How to FIX your HORRIBLE Resume !

Speaker 1: 0:00

Real quick, though. Let's talk about our resume's dudes and don'ts.

Speaker 2: 0:04

The main one that cracks me up is why are y'all putting your address on the resume? Why? I literally want to know. I had someone provide and this is outside of resumes, but it's still like with cover letters she had a five page cover letter. What are you possibly talking about? I?

Speaker 1: 0:26

also find you didn't touch on saying I on a resume.

Speaker 2: 0:30

Oh my gosh. Yes, please don't say. I Don't say I am a proficient, I am a dedicated, I am a hardworking.

Speaker 1: 0:38

Take all them things off. Take that out. You know I tend to be hardworking, troubleshooting, collaboration skills.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Or aspiring. Don't say aspiring. Also, don't say seeking opportunities.

Speaker 1: 0:52

in your resume summary it's not even a hot take number, but we don't even use summaries anymore. If you got a lot of experience, I give you a career highlights where we can talk about highlights related to the role of roles you apply to, but summaries are like a waste of time for people who don't experience. Are you interested in starting your career in the cloud? Well, if that's you, then I got some for you. Live up and take is a comprehensive 24 week program guaranteed to help you land a high paying role in the cloud. Some of the skills that they teach you in live up and take are server config and troubleshooting, aws infrastructure as code, ci, cd scripting, containerization and more. Level up and take has helped over 800 people start their career in the cloud. So if you're interested in the program, click the link in my bio, click on the tech resources and click on start your cloud career. So I was watching some of your other interviews and since you was talking about being a writer and what you thought you, I think you still got a time to be a writer. I don't want to say you're not going to be a writer, so what I want to ask you is what is your favorite book?

Speaker 2: 2:03

Honestly, I don't know, because when I was younger I like this book called a lost boy and it was about a little kid looking to find his father on his music journey. He knew that his dad was a jazz musician and he was in the orphanage and he just saw this flyer that's all he had in his suitcase from home to home that he was going to and it was like very inspirational for such a young kid to have. This is one little piece of guidance to find his father and eventually he did. He kept going to all the like jazz festivals and music productions to look for his dad and then he eventually found them. It took, of course, some years. He was like seven and he's tell all his foster parents to to make sure that he could still go see any music industry people plan and then he wanted to find him around like 15 years old.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Okay, it sounds like an interesting book. I can't tell you what's my favorite cover. So many as a child and a couple of my adult life. I'm busier, so now sometimes, if I can't read them, I listen to audio books. I think in high school I started getting into like the black authors I used to read, like most of the books my mom had in there with like Eric Jerome Dickey or call Rivers, like really like my favorite, call weather Travis Hunter. I think I was like my three favorite writers. I did read meeting. I did read midnight in high school. That book is like this big. Yeah, I read midnight in high school. It was funny. It's like it's crazy. I don't know if I was bringing it to school or not. My friend at the time she said she was trying to get into it but she couldn't. I was like we got to just keep reading this slow burn for the book. But let me get some cuffs Now that I walk you all up. Welcome back to the technical talk podcast. I'm your host, h D's episode 105. And yeah, man, I got a good guest for you guys today. Her name is Erica Thomas, aka the resume Bay. I know you've probably seen her on LinkedIn or Instagram or some of the podcast on YouTube. But today she came to rock with us and we're going to talk about her journey and what made her start resume Bay University. But without further do, let's give her a round of applause real quick. Hello, hey, erica. How's it going today?

Speaker 2: 4:36

Good, how are you, henry?

Speaker 1: 4:40

I'm good, even though it's actually unreed, but I'll let you slide the first time.

Speaker 2: 4:44

Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1: 4:47

Man, but so early you guys heard us with top of my books and that's going to correlate to the questions I'm going to ask her because anybody knows most of the time you have writers and you have people that can also write resumes, and she just happens to be both. But, erica, how about you tell our listeners and audience a little bit about yourself?

Speaker 2: 5:08

Of course I am Erica aka resume Bay, now known as coach Bay. I one, of course, am a mom, so that comes before any industry desire that I have, and, outside of being a mom, I am a advocate for career growth. Have worked in several different industries in the past, so now being able to help people in redirection and rebranding it definitely is a part of my passion and a part of my own journey to continue to see people, especially people of color, to get where they desire to be.

Speaker 1: 5:47

Okay, great, where are you from?

Speaker 2: 5:50

I am from Philly, the 215 better known for cheese steaks and pretzels and our famous water ice.

Speaker 1: 6:00

Okay, you were. You from like North Philly. What part of Philly you from?

Speaker 2: 6:04

Yeah, I would say North Philly, like Fairmont area where the art museum is in the zoo in between those two.

Speaker 1: 6:12

I read somewhere that you was an extra in the Fat Albert movie when they was dancing in the mall. Is that true?

Speaker 2: 6:19

No, I wish that's when I think that we came out before I was even born.

Speaker 1: 6:23

No, it didn't. We are the, the original, no the movie, the one they did. When we were younger I was like middle school with the kind of pride and Keenan and all them, omar and all them was in the movie.

Speaker 2: 6:40

Oh, yes, that one. Yeah, I probably had to be around like 10, 11. Yeah, maybe when we was all around the same age.

Speaker 1: 6:46

I just do something, see if it's gonna stick, if you actually remember the movie or not. I just was watching it last night. It's one of my favorite movies actually.

