293: 5 Biggest Resume Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

What I call the RAS formula, which stands for Result, Action, Situation. A lot of people buried that impact. They may write a statement and bury the result. I just say lead with that result. Show the impact that you had, how you did it, why you did it, and use the RAS formula. I think it's a lot more effective.

Hello everyone, this is Kathy Caprino and welcome to my podcast, Finding Brave. I've created the show for everyone who longs to create something bold and brave in their life, to rise up, speak up and stand up for who they are and to reach their highest and biggest visions. Each week I'll be speaking with inspiring guests from all walks of business, leadership, entertainment, the creative arts and the entrepreneurial world. And they'll be sharing their intimate stories of Finding Brave and offer their best strategies for building your most rewarding, joyful and meaningful life, business and career. Hey folks, is it finally time to make a big change in your career but you just can't figure out how to do it? It's time for help and time to invest in yourself and finally understand and shift what hasn't been working for you. Join me as I coach and guide you through powerful, proven steps that will unlock your fullest and happiest potential. I've worked with thousands of professionals across six continents and the results have been transformative for them for a limited time. Also, take advantage of my 10% discount for you. My amazing finding brave listeners save 10% off my one on one succession career and leadership breakthrough program and my most powerful you video training course that helps you close the seven most damaging power and confidence gaps that are in the way of your ultimate success and happiness. You can work with me in both of these programs for the comfort of your own home, at your own pace. Now's the time. Don't wait. Build the career you're ready for. Check out the show notes below for details and I can't wait to support you. Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of Finding Brave. This is coming to you in October and boy, it's starting to be. I know so many people are struggling in our country with the weather, so I don't mean to be tone deaf about it. I was gonna say it is a beautiful fall, but not for everybody. And I'm sending up prayers for everyone in the path of these really horrific, horrific storms. I'm sending up prayers for you. And on another note, I am so excited to have our guest today, the amazing Sarah Johnston. Sarah, thank you for taking the time. I know you've had an incredibly busy month. Thank you for joining me today. I'm so excited to talk about the five biggest mistakes we make on our resumes and how to avoid them. Thank you for being here.

I feel so honored to be here. I've been a huge fan of yours for years and years. And when you reached out to ask me to be on this podcast, it was just like, I don't know, Oprah reaching out or something.

Oh, my. I don't even know what to say about that. But I appreciate that incredibly kind of compliment and I feel the same about you. In fact, I was sharing with my sister that I was interviewing you and with your 947,000 followers on LinkedIn, that is not a number we see too often. So bravo to you. And I know for you, we haven't talked about it, but you know, these numbers, I don't view them as vanity metrics. I view them that we're reaching people and making an impact. And what a joy and what an honor. But there you are, LinkedIn top boy. So on that note, let me tell you all about Sarah and her amazing experience. Sarah is the founder of Briefcase Coach, a global executive branding firm where Sarah and her team have helped clients in all 50 states and across six continents. A former corporate recruiter and an industry insider, she's committed to empowering high achieving professionals in their job search recognizes the top LinkedIn voice. LinkedIn top voice is how we say it in 2019. And still that goes on and again with your 947,000 followers. And I know you'll get more after this conversation. She was also named among HR Weekly's top 100 most influential people in HR. That's no small feat. And her firm was rated best for experienced executives by Balanced Careers. And Job Scan listed her as top follow in 2019, 2020, and 22. And the list goes on and on. You know, congratulations on all of those accolades, my dear, and thank you. All right, let's dive in here. You know, I, we were just talking before, before I hit record, but I think this is a really good distinction to make here. I asked you, do you believe that a, the resume and LinkedIn profile are a different animal or the same animal? So that when we're talking about biggest mistakes we make on resumes, maybe we'll spend a little time on how that's different on LinkedIn. But I'd love to hear before we dive in, you do see them as different, don't you?

