Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep186: Job search mistakes from an ex-hiring manager.

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

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Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. What is truly stopping you from landing the next dream job or the next career opportunity that you're really looking for? If you have been working for some time,

it's very normal to think about career change and to think about new opportunities, no matter how much you enjoy your current boss, your current company or the current role that you're in. Now that is completely normal but I think what is really frustrating for a lot of people is knowing that they are so good at their job but why during the job search process they are struggling. That's something that doesn't quite make sense to a lot of people and I do hear a lot of complaints in my community and some of the new clients who join my career program The Corporate Survivor. So I'm going to break down today's episode in four key areas. That is career direction,

resumes, LinkedIn, and interviews. Now these are the four core areas that you truly need to master before you land and sign the job offer. And this is exactly the four week that I cover in my 30-day job search, which is a lifetime access module as part of my career course, The Corporate Survivor. So if you are watching this episode and you are my student, I want you to actually go into the course portal and actually look through the four-week job search modules because I will be hosting a live Q&A workshop to answer all questions that you have for job search. So that is the homework I'm going to give you right now. Okay, so let's talk about the common mistakes across the four categories and starting with category number one and that is career direction. Career direction, I think, is one of the things that a lot of people

don't think about because they think that, well, the first thing I'm going to do is to start applying for jobs right away. The common mistake in the career direction category is the fact that you don't even bother about thinking through your career direction. So you want to do things fast, but you are actually skipping the most important part, which is career clarity. Identifying your career options and determining your career direction, basically what you want to do in the next couple of years and what kind of jobs and what kind of roles actually make sense for you. Now, I think this is actually the biggest mistake that I see in the career direction category. Now, the second mistake in this category is the fact that you want to try every single thing. Now, I have talked to people and they come to me telling me that, hey, maybe I'm not seeing any progress in my job search. So one of the questions I like to ask them is that, OK, you know, what kind of jobs are you looking for and what kind of careers are you looking at?

And they would tell me that, oh, you know, I'm just going to apply for everything. I'm open to everything. I can do everything. Now, the reality is that it's impossible that you will have the skills to do every single role across any single industry. It doesn't quite make sense. And if you end up taking that path, what's going to happen is that your profile is just not going to stand out because there are other people who have more expertise in the space who will get the opportunity ahead of you because you may only be meeting 30% of the job description where someone else could have met 80 to 90%, right? So I think it's so important to not ignore the career options that make sense for you as you actually spend some time to think about what are some of the core industries that you want to try as well some of

the core roles that really makes the most sense for your career profile right now and something that you could position for the next few years in your career so these two are i think i think are the biggest problems for people who are just skipping this step. Now, these two problems, they are big, big, big problems, okay? So before we move into the resume part, LinkedIn, or even interview skills and all the mistakes in that area, I just want to let you know that you need to really figure out the career clarity portion. Because if you don't, then all the mistakes that I'm going to talk about in the resume part, LinkedIn, as well as interviews, none of it is going to matter if you don't have clarity, right? If you're not sure where you're

driving towards, right? If you're driving a car, you're not sure which direction that you're going to drive to, then it doesn't really matter if you have the best equipment and everything else. And therefore, identifying your current interest options and direction will be the most important thing. And that is really the starting point. Now, assuming that you have sorted that one already, now we can move into the category number two and that is the resume portion. Now, this is the part where we can get a little bit more technical. I'm going to give so many very, very specific mistakes having looked at hundreds if not thousands of resumes for my clients, for my community and previously as an ex-hiring manager at a global MNC.

Now, I'm going to list down the resume mistakes in no particular order. And if you're watching this video on YouTube, let me know how many you think that you are making in terms of the mistakes right now that you may or may not know even before this episode. So the first one is that most people think their resume is a lot better than it actually is. The reality is that when we look at our own resume, it is actually very difficult to figure out if something is right

or something is wrong or if something makes sense or if something actually does not make sense. So in a way, you kind of have blind spots when you look at your own resume. And for a lot of people, when I ask them, hey, you know, if you were to rate your resume from 1 to 10, then what's your rating? Many of them will come and tell me that, oh, you know, if you were to rate your resume from 1 to 10, then what's your rating? Many of them will come and tell me that, oh, you know, I think it's 6 or 7. But from a professional's point of view, if I were to apply my career coach hat and ex-hiring manager hat, looking at certain people's resumes, I can tell you that maybe the average rating is probably 3 to 4. Now, a rating of 3 to 4 is not good enough for you to land the next opportunity that