Speaker 2: 6:53

Yeah, that's the oldie for sure.

Speaker 1: 6:55

Yes, almost 20 years old. Wow, yeah, make me feel like an oldie. That would make sense.

Speaker 2: 7:00

That would make sense, yeah, if I was around like 10. Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:04

What are some random things about yourself, like just random that no one probably would ever put together with you.

Speaker 2: 7:10

I'm left handed, I don't know how to swim and I probably and I've never tasted oysters. I know that's like the new wave, especially like in Atlanta and stuff. So if I had to think those are like some three that people really wouldn't know.

Speaker 1: 7:34

Speaking of Atlanta, you're actually going down there pretty soon, so are you gonna be like the girl you're gonna order like 40 oysters on a date?

Speaker 2: 7:41

I'm nervous, honestly. I saw that video and I was like damn, the way she was eating. Those definitely seemed appealing and interesting, but I don't know she said appealing and interesting. I'll let you know. Maybe I'll do a little trial. I'll start up with five. I'm always down to try, so at least I'll try and let y'all know.

Speaker 1: 8:02

Okay, okay, okay, real quick, we'll begin to your early life. So early career let's talk about after high school. Did you go to college? Did you do boot camp?

Speaker 2: 8:14

Yeah, Honestly, I felt like I did any and everything. I applied for colleges, did the standard application process and I got into some but I didn't actually go forth with it and I wound up taking a shortcut and doing medical assistance school back when Lincoln Tech was a thing. I did, complete that, graduated from that and worked in that field for a little while and that was around between I want to say, 19 to like 21, 22,. Then decided to see what other jobs are out there and get into the more like call center corporate world. So I got my first big girl job at 23 when I moved to Baltimore and started working at Comcast. So that was like the start of my corporate career being in the call center and environment of what do I want to do with myself? Cool.

Speaker 1: 9:20

What were you doing at Comcast?

Speaker 2: 9:23

I started out as typical tech support fixing cable boxes, sending out technicians, making appointments, helping people with their bills what else did I do? I feel like I've done everything. With escalations. It really helped prepare me for like crazy situations, like life, honestly, because I was such sheltered in, not really knowing how to handle crazy tough situations. So working there honestly, to be honest, my first day of training like when we got to be on the phones and take our first calls I got cursed out and I cried Like after the call was over, I literally went in the hallway and I cried to my supervisor like what the heck is going on, that's not me and like it's not my fault that their cable is not working. Perfect your bill is high. So once I jumped started in that industry, I was like okay, what else is out there for me?

Speaker 1: 10:18

Yeah, and actually I want to let anybody know that that does a role like that type of call support, call center work. This is the first thing you got to realize. The people are not necessarily mad at you. They mad that they bill or something is high nail nose going on with it or something's not working. If you can keep that in the forefront you'll probably be able to diffuse most situations. I ain't going to say all, but most situations with customers if not escalate, sending somebody else away. I was just sending. Look, I did what I could. They was still mad. You're going to be mad, I ain't do it. Whatever you click on, that's what you pay for. So I've been through that. I believe there's always the misconception of people doing those type of jobs or people looking down on them and not realizing how much they help the business. Listen, y'all talk down so much on help desk or call centers that they outsource to the people that don't even speak English anymore. So you really be pissed off more now because you don't understand what people talk about. They don't understand what you're saying. I hate that.

Speaker 2: 11:18

And they're. Also, when you ask for a supervisor, just know you're really not talking to a supervisor. You're not talking to one of our friends who's been there a little bit longer than us and know how to handle escalations, Because I was only there for six months and they were like Erica, I need you to take this escalation because at that point, six months in and a call center, you're a veteran Because that turnover rate is so crazy.

Speaker 1: 11:42

Yeah, that sounds yeah, Just a little tidbit. We used to actually use supervisors because it was like, hey, sometimes they got the authority to because they could look them up. Because we used to work for TI, I was wondering why things that they're flesh was yeah for sure.

Speaker 2: 11:56

There's definitely been actual supervisors to like overrides and stuff, but like little silly calls of I don't want to talk to you anymore, I want to talk to their supervisor. Yeah, is this me? I just switched up my voice a little bit, especially if I couldn't find anybody. Oh yeah, you're going to go on mute for about 30 seconds and we're going to come back and say, oh my goodness, I am so sorry about the issues that you're having. How can I help you? Yes, I will absolutely talk with Erica and see how the next caller can be treated a little bit fairly if you felt like things were unfair for you.

Speaker 1: 12:29

You really could do. I just thought about something you could do to boom your tits like out. You can go live and do NPC call center stuff.

Speaker 2: 12:37

Yes.

Speaker 1: 12:38

I don't get the people that do it. Oh, I get some people that act like superheroes or they're saying stuff from a video game, but then you have people that are real deal. They phone up doing NPC stuff as people are walking past them, like in New York City, and stuff. What is wrong?

Speaker 2: 12:51

with you. Yeah, the Spider-Man kid.

Speaker 1: 12:53

He's fine because he's copying stuff from a game and I think I see some of his other kinds of he actually puts up other kinds of. Some of the people were like they're saying stupid stuff. If you're saying something from a video game or a character, I get it. It ain't for me. I don't have better things to do my day, but at the same time they're making money out of TikTok. I'm not.

Speaker 2: 13:10

Right.

Speaker 1: 13:12

But after you left Comcast, is that when you got into project management?

