DAY 5 - Turn Interviews into Job Offers [Reverse the Search LIVE]

Live for Reverse the Search Live Day 5. Oh my goodness, I'm already seeing the excitement in the chat. People are like, we made it, Day 5, let's do it, happy Friday. Yes, we did it, we made it to Day 5. Go ahead and put those 5s in the chats. I'm already seeing them come in even before we even started. That is how ready you are. This is the kind of energy I want to see. We are going to finish so strong today, and it has just been so great us being here together 5 days in a row. The commitment is incredible. Uh, we got more, you know, Lori saying hello, fellow job shoppers. That's right, the house is full of job shoppers tonight. It's a Friday, maybe depending on where you live, it's a long weekend. Let's go! Yes. Fifth knock on the door. So excited. Let's do this. Well, day 5 is turn interviews into job offers. So today is all about really the number one thing that you guys have been telling me is the biggest challenge, which is you get into the interview and you might go a few rounds, but then you don't get the offer. And frankly, this is the hardest part. Right. This is where you don't win by feet or yards. You win by inches. OK, it's just a little, little advantage you'll have, especially as we ratchet up in our career as we go higher and higher. That means that the stakes get higher. And so we're going to talk about— oh my gosh, I'm seeing no slides again. OK, that's OK. Now that, now that it's, it's, it's gone poorly before. OK, don't see my slides. That's OK. Since this has gone poorly before, that's OK. We now— I know how to have a workaround. So thank you so much for telling me. And yeah, I know exactly. I know exactly what to do to have a workaround. So thank you for telling me. Let's do this. Don't worry. Don't worry. I've got— it's going to— it's going to happen. Here we go. So bada bing, bada boom. Let me, let me unshare and share this here. Just give me a quick second and we are going to screen share. Oops. Now I want to replace and screen share something else. No, I don't. I just want to delete this screen share.

Hmm.

