Unlocking U.S. Job Market Success: Strategies Beyond the Resume

What's up, podcast listeners?

I'm your host of this podcast, Allie from corporate. And today we have a very special guest. Have you ever applied to a ton of jobs and you've thought there's gotta be a way for me to stand out? You guys know I talk about this all the time, but I'm having a special guest with us today. Her name is Cindy Chana and she is absolutely an expert at this. She has helped people get jobs all over the world and she specializes in those looking for jobs in global supply chain and procurement. In this episode, Cind, Cindy and I talk about how to use LinkedIn effectively to make sure recruiters are reaching out to you. And she talks about something called a media kit where you can showcase who you are in a multi dimensional way rather than just a 2D resume. I think you guys are really going to like this episode. This is a very global conversation. Like I said, Cindy has helped people get jobs all over the world, in over 30 different countries. So sit back, relax, let's learn a little bit.

Welcome, Cindy Chana. I'm so excited to have you here.

Hi. Thank you, Ali. I'm so excited to be here too.

Yes. So for those of you that are watching, for those of you that are listening, Cindy is a fellow career coach and a friend of mine and she specializes in helping people find jobs in the supply chain management and procurement industry. So can you tell us a little bit about. So I, first of all, I have a ton of questions for you because you're a career coach and so you know what job seekers want and need, but you're also a recruiter. That's. Is that right?

Yes, yes, I've been in the recruiting industry. Yes.

I have so many questions, but first, can you define supply chain and procurement for us just so we have like a baseline of what we're talking about here?

Yeah, definitely. So supply chain, every single company has it in different capacities. So they have logistics, they have demand planning, materials management, contingent workforce. So it's just the whole process of the services, the goods and services and how they're processed. And every company has it in different capacities. Some could have it in staffing, some could have it in products. So supply chain management is basically like the full process of it and then different people, different job titles, they all kind of like get created together to build the bigger foundation.

Got it. Super interesting. And from what I understand, most companies that have a physical product need supply chain, right?

Yes, definitely they do.

So it's everywhere. So you have in your career coaching business you have helped over 130 clients that have been successful in landing jobs all over the world. Tell me, what has been the most, maybe like, the biggest mistake you see people making in job searching that you've been able to help them overcome?

Yeah. So one mistake I've seen people do is not being strategic in their approach. So they've been using the same resume over and over again. Or they're sending messages to people, but they're directly asking them for help. Or like, can you get me a job? Instead of building a genuine relationship with people so that way they could become referrals for them now. And later they just directly, like, you know, ask for help. Like, you wouldn't do that to a stranger. Right. So it's like, why are you doing that behind the scenes, like behind a computer and approaching it that way? So those are definitely some of the things that I've helped my clients with, teaching them the right strategies and how they should be reaching out to people or how to find those people that are the decision makers and what messages should they be sending them?

Can you tell me a little bit more about that? So I completely agree that networking is everything. And if you do it wrong and you just start out by asking for a favor, that's not how you get a job. So how can somebody who's listening, if they're job searching right now, how could they approach a stranger? Maybe on LinkedIn or even if they have their email, what is a first message you can send?

The first message would be something about targeting that person. Like you doing your due diligence, your research, you finding out information about that person. And like, why are you sending them the note? Is it something that you found intriguing about them? Like, do you want to kind of learn from them? Or that's like a mentor. Like, you just want to ask them questions and brag about them about their skills, their knowledge, like their portfolio. And then later on, once that conversation continues and stuff, it could get converted into a coffee chat or informational interview and you continue building that relationship. Then you could start asking them those more questions and pitching in, kind of like, oh, yeah, I'm also in the job market looking for these opportunities, but in the beginning, you just have to nurture it, and it has to be all about that person.

I love that. So giving before, trying to receive. And I've even seen cases where somebody has tried to establish a relationship or some professional communication with a stranger online, and that person has said, hey, by the way, are you job searching right now? We have a position open it looks like you're qualified for. So sometimes you don't even need to get to the point where you're asking for a favor. That's like a beautiful part of networking is two people trying to help each other. But I agree, don't try to pick the fruit first before you've tried to, like, get to know somebody.

Yeah, definitely. Like, you need to just kind of, like I say, like, you know, you need to kind of soak in all of the information and you're going to be able to, like, learn so much from this person, especially if they're in that same industry. And that job title that you're looking to get into, because you're going to learn so much. Because when we're looking at job titles, we, we have this mindset and we've, like, come up with this assumption that, oh, this is what the role entails. But then each company, the title may be the same, but the responsibilities are so different. So it's like, if you talk to those people, learn, you'll get a better understanding to even figure out, like, wait, is this even something I'm going to be in or is it not what I thought it was?

Right.