Speaker 2: 13:17

Yes. So I started doing project management in the grand scheme of real estate and that definitely helped me. I started out as like an admin personnel and then I branched out when things were like moving fast-paced and they realized that they needed to basically catch up with the time. It was like 2014 when Instagram started becoming a thing and hashtagged or like everything, especially to generate more leads and followers and things like that. So, by me knowing what I needed to do it because I was of age and I was like a part of the industry of social media I was like, yeah, let's get this, let's get this going. So I started doing that as like a junior project manager, helping them with their new location and their setup and redesign and rebrand. So that definitely was like, okay, how can I do this in other industries? So after that, then I branched off into logistics Definitely.

Speaker 1: 14:19

What commercial is that when they talk about it's logistics? I forgot what is it? I don't know, but that's what reminded me of. So how was that transition going from the real estate industry into logistics? What was that like?

Speaker 2: 14:33

It was definitely a change. Once you're especially in project management, when you're pigeon-toed into an industry, they don't see you as being very multi I want to say factual for them, because they're just thinking you're only good in this one industry. But logistics and real estate can flow with each other, especially in regards like transportation, contracts, communication, time zones. So when you think outside the box, it's easy to let them see your transferable skills. But the easiest way for me is that I had to suck up the fact that I needed to do contract work, so that was my only way in. It was like okay, we'll give you a chance if you understand like you could only be on this for six months.

Speaker 1: 15:24

Got it, so now let's get into. I've seen this on some of your previous podcast episodes you've been on and I guess I want to ask you how do you go from doing logistics for I think, with UPS right?

Speaker 2: 15:43

UPS and NFI.

Speaker 1: 15:46

And now you jump from there and then you got into a main company. How did that happen?

Speaker 2: 15:50

no-transcript. Honestly, it happened by accident and one of the recruiters reached out to me. If you're familiar with Randstad, they have a partnership with them. They're like a long-term contract and they just happened to like the recruiter that I was speaking with. I wound up not getting a different role because by the time she found me, somebody also had already simply accepted the offer. So she was like give me a few days, I'll find something else for you which you wanted to find in that position. And so it definitely happened by accident. But when the job was very much real, the Big Tech company was like oh my gosh, I hit my mark and, honestly, on their side to get in it really wasn't that much of a strenuous process. It was making sure my interview skills and my communication was on point, because that's what they needed. They needed someone with good communication skills and being able to handle a lot of onboarding processes really fast.

Speaker 1: 16:46

Yeah, and I briefly want to ask you what is an onboarding specialist and what are they?

Speaker 2: 16:52

An onboarding specialist is someone who is in charge of all the new hires that are coming in during that segment of the hiring season and you're responsible from. It can be anything like sitting out at equipment doing I-9s, making sure that they signed all the documents for background checks, fingerprints if needed, getting them set up with the employee logins. So it's like a wide range of things, but you have to basically make sure their personal checklist is up to date and, let's say, drug screening needs to be done usually within 72 hours. So if they're already reaching 60 hours and they haven't scheduled an appointment, you got to call them or email them and say, hey, did you set up your appointment? Things like that, because their process will get obviously delayed if they don't get that stuff done.

Speaker 1: 17:42

And the brief time you did that. How was that role?

Speaker 2: 17:46

It was fun. It was definitely fun, I think, for me. I did the Amia region, which is the South America and East Asia region, so to know how big this company actually is and how many people that they're constantly hiring in the industries that I was responsible for, onboarding was definitely like wow.

Speaker 1: 18:07

Yeah, yeah. So did that contract come to an end? Or they just had it abrupt stop, or they did layoffs? What happened with it?

Speaker 2: 18:15

It was literally a little bit of both. Every person got affected in some way. For me, the easiest way for me to summarize it is the last one in first, one out because of the freezes and because the bigger portion was ready to do these layoffs and these hiring freezes. Who was there to onboard? Basically it was unfortunate, but I enjoyed my time that I did have with them and I definitely would do it again.

Speaker 1: 18:45

Okay, and so let's talk about briefly, in between the time from the layoff and the company how was that experience? And about how many months went by before you decided to do what you are doing now.

Speaker 2: 19:01

Honestly, that was very heartbreaking, honestly, because the contract was supposed to be at least two years. To have it stop unexpectedly was like, okay, what am I going to do now? And like myself, anybody who knows me, I don't have a problem ever getting a job. So to me I was like I want to say like unhumbled, but I was just like, okay, whatever unfortunately just happened, but I'll apply, I'll find a position. Boom. And I had a lot of interviews and I was getting to second and third round. I don't know if, because of that company, that kind of made them scared to be like, okay, maybe she's going to leave us because she's reached her peak. But that wasn't going to be the case. Obviously I didn't care what that company had. Obviously I'm not with them anymore, so it doesn't matter. But I kept getting interview after interview and then it was like no offer and I was like we're going into August and we're going from June now into August. But I will say which helped the gap was once I announced on LinkedIn that I had taken on this role at the tech company. My LinkedIn blew up. I went from, I want to say, maybe 150 followers or connections at the time. I don't know, even know if followers really was a thing yet. But like on my side, because I was in creator mode but I was just saying 150 connections to a thousand within two days. So people were DMing me, messaging me under my picture post and saying what did your resume look like? How did you get in? Can you help me get in Things like that? So I had things to occupy my time and help them and I was like and the feedback that I was getting was like okay, wow, can you do this? Can you like help my resume, can you fix it? And I was like okay, and I was just doing it just because I wasn't even thinking about actually making it like a long term thing. And then by August I was like, when I wasn't getting like any offers, I was like, let's see, how often can we like, how far can we take this resume business and one of my first clients she made a TikTok which I actually didn't even know until six months later because she just made this took doc. I didn't ask her to do anything, which got reposted. And then someone else had wind up sending it to me and one of my friends had sent it to me and no idea. They thought I already seen it and they sent it to me and I was like, oh my gosh, why did you tell me you made this TikTok? And then why the blowing up and getting like thousands of likes and views? And she was like you really need to like tap into this. So I just started speaking more about it, doing a little bit more lies, and then next thing, you know, I was like, okay, let's, let's venture off. And at that time it was just Erica's resume workshop. It really wasn't anything serious, it was just like a little side gig. But I kept getting more positive feedback and thank yous and okay, this really makes sense. Because I was like breaking it down Instead of me just saying your resume needs this. It was like I was like physically, like printing out the resume off my printer, circling, making notes, and I was like scan it back to them so they could see it. And they were like, oh, this makes sense, this makes sense, why, if I interviews, I say one thing but my resume say something else and I'm getting this like clashing or why I'm not getting offers.

