Hey everybody its Andy welcome to my
four-part live series on my number one
tips I'm gonna give you a piece of
advice for every step of your job search
we're doing this live I love it if you
are here with me get in the chat let me
know who you are where you're from you
got any questions we're gonna go through
all your questions as well but I've got
this live four part series we're gonna
be covering your resume we're gonna be
covering the job search we're gonna be
covering the interview and the salary
negotiation over the next seven days so
welcome I am thrilled to have you
whether you're here with me live or
you're watching this on a recording
absolutely absolutely stoked and today
specifically we're going to talk about
resume writing and more specifically
we're going to talk about the career
profile I'm gonna show you how to place
a little summary at the top of your
resume that will absolutely positively
reshape the way somebody looks at your
entire resume and I'm not just talking
about the humans here I'm also talking
about the computers and those pesky
applicant tracking systems which will
absolutely thank you so I've got a lot
in store and and just so you know what
the agenda looks like for today we're
going to talk about the career profile
I'm gonna tell you what it is
let me tell you why it's important I'm
gonna do bunk a whole bunch of myths
about what people think about it we're
gonna go through we're gonna talk about
specifically what to include in it I'm
gonna show you a sample we're gonna have
some fun with some pictures and then
we'll do the QA like my normal QA kind
of a live the live office hours regular
programs so I got a lot I got a lot in
store for you okay so we've talked about
the career profile hmm this thing let's
let's let's not overly complicate what
it is it's a it goes by many names I
call it a career profile you can call it
a profile you can call it a career
summary and call it a summary and call
whatever you want you don't even have to
even have to name it but it is who and
what you are about so overall what have
you done collectively in your job search
and you're trying to just create a very
high-level view of who you are now we're
gonna go in
to the psychology behind the what's and
the wherefore isn't exactly what this
looks like but just it's just a summary
let's not overly complicate it it's a
summary at the top the most important
thing that I want you to realize about
the career profile is where it is which
is at the top of your resume so when
somebody if they printed it out fine
they look at it they're gonna look at
the top first if they're looking at on
the computer screen and they pull up
they're gonna look at it on the top
first so I want you to realize that it's
so important because it is the first
thing they see I always like to use the
analogy that your career profile is like
is like your smile it's like your smile
when they see it from across the room
are you smiling are you beaming are you
warm and welcoming are they getting
excited and thinking I am absolutely
gonna love reading this person's resume
it's kind of a first impression so it's
your spot to set the tone for how
somebody receives you initially it's
very important it is the most prime
piece of real estate is like your
billboard it's like your billboard so
what does the billboard do think in
terms of the book cover think in terms
of the Billboard this is your chance to
grab somebody's attention so it's not
just about making them feel good about
you but it's also about grabbing their
attention and then holding it because if
they get excited about what they're
about to read they're going they're
going to pay more attention to your
resume so you're you're setting you're
setting the tone the other thing that it
does that I don't think a lot of people
recognize but it's a summary and a
summary when you start to give me an
executive summary of who you are it
helps me with my memory of you people
think in terms of a couple of adjectives
about you he's a seller at large
companies she's tall with red hair
whatever it might be whatever it might
be but people kind of they drop
breadcrumbs in their head about who you
are so that they can recollect them
later if they want if they want to
recall who you are and if you're
interested in more on how memory works
and how memory works and interviews make
sure you check out interview
intervention
communication that gets you hired my
first book I go into how all this works
but what you are doing is you are
planting the breadcrumbs and you are
making it easier for the person because
we remember we always want to think long
game this isn't just I'm gonna send my
resume and I'm gonna get an interview
this is I'm gonna send my resume and I'm
gonna get the job and so I'm gonna go
through a whole interview process to do
that I need the people along the way to
be able to recollect Who I am in a whole
sea of other job candidates so when I
think about it and I'm having it
reinforced about who that person is what
they're about how big their
accomplishments are I can retain all
that if I've got a nice little I got a
nice little summary okay so that helps
the memory but I want you to make an
impression and I want you to be able to
tell your story the way you want your
story to be told in the way you want me
to receive it in what you want me to
know about you I call that controlling
the narrative controlling the narrative
so think about whoever you are doesn't
matter where you're currently working
