DAY 4 - Build Your Job Shopping System [Reverse the Search LIVE]

Welcome! We are back for day four of Reverse the Search Live. So good to see you. I'm already seeing all of you kind folks in the chat. Hello, hello, Karen, Roseanne, Roseanne putting the four in the chat already. Roseanne, you have been here every single day. I love to see it. I see Donna. I see David back again. Michelle, hello. Keisha was the first one. Good to see you guys and welcome, welcome, welcome back. So we have been going hard for 4 days straight. And today is all about build your job shopping system. So I go kind of quickly through these sessions. And I know you all have given me that feedback before, which is why today is the session is more of a zoom in, zoom out session where we're going to build a plan together. Let's really focus on how are you going to take what you've been learning this week and execute it next week? Because, you know, knowledge without a plan is just simply knowledge, right? We're not actually acting on it. And so my goal today is for you to get a plan. We're going to make it happen as well as I'm going to be monitoring the chat a little bit more closely today. So that we can have a deeper conversation about all the things that have happened this week. Speaking of this week, day 1 is find what was costing you job opportunities. That was really zeroing in on where is your job search breaking and how to fix it. Day 2 is become the obvious candidate. So that's about landing more interviews. Day 3 was all about turning interviews into job offers, especially if we have that silver medal curse. How do we then make sure that you are getting those offers if you're devoting all of this time to interviewing? And then Friday, tomorrow, is the job shopping system in action. So I'm going to be giving examples of how to be really putting this into action. I'll bring people on live and we'll work through some of their situations, some of their scenarios together so that you can actually see these things in practice so that it can really lock in for you. And as a reminder, we're doing our early Black Friday promotion right now. My coaching program, Stand Out Job Search, is open and you can get it now for $1,500. $1,500 less. So get it, get it now and you'll just go ahead and fill out the application. We'll put the link in the chat. We're doing it by application only. So even if you're on the fence, you're not quite sure, fill out the application because we only have so many spots on our calendar right now. So, you know, if you want to talk to our team, if you want to get the application, just get it in so that you can get the deal because we're closing the deal by Tuesday of next week. So it's going to come very quickly. So today, we are first going to make sure your targeting is on point. We're going to make sure your interview volume is what you hope it to be. We're going to talk more about turning interviews into offers. We're going to then walk into a case study. Then I'll tell you a little bit more about my coaching program. And then we're going to do, as we always do, the interactive Q&A. So you'll be putting also questions in the chat. My team will be monitoring it. And we'll get to your questions today. All right. So close your other tabs, mute your phone, close the door. If you are multitasking during this hour, it will be a wasted hour. And also get your workbook out. I emailed it to you. If you're registered for this event, I emailed it to you. So make sure you get it out because we're going to be taking a lot of notes today. We're going to be working through a lot of things. OK, so we talked about this on Monday. You do need to focus. Get that one role that you are targeting. Of course, roles also have multiple job titles. That's not exactly what I mean. You can have a job that has multiple job titles, but I mean like one focus area where we're zeroing in, and that is going to make your job search fly so much faster. Now, I did talk about checking your market demand and It kind of didn't work on Monday because some of us have the old version of LinkedIn search and some of us have the new AI search. And I chose the absolute worst week to do this because my AI search within the last couple of days, I mean, my search on LinkedIn changed the AI search where, you know, a bunch of people said it was 99+ as like their market demand because LinkedIn stopped showing market demand. So I found a new way to do it. So go over to simplyhired.com and I'll go ahead and show it to you. So we're going to do the exact same thing, the exact same directions I told you for LinkedIn. So this is how you're going to figure out market demand. And just in case you missed Monday and you want a refresher of what the heck does market demand mean, this means, uh, when you are going for a job, the main, the main important thing about what job you pursue is market demand. That means how much money you're going to get paid. And are the job openings increasing year over year or decreasing? Ideally, the salary pays you enough for the quality of life you want to lead. And then the number of openings are increasing year over year. Why is that the most, most important thing in a job search? Because jobs are to pay you. That is the number one thing. Okay, so let's try it again and tell me what number you get. So what you want to do is you want to Put in. We'll do it again. So put it. We'll do marketing manager and put it in whatever is your target role title. Put it in quotes, and then I just put remote. So to get a larger number, and bada bing, bada boom. And see here, it says three hundred and one thousand three hundred and twenty one remote marketing manager roles. So my number is essentially thirteen hundred as my market demand. So go ahead and do that, and now you can put in your your number into the chat. So what do these numbers mean? Let me show you. So okay, here we go. If your number is between zero and three hundred, then you have low market demand. If your number is between three hundred and seven hundred, that's medium market demand. And then if it's over 700, that's pretty high. Uh, so let's see what we have. Okay, so Roseanne, you put 10. Um, 126 says Shag. Okay, let's see. Let me, let me actually put this up on the screen. Um, okay, 5,500 is great. Okay, David says $1,300. Is that— that's high market demand. $408. That's, that's middle. Oh, sod. Over $1,000. OK, that's high market demand. That's great. OK, so $812. So Barb has over $3,000. OK, so there's some, there's some good market demand. So this is— And Madeline, can you also find market demand from Bureau of Labor Statistics? You— I, I like to kind of have like this kind of real-world data, but I like— or like real-time data, I mean. Um, but sure, yeah, you could check out the, the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Go for it. Um, okay, and then yes. All right, so then we have some a little bit lower demand as well. 169, 289. Okay, got it. So taking that into consideration, now is, is the time to start making your plan. So I was seeing a lot of people in basically in every category from low, medium, and high. So we're going to talk about our, like, how much time we're going to spend landing more interviews. And if you are in more of the lower range, I would say, I would say scale up on the amount of time you're focusing on networking and maybe scale down a little bit on applications. If it's medium, then maybe, you know, kind of keep it, keep it to the recommendation that I suggest on the few future slide. And if it's high, then maybe shift a bit more of your attention towards applications, because there's a lot of high probability and, and, and what that could be. So keep that in mind. So here's, here's the slide here. All right. So you all who are in the middle range, I would say this is how you should allocate your time job searching. For, for someone who is lower market demand, I want you to scoot up your time for, for networking. Maybe it's going to be more like 80% of your time or so. Um, and then if, like I said, if you have high market demand, you can, you can, you know, push down networking a little bit and maybe increase a bit on the applications. Uh, so I want to know currently, uh, you