you want because most of the time it means that your competitor's resumes may be better than you. So the first thing is to not to be the only person who is reviewing your resume and making your own self-judgment because it's not going to be effective. Number two, mistake number two, are using resume templates from the day that you were a fresh graduate. Now, in my career program, many of my students are between the ages of 20 to 40. That means that they are fresh graduates, but there are also many of them

who have left university and college for many, many, many years already. However, when they share their resume with me in a one-on-one career strategy call as part of my program, many of those templates look like the exact same resume that they used when they first graduated. Now, that's going to be a really, really big problem because the truth is that when you're a fresh graduate, there's a very, very specific template that's usually recommended by the university counselor that really does not make sense when you have experience and skills as

a working professional. So if you use a very old template, it usually is not as competitive because nowadays when HR recruiters and hiring managers look at your resume, they only take five to six seconds. And if you use the old lengthy template that has information all over the place, then it's not going to be helpful for them to figure out what is your value positioning right away. The next resume mistake. Resumes that are way too long. So the question now you may have is, how short should my resume be? I'd say one to two pages, depending on how many years of experience you have. So many people, and I think the longest resume I have ever seen is eight pages. And this person has only worked for five years. So my question to this person is like, how come there are so many pages? And if I were to look at it, it's like, it's filled with

a list of activities. Now activities is not value positioning. I think a lot of people make a mistake of like, okay, you know, I'm just going to write down every single thing I do every single day. Now, that's not how it works because I may not really know what value it can bring. Yes, I can see the work that, you know, all the activities that you have done, but I don't know how good you are at your job. So therefore, if you are just putting in

as many bullets as possible for as many jobs as possible, then you are not really answering the hiring manager's question, which is, hey, you know, if I were to hire you, will you be very good at your job? So that question is unanswered. The fourth mistake in a resume is not focusing on value positioning. So a lot of people, when they write down their career summary, and probably in your resume, you may have like a personal statement or professional summary, something along those lines. And for my program, I call it the career summary. For most people, they will use very generic terms such as, I look forward to adding value to your organization.

I look forward to improving my skills and learning to contribute to your organization. Or they use very generic terms such as dedicated, hardworking, motivated, passionate, words like this that basically it's a given because if you're telling me that you don't have any of those then there is no way you're going to get anywhere close to a new job, right? If you are using generic sentences or fluffy words, you may feel that you have come out with a very good career summary or career statement but in reality is that it doesn't really do anything for you, it doesn't help you because it's not effective. Just because you have a lot of words in a resume does not necessarily make it effective. So you really want to focus on value positioning because the goal of a resume

is not to put in your entire life's journey, entire career journey in there. It needs to actually make sense so the hiring manager can figure out if you are a good fit. And I think that out of the so many mistakes that I have seen, and these are just the top ones that I can think of right now, but out of the so many mistakes I've seen, I think the biggest problem is really value positioning. And if you want to learn

how to figure out your value positioning, you can download my free five-day career growth guide. You can download it for free at www.mayping.com to give you a better sense of what value positioning looks like. And this is a point that you can get started today if you want to start making sure that you're pivoting and packaging yourself in the right direction.

And if you are already a student in my career program, Be Copy's Survivor, I want you to actually go through the job search bonus lessons. Go through week two in the resume module. I have a very specific module teaching you how to write the best career summary that you can use that will highly increase your chances of getting that interview invitation. So if you're already a client and you're already a student in my program, then dive right into the job search

module. Now, assuming that you have already avoided all the mistakes that I've mentioned in your resume, it's time to move into the third category and the third category is LinkedIn. Now, if you have been following this podcast for a long time, you know that I highly recommend LinkedIn as the platform for you to attract new job opportunities and it's also a really great platform if you are an active job seeker as well. Now, here are the top mistakes while using LinkedIn that a lot of people are making and then they are complaining why they're not getting results. So, make sure that you avoid a lot of these mistakes. So, mistake number using LinkedIn. Treating LinkedIn as social media. LinkedIn is not like Instagram, it's not like TikTok. LinkedIn is a professional platform that can connect you with your next