where you've most recently worked or
where you've spent the last five years
you get to spoon-feed me the narrative
you want me to know about you so you are
leading with here's what I want you to
know about me instead of here's where I
currently work here's where I currently
go to school here's where I most
recently went to school whatever that is
that doesn't that doesn't control the
narrative you get to say whatever you
want to say up top and most people who
are looking at the career profile are
spending more time on the career profile
than they are looking through the rest
of it because they're getting spoon-fed
the story so I want you to make sure
that you recognize that you get to put
in there whatever it is you want so you
get to control the story the other thing
that that does is it sets the biases
that I'm gonna start to formulate right
away before I read the rest of the
resume so think about this if you can
position me to think optimistically
about you everything in the resume is
going to look better and read
to me and I'm gonna start giving you the
benefit of the doubt instead of the
detriment of my doubt where I'm looking
for things and not finding them if I
started to draw inferences up at the top
because I assumed you had certain skills
or you done certain things which is
natural because people are not spending
a ton of time with with your resume
they're actually trying to formulate an
opinion of you if you give me all that
positivity up front the rest of the
stuff tastes better when the plate looks
better the food tastes better when I go
sit out in the back on my balcony and
it's a nice warm 75 and sunny degree day
although it's about 43 degrees right now
where I live when I start recollecting
and thinking back on my past all of a
sudden my memories are a lot more fun
but if it's if it's freezing cold out
there and it's snowing and I'm sitting
there and trying to remember it I don't
have the same recollections and
everything doesn't doesn't I don't
remember it as well and I don't remember
it as finely so you were setting biases
you're setting them early you want to
make sure that you're giving yourself
the benefit of the doubt all right this
is the other thing it does and I'm gonna
say that this one is this is my only
deference I will ever make to an
objective statement you know those
objective statements that I absolutely
absolutely cannot stand on a resume they
have no place on a resume because it
talks about what you want and instead of
what you offer and I'm always stressing
that you want to show what you offer up
top right we're talking about your
billboard and the value you can
contribute to the company
well those inferences I was talking
about those biases and those assumptions
I'm going to start formulating what it
is that you want to be not who it is
that you are so I'm thinking about if I
see a career profile at the top of the
page and it has a lot of information
about how you're a seller and so forth
I'm going to assume that you want to
continue down that career trajectory and
that you don't want to make a change to
marketing so you get to slant your
profile based on where you want to go
not solely where you've been although it
is it is about your history but the way
that we articulate it and what it is
that we say about ourselves can shape
the way people think about us in the
future so this is
my only deference to that it's it's it's
kind of getting the point of the
objective statement into the fact that
they're gonna make an assumption about
who you want to be so you are
controlling all this stuff you're
controlling all this stuff
alright so that's why it's important now
when I have conversations with people
and we talk about their resume I get a
lot of questions about well you know
I've been told I shouldn't have a career
profile I should put my education up top
I should put just where I start
recruiters don't want to take the time I
would like to run through some of these
myths and give you some lessons from
them just a completely different
perspective and in ways that you may
never think about this stuff alright so
number one I get is hey Andy won't I be
repeating myself
won't I be repeating myself if I say
this up top then they go down into the
body of the resume they start looking at
it won't it won't it be repetition well
the one thing that I would say about
repetition is number one if you package
the career profile properly you won't
actually be repeating yourself remember
the career profiles a summary and we'll
go through an example but the career
profile is a summary if you're a seller
and you've sold ten million dollars in
consumer products goods
you're not going to repeat in the body I
sold ten million dollars of consumer
product goods you're actually going to
show me in your career trajectory over
the companies that you work for I sold
two million here and three million there
and two million there and so on it's
gonna add up to ten so that's really
nice and and as mere fact people are
skimming your resume we're going to talk
about this a bit throughout and it's
gonna be a recurring theme but they're
they're skimming so the reinforcement of
who you are and the substantiation of it
is very very important so not only are
you saying I did all this you're showing
and providing evidence of where you've
done it that repetition is actually
quite helpful is actually quite helpful
so that's that's one this one coming up
is my absolute favorite and we are gonna
beat this one to death