I don't know why it's not. Okay, well, let me go over here and I will screen share on this one. Here we go. Oh my goodness. All right, well, we'll see how this works out. So. All right, guys. Bada bing, bada boom. Is it not working? This is so funny. What a life. Oh, huh. All right, hopefully you guys can see this. Can we see this? Maybe, maybe, baby. Um, all right, so we got the slides. All right, there we go. Hopefully, hopefully you can see them now. So we had day 1, which is find what is costing you job offers. So we went through each different step of the job search to figure out exactly what you need to work on, because sometimes our estimate is not quite what is actually needs to get fixed. Next, on day 2, we covered Get Companies to Compete for You. So this was all about, uh, learning what are the 9 job shopper strategies that you need to implement, and then you figured out which ones you need to focus Then day 3 was Win in This Job Market. So we went over 4 strategies that I was not talking about 4 years ago. It is specifically for this job market and what is working. And then on day 4, which was yesterday, it was Open Doors with the Right Conversations. And this session, Kathy blew us out of the water. She just went ham sharing her networking strategy, how she's been able to get in touch with all the top people in her— in the sports industry and really implementing those skills for you. And now we're off to day 5. So let's hop into it. So we'll start with our announcements. First of all, remember, grab your workbook. Okay. Courtney's putting it in the chat, so make sure you grab it if you don't already have it. Make sure you're registered. Second of all, this is You know, we only have a few more days left that I'm keeping my program open, my coaching program for $1,500 off. Okay, I'm doing this special promotion. It'll never— the promotion will never be better than this. I'll tell you that very much. Do not wait for Black Friday. And we are also giving a special bonus, a fast action bonus for those of you who enroll by tonight. You will also get the LinkedIn VIP workshop to get live feedback with me on a workshop on your LinkedIn profile. Make sure you pay in full by today to make it happen. Okay. So then the second thing we're gonna do today is go over 3 changes to make to your interview strategy. Scribble these down. Then we're going to go into a case study. We're going to talk a little bit more about Stand Out Job Search, my coaching program, to answer a few of your remaining lingering questions. And then, of course, the live Q&A, which has been the part I've actually been looking forward to the most. Because the pressure is kind of off. It's just like, let's just talk about whatever you want to talk about. And I've been really enjoying that. All right. So why do companies keep saying, we liked you, but we went with someone else? Oh my gosh. Put me in the chat if this has ever happened to you. And what I call this is the silver medal curse. It's where you keep getting interviews and they keep kind of leading you on. And, and but, but they give you the silver medal instead of the gold. And frankly, in the job search, the gold is really what matters. The gold is the offer. The participation medal is not really that helpful. And so this is super important that we can break through and actually get companies to hire us. So let's see who is saying, who is saying me in the chat. Let's see who's out there. Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh. I'm seeing All the time, says Flor de León. Aaron says me. Shakey says me, me. Jode, Jeffrey. Yes, Costello. Oh my gosh, Ryan. Oh my gosh, many times, says Rose Thomas. Oh my goodness, story of my life at the moment. Yes. Oh yeah, we liked you, but we went with an internal hire. Yes, yes, that is so, so frustrating. And let's see, let me make sure I go to the right page here. Oh yeah, that's— this is the right one. Okay. And the no feedback rejections leave you confused. This one is really frustrating where you go through this entire process and you don't really understand what went wrong. I remember I was told that I got a job They recruit— well, essentially what the recruiter said was, we had 2 candidates, it was down to 2 candidates, and they chose you. And now all that has to happen, you just need to do a quick meet and greet in the office with your skip level manager. And I was like, great. And so I already was like, all right, I have this job. I'm picturing myself in it. I go meet the skip level manager. I don't hear back for over a week. They went completely silent. And this was a recruiter who was like talking to me every day. And then I got an email that said, hey, we ended up going with another candidate and they've accepted. Thank you so much. He didn't even explain how he's like, oh, sorry, I told you you already had this job. It was horrible. I was, I was melted on the floor, just absolutely ruined. And that was, so that was my worst silver medal moment. And he ended up calling me back 9 months later and saying, hey, that person actually didn't work out. Will you come work for us? And you know what I said? Yes. No, I'm just kidding. No, I said no. It was so, so bad. Yeah. And so it really, it just really makes you confused. And the vague feedback creates obsession. I have clients who they'll tell me about feedback that they got 5 months ago, right? They'll say something like, yeah, and they told me that They don't think I have enough experience working in a fast-paced environment. And I don't know where they got that from. And is that code for we think you're too old? You know, and you just ruminate and you ruminate on these things. Let me know in the chat if you've ever gotten some vague feedback that has kind of got in your head and you don't even know what to make of it. Because it's just like, it's no matter which way you, you pull it, it's just so, so tough. And there's this immense pressure on the interview. You know, you only get this one shot and you could lose the chance at an entire life trajectory. You know, it's easy for me to sit here and say, oh, be relaxed in the interview. You know, treat it like a conversation. But this is your life. How that conversation goes is just 30 minutes, 30 data points that this person has, and they're going to make a decision on essentially the trajectory of your life. This is so high pressure. There are few moments in your life that are this pivotal than you reacting in this interview. It can change your entire financial future, your emotional health, where you live, everything. So yes, um, it's, it's super tough. Um, yes, yes, people are saying that they have gotten a lot of vague or non-existent feedback. Yes, Sergio, exactly. It's, it's so, it's so, so difficult. And so I want you to close your other tabs, mute your phone, lock in, because we— if you are multitasking during this time, it will be a wasted hour, guaranteed. Say with me: mind clear, all ears, offers near. Mind clear, all ears, offers near. Let's go. All right. So we're going to do 3 changes to make to your interview strategy. So first, you must de-risk yourself in the interview. I hear my clients saying this all the time. They're repeating it. They're repeating it because companies are highly risk-averse. So here's the thing. When you're thinking about the, the company psychology, And we always say company, but it's just people. It's just humans. It's just you. After you got hired, you are then going to be this person who I'm talking about, right? So, or you might be this person right now. Put hiring in the chat if you've ever been a hiring manager. I'm very curious to hear your thoughts on this. But essentially, hiring teams, especially hiring managers, are terrified of hiring you. They