Marketing Happy Hour - Perfecting Your Resume and Nailing Your Next Interview | Tim Dyck of Best Culture Solutions

Episode Date: July 28, 2023

This week, Cassie and Erica chat with Tim Dyck of Best Culture Solutions to hear his thoughts on how to stand out as a candidate in the job market today. Here's a peek at what we cover in this episode: [00:05:26] - Tim shares his background in HR, the mission of his business, Best Culture Solutions, and how they're helping employers with recruiting and job seekers with interview coaching and career transitions. He also shares a bit about his podcast: World at Work. [00:07:03] - Tim uncovers the biggest mistakes he sees applicants make when they're applying to jobs, and his best tips for formatting your resume and what content to include. He also gives us his perspective on questions that can trip up applicants, like indicating salary expectations and whether or not to write a cover letter. [00:35:23] - Tim shares his best job searching and interviewing tips, including what to do before you start your search, how to put your best foot forward on challenging questions during the interview process, and encouragement for job seekers that are receiving rejections. Grab a drink and listen in to this week's Marketing Happy Hour conversation! ----- Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Tim's episode: BONUS! Ask MHH: Dream Career Game Plan Job Seeking Tips Straight from HR...Candidates, Take Notes! | Stephanie Pagan of ILIA Beauty ____ Say hi! DM us on Instagram and share your favorite moments from this episode - we can't wait to hear from you! NEW! Join our MHH Insiders group to connect with Millennial and Gen Z marketing professionals around the world! ⁠⁠Get the latest from MHH, straight to your inbox: Join our email list!⁠⁠ Connect with Tim: [e-mail] | LinkedIn Connect with the Best Culture Solutions team: bestculturesolutions.ca | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram Listen in to Tim's World at Work podcast Connect with Co-Host Erica: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Co-Host Cassie: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow MHH on Social: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ New to Marketing Happy Hour (or just want more)? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download our Marketing Happy Hour Starter Kit⁠⁠ This podcast is an MHH Media production. ⁠⁠Learn more about MHH Media!⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Interested in starting your own podcast? Grab our Podcast Launch Strategy Guide here.⁠

you're listening to the marketing happy hour podcast where we discuss career and industry insights with our peers in marketing we're here to talk about it all like the ups and downs of working in social media how to build authentic relationships in the influencer and pr space managing a nine-to-five and a side hustle at the same time, how to be productive in your life and career without losing your sanity, and more. Ultimately, we're here to build a community with you because we're all trying to navigate the world of marketing together. Are you ready? Grab your favorite drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode. Hey, Marketing Happy Hour listeners.

Okay, before I even tell you about today's guest, if you're considering your next career move or generally want tips for perfecting your resume, grab something to take notes because this week we are chatting with Tim Dick of Best Culture Solutions to hear his thoughts on how to stand out as a candidate in the job market today. This is a great episode because Tim is great, but we were also able to grill him on every burning question we've had or have heard from you guys about getting hired, including exactly how to format your resume, what to include and not include on it, and when to write a cover letter. Tim also walks us through his best

interview strategies and shares encouragement for job seekers that are currently receiving a stream of rejections. Grab a drink and let's listen in together. Tim, we are very excited to have you on the show. I've known you for quite some time. I'm excited for Erica to get to know you, for our listeners to get to know you. You are the founder of a fantastic company called Best Culture Solutions, which we'll talk about here in a minute and a podcast host. But before we get into the meat of the conversation, Tim, how are you today? First of all, how's it going up in Canada? Yeah, really good. So I almost, I don't want to admit this because it would fulfill any stereotype that anybody could ever have about being up in Canada. But for reference, it's

April 24th today. And I looked outside my window and it was snowing oh my goodness isn't that crazy that is crazy it's melting right away because it's warm and it's springtime but I just I'm hesitant to share this uh because I don't want to like fulfill or perpetuate any inaccurate stereotypes but uh it's snowing and it's 45 Fahrenheit here today. So, Oh man. Well, I cannot say that Erica and I late currently, unfortunately 90 here, or it's been like 90. I don't know what it is right now. Yes, it is quite warm. So we certainly have empathy for you there, Tim, but, um, I'm curious what is in your glass right now? Are you drinking something warm or feel free to share your favorite happy hour beverage, whether alcoholic or non-alcoholic?