know, do— how much time— what is kind of your ratio currently With with your job search, how much time are you spending on sourcing versus networking versus applications? I'd love to see what is your current ratio. What percentage of time are you spending on each, especially as you're thinking through? And I want you to compare that number to the numbers I'm showing you here, and think about your week next week. Okay, and think about the number of hours you typically spend on your job search per. week. We're all probably different. Maybe it's 5 hours, maybe it's 10 hours, maybe it's 20 hours, whatever it is. And then think about, okay, if, if I need to be spending 60% of my time networking and I spend 10 hours job searching a week, all right, I'm going to dedicate— I'm going to schedule out 6 hours next week to my job search. Right. And so, you know, as a reminder, when we work with our clients, we take over the application portion for them. We have an entire team where we optimize. We help you optimize your resume, then we help you optimize your LinkedIn profile. We work through all of that. And then we as a team go out there and we find all the opportunities that we think you'd be a good fit for and we apply to them for you. And we have— we maintain a dashboard of the roles that we've applied to. So you can see every single one. You can see the application we use, the resume we used. And we also, I think one thing that a lot of people don't do is if after a certain number of applications there hasn't been much traction, we edit the resume and we edit it again and we edit again. Like such as we, you saw Brian came on to this call yesterday and he mentioned how he had gotten his resume done professionally done before he joined my coaching program. And it didn't work. He paid several thousand dollars for a resume and then he got into the program. He did the Glory Formula. He got feedback from coaches and his resume started popping off. Now, even, even so, when we do edit a resume, it doesn't always immediately pop off because every single person's career and, and path is different. So what we do is we test it, right? So we put it out there and if it's not getting the traction we need, we edit it and resend it out there and we re— like, you know, we, we try that one next. And that kind of stuff. And I think that's the attitude you want to have in your job search. So let's see. Let's see, 96% is on applications. So sourcing means that you're focusing on putting out your, like, say, updating your LinkedIn profile so that you can get noticed by recruiters and whatnot. So networking is 40%. Donna says 90% applications. Roseanne says 60 applications, 30 networking, 10 sourcing. Okay. Wow. So applications is really a huge focus for a lot of folks, which is great. If you are looking for our coaching program, by us taking over the application portion is going to absolutely make your days so much shorter and better. But then you also have more time for networking, which is great. Um, okay, and David's really, uh, strong on the networking. He's 80%, uh, networking, 20% sourcing. Looks like no applications. Very interesting. Um, that's great. Okay, so as a reminder, we talked about— so someone was asking about sourcing, I think it was Bonnie. So remember, sourcing is basically where companies go out and they try to find candidates. And so one thing that we're definitely seeing is that, that on LinkedIn profiles that are verified on LinkedIn. So let me know if you are confused at all what being verified means, but it's essentially getting that, that shield on your profile. And if you go to your profile, it says get verified and you can click that and do it. Those profiles, especially come November, are especially going to get more attention. Being active on LinkedIn. So actively commenting on people's posts, showing that you're a real person. And I would say focus on not just commenting like, congrats on the new job, which is totally nice too, but also commenting on posts that are related to your industry and that you're giving meaningful comments. It doesn't always necessarily mean to be that you are giving some special insight It could even just be you commenting on how what they said is helpful or anything like that. And third, optimized. So this is really the secret sauce as far as making sure that when they are searching for someone in your field that you actually show up. And, um, as Kaya said on Monday, day 1, she said that of her 2 job offers, one of them came because We helped her optimize her profile and recruiters started finding her. Same with Brian, who came on yesterday. He shared that being sourced on LinkedIn was a big part of him getting interviews. Okay, great. So as a reminder for applications, if you're not landing interviews, it's one or more of three things. So. I would say put yes or no in the chat if you feel like your volume of number of interviews you're getting is satisfactory. So yes, it is satisfactory. No, it's not. Now, what is satisfactory is a bit of a subjective measure, but I would— if I'm talking to my clients, there are plenty that say yes, I am getting enough interviews. A lot of people would say that typically if they're in around like 3 interview processes at any given time that they feel like that's good, that's satisfactory. Others maybe want more. Others maybe feel a little bit overwhelmed and would just, just as long as it's 1 or 2, that's satisfactory or whatnot. But I'm curious what, what you're feeling is that you feel like, because I know a lot of you join these sessions and you're saying, well, I get plenty of interviews, but it's the, it's the offers that I'm not getting. Okay, okay. So yes, we have a couple of yeses. We have, uh, quite a few nos. Sergio is very emphatic. Um, Audrey's getting some interviews. Okay, Roseanne is very emphatic. Okay, so actually, okay, I, I was actually expecting— okay, yeah, decent return. Okay, okay, good. Uh, got it. So, uh, so yes, it's, it's exactly— and it ebbs and flows. Yeah. So I think, I think with, with a lot of us, probably not enough. Um, for some of us, it seems to be, uh, you know, decent. Okay. So since we have enough nos, I'm going to emphasize this again. I want you, if you did say no, I want you to look at this slide and try to guess. Of course, you know, with, with my clients, we actually like work through it and we look through the data and we look through the applications and we try to reverse engineer it. But with you right now in this moment, guess which one you think it is. Do you think it's 1, 2, or 3? Or maybe you think it's multiple. If you were to guess. So I would say for you, it's probably timing that you're missing if you tend to apply to jobs like weeks or even months after they've already opened. So maybe if you're kind of like slow to apply, I would maybe say 1 might be your issue. 2, not being seen. I would say that that one could be an issue if you have maybe like a medium volume or a high volume job and you tend to see a lot of these applications where it's like, oh, there's hundreds of people applying, then that could be a component. And then 3, bad application. This one's really tough to judge from yourself because there's no way that you're putting out bad applications on purpose. You, you clearly feel like you know, you're doing your best, but it could be that you've gotten negative feedback or you know that there's something different about your experience, but you're really not sure how to portray it without possibly even outwardly lying. Um, so I'm curious to see what you are saying. So I'm seeing a 1 and a 2. Okay, okay. So a lot of people feel like, I don't necessarily think it's my application's bad, I think it's the timing and not being seen. Um, All 3. The position has been filled. Yes. Again, says Sergio. Yes, exactly. So that would be like a timing thing. And yes. So, and if you're not being seen because there's a— when you see the post, there's already 500 applications on day 1, then how do you get to see those posts earlier? So I would say, okay, so then I'll actually answer that in a second because that's a great question. I think it might be a combination of 1 and 2 thrown in with 3. Yes, yes. I will say, and