I do see them as very different. I think the resume informs and influences how we write a LinkedIn profile, but I view them as different narratives. The resume is very KPI and result driven. We're going to make sure that we highlight the impact you've had on the business and the bottom line. I view the LinkedIn as twofold. Number one, it's a story, it's an introduction to who you are and the value that you bring to an organization. And I like to say show, don't tell. So where on a resume we may give a result and like try to inform the reader what a great marketer you are, what a great supply chain expert you are. On the LinkedIn piece, we may draw the reader in with a story and try to engage them by showing that you can do that job, that you can say that you do. There's a lot of noise on LinkedIn and when someone opened your LinkedIn profile to view you and read about you, they only see the first three lines. I want to do everything I can to make that reader click, see more and see beyond just those three lines. So I think that storytelling element is really important. But I also think having keywords is, is also very important on LinkedIn, more so than on the resume piece because we want to make sure that you're optimized for search and having the right words for search is super important. And keyword density. So if you're a project manager, we don't just say project manager once on your LinkedIn profile. We may say that 8 to 12 times so that you're ranking really well for that keyword.

Wow, I wish I could have you on for 10 hours. Can I ask you one more LinkedIn question? Then we'll go to resumes because I know that's. Well, you do both, your team does both. So you're happy. It's a happy camp either way. I have and feel free to challenge and say, and no, I don't quite agree with this, but I don't know where I came up with this, but that headline right under our name. I have a formula that I suggest people use, but I'm, I'm really dying to hear yours, but here's mine. I believe that we want to include what we functionally do. So if you go to mine or Sarah's, you'll probably see this. But you know, I'll say global career and leadership coach, author, speaker, former therapist. Why? Because I want to give credibility right there, you know, who is going to find what I'm doing of interest. Right. But I don't feel that that's enough. I feel that we also in some way Want to say, for whom do we work, who do we support and for what outcomes? So it's a little different from what I see of just a lot of people putting lists of words. What do you think? I'm really interested, Sarah, how do you tell people to craft that headline?

I do actually agree very much so in align with what you're saying, I think you want to make sure that you are using the words that someone would search for if they were looking for you and your skill set. So if I'm looking for a global executive coach, I'm going to go on LinkedIn and search for those words and we'll hopefully find someone like you. I think this is trendy right now for people to use a tagline as the first thing that they see in their headline. Like I help someone smart women achieve career success. And I think there's a place for taglines. But I would like to see that at the end of the headline and not at the very beginning. Because I want the most important keywords that you're wanting to rank for, for search to be at the, the very front of that headline.

I completely agree, but you would, you would all, you would also suggest, like I, I suggest that it's a bit of a statement, not long, but, you know, helping. What is it dedicated to the advancement of women in business globally. That would be what I would say is the end of the headline. You would say, yes, do it, but probably not, you know, not the whole headline. It, it should be those key, those search terms. Yeah.

For some people it makes sense to include that brand statement, but I don't think it's a must do for every single person. Like for myself, I actually don't have a brand statement on mine. I wanted to rank for different words. If you feel like it's a differentiator or will help you get in front of your target audience and I say certainly include those, but I would much rather have the words that you want to rank for and your exact job title. And if you have a company name that people might value, have that company name there as well.

Love it. And you know, I think I'm thinking like a business where I do want to differentiate. Here's the career coaching. I do. So, yeah, of course, you know, you're, you're talking about executives. I love it. Great. Thank you for that. Thank you. All right, now let's, let's dive in. You know, you work with a lot of C suite, but I know your team works for levels below that. What do you see is. Let's start with the biggest resume error. When you. You look at it and think, oh, no, I can't believe it. What is it? I'm dying to know.

I think the very biggest error that I see people make is that they try to write a kitchen sink resume. And what I mean by that is they start the process of writing their resume without a clear focus in mind. Or maybe they have a focus, but it's like, you know, I could do this or I could do this or maybe I could do this. And they think that by keeping their options open and writing a resume that will resonate with all of these audiences will make them more attractive. But what that actually does is it deludes their brand. If you're a hiring manager and you've got a stack of resumes and you're only going to call six people, you're going to call the six people who really stand out to you as being a perfect match for your job versus the person who kind of looks like they can do the job, but five other things as well. So I think the biggest mistake I see is people who don't have a clear target in mind and they aren't speaking to that target audience.