So right now it's tea. It's tea in a nice Disney's Animal Kingdom, Starbucks, you were here mug. But if it were nighttime on very rare occasions, because I'm finding as I get older, these things aren't, you don't do these things anymore, but I could have anything in my glass because I spent a long time in fine dining. And so you get exposed to a lot of different things. So if I'm eating something, it might be a little bit of wine. If I am not eating something, you might have a scotch or bourbon. It just depends on what's going on. that's awesome do you have a favorite brand of

scotch or bourbon i'm always curious not really i really i really don't because like again like that's like what fits like what you're doing right there's different ones that do well with different things and uh probably if it was bourbon you you know i mean like i say i don't get to it often anymore but uh usually you know just your maker's mark I say, I don't get to it often anymore, but usually, you know, just your maker's mark or something like that will end up being there. Recently, some Basil Hayden. So, but yeah, yeah, we do. Okay. That's awesome. Very good. Yeah. We, we love that. And I too, actually, ironically, Tim have hot tea in my animal kingdom mug as well way so so there we go and this is a vintage Tim and I were just talking off record about what's vintage and what isn't this

might be considered a vintage mug I got this in 2015 and so it's a classic wasn't it just the animal kingdom anniversary or something it was that's exactly why i'm using this mug today wow same same erica what do you have right now uh i also have tea but it's not in that same mug that you guys have i have my own personalized e mug uh but it's just some black tea with uh some milk which is my favorite almond milk brand. So shout out to them. But okay, let's get into the meat of the episode here. Let's talk about who you are, why we're here today, and podcast. Sure. Well, first of all, it would have been way more interesting if you'd just been like, instead of all that, you just said, who are you? And just awkwardly. But anyway, no, my name is Tim.

And I am the founder of a business called Best Culture Solutions. And what we do is we help people solve the workplace on both sides. So we help employers with recruiting and people in HR strategies. And we help job seekers have resumes that, you know, that are going to get converted to more interviews, and we help them with interview coaching and planning their career transitions. So we help people on both sides of the table. And so my podcast called The World at Work, do this really cool format there where we, we have episodes that will help people that are job seekers. And we'll probably,

as time goes on, extend that into not just job seeking tools and advice, but just as an individual navigating the workplace from that side of things. And then Jody Mayberry hosts episodes where we try to help employers with people strategies. And I had no idea that this, like having two hosts was like so out there. I love it. I think it's a great format. It challenges me as a host. And, and I think that the benefit of it too, is that it really gets good questions out there that I may not have otherwise thought of. That is awesome. And we're really excited to learn from you today. I've listened to a few of the episodes that you guys have put out and there's always some great nuggets of advice in there. So excited for our listeners to, you know, learn from you and then tune into those episodes

as well later on. But first, let's just talk about common mistakes that job seekers make that might hinder them from landing positions. I know that's a hot button issue right now. You know, the biggest mistake that people make is they sell themselves short, honestly. A lot of people, they'll look at a job description or a job posting and they're like, I, I couldn't, I just couldn't do that. Or I haven't done this before. I, you know, I don't have this job description lists 20 things and I don't have experience with one of them, but I have the other 19. They sell themselves short. And, and the,

you know, if I were to list, if like, if I were to list three biggest mistakes, that would be number one, right? As they, and it's so true, I think of humans in general, there's so many people that let some form of imposter syndrome hinder them from realizing their full potential. Job seekers are no different. And it's just part of being human. And it's those thoughts creep in, it's it's definitely easily the biggest mistake that I see from my clients when we start working with them. And it's led and there have been clients out there to that do things that they could never have otherwise thought possible. I mean, without that belief, like, you know, we've helped people get interviews with Disney in Orlando, which isn't easy to do when you don't already live in Orlando and for senior level jobs where they often promote

from within, but it all started with that level of belief. So the biggest number one thing I see, honestly, is that level of belief that people have in themselves. And it's actually really sad. What else in terms of, you know, the, the interview process resumes, we'll talk a little bit about here in a minute, but just overall with the process, once you feel like you have that belief, you feel like you can make it happen. You decide you're going to apply for this one job. What are some things that you see once you get into the meat of the process there? Yeah. Great question. The biggest thing that I see, and anybody who's ever listened to our podcast will hear this over and over again, an inability to

