Tech Recruiter Secrets: How to Get Hired in Data Analytics in 2025

And let's see what this looks like. Okay, let me make sure this is starting. All right, all right, folks are gonna start coming in. If you guys can hear us, uh, definitely share where you are calling from or watching from. All right, post in the chat where everyone— Richmond, Virginia. Okay, Richmond, Virginia's in the house. I've been to Richmond one time. Interesting. There's a lot of, uh, New Yorkers that transplant to New Virginia. All right, Canada's in the house.

Wow, Canada.

Lagos, Nigeria is in the house. All right, we're worldwide over here. Okay, it's gonna be kind of in the morning time over there, I'm assuming, probably just waking up. Or close to waking up. All right, where is everyone else from? We have 3 different countries so far. Pretty nice.

That's, that's a testament to your network.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's a great thing

about LinkedIn. Yeah.

Argentina. Okay.

Okay.

All right, 4 countries. Will we get a 5th as we're rolling in? Starting off, will we get a 5th? Don't be shy. Where's everyone calling from? Texas. All right, Texas. Texas is in the house. Texas is in the house. All right, let's Trickle in a little bit. Caitlin is from Houston, Texas. All right, Houston, Texas.

Houston

could be from Texas. I've never been to Texas before.

Never been to Texas?

No. All right, okay, um, all right, so we're about 3 minutes after the hour, we can just start rolling in. Anyone else comes in, they can catch up. But welcome, y'all. Baltimore's in the building. All right, Baltimore. Um, okay, so Pedro, everyone's excited about this. Uh, yeah, Texas is its own country. Uh,

yeah, it is. Yeah.

People have been excited about this. Uh, the good thing about, or interesting thing about, uh, this particular webinar is that a lot of folks in the job market is frustrated, right? They're frustrated. They feel like they're not getting anywhere. And they are excited to hear insights from a recruiter because we don't really hear a lot of recruiters and hiring managers on LinkedIn. We hear a lot of individual contributors, but not a lot of recruiters. So before we drop gems, please, you know, briefly introduce yourself. And then, you know, let's, let's get, let's get into the meat and potatoes.

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, look, uh, first of all, thank you for having me on this. Uh, I can imagine the frustrations that everybody's feeling. I felt them at one point as well. And so yeah, things like this need to happen and they need to take place. And if no one else was willing to, you know, come to the forefront and At least have some answers or provide some insights, by all means, that's why I'm here. So, you know, Pedro Zambrano, you know, currently right now I am a technical recruiter for StaffSource that's headquartered out of Knoxville, Tennessee. Uh, in the past, you know, before I arrived to StaffSource, I was in the Marine Corps. Spent about 17 years of recruiting for the United States Marines and traveled all across the country, met a lot of great people. It was one of my passions as far as helping young men and women get real knowledgeable and educated over military service opportunities. I helped both officer and enlisted personnel. And when I retired, I retired out of the state of Arizona running recruiting operations for the state. You know what, actually what I've wanted to do moving forward into the future since retirement and since coming to StaffSource is I wanted to actually create a voice, but more so leverage a presence on LinkedIn to reach, you know, professionals like everybody who's going to join this call and others that we'll meet in the future, and just bring to them the forefront that a lot of times your skills— you all have them. Everybody's got skills. What takes place is when you get into the room for the conversation, most of those skills don't get translated, and so they get, they get left out in the open and in space. And so my passion and what my desire for what I want to do moving forward is help educate people on how to be effective at translating their skills in that conversation, get them to key points that they can do and maneuver in the market. But just remember and just help them understand that they are enough and they have enough to be able to succeed in today's market.

Perfect. One thing I've noticed too, that last thing about know, people have what it takes to succeed. I've noticed that people will take themselves physically and mentally out the game because they have not gotten the traction or whatever it is. It makes everything longer. So really important to make sure you really keep your mental, you know, physical, like, up to par so you don't take yourselves out the game. Um, okay, so we're going to talk about a lot of good stuff, but let's start with this, right? Let's say I am representing most job seekers, and let's say I'm putting out 500 resumes a week. I'm not getting nothing. What would you say is the first place I should be looking at?

So number one, it's a lot of resumes. Okay, that's, that's a lot of applications. And it's a, it's, you're widening the net and, you know, you're being active and being aggressive. But one of the first things that I would encourage everybody to do is when, when you are in that aggressive mode that I want to get my name out there, I want to submit my resume. Am I submitting the same resume to everybody? How long has that job been on the market? Do my skills match the requirements of the job? Have I done research on the company? Is it the right company with the right fit? You know, a lot of, a lot of professionals, and I get it because I was guilty of it too. We've all been there. You're looking at an opportunity and you're like, man, I'm in the Hurt Locker. I need, I need to find something that I can leverage for my skills right now. And so we'll get into that mode where we'll submit a ton of resumes to organizations. But I have recalled submitting one resume for like a month straight and not getting any calls. And I, and I would wonder myself, like, what happened? Well, some of the things I just mentioned I didn't do. I wasn't living them out. And so it wasn't an— it was a no-brainer on why, when I took a step back from the process and then thought about it. I didn't set myself up for success because I was sending the same resume. I didn't do a lot of research on the, on the positions. I figured that with that resume, people could read between the lines and they'd see the value that I had, but that wasn't the case. So I'd encourage people to— professionals to look at the resume they're submitting, and is the keywords on there to match what's in the requirements and the expectations and preferences for that, that company and for that opportunity?