I'm seeing a couple of 2s as well, which, um, 2 was not being seen. So I will say it is a lot more 3 than you would expect. Not saying, of course, each of you— I've never seen any of your resumes, so I don't know. But I would be open to the idea that there could be something that is turning them off, especially if you, if you have enough volume that you've applied where it's like, OK, there's something up here. OK, so I want to get back to the question I think Christina asked. Let's see. Let me go link back. OK. Christine says, if you're not being seen because you, when you see a post, there's already 500 applicants, then how do you get to see these posts earlier? So one thing you can do, my dear friend, is you can filter by date added on a lot of job boards, on LinkedIn, on even Simply Hired, which we were just on a second ago. So let's see. Let me actually— I'll just see what we could do here on Simply Hired right now. So I'm going to pop over right now. So we can see here 24 hours. I just clicked date added 24 hours. So now we can see now there's 25 new roles posted in the last day. So that's really cool. This one was posted 1 hour ago. So that's a really great way to do it. And let's see. So I would say using those filters as well as if you have a list of target companies, I would— I use like a tool called OneTab where you can put all the tabs up on your computer of all of your target companies, all their career pages, and you can go to the career pages, check it each day or each week or whatever, and then collapse them each time and then reopen them and this will allow you to kind of see, okay, you know, have they posted something on their career page? Because also, they might be posting their career page and not posting it on job boards. And so you can be one of the first ones to see it there. So that can be really good. And of course, I'm sure you could create some sort of AI agent that would do that task for you. All right. Good stuff. All right. So this is, this is really, I would say, you, you all are really dialing in on this. And so Timing. We just, we just came up with a solution with timing, right? Networking can also help with timing as well, because you'll be much more privy to it. Not being seen. That one also is solved by networking. Bad application. I would say really like consume lots of my content, go to my resume revamp masterclass, and potentially even get coaching if that is for you. All right. So write down what you're going to do. Okay, for to to make sure that you are taking care of one, two, or three that that you have wrong. Okay, write that in your workbook. All right, so how how many networking outreaches have you done in the past week? How many interactions have you had? So we talked about this again on Monday where we're talking about networking, and you all kind of put in the chat how how many outreaches you had done in the past week. You all were very honest. Some of you was just a handful. Others of you really were reaching out to 10+ people. It was great. I would say, um, I want to set a goal for next week. So forget what you did last week. Let's, let's, let's put that in the past. How many networking interactions are you going to have next week? And so put that number in the chat. And then I want you to think about how. So this is the thing that a lot of people, they are not able to achieve their goals because they, they, you know, are— don't know what to do. So how are you going to get your next goal for the number of interactions? So the question is, what is your goal for next week? OK, so how many interactions do you plan for next week? Put a number in the chat. And then what are you going to do to get that? Are you going to start commenting on people's posts on LinkedIn? Are you going to reach back out to some of your classmates from grad school? Are you going to, you know, join a professional group on Slack and interact there? Are you going to reach out to people at your target companies? Are you going to reconnect with your mentor? Whatever it is, right? How are you going to get to that? And I want you to write that down. in your workbook of what you're going to do to get to that number. You're reaching out to hiring managers, whatever it is. Right. And what we do— excellent. I'm seeing some really good goals. And even if your goal— yes, even if your goal is 2, especially if what you did last week was 0, that is progress. Okay. Remember to measure your job search in interactions, interactions over applications. Applications are important too. But interactions are the most important thing of them all. Okay. And so, you know, when we're thinking about, okay, well, all right, I need interactions. What do we do? So typically what we do, this is, this is the tool my clients use is, okay, if I need to find people to network with, we have different tools. Okay. The Golden 20, um, how to meet new people. Um, we have even like a list of our, of our former clients and, and they can all meet those people who ended up at phenomenal companies like YouTube and Amazon and Nike and all that. And then, or then once you want to reach out to someone, okay, who is it? Who, like what, what person you want to reach out to? Do you already know them? How do you want to reach out to them as an email? You know, all that kind of stuff, right? And so then this helps you to generate it because depending on who you're reaching out to, you should reach out in a different way. So just make sure that you are are, you know, thinking about it in that way. Okay. Next week goal is targeting 12. Great. So how many informational calls taken and how many interactions would you say is a good number? What is considered interactions? Okay, Saad. So, um, I would say, uh, this slide I think definitely reflects, you know, like over 10 is like definitely if you're actively searching, over 10 is Is really great. Um, you know, in the program we typically recommend, since we are like applying to a lot of jobs for clients, like, like, like dozens or even sometimes, sometimes hundreds a week if, if, if like the volume is there, um, even just following up with the hiring managers and sending them a message, um, even just like 10, 20, 30 of them, um, can make a huge difference. So I would say that's great, like the, the hiring manager follow-up. But then as far as like even just networking, we have the Golden 20 exercise, which is really reaching out to 20 people who you already know. So I think like somewhere between 10 to 30 interactions is, is like going to really set your job search on fire. And that, that could be a really great goal. All right. Especially because, like, as we said in our previous slides, I mean, if you're actually following this of like 60% of your time is networking, like imagine how much time you're saving if you're either just focusing less on applications or if you have our team like actually applying for you. So perfect, perfect. Um, all right, so are you getting interviews but not offers? Okay, put yes or no in the chat. So that means that once you actually do land the interview, even if it's not that many, are you finding yourself getting through that, that interview process and not getting it? You know, maybe you're not getting that many interviews now, but every time once you get one, you actually always land the offer. So that would be a no. But, but yeah, are you, are you, are you getting interviews but not necessarily the offers? And that's really the next thing that we want to focus on now. Um, so let's see. David says, Golden 20, does renewing social ties count? Yes. Yes. Renewing social ties, like getting back in touch with folks. Yes, absolutely. Um, okay. So, um, yes, you are getting interviews but not offers. Okay. Um, got it. Yes. I'm not even getting interviews, but when I was, no offers. Okay. Okay. Got it. So a lot of people saying yes, um, that we're, uh, getting interviews but not offers. Okay. Oh, and Lance says, hello, I love watching your videos. Keep up the great work. It helps a lot. Y'all, I am a sucker for a compliment. Thank you. Um, and, uh, so I only got a low-paying offer, says The Light. Okay, got it, got it. Um, it's hard to secure interview, but harder when you make it to the final rounds