Speaker 1: 22:24

Yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot, I know. For me it wasn't as similar. I just decided to do it because I had always been helping people. And two, I started thinking it was 2020 when I started doing like everything from this to the company and everything. I was like my first child was on the way. So I was like, okay, what am I going to do to just try to add some more stuff in my life, Because now I got to, I don't want to get like my child is inexpensive. We know kids can be pricey.

Speaker 2: 22:55

Expensive yeah Something.

Speaker 1: 22:58

When it's just you like, when it's just me, it doesn't matter. I'm good, I can eat some noodles or whatever I got to do, but you got kids. Survivor mode you want them to be taken care of and given the best that you can give them. So that's kind of how I started and before I charged for anything. I helped a lot of people just for free and just say just give me recommendations after I do this, and that's how. I was I remember I was looking through my photos and I might put it right here. I don't know, but I was going to like what I used to charge for resumes, because I think oh my God, don't even go backwards. The thing is, though, I think a lot of people appreciate that because, like pretty much outside of my professional career being an IT and cyber, I didn't have any type of notoriety for doing resumes, so it's like a lot of times people would translate oh why am I already doing this in my career, so I'm going to charge you X amount for your resume and sometimes that don't translate over well, whereas at least you can build it up and just start people, the more I want people you help. You didn't say hey, I've helped people. On average get X amount of increase. So if you get this resume at least you're going to interview for roles that may be paying you double than what you already paid now.

Speaker 2: 24:12

Exactly, you'll definitely make that back. Yeah, and so once they start, Now go ahead. For me, I definitely have switched instead of just saying my service's cost is amount you're investing in this service, and once people realize it's more of an investment versus just a price that I just pull, they think that I just pulled out of thin air. They appreciate it more because they're getting so much more to the overall package.

Speaker 1: 24:41

Yeah, definitely, and that's also why, from the jump, I always charge for consultations or just. It was a way of me knowing, hey, if I do this for free, you know I'm going to be like I'm going, they not gonna respect my time or theirs. But if they pay, I don't care. If it's $15, I think my things start off like 30 bucks or whatever. But they came, they were ready, they spent money and so they showed up Cause you'll see a lot of and that's honestly go ahead.

Speaker 2: 25:06

I'm still in between that because I've paid. I've charged for consultations, I've paid people for consultations and then I've also had people who have a grand following and they have free consultation. So then I switched to free consultations cause I'm like. For me, I felt like I'm already gonna charge you for the service anyway, and if you decide to take it a step further to get the service, then at least you're not feeling like double charged or have to do the math of, okay, I paid for the consultation and if they do decide to move forward on that call and say, okay, send me the invoice for the like the resume services. For me, I felt I would just minimize my time. So instead of me doing a 30 minute consultation for $50, now I'm just gonna do a 15 minute free consultation and if it goes over, okay, cool. Then I know that you're really serious and you're definitely like on, go to buy my services. But if I charge you for the 30 minutes, then you're like, okay, I'll think about it. Now you're already just paid, whether it was yesterday or a week ago whenever you booked the appointment. Now you decide to move forward and you feel like, dang, I gotta pay again. So I try to see it from both sides, because I don't mind giving.

Speaker 1: 26:20

I'm getting out free content anyway for Instagram TikTok going on live If I wasn't as much content as I have out here for free, if that wasn't the case, and I probably would do that, but they got so much free content for me. My ebook is for free, my webinar is free, so it's like when you're calling me, it's more. It's a little bit more personal and, for example, during the daytime, I work in the evening, so if I'm doing something with you before work and it's taking away from me being in there with the kids or doing something, so it's one of those things that I look at for us like the time aspect of it and people value it because I'm like okay, think about it, we know people. When I went up on my prices, I went and Googled what our average career culture is charging and I put it in the email so people could see you've been getting a grand deal this whole time. There are people that charge us $100, $200, $300 just for an hour and a half of their time. So I don't feel like that. Because sometimes the people with the big followings yeah, they're doing so, but they on the back end their services may be much higher, so it can make sense for them to give away for free. If they know that what they charge you is gonna be about 1,000, 1,500 bucks, then hey, cool, that works for them. But for me and I do this too, because everybody doesn't really need, they don't need to coach apart. Some of them don't have enough skills yet, so I don't like to waste my time or theirs like that Right. But so what all do you offer at Resume Bay? What all do you offer outside of just Resume Bay?