all right so Andy won't it take you more
time or the
more time to read my resume to read my
resume Oh couple things you gotta know
here this is this is total insider talk
okay so so when you think about that
logic that logic actually applies if if
somebody if let's assume that somebody
actually starts at the top left of your
resume reads it from left to right and
top to bottom then turns over the page
then reads that from top left to right
and top to bottom it would take me
longer to read more words than less
words yes that's true except that that's
not reality number one nobody and I mean
nobody reads a resume it's skimmed and
the other thing we're gonna talk about a
few times is recruiters are looking for
what it is they want it not what it is
you wrote so based on whatever it is you
wrote I'm looking for the things that I
need to see that this job candidate
actually has to know if they can satisfy
what it is I'm looking for so now I have
to just go find it that's one that's one
perspective the other perspective is if
you're thinking in terms of time for me
to read your resume your focus is on the
wrong goal your goal in putting a resume
together is not to get a job because
resumes don't get jobs resumes get job
interviews your goal in submitting a
resume is to get whoever is receiving
that resume and to the point where they
say I need to speak to this person I
need to speak to this person and the
faster I get to that conclusion and give
you that job interview or that phone
screen or that Skype interview or
whatever it is the faster I get there
the more effective your resume is the
time you should be thinking about is not
the time your job is not to make it
shorter for me to read your resume your
job is to make it faster for me to get
to the decision that I want to speak
with you that I want to speak with you
that's what's most important now in
order for me to know whether I want to
speak with you I have to imagine who you
are what you're about
what you can do I have to create a story
in my mind to know whether I want to
talk to you to talk to you if you don't
give me that executive summary or that
career profile I have to go through the
body of your resume and I have to look
for everything that I want and then I
have to assemble the story which takes
more effort and here's the worst part
the worst part is you run the risk of me
creating a story that isn't you
that isn't you because I misinterpreted
miss it misconstrued filled in a bunch
of gaps that weren't accurate wouldn't
it be better wouldn't it be better if
you just told me what you wanted to tell
me and for me to decide whether I wanted
to speak to you
true story true story we were we were
actually when we were recruiting care
and I were doing a lot of recruiting we
still recruit we were doing a lot of
recruiting some years back and this
person sent me an email with his resume
in it and it in at the top it said
something about you know inquiring about
this position referral from somebody or
some just loose acquaintance I'm not
even sure I knew the person sent I mean
the referral you sent me an email I'm
going through I have I happen to get the
email while I'm going through my emails
it was just my email hour of the day I'm
going through my emails I get the email
I open it up I see he's got about this
much in maybe four lines in the email to
introduce himself and then he's got his
resume attached his cover letter
attached I open the email I know he's
looking for a job I know he's interested
in a job that I think were recruiting
for I click open his resume I read his
for a profile I shut the thing I emailed
him back and I said send me some times
this week when you can speak to me on
the phone for an hour he emails me back
and he says it wow that was fast did you
even read my resume I said not only did
I not read your resume I didn't reach a
couplet I didn't read your email because
I got to the point where I knew based on
his profile and then I just went down
boom and I didn't even I didn't read
anything I picked out a company or two
that he worked at and I thought this
guy's worth my time he's either gonna be
right for this job which would be a
miracle or or this would be somebody
that would be good for me to know to
either network with or maybe for future
or whatever I've got a whole host of
goals that I can accomplish by speaking
to him
so just remember it the the only goal
you should be focused on based on time
is write that on the top of everything
you do and every day that you think
about sending out your resume how fast
can I get somebody to say yes how fast
can I get somebody to say yes I need to
speak to this person that's the time you
should be thinking about not worrying
about how long it's gonna take me to
read your resume just make sure you have
in your resume what I need it to have in
there what I need to have in there okay
can you tell I'm a little P owed about
that one when I hear that okay what's
this one okay white space but I've been
told I need white space at the time
because that looks better
who told I don't know who told you that
but think about this logic what does
white space do nothing it's white it's
blank it doesn't tell me anything that I
need and what's worse is what you
probably have in the white space which
I'm gonna show you a few minutes what
most of them look like is you probably
have a table with stuff in it with
bullets that are very generic either
business functions or skills you have or
traits you you have or whatever none of