Okay, so you are— seems like you're in the position of quality over quantity. Now, what is— what about the pushback for people who say, man, you know, I gotta, you know, do a tailored resume every single time? That's too much. What's your— what's your— what's your response to that?

I remember being that same person and thinking, And do I gotta, do I gotta revamp this resume for every company? Might not like my answer, but the answer is yes. So if you're wanting your skills to be highlighted and recognized, if they're not matching what that organization is looking for, you can't expect them to, to want to read between the lines and say, you know what, um, yeah, I think I could see what this person has and where they're connecting the dots. And then on that same notion, some job descriptions, when you start to save them and track who you're submitting your resumes to, you will find out that they are kind of the same. And so in that notion, that one resume may be crafted for a few job opportunities. So in essence, yes, it should be crafted to the position, But certain job, you know, positions and titles, they may change a word here or there in the title and in the description. They almost mirror each other. In that notion, one resume could suffice for a few different opportunities.

Okay, perfect. Now, let's go into, say, like common mistakes. So now we've discussed pretty much using one resume for everything. What are other common mistakes you find job seekers doing in this

market? So common mistakes that I'm seeing a lot of with job seekers when they are turning in their resume is they have an outdated format. So for example, and, and this is, this is, this one's also, you know, kind of close to home, so I'm not going to say who it is, but I had, I had somebody that I was helping do their resume And I know this person very well, and they have a great amount of skills, but the version they were using was outdated. And so it was hard to read. It had a lot of great information, but it wasn't in a modern format. It should have had like bullets highlighting achievements, quantifiable things that demonstrate what you're good at and how it aligns with solutions for what the job the company is actually searching for. And so when, when that's like, when you just kind of build that one resume and then you don't organize it or kind of go back and edit it and highlight those things and emphasize the needs of what that company's looking for, you'll miss out on an opportunity that you very may well deserve. But that's a common thing that I'm seeing a lot of. So the resume is just It's, it's great, but it could be better.

One thing I've noticed with people that when you tell them to do that, it's like they struggle to, you know, think about what they did, remember what they did. I know in the Navy at least we had to have— or we were encouraged to have an I love me binder. So everything that we, we did, we had the binder, like literally paper. Uh, and so when it came down to, you know, the time for promotions You know, we just— we were— it was just easy, um, easier. Um, what would you say, or how would you encourage folks who are just lost in that front? They're like, I don't know how to write this, or— because most people, they don't know, they don't really know how to talk about themselves pretty well. Um, well, yeah, we— and we know that pretty— yeah, I think veterans struggle with that the most too.

Oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And You know, I'll tell you, for me, for what— when I found myself struggling to kind of like identify how can I brag on myself, how can I find something that's in my history that can kind of be brought to the forefront and then put on a piece of paper, whether it's a resume or a CV, and then just kind of hone in on this is what I'm good at. AI tools are not the enemy. If anything, they are facilitators in bringing forth something that you, you may already have on your resume. Those products are crafted to go ahead and grab from your resume, and you can get a model to kind of run through and tell you exactly, like extracting this information, right? Like data extraction. Cleaning the data and cleaning that information out and then refining it in a method to where it emphasizes key things that you're wanting from a job description. But to find things to brag about, if when people actually go through their LinkedIn profile and they start, you know, looking like, okay, I have a job description that I completed, these are the things that I achieved and I were— and they were expected of me, these were my roles and responsibilities. Which ones are really going to highlight and emphasize the— if it was a highlight reel of what I achieved when I was there, what were the best things that happened when I was there? And you just keep it simple. What were the lessons? Where did I succeed? Where did I grow? How did I work well with others? And then where, where are the opportunities that elevated me to the next position? If you keep it in that format, you're like, okay, I can kind of reach back in my memory and I can remember those simple things. And they will— that will help you generate bullets and then use an AI tool model to just go in, look at your resume, tell the program what you, what you want to emphasize based off of that, kind of like that little thought process, right, as an example. And it'll get— it'll bring out those nuggets for you that you can then edit, craft, and then put on your resume.

Okay, perfect. So you're definitely one that encourages people to use these AI tools. Um, I know like using AI for like resume writing, pretty good. How about these auto-applies? Uh, they seem like there's all types now. Um, what's your stance on them?

Oh, are you talking about auto-reply like to, to—

Yeah, yeah, the auto-applies.

You know, AI tools that you can You can craft it to where it learns your tone and your voice. The more information you input, the better the output. So I'm— I can appreciate when, when someone's reluctant to want to use the, the tool just because they don't know about it, right? We fear what we don't know and we fear what we've never been exposed to. It's not a bad thing. It can help you. So I would encourage anybody to go in there and use it. Now, when crafting a message or crafting an email or whatever it is, the model can do exactly what you want it to do. For example, you utilize ChatGPT to help you craft an email, a thank you email to a person that you interviewed for. You could tell it to be formal, you could tell it to be casual. The program is just going to generate whatever response that you want, and then you can go ahead and put your personal touches on there. And sometimes you're like, well, I think I like what they say. Fine, there's nothing wrong with it. Just if you can add a personal touch to it, it'll enhance the effect of it. Because for someone in my position or someone that's in a hiring position, right, and we're looking at these, you can get— you can begin to learn the method of like, okay, this person just crafted it and just sent it across. Not a bad thing, at least they did it right. But the programs, they will craft it to your voice The more you use it and the more you, uh, you work with the automation. So I don't think they're a bad thing.

