 33:46

them

Sarah 33:47

because

Brandi 33:48

you should not have them on your resume

Sarah 33:50

No, never. And honestly I don't even like giving references until I'm already in there for an interview

Rachael 33:57

you don't, I don't think you give them until they ask you

Sarah 33:59

some people, some people

Brandi 34:00

you don't give them.

Sarah 34:01

Some people want references right off the bat.

Sarah 34:03

I have had a job I've applied for and I never list them because in my mind, my references I'm not their sole purpose in life is not to help me get a job. Like they have their own lives, their own jobs, their own things to do. I don't want five different employers to be reaching out to them at all times of the day. If I'm listing as a reference, I am calling that person saying, hey, this is a specific job I'm looking for. Can I list you as a?

Sarah 34:28

reference for this.

Brandi 34:29

Okay, so of the 28 you applied for, how many asked for references right off the bat?

Sarah 34:34

While I applied, probably like less than a fourth. Not all of them, but there were quite a few and I have on the bottom of my resume references provided upon request and then usually, usually they answer it inside the the application I'll put like I'm happy to provide references, you know, upon

Rachael 34:56

nobody's calling references, unless they're gonna offer you,

Brandi 34:59

I would agree, no one's wasting their time.

Sarah 35:00

Oh see, and again, I've gotten plenty of calls where they haven't even interviewed them yet.

Brandi 35:05

But for what kind of position?

Sarah 35:07

There's all different kinds corporations, smaller jobs um, my boss had two of them that she did in a week for other people that were just in different jobs

Brandi 35:14

I think there's no like security clearances and things like that.

Brandi 35:17

They do a call ahead of time

Sarah 35:19

correct that.

Sarah 35:19

They will too, and I've been a part of those.

Brandi 35:21

Yes,

Sarah 35:21

um, none of the ones that I'm talking about have worked for because of any of those states, but

Brandi 35:26

I've never had someone call me and I was listed.

Brandi 35:31

I'm referenced on so many people.

Sarah 35:33

Yeah,

Brandi 35:34

um, because I I

Rachael 35:36

usually you would know as well.

Brandi 35:38

Well, a lot of times it

Sarah 35:39

might just depend on the job

Brandi 35:40

a lot of times I get an email versus a phone call

Sarah 35:43

oh, I've never gotten an email.

Sarah 35:45

I've always.

Brandi 35:45

Most of the time it's an email like hey, can you confirm that you know?

Brandi 35:50

you know this person this way? Um, a lot of them were like people that reported to me in jobs they're like. Can you confirm that they were this kind of worker and they did this x y, z in their job?

Sarah 36:00

Interesting,

Brandi 36:01

but they've. I would say. 95 of them are emails and even if they require a phone call, they usually ask to schedule a time in an email.

Sarah 36:13

Oh, I've actually also never had someone schedule a time. I've always just gotten

Brandi 36:18

Cold calls?

Sarah 36:18

Cold calls.

Brandi 36:19

Yeah, no,

Sarah 36:19

yeah. Usually again, the person who is interviewing will call or text me and be like hey, I listened to you as a reference.

Sarah 36:24

you know , this person might be calling you and I'll expect it know, but no, never. Yeah, oh my gosh emails. So my idea with references and we could relate it back to LinkedIn too. How you have like endorsements on LinkedIn, you can do those and love that

Brandi 36:37

most people don't use that function anymore

Sarah 36:39

right so can we go back to? Like having our teachers write us letters of recommendations for colleges Like

Brandi 36:48

Ew, why?

Sarah 36:49

Okay, hear me out again, I don't.

Brandi 36:53

That is something else that interviewers have to read.

Sarah 36:57

Or just listen to. But again, if they're not calling anyways, they don't have to call someone. I want to ask one of my references hey, can we like sit down, can you write me an email? Can I like record you giving me some kudos? Or like send in a little video, or like something that I can use now for all employers. That is just a little kudos of someone I worked with who has given me some props. Yes, I worked with Sarah here. She is awesome. I love this. She's going to be great at this job.

Sarah 37:23

Blah, blah, blah, blah. Can we do that?

Brandi 37:33

Why? Why?

Sarah 37:34

Because I don't want to have companies calling people or have, like my people be bothered so much. Like companies and websites do this anyways. They always have like their customer reviews or like their kudos lists on their websites of people saying like giving them such high

Rachael 37:44

you want like a five-star review

Sarah 37:47

I want yeah yeah, if I'm gonna ask for like a reference I also want to give me a five star review and I can send that into an employer.