that stuff gives me what I need and just
because you say you have that doesn't
mean you actually have that I need
evidence of the fact so if in a career
profile you can give me some text where
I can pick out some of that evidence I'm
loving it so the white space doesn't do
I understand the concept of white space
and I'm not talking about like my walls
and art and those kind of things I'm
talking about your resume which has to
have data in it which I need to see or
any recruiter needs to see to make sure
that they know you got the goods and
trust me when I tell you and I'm going
to show you here with some samples
recruiters know how to pick out that
information I mean I don't want you to
have point six font where I can't read
it but just have a normal text
separation paragraphs and all that good
stuff and we'll find it we'll find it
how about this one applicant tracking
systems what are those computers want
they don't want white space they can't
do anything with white space applicant
tracking systems are so stupid all they
do is companies feed in key words and
key traits and other things that
I want and all the applicant tracking
system does is take the the the garbage
it was given it takes your resume and it
looks for that in there and you got to
have it otherwise it doesn't filter you
through that's it it's just it's nothing
more than keyword matching and if you
start putting things in tables which
creates whitespace applicant tracking
systems cannot digest the white they
can't digest the table they burp on them
I've gone into this at nauseam I
actually got a video out there called
three free tools for your resume to beat
the applicant tracking system when we
record this we'll put this up in the
card I think maybe we should we'll put
it in the description here too so you
can find that but but keep in mind
applicant tracking systems are looking
for those words and if you write the
career profile the way I'm going to show
you here in a minute
then you'll you'll have the stuff that
the applicant tracking system desires
that it's that's actually looking for so
applicant tracking systems don't like
white space applicant tracking systems
don't like tables they do not they do
not have gone in giving you a ton of
insight onto that all right so all this
said you know why it's important you
know what it can do for you what what
goes in it what goes in it hmm so it's
not very complicated it's actually it's
actually quite simple
maybe maybe one to two paragraphs I like
to because of the way I'm going to show
you how to separate out the things that
I want you to put in there you know one
paragraph gets a little it'll long but
one to two one to two paragraphs
it's an aggregation it's an aggregation
of you in all of its forms this is more
of a theme than what goes in it but
along those along those lines when I
talk about aggregation I'm talking about
the total number of years of work
experience or maybe the total number of
relevant years of experience or if you
have 20 years of work experience in the
information technology arena and you've
got 10 in financial services and 10 in
healthcare and you want to call out both
that's fine if you say I've got 20 years
of experience in information technology
and 10 years of experience in healthcare
that's fine but basically it's an
aggregation that gives somebody an
understanding of
what it is in how much of it or how many
years of it in experience that you have
of it and you've done I also love
company types sizes markets and those
kind of things so small companies big
companies medium-sized private public
not-for-profit those kind of things what
industries finance services health care
manufacturing and so on that kind of
stuff is is really cool because that
gives people an idea of the experience
you can call it out when you send your
resume to the health care companies and
you don't have to call it out if you're
sending it to the manufacturing
companies or whatever you can kind of
play around that the other thing is it
should have a high level achievement
that encapsulates everything that you
are stand for and will be soon so you
know I used those cellar examples a lot
because we do a lot of salespeople so if
yours i've sold and managed ten million
dollars in consumer product goods
awesome that's all I need to know
that's all I need to know that's a
high-level achievement it's an
aggregation of who you are have you
built market brands for whatever X types
of companies that's great I just need to
understand what that accomplishment or
high level achievement is and then we
round it out with core competencies
these are you can call this whatever you
want I call it core competencies a
competency is a business function that
you have specific working knowledge of
it is a hard core skill / knowledge it's
complex sales its forecasting budgeting
cost based accounting things that are
very discrete that somebody says oh
you've got experience doing that
software development implementation or
whatever it is not character traits or
opinions of yourself like I'm a
self-starter I'm detail-oriented I'm a
leader I'm a strong communicator says
you says you so so what you're trying to
do is you're trying to give them an idea
an idea of what business functions you
know now let's have a little fun I'm
gonna show you some pictures we're gonna
dress some more of these things for I'm
gonna repeat myself we're gonna do some
reinforcement but I want to show you I
want to show you
some of this stuff alright so right now