and get rejected. That's exactly right. It is so demoralizing to go through all of the work of preparing for interviews, talking to the team, feeling like you are planning your future, and then it slips away from your fingers. Okay. So we talked about yesterday, Wednesday, about how you must de-risk yourself in the interview. And so I want you to put in the chat, what is your current risk and how will you overcome it? So this is a little bit This is a little bit of a longer answer. So I want you to, because I want you to actually do the critical thinking. And so if you are live with us here right now, I want you to write in the chat your risk and like how you plan on overcoming it. And of course, like also write this in your workbook. And we went through several examples yesterday. I talked about ageism and how to overcome that hesitation. I talked about a recent work gap and how to overcome that. Brian came on yesterday and shared his story of how he went through the coaching program and how his issue was that he had a skill gap for AI and he was going for all these product leader roles and they wouldn't even pay attention to him because he didn't have AI experience. And he was able to fill that gap without necessarily getting hired for a new job. And so that's super important. Okay. So Michelle says, I don't understand risk. Okay. So what risk means is, and thank you, I'll restate it. So really the risk is why is the company going to hesitate hiring you? And so, and you have to think deeper. So even when I gave the example of ageism, they weren't actually hesitant that my client was in her 60s. That wasn't actually the issue. The issue was, are you going to fit in on our team? Like, are you going to like working with a bunch of 25-year-olds? That was the risk. When it was the gap on my client's resume of 3 years, like for example, my client Mona, she didn't have a job for 3 years. And so the gap, the risk we were having there is, are you still sharp? And when she joined my program, she landed an offer for $40,000 more within 30 days. So it was all about de-risking her. So we have to actually get to the actual risk. I think a lot of times we think it's a risk, but we're actually not seeing the thing beneath the actual risk. Okay. So, yes, candidates being more overqualified, having more experience even for lower-paying entry-level roles. Yes, being overqualified is a risk. Think about this for a second. Why is this a massive risk to a company? to hire someone who is overqualified. A lot of us think that, oh wait, I have more qualifications than they're asking for. That's a good thing. No, it's not. The risk is that the company is going to hire you, onboard you, train you, and you are going to leave as soon as something better comes along, or you're going to immediately ask for a pay raise or a promotion because you're realizing, I'm bored. This person who's younger than me and less experienced has a title higher than me and I'm upset about this. And it's— you might think you won't do that, but we all know that that's what you're thinking. And it, it's— a lot of teams have been burned by this. So that's, that's really what it is. Um, yes, that I might leave for a position that better matches my skills. I don't mention all my skills unless there's a specific position-related reason. David, you are dialed in. You are This is what I'm talking about. You are in the mind of the customer. The customer is the company hiring. So yes, it's not that you are overqualified. It's that you might leave. And that is the issue. Oh, David, you are, you are getting this. You are getting this. Yes, yes, exactly. Your titles. And I'm guessing you're maybe not going for security guard positions next. And so it's hard for them to see past that. Yes, correct, correct. Let's see. Yes, different experience. Okay, cool. Yes, I introduce myself now with my superpowers that I can help them instead of I'm a marketing manager with expertise in. I take a campaign from strategy through Through debrief. Okay, possibly, possibly. Okay, so and you might you might find a better position and leave. Exactly, exactly, exactly. So risk overqualified. They want less skilled folks. Yeah, it's not necessarily they want less skilled folks. It's not it's not that they want less skilled. It's that they want they want to make sure that whoever whoever joins is, is going to stay. And that's, that's what they want and not going to cause some sort of like tension. Okay. So keep thinking through this, right? It's not as, it's not as easy as you think, right? I think a lot of us are kind of taught to, yeah, find what makes us unique and use, use interesting branding phrases. And, and that kind of like glitter and glam isn't necessarily necessarily what sells it to folks. It's really speaking to their needs. It's knowing exactly what they want. It's being, being that exact fit for what they want and like understanding what the risk is and playing against that and making sure that they know that whatever is kind of that thing that they're hesitant about is not going to be an issue. All right. Perfect. So, and then be exactly who they're looking for. So this, this is another thing that we talked about. Is you should be like we talked about the the face sunscreen. Okay, so face sunscreen and body sunscreen are made out of the literal exact ingredients. No oops. Why did? I don't know about you guys, but the this the ingredients on the left side of the screen for me are somehow not work or not showing up. But anyways, I had both ingredients list here, and there's only one difference: the body sunscreen. has fragrance in it and the face sunscreen has all the same ingredients except fragrance. And yet the companies mark it up 118%. But it's because people will pay more and people are looking for someone who can do this specific job that they're asking for. And that is what you need to do. And so thinking about these opportunities you've been going for, I want you to write down in your workbook, am I Am I really zeroing in on exactly what these companies are asking for? Or am I still including accomplishments that I'm really proud of? And then things that are about me that, that, you know, like that are distracting and all that kind of stuff. Really zero in, be the face sunscreen. Don't be like someone who's like, I can do it all. I have lots of different things. And here's all the interesting things about me. And oh, you asked me for my best campaign I did. Well, let me tell you about this event. I put on when really this job does— has nothing to do with events, right? You don't want to do that. You really want to speak to only what they are asking for. All right, y'all. So is your tell me about yourself answer tailored to your next job? So many of us just make our tell me about ourselves about ourselves, when really the only details you should be sharing are the ones actually that fit in with the job description. So few people do that. And then what about your examples for behavioral questions? Again, we prepare our story toolbox with our best examples of the things that we find were the most impressive or we worked on the most, when really that's not the approach you should do. You should make your story toolbox filled with examples that are most relevant to this opportunity and impressive and most time spent on should be the secondary thing. All right. So answer these questions in your workbook. Look at, look at your tell me about yourself answer. Does that need to be more specific? Look at your, your examples and your behavioral interview questions. Do those need to be more specific to the next opportunity? Like, take some time after the session to really dive into those more deeply. All right. This has been so much fun. We do have our case study here today. So We are going to talk to Rachida, who she was going through it in the job search and had to audit her situation and think, okay, what the heck needs to move? How can I change these things? Because she was a victim of a reduction in force. And so Rachida, welcome to Reverse Live. Hello. Take us back to how— what were you doing in this Terrible job market. Tell us how you kind of got on the job market and what was going on for you. Yeah,