Brandi 37:52

The only time I've written a letter of recommendation in my professional career is when one of my my teammates that reported to me was going back to school and they needed a letter of recommendation

Sarah 38:05

I've done.

Sarah 38:06

I've done a couple letters yeah, probably more for school as well, or like programs that they were applying to like get into, like,

Brandi 38:12

yeah,

Sarah 38:14

um, programs like that. I don't know. I thought about that yesterday and I kind of thought that would be really fun

Brandi 38:21

again.

Brandi 38:22

I think you're making things more difficult than they need to be.

Sarah 38:26

I think I'm making things easier and more fun, because they're already difficult.

Rachael 38:31

I think your LinkedIn page can just turn into this way to express yourself and at the top of your resume put the link to your LinkedIn.

Sarah 38:40

Oh, that I have.

Rachael 38:41

So then they can just go look at your LinkedIn.

Sarah 38:43

Yeah, that I have,

Rachael 38:44

yeah, yeah, and that could solve some of.

Sarah 38:48

I still don't know if I want to do videos on LinkedIn, though I think I'll just post on TikTok, Because I've had a couple jobs who asked for like your social media handles,

Brandi 38:55

and I don't give those, I only give LinkedIn.

Sarah 38:56

Those were for more influencer-type positions. So

Brandi 39:01

Is that really what you want, though?

Sarah 39:04

Not necessarily, but I could understand why they wanted to see what kind of social presence they had.

Brandi 39:13

I guess my question is why are you applying to those jobs?

Sarah 39:16

Because those are fun and they get me out there into different types of networks.

Rachael 39:22

Yeah. So I'm curious, like is there one type of resource or one type of main advice either of you would give? Like is there a staple that you always live by when you're looking at jobs or interviewing or anything like that?

Brandi 39:43

um, well, first of all, I think you need to. I use Glassdoor a lot. Um, I go in there and look at the company reviews because you can go in as an employee and review them again.

Brandi 39:57

You do have to go into those like you would review anything else, and most of the people on there are usually the unhappy ones

Sarah 40:04

yeah

Rachael 40:04

right,

Brandi 40:05

but if you continue to see the same complaint over and over again, then odds are that company might have that problem or it's something that, if you're still interested in the company, you ask about like you know, hey, I, you know, describe your culture. You know, upon um researching this company I saw, you know, some people say this about the company.

Brandi 40:31

Can you address how you fix that?

Sarah 40:33

Yes,

Brandi 40:34

and you can usually tell if they have or not based on their answer, but that you should always research the company. You need to know the size of it. You know their websites have a lot about their mission statement, their social medias, you know, do they do a lot of community service or do they do you know any kind of charity work things? You know things that might be important to you. So research the companies. I always look at their reviews and I look at what they've paid people in that similar position, because you can put salaries and wages, yes, in Glass door.

Brandi 41:11

So I always look not only for that specific company, but for similar titles.

Sarah 41:16

Industry averages area yes, that's something I always do too is look up the average salaries for those types of jobs.

Brandi 41:24

Yeah,

Sarah 41:24

to know what your competitive advantage can be for pay, when that question comes up too,

Brandi 41:30

but it also helps you understand, you know you haven't.

Brandi 41:34

You have a number in mind of like you need to get paid to take a job or whatever.

Sarah 41:40

Right,

Brandi 41:40

if you're seeing that they're not even anywhere close to that, or the position above what you're you know applying for isn't even getting that, or it's at the bottom line for that position, you know you're probably not going to get the money you want, so maybe you don't apply for that job because they're not competitive.

Sarah 41:58

Yeah.

Brandi 42:00

So, yeah, I strongly recommend doing the research for the company. It helps with interviews, it helps you understand if it's a company you want to work for.

Sarah 42:07

Yes,

Brandi 42:08

all of that. So I always recommend social media and like Glassdoor and stuff.

Sarah 42:13

I was researched too to see like like who the parent corporation is, if that company that you're applying for is actually owned by, like a larger corporation or if they're owned on their own. I always just feel like there's different things with each one, and even working at, like you know, retirement communities, like you can tell how, how big their corporation is that that owns them. So look into that Definitely the averages and don't forget to follow up. I feel like that's still a really big thing. That can kind of just step you out from other people is to either send that follow-up email, that follow-up call, go there in person and introduce yourself to the front desk lady. I've done that multiple times and gotten a lot of jobs that way.