be specific. Right? Interviewing and, and job seeking is really just a big game in, in being specific, I shouldn't use the term game so glibly, but, but it really is like, you really need to be specific with people about experiences that you've had, and accomplishments that you've achieved, that use the skill set for the job that you're applying for. And one thing, going back to the original thing that we were talking about with confidence, is that you can apply for things that aren't maybe necessarily in the same industry or direct, directly applicable to the job that you currently have. But there's probably any number of experiences that you've had that would use the skill set required for that job. And people go

into interviews without a good set of experiences and stories to tell people where they've overcome obstacles where they have achieved things that are pretty special and everybody has those types of achievements and they just struggle to be specific in the interview they stay high level they stay hypothetical i think part of it is that you know um frankly i mean like smart devices are really awesome, but we get information overload and that makes it hard for us to zero in and focus on those things. Cognitively, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not an expert in that field, but that's just how I kind of see it sometimes when I talk to people anecdotally, but the inability to be

specific is a huge, huge struggle that so many people have now. Pretty much everybody that I work with has that struggle. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that, Tim. And we'll get into that a little bit deeper here shortly. But, you know, obviously speaking to the marketing industry here, I want to narrow down on that for just a moment. So one common assumption in this industry is that each person needs to have a very highly designed resume. It needs to be developed in Canva or Adobe or any of these platforms to really speak to the creativity of the industry. This is a belief that I previously had, and I would only submit PDF resumes that were highly designed. I thought that was my key into getting an interview. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that, both from a technical standpoint, some of the systems that are used in the job hunt process, but also just, you know, overall, what are what are your thoughts on doing so? And what would

you recommend instead? Yeah, you're so right. Like so many people now are, I mean, with Canva, like being a thing, and people having it and not to diss on Canva. I mean, we all I think all three of us do some level of marketing at some point, and probably have used Canva and benefited from it. Cool. It's a great tool. But what's happening is that people are getting in there and they're seeing these really sleek graphically designed resume templates and uh you know and and getting super into that and like having these really nice colorful resumes which i get i totally get it but don't do it i hate to say it don't do it um and and the reason why is there's many reasons for it, not the least of which is that anytime you include graphics in a resume or anything graphical, be it a photo, be it colors, be it anything you run the risk of it being formatted tracking system. Anytime you click a button that says apply online, it's going in their system. And a lot of their systems start reading the document automatically to try to pick things out of it, to pick keywords out of it,

to translate it into their system. If your resume has formatting in it, every layer of formatting that you add is just another opportunity for it not to translate into that, if that makes sense. That's the first thing that happens with that. The second problem, though, is more personal or human, is that if your resume makes it through an ATS, somebody is going to be looking at it. And you have three to five seconds to capture that person's attention. And unfortunately, as nice as it looks, I don't think you can afford to spend those three to five seconds with the person looking at colors at how nice they are. You really want the first thing that they see and they think to be how you can help them and instantly demonstrate to them how you can solve the

problem that they're looking for that person to solve. And if you use colors and graphics, it will look nice aesthetically, but you have more or less, you know, frittered away that three to five seconds that you have. So you're saying photo or no photo, you're saying no photo, right? I agree with that too. And I used to have my photo on my resume for like the longest time and I literally just recently took it off. But that's the general advice that I was getting was or hiring managers can look at right away and say, okay, this is the person that we should follow up with about this position. I'm like, very curious to hear, you know, what that thing is that will stand out. Cause you know, you see all these templates that are like, okay, here's a little, you know, whether it's, you know, put your name up top with your little like one

liner about yourself and then all your skills on one side and then all your experiences on the other but I feel like maybe that's a little outdated what are your thoughts on that yes and no okay so first of all go back to the photo you're right like so photo is a it's a no for me and the reason again is because you know we kind of mentioned this earlier is that you've got that three to five seconds. You might have a great professional photo, but this isn't exactly a LinkedIn profile where people are looking for that. You want, again, the first person for somebody, sorry, the first thing for a person to see,

sorry, is how you can help them, which gets into what you've just asked about. So when we design resumes for people, what we do is we will start with a headline on top, right? The headline might not be some really big, fantastic, you know, 80 word headline. But it's just like, let's say I'm I'm applying for a marketing role, I might put just marketing professional underneath, right thing under my first thing underneath my name. So it's the first thing that people see. You know, if I am applying for an HR consulting role, right, like we just put in a bid for some work, my resume for that said people strategy consultant or people in HR strategist consulting. So that way people can see that right away. So you do