know, of course, first of all, it's a lot of money. To pay for you, right? It's likely 6 figures. For a lot of you, you're asking for, you know, multiple 6 figures, um, even, even 5 figures. I mean, how often are you making 5-figure purchases in your lives, guys? Like, this is— you're, you're worth a lot. And so it really is a big thing. And, and they're gonna have to train you, they're going to have to trust you. And if you are not good, if you have a bad attitude, if you don't have the skills that they they asked for, if you've been faking your way, and now they are disenchanted by your performance, this is a massive headache because they just spent dozens, maybe even hundreds of hours hiring and building up their team. And now if they have to terminate you, it's going to be dozens of hours of giving you performance improvement plans and like, you know, doing all these things to try to get you back into the, you know, performing well, all that, but then they terminate you and then they have to pay out severance. And it hurts the team morale. All of this to say they are terrified to hire you. So you have to know you're going into a hostage situation when you are interviewing. Now, it's funny because you have that on one end of they are terrified, but then they are so elated that, that this is, this is what happens when it's job shoppers. Okay. And that's why Victoria is pictured here because she was, she was feeling like someone who they were like, oh, I don't know. I don't know if we can hire Victoria. I don't know if she's going to have the right skills. I'm just not sure. Then she moved into job shopper mode. And what ends up happening is the opposite. So if you're really afraid of hiring, the perfect person who makes you super confident is the biggest relief, and you will fight to give them an offer. So imagine if like, I'm like, you know, you're walking around, there's lots of candidates, none of them make you feel confident, you're pretty sure you're probably going to terminate all of them if you hired them. And then someone comes in and just is they know exactly how to solve your problem. They are already proving themselves in the interview, not just talking, but showing how they're going to be a great teammate. Everything— there's not a doubt in your mind that they'd be great. You fight for that person, you compete. And that's what happened to Victoria. She was really struggling to get offers and she started, you know, doing show don't tell interviews. She started really positioning herself as on the same side of the interview table as the other folks. And by the time she landed offers, I remember talking her through her negotiations and they— the company was like, she was asking for things like, hey, can we move the start date a little bit later? And can you add— can you give me more money in the offer? And all kind of stuff. And they said, okay, just to be clear, you are going to sign, right? Because yes, you can have all those things. Just please promise us you're going to sign. Like, put us out of this misery of the hiring process. We need you. And so they gave her everything. I think she got a 30 I can't remember if it was a $30,000 salary increase or a 30% salary increase, but whatever it was, it was chunky. And, uh, so anyways, that's really what you have to— you have to put yourself in the mind of how do I de-risk myself. And so, uh, so what's super important here— oh wait, here, let me actually— let me show you, uh, let me show you what what I'm— how I'm de-risking for people like Victoria. So, oh, perfect. This is going to work. You guys, I'm figuring out this tool, these workarounds. Okay, so I have a proprietary tool called the Worry Wheel over here. So here it is, right? Essentially, it's when you're thinking about your job search strategy, you should also be thinking about How am I a worry to a company so that you can actively prepare yourself against that? And so we have an assessment to figure out, okay, what, what are the things that companies are going to be like, yeah, that person's not a great fit. For example, this one, this person here, one of their, their kind of bad zones is logistics, right? So their, their logistical aspect of them being compatible with the company such as maybe their start date would be too far out, maybe their location is not great. So here it also gives you an action plan of like, okay, so if you have your logistics that are the, like, the thing that they're gonna be worried about, note what could be a logistics issue and proactively address it. Either confirm it's resolved, so, oh, I'm already in the process of relocating to your city, oh, that's no problem, right? Or share the plan. I'm not worried about the commute because I already drive to that area for my son's school. Right? So things like that. So, okay, perfect. So, oh, I hope the audio isn't too unsynced. Here, let me, let me just turn off my volume and turn it off again. Okay, I heard that maybe I'm not synced properly. We'll see. We'll see. Hopefully I'm synced up now. That is the first thing. Think about what is— what on the worry wheel, what are the things that companies could have concerns with? And that is going to be huge for you to make sure that you are thinking about de-risking yourself versus, you know, just like selling yourself and like being a little bit too self-focused. All right. So next, your professional skills are a small part of the interview. And there are 6 other factors to learn the skill of interviewing. I thought it was really interesting when we had Novnik come on, on, I believe, Wednesday, and he shared about how he has 20 years of experience. He is highly skilled in what he does, but he could not ace an interview. And that was because he didn't have the skill of interviewing. The skill of interviewing actually is just, you know, there's obviously the foundation of having the correct skills, but even that— and I'll, I'll— okay, I have coached so many people to land jobs that they are vastly underqualified for, but it's not that they were necessarily lying in the interview. It's that they showed the right potential. And trust me, because I keep tabs on my former clients, they would then get promoted in that role. Like if you guys have ever followed my client Anderson, he went from being a professor to working in more on like the learning and development side of a company. And then he got promoted or, you know, laterally moved, but then also promoted to a product manager. Right. So even though he was like totally had no corporate experience and then became a product manager, he just is like a top performer and like keeps getting promoted everywhere. So even if you kind of have this like long, you're making this long leap, it's actually not so much about the baseline skills, but actually how you position it. Because let's be honest, you guys, how many, how many roles have we ever gone into where we've been 100% qualified for them? Because you can't be 100% qualified because you don't— you need to learn all the intricacies of the organization. There's tons of tools probably in the organization that you haven't used yet that you have to learn. So there's so much on-the-job learning that a lot of interviewers kind of ignore. Okay, so you need to hone the 7 levels of the interview ladder. What is the interview ladder, Madeleine, you ask? You shall receive, my friend. So let me show you what the interview ladder is. If we are going here, let me show you this other assessment. So this is another assessment I put my clients through. Again, this is a proprietary framework. I'm sure plenty of people will steal, but that's my life. So we're gonna roll with it. So, uh, here we go. So Essentially, we're talking about skills right