Sarah 42:59

Oh yeah, oh yeah, put a, put a face to the resume absolutely, but again, that's also a

Brandi 43:01

different industry,

Sarah 43:02

different industry. I am more people facing jobs, so that to me, if I was the employer, shows like wow, this person is ready to step up and like

Brandi 43:11

what would you recommend for a time frame on a follow-up

Sarah 43:15

um, I try and send an email within, truly within, like same day and at least, of the interview, and be like thank you for meeting with me.

Sarah 43:25

You know, if it's like a later one within 24 hours, at the very most.

Brandi 43:28

Follow-up you do a follow-up with the interview, you don't do.

Brandi 43:31

You do a follow-up after you submit an application

Sarah 43:34

um, sometimes again, if it's a job that I'm really interested and I haven't heard back from yes, I will send follow-ups,

Brandi 43:39

What's your timeframe on that?

Sarah 43:41

Um, usually about a week or two.

Brandi 43:43

Okay,

Sarah 43:43

Because I think that sometimes again, they'll have a lot of applications they have to go through. Sometimes the job is not, you know, um needing to be filled right here this second

Brandi 43:54

Yep

Sarah 43:55

Um, so there's a lot of factors. I've also gotten, you know, I've applied for jobs where I heard back six months later.

Sarah 44:00

You know, there's one company.

Sarah 44:02

I have been applying for since college, since 2017. And my application from 2017 is still under consideration, so they haven't closed them out. So I've applied for like five different jobs for that company.

Brandi 44:13

Yeah,

Sarah 44:14

and you know I'm not going to follow up for that job, but

Brandi 44:18

Usually HR

Sarah 44:19

Sometimes they keep them.

Brandi 44:22

The wrapped up work. They don't tend to either have time or the desire to do that

Sarah 44:27

Right.

Brandi 44:28

They only want to close out the hired ones, because then they can like you know.

Sarah 44:33

Exactly.

Brandi 44:34

I think every company is bad about that.

Sarah 44:36

And it's all so different, they all have their little differences to them all too. So what else do you have, Rach? What's your advice?

Rachael 44:44

Well, ever since college, I've used this website called The Muse.

Sarah 44:49

I haven't heard of this before.

Sarah 44:50

Yeah.

Rachael 44:51

It's. I really like it. I literally just Google like the Muse how to write a thank you email and it comes up with these articles and it'll literally give you the sample and say, like why should you send a thank you note after a job interview? And it actually just gives you the template. So I usually just honestly copy the templates directly and then just insert what I want to say for those templates. So I've used it for like thank you emails, thank you notes when I would interview in person before I would sit after, write the thank you and then leave it with, like the front desk person.

Sarah 45:31

I used to do that,

Rachael 45:32

which I feel like resonates really well with people.

Rachael 45:34

Now, it's kind of tricky because everybody's remote and lives in way different areas. Or I use it for like interview questions. So again, I'll just Google like top interview questions and kind of get some ideas of things that when I go into interviews I like to have like four questions ready to ask them and I've already, you know, reviewed their company website, review their mission, their vision, everything like that. But I do like to have some kind of outlier questions that I might just want to ask because I'm just curious and so I feel like finding those lists

Sarah 46:09

or like your, basis, like what your you know checklist is to have a job like to make sure you ask those questions yeah, what?

Brandi 46:16

yeah, ask the questions on. You know what's important to you in a job like being able to have flexibility, like if you have kids, like you know are you flexible around? School schedules, things like that, because they're not necessarily going to put that in a job description,

Sarah 46:30

right,

Brandi 46:31

or anything like that. Um, I, honestly, as an interviewer, if you don't have even one question for me,

Sarah 46:40

I will agree with that

Rachael 46:42

you didn't care.

Sarah 46:43

Yeah,

Brandi 46:43

yeah,

Sarah 46:43

I agree

Brandi 46:44

if you don't have any effort, you don't yeah, even even if it is just something about how it would impact your personal life, like hey, you know I have kids in school, you know, would you allow me to, you know, come in early, leave early or coming late, stay late kind of situation Like,

Sarah 47:01

yes,

Brandi 47:01

even that tells me that you are interested in this job and you want it to work around your family dynamic.