100%. So as you had already mentioned, Madeline, like before, you know, due to a reduction in force, you know, last year and everything, I was kind of struggling again, like to find work and, you know, what am I supposed to be doing? So I recently, like, did land a role back in October or so, but unfortunately that was cut short again due to budget cuts that were going on. So I was back on the job market again, obviously, and I know that a lot of people can probably relate to this. And basically what ended up happening is that, you know, from October till March of this year, I want to say I was just kind of like trying to think strategically, okay, what can I do to really like land my next role? What do I want to focus on? What do I want to do? And unfortunately, I was really going through that process because we're talking about, you know, I was— to be honest with you, I was getting about like one interview a month. Uh, you know, in February, January, February, and March, April, you know, it just really wasn't happening for me. And then that's when I really looked into, okay, I can revamp my resume any number of times and have my family review it and, you know, have everybody look at it. But at the same time, I was like, this isn't working for me. So then I was like, all right, I really need the professional help. And what kind of strategies do I really need to be focusing on? And so that's when, Madeline, I was like, I'd already been following you before several, you know, like several years ago. So I was like, all right. I was like, I know I can trust her. I know that I can be a part of this job search and be a part of the program. So I joined the program back in March and it really did teach me a lot about the different modules. You know how you were already expressing on today's call and I focused a lot on the Glory Formula. How can I revamp my resume better? But I'm also focusing on really how can I network better? Because that's one of the biggest things I was struggling dealing with because anytime that I applied to a job, I wasn't really hearing back from people. I can write, you know, an essay of like a response, you know, telling the hiring manager, hey, like, this is why I'm really qualified. But it just was not working in my favor. So that's when, you know, joining your program, revamping the resume, optimizing that LinkedIn profile, people. Madeline's really right about that. And I, since then, I've still had people, you know, viewing my profile, looking into my background. What have I done? And, you know, that's why the program has just been so beneficial for me. And I love, you know, going into the Slack channel, the fact that we have coaches that we can talk to directly and really focus on, okay, where are my strengths and my weaknesses and how can I really enhance? What are my skill sets? What do I need to focus on within my job search?