now, right? That's what most of us think about when we think about being good in interviews. We think, okay, I have to make sure that they see I have the right skills. But there are 7 other things that you need to focus on. Now, if you're going for lower level roles, if you were just doing like these bottom 3, you're probably going to be okay. And I think for like the early part of your career, you don't actually have to know all of these. Now, if you do know all these, you're going to clean up and you're going to get every offer, but you can still land an offer without them. Now, if you are kind of losing out, especially you'll sometimes look and see who got the job that you were interviewing for that you lost out to, and you'll be like, they didn't have better experience than I do. Well, they probably were doing these other things. So this tool here is an objective assessment. So it's, it's behavior-based, not, oh, do you feel like you're likable in interviews? No, it's like, it's like objective behaviors that are observable. And it gives you a score of which ones you need to work on. And so there's, I mean, there's 7 different rounds. There's so much to talk about here, but just know that you need to be working on different angles of the interview, identifying where are your gaps, and actively working to build those interview skills in a way that will then make sure that it's not just you relying on, oh, well, Hope they see, like, my skills and hopefully I'm likable, right? We, so many of us will kind of stop there. Okay, cool, cool, cool. So your greatest enemy is what goes unsaid in an interview. So one thing that I have noticed is that I used to help a lot of companies with their interviewing. So it would be where I would be training folks on how to interview in a company. And I had objective ways to measure if someone was actually effective at interviewing. And I'll tell you right now that no matter if you had 10 months of interviewing experience or 10 years, the majority of people are terrible, terrible at interviewing candidates. And what I found was that you— is that I would ask them questions like, what is an example of a good, okay, and bad answer to the question you're asking in the interview? And they could not answer it. And they, they just didn't know. They never actually thought about what, what, what is a good, okay, and bad answer. So go ahead and put in the chat. Have you ever been asked any weird or dumb interview questions? I'm very curious to hear what are some of your experiences are, because I— one of my clients, I've been listening to at least a dozen, probably more, of her interviews the past couple weeks. And I— my mind is going numb because every single one, you know what they ask her? Tell me about yourself. Walk me through your background. And it really bothers me because she worked hard on her resume. I saw her work hard. Her and I went back and forth on it. They have that information. So it's like, it's so mind-numbing to like listen to all those interviews in a row in such a dense amount of time and be like, why can't anyone read a resume and say, oh yeah, tell me about yourself? It's, it's so frustrating. So I'll let you guys Oh my goodness, I just went away. Uh, let's see what you have to say. Oh my gosh, yes, I've been asked dumb questions. I see. I hate tell me about yourself so much. Oh yes, favorite color, favorite animal. Oh my gosh, it's so ridiculous, isn't it? Oh my gosh, yes, I'm seeing, uh, I was given a glass half empty, full, and asked to describe it. Oh my goodness. This is ridiculous, guys. That's too funny. Okay, let's see what else. I hate those two questions, weird and dumb questions. Yes, yes. I'm curious to hear. I'm curious to hear what else you guys have. I'm trying to think. Yeah, I've asked like, what's— I don't know, just like weird questions like, what superpower would you have? Or I don't know. And they, they create some sort of pop psychology around like why you say that answer, and it's just so ridiculous. Um, okay, I'm just making sure I didn't miss anything with my, uh, with my screen sharing. Ah, okay, okay, I did see that. I did. Okay, it'll be okay though. All right, so, um, I shocked my interview board with my reply. Okay, favorite song. I know, right? And then they're gonna judge your, your music, your, your musical choices. That's tough. You know what my favorite song is, unironically? Who Let the Dogs Out by the Baha Men. I love that song so much. That song gets me going. I think day 3 before we came on live, that was what I was listening to. Oh, it's so good. All right, okay, so let me, let me hop back over to get my, my slides back up. All right, so here we go. Oh yeah. The question, why us? Yep. Yep. That one's super common. And that one actually has a decent reason. I know it's, you know, I know it's super annoying, but I actually think it's like a decent reason. All right. So your greatest enemy is what goes unsaid in the interview, right? So we need to make sure that we are communicating in the interview. And, and, and so it's super important, right? And so you need to go into the interview with a plan. And this is something that so few people do. But I would even say Victoria, who was— who I showed her face earlier, that was one of the things is like I helped her pre-plan ahead of time. Okay, here's, here's what you're going to present in the interview and here's what you're going to show them that you've done. And when you have that in the back of your head, you're able to work it in. And they don't think, oh my gosh, Victoria just kept controlling the interview. No, they just say, wow, that was well worth my time. Like, I really got to know Victoria well. So we really need to make sure that we are helping the interviewers because frankly, they're kind of just going off of vibes. And honestly, the higher up you go, the more they do this. Guys, you will not believe, like, the COO is usually the one who's like, yeah, you know, I just have a really good gut. And so I just don't, I don't prepare any questions. I just go in there and I feel it out. And so that can either be your greatest weakness, because you're now at the mercy of their terrible questions, or that is your strength, because you're like, boom, they're asking for me to guide them. So I can actually really make this happen. So, yes. Okay, cool. People are talking about some good songs in the chat. You guys are the best. So, to review what we've learned so far. First, de-risk your candidacy. Okay. Two, master the 7 levels of the interview ladder. Don't just stop at skills. Interviewing is a skill as a whole. That's separate from you being good at your job. And 3, go into the interview with a plan. Okay, so what is that plan? And that is going to guide you so much farther than you waiting to get the right questions and then answering them at face value. That's like another side. Oh my gosh, I could talk for so many hours on this. That's another thing, especially with my executive clients. I teach them is like, don't answer questions straight on. Yes, you want to answer them, but usually what their question they're asking is like a few levels deeper. They just didn't know how to ask it properly. So anyways, learning how to translate it to the right thing. Amazing. So what are you going to work on? What are— what is this? Which out of these 3 are you going to focus on next? Because maybe some of these you're actually quite strong in already. But write in the chat which one you are going to focus on. Now, I am so excited to move away from these stupid slides that have been the bane of my existence. With this technology. And I'm actually excited to welcome in Arianna Stucker here. So we have our case study today is live with us. Hello, Arianna.