I love it. And I find, you know, I'm working with people pretty much before they would come to you. That is the biggest challenge for most people. I don't really know what I want. I mean, maybe you're dealing with a different population, but when I see them, they've either left a job or they're considering a pivot or they're considering leaving for five different reasons, 50 different reasons. But I think that that is the hardest thing a person struggles with. What is it that I want in feet and craft the resume for that? Can you tell us more?

It's amazing how many people struggle to identify that ideal role. And I won't work with people, I won't take someone's money if they can't, like, identify that target. And I'm happy to send them to people good people like you, because it really does take so much reflection and just work to identify those targets. Because it's a waste of money to invest in a resume writer if you're not clear on what you want to do and who your target audience is.

And what percentage of the people you hear from aren't quite ready to embark on the resume writing step. Is it a lot?

Probably about 25% of people that call me.

All right.

But my, my website language is pretty clear on, on what is expected in order to kind of Take the steps to work together. And so I do think that some people probably self select out, but I do get on the phone with people who are ready to hand over, you know, their credit cards and I'm like, whoa, I, I think you need to take a step back and do the self reflection work that is so important.

Wow. So, you know, aside from, okay, you need, you need to figure this out and if, and if it's completely unclear, you'll probably need outside help in another way. But when they do figure it out and they can tell you what is the best, the next biggest mistake that you see, they know what they want. They have an ideal job in mind. Maybe they're applying regularly. What is the next thing you see that, oh dear, we need, we need to fix this. Yeah.

So another thing that I see people doing when they're writing their own resume is that their resume bullet points are often a reflection of the job description. Maybe they got their old job description and just kind of copied and pasted.

Some of their old, oh, their old job description, not the one they're going.

For, the old job description. And instead of writing out bullet points for their, their, their work, they just copy and paste the job description down and just show what they've done. But they don't show the impact they've had on the organization and they don't quantify their experience. I like to tell people one of the best ways to write your resume bullet points is to use what I call the RAS formula, which stands for result, action, situation. A lot of people bury that impact. They, they may write a statement and bury the result. I just say lead with that result. Show the impact that you had, how you did it, why you did it, and use the RAZ formula. I think it's a lot more effective.

Wow. I totally agree. I'm, I'm, I'm beating that. Not dead horse. We don't like that expression. I'm over and over again saying, don't say, I managed this, I oversaw this, I led this. It's the who cares of it and what difference did that make? And of course, when you're going for a particular job, you know, would you agree with this and please do always challenge and push back. I think that people forget that a hiring manager wants someone who can hit the ground running in this role and who has addressed the same kinds of challenges and problems and has created solutions for the same kinds of things this job needs to create solutions for. So you always really have to put yourself in that hiring manager's mind. And perspective and make sure that that's what you're writing to. Would you agree with that?

Oh, absolutely. I, I kind of started my career in sales and in sales we were taught the, with them what's in it for me. And just like you said, the hiring manager is asking that question, what's in this for me? They're busy. They need somebody to pressure off of them and hit the ground running and they want the very best person for that job. And so your resume has to answer that WIFM question and if it doesn't, they're going to pick someone else who, who answers that question better.

I love it. So this is going to. I can hear my, our listeners thinking now wait a minute though, I have three ideal jobs or so. That's begging the question. Do you help them craft different versions for different jobs? How does that work with you and your clients?

Yeah, so that's a great question. I would say that if you are looking at a job in the same job family and maybe the job descriptions are just slightly different, you could perhaps use the same resume, but tweak the header at the top. And I tell people that the header at the top should be changed for every single job that you're applying for. You want the header at the top to say either the job target title and then some keywords or key pain points from the role that you're looking at. The header is a way to spoon feed the audience exactly what they're looking for. And a lot of times the first impression that you have with an organization is with a gatekeeper, whether that be a recruiter, a sourcer or researcher, and they're comparing what they see in a job description to your resume and you want to make it easy for them to find alignment by spoon feeding that reader. Now if you're looking at jobs from two different job families and they're really different, like perhaps maybe you're looking at an event planner role and maybe you're looking at a pro, a customer success manager position. You may need two different resumes for those two different audiences.