want to do that kind of at the top so that we instantly make a case for yourself. And then underneath what you want to do is you want to have a summary section. And this is where the magic happens for lack of a better term. That summary section, you've is where the magic happens, for lack of a better term, that summary section, you've got three to five bullet points in there that you want to put. And you want to base those bullet points directly on what qualifications they're looking for in the role. What qualifications do they want from that person? And when you go through any job posting, there'll be a basic qualification section. And you don't just want to say that you have all these things. But what you want to do is you want to list accomplishments that you've had

that reflect the skills or the or the credentials that they've listed. So, you know, if they're looking for a certain university degree, you can say achieved a bachelor's of communication from the University of South Florida in 2015 or whatever it might be. If they're looking for years of experience, right, you could say over 10 years experience as a marketing specialist, growing audiences in 10 different industries. But you want to put something accomplishment wise that directly demonstrates to people that you have the qualifications for this role. Because if you think about it, when a recruiter is looking at a resume, that first three to five seconds, if they don't see the experience, or or the skills that they've specifically asked for, chances are they're going to move on. And so that's what I would suggest doing, Erica, like start at the top with the headline and then

have a summary of three to five points that directly speaks to the skill set that they're looking for in the job. Yeah, no, that's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. I feel like people when they're learning about resumes or when they're seeing a template online, don't really understand that part. And that's's super helpful that kind of leads into the next question here of like any tips for tailoring resumes to specific positions we have seen on like TikTok you know there's extravagant examples of this where they are like going over the top and building out even things that look like a PR box for different companies and then sending that out weird, but whatever. And then, you know, even just

on a smaller scale of like, how do you make sure that your resume is getting to the right person with this specific position in mind? Yeah. Well, the good news is that this tip doesn't take a ton of work if you're generally applying for things that are in kind of the same wheelhouse. But basically, what you want to do is you want to go through the responsibility section of a job posting, and you want to see what type of experience that you're going to need to accomplish the responsibilities. So it might say budgeting, it might say leading people, it might say, you know, marketing in some way, right? Different skills that you see underneath the responsibility

section of the job posting, because this is going to be your day-to-day duties, right? This is going to be what you do day-to-day or the problems that problems that you solve day to day. As you look at each one, you should ask yourself, okay, do I have experience here doing this? And if you do, what you want to do is you want to write it underneath the job in your resume that you have where you got gained that experience. But you don't want to write it just as if it was like, like you're listing the responsibility of your job. You want to write it just as if it was like, like you're listing the responsibility of your job, you want to write it as an accomplishment. So, you know, essentially, if I were if one of the things that they had in the job description responsibilities was leading a team, I'm likely not going to put in there that I led a team with that exact verbiage, I could say, you know, coached and directed a team of 40 professionals that did,

you know, that were managers, marketers, and administrators, like the specific jobs that they did. So that way it lists it as an accomplishment and not just as a duty. And what I will do is I will go through that job description of the responsibilities. And if I have, say, a two-page resume with my last two or three jobs on it, I will list achievements that I accomplished in those jobs that would speak to that responsibility. So that way, every time the person reads it, they're like, oh, yeah, they can start visualizing you in the job. Oh, yeah, I need somebody who can lead people. And oh, yeah, she's done a ton of marketing work. And here's I'm looking for a marketer. Great. They grew audiences. They had a strategy. They had a plan. So anything that you see in the responsibilities, I would I would use my resume to speak towards

those responsibilities to show your accomplishments and skills with those. If you're, it sounds like a lot of work because it is, and that's why we're here to help people. But if you are applying for similar types of roles, right, then, you know, fortunately for you, you shouldn't have to tailor that too much every time. Because if you're going for leadership roles, there's always going to be some element to people leadership. If, and if you're going for marketing roles, there'll always be some creating strategies and measuring and, and stuff like that, that will be across job posts. So if you do it well the first time, and you're kind of always kind of working in the same sandbox, you shouldn't have to do major surgery every time, but that's how we do it. That's awesome. Okay. I have a few different follow-ups here too, since I'm thinking through

a resume tips. First of all, we recommend one page or more than one page. So I always say no more than two pages. Okay. Should you be listing every single experience, every single job that you've ever had or just the most relevant and time-wise, like the most recent? What do you think? Yeah, precisely. So I started the most recent, I go backwards.