Sarah 47:07

Agreed. I'll find myself in times, too, where, during the interview process, some of my questions were already answered, but even then I'll still try and pull something out, like something that I thought of while sitting down and talking or something that wasn't answered. Or I always try to ask to like what happened to the person in the position before me.

Rachael 47:27

Yeah,

Sarah 47:28

whether it was like is this position have a lot of turnover? You know were they let go. They can't tell you specifics, obviously, but usually they can tell you if they they got a new job or, parted ways, how long the position has been vacant for um. I think you find out a lot about that too, because I've definitely walked into a job interview and I'm like, oh, this sounds like, this looks really cool, this seems like a cool job, and then to find out they've had six different people in this role in the last four years. You're like, okay, there's a reason why.

Rachael 47:55

Yeah,

Sarah 47:55

they have that.

Rachael 47:57

Yeah,

Sarah 47:57

but I love this.

Sarah 47:58

This is kind of like um, but here's like a more dedicated business, chat gpt, like platform yeah,

Brandi 48:04

I will say, though, like you can always, just I think it's a great website and now that you know about it, I'll probably use it at some point, but you can just google interview, thank you, templates, and they have.

Rachael 48:16

Yeah, exactly,

Brandi 48:16

and I still.

Sarah 48:17

I still ChatGPT for a lot of those things too. But I will note when you are sending your resumes, make sure that you're rewriting what you're using from ChatGPT, because a lot of times

Rachael 48:27

Actually read it,

Sarah 48:27

yeah, and a lot of times. If it's similar, keywords and phrases like that will also be flagged.

Sarah 48:44

And I feel like I don't know this for a fact, but I always feel like you're gonna get rejected.

Brandi 48:45

And read it and if it doesn't sound like you, you know, add some of your how it's a good idea of be like oh yeah, that's how you know I should word it, but let me use some words that

Sarah 48:48

right.

Brandi 48:48

I'm more comfortable with like if I was to describe it myself

Sarah 48:51

exactly.

Brandi 48:52

Because if you go in and use all of these like

Sarah 48:55

big words and you don't even know what's written

Brandi 48:56

and I'm not saying you wouldn't use big words but if you're just casually describing what you've done in the past to someone and you're not using those big words in your everyday life, like they're going to see the disconnect there.

Sarah 49:10

Yeah,

Brandi 49:12

and review your resumes.

Sarah 49:14

Yes,

Brandi 49:15

check for misspelled words. Check for any kind of typo. Check for incorrect punctuation. Make sure things are consistent.

Sarah 49:23

Make sure your links work.

Sarah 49:26

All the things. Yeah, double check, triple check everything.

Brandi 49:29

Just double check everything, because I swear to God, if I see another resume that has basic words misspelled or like I had someone um misspell a company, their company, like one of the companies they had worked for in the past, they had misspelled it

Sarah 49:44

oh my gosh

Brandi 49:45

and I'm like okay, this is literally your first impression for any company, and I know you want to get rid of resumes, but it's going to be that way for the foreseeable future.

Sarah 49:56

Oh yeah, and I don't think they should go away. I think that we're eventually just going to find a way to update them or do something different

Brandi 50:01

Well, different industries.

Sarah 50:03

I don't know.

Brandi 50:05

And I mean we could have a whole conversation. You know we're getting kind of towards the end. You know we don't want to keep people on here too long. You could go into a whole discussion about the difference between resumes and cvs.

Sarah 50:16

Yeah

Brandi 50:16

things like that, but I think it's do. I still try to keep mine to two pages? Yes, because I have found that a lot of my experience has been repeated in different jobs and I will just list it in my most current job. So you will see like my current job's got the most bullet points and then the further out my job was, I'll reduce it because a lot of those responsibilities are now reflected in my current job and you don't need to have the same responsibilities listed in your last five jobs.

Brandi 50:53

You just, that's just.

Rachael 50:54

You can't do like an up arrow and say like ditto

Sarah 50:58

Please see above.

Brandi 50:59

No, but like.

Sarah 50:59

Please see last job,

Brandi 51:00

they're going to, if you're doing it, your most recent job, they're going to understand that you've probably done it before or you're at least excelling in it now.

Sarah 51:08

Yeah,

Brandi 51:08

but that's just wasted real estate on your resume and you know, after a certain time you know certain jobs. Maybe you've pivoted slightly in your career, maybe you're not like so, like I used to do more of the science, like chemistry side of things like in an actual lab, whereas now I'm on more of the manufacturing industrial side of things, like I'm in a factory now, not a lab.