I see. So if it's in the same family, just some tweaks will be fine. But if, of course, if it's a whole other line of work, it's got to be different. You know what came to me when you were speaking? I see this with some resume writers and I'm dying to know what you think. But in my work I'm always looking at and it kind of comes out in their assessments that they fill out the dirty little secret that they're afraid of people knowing hiring managers, you know, either they got laid off or fired or they took a gap or they took a year off to, you know, raise their children. And I always talk about, you know, when you have shame or you feel like an imposter, it's going to show, it's going to show in your energy. So we have to internally and externally work on not having shame about these things. You know, making the dirty little secret not secret anymore. That said, there are things that I would not broadcast. There's no need in my view. So one resident resume writer that I had suggested to a client, had on the resume right there under that top section, took a leave and, and spelled it out. Well, I'm dying to know what you think. What do you think about this?

I think it's a case by case basis and what I mean by that is for some executives, let's just say you are an executive or, or maybe not an executive, a manager and you were laid off from your position and you have had an extended job search and it hasn't been going the way that you it to go. Sometimes it makes sense for, for these individuals to create a consulting company to help mitigate that gap on their resume. Even if the consulting work that they're doing is volunteer or very, very part time, it shows that they've been doing some work since that layoff. So that is a strategy that I do use with some, some folks that I work with. For other people I do think hitting the, like addressing the elephant in the room can be helpful. And, and what I mean by that is in some cases it does make sense to give a short explanation underneath the years of experience under near the company name as to why that individual left. So if you were part of the mass layoff and 20% of the workforce was reduced, you might want to address that right there. Laid off as part of a 20% workforce reduction. That just shows that you weren't laid off for performance, that it was part like they can Google and see that, you know, the organization made those mass layoffs and it just reduces that recruiter bias. So I think it's a case by case situation. What do you think?

I completely agree and oh, that's what I wanted to share here. I really believe this and I have no doubt you believe this. Never ever, ever lie on your Resume or on LinkedIn. Excuse me? Never embellish. No, I've done a lot of research, chat, GPT, etc. Some people have said or I, I even did a poll about this recently on LinkedIn, people can see it. Have you ever lied on your resume? And a few individuals wrote me or posted that they felt they were doing a particular job, but their ch. That wasn't the job title they were given, so they changed the job title. I have reservations about that because things can be checked. But the point is I think we never ever want to lie or embellish. So going back to your question, I, I suggest to people, if they have consultative ability, create an LLC or whatever it is that works and list that. But I would say don't do it if you've never done any consulting because that's a lie.

I, I 100 agree. You have to be able to look at someone with integrity and answer questions. And if you feel any pause in, in the way that you're answering questions, then you shouldn't do it. So I agree, don't lie on your resume. But I also view the resume as a marketing document and so you don't have to put everything out there.

Right.

But, but you have to make sure it's, it's honest.

Right. And, and just looping back on that, you made a good point. That doesn't mean that if you've never been paid to be a consultant, you can't say that you're a consultant. You can if you've offered a service that was a consultative situation. I think so. I don't view that as stretching, stretching the truth because work is not always paid. I mean how many of us do volunteer work? And it's a lot of work.

Yeah, I have a client who is currently unemployed, but he's serving on a board on his kids school and is leading all the marketing campaign for their kids school. And that's basically an unpaid full time job that this individual is doing. And so I certainly think that that deserves a spot on the resume.

Love it. Love it. All right, anything else? We're on number three. Not that they're ranked this way. Some of these are really big mistakes that, you know, just because they're not number one doesn't mean you can, you can make them anything else. Number three, four and five, what are you seeing that you think, oh no, this is, this is not going to work for you.