career opportunity and this is the platform where you can connect with HR recruiters, talent acquisition, as well as hiring managers. So the mistake that a lot of people make is to treat LinkedIn like social media. It is not social media and I've used LinkedIn for more than 10 years. If you use LinkedIn purely for job opportunities and career growth, you will approach it in the right mindset and that's what I call the professional mindset and that will actually create more opportunities for you. Just that mindset shift is really the first step. Second mistake, assuming that your LinkedIn profile is better than you think. Now, this is actually a similar mistake, the resume portion, which is assuming that your resume is a lot better than it actually is. So a lot of people, again, right, when people

tell me that they cannot get opportunities on LinkedIn, I always tell them, or rather, I always ask them, if you were to rate your profile from 1 to 10, how good do you think your profile is? Again, many of them, in fact, tell me that they feel that their profile is 7 or 8 in terms of rating. But when I look at it, it's really bad. For most people, it's probably a rating 2 or 3. That's because a lot of people don't really understand how LinkedIn works and therefore, they just put in a few information here and there and assuming that, you know I've sort of completed it I put in something and therefore it must be good enough no it is not so make sure that you are completing the entire profile with all the information that's required and actually thinking through the value positioning that you could also put in in the profile as well

now LinkedIn is actually one of the platform that I have truly mastered and is something that has also brought a lot of my clients a lot of success in terms of career change, new opportunities and also huge salary increments after getting headhunted on LinkedIn. So make sure that you are maximizing this platform as much as possible. Now moving on to the next mistake on LinkedIn is assuming that commenting and engaging on LinkedIn is way more important than direct application. Now there is a time and place for LinkedIn networking engagement and that's important. However, what is also more important than direct application. Now, there is a time and place for LinkedIn networking engagement, and that's important. However, what is also most important,

actually even more important than that, is making consistent applications. I think I've seen a lot of people where they are more interested in the networking part of LinkedIn instead of the application part of LinkedIn. But the reality is that if you're an active job seeker, the application is what is going to make the biggest difference, right? If you apply for more roles, then that means there's higher chances. And the next mistake, which I think is kind of correlated to that, is the fact

that a lot of people just apply for as many roles as possible. Yes, we want to apply for jobs, but it doesn't mean that we apply for any job. And there's also a way to make sure that you are applying for the most recent jobs to increase your chances as well. And I's also a way to make sure that you are applying for the most recent jobs to increase your chances as well. And I do teach that step-by-step in my career program, The Corporate Survivor. So if you are already a current client or student, then just dive into The Corporate Survivor because the step-by-step is way more detailed than what we can cover in today's podcast. Now, assuming that you have successfully avoided mistakes in the first three categories, which is career direction, resumes, and LinkedIn, that would mean that you would have already started getting interview invitations. So this

part is really, really important because if you're not getting interview invitation, that means that you likely have a problem in terms of your career options, your resume, and LinkedIn. And if you're able to get interview invitations, that means that the first three parts are okay. You're doing okay. Now, the fourth category actually is interviews. Now, this is that the first three parts are okay. You're doing okay. Now, the fourth category actually is interviews. Now, this is actually the part that a lot of people are nervous about and the reality is that I don't think anyone is 100% confident during interviews, but you also want to make sure that you're avoiding some of the top mistakes during interviews. So, let me share with you some experiences that I've seen as a former hiring manager who have hired

from fresh graduate all the way to director level. The top mistake I see in interviews is candidates who have no idea what their resume is actually saying. Now, you really want to make sure that you know exactly 100% what you're saying in your resume. And this could be a problem for you if you have outsourced the resume writing to someone else. And this is why I do not ever recommend that you get someone else to write a resume for you. In fact, my approach is to make sure that I teach resume writing in the most effective way in my program. And a lot of the value positioning

than the sentences that we have carved out in the resume using my formula is something that we use for interviews as well to make sure that we're selling the same story. So that's why the biggest mistake, I think, are people who are not familiar with what they have written in your resume. Because if you don't even know what your career story and value positioning is, how are you going to convince the hiring manager