Speaker 2: 27:48

We, as officially in September I have transitioned into Coach Bay University. I know that my shirt still says Resume Bay. I need to get some more logo printed up but we are officially Coach Bay University and I offer three tiers, which is a 30 day, 60 day or 90 day course of hands-on resume, linkedin interview prep, job search, job tracking and four coaching sessions. So with that, let me actually just take a step back. So with Coach Bay University, ideally it is for people who are mid-level employees, for people who are working in their career for at least five, seven years at minimum, right. These are people who feel very stagnant, haven't had a promotion, been probably doing their job, everybody's job, for one person's pay, right, and doesn't feel or can't figure out why there's no growth, why opportunities aren't coming to them. So I specialize in basically rebranding outside of the resume. If you follow me on social media, most of my, all of my headlines say you are more than your resume, which is true. So with that, with my packages, the 30 day is more so for people who, let's say, they're not ready to leave their company, but there's a position at their company that they wanna apply for. Maybe it has come to them or they're really willing to take that risk and say, hey, I wanna apply for this job. Can you help me? I haven't interviewed two, three years. My resume I don't even know where my resume is. So my job then is to basically rebrand them for what they are doing now, their skill set, help them with some interviewing prep and get them in front of the hiring manager for that position at their current company, or at least a position that, let's say, they know a friend and they'll say, hey, girl, hey guy, apply for my job, I'll help get you in, but you just need a resume, you need to brush up on your interview skills. That's more that 30 day course, because you're not needing so much prepping, because you're pretty much like halfway there. The 60 day, which is my most popular course, is for people that really need a little bit more, like a little hand-holding. Let's say they're still trying to figure out, they know what they wanna do, but they need more than just one interview prep or they need some more job opportunities presented to them. So that's more of the 60 day course. Take their time a little bit and be able to say okay, I just needed a couple sessions to practice my interview skills. Look at my resume, understand my resume, things like that. The 90 day course is for people who are doing a full transition. You're leaving one industry, jumping to the next and you need to talk about transitional skills upskill, whether you're currently still in a boot camp or finishing school, whatever. But you need more time to put everything together. That's like the complete package. So we do the interview prep, the resume from start to finish. We do your coaching calls, we do the job search, we do the job tracker, everything like that. So that's more of Erica. I really need you to sit with me on a weekly basis help me make sure that my transition makes sense.

Speaker 1: 31:12

Okay, cool. Yeah, because I was going to ask you who is your ideal client, but you laid out your ideal client for all three tiers. I typically use Loom to record a bunch of videos that I know that they're gonna hear with and then and actually I have some of my whiteboard over there that I need to do a Loom video on. Once I get to my work desk and pretty much talk to them about and help them with, Do you help your clients identify what roles may best fit their skillset?

Speaker 2: 31:38

Absolutely my biggest thing now, which I feel like has definitely helped me stand out from other coaches and resume writers but I haven't heard many people talk about, is skills. A lot of times people focus on just job titles and say they just especially project management or customer success manager, those easy transitions. But it's okay. But what about it? What makes you a project manager? What skills are you bringing to the table? Do you know how to do budget analysis? Do you know how to talk to stakeholders? Do you know how to build a roadmap? Do you know how to build a scope and things like that? So building off a skillset has definitely helped my clients land roles, at least get interviews. I feel like once you get an interview, my job is definitely done on my part because the resume has gotten you to that part. It's your job to ace those interviews and get that offer. But for me, I feel like once they understand the skills that they have, everything else it will make sense for them.

Speaker 1: 32:39

That's what I do. I bring them back in on what they've been seeing online and say, hey, your skills fit best with this. Let's look this way first yeah, that could the job that you want could be like long term, but let's focus on what you can already do now, especially if you don't like what you're currently doing. And that's always been a good way for me to help them out instead of just trying to, because I tell them all the time if I want to, yeah, I can do your resume and do this and okay, cool, you still gonna be like I'm not getting interviewed. I'm like I made your resume look as good as it could with what you gave me, but your skills at a foundational level do not match up with this, and if they don't match up, you're not gonna get picked, no matter how good the resume looks to the idea for you, and so that's something people don't understand.

Speaker 2: 33:24

I think, the education behind it and that's why it's unfortunate that Resume Right just gets such a bad rep. Because we get people who say I've definitely had clients that say, oh, I haven't gotten any interviews and I'm like did you do the homework that I gave you? Once I started giving homework, because I know what needs to be done but I wasn't really giving it to them. But once I started giving them homework, I tell you every client will definitely say, yes, that makes sense. And now they're able to apply for roles and get an interview following up, because now they see why the resume is making sense.

Speaker 1: 33:58

Yeah, I think like when people first get that first interview from the resume or hit ups, they'll be like man, like I had a guy I did his stuff, yo, I just you updated. Like three people just reached out. Or one of my clients was we were interviewing for roles. I think they're paying a minimum of 20 Gs more to 30 and 40 Gs more, and so it was like once that started happening. I just had a client interview for a principal role but he's not telling skill level, he's not supposed to be there, but the interview, the resume I did for him, was good enough for him to get that interview. And I tell people all the time y'all working for the big splash I looking for the Steph Curry 3, but the small wins of you just getting the interview when you previously were not getting interviews is what you need to build off of. And so how do you deal with the clients that don't do their homework? Right? You reach out to them like for me, my thing is it's not because of how I got all these different things going on, it's the reason why I use Loom so much. So it's not set up like, hey, we're gonna meet these times. It's, we're gonna meet here, but I had you had the county link to where, anytime you want to meet, we can meet, or I can call you whatever. We can meet whenever. However, sometimes there are the ones that I'm I pretty much know who's gonna be successful.