And what I will do is I will list relevant accomplishments under each job, right? Using the strategy that I just outlined. But starting with the most recent job first, they don't have to dig too far down to find it. And then what I will do is once I've got enough different experiences, then I will stop once I get to two pages. So if I have to list the last three experiences to get to two pages, great. If I have to list the last five experiences sometimes that's the case too um but i i have had clients before too when when you're done you could get it into one page and

that's never say no to that if you can do that more concise is better which is why you know which is exactly why um you know i say stop at two pages because the more concise, the better it used to be, you know, when our parents, I can remember my dad at one point had like a 10 page resume in the early nineties, just different times. So we don't want that, but yeah, two pages tops. And if you are in a situation where you just happen to be able to get it to one, don't be shy about that. Gotcha. Awesome. Okay. One more question here that I wrote down. Okay. Do we need to include our contact information on the resume or elsewhere in the job application process? Great question. Put it on the top, just like

people typically do email, phone number, the city that you live in. You do not need to put your full address anymore. A lot of people are still doing that. And that's your, that's your personal address. Nobody else needs to know that. The real thing that people need to know from your address is what city you're in. So just put your city and that's it. Awesome. And then the last question that I had around just like applying for jobs, creating resumes and things like that. A lot of times when we're applying to jobs online, there will be a place to put your resume, but then also some follow-up questions there, right? And one of those is oftentimes salary requirements. What do you recommend doing, especially when

maybe there's not a salary range listed on the job description? What do you think is like good practice there? Oh, great question. Find out what market value is for what you do and put that in. Honestly, a lot of people sit there and they're like, Oh, if I put this, they won't be happy. Or what do I put to make them want to call me? I think that that's actually a really bad strategy. I mean, you'll get the call more often, sure. But you'll also get the wrong level of compensation more often based on what you need, right? And so what I would tell people to do is to get super deliberate about doing research on what market value is for a role like the one that you're going for is in the the area that you live in, or the area that you're applying in.

And ask yourself if that is enough for you. Right. And ask yourself, you know, if that is going to make you happy. And then don't be shy, be bold. Like don't be confident when you put that number in there based on that. You might not get it, but that's okay. That's not a bad thing. You wouldn't want it anyway. I know lots of people who compromise on this because they're just so afraid of not getting a call. But then once they get the job, they're already realizing that this can't last forever because it's not what they wanted. Now, don't get me wrong. There

are some people with financial realities that require them to do that temporarily. And I understand that. And I, and I get that, but if that's not you definitely get super deliberate about what you put in there and deliberate doesn't mean be deliberate about getting a callback every time. Yeah, totally. Do you recommend putting like a range or a specific number? I don't know if it honestly matters. If they ask for range, throw in a range that is requisite to market value. Don't be afraid if you reach up a little bit higher for market value, if you've got the experience to back it up or if you've got the credentials or the case that you can to back it up.

But I would answer the question that they want answered and I would just be super, super confident. Don't even worry about it. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you for that. What about cover letters? How do we feel? Oh, I, I think they're dying. Honestly. How do you feel? I feel the same way. I think it maybe depends on the job that you're applying for, or if you know the hiring manager in any capable, you know, in any way, um, I've seen both things work. I don't know. I think it's just, it's

another step that's just heavy on the applicant, especially nowadays when there's so many just jobs open and so many people applying for the jobs. It's hard to do everything for every job and know that maybe you're not going to get a call back. I just, I don't know how to determine whether or not you should have a cover letter for a different position. Right. Okay. So here, here's my answer to this. So we do recruiting as well. And so I can tell you, you know, from a recruiter's perspective, the honest truth about where a cover letter is going to get you. We, personally me, I, if I have a paper with a cover letter and a resume on it, the first thing I do is I flip up the cover letter and I look at the resume every time. However, where the cover letter will matter is because where the cover letter will matter

is if they expected to see one and they don't, right? If they expected to see a cover letter and they don't see it, well, then that is going to be an issue. And you got to, you know, even if they don't read it, they're expecting to see it. And so you should have one. So if the job post specifically asked for one,

you better include one. Otherwise it'll job post specifically asked for one, you better include one. Otherwise it'll show that you can't follow instructions. This typically is, is I find for senior level roles, more of the case where they specifically asked for one. Yeah. But yeah, if you have a hunch that they might want one anyway as well, just include one. I mean, even if they don't read it uh they often you often will not get discounted for having one either unless they specifically don't have one or they are sorry unless they