So not using keywords is another one that I see people do. Let's talk about overemphasizing keywords. So I think that you have two separate sets of people and they should both be addressed. We have the individuals who don't use any keywords at all on their resume and then you have the Individuals who don't like to network and they only want to stuff keywords on their resume, thinking that it will increase their odds of getting a recruiter callback if they can get a 98% keyword match on jobscan. And so they just spend all their energy doing that. So both are, are, are misses, I think.

And can I interrupt you and ask you to define keywords and where people can learn what are the best ones to use before? Because some people don't know and I want them to. Yeah.

So when you upload your resume online, you're uploading your resume into an applicant tracking system. Some newer, more sophisticated applicant tracking systems like Taleo and Zoho Recruit have features embedded in these applicant tracking systems that read and I use that word read and air quotes, read the resume and using machine learning, compare the words on the resume to the words on the job description and will give a recruiter a score based on keyword match. Now, some recruiters prioritize and look at the resumes that have a stronger keyword match first and other recruiters ignore these, you know, completely and don't even take into consideration what the keyword match score is. So when you look at keywords on a resume, they're often words from a job description. And what I do when I'm writing a resume for a client is I have them send me job descriptions of roles that they're interested in. And then old school, I get a highlighter pen and I go through and, and identify target words or important words that are not filler words on the job description. You can also upload that job description into Chat GPT and ask it to identify the keywords for you. And then you're going to take those keywords and put those into the resume and make sure that you're using those words to tell your story. It's important to have keywords, but also keywords in context. So if we know that, let's just say one of the keywords is project management, you don't want to just have a list with project management in it. You also want to use project management in a sentence and quantify how you've used project management. That's the best way to use keywords.

Wow. Now does the tracking system give you a higher score if you mention project management seven times? Like you're saying, don't overdo it. But is there a benefit to. It's kind of like SEO. When you're writing a blog post, you know you're wanting the words that people are searching on, but Repeating it several times in different contexts. Does that help with the tracking?

Actually, a great question. I've been on a certain. Over the last year, I've been on a journey to really understand how ATS work. I have used them as a former recruiter, but I've been interviewing people who either have built and developed applicant tracking systems or who market them. And I got to talk to the co founder of Greenhouse and I got to talk to some folks over at Zoho Recruit. And you know, every applicant tracking system is different and some are more sophisticated than others. I would say for most job seekers, you don't need to worry as much about keyword density on a resume. And I also would say that while having keywords is important, going back to what I said at the beginning of sometimes job seekers who don't like to network get over fixated on stuffing keywords on their resume.

How does that relate that they don't like to network? So they stuff. How. How are those related?

Because they're only applying for jobs online and they are. They're getting rejected from positions and so they think that if they only have more keywords on their resume, then their resume will stand out more. And so they just spend all of their energy trying to control what they can control, which is keywords. And instead of talking to people, they're putting words on their documents.

I could talk to you for hours. I'm firing at you questions I know you're going to have to lay down afterwards, but what you just said brings this up to me. Is it true? I. I've seen a lot of stats on this and some recruiters have said nonsense, some recruiters have said no, it's accurate. There was one study that showed that 80% of jobs are not gotten through applying, they're gotten through networking. I don't know what the real number is and it varies. But I do know this. If you are not networking people, you're really cutting yourself, you know, off at the knees because networking allows. Let me just say this. Let me just, you know, stand on my soapbox. When you're talking to someone who really would like to help you, whether they're in the industry or not, you're going to tell them what you're looking for as best you can. This is my suggestion. And you're going to ask two questions. And these actually come from my mentor, Judy Robinette, who wrote an incredible book, how to Be a Power Connector. But she said, ask these questions. Do you have any ideas for me? Which is such an open, wonderful question. Because you might be just so, you know, focused in one particular way that you're not seeing some of the other options that you can apply your skills for. To number two, do you know anyone who would be helpful to speak with when you ask these questions? Five phone calls turns into 20 contact sometimes or connections. So you must, must, must talk. But I'm with others. But I'm interested in what you think the stats are about. And I'm guessing it varies by industry, by role, by how senior you are. But what would you say to folks about the importance of networking and not just submitting your application online?