Speaker 2: 35:13

Right away, the ones who was really pressing me to say hey, I did this.

Speaker 1: 35:16

I talked to this person. This is what I'm doing. They're gonna be all right. It's gonna it may be take them a short amount of time or a long time, but they're gonna be eventually Okay. The ones that I have to constantly follow up on and see what's going on with them there's some of the ones that have other stuff going on that tend to not be as successful in the beginning. I think I have a client right now and I think it's just a lot when people are really working on those pivots trying to go into something a little bit more technical or not technical and they're not hearing anything back. They get. I have a client. She was saying I don't know how much I cut that she watches. But she was saying that a lot of stuff like the applying and everything's making her anxious and I was just trying to work with her. Say we can't do five to 10 a week, let's do one to three. Or let's just try to apply to what we applied to once we see what some of that aligns with us and just apply. The worst thing they could do is say no, I'm all. I'm really big on the job search at the networking of hey conferences, whether it's virtual, in person, I prefer in person. It's just a little bit better. You got to open yourself up. It's been harder and harder to get jobs now. So having that good network really helps you out now.

Speaker 2: 36:25

Yes, I'm definitely an advocate for network. But to answer the question about the homework, I make them accountable for everything, as long as I'm doing my part. Now, if I was to forget a segment or forget a week or whatever, of course that's definitely on me. But for the times where I know I'm on it, especially when my things are on automation and I do the weekly check-ins I'm like, hey, the more aggressive that you are with your homework, the better results you're going to get. I'm not. I can't go hard for you if you're not going hard for yourself. That's what I've been, my little tagline at the end of my post on LinkedIn, because it does make sense. Why am I going so hard for you? Because then at the end of the day, you're going to be like I spent $2,000 over a course of two months and you're going to feel like I pretty much ripped you off when I didn't Because you didn't do the homework. But when you do the homework, you're going to see the results and you're like, oh wow, when you get the results that you want, money would never usually be an objective, because you see the value coming back to you. But when you don't do it, then that's when that bad rep comes around and you're feeling like it was a money grab and being really thoughtful and cared about. But people know, they know and I even started doing assessments to a real application process before you even joined my program Because I really want to know where your headspace is. I'm all for mental health and advocacy around that, because I have anxiety all the time, but I also don't allow that to affect me so bad that I'm forgetting about life in general, so I try to let them know. Hey, how many. You get up to 10 coaching sessions with me within two weeks, so either one in the morning, one at night.

Speaker 1: 38:14

Like you have 10 opportunities to like one in the morning or one in the morning.

Speaker 2: 38:20

No one session in the morning. Okay, I'm about to say oh, no one session in the morning, one session at night, and, of course, even if you can't make both. But because in the morning I like to give an itinerary to say, okay, this is like 8am, here's what I want you to do, check it. You don't even have to like FaceTime or video chat or whatever, but just check it with me by 8 o'clock to say, okay, I did do this homework. So if you're not showing any type of like consistency with that, then I know like it's going to be like a tug of war. So I let them know in an assessment like how many coaching sessions or check ins do you need and how many will you actually attend? So I provide two different questions of like how many do you need? Because maybe I need to up the time that I spend with you, but also, how many times are you going to actually attend these meetings? Because people are working crazy schedules, they got kids and things like that. So I get it, but you still know, like you said, the ones who really will put in the work.

Speaker 1: 39:22

Exactly, so we touched on this already, but I actually do this. Maybe you can answer a different way. What have you learned about job seekers and people while running your company right now?

Speaker 2: 39:39

That people pretty much are doing it the wrong way and that's why they are stuck in his hands to well. Yeah, I would and a lot of people, unfortunately, have unrealistic expectations. No shade, but a little shade, because if, like for me, like I didn't go from working at Comcast making 1550 an hour to being a project manager making $62,000 a year, those were things that happened in the middle to help build up my skillset. But people, they come to me, they work I want to say a minimum wage job. They work a job under at least 50k or around 50k. And there was like oh, I'm only applying for rules as 80k, 100k, I want to jump in tech to make it. 100k is okay, I hear you, but do you hear you? Because something, what are you bringing? Why are you worth this 100k? You have no certs, you have no degrees, you have no certifications. That's allowing this. What are we doing here? So I would definitely say that is the hurdle, because they see these gurus and these brand marketing people that are now making 100k. They're like. I want to be like them is no, I want you to be like you and understand what you bring to the table and if the opportunity presents itself, then okay, but let's take baby steps and be realistic, because 10 out of 10 do not recommend.

Speaker 1: 41:04

Definitely.

Speaker 2: 41:05

I know All you could do is just breathe in a mic.

Speaker 1: 41:09

Yeah, because my clients watch enough of my content where I don't really get a lot of those. They know me, so a lot of them say I'll see you from shorts linked in. I don't have a lot of people that come to me with those unrealistic expectations because they know me and I play listen hey.

Speaker 2: 41:26

I just be honest with you Now.

Speaker 1: 41:27

you go to somebody that a lot of you take your money, but I'm just going to tell you you don't have the skill set for what you're trying to do yet.

Speaker 2: 41:33

I've told people that sometimes you gotta be honest with them. It does hurt.

Speaker 1: 41:36

Yeah, it's fine. Say hey, you need to work on this and this. A lot of people say, oh, I want to go on boots and want to be a sock analyst. All right, here, answer these questions that I got on my page for sock analysts. Let's see how good you do, and most of the time, they don't do good because they don't know anything, and it's okay. Nobody started off knowing stuff, so that's why people just slow their roll. They're so busy looking at the people who made it. They don't know what they did to get there. All they see is the finished product. Most of the people that make obscenes amounts of money from technical roles and tech put a lot of work in. It wasn't something they just looked into. I'm telling you that to be honest. Now, some of the other roles that are a little bit non-technical they have a higher ceiling, like a tech sale or sales engineer. They work hard too, but they're only certain one of them. There are only a certain amount of them. That's actually like really up there making the bread and they're putting in a lot of work. They're not bare minimum workers. So a lot of you guys think you're just going to get in there and just do the bare minimum and be like them, because you saw them on YouTube or whatever. I'm here to tell you no, you got to be really putting the work in Everybody. Think about it. The only person that was close enough to Mike was Kobe, because Kobe put the work in you can either be Kobe or you can be.

Speaker 2: 42:48

James Harden Mom, but Mentataly Right.

Speaker 1: 42:50

You can be Kobe or you can be James Harden. That's what you could do Real quick. Though let's talk about our Resumeys, dudes and don'ts, and it's funny because, had I prepared this how I wanted to, we actually would have had some John Doe Resumeys to go through and just talk about them right now, and that's something that I think like you and. Tiara can do one day on live. I think that'd be pretty fun. But what are some dudes and don'ts that you've seen on Resumeys?

Speaker 2: 43:19

The main one that cracks me up is why are y'all putting your address on the resume?

Speaker 1: 43:27

Right.

Speaker 2: 43:27

Why I literally want to know.

Speaker 1: 43:29

I'll tell you why because I made a post about that too on TikTok. Hey, take the address off the resume. We're not mailing on me anymore, but you got to think about it. Even 10 years ago in college they had us put addresses on there.

Speaker 2: 43:43

Yeah, no, stop with the addresses. And also I had someone provide and this is also on the resumes, but it's still like with cover letters she had a five page cover letter. What are you possibly talking about? I'm so serious, like my DMs and my emails get blended with Blame.

Speaker 1: 44:06

No way what.

Speaker 2: 44:07

Five page cover letter. Blame no way.

Speaker 1: 44:12

That's crazy.

Speaker 2: 44:14

Yes, yes.

Speaker 1: 44:16

That's crazy.

Speaker 2: 44:17

Do's and don'ts.

Speaker 1: 44:19

Do Arrest me dude, I don't know. I'm so fine you didn't touch on this.

Speaker 2: 44:22

What.

Speaker 1: 44:23

I'm saying I on a resume.

Speaker 2: 44:26

Oh my gosh. Yes, please don't say. I Don't say I am a proficient, I am a dedicated, I am a hardworking.

Speaker 1: 44:34

Take all them things off. Take that out. You can prove that in an interview. You don't got to tell them about you hardworking, troubleshooting, collaboration skills or aspiring.

Speaker 2: 44:45

Don't say aspiring. Also, don't say seeking opportunities in your resume summary.

Speaker 1: 44:50

Actually.

Speaker 2: 44:50

There's so many, I can go on.

Speaker 1: 44:52

I'm not taking them more. We don't even use summaries anymore. If you got a lot of experience, I give you a career objectives thing where you I'm in career highlights, where we can talk about highlights related to the role or roles you apply to. But summaries are like a waste of time for people who don't have a lot of experience. Let's have more projects on there. Also, here's something I can tell you guys too, some of you are trying to pivot and you decided to put some of the skills that you see on job applications in the technical skill portion. None of the jobs that you did had the same skills in them.

Speaker 2: 45:24

You can't even speak to them.

Speaker 1: 45:26

It's going to be a no for me, though. You literally can't even speak to it.

Speaker 2: 45:29

Stop putting just things that you hear on your resume and then when I ask you, oh, how do you use Trello, how do you make a Trello board? You're like oh, I just did that in class a little bit, I don't really know. No, this is why you're setting yourself up for failure. If you can't quiz your own self on your resume, then that's why your resume is not getting you anywhere. You know, you think we know the TA and the hiring managers, they know when your resume may be so grand and you start speaking and trying to sound and catch yourself up and you're like, yeah, this is not a match. They can definitely tell.

Speaker 1: 46:06

Yeah. Another one is hey, stop listening to TikTok, do not get the job description and throw it in all white on the resume. It's not going to help you, I promise you. It's not Trying to make it as I'm going to put it in a small font. It's going to work for ATS. So a human is still going to.

Speaker 2: 46:20

Let's talk about ATS. A human is still going to deny you. I don't know what's up with this whole ATS. I don't know. It's as soon as when people say, yeah, this resume, go through the ATS system. What do you think that means? Because, as soon as that means you heard it from somebody else. When you start asking questions to me about the ATS system, what do you think it is? Because don't question my resumes, don't do that.