specifically asked you not to have one but the honest truth is that the cover letter even if you're supposed to have it you do include it it's like a it's a dying thing people don't like it's not the first thing they look at but but at the same time, they might just notice if it wasn't there. Yeah. And it existed for a long time, if you think about it, when the reason why they would have made sense, you know, when they were common was because this was also a time when computers and printing tools weren't as accessible and convenient as they are now. And so lots of people, you know, would have a typewritten resume that and you're not editing it for every job post. And so the easy way to get people to pay attention to the points in your resume, you know, that you needed them to see first, you know, that that strategy where we talked about the summary, where you've

got the three to five qualifications, was to throw them in the cover letter, that, that strategy where we talked about the summary, where you've got the three to five qualifications was to throw them in the cover letter, right. And, and highlight those things in the cover letter, but times have changed. So that's why nowadays people are just skipping straight to the resume. Totally. And I think another reason why someone might include a cover letter is to maybe explain something. So if you're trying to like switch industries or you want to do something totally different than what you've been doing before, I think maybe that's a good place to indicate that or explain that in a way, just so that you have an extra,

maybe chance of getting viewed for this position. I don't know if you agree with that, but that's what I'm thinking in my head as you're speaking about this. Yeah, you can definitely get ahead of things. And then what you would want to do though, if you did that, is you'd want to start highlighting those skills that you do have that are directly applicable to the role that you're applying for, the pivot that you're trying to make. Yeah, I could see that for sure. Awesome. Okay. Any last formatting tips around resumes before we

move on in the conversation? I feel like I've been taking it over, just asking all these different questions. So anything off the top of your head that someone needs to know? Yeah, I get lots of questions about formatting, so it's all good. So the biggest thing too, that I don't think we've talked about yet is you'll see a lot of people now, like just use a top to bottom approach, right? I'll see lots of people now that have like sidebars and then the main body you know on the left like a sidebar on the left that has maybe their degree or a little bit of their accomplishments and then a main body on the right and I don't think that it would like it certainly wouldn't disqualify you uh from anything uh because most people aren't

thinking about this but if you think about it, when you do that, you've lost control of where the reader goes with their eyes, right? They might go to the left, they might go to the right, they don't know where to start reading. You want to really use a simple top to bottom approach with the with the resume, right, starting with your name, the header, then the summary and working down. No sidebars. Because as soon as you put the sidebars in, you've lost control of what they read first. You don't know if you're going to go to the left, the right, to the top or the bottom. And so I know that people are looking at more complex approaches these days, but we personally, we recommend every time like a simple traditional top to bottom approach that I know bores a lot of people because there's so many cool and pretty things now that you can do with your resume. But no, simple top to bottom approach wins.

Awesome. I love that. What about, okay, so top to bottom approach, we talked about the summary and the relevant experience and, you know, your name and contact info at the top. Is there a place where you should be putting, you know, skills that maybe aren't in your experience? Depends on the role, right? So if it's like a technical job, that's going to require use with some skills, software, maybe it's a coding job maybe it's a role in it then yes you want to put you can do like a bulleted list underneath your summary of skills that that are relevant to a job like that so if you're in a trade if you're a coder of some sort or in the it field and you want to list the specific systems that you may have worked with or things of those nature, then yes. But that's where I would use that. Some people will put

soft skills in there, like leadership, and I wouldn't use that section for soft skills. And the reason why I wouldn't is because you're going to have accomplishments elsewhere in your resume that demonstrate that. And it's hard to tangibly say that this is just a skill of mine without backing it up with an accomplishment, right? Like I could say I'm a leader all day long, but unless I've shown you, how do you know that? That's where those accomplishments come in. But if I'm certified to use Microsoft Azure or something like that, well then, okay. That is something I can list as a skill and that's easily verifiable, I think is the word that I'm looking for. So I only use a skills section if it's hard skills. Yeah, absolutely. That's great. This has been so fun. I do want to ask you one

more question on resumes before we move on to interviewing file format so once all of this is said and done how do we need to export our resumes to then upload them into the ats's that for the jobs we're applying for a great question so um you want to use, if they request a PDF format, use PDF, right? If you see in the job posting, uh, PDF, then that settles it right away. If they don't specify format, then you actually want to use dot doc, the old Microsoft word 97 to 2003, um, format, believe it or not, not dot doc Xx like your computer is going to want to. And the reason for that is because it's that formatting thing again. .docx has more formatting tools in it that can get lost in translation.