Well, I love this question because I agree 100% with what you're saying. I often tell people like kind of the old adage that you would use in the startup world, if you want money, ask for advice, and if you want advice, ask for money. And I say the same applies for job if you want a job, ask for advice. And those are really, really good questions that your mentor shared with you. I'm in the resume business. I make my money off of writing resumes. But I will say that a resume alone will not get you a job. And in this market especially, we're seeing AI and platforms that will distribute resumes using AI for jobs. And so whereas maybe a year ago companies were getting 100 applicants per position, now with the introduction of things like ladders.com, you've got some organizations who are seeing 10 and 50 times that number. So there's lots of noise. John Strauss, the founder of the applicant tracking system Greenhouse, says it best that friction is necessary in a job search. And so you're going to see a lot more applicants over the years because of the ease of the like auto apply button and how easy it is to apply for jobs. So companies are being inundated with applicants. Companies love internal referrals. They love people who have been vetted by other people within that organization. I think if you can get an introduction to a decision maker in a company who's willing to take your resume and share it with the hiring manager, that is going to put you so far ahead of anybody who just does the easy apply button on LinkedIn.

That is so, so true. I'm seeing it even among my family members. This referral process is robust. I had written down chat because I wanted chat GPT because I wanted to ask you. I am suddenly, you know, evangelical about chat, GPT and generative AI. And you know, this is the first time I'm mentioning it out loud, but I am seriously considering going with an organization creating a digital version of my content to allow people to subscribe to it and democratize career coaching because it's unattainable and, you know, inaccessible for so many. But I'm dying to know too, what you think about the use of Chat GPT or Claude or in resume preparation. I, I bet you have a lot of thoughts on this. When, when is it a smart to use chat or AI in general? And when you know, when is it generating outcomes that you see? Oh, dear. No, missed the mark.

This is the million dollar question. I'm so rich. If I got.

Are you asked this a thousand times a week? All right, people, listen up.

So I, I actually think Chat GPT can be very valuable for people who are writing their own resume for the first time. Especially, especially if you were newer in your career or you have a job like, let's say you're a teacher or a nurse and there is like, you're like, let's just say you're a picku nurse applying for another picku nurse role and you're making a lateral move and you just need a document that tells your story. Chat GPT can be really fantastic at helping you get a head start on how to write that language. However, I think humans, good writers, great writers, are better than AI. And I, I recently had one of my clients tell me that when he used ChatGPT to write his resume, it was kind of like hiring the very best intern, college intern ever to create a slide deck and then getting the slide deck from the intern, like, oh, this is great. This is so good. You did a really nice job putting this together and then looking at it further and thinking, oh, gosh, I can't use any of it. I think that's how ChatGPT can be for some executives, especially if the executive doesn't know themselves and their value well. Because what ChatGPT can't do is unearth your value proposition. And that's what a great resume writer does, is a great resume writer really helps the client understand why they are special and helps tell that story from the lens of that value proposition. And kind of putting in, you know, things in ChatGPT doesn't unearth that. And that's where that good partnership can play.

So if I can echo back what I'm hearing, this is what I hear. And I couldn't agree more. A resume is not like writing a cover letter that you could get a lot of AI help with. Not cover letter, an email to someone. Oh, I want to thank Sarah for coming on that's pretty straightforward. You know, it's the. Thank you. It's, it's the biggest value that you got. And you know how you want to conclude that? Email a resume is an embodiment of what you have stood for at your highest version of yourself in your work and what you love and what you want to do more of. I mean, I always say if you hated 80% of your job, don't be, don't talk about that. If you don't want to repeat that. If you never, ever wanted again to do data analytics, don't have that be half your resume. That's my view. But the point is, without that unearthing of who you are and what you really want and how best to match who you've been to what you want, it's, it's really, it's going to lay flat and, and be worse than that, really. It can get things wrong. Am I getting it right?