that you know that? The second mistake is assuming that the HR hiring manager has read your resume 10 times. Now, when I talk to a lot of people, they tell me that, well, if I'm going to get called for the interview, it means that the hiring manager has read every single nitty-gritty that I've written in my resume, and therefore, I don't need to repeat myself. Now, this is actually a mistake because it shows me that you don't understand what the purpose of the interview is. The purpose of the interview is to make sure that you can sell yourself and articulate your value so that the hiring manager can decide if you fit the requirements that they're looking for. It's also a so that the hiring manager can decide if you fit the requirements that they're looking for.

It's also a validation for the hiring manager to confirm that you indeed know what you're talking about and you're highly familiar with your resume and you can really do the work by sharing examples and so forth.

So don't make assumptions, which I think is really the biggest killer for a lot of interviews. Then the next mistake of an interview, which I think is so common, but a lot of people seem to not know what to do, is the lack of practice.

So I know practicing for interviews is the most uncomfortable thing because who wants to watch themselves on camera to practice the answers or even drafting the answers are so frustrating as well. But the point is that if you don't practice, how are you going to get better at it? Because I think a lot of people don't realize

that interview is kind of like a presentation, but it's a presentation of yourself. So if you don't practice, you're just not going to get good at it, right? So make sure that you are practicing as much as you can. Now, onto the next interview mistakes is actually not having structure in your interview answers. Now, a lot of people, this is what happens when they go for interviews. They will say that, well, you know, I'm just going to see what questions I get asked,

then I will answer on the spot. But the problem is when the questions get asked on the spot, you panic. That's not a good strategy for anyone. And I think this is the biggest self-sabotage I see even in very smart people. It's like, you know what you're good at, but because you're unprepared and you don't have a clear structure to answer interviews, you eventually blow up the opportunity, which is such a waste.

So therefore, having structure in your interview is going to be so, so, so important. And if you're already a student or client in the Corporate Survivor Career Program, which is my career course, I want you to actually go through week four interview skills because I've actually broken it out question by question, teaching you the actual structure of how to communicate in a way that hiring managers can understand. And how did I know any of that is because I used to be ex-hiring manager.

I know exactly what hiring managers want to hear because that's what I wanted to hear as a senior director at Standard Chartered in my previous corporate career. So have structure. I cannot emphasize this enough. A lot of people make mistakes. It's not because they don't have the skills. It's not because they don't have the experience. It's because they don't know how to communicate and package their value.

And it's really such a waste because you are probably only missing a little bit of a strategy and a little bit of the structure that can really repackage everything that you can do and make sure that it can be communicated in a way that the hiring manager who is the ultimate person that will decide whether you get hired or not can conclude and decide that you are the best person for the job because otherwise what is the point for the interview right so this is not the full list of all the mistakes that you can be making in job search but is these are the top mistakes that come to my mind given that i have hundreds of clients in my career program who are looking for new opportunities as they grow their career in the corporate world whether it's their

fresh graduate junior executive senior executive manager director or even c, whether it's their fresh graduate, junior executive, senior executive, manager, director, or even C-suite. It's okay. And it makes total sense to look for new opportunities. And what I don't want for you is to put in the time, effort, and energy to apply for hundreds of jobs, but not seeing the results. And it's purely because you are lacking a bit of strategy and a bit of structure, and that could be easily tweaked. And that's something that I go through the step-by-step in my career program The Corporate Survivor and when you sign up you actually get my 30-day job search bonus lessons and that is a complete module with more than 20 video lessons to help you sharpen your value positioning so that you can articulate position and sell yourself to grab as many career opportunities that you truly deserve. So if you want to learn more about

my career course The Corporate Survivor that is designed for nine to five professionals just like grab as many career opportunities that you truly deserve. So if you want to learn more about my career course, The Corporate Survivor, that is designed for nine to five professionals just like you, then check out www.maping.com. And if you have any questions and you want to share your career situation with me, you can DM me on LinkedIn and Instagram, tell me about your career situation, then I can recommend some next steps for you. So till then, I'll see you in the next episode and good luck with your job search.