Yes. And, you know, so you, you jumped in and you said that, you know, you'd been revamping your resume by yourself and you also have been asking for friends and family to take a look. So then what were some of the things that changed when you got in the program and you did the Glory Formula? Like, I think sometimes it can feel amorphous of like what, what, you know, because we had— I did earlier in the session, I was like, okay, of the 1, 2, 3 things that make an application not go through, the 3rd one is that your application is bad. And I think a lot of people said that, no, I think my application is really good. And I bet you like you came into the program with like a decent resume. So What was like the actual transformation that you underwent with that?

I think the biggest thing, Madeline, what I've learned from that revamping your resume thing using the Glory Formula is the highlight section. I had never heard of that on any resume before. And by adding that in, it was like it made me really look at the resume reading like really differently. And I'm like, okay, this is what recruiters are looking at. This is what hiring managers are looking at. because that directly just pops off the screen when people are looking at your application, when people are looking at that resume. So by having in like, you know, 3 to 4 bullet points on like what are your major accomplishments, people are like, oh wow, I really want to talk to this person.

So that's great.

That has been definitely, you know, one of the biggest changes on my resume. Get those highlights in there because a recruiter, once they see that, they'll be like, oh wow, like this person seems really interesting, very well qualified for a certain role, whatever you're applying for. So definitely have that section in there for sure.

Amazing. Okay, cool. All right. And then you, you did the networking was a big focus. I love hearing that. That's so great. And then, you know, overall, like, what was your kind of attitude like going into the job search? Like, I know you mentioned something about how did you, did you spend more time in the job search? Did you spend less time in job search once you, once you got into the program? Like what? What, what was it like? Like, how did you start viewing the job search differently? And so that people— because we talked a lot today about percentage of time you should spend on everything in the job search. Like, how did you do that?