Hello.

Happy Friday, everyone. Yeah. Happy Friday. It's good to have you here. And so the reason why I was so excited to have Arianna on is she went through the program, did incredible, landed a fantastic role at LinkedIn. And then her journey along the way, I mean, we'll talk about lots of other things, but then she ended up becoming the client success manager of our entire program because I literally, I loved her so much and I reached out to her personally to be it. And I still have on the wall the email where she accepted. That she would join us. No, I'm just kidding. I was like, it was the best day of my life. But it— but really, it's been amazing. Um, so, uh, Ariana, take us back, because truly, I mean, one of the reasons why I was like, hey, I specifically reached out to you, um, to like— truly, I mean, you're one of the people who I talk to most besides my own family. Is because you embody job shopping so, so deeply. So take us back to like, what was your, what was your job search like? What was your strategy? What was your approach?

Yes. So I joined, let's see, close to the end of 2023. I was actually laid off from my previous employer. That's not new news, unfortunately, these days. And that hit me harder, I think, than most. And, but I'm not a person to admit it. So I went through the motions. I've, I've been in talent development in my career. I've been a recruiter. So I thought I knew my stuff. Okay. This is just another cycle to apply. But it was the first time I wasn't sought out. All my other opportunities kind of came up. So I always knew someone. It was always, not so much a shoo-in, but I always, I always knew the opportunity coming. This was the first time that that decision was made for me of now it's your time to look. Um, and I tried it on my own, revisited my resume. I was at my previous company for almost 5 years. So this is pre-2020. I think pre-2020 is everything has changed. Um, and I tried doing my own thing for a couple months. With crickets. I mean crickets. And I was like, all right, there's, there's something that's not clicking, but I was a little bit too prideful. So as I was networking, I actually networked with someone that worked at Workday, which was one of my target companies. And she referred me to Madeline. Honestly, I had no idea. Sorry, I had no idea who you were. So she referred me and said, I had been watching her videos on YouTube. I actually enrolled in her program. Check it out. Let me know if you have questions. So I kind of had my own testimonial. And as soon as I watched the videos, same vibes, I went through one of your masterclasses similar to this and I joined that week. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

The rest is history. That's so cool to hear. And what were some of the things that were the breakthrough things that allowed you to land that opportunity at LinkedIn?

Networking. That was one of the top things that— it's not new news. I mean, just for like networking is not new news, but through the program I learned different tips and tactics and then adding my own personality on top of that elevated my networking where people actually remembered me. They remembered my name. My role that I have at LinkedIn was never posted. It was two different people from two different teams that I networked with that contacted me and said, hey, wink wink, there's a role coming up. If you're interested, send us your resume and we'll get you in, at least to get an interview. And so, and that networking took, you know, took months in the pipeline. But it was also taking me to be proactive on that end and continuing that relationship. But it was me focusing on, like you put in there, informational interviews every week, keeping the networking train going, keeping the, keeping your network hot because you just never know when those opportunities will strike. And it did. And 3 weeks later I started my role at LinkedIn. Wow.

So when it comes to like the ratio of like networking versus just straight applying versus getting sourced on LinkedIn. Give us the ratios there. Like how much attention did each have or like how much did— how many did each lead to different opportunities? What was that for you?

I would say as soon as I refresh my LinkedIn profile, because again, honestly, when you're fully employed, you just— you're not on LinkedIn very often. So I hadn't looked at honestly my LinkedIn profile in a long time. It was stale. I didn't even have a cover photo like it was. It was bare bones. So as soon as I redid all that and put the keywords and did my open to work with the recruiters and, and edited that on a constant basis, all the job shopping strategies and all that.

Okay. Yeah.

Um, I started getting sourced all the time. Um, I got at least 2 to 3 people that, and again, they didn't always match, but getting— I had never gotten sourced. Like source was not even a thing, honestly, that I even thought was still happening until I changed that. So, um, opportunities started coming, but then it was the networking on top of that that made me sure that I knew this is, this was an opportunity to go for because I had the questions of the company culture and all of those things already answered. So it was just another element. Getting referred was another leg up. But then it was that referral contacting the hiring manager or people on the team to flag my application. So networking just kind of helped put a bow on it for me to actually get to that interview stage.