Oh, yeah. I always say it's hard to read the label when you're inside the jar. And that's where a great partnership with a resume writer could play. Could really help you tell the best version of your story. But I do think chat GPT can be great for people who need something quick, need something on paper, and are making potentially a lateral move.

I also think, you know, I'll use it right on a zoom call with a client who, let's say they're overly humble and they're overly authentic, meaning they can't imagine being one step higher because they haven't done that one step higher. I'll write theirs, use chat with them and Download, you know, 10 of their accomplishments or areas of responsibility and then say, does this seem like a match to this level? Yes, absolutely. These are the skills that are needed. And I don't know, it seems to. They seem to listen to chat sometimes a little more than me. If I can demonstrate that for them, does that make sense?

Absolutely.

I love that I know you have to go soon, but can I talk a little bit about LinkedIn with you as well? So what I'm hearing you say is maybe you'll do. Tell me if I'm wrong, you'll do the resume first. And of course, parts of that will be incorporated in an updated LinkedIn profile. But it's not a direct transfer over because it's LinkedIn, as you said, is, is a narrative and a story and, and there's different language and different positioning of that. But can you tell us two of the biggest mistakes? And I didn't prep you on this, we were talking about resume. I know you live and breathe this. Two of the biggest mistakes you see on LinkedIn that you think that's going to actually push away opportunities.

Oh, yeah, easy. One of them is oversharing. And, and here's a thing that people do all the time and that is they have a resume bullet point that, let's just say a CTO might do offshoring because technology is often a cost center in an organization and they're looking for ways to extract money from their department. So they may offshore and that may be a great resume bullet point about the money saved. But if they put that on a public facing document like LinkedIn, those are human lives that lost their jobs because you sent jobs overseas. I would never put that on LinkedIn if I was a CMO, would never put your marketing budget on LinkedIn. But I see CMOs all the time who say manage a budget of 150 million. If I were a competitor, I would go to, you know, that LinkedIn profile and see how much they're spending on marketing just by looking at that person's profile alone. And then along those same lines is I see people share political views and I see people share personal feelings about things that maybe are controversial. And anything you put on a public facing platform like, like LinkedIn, people could take screenshots of and they have long memories. And so I would just be thoughtful about anything that you think could represent your personal brand in a way that you don't think would have mass appeal because you never know when that could be held against you.

All right, this, I'll end on this, but it's, it's a tough one, but I think people struggle with this. It's a corollary to what you're saying. I've gotten asked recently, Kathy, how do you balance who you are in your personal brand and your professional brand with what your internal feelings are about certain situations, certain conditions, what's going on in our country. And I find this a difficult thing to advise on. But all I can say here is this is my view and I'd love you to tell me what you think. My biggest passion in life is serving as many people as I can to be the highest version of themselves and leverage their amazing talents. Men and women. My lens is women, but I have a lot of great male clients and how to, you know, close. My book is about the seven most damaging power and confidence gaps. And when we have these gaps, we can't thrive. We might make a lot of money, but we're not thriving. So my goal is to help millions of people thrive. What I do know is I'm all, you know, I'm liberal and I'm a feminist, and people know that because I'm supporting women's rights, I'm supporting dei. But that doesn't mean that word even has a lot of different connotations. I don't use that word. I think it's actually been really muddied what. What that means. But long story short, I do not share some of my deep personal views about certain things going on in the world. Why? Because I don't think it's the forum for that. I feel like sometimes what we see is people spewing their thoughts, when in fact, it's not a receptive audience. So why. Why are you doing that if you're doing it to teach and uplift? A lot of people who I've interviewed on this show are sharing very difficult, controversial things, but it's part of their work work, let's say, about healthy masculinity. So I feel that there are reasons why you're going to share these deeply controversial beliefs. And I think one should think about what would be the goal of that. Is it going to further who I am in the world and what I'm trying to do and be? What do you think? I didn't prep for that.