No, that's a really great question, actually. So when I was first not even in the program, so taking you guys back, you know, a couple of months ago when the beginning of the year started, you know, I was kind of just like, you know, spray and paint type of method, you know, and everybody tells us not to do that because it literally will not get you anywhere. Like, it's like trying to drop bait into the ocean. And that really is not the way. It's not strategic and it doesn't really work. So that's why I was like, I really needed to optimize my strategy better. So I went into the job search. Basically, when I joined the program, I was like, all right, I am putting my time, my investment, my money, and my energy into this. And originally it was kind of overwhelming to be in the program because when I looked at those modules, it felt like, oh my God, I got to complete all of this within the next couple of days. But that's not the way the program worked at all. And I have had people even well after, you know, you know, being in the job I'm in now, people have been, you know, asking me and just kind of chatting within that program of like, hey, do I have to do everything? And that is a really subjective type of answer. And it, you know, it all depends on what you are looking forward towards. What do you really want to gain being in this program? And, you know, focusing on your strengths and focusing on, okay, like optimizing the LinkedIn profile, my LinkedIn profile profile was nowhere near what it looks like today. There were a lot of missing pieces going on and definitely focus on getting those endorsements. You know, I remember, Madeline, you had mentioned that as well. So definitely, you know, when I got into the program, I was taking it on as baby steps. I did not want to overwhelm myself. I stopped the whole spray and paint methodology and really focused on curating where are my experiences and what kind of industry do I want to work in? So primarily my background has really focused on being in like federal contracting, being in that type of environment. So being in government contracting now, you know, working at management consulting firms and all, it's really helped me to hone in on what my niche is, on what my skill sets are. And that's why I focused a lot on, okay, doing the work that I do, what can I— what kind of job titles do I really want to be in? And sometimes it is a lot about timing. It definitely is. I have definitely had that type of experience. You know, sometimes you, you just got to wait for those opportunities. And other times, you know, just keep talking, just keep networking, even to friends, even to your former coworkers. Are there any job opportunities there? So I definitely did those parts myself. And also, don't limit and restrict yourself. I would say definitely what also helped me personally is keeping a list of what am I looking for in my next role? We are talking about, do you want to work remotely? Do you want to work hybrid? Do you want to work on site? What city, what state? Because the last thing you want to do is move somewhere and not like your job. You know, we're putting a lot of energy on this. You know, so definitely writing out a list like that just to have it handy and just to be like, you know, I'm like a visual learner. So definitely having something like that really is going to help to focus on your job search. How do you want to obtain that next job? What kind of people you should be talking to?

Yes. Yes. And in the program, We have that the output is we call the one-page career vision. So it's like you go through the modules to figure out exactly what you want. Then you create the one-page career vision and you share it with the coaches. And it's like, that is the North Star. That is what we're looking for. And so when you think about people, I'm consistently kind of saying we don't really use the term dream job that much in the program. We're not really focused on dream jobs. What would you say is kind of like what— how did your perspective of like targeting roles shift in the program?

Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. So, you know, as I was talking to you prior, a few years ago, I did obtain my dream job. At the time, it's definitely what I wanted. You know, I moved across the whole country. You know, I was living in Los Angeles at the time. Absolutely loved it. I loved living in SoCal. But basically my whole term of dream job really shifted because nowadays it has become become more on, you know, like I was mentioning, like, what, what is my primary focus into my next role? Where can I really hone in on my strengths, the certifications that I have gained? What have I learned and utilize that into my next job and really showcase that to the recruiters, to the hiring managers? Let them know what you have done and what you have worked on. Because, you know, at the end of the day, yes, we're all looking for a job, but we want to be in a job that we can show our impact, that we can start contributing again to the workforce. So, you know, definitely that really changed my perspective on things. And I was like, I was so ready. And that's why when I joined the program, I was like, I'm ready to start making an impact again. You know, I want to start contributing again. And how can I do that with these qualifications that I have, with these strengths that I have obtained, the certifications that I have also obtained? And how can I really showcase that, hey, like, I am somebody who knows my stuff, And I can do this.

Right, exactly. Because we talk a lot in the program when we're building that one-page career vision is, okay, let's make sure you land a job that first of all plays exactly as what you're saying, to your strengths. Anyone who's ever had a job that they truly, truly enjoy, it's likely because they're playing to their strengths every day. The work feels not necessarily easy per se, but they're able to get into this, this flow state because you're playing to your strengths. Second of all, values. So what do you actually value? Do you value working remotely? Do you value being home every night by 5 so you can have dinner with your family? Do you value, you know, having like a really strong team dynamic or a really great office dynamic? You know, everyone has different values. For me, like at a certain period of my life, it was achievement. So I wanted to be at a company where I could like climb the ladder and I could achieve a lot and I could be noticed. And then later in my career, I was like, I would like a role where it's, it's more relaxed, you know? So it just totally depends on your season of life. But it was cool to see you realize that this, in this next season, you were thinking, I want a job that pays me well, that is remote, that is all these different things and these, these amazing components. And so speaking of that, what were your results?

Yeah, no, again, another good question. My results, Madeline, were absolutely fantastic. You know, I, I know it sounds cliché, but I wake up every day just so grateful to be in the job that I'm in now, you know, working in operations, being back in government contracting. You know, it has really definitely changed my life because, again, like as I was mentioning, like having the list and just kind of letting yourself like do like a self-reflection on yourself and be like, hey, this is what I want in my next job search. This is what I want to look for in my next position. the kind of people I want to work with, the type of team. So for example, like, you know, like being in the role I'm in now, it's such a collaborative and a supportive environment. Like, I absolutely love the team, the supervisors, leadership. You know, it's something that I wasn't really expecting as much. But, you know, over time, you know, it's definitely changed a lot in my life. My mental health especially has gotten so much better. And, you know, while it was definitely sad for me to leave LA, Even with working remotely, my family has also said to me, it's like, hey, LA is not going anywhere. You can always go back. So it's just kind of like just shifting your perspective is one of the biggest things that I really learned just personally, but also from your program itself. And one of the things that I love to say to people also is like, even if you're in a job interview and you get the interview, but you don't get the job offer, That is totally okay. And consider that a win. You know, anything small like that, it is still a win. And I tell myself that every day because I'm like, you know what, we—

yeah,

it's hard to give 100% of yourself every single day to the work that you do, to your families and what have you. But just taking it by baby steps is honestly the way you're going to change your life. That's not just in the job search. That's also in your personal life as well.

Yes. Yes. It was super cool to see you land that role quickly and with such a big salary increase and just with a team that you really liked and all that. That was so cool to see. And so for folks considering getting coaching, what would you say to them?