Okay. Okay, cool. Got it. So, so yeah, you got the LinkedIn sourcing, 2, 2 or 3 people a week finding you for your profile. You had the networking, you know, it's kind of what— yeah, exactly. We've been talking all week about farming, right? Exactly. You mentioned it. Planting those seeds. You had to— that's why I always say, like, try to build out your LinkedIn profile early in the program so that that can start farming from there. And then the networking should start right at the beginning as well. And then you can kind of work on some other skills in the middle as well. I love that. And, you know, you were such— every stage you were so wonderful in the program. You were a standout client because you were constantly coming on to calls. I remember as you come on to calls and share your key takeaways from what you used from the program and how it works so well. And then you'd come on and you would screen share or you'd show what you did, which was phenomenal. And so then we asked you to become part of our mentors, which was— I think you were even part of what's the word called? Like the inaugural group of mentors even. So do you want to share what that is?

Yes, so I joined being a mentor last year. So we do have a group of mentors who are SJS alum that are able to be an added layer of support. So these are all volunteers that come back and volunteer their time to give back to clients. And I loved doing that. I got so much out of the program and more importantly, I got so much out of the community and the people that I met. So I wanted to do the same back. So it was awesome to be able to talk to current clients, share my experience, kind of my tips and tricks of how I got through the program. Um, and it's that, it's that satisfaction. I'm also in talent development. So just that satisfaction of helping someone is just something that I just love. But the fact that we've been able to get mentors on a consistent basis, and commit to talking to people and being that added layer of support. And then I know for me, I, I didn't have the mentor option when I joined, but if I did, to have that one-on-one testimonial experience that I was excited to give back.

Yeah. And one of the things we were talking about yesterday was kind of this idea of, oh, you know, networking feels weird and no one wants to help. And, you know, why would someone help me? Y'all, these people, extremely successful people with full-time jobs who have done this program, come back, volunteer their time just to network and hang out with the other wonderful people who join this program. Now, some of our clients do currently have jobs, some of them don't. And but people sometimes when they think that they— if they're unemployed, that they're like, well, why would someone want to network with me? I don't have a job. But everyone knows you're someone. Everyone knows you have something amazing to contribute and that everyone knows that they have something to learn from you, but you have something to learn from them. Just because you're between jobs, that doesn't devalue at all. So I've just seen, it's been so cool to see the mentors who have just been like, yeah, I am living, breathing job shopping. It, y'all, if those of you who are here on day one, Paul came on, he's a mentor. Um, they live, breathe job shopping, and then they want They want to help. They want to talk to others. They drive value from networking with these other folks. So anyways, that's been super, super cool to see. And from you being like an all-star mentor, I had the role open of client success manager and I just tapped you. I didn't open up the role publicly. I just said, Arianna, please, will you join me? And that was the first day of the rest of my life.

And I just, I just realized my two current roles, meaning one full-time, one here too, those roles were never posted. So the fact of networking and being yourself and, you know, you can say be your authentic self, you know, you can say all those words, but I truly mean the more you're yourself and your personality and you use that while you network, it can be fun. Like when you talk to people that are like-minded, people like to work with people they like. Like, I don't know, I hate to say it like that simply, but people will fight for you, you know? And, and I've seen it in so many different areas. And so, um, yeah, it's just, it's, it's hard to forget that sometimes when you're just kind of spiraling and you're frantic and all those things. But just remember People want to get to know you as much as you want to get to know them.

Yeah. Amazing. Well, as we're kind of wrapping up here, I do want to know, just so people know, like, what is your role and kind of what has been your experience? I mean, you can be honest with folks, Arianna. You basically got, you have like a very unique view. I think only Courtney is the only other person who's gotten this view where you have been a client, but then you get to see the behind the scenes of how the sausage is made. So what has been your experience and, uh, through all this and what has been your role thus far?

Yes. So I joined the end of last year as a client success manager. So my role is to onboard all new clients. So, um, anyone that onboards, um, you will see me. Um, and I also am part of the concierge service. So if you look at, um, when Madeline goes over the tiers. I come with a package with the guided tier. So I am the concierge. I am your accountability buddy, advisor, whatever title you want to call me. I am your cheerleader to make sure you get through the Program and we see those results. So that is part of my role. But the best part of what I have seen is the back end. I mean, the work. I am going to do this because I do this in training. Everyone, I need to see a round of applause. Clap. In the chat, the work that Madeline has put into this new AI platform is insane. I mean, I've seen it work from the backend. I also have FOMO that I wasn't a student going through this program because I went through this program, not to say the tools weren't, weren't good then, but what we have now, is enhanced by far, where you're able to get through and really educate yourself of all your material in such a quicker pace. And that's the, that's the world that we live in now, is what can you do at a faster pace and learn faster to get the job done? And it's, it's been awesome to see from the back end. So kudos to you, Madeline, on making it happen. Um, so yeah, so I am here for all of you. Making sure that again, at the end of the day, we're getting some results. So I also help organize our mentors that are within the program. I manage all the backend when it comes to questions and community programming. So I kind of do a little bit of everything. So again, with that to say, that all comes with the guided tier that's part of the program.