Speaker 1: 46:47

Yeah, nah, it's not that I'm told. Oh, it's going to be ATS friendly, listen, fam. The stuff on your resume don't align with the job. That's why it's not working. It ain't really got. The format could be as good as possible. What's on there is not speaking to the job. They say no. Well, it happens to everybody. It's okay. You're not going to strike out every time.

Speaker 2: 47:14

You're not.

Speaker 1: 47:15

So y'all need to stop having super long bullet points and the thing and just get to the point. Use action verbs to start the sentences. Also, have more projects if you don't have the experience. It's a lot of different things people do. Like she said don't just throw skills up there that you can't talk about, because when I ask you about them you don't know. I remember I had a girl one time. I don't know how she got a free. She ended up getting a free consultation on me. I don't know how, if my accounting link was broken this three years ago, she knew how to use a SIM. I said do you even know what this is? No, I don't know what it is. I was like so why do you got on your resume if you don't know what it is? Her whole resume was fabricated. I had really got pissed off like quit. I was hot. I was like when you got me for a free session too. You came on this call with some bull or as Coach. Prom said some bull jump.

Speaker 2: 48:09

Yeah. Like people just need to understand. The reality is what's for them will be for them, and what's not is not so.

Speaker 1: 48:16

I agree.

Speaker 2: 48:17

That's my piece.

Speaker 1: 48:18

Okay, so do you have any networking tips for the listeners?

Speaker 2: 48:26

Yes, don't be afraid to network. That's the biggest thing and don't With people this is for anyone who's currently in a bootcamp, some type of cohort of such. Stop just connecting with the people in your group and start connecting with people that are already doing what you want to do, those people that you are basically like your classmates or team members or whoever all are in the same situation. They're not going to be able to be only but so much beneficial than you, not to say that they can't help but if you are only connecting with people in your group or people that's only in your program, then when it comes to finding jobs, you don't think they're going to start gatekeeping. They're not going to. You guys are all are going to be in competition. Start connecting with people who are already doing the job that you want to do. For me, I know that I want to take CBU to the next level, right? So I'm going to start connecting with people who already have been doing resumes five, 10 plus years and already have a name for themselves as represent. I'm not going to just network with entry level people. That's like on my same space. That's not going to get me to my long term goal. So start thinking outside the box and don't put so much pressure on saying hello. That's literally all it takes. Ask some simple question and you don't just have to network with gurus or people who have so much more knowledge. It's just connecting with people that can help guide you. If you want to work at Cisco, that means connect with someone who's maybe been there two years, or find someone who's been there 10 years and get their point of view on how they got in things like that. Don't just message the recruiter. Start thinking outside the box of how to get ahead in your industry, because a cold applying is pretty much a thing in the past. Honestly, if you're still cold applying and hoping for the best, sorry, not sorry that's only going to get you to put so far, especially when you want to get more advanced roles. People, especially people with color we like to bring our people with us. So if you start finding people, that's doing a. Thing they definitely want to do it. They're definitely going to bring you on board. So that definitely is my advice for networking.

Speaker 1: 50:43

Cool. So before we come to a close, guys and we probably will do a part two, like I said, we'll probably do a live part two. It'll be. I'll give you a chance to see y'all resumes in and we'll have some fun. But before we get out of here, do you have anything that you want to lead the listeners with?

Speaker 2: 51:02

I would say take your time if you can. If you are still employed, take that time to really focus on what you want to do. If you, whether you hate your job or not but having a job right now is a blessing Whether you feel like your manager hate you or you hate your manager, or whatever the case may be Having a job right now is the best thing in this time, right. So, if and if you know that you want to leave, that is time for you to pivot and do bigger things. Use that company for their educational resources, networking resources, whatever you can get, until you can leave. That's definitely my advice, because once you're unemployed and when you're, you have no, no other option but to go hard. Your frustration will show, your anger will show, your anxiety is going to shoot through the damn roof. You're going to feel like no one is here to help you and, especially when you're looking for, like a resume writer, career coach, you're going to feel like they only want your money. You're going to get ready defensive. So definitely take your time, enjoy your job while you can and use that time, use that company to get ahead.

Speaker 1: 52:20

Yeah, I definitely agree with all that. It's. Hey, like I said, also, just keep your hair on the swivel and don't just put your trust so much in the company, because at the end of the day, it's business for them. Ones and zeros. They want to make sure they're profitable and we know one of the most expensive things businesses have to account for is payroll. So they're going to try to lower that amount and stay as efficient as possible anytime they can, and that's I just got to be honest with you right there. But if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a comment below. Or if there's some things that you guys want us to cover next time, leave us a comment. If you're on Apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcast, please leave us a comment, leave us a review. It really helps the podcast out with the downloads. Also, before we get out of here, erica, how can they stay connected with you?

Speaker 2: 53:08

You guys can follow me on TikTok at resumebay, IG at resumebayuni and LinkedIn under Erica Thomas. Erica with the K yeah.

Speaker 1: 53:21

I should have told y'all that in the beginning it's Erica with the K, and y'all already know how y'all can stay in contact with me. Also, check out the footnotes. Check out the links in the description of this episode, especially if you want to keep your information safe and make sure no data brokers have gotten your information on the dark web. Check out my link that'll be pinned in the comment to Aura. You get a free 14 day trial and you can protect you and your whole family from all this identity stuff that you see with all these breaches and you just want to be safe. But until next time, let's stay textual for HD and we out.

Speaker 2: 53:56

Bye, all right.