you should be seeing a blue screen that
says a real pro can skim so I want to go
back and I want to share with you those
of you that are worried that I cannot
decipher whitespace we're gonna spend a
few slides on this I did this actually I
don't know if you guys are with me I
think I might have done something really
similar like three four weeks ago when I
was talking about resume when I was
talking about resume tips but I'm
guessing I can I can I get a shout out
in the chat can you give me an I got it
if that took you like three seconds to
read that and understand exactly what I
said
scream out in the chat let me know Annie
I got it that's funny
you'd say whatever you want but the fact
of the matter is these are misspelled
words and I'm guessing that all 135 of
you that are on here with me now can
read this can read this right I mean how
funny is that so imagine what a trained
recruiter who is specifically looking
for exactly what they want to know that
they're looking to match up you the top
portion of your resume and your entire
resume with the stuff that they're
looking for
imagine what that recruiter can do okay
now here's here's the thing about about
the white space okay John Smith we're
gonna beat up this dude he says I'm a
senior project man this is what a lot of
resumes look like this is the top
portion they got their name on the left
or the right of the center and then and
then all of a sudden I see this hey man
look there's a lot of nice white space
there right there's also a lot of
bullets and there's twelve core
competencies which I have no problem
with by the way that he this guy lists
that tell me nothing so he's a senior
project manager that's all I need to
know I know that a senior project
manager knows how to design scope manage
run a team do risk profiling budgeting
forecasting and so on so he just wasted
two inches of the top of his resume with
nothing now Jane
we love Jane because Jane knows what
she's doing
so this one here and by the way
we're gonna break this down in the next
slide so I'm gonna go through this kind
of quickly the thing I want you to take
away from this illustration is she says
alright I'm a senior project manager
just like John I got 10 years of
experience nice ok I T beautiful fortune
500 large companies fine they could be
small they could be I don't care
financial services great she knows how
to manage software she up to two million
dollars in budget and 25 people Wow that
is I don't know what is that like 9
pieces of information
8 9 pieces of information that she gave
me in two sentences and then what she
did for the cheap seats and and not
really for me but for the computer is
core competencies ok I know what's to
follow and I wouldn't look at that but
what I do know is she needs that in the
resume because if she's putting this in
an applicant tracking system the
applicant tracking system is looking is
looking for those words those are
obligatory she needs to put him in there
it doesn't bother me and it doesn't cost
me any time cuz I skip right out I saw
core competencies I'm gonna drop my eyes
are gonna drop down let's actually let's
let's take a look at this
so senior pm10 IT fortune 500 financial
services and she's a manager to mill 25
people nine beautiful pieces of
information in what actually is about
one inch on the resume the great part I
will not look at and you know I'll skip
down but if she if she threw in
something else that would be really nice
to know like her MBA from Harvard sweet
her PMP certification wonderful maybe
she's got a CCIE maybe she's a CFP
whatever it is that's cool to get those
other bright spots of your background
your education your certifications and
so on embodied in the career profile I
do not like them next to her name
because applicant tracking systems don't
like a lot of letters numbers other
things parenthesis and things up at the
top it just wants to break the field up
and populate it as your name plus when
somebody's reading the resume whenever I
see and the
P CFP this that mean thing up at the top
it sends off the wrong kind of message
but what she did here was she got it in
I will pick it up I would never miss
that I would never miss that and she got
it in and she downplayed it and that
actually is a cool move okay so this is
a quality layout now when you're looking
at this and and you know by the way you
can come back and revisit this you've
got the little template here but what
you're really trying to do is over on
the Left you want to give a descriptor
of yourself maybe you are a senior
accountant maybe you're a chief
financial officer maybe you are a
whatever ten years of experience maybe
you've got 20 years of experience with
10 in financial services cuz you're
trying to highlight that that's cool
what what's the main thing that you do
in her she implements IT stuff okay
she's an IT person awesome not gonna
forget that she's highlighting big
companies maybe that's important for her
to do because she's applying for a big
company but but maybe maybe she has
small company work in her background and
she wants to show you that she's got a
range small to big companies that's fine
too but you're getting the sense that
that in that second sentence is her her
major accomplishment and then like I
said for the for the system she calls
out those specific functions and what
you can do in that gray area is you can
actually swap out the nomenclature based
on the keywords that are in the job
description for the job you're applying