Okay, perfect. Yeah, I agree with that too. You can, uh, I don't think people know how they can adjust the personalization settings with ChatGPT, for example. Um, okay, all right, now moving on. We're going to talk about, you know, resumes a lot next week when we get into the, uh, our roast. But now let's move on to say, um, you being a tech recruiter,

Yeah,

what are some like top or like top or consistent skills or trends that you're seeing that companies are asking for in the market that, you know, people should be preparing for, maybe upskilling in?

SQL. I'm— I, I've got a lot, man. I can tell you right now that I've had candidates on virtual interviews be asked to demonstrate, share screen, and go ahead and execute SQL skills. It's— and, um, this was a— this is a good story probably for like a virtual coffee when we're not on this, but I will tell you that I, I had, uh, I had someone who, when the client asked them, when the company asked them to go ahead and demonstrate, it was like screen faded to black. And I was like, what happened? So I went to try to, you know, reach out. Hey, were you okay? Did your computer die? I get it, technical difficulties. I figured, uh, something happened. Well, what happened is he was embarrassed because he couldn't demonstrate his skills. So that's one notion, is like, if you say you have the skill, be prepared to demonstrate. Be propelled— be prepared to show somebody, right? I tell people all the time, your ability is not what you can do tomorrow. It's what you can do right now. Ability is performance on demand. SQL is one of the heaviest things that I'm seeing right now that organizations are wanting professionals to leverage. Other pieces are Power BI, utilizing Power BI, utilizing Tableau, understanding DAX calculations. There's all these things come into there using Oh, I'm probably gonna get this term wrong, so forgive me. Nobody shoot me a horrible message, but it's, uh, is it SSM Studio?

Oh, SSMS.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah, so there's, there's a commonality amongst a lot of different types of tools and products that organizations are wanting, uh, data analysis, the data scientist, the data professional to utilize. But the number one that I'm seeing come across is SQL and using SQL and just being extremely proficient with it. I mean, we have companies right now that are wanting to complete projects where they're transferring data from one, from one platform to the next. And the theme that has been happening for the last, literally the last month is SQL.

I hope everyone is picking up what Pedro is putting down. Okay, uh, that's perfect, uh, and that definitely aligns with what I've been saying. Um, it's one— like, we're definitely beyond the age where you can just watch a quick tutorial and just put proficient in XYZ and, and think you can just get through. Um, so it seems like what you're saying, that people are saying they're proficient in something They get to the interview and they just, you know, they collapse. That's, it's interesting. So when we say, or when I've noticed, or people are saying that there's so many, uh, applicants,

yeah,

not all of them are very qualified. Um, so that's interesting. Um, all right. Um, all right, Sequel. So I'm glad you didn't say AI. I gotta be honest with you. I'm glad you didn't say AI. Yeah. All right, let's cut through the hype. Okay, it's SQL, Power BI, Tableau. It's, it's all right. Let's— all right, now that we know,

brilliance in the basics, right? In the basics, right?

Okay, okay, cool. All right, so now let's say a candidate, they got the technical skills, right? What are some other maybe feedback that you've gotten why candidates may not get the role? when they do have the technical skills?

You know, very rarely is it skills. Very rarely is it skills. You know, for, for everyone who's on here and those that will jump in later, or they may watch this at another time, all your skills, they're gonna, they're gonna sell themselves because you're proficient. You, you've done the, the preparation, you have the execution, you're knowledgeable. Where people are losing an opportunity is in conveying their skills, answering questions, jumping on a call. And I'm, I'm making every effort right now because if I'm not doing it, I can't talk about it, to make eye contact with that little thing right there that looks right at the center of the computer, and which would give the sense of eye contact in a setting if I was right in front of someone. Practicing doing interviews when they're virtually— like, I will say this, about 70% of the interviews that I'm conducting with candidates and clients, they're all virtual. So, you know, if we're having an interview and my camera's here but I'm looking over here because my main screen is here, but it's— but I'm continuing this, they're all distractions. And so The biggest things that I see is candidates are not prepared. Professionals are not prepared to jump on a screen and interview virtually, and they're missing out on opportunities. They get nervous, they may wear the wrong colors. You know, I'll send an email to give someone like, here's some tips, wear these colors, you know, do XYZ, here's a 1, 2, 3, let's get you ready. And so it's all the interviewing process of just being in front of someone and answering a question, listening, listening while they're at— they're asking you questions, right? And understanding the question before you respond. It's, it's all about the interviewing, uh, portion is where I see candidates miss out the most.

That's interesting. And you might— one would think that maybe this would be obvious, but some of the stuff would be obvious, but I guess, I guess not. Um, I guess they're Needs to be more just virtual interview etiquette stuff put out.

Yep, 100%. Matter of fact, 2 big things that I share with candidates, eye contact, note-taking material. I have note-taking material so that while we're on this session, when it gets to the Q&A, I want to make sure I write down the question because it may be something that'll come across later on that I may have had. I may have an interview that I'll conduct this week or a conversation that I'll have with someone via LinkedIn. And I want to be able to refer back to this. But then also want to make sure that I'm answering the question correctly for the person asking it, because they deserve that. So if you don't practice that, and if that's, that's kind of hard to do for you, how's it going to work inside an interview where it should matter the most?

Yeah, and I will say just for reference, Pedro is definitely more on par with Interview etiquette than I am currently right now. As you can see, his background is is blurred, so you don't see. You're not distracted by the background. You know, I'm wearing a t-shirt. This is like for me. I'm just not. I'm not. I'm not at the standard right now. But what Pedro is doing is perfect. You know, collared shirt, everything. But yeah, that's simple stuff. It's always it's always sad when that when those are the the reasons why people don't. Uh, get a role, and then they never really understand why because they don't always get, you know, um, feedback or honest feedback.

Yep. You know, when, when my candidates have their, their, their interviews virtually, I'll stay on the call. I'll fade my screen to black. You know, I want to start every call with, with a, with a client and a candidate with a little, maybe a little bit of humor to kind of lighten the mood, right? I'll jump on an interview with A candidate with a professional about 15, 10 minutes prior, just talk about the day, just get them into relaxed mode. Like, hey, you got the skills, you're good, everything's fine. And then the moment the interview takes place, it's like everything goes out the window. What's going on? What happened? Who hurt you? Like, oh, I just— I got nervous. Well, you're only nervous because the email I sent you a few days ago to prep before this, you didn't look at it. You waited till the last minute. You figured that, you know, your resume is going to sell you because you have everything they're looking for. But the next thing that a lot of companies are looking— they're aiming in on is execution. And can you speak about your skills to the novice, to the person who has no knowledge about what we do? Because you're going to come across a lot of them, right? A lot of positions are asking for that. And then can you use terminology that is relevant to your profession, to when you're gathering information and you're going to speak about requirements and gather requirements and then deal with stakeholders and executives? Can you do that? So they're looking more about like what this is about, because they know the skills are going to happen. And so that's the portion where a lot of, a lot of, you know, professionals, if they're not hearing it, I'll observe it all on the interview. Once the interview is complete, then I'll stay on. But What'd you do well? Where'd you— what do you think went great? If you could have it all over again and ask that question or answer something different, or maybe it was a different topic you should have brought up, what would it have been? And to kind of prep them, you know, and just get them, get them into the mode like, the more we do this, the better you'll be on the next one, right? So yeah, it's, it's some— it's a ton of interviewing. It's— that's what it's— a lot of it boils down to.

Okay, um, one thing that Reminded me, so we, there's a lot of career changers who come into these tech, you know, fields with non-technical backgrounds. Sure. And then they, they mistakenly think that, you know, wow, I was a teacher for 20 years, or I worked in customer service for 20 years, whatever it is, they just feel like they gotta start over. You know, they don't know how to translate, they don't know how to translate their backgrounds. And in my experience, it's whenever they, when I talk to them, it seems like they come across like a novice, like a noob. Like, they present themselves like, yeah, I'm just a boot camp grad, or I just started learning. Like, they don't hype themselves up, or they don't— it's like they don't even believe that their skills are relevant enough to talk about, right? And that's one of the things we're talking about, mindset. What would you say to that? What would you say to that?

So I would say to every professional who's on here who changed their career from something previous to now, You have been an analyst your entire life. You have been analyzing every single thing. Now there's just a method to it, and there's, there's a structure and a professional rhythm that you, that you utilize, and there's tools and products that connect the dots on all of it. It's for an educator, right? Any educator who's making the move now into this, to this realm You've been analyzing your entire career and you've been working on communication skills. You've, you've been gathering data when it comes to grades. I mean, just, you're, you're executing everything that you're working on right now and you have a history of it. The process, the thought process would be is just to take a step back and review like a little movie, right? Like cut a clip and say, in that point in my life and in that point in my career, how does that apply to what I'm doing now? You know, for example, I was having a wonderful conversation with Rebecca, and it was, uh, it was the, the end of last week, and it was— we were talking about data analysts, and she was describing to me about, you know, her thought of what, you know, she's wanted to get into a certain industry How can she tie that in? And, you know, how would— how does it become relevant? So I took a note from my book and said, well, listen, I was on recruiting in the Marine Corps, and in recruiting in the Marine Corps, we do a lot of analysis, right? And we collect a lot of data, and we utilize Power BI, and then we take that data and we create visualizations for meetings, and we speak to high-level officials because we're always looking to drive decisions. And when I took that method and I understood exactly how it played out, I'm like, oh wow, I've been doing this my whole time. I'm not even a data analyst right now, but I've been analyzing data. I wish I had the other portions of the skills because it'd probably make me more marketable what I do right now. But it's just taking a step back and looking at your career and understanding that at one point or another you did some of these parts and it is applicable right now. And so then tying that into the story, the storytelling that you may have to do That is the number one thing. Just take a step back and reflect on what you've achieved and what you've done, and I guarantee you'll find a moment of when you were doing it already at that time.

Yeah, that's some great insight. I feel like if no one's done that, take— like, to me, that, like, that, that shapes your mindset. When I talked about before how people get discouraged and take themselves out the game, or they position themselves as entry-level because they don't believe in their skills, if you just take even like 30 minutes to do like an exercise like this It's going to set your mindset for the rest of 2025 and you're going to be focused. You're going to be focused. You're just going to be rolling through walls. Okay, now let's talk about further along in terms of how people can get recognized. I try to tell people they got to get their LinkedIn straight. You got to get your LinkedIn together. Recruiters are just on LinkedIn for hours.

Right.

You want to be able to put yourself in position to where you're found on there. Some people just, they don't believe me or whatever it is that they're stuck on just their resume. And I'm like, that's not enough these days. There's other ways you need to set yourself apart. Please tell the people how important and critical, uh, your LinkedIn profile plays into landing an offer these days.

I saw a great quote this morning and it was of someone on making a comment and it said, it's better to be found than to try to find. And that's a lot of what's happening right now. People are finding you and they're finding you on LinkedIn. And so number one, if you have a LinkedIn, amazing. If you're not doing anything with it, that's, that's a missed opportunity. So, you know, resumes, right? If you're like, oh, my resume is going to tell the story. All right, cool. If you have LinkedIn, for me, I'm just going to tell you what I'm doing. I see your LinkedIn profile, I'm going to go to your LinkedIn profile from your resume and I'm going to see, okay, is there more to the story on their profile? Is this history of this, these skills and this experience, is it listed? I, I want to know more about you, right? I want to know like who you are and what you bring, but I just, I just want to see because most of the time people's resumes don't have their picture. So excuse me, when your, your picture's on, on LinkedIn, if you have a profile and you have a picture, number one, I'm gonna think it's fake. Okay, believe it or not, we do get fake candidates, and that's probably the worst waste of time that's ever experienced on, on, uh, in recruiting and staffing and hiring, everything. So if you got a picture, fantastic, but That's, that's a window into who you are. So you want to make sure it's a good profile and it's got all your relevant information, all your experience. You got a great picture because the numbers are there, right? And I wrote these down. 97% of recruiters are going to go to LinkedIn from your resume, or they're going to look you up by your resume on LinkedIn because that's where a lot of people are. And out of that People with a photo, you get 21 times more profile views and 36 times more messages when your LinkedIn is updated, when you have a photo and it's crafted. So if those numbers right there— because everybody on here about numbers— that should tell you something. Like, those things should scream out to you, fix my LinkedIn profile, let me get active on there, let me have a good photo, let me make sure it matches my resume. Because now if a company's looking at your resume and then they go to your profile and then we see activity and you're also on there adding a post about a certain project or, or a product you've got experience with, or one you haven't had experience with but you're venturing off into in a personal project, and you've published it for the world to see because you're not afraid to showcase your skills One day or not, one day or another, you're gonna have to do it. Now what we're gauging is like, this person is aggressive in their nature to want to find their next opportunity. And I have found professionals without having called them about a job yet because I've gone to their LinkedIn and everything is there. It's like, okay, this is awesome. Yeah, let me, let me just go ahead and message this person. This job hasn't become available yet, but when it does, this is the first person I want to put in line for that hiring manager so they can interview.

I'm really glad you said that. 97%, that's, that's high. That's, that's way higher than I, at least I expected. But I had to pin it on the screen so people can see. I also saw— I'm not— I also saw a, or heard a stat that, um, about 15 seconds, uh, average time people spend on your profile, and half of that is on the banner. Interesting. So, you know, most people's banner, it's, it's not— it's, it can be anything. Sometimes it's nothing, it could be one of those basic ones on LinkedIn, you know, uploaded to LinkedIn. But can you imagine how you can just shape it to where, you know, especially like how those like LinkedIn coaches are, how they have their banners and they kind of— we're selling things, but everyone's selling things. You're either selling yourself as a job candidate or you're selling a service. So why not follow the same, the same type of, uh, you know, framework and just apply it to yourself? And it's just so simple. I mean, it's so simple, but you don't even have to be a designer anymore because Canva has all these types of new, uh, you know, banner framework. Like, it's so many, so much symbols. All right.

Oh yeah.

Um, Mateo made a good comment. Do we have to make LinkedIn profile pictures visible to anyone Um, not just one's network. I think that's super important because some people, they don't realize their privacy settings are set up to where only their first-degree connections can only see their photo. Um, is that a red flag when you go to someone's profile and there's no photo?

100%. 100%. I— and this is just me speaking, okay? Maybe somebody else doesn't see it this way and they're like, oh, it doesn't matter. Because of fake candidates, which it's horrible for anybody who's a candidate. We're all candidates at one point or another, but fake candidacy and resume submissions is, is the worst. So no picture, that's what— that's— I go by like a 3-strike rule. No picture, that's strike one, but I'm still going to read through the profile. That the skills and experience from the resume don't match the actual skills and everything and experience listed on LinkedIn, that's strike 2. Okay, all right. But if they're active, all right, let me look at what they're posting a little bit, right? No post or no activity for like 4 or 5 months, I'm like, all right, this, this has to be a fake profile. Swipe it. I don't even pay attention anymore. Because if anything, it's just gonna— it may lead me down a path that is highly probable that it's not even a real person. So then I'm not even gonna waste the time.

So that's, that's an insight hearing from now on the other side that there's fake candidates. On this side, a lot of job seekers are saying there's fake job postings. Yeah, it's— that is interesting. Okay. Um, are you guys also using like AI tools to filter out, you know, potential fake profiles? Or spam profiles?

You know what, I haven't. So I haven't taken a profile and then dropped it into like ChatGPT or anything to see like, is this legit? Um, that's probably— that may be something I try. Uh, but the majority of the time, everybody's— it's a real person. But the way I look at LinkedIn, right, the way I looked at the platform And you mentioned it earlier, every opportunity to sell yourself is taking place from the moment you wake up, right? We sell people on how they want— we want to be seen. We sell them on what they want to know about us or what we want them to know. And so if your LinkedIn is the first next avenue after your resume to figure out who you are, and you have a chance to kind of showcase yourself, all right, as a professional, why not take advantage of it? If over 90%, 97% of recruiters are looking at you, make it, make it worthy, make it, make it a great platform, right? Be found. Don't try to find people, be found. And your activity will have people find you.

Perfect. Okay, now one thing I want to ask, um, And I'm pretty sure tons of people here are going to reach out to you. It's obvious the type of value you can provide a job seeker. You're a recruiter, obviously, and you probably get tons of DMs. But what makes a message stand out to you? What are, what are maybe ways candidates can, you know, craft a much better message to you that would increase the likelihood that you would actually respond?