.doc is a little bit more primitive. And because of that, there's not as many things that can go wrong when it's being translated over. It seems strange, but yeah, you want to use.doc just to guarantee there's no conversion problems. Fantastic. So follow direction seems to be a key point here. So just read that job description thoroughly, follow those directions. And even with these best practices in your back pocket, still cater the experience to what that specific brand is asking for. And then be clear, provide an excellent, you know, we like to say customer client experience, but for this point, the perfect recruiter experience on your resume, just making sure everything is laid out nicely. It's not

confusing. But Tim, with that too, want to move on here to interviewing. So overall, what top tips do you have that will help the job seeker in their upcoming job search? Yeah. So job searching and interviewing. Okay. So job searching, the biggest thing that you can do with the search is get really deliberate about where you want to go with your career, right? So I always tell people that before you start your search, what you want to do is you want to sit down and you want to ask yourself, what are the things that you currently do in your career every day that are things that are enjoyable for you? So they feel like you get to do them. And what are the things that you do that are have to do so like when they come across your your desk

you kind of like you lose energy because they're just things you don't enjoy now unfortunately you cannot ever create a career where there's no have to do's um it's just you know but what you can do is you can make sure that you have more get to do's and have to do's and get really deliberate about applying for the types of jobs and roles that are going to give you more of that, more of the get to do's instead of the have to do's. And then get really deliberate about what values you're looking for in a company and start looking. you almost want to create like a list, right, of the companies that, you know, you think on a values level or share the most with you that way are number one and have the roles that would energize you and start working your way down and kind of do it that way. Get really, really, really deliberate about what it is you want to do and where you want to do it. So that way, when you are applying for jobs and you're out there searching for jobs,

you're super deliberate, right about what you're doing, where you're doing it, and how you're doing it. That is the number one thing. And then also, I always tell people, do a little bit of a financial analysis, you know, like, what is your runway look like? Because I just gave you a strategy to find what we hope to be a perfect fit for you or as good of a fit that you can get. But sometimes it's not always straightforward. And you don't always just because you made the list and you applied once doesn't mean you get your top choice. And so you need to understand where you stand financially to find out when you may need to in the short term, make a different decision, right? As you continue that job search to find something that might be, you know, short term in the sense that it would be one or two years long,

while you continue to search in the market for one of those roles you identified earlier, just know where you stand financially, because that will tell you what you can and can't do, and how deliberate and how patient you can be with finding that deliberate position. Fantastic. And I know too, with more of the technical things, you know, making sure you show up early or show up on time, whether this is a virtual interview or in-person interview, making sure you're dressing for the role. You know, a lot of those aspects are very straightforward, but the way that you answer questions too, I know can tell a lot about a candidate. So do you have any tips specifically, um, you know, when someone asks you to, to tell them about how you've, uh, resolve challenges in the past or your strengths and weaknesses,

what are some tips and how you can just overall put your best foot forward and responding to those kinds of questions, whether they're very simple or they're more of those challenging questions that you think they're trying to trip you up with? Yeah. Great question. We honestly, uh, oh man, how do you even start answering that question? So that question, uh, we could get to that with our clients over five. We actually are like, we have our interview coaching product designed to answer that question over five sessions. We don't have five sessions today. But what I would

tell you is that for your interview, you really want to come in there with specific stories, right? You need to come in there. And we mentioned it earlier, people struggle with this. So it's even more important now that people are struggling with it to be the one who can deliver this. Have specific stories where you've overcome the types of obstacles and challenges that you know you're going to face in that role. Obstacles and challenges makes it sound pretty like pretty big deal, right? Like, oh my goodness, obstacles are huge. But it doesn't have to be these crazy, huge monumental things. It's just little things like somebody who created a conflict for you. How did you overcome that? What did you do to deal with them or work with them? You know,

a time where you made a mistake, you had to fix it. It doesn't have to be this crazy, I climbed Mount Everest challenge. It's all about problems that you face in the workplace and having specific stories about them. Maybe there's a time you had an angry customer. Maybe there is a time when, you know, you had a million things on the go at once, you had to keep them straight. How did you do that? What action did you take? And then what you want to do with those specific stories is and you'd never want to answer those questions when you get those questions, you know, tell me about a time at a workplace conflict with a really high level, you know, generic hypothetical response that doesn't really share anything about you or a specific story that you've had. So an example there might be, well, if I'm asked about workplace conflict, I can say, well, it happens all the time. And