Sarah 51:41

Yeah,

Brandi 51:41

uh, you know. So I don't need to put a lot of those lab skills that I used to when I was applying for other lab jobs. I don't need to have those in my resume now because my straight path that I was going on has taken kind of a Y you know I'm not completely switching careers or industries.

Brandi 51:57

But my expertise has kind of been fine-tuned into this other leg. That doesn't. They don't need to know that I have used a micro pipette in a lab before.

Sarah 52:07

Yeah,

Brandi 52:08

you know they so, um you know, as you progress in your career, you can also tailor those older jobs, or if they're just completely irrelevant, you can remove them.

Rachael 52:18

I think it's helpful, though, like especially for LinkedIn, because I went back and like read all of my LinkedIn stuff and I'm like, oh shit, I did do that

Sarah 52:25

yeah

Rachael 52:26

seven years ago,

Brandi 52:27

but you don't need it in your resume now

Rachael 52:29

well, yeah, but I mean it is helpful because I think even rereading your stuff and refreshing on, like what you have done in the past, you can bring that up in interviews as

Sarah 52:38

well like my, the job I was after the longest was the campground for six years and, like I was a manager there while I was still in high school.

Sarah 52:46

Like a lot of the relative things that I'm doing now in my career, I was doing when I was 16 and I like to showcase that that I've been doing this for a long time in a variety of different settings too for more high class you know groups of people and for more you know being out at a campground like so many different people. So I yeah, I think it's definitely depends on your, your career and your industry, but let's open that up to the listeners. I want to know, like, what industry you're in and if there's something very specific that your industry does with your resumes that you either didn't know of, didn't think of, or if there's something different.

Rachael 53:26

How are you looking for jobs and how are you finding success with those interviews?

Sarah 53:30

Yeah, what do

Sarah 53:31

you think we should change? What do you think we should do better in? What do you think needs to stay the same? And just tell me to shut up, because my ideas are not all good ones, but there are ideas.

Brandi 53:40

So one thing that I also think you need to do Kozy, and not everyone's going to be comfortable doing this because they might have coworkers in their network.

Brandi 53:47

But there is a frame you can put on your picture online that says open to work and that tells recruiters and companies that they can approach you about jobs and stuff.

Sarah 53:59

So usually I'm in a job while I'm looking for jobs. So I've never really utilized that.

Brandi 54:03

Yeah, but if you've got like not you but listeners in general, like if you've gotten laid off and you're not actively in a job, or you've kept a distance from your current coworkers, or you've been very vocal that you're not happy in a job or whatever. Use that on LinkedIn. There's tools to highlight your profile to people that are looking yeah, to hire people. Like I said, my current job I didn't even know it existed and I had HR reach out to me and ask for me to come in for an interview you know,

Sarah 54:32

yeah,

Brandi 54:33

I, and expand that network, that people you may know like, even if you, you know, haven't talked to them in a couple years.

Sarah 54:43

Oh, yeah, you never know

Brandi 54:44

yeah, they could easily work for a company down the road that you want to apply for and you can even just be like hey, you know, in the future. Like I know you know we haven't spoken in a while, but I saw you worked at XYZ. Can you tell me a little bit about it?

Sarah 54:58

Yeah,

Brandi 54:58

Because a lot of times, if you were a good coworker or you know you worked on even a student project in college together, they like they want that referral bonus,

Sarah 55:09

oh yeah.

Brandi 55:09

So a lot of times they'll be like yeah, you know, give me your information, I'll send you a link to apply for because, it's mutually beneficial.

Brandi 55:16

at that point

Sarah 55:20

right,

Rachael 55:20

absolutely, most definitely. And want to give some stats on the podcast, just because I'm excited. But I was looking at some stats of locations and we have over 140 cities with listeners over 19 countries and territories, and one of my guy friends I did a shout out on our last episode of the guys out there listening, so we at least have one new listener who is male and proud.

Sarah 55:44

We love you all

Rachael 55:45

so thank you everyone for listening.

Rachael 55:47

We do really appreciate it and appreciate your suggestions and your feedback as we go. So until next time,

Sarah 55:53

stay bold,

Brandi 55:54

stay empowered.

Sarah 55:55

Girl Gang out.