Yeah, another good question. So the way that I would consider, if you are really interested in putting the investment, that is one of the biggest things that I learned from being in the program. It took me Honestly, two months, Madeline. To you know from being in your program in March and then landing my job in what like mid-May, like literally. And then my life just changed drastically after that. Anybody who wants to join this program, you really got to think about okay, this is an investment you are putting into yourself. That's just like getting any kind of college degree, for example. So you really got to understand that when I do this program, you are putting. Like a certain amount of like discipline, determination. You are being persistent and it's not something you have to stress yourself out about. This is not like you're not— you don't need to work on this thing every single day, but definitely that helps a lot. Like spend a couple hours each day working on, you know, like the different modules and really like this doesn't all have to be done in one day, but really you want to focus on, okay, how am I going to benefit the most out of this program. So that's something that even my sister has told me. She even would check up on me. She was like, hey, how's everything going in the program? And I love my sister for that. And just kind of talking to me about like, oh, did you learn something new today? Can you tell me more about it? So even just kind of genuinely having that family support has really been beneficial on my side for sure. Oh, amazing.

Yes, I love to hear that. Your sister sounds amazing. And Exactly. I think, and, you know, each person can kind of go at their own pace. It's completely customized to each individual. Well, I will give you a Wi-Fi high five. Thanks so much for coming on. Bye. Amazing. So shout out to Rachida. So nice of her to share her job search journey, what made the difference for her and all of that. Hopefully this helped you to see, okay, maybe I should edit my resume. Okay, maybe Maybe LinkedIn is, is worth it. Okay, maybe there is some, some room for improvement, maybe around my networking style and all that. Love to hear it. Love to hear it. And I'm seeing some love for Rachida in the chat. Says Donna, great points, Rachida. Yes, I love to see it. All right. So yes, you know, she, she did come from my coaching program, Standout Job Search. And You know, in case you have any questions about what that entails, essentially what it comes with is a custom plan so you know exactly what you need to do each week so you can stop wasting time. You have exact targeting so that you will be positioned exactly for the roles that you are going for so that you can reduce rejections. You can also— we'll help getting noticed. So we'll give you edits on your resume, on your LinkedIn profile so you can get more interviews. We'll continue to edit your resume if it's not performing. Then we'll move to having applications go out for you. So this is something we added to the program that has been absolutely a game changer of we want to take that part off your plate because it is so time consuming. So we will apply on your behalf so you can focus on mastering interviewing and giving us those interview recordings and those mock interviews. So we can review them and give you that feedback. And we don't put a cap on that, as well as negotiating your best offer so that you can have that negotiation support. A lot of coaches charge thousands of dollars just to help with a salary negotiation. We just include that in there for as many negotiations as you have. So I would say go ahead and apply. We'll put the link in the chat. You can go to www.selfmadewade.com/careers. Enrollment does close on October 27th. That's this upcoming Tuesday at 9 PM Pacific. Our programs start at $8,499. And so you could apply. Our team can talk to you about what is the best match for you based on your job search. And we are doing a promotion right now where you can get $1,500 off. It's our early Black Friday promotion. So definitely, definitely do this if you, if your heart is telling you that you need coaching. I would say do it before the price goes up after October 27th. Um, and we also have a conditional placement guarantee. So if you meet our requirements and, and actually complete the, the tasks that we have set out, we will ensure that you land a job within 90 days, or we will keep coaching you until you do. So we really want to make it so that you don't have to stress about the offer. And then we'll also add a show, don't tell idea generator. You've heard this kind of in some of the messages and some of the clients that have come on of this idea of really making sure to stand out by coming up with ways to show your expertise. And so we're throwing in for free as well as for those of you who join the program and pay in full by this Friday. So that's tomorrow. You get the LinkedIn VIP workshop absolutely for free. This is a $2,000 value. We've gotten so much great feedback that people come to the session. I lead the workshop. You're getting live feedback on your profile and we— and you really transform your, your profile in just an hour and a half. All right. Including this person from my program who put it in Slack. I did the LinkedIn workshop last week with Madeline Mann and a few small tweaks and bam, I had 3 recruiters reach out to me with roles. Inbound is so much easier. So that's what we're talking about. The results can happen that fast. And so overall, here's what you get. So you get the resume revamp, you get the LinkedIn— we'll do your LinkedIn optimization so that you have a high-performing LinkedIn so that sourcing can start to happen. If people are searching for your type of expertise, we'll get the done-for-you applications. We'll do the unlimited interview feedback so that you can make sure that you're actually leveling up in interviews very quickly. And landing more offers to interview ratio. We'll also give you one-on-one coaching so that we can work through your particular situation. Because I would say no 2 job searches are the same. Everyone's like, have you worked with someone like me? Have you worked with someone like me? And the answer is always yes and no. It's like, yes, I have worked with people similar to you, but also you are completely unique at the same time. And that's kind of the fun of it. But the same, there's so many principles that apply to so many people. And then negotiation support will help you with each and every offer you get to get the highest possible amount you can. We'll get the proprietary member site access, which Rachida mentioned several times, of the member site, of going through the modules, all that kind of stuff, the tools. You get access to that. You'll get the bonus show, don't tell idea generator, the conditional placement guarantee, and the LinkedIn VIP session if you pay in full by this Friday. And so again, we'll put the link in the chat, selfmadeway.com/learn. Apply there. We will get back to you if you are a good fit for the program or not. And be sure to do that long before Tuesday, October 27th, because I'd hate for you to miss out on the program because you left it to the last minute and we couldn't check your application in time. All right, my friends, let's get into some live Q&As, shall we? Shall we Q? Shall we A? All right. So let's go into, can you please share the link for the workbook? Okay. Make sure. Okay. Courtney responded to you for that. Perfect. Can we sign up for individual modules instead of the entire program? So I would be interested what in particular do you need help with, such as if you've just need interview support, there is a module there that you can get. If you just need resume support, you can do that as well. So yes, that is a potential. After my interview at a fast casual restaurant today, I was asked to complete an online survey. Is it my benefit to complete the survey? Why or why not? I was asked to complete an online survey. I don't know what's in the survey, but I'm guessing it's trying to see if their candidate experience is good. And I don't know that it's to your benefit, but I also don't know that it's to your detriment either. So I'd say probably fill it out. Yes and no, says David. It's so true and honest. Thank you for that. It's hard to find. Um, and, uh, what is Rashida's last name? Rashida's last name? Um, I— that is totally up to her. I don't— I think she purposely, you know, didn't necessarily put her, her last name up so that people wouldn't necessarily be bombarding her with messages. Uh, so I am not going to release that information, um, against her will. Uh, okay, so let's See what other questions we have here. Let me see. Let me go over to my doc. Let's see. Okay. So Eto Eto Mass says, "Is it a good idea to convert benefits not needed, such as health, dental, life insurance, to salary amount by asking for more salary?" Okay. So I've gotten this question quite a lot in my career, and I've also gotten it when I actually worked in HR. And I would say from someone as a human resources professional, we have to offer benefits to everyone in an organization. Like legally, we can't— of course, like there's exempt and non-exempt employees. And in that way, yes. But like if you are, you know, an employee who can get benefits, we— there's not necessarily that you can necessarily transfer that into salary because Even if we gave you a salary and then you decide to sign up for benefits later, it's like, do we then reduce your salary? It just gets too messy. So I would say that's not likely to be a good case for negotiating, but I guess you could try it. I guess it doesn't really hurt. Um, okay, so, um, so Christine says, in the case of ageism, is there a factor where companies think hiring someone younger equates to longevity within that company? You know, this actually is not— I haven't seen this to be true because people who are younger, uh, are actually more equated with leaving roles sooner as well as getting pregnant, taking leave. Like, typically older workers do stay longer and have fewer life events that would take them away from working. So I actually have not seen that to be of like, oh well, they won't— they'll only be able to work with us for You know, because I mean, a normal tenure now is like a handful of years, like 3 to 5 years. It's like, okay, yeah, you spent your time, you know, even if you're planning on retiring in the next decade. I mean, they're like, yeah, that's, that's fine. And so I don't think that that's a huge issue. All right. So let's see, if you have a career gap, where do you place it on your resume and LinkedIn profile? Do you include one bullet about the career gap? Yes, you totally could. Um, you know, uh, took time to support aging parents, right? Or whatever it is. Um, I think that— and that explains it quickly. You don't have to spend a lot of time. Um, I think that also, if you actually— especially if it's the most recent gap, that's when you actually want to fill it in more with skills you're building, because the question is, have you stayed up to date on your skills? But if it's farther back in your history, exactly, it's one line of what happened there. Um, can be great. Um, what government job is it? Is it hard to get those and they are laying off fast? So what government job is it? Um, are you maybe— are you— maybe you're talking to someone else in the chat. That could be it. Uh, what are some good questions to ask at the end of an interview? Um, and which should I avoid asking? So I think that you should think about Several, about 4 different categories when asking questions in the interview. The first is now. What, how is this currently done? What is currently the process here? All that stuff. Second is people. Who will I be working with? Who's on the team? What other departments will I be working with? Third is like tools and processes. So what tools do you use? What processes will this be? What, how, you know, what do you like? What will I have to use here? All this kind of stuff. And then the 4th piece is the future. So how do you want this to evolve? What would success look like in the future? Are you guys going to be changing this? How does this relate to the overall company goals? All these types of things, right? And then you can take those 4 categories and start mixing them around. Like, you know, how, how will this team grow in the future? Right? So that's people. To future, you could also talk about you know tools and stuff to now. Okay, what tools you're currently using, right? So you can kind of just like mix and match those four categories. All right, man. Okay, let's see. Managers do not want to hire persons who have more experience, knowledge, professional certifications, degrees. What is your opinion? Totally depends on the role. Tons of roles require lots of degrees and knowledge and experience. So it's really about finding opportunities that match that experience level. So it's— this is actually a question that not enough people ask, and that's actually something I coach on a lot, is people will come into my program, and maybe this even might be one of the reasons why y'all didn't say that that of the 3 things of applications, that maybe your application wasn't very— wasn't bad. But it's like your application could be good, but your leveling is off. So you're actually submitting your application to the wrong level of opportunities. And so it's a— this is a really great question in that we have to sometimes pause and think, okay, am I actually targeting the right level of opportunities? And sometimes the answer is no. And it's actually harder than you think to figure out, okay, what how are they seeing me? And, and, you know, what, what would be a good fit? Oh, this is interesting. Roseanne's asking, how long is a gap? So if it's just like a couple of months, a few months, like if we're kind of talking in months, it's typically a pretty small— I mean, anything where you are not working essentially the following month of you leaving your job is considered a gap. So if you left the job in January and then you start in February, That's called zero gap, but anything beyond that is a gap. But I would say once it starts to be a noticeable gap is probably anything, definitely beyond 3 months, and some people might argue 6 months. All right. Well, oh my goodness, we are a little bit over on the hour. So definitely come back tomorrow for our final session. I'm really excited. We're doing something I've never done before. If you want to throw some Wi-Fi high fives in the chat, I'd love to see it. So we will be kind of working through your questions from the week. We'll be doing some live examples of how this all works. I saw some that you all were asking questions about resumes. Like, we'll pull up some resumes on the screen. We'll get working. We'll get moving. I'm really excited to kind of bring this all together and have some real-world examples so that you can really see how a lot of these strategies go turn into results. And so I love to see the love in the chat. We got the pink hands in the chat. I'm seeing a Wi-Fi high five from Chris. Thank you, Caesar, Meldrick, Donna, Stacy, BJ. So good to see you all. The Light, John, thank you again for coming and being such amazing participants. Um, y'all, we only have one day left. So I've seen a lot of familiar faces in the chat. You have one, one day left. Finish strong. You've got this. You'll get the diploma and all that. All right. You all are the best. I'm going to send you away with a wife.