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on. I'm seeing lots of claps in the chat and all that. Lots of love for you. And I'm going to send you away as I do with everyone else, with a Wi-Fi high five. Later. All right, so that was Arianna. She's a joy. She makes my life so wonderful. And it's just so cool. Just, you know, that's one of the joys of just putting out all this content into the world is that it attracts amazing people. And just the people like you showing up here today, I know that you are a special group. Like there's just, it's just a unique type of person who is very growth-minded, who is looking to improve, who also can, you know, vibe with someone like me who I'm a I'm a little wacky, I'm a little kooky, you know, I might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm so glad you were drinking this cup of tea right now. So let's dive into what we have next. So let's see, let's see. We got our case study done. Oh, I just— because I saw some questions in the chat. I'm seeing questions like, how long does it take to get through the program? So here, let me just show you really quick what we are working with. Okay, let's see if this— okay, hold on. So let's see. We'll go to this window here. Okay, cool. This is what we want. So, so this is Standard Job Search. I would say typically for the typical person, like if you are on it, right, ready to rumble, it would probably take you about 30 days to get through the program. I mean, we've had plenty of people actually land jobs in 30 days, but if you were like really committed, you could kind of get through the learnings and get through like the actual learning part and then just be fully into implementation after that. People, a lot of people are, have their employment or they you know, are— have other things going on where they're not able to dedicate as much time. So that to get through the program, sometimes if you're a little bit slower, might take you around 60 days. So that's kind of like what you want to, to keep in mind. Um, but it really kind of depends on— I mean, the whole point is to frame this around you, so, and what you need. And not everyone needs the same, uh, type of help. Um, everyone kind of starts a different place, and that's Totally fine. So just so you know what kind of what that entails. So when you're here on the page, you can also ask us questions. You guys have been really good about this for over the past few days. So if you have a question about your specific situation of like, hey, would this program work for me if I am in this job or in this industry or this age or this, you know, what, in this country, whatever it is, ask us. We're happy to answer and we'll just give it to you straight. So as far as what comes with it, you get the job search plan, right? So it is a plan that's built specifically for you based on where you are in your job search so that you don't have to spend so much time. You are just— you're getting— you're focusing on the right things. You get the comprehensive coaching support. And depending on how much, how much support you want and desire, you can kind of choose the plan based on that. You get the networking community. So when it comes to the mentors and the networking and all of that, it becomes a lot easier when you have all these folks to talk to. And that's in the guided tier and above. And then when it comes to really like you're able to get focused. So this is what this is for the One Page Career Vision. You are able to get very targeted in your job search so that you can reduce your number of rejections. You can reduce your, your amount of time that you're spending job searching and really move quickly. This is kind of like the thing that a lot of the case studies have been bringing up. You'll get the Glory Resume Builder and the COVID Letters That Convert and the Complete LinkedIn Makeover. And all of these things, especially if you're going for the guided tier and above, come with one of us coaches also reviewing it, right? So you have all the tools to build it, but then You have the coaches to help you. And this is so that you're getting noticed on LinkedIn, that you are— your resume is making it through to the interview round and all of that. You have ways to access people, tools on how to reach the even most unreachable people so that you can unearth these opportunities. Like Arianna was saying, that she keeps getting jobs that are never posted. That's how you do it. And then you learn how to absolutely master interviews. Like really getting that, that feedback and, you know, getting, getting those strategies that you realize, oh my gosh, that's the quarter turn I needed to make sure that I'm not a silver medalist, I'm a gold medalist. And then of course, we'll help you with your, with your negotiations as well. So you got your 3 different tiers, right? Just a quick summary. Core is more of a more self-guided, You know, there's, there's group coaching every month, but it's mostly just kind of like self-guided using the tools. And then Guided is what the testimonials you're seeing are from Guided, where this is my flagship. This is my, this is my baby. This is my everything. It's all like unlimited asynchronous one-on-one coaching as well as we're in Slack talking to everyone as well as we're doing weekly group coaching calls. So it's a lot of help. You get, you meet your, with your mentors, you get, you know, you get your concierge, which is, which will be Ariana, all that kind of stuff. And then the white glove is for those of us who are like, hey Madeline, I just want it to be you and me sitting in a Zoom call just doing things for me. Like, don't make me touch anything. Like, I just want it kind of done for me, like kind of done with me. And that's what that is for. It's like very, very handholdy. And so if that's, if that's your vibe, like if you really just need to be your hand held through everything, I'm here to hold it for you. So let's, let's do it. So let me know in the chat if you have any questions about any of that. I tried to go through it quickly in case any of that was, was what you kind of had top of mind. And I did want to make sure that you know that, you know, this idea that money is likely tight and it's very tough to rationalize a purchase. Unless you are 100% sure that it will work for you. And if you were 100% certain that this program would work, then of course it would be a no-brainer. You just put in the money and you'd make a ton more money. You know, no one's, no one's like, you know, salary is going to be what we are here if you're in North America. So it's like, okay, you know, it really is a no-brainer financially. But you kind of need that promise, right? So we have a zero-risk promise, which is that we are so confident you will find value in this program that you just need to do the work, hit the milestones, actually put in a real effort. And if you don't see value, we'll give your money back in the first 90 days. So really, we take on 100% of the risk. And I just wanted to remind you, okay, we have the LinkedIn VIP workshop. Okay, that's the fast action bonus. You do have to pay in full for any of the three plans. By today. Okay. Tonight at 12:00 AM Eastern. So this is a really great workshop. I believe Arianna did it when she was in the program and she just talked about how she got, you know, 3 outreaches, 2 to 3 outreaches every week. This is where it's a session where I'm giving you real-time feedback on your LinkedIn profile, really with the goal that you will be sourced. If someone's searching for someone like you, let's make sure they find you. So just a reminder that that ends today. So this is just a summary slide. Again, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out and we'll put the link to join in the chat as well as in the, in the description as well. All right, my friends. All right, Sandy. Sandy has signed up. Can't wait to dig in. Yes, I'm so excited. To see you, Sandy, and also anyone else who's already signed up. If you want to say hi in the chat, we had quite a few signups today, so that was really fun to see. And I am excited to welcome all of you in. This has been an absolute blast. And I'm also just very excited because we're going to get started next week. So it's like, all right, let's get down to business next week. Cool, cool, cool. When did you say coaching calls were? Oh, so also we're going to do Q&A now, guys. So go ahead and drop questions in the chat. When did you say the coaching calls were? Wednesday evenings? Yes, my calls. So I do a call every week that is usually like Wednesday afternoon. And then we have other coaches who also do calls. He usually does his like every other Tuesday. Oh wait, is it Wednesday? No, guys, it's Thursday. Sorry about that. It's Thursday that my call is. But then we also have other meetings on Wednesdays. So we kind of have it like we have, we have several different things happening each week. So you can kind of— it's not because you should attend all of them. It's more so you can pick and choose what's best for you. Is the LinkedIn makeover available independently? No, it is not. Maybe if enough of you beg me to do it independently, maybe I'll start selling it again independently, but it won't be for like months and months. But no, I'm not going to sell seats to that, though I will say the seats historically have been just under $2,000, so you might as well just buy Core if you want. I would say if you just want it, just buy Core, and then even just for the VIP session, And then you'd get the entire, you know, base program as well. All right. So, oh, and someone says Courtney rocks. That's so great. It's so true. All right, let me make sure. All right, so let's see, let's see, let's see what this question is. Do you have any tips for interviews where the questions are given to you and you have time to prepare? I'm in Australia where pretty much all government interviews go like this. So I would say that I like this because an interview is not meant to be who is the most charismatic, who's the best at thinking on their feet. It's really to be who is the best for the job. And not always it's the person who can think on their feet the best. So what I would say for these answers is, is to remember that you still want to make the interview any sort of conversation. You can still ask, you know, give and take some, some questions as well of, you know, you know, given this context, is that, is that kind of how you all work and all that kind of stuff as well as you can bring in like show, don't tells and stuff like that to further make your answers more robust. So, so just try to think of— I always talk about like just being 10% better. Do 10% more than what you think your competition does. And it stands out so much. All right. How can I explain an over 2-year work gap during an interview when I've— and when I've mostly been applying and ghosted during that time? So work gaps are understandable. Now, there's one, one word that I want you to write down. Okay, you ready for that word? The word is fortunate. And I know that sounds kind of weird, but you need to say you are fortunate. I'm fortunate that, you know, when, when my role was let go, I actually was in a place in my life, both financially and, you know, mentally, where I could take a step back and figure out exactly what I wanted to do and even take out some time and fill in the blank here. Spend time with loved ones, travel, whatever. Right. And, and so now, now I'm like, I'm not going to take just anything. And I realize I really want X. Describe the role you're interviewing for. I realize I really want this role. And, and, and here's why. And they go, wow, that's awesome. All right. What's the best way to navigate interviews for career-aligned short-term stability while building towards a free-spirited life of independent creative entrepreneurship and artistic freedom. So I would say you, if that's what you want, then I would choose a job based on the, the ratio of kind of like you want it, you want to pick a high-earning job, okay? So if you want that to be able to fund your entrepreneurship, fund fund your artistic freedom. There's tons of really boring sounding jobs that you've never heard of that you're actually probably good at and play to your strengths and that pay really well. And you might need some specialized knowledge to do them, but optimize for that. Optimize for those ones that, you know, that isn't well known but can pay you a lot. And so I think too often we'll kind of just kind of do the easy thing, which I know, you know, becoming something like a lawyer is not easy, but it's a paved path. And we're all too rely, we rely too much on paved paths where that's a profession where it takes a bunch of education and then you work a bunch of hours, right? There's, there's a lot of jobs that you haven't heard of that will fund your life in a really good way that are less, less well-known.