Yeah, completely agree. So you are also a recruiter in addition to an awesome career coach. And you've. From what I've learned about you, you have placed over 1300 people in 30 different countries around the world, which is incredible. That's a lot of people. So if somebody was listening right now and they wanted to move to another country and be an expat, how would somebody who wants to be an expat find an opportunity in another country? How do you even go about learning, like, what different countries require in terms of employment?

Yeah. So there's a couple of different approaches that you could take. You could definitely, like, first do a Google search, go to that country's, you know, their ministry page or their, the visa offices page, and you could learn about, like, oh, what type of visas do they offer? What is the process for that? Is there any work visa that they offer? If so, what are the requirements for that? And you could also talk to people like lawyers and stuff about it as well, because they could tell you, like, what would be required. Another way would be to first or to connect with people that are already working in those companies that you're looking to get into that are in those regions and start conversations with them to first, like, start building that relationship. And another thing I would say is, like, there's so many staffing agencies out there that Hire for expats. People don't tend to go to them. They avoid it. I think it's because they don't really understand how staffing agencies work. So there's like big companies out there that have, that work with clients all over the world and they have their own entities and locations in a lot of the different regions. So I would highly recommend people to reach out to them, to talk to a recruiter. There are a couple of recruiters there, tell them about their situation, what they're looking for, and see what opportunities they have because they'll work with their internal teams and especially a lot of them have clients like that are Fortune 500. So you could even like have opportunity to work remotely and then still support like a US affiliate or like a US company or even in another region. So definitely I encourage people to do that.

So which countries require a resume and which require a cv and what's the difference?

So the US Market, they require resume. Like European market and Asian market, they require CV because it has their picture on it. But a lot of the companies, especially depending on what company that you're targeting in cvs, it's more detailed because you're even like putting in your personal information in there about like your, your family's information or like what, where you were born and things like that, along with of course like your resume, your summary, things like that. But. And then resume is more so for the US Market because it's, it's your personality you need to be showcasing on it. And it has to be simple but structured and easy to read. Somebody, like, they get that in front of them, they, they could already tell like who you are, what type of person you are, what things have you accomplished, like, what value did you bring to that company? It's not about you, like just putting tasks like, I did this, I did this. And then the verbiage that you even use in those bullet points has to be impactful. So that way it's showcasing all those high things that you did.

Yeah, that is the biggest mistake. I see people putting on resumes, they're just describing what they did at the job, which, who cares? Anybody could do that. But did it make an impact? Do you understand what the bigger picture was? Good information. So what about pictures on resumes I've seen from different countries? Like, I know usually in the US we don't do that unless you're applying to be a model or an industry where your looks matter. But what is typically like the rule of thumb for putting a picture on.

A resume yeah, so that's mostly for like, that South Asian region and then also like some European countries and stuff. Right. Or Middle Eastern countries. Again, your picture has to be that short form. It needs to be clear with like a clear background and stuff. Very professional dressed up. Because that is. They want to see somebody who's sharp. Definitely. They're not trying to. They can't really, like, read off, like, your vibe and your personality through the picture, but then it allows them to be able to match a face to the information they're reading off of your cv. So. So it does help out. But then, of course, that's not mostly for the US Market here.

Yeah, I've noticed some, some people, some countries from South America will put their pictures on a resume. Southeast Asia, like you were talking about. It's so interesting, like, all these different job markets and different norms in different countries. Would you say, like, how would you say the US Stacks up against, like, difficult job markets? Is this a difficult job market right now compared to the rest of the world, or is everybody having a big problem right now?

I'm going to say definitely, like all regions are having a difficulty right now being able to fill positions. It's just the current times. It's just because a lot of these global companies, these Fortune 500 companies, especially the big tech ones, they had offices or they have offices all over the world. Right. So. So they've laid off multiple people, thousands of people in each region. So there's more people in the job market, but not enough job openings. And people prefer to hire individuals that are referred to them or they kind of know or somebody's vouched for because it's easier for them to make a decision to get them hired on because there's that trust. But definitely there's still. Even with that, there's still a lot of ways that people could be standing out in their job search process. But it starts with, like, building those relationships, talking to the right people and showcasing things that are so different. Like, what makes you stand out amongst these thousands of other people? Right. Because, like, even job openings, they're getting like, hundreds of applicants. Opposed to, like, before it was like maybe like 20.

Yeah. So what are some ways that people can be standing out in job searching? I know we talked about networking a little bit. Love that one. Having a good impactful resume is another one. What other ways do you advise your clients or help your clients stand out in the job search process?