You know what, I wish I got more DMs, I'll tell you that. I wish I got more. For anyone though that would send me a message, something that happens like, you know, when you accept a connection request, if you auto— if it does like an auto generation, I don't look at that bad. I'm like, they have a great setup, cool. I wish mine was doing that. I'm not gonna do it though because I want everyone to know like you said a moment ago, sometimes they're like, oh, this might be a fake job, this might be a fake opportunity. And so when we're sending that, that information across, I don't want you to think I'm fake, which is why I'm so active on LinkedIn. If I'm, you know, sharing somebody who's open to network, I'm sharing a job, I'm posting an article, whatever that is, I want you to know I'm a real person. And which is why I love coffee virtuals. But if a professional goes on the LinkedIn they send me a message and they've done anything to look at my profile, maybe seen a comment or a post or anything that I've shared and it resonated with them and they dropped that into the message, that means a little bit more than, than the one that's automated, I'll tell you that. And that's going to stick out more. And then when anyone who's just, you know, just humble— and you can, you can usually tell when somebody writes you a a thought-provoking and meaningful message, those are the ones that automatically they grab my attention. And I have the nature that I want to be able to help everybody have a great opportunity at success. So I want more messages so that that way I can reach out and help as many people as possible. You know, I don't— it may not be a reality, but if somebody takes the time, goes to my page, finds something, shares shares anything that resonated with them and it's more than the automated message, it's going to catch my attention. And then, you know, I like coffee. You see me grabbing my cup right here. You want to join a little virtual coffee, 10, 15 minutes, whatever it may be, just to talk? By all means. Those, those always catch my attention.

Okay, perfect. Yeah, I, I know with LinkedIn I can tell people, uh, they would they can see that, you know, hey, we have like common connections when, you know, I don't even know who that person is. And they'll like say, hey, I know we're connected, I see we're connected with so-and-so, I'd like to— and I'm like, first of all, there's so much on my profile that you can just and just kind of reference and ask me something. Yeah. Um, and then you're just gonna pick a random person that we're, you know, linked with and a common connection. So I don't know, I do feel like people approach networking just so selfishly. Um,

transactional.

Very transactional. It's very—

yeah.

All right, we're gonna head on to— or we're gonna move on or head into the Q&A. We got some good questions in the chat.

Cool.

And, um, so what I have y'all— so on the screen— oh, actually, let me get this full. All right, so what I have on the screen, if y'all can't already tell, Pedro is, is full of insight, and he works for a company that helps, um, job seekers. So please reach out to him if you are data analysts, you know, decision support analysts, if you're looking to get into management roles and machine learning. developer, please reach out to him. The QR code is there to, um, go straight to his profile, um, and then connect with him. Maybe if he doesn't have a role right now, if— please make a great impression so that, you know, he can keep you in line for the future. Do what he spoke about today so that, you know, you're not just someone who's obviously just transactional. Um, but we're gonna, we're gonna get in a Q&A now, and here's one question from Teo. That's good. You know, what kind of activities do you watch out for on LinkedIn profiles apart from posting projects that you meant earlier? I know you mentioned a little bit, but like, is there anything else that kind of stands out? Because most people's profiles aren't really— there's not much going on. Most people don't post. So what else do you look for that helps stand out? They're like, oh, I got to get this candidate to the hiring manager tomorrow.

You know, when, when I, when I see somebody's profile and if they're not sharing a project, but maybe they've written a comment on an article and it's an article that's, that's resonating with the market today, or their experience with an interview that they had with someone or a job that they submitted their resume to, I'm reading all of that information. And, you know, there's something that's floating a lot right now on LinkedIn, and it's about the candidate experience. When it comes to applying for different types of job opportunities and, you know, how a candidate is being treated, you know, if they're being called back or anything. And so if you have an experience with those things, if you're just— I'm not— I don't want to make it seem like you have to go to LinkedIn to vet about the process, but if you're sharing your experience and maybe a lesson you've learned from it, anything like that, that those types of items that when they populate on a profile, I'll read 'em. And for me, that shows that you're willing to be transparent about the process that you're going through. And if there's a certain job that you were looking for, there's a company that you applied to, something, you don't need to divulge all that information. But the main thing I'm getting out right now to hit the nail on it is that just being active on the platform And if it's more than a project and it's an article or anything else, your activity demonstrates the fact that you're willing to utilize the platform to be found. That's the number one thing. So activity on the platform is what I really look for.

Okay, so one thing I get when it comes down— when I try to encourage people to be active on LinkedIn more, one, they're all, you know, there's always being scared. But 2, there's folks who maybe they're currently working, but they don't want their employer to know, or they don't want to give off an impression to their current employer that they're, you know, probably looking for other things.

Oh yeah.

Is there anything that you— you know, part of me feels like it's, it's just all in their head. I don't, I don't, I don't believe— I don't, I don't think it's a bad thing. But what would you say to that?

I can respect it 100%. I can respect it. You don't, you don't want to give off the vibe that like I'm casually keeping myself available, right? As you want to feel tied and loyal to the company, you know, and, and that's respectable 100%. Nobody stays in a job anymore for 20, 30, 40 years. No one. You know, very— and I mean, I've retired from the Marine Corps, 23 years, and that's, that's even not as common as what people would realize. So I'm not telling you you need to be all out there and saying you're willing to leave and you don't appreciate where you're at, but sharing your experiences and sharing your strengths, those items will get you noticed. And a good amount of professionals who are getting noticed are those who are showcasing their celebrations of success with their company, because organizations look for people who are like that. And so you will be found by doing that on that platform. And so I'm not telling you that you're supposed to have this view like, okay, if I act like I like my company a lot, somebody's gonna find me. But just by being just open and sharing your experiences that you enjoy, you will come across an opportunity. And even if you're not looking, somebody will find you and somebody will reach out. I actually did that today to like 2 different people, and it's because I saw the, the type of member of an organization they are, and I know that there's clients that I serve that are looking for Professionals like that. And it's not, it's not wrong for me to reach out because then they can just say, well, I'm glad where I'm at, I'm happy where I'm at. If things change, by all means, maybe I'll reach out to you, but I'm 100% great where things are today. Cool. But it's always good to know that you're wanted. So don't be afraid to post anything. Share your strengths, share your celebrations. Like I said, nobody stays in a job anymore for 20, 30, 40 years.