That is such a great question, and it's one I think about a lot. And actually, you know, you mentioned at the beginning of the call how many followers I have. And sometimes when you have a lot of followers, people have expectations of you and want you to come out and have a hard stance on something. And I have gotten some. Some negative backlash from people in the career community because I haven't made public stances on political issues or things that are going on in the world. And. And like you, I love people. I love all people. I have so many friends from so many different areas of life. And I think when you come out with a stance in, you know, 900 characters or less, you don't get to address all of the people that you love. And so even though I use my platform on LinkedIn to share lots of personal stories, and a lot of people probably feel like they know me because I share stories about my family and my kids and my life, and I relate it back to the job search and career, I rarely share my political views. And that is by design and by intention because it's so polarizing. And I love all people. And I feel like if we were at my house and we were sitting down and we were having coffee together. I would tell you why I feel that way and we could discuss it and thoughtfully have a conversation, but when you just put it out there, you can't have that conversation on a public platform. And so I, I just tend to, to not want to go there.

Thank you for sharing that. I've never discussed this publicly, I, you know, on the podcast, but I think it's so important and each of you is going to make your own decision about this. I also believe that when we share, it's so important that it can be a dialogue and we're not shaming people and we're not putting people in one very narrow box. And as you say, 900 characters, the nuance isn't, can't be there. So it's, it's a wonderful thing to think about and I, I invite you to do it. And of course, if you feel, no, it's part of who I really am, that I need to speak up, that's, that's your choice. But we all have to make that decision for us authentically. Oh, thank you for that. That was so helpful. Any last words? Any last. Okay. By the way, don't ever do this that we didn't cover anything you'd want to share. And of course, please let us know where we can soak up everything you have. And I know you have an amazing newsletter. Where can we get it? But any last, you know, words of advice about if you can really focus on doing this, it's going to elevate your resume, your LinkedIn profile, and your opportunities to.

Yeah, that's progress, I would say. The one takeaway that I would give to listeners today is to, to not skip the self reflections phase of the job search. Right now we're hearing about layoffs. People are feeling anxious, people are stressed. They want to quickly go into action mode. Action mode for people often feels like applying for jobs online. And people love to say, oh, I applied for, you know, 30 jobs this week or applied to 100 jobs this month or whatever. And that is great that you're taking action. But before you take that step, that, that, that before you apply for those jobs, you really have to do the self reflection and know your target audience, know what they care about, know their pain points. Because otherwise, your message, your resume, your LinkedIn, it's not going to resonate with that audience. So that's where I would leave things today. And this has just been so great. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you. And where do people soak you up?

Here.

Where do they get it?

Oh, I would love if your listeners would go to my website briefcasecoach.com and sign up for my newsletter. It's completely free. I promise not to spam anyone. It's twice a month of just job search and executive kind of career related content.

Fantastic. Thank you so much for diving in deep. These are deep questions. These are not simple one word answers and you get you gave the depth wheel depending on depth we all needed. Thank you so much. Please come back again soon. Thank you. Now people, I say this all the time but this, this truly fits. If you don't have a question about this because it's many layers, you know we're, we're not doing our jobs so you know who to go to. Maybe connect with Sarah on LinkedIn if that's the best place to do that on social media. I would love to hear wherever you see this posted if you have a question, if something landed in a way that you think oh no, I'm not doing that, but I don't quite know how to. Please ask us a question there and either or both of us will do our best to help you on your journey. Thank you for joining. I hope this is enlivening to you and have a wonderful two Finding Brave weeks and see you next time. Hey friends, Kathy here. Before you go, I wanted to make sure to invite you to join me on my next free career coaching call in my monthly series, Ask Ask Coach Kathy. In this program, registrants are invited to come on the 45 minute live Zoom call and share their most pressing career challenge or problem that they want help with. And I will give you my very best advice right there on the call for free. No question is too large or too small and it can be about any type of professional issue you're having. I'd love to help you. It's time to get some outside support and move forward fast. Just sign up@kathy caprino.com Coach Kathy and I'll see you on the call. Thanks so much for joining us today and please don't forget to check out findingbrave.org for more programs, resources and tips and tune in next time for your weekly dose of Finding Brave.