to so if she would have said you know I
if she needs to throw in here that she
also knows agile methodology or
waterfall or whatever she can do that
she can do that all right so wait I want
to I want to head back here do me a
favor in the chest so we run surveys on
this and I want to survey you guys we
run surveys on on these on these things
like we we we run surveys with hiring
officials and recruiters well I'm not
gonna tell you who wins but well you in
the chat will you give me a John or a
Jane depending on which one of these you
favor and I promise I won't make fun of
you if you don't like the one and I
don't
like which I know you know but we survey
we survey HR people recruiters hiring
officials by the thousands every year
and we send them lots of questions about
hiring and how many people they hire and
what type of resume format they favor
and I just I would be curious to know
because we have percentages of what
these people report back on nice on
these surveys of what the percentages of
how many of these people absolutely
Jane crushes John's but every single
time so anybody who tells you that they
need to see white space up there that's
not an actual hire that's not somebody
who's reviewing a lot of resumes okay I
need the data I need to make a decision
and I want to get there quickly you do
not get there you do not get me there
faster when I see the top thing I have
to search for more insight okay so will
will will check in here you know when we
hit the QA I'll look at the chat and all
that good stuff but you you get you get
the you get the stuff and if you don't
believe me on this that this stuff works
by the way don't worry I'm not gonna
sell you anything here I just but I do
want to show you these people now
Stephanie had her resume like John's we
changed it to Jane's she's in my boot
camp and you know she sent it out to ten
to ten one week and we communicated I
said can you know report back to me how
you doing I've been getting responses by
sending my resumes to see levels with
with your help and I'm getting emails
back on almost all I apply I've got a
husband and wife Anastasia and Michael
who are in these programs and Stasia
talked to her husband Michael into
joining one of my my programs and look
at this you know we had a we are
professionally written a lot of
plagiarism wasn't getting us anything he
enrolls in your course we righted the
rewrote the resume with a rewrite within
two weeks six interview requests and I
think he is actually working for Google
right now and then Jill hey Jill I don't
know if Jill's here but Jill starts her
job on October 22nd so you know give a
give a shout out to Jill since I
revamped my resin
I mean these are all people in my
programs but I just grabbed some from
YouTube I mean you could go to any of
the videos that I have on resume writing
and look at what those people say you
know I reconstructed it based on the
guidelines you gave me this guy I think
watched SIBO watched how to build the
ultimate professional resume which is a
free video that's out there I give you
the template and all that good stuff
three interviews out of five Bob went
from zero to eight okay eight four eight
and then Sarah Sarah cracks me up and I
love the picture but you know your
suggestions gained me abundance of
interest this stuff flat-out works and
and I you know I know there's a lot of
different resume templates out there I
know there are a lot of different
formats and you can play around with it
but I've looked at more than a half a
million resumes way more than that we've
helped people write them I've interacted
with more than 200 companies that we've
worked with my executive search for mile
walk as an executive recruiter
we've helped nearly 600 people attain
jobs we work with the higher officials
we see what works and what I've done
from all of these resumes that I've been
given by people is I've designed what I
think works and is curated to work not
only for the human but for thee for the
applicant tracking system so just make
sure you know revisit this when you get
the replay and check out that template
and if you want more on you know resume
writing I got two great free resources
one of them and this is in the
description is a free resume webinar
it's about an hour long call three
secrets to get your resume noticed in
that free webinar I show you exactly how
somebody looks at the resume I also go
into topically the kind of content you
need to have in the resume to create a
winning one but this is this is insider
stuff and then the other one if you're
looking for something a little bit more
prescriptive on how to write the resume
I know I had a resume writing class a
couple of weeks ago that's now retired
for a long time but I do have a video
called build your ultimate professional
resume it's a resume template there's
instructions and I take you through all
this
sections so the career profile though
this is a great template to use for that
alright so if you're loving this if
you're here live give me a thumbs up in
the in the you know on the video make
sure you're subscribed to the channel
and and make sure you are watching or
setting reminders for Saturday for
Tuesday for the subsequent sessions that
we're gonna have in this program I don't
want you to miss any but if you do the
replays are gonna be up for a limited
time you can check out the event page
that's in the description as well and if
you are watching this on a recording so
long I will see you in the next video
you