Some of the best, some of the better LinkedIn profiles that I've seen from people who are not, you know, content creators, so to speak. And this was probably like 2 years ago before the wave kind of increased. So, so for people who, they're involved in things at work, they're involved in things at school for those in school, you know, for those who are not really on LinkedIn a lot, but they're just involved, right? And there's events and things like that, and people take pictures. You take pictures or people, and you post them and say, hey, I went to the— this conference. Or those are some of the best ones. I think those are like the best.

Oh yeah.

I mean, because it says a lot about you too. Like, when you see those, and I think those are really good for folks who are especially trying to rise up into their career. I've seen those a lot so that you don't have to just stay online all the time. It's still sharing your experiences, whether you're doing projects or doing stuff at work, and whether it's once a week, once a month, it's something. It's better than this user hasn't posted anything. Yeah. Okay. Rebecca asks, how frequently do you recommend posting on LinkedIn? For those who want to post,

if you could do it every other day, or let's just say you could actually go in, you could go online, you could go on an AI model and it'll tell you how frequent to post, right? That's, that's a simple answer. Now everybody's different and everybody wants to do it in, in their own way. Simple thing would be You post a few times during the week. A few can be two, three, four, right? Just to show that you are in the game, right? That you're there, you're real. That's way better than three weeks ago, once during the month, four months ago. Last time you did anything was at the Christmas party, whatever, right? Or last time you did anything was at the New Year celebration, or whatever holiday or anything that's being celebrated, right? Or Somebody's— I don't know, you went to a conference and the conference was for, you know, data professionals and it was held in Wisconsin and it was like 2023. Like, oh, it's— I think everybody's catching, catching what I'm saying on this. A few times a week you should be fine, right? And if you want to post more, more's— there's nothing wrong with more, uh, but don't, don't, don't do it like Don't do it like every other week. That's, that's what I have to offer on that.

And, and commenting too. I, I find people on— I find people's comments on other posts, I find them like— I'll see their— I'll see them on my, uh, feed like, I don't know, 5 times in a day that I checked, more so than their actual post. And these are content creators with reach. I'll see their comments on post more. So I, I have to encourage people to do that too, especially to warm them up, or just comments. Um, that's good. Um, all right. And there's a lot of great conversations and comments. Oh yeah. Don't go to— like, when I say comments, don't try to go to the big creator and just like— and no one talks to you. There's like— go to Pedro's comment, like, go to Pedro's post and comment. Just a lot of great conversation. generated there. Um, okay, we have another question here, and this goes back to folks trying to translate their non-technical experience into data analytics. So Joseph says, currently transitioning into data analytics, he's got 3+ years of remote work experience in customer service. How can I find a niche in data analytics leveraging my experience?

Hmm, 3 years remote work experience in customer service. How can I find a niche in data data analytics leveraging my experience. Oh man, if Joseph could tell me what kind of niche he's trying to— like, if you could give an example, that would help out a lot. Because niche could be a certain industry, niche could be a certain tool, it could be a certain product. You know, there's, there's a lot of different, different ones out there. So let's just say, for example, it's a— it's an industry. Okay, you want to leverage your way into an industry, and if it's one that you haven't had experience with, well, do your homework, right? This is where the personal projects can take effect, where if there's an industry you haven't been exposed to, do research on it, publish that research, put it on there as far as what's your take on it, and then invite engagement for professionals who do have experience in it. That way you can channel your way into the, to the conversation with them and you can grow from that. A certain tool, certain product, you could do the same thing with it, right? Talk about your, your experience with it, your strengths, invite people into the conversation, and that in that manner you can then go through and demonstrate your ability as a subject matter expert or someone who's interested in growing in it And you're seeking advice, you're seeking, you know, knowledge sharing. You know, that's the— that's one of the biggest things that I'm not sure if you're experiencing, experiencing it, Kedisha, was LinkedIn has turned— is like prominently grown into a knowledge sharing platform. People are sharing how-tos, they're sharing pro tips, they're, they're talking about, you know, like little, little slides on, you know, using AI. Everything is about knowledge sharing on the platform. So if you're— if your niche is to learn about something and grow in it, start the conversation. If it is to showcase your skills and attract the right audience, talk about it, invite people through engagement. If it's something you haven't been exposed to and you want to go to an industry, research an article, give your view on it, invite people in. If you're hearing the, the method of what I'm talking about is Leveraging the platform to invite the conversation, to open doors and bring the right eyes to the room.

That's an amazing way to go about it. For those who— sometimes people, you know, they'll have an HR background, or they'll have something. I like to say that definitely try to spend some time targeting analytics roles in that industry that you've already worked in, because you have that subject matter expertise already. So that's always like the easier route. There's some people who just want to go into a completely different industry. And in that way, definitely do what you just said. You can, especially nowadays, it's so, there's so many datasets or problems like finding high impact problems in that industry, getting data on there and then creating projects on there about it, posting it on LinkedIn. You can post articles on LinkedIn, like a blog. and have that on— imagine that on your LinkedIn.