All right.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. James says, are there replays of coaching calls if one is unable to join live? Yes, absolutely. We record every coaching call. That is absolutely not a problem. Jeffrey says, thank you for 5 superb sessions. Oh my gosh. It's absolutely my pleasure. Companies ask about target compensation early in the interview process. What's the best way to reposition compensation discussions and negotiate towards the top of the range or even beyond it? I feel like so many of these questions today are just so applicable to so many of us. So I'm really glad to be doing these. So, Elizabeth, really good, really good stuff here. So I would say, you're right, when you're asked about compensation early, it actually is— it's the time when you have the least amount of power. So trying to negotiate early in the process is a losing battle. So there's two different things you can say when you're, uh, asked, you know, early, early in the conversation about compensation. So first of all, um, they might say like, are you okay with our salary range? And you can one thing you just say is like, yes, right? And just move on. And then, you know, there's ways to kind of renegotiate later, such as saying things like, I've been interviewing with different other companies, or I've been, you know, looking into other positions, and a lot of them are targeting closer to the X salary. Like, is there any flexibility? So you can always ask that later. And then also early in the process, if you kind of know that you wouldn't take a salary in that range, but you don't want to necessarily take this opportunity off the table. What you can say is, you know, I— some of the opportunities that I've been looking at, this is a bit lower than the ranges I'm seeing elsewhere. However, I'm looking for the best overall package, so I would love to keep exploring right now. That one's a little bit dangerous because you could just lose out on the opportunity because you mentioned that. But if you weren't going to accept the offer in that range anyways, then that's okay. All right. What do you do when the interviewer is clearly not prepared and is reading your resume during the interview for the first time? Okay, so, Randy, this is— on one side, we can view this as frustrating. This is— but this is actually what happens like 80% of the time. And so instead, what we're going to do, instead of being like, wow, this person did not prepare for this interview. You know what that— that is the first thing is when they— when someone says, tell me about yourself, you know what they're saying to you subliminally? They're saying, lead me. Even though you have given me this resume that told you about yourself, I didn't read it. And I don't actually— I don't really have any preconceived notions about you. So you lead me. And so that is an indication to you that you should start leading the interview. You should start making sure that they're, they're not well prepared. And so that's more of an opportunity for because you came into the interview with a game plan, you're about to rock it. So really take that actually as your advantage, not as something that, oh, now they're asking me really dumb questions and I'm just a victim to this. Do presentations that you provide in the interview their property, right? Says Jacob. So, you know, the materials that you do in interviews, they usually can keep those if they like. Yeah. Um, I, I don't know if you're implying something with this. Uh, I'm actually not gonna— I'm not gonna assume you're implying anything. So kind of— I mean, I, I— this, this feels like maybe something that you shouldn't focus your energy too much on. Um, yay! It's— he says, thank you for the reverse the search sessions. Thank you for, uh, leaving the videos on YouTube during the week so we could rewatch and refine our notes. I'm so happy that this was helpful. That makes my day. Um, what is your view on taking notes into an interview? I normally write down my questions for the end of the interview and take that in with me. Oh, Matthew, I love that. I think that's a really great idea. I actually think it's wild to not bring notes into an interview. I don't know about you guys. So this notebook here that I have, I've been writing in it since March. So, so it's been 2 months and like, this is how much I've already written into it. So I'm quite the writer. I bring notes into every business meeting and I take notes. Every client, every client call, my head's usually down when people are asking questions because I'm taking vigorous notes. Why aren't we, why aren't we bringing in notes and taking notes in meetings, guys? We need to treat interviews like it is a, a, a meeting with a coworker. Okay. We're bringing in, you know, the names of the people we spoke to last. We're talking, we're bringing in the information we learned from the past interview that we're referencing when we're like, okay, you mentioned that. Okay. So yeah, well, yeah, I see that there was actually 4 different departments who also were in on that, right? So we're not bringing in scripts. We're not bringing in, you know, our— you try to like memorize answers. No, we're bringing in our business notes to our business meeting. So I love that. Yes, very good. And questions. Questions is a perfect example of also things you bring in. All right. So, oh, okay. And then Matthew says, but what about taking notes into the interview to help to answer questions? Questions. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Okay, cool. So let's see. Okay. And there's lots of, lots of discussion. If we apply for a job and reach out to the head director of the department for networking, how can I build a good impression on that networking meeting? Okay. So I would say The, the, a lot of people think that they need to have like a pitch of themselves, but that's not super important. What's really important is, is your level of curiosity and your questions that you ask people. Um, so, you know, you really want to be curious about the type of business they do, their role, how their team operates, what are their top priorities. And I've showed you before that I have a tool called the is the tool that, that builds, that allows you to identify 60 seconds of value. Okay. And this is a tool that really helps you to deeply build that relationship. And there's two sections that, that has you fill out. It's like, what is, what is this person working on right now? What's going on with them professionally? And then what's going on with them personally? And so you need to understand at least, at least definitely the professional side, only do the personal side if it comes up naturally. But yeah, you should really understanding what are their top priorities right now? What are they working on? All those types things and have that genuine curiosity. All right, Sandy's a notebook girl too. I love it. Love to see it. My pleasure. Matthew says, thanks, thanks for answers to my questions. My— absolutely my pleasure. Okay, so what if it takes a year to get a job? I'm planning to start looking for new opportunities in about 3 months, not right now. It also depends on when jobs become available since Openings vary. So I'm not sure exactly what you mean by what if it takes a year to get a job. Is that okay? Because for some people, yeah, if you're financially good with it and it sounds like you're already like setting, setting that way, then sure. Really, your timeline is up to you. What, what I do when clients come to me is I really ask them, okay, what is your goal? When are you trying to land a job by? And if the goal is I need to land a job in 4 weeks, okay, that plan is a lot different than someone who's like, I need to land a job in 6 months. So you can do it both ways. Now, of course, you're right. There's, there's certain elements of the world of, you know, certain roles open at certain times. But yeah, like there, it really depends on— you can just, you just ratchet up or down your job searching strategies with both the reactive and the proactive side. In order to make sure that you are landing it with the right timing. But I would be as proactive as possible. So what a lot of people do is they'll say things like this. This happened all the time right before January 1st, is people would be like, I want to, I want a new job by January 1st. And we'd be talking to them about maybe getting coaching. And, and they're like, yeah. And it's like, okay, but you need the lead up time. And then people are like, but I want to kind of take time around Thanksgiving to do nothing and then around Christmas do nothing. It's like, okay, but we're in October right now. So when are you going to do the job searching if it's January 1st? So just remember that a lot of these interview processes take at least a month, at least like start to finish. So then you need to like have those several months before that to like make sure you're getting the coaching and make sure you're like, you're actually ready for your top company when that shows up. All that kind of stuff. So just build it in. All right, yes, yes, yes. Oh my gosh, Gina says, "Thank you for 5 wonderful life-changing sessions and sharing your experience. I appreciate you so much." Oh my gosh, what a lovely thing. Oh my gosh, you're the best. Okay, Um, well, I am going to do a couple more questions if, if there is any other questions. Yes, it's been awesome. Yay! Oh my gosh, you guys are so nice to me. David says, thanks Madeline. Upper Room Studios Podcast says, thanks Madeline. All right. Um, great session, says Lori. Oh yes. Um, Sergio says, I needed to land a job yesterday. Well, I'm so glad you're here, Sergio, and you've been You've been participating and make it happen. So I love that for you. All right. So this has been an absolute blast. You know, I really— it is my pleasure to do these sessions with you. And, and I really enjoyed this. And people are asking, like, how long will the replays be up? I'm going to take them down on Monday. Okay. So that's just a couple of days. So I know you all have been here with me watching them, but I'm sure a lot of you have mentioned you want to rewatch them and go over things. I definitely encourage you doing that. A lot of my clients say that it's not just to hear, like it's not just about hearing the advice, but actually putting them into, putting them into practice. So I, we will be closing the fast action bonus tonight. Right? So if you love a deal, like I love a deal, okay? So right now, the program, the coaching program is $1,500 off, plus you get that LinkedIn VIP day if you pay in full by tonight. Okay? That's for if you really are, you're decisive and you love a good bonus deal where you're getting free stuff. Okay? I go nuts for that. Now, you can still enroll until Monday, May 25th at 9 PM Pacific. 12:00 AM Eastern. Okay, that's when everything is closing. And oh my gosh, y'all have been saying the nicest things. Oh my gosh. And, and that's what it's all closing. And so I'm— it's been really great. I've seen some of the names of the folks who have already joined the program showing up in the chat today, which it was really fun to see. And you all are great. It really is my pleasure and my honor to be here with you. And I'm gonna send you away with a Wi-Fi high five. 5 2 hours to spend together really is a lot, and it has been an absolute blast start to finish. Um, all right, y'all, thank you so much for all the love, and go job shopping, you hear me? All right.