Yeah, so some ways would be having a media kit for yourself where you, like, record a video of Yourself and you like send it to the recruiters and hiring managers. Any person that you like come in contact with the personalized video has to be about that person, that company, that role and why you would be a good fit and other would be definitely leveraging LinkedIn since that's like that number one platform where recruiters, hiring managers, everybody's on and it has like billions of people on there. So you posting content on there, you engaging with the recruiters, like if they're putting out a post, comment on it, message, those people that are in those companies that you're really looking to get into and for that, start off with like having a list of the 10, 20 people that you want to make connections with and then kind of like work off of that and create your own content as well. Like there's so much experience, so much knowledge people have. Like if you're interviewing somewhere, talk about that experience, right? Like what were your takeaways of it? There's so many people in the same boat, they could learn from you and inspire you. So that way if they may know of any company, they'll be able to kind of, you know, refer you to that opportunity.

Yeah. And people, we people want to help other people on LinkedIn. I've noticed that on LinkedIn there's not a feeling of competition, it's more like collaboration. And I've heard, you know, our mutual friend Daniel say this all the time, collaboration over competition. But I agree with the posting and the commenting and you and I, you and I are a part of that LinkedIn Slack channel. And if I have learned anything, if you want to grow on LinkedIn or become an opportunity magnet or network, it's all about commenting and posting regularly.

Yes.

You just have to do it. Yeah. So what would be some topics? If somebody's listening to this or watching this right now and they're thinking, I want to post on LinkedIn, but I don't know what to post. What would be some inspirational like prompts that you could give somebody for some ideas on what to post?

Yeah, sure, definitely. I actually even have like a guide on this as well as like a 30 day content calendar. So some topics would be like, talk about what? Okay, like let's say you moved here and you got that, you got your master's degree. What was that experience like? Compare it to your home country, talk about what courses you took and how are they going to be relevant to the market that you're looking to get jobs into. You could talk about how is that, what are you doing in Your job search process. Like, what's working for you? What's not working for you? Talk about, like, the people you've networked or connected with. Like, what did you learn from them? What was that one takeaway? So it's just like, just look into your own experiences and use that to just talk about it. And those posts don't have to be long, like one paragraph, like five, six lines. Like, you know, short, simple, to the point. And I've actually heard people say, like, oh, but I don't want to, like, talk about my life on there and this, that. But those are those limiting beliefs that kick in. So I tell my clients, nobody's gonna judge you. Just talk about it. Because you may inspire so many people. You have no idea. They may be, like, looking up to you. And just by you putting in this effort, it's gonna benefit so many people, because you're definitely not the only one in this.

Yeah. And I think if anybody's looking at your post saying, oh, cringe, I can't believe they posted that. Most likely they're jealous that you had the courage to post it, and they wish they. They were brave like you.

Yes.

Because it takes. It takes courage to put yourself out there and be a professional out loud on the Internet. And what I tell people is, if you want to start posting on LinkedIn and you're a job seeker and you want to get, like, great job offers, think about the questions that recruiters would ask you. Tell me about yourself. What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses? What skills make you a great candidate for this job? Answer those questions with a post. Like the tell me about yourself question. You don't have to be so obvious, but you can say, hey, everybody wanted to introduce myself. I'm so and so, and this is my background, and these are my goals. So recruiters might see that and go, oh, they'd be a great person for this job. And now we don't even have to ask them, tell me about yourself, because we already know about it.

Yes, I. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And those are just simple questions you're just, like, putting out a response to. Right. And when recruiters do look at your profiles, they do skim through the whole thing. Like, they'll print out, like, a PDF version of it, and then, like, they'll go through it. So if you're putting out details about yourself, what you're doing, what you're looking for, and all of that, it makes the recruiter's job so much easier, and they could relate to you. So Much more.

Yeah. So speaking of being a recruiter and this will, this will be our wrap up question, if so, as a recruiter, what piece of advice would you give to job seekers out there? One piece of advice, this would be country agnostic. Doesn't matter. But like what is one thing as a recruiter you want all job seekers to know right now, today.

So one piece of advice would be don't be afraid to reach out to recruiters and to message them in their inboxes or on DMing them on LinkedIn. It if a recruiter does not respond back to you right away, definitely follow up with them after a week, after a couple of weeks, just simple message like, hey, just touching base. Wanted to see if you received my last message. I know you may be busy because recruiters receive thousands of messages. They may look at your message but then they didn't get an opportunity to respond back to it right away and they just like got lost in their inbox. So if you like reply back to them and like send them a follow up message, it brings it back to the top of their inbox and chances are they're going to respond back to you. So I have seen a lot of people like be afraid to follow up. They're like, oh, they're not going to respond back. I'm just wasting my time. I was like, no, you're really not.

So, oh, good advice.

Okay. So have courage. Message the recruiter. If they don't get back to you, follow up.

Yes.

Cool. Take your job search in your own hands. I love it.

Yes. Cool.

Well, thank you for coming on. This was a short little episode, but it was action packed with really good advice. Thank you so much for telling us how people get jobs, especially in the supply chain field and a little bit of the nuances all around the world in different job markets.

You're welcome. Thanks for having me here, Ali.

Absolutely. We'll talk to you later.

Thank you.