Oh yeah.

Pedro sees it, he's like, wow, this person did this analysis and really good visuals and storytelling on this particular— like, absolutely. Now you have evidence that most people don't have because you can't put that on your resume. Um, oh, you know what, let's, let's, let's talk about— now you mentioned projects, but like Do you ever look at— some people post their like portfolios. Like, where would you say, um, how would you say someone having a portfolio of projects, of evidence, um, how does that differentiate them or separate them from the pack since most people don't? Does that, does that, you know, give you like a good green light or kind of like a green signal?

Absolutely. And I'm gonna be the first person to tell everyone, and I'm sure we can all agree, it is nearly impossible to know everything about this world of data analytics. It's impossible. On that notion, I want to learn. I have this sponge mentality, you know. If I don't know about something, I want to do the research on it. I want to figure it out. I want to connect all the dots. So when a candidate or a professional publishes those, those, you know, achievements, those projects, and I can literally walk through and then connect the dots, it's an amazing feeling. And then the other portion is that if I'm doing it right, everybody else is doing it and they're seeing it. Don't, don't be afraid of criticism or feedback, right, or what anybody's gonna say, because this platform and on LinkedIn and everything is so big Everybody's gonna have a thought and they're gonna have an opinion. The only one that should matter is yours, and that's it, because you're, you're courageous enough to put it out there. But to answer your question, right, to hone in on it, when I see it and it gives me the opportunity to learn and to grow, and I recognize the confidence that someone had to publish it and to share it, that's a next level item because there— that means there is no fear And then when the moment is alive to be in front of a stakeholder, to be in a room with executives, to then go ahead and give a visualization on anything that they have done. Because if you can do that for LinkedIn where everybody can see it, it's not going to be as tough when you get in the room when everybody's really watching you and you're right there on the show, right? You're on Broadway and you can't do anything about it because people are looking at you for the answers. So I love seeing those things.

Okay, hope y'all are picking up what Pedro is putting down. Okay, um, close to the end of the hour, I want to finish with this last question, and this is something that I've seen quite a bit. So when I know when people want to gain experience, they'll do freelancing, um, sometimes they'll do like part-time freelancing.

Mm-hmm.

What's the best way that they can, you know, leverage or kind of put that on their resume so it doesn't look sketchy. It seems like Trang here worked as a freelancer. Some recruiters got confused by the timeline of jobs. Um, what's a great way to reframe or, you know, frame that type of experience without it looking like a red flag?

You know, the bigger red flag is when there's nothing there, when, when somebody has to fill in the, fill in the blank themselves. That's the bigger red flag. So if you have the ability to put it on there and articulate your, you know, your achievements and, and the work you completed, you know, on, on an independent level. Frame it the same way you would with work experience achieved for an organization. Freelance work and going out there and actually doing it, you know, independently, that's important too. Just because it wasn't for a company doesn't mean it doesn't matter. So my answer is Set it up, format it correctly like you would any type of work experience. Put in quantifiable items that you achieved and you completed any work that you did, right? It can also lead to a conversation where that person may be somebody that you— that does end up providing a recommendation, because we do look for recommendations when we're getting you in front of clients. But yes, don't leave it blank. Don't leave it blank. Set it up the same way, because the worst thing you can do is have it blank and then we have to fill in the information ourselves.

Okay, perfect. I think that was a great way to end. Pedro, that was great. Dropping gems all night. Well, past hour. Okay, so y'all, Pedro, as you heard, listen, he's very friendly, no nonsense, as you can see, and he's going to help you as much as he can. The QR code will take you straight to his profile. Please send him a message. Please send him a connection request. Attach a message. If you're on your cell phone, I would recommend you wait till you get on your laptop because sometimes it's really— sometimes it's hard to do it on your phone. But attach a message and please say, hey Pedro, it was nice meeting you. I watched you tonight on the webinar. Mention an insight that he said. One of the 100,000 that he dropped that, that really resonated with you. If you're looking to, um, you know, if you need help, you know, with your job seeking, please, you know, say, hey, I've been looking for a job, wonder if you can help, whatever it is. But please do it that way. Make it about him, then make it about— then, you know, ask for something. But, um, I— and let me know, Pedro, how many people, you know, reach out to you and don't do this, okay? We will, we will make sure that is, uh, we'll keep that, we'll keep that data. And next week, y'all, Pedro will be back and he's going to be doing a resume roast. All right, we spent like the first 30 minutes talking about resumes and it's gonna be good. All right, um, all right, uh, again, it was great. Uh, glad to see everybody. Um, any last words, Pedro, before we're done?

Well, I want to thank you again for, you know, giving me the opportunity to do this. I hope that everyone who was here and, and will tune in later will find value in, in some of the topics and things that we discussed. And by all means, I'm not going to tell you that I have all the answers. I got a couple that they'll probably help you out, I'll tell you that. And from, from my heart to yours, honestly, what I want to convey to you is the fact is that you are enough. You, you have all the skills. Someone like myself, we can just help you get ready and prep for the conversation. And if you're looking for authenticity and you're looking to uncover the keys that'll open the right doors because the old ways are not working, let's talk. Let's figure out a way to, to bring you up to the modern time right now in 2025, because this ain't 2020 or 2015. And let's get you all the answers you're looking for. And whether I'm the one to help you or someone else, let's at least start building those steps so that we can make the make the entry the way it needs to be.

All right, all right, that was great. Let's see y'all next week and have a great night.