you know, anytime that happens, I just work with the person and listen to them and we make it right and we get over it. I don't, that's not a specific story. Have a specific story in those cases where, you know, somebody did create conflict, and you did have to show leadership to to fix it right. that will drive them to see how you will specifically handle problems in their workplace. Because when you have specific stories, they can start envisioning you in the role themselves, right? Because you're telling them stories about how you solve the exact types of problems they're going to need you to solve in the past, and they can visualize things, they can visualize you in the role. You have got to have specific stories. You can't afford not to. When it comes to things like strengths and weaknesses, I just say you own them.

Be honest. Be upfront. Be vulnerable. I mean, don't be unprofessional or overshare, but just point out to people things that you have had to improve on in the past. And all you really have to do is just say, and this is what I've done to improve on them. And when you share the improvements that you've made, you can't just say things that, well, I tried to do this differently, or I thought about doing

that differently. You need to specifically tell them what you did action-wise. What action did you take to get better in that area? So if it's a time management problem, you don't want to just say, well, I, you know, I tried to think about how much time it takes things to do things. No, you want to talk about specific internal processes that you changed. I bought a day timer, I read a time management book, and I implemented the processes in it. Those are actions that you've taken to improve on your weakness. But everything is just all about sharing or showing action, right? Show action, show that you are going to take action when the chips are on the table and have stories that are preparing that are have stories very

prepared where you have taken action in the past. Awesome. And I know right now job seeking is challenging. You know, we've had a lot of people on, we do these Tuesday segments called open for hire, and some people will come on who haven't had jobs for months at a time. And you can tell they're starting to get worn out by the process. So what does overall word of encouragement would you share with that job seeker just to help them stay confident in the process to keep going despite some of the common challenges getting told no over and over again just some things that they can do to push forward in this process yeah great question and I never want to be the type of person that would just you know toxically say you just got to keep pushing because it's not like there are adjustments sometimes need to be made but you know you all

these things that we've talked about they are all things that will help shorten your cycle time to finding the best possible job for you unfortunately they're not a silver bullet you know it's just like how um you know we we have our websites, right? I mean, we're both, all three of us, we own businesses and we do business. We have websites where we have, you know, very carefully messaged our product. Just because somebody goes to your website, like raise your hand if every single hit you get your website, somebody clicks buy now. It doesn't happen.

But it doesn't necessarily mean that your website is poorly messaged. It just means that they're not ready yet or it doesn't, it's just not time or it doesn't fit. Same goes with the job search process. You know, I've had clients before that first resume they put in, it didn't work and I'm just discouraged. It's like, well, you're not done, right? You're not done. You're just starting. Sometimes it does work on the first try. Sometimes it doesn't, but sooner or later it will work. If you do these things, if you can have a great resume that captures the attention of the reader within three to five seconds, if you go into those interviews with stories, and it's just like we talked about with negotiation too, don't forget that you effective communication doesn't always

land a job offer. Effective communication will land to the right job offer and it can keep you away from the wrong job offer. And by being honest and owning those things and constructive, that's the way to get it done. That's excellent advice. And this whole episode has been filled with excellent advice. So thanks so much again for just joining us today and sharing all that you know with our listeners a lot of our listeners are either early in their career or they're looking to make a career change so this is like super super helpful and very timely um we do love to ask this last question on the show and that is what do you know now that you wish you knew early on in your career? Oh, a few things. But I mean, it goes back to that original question about what do you see job seekers, mistakes that they're making that

issue of confidence, right? I think I somebody once told me, you know, don't let your memories be bigger than I'm sorry. Yeah, don't let your memories be bigger than, I'm sorry. Yeah. Don't let your memories be bigger with your dreams, bigger than your dream story. And what they're trying to tell you is, you know, you have these great ideas and these big ideas, but memories from the past might hold you back from, from going after them. Cause it might lead you to think that you can't, or it's not a good idea or it's silly. And I would tell you never to let those types of memories get in the way of what you think you're capable of. You know, what happened to you yesterday, you can let it be, you know, a, um, you can let it be a killer for whatever it is you think you could do in the future,

or you can let it be a learning tool. And, and if you let it do the first thing, then you'll never achieve those things, you know, prove yourself right, or whatever negative point in your mind, if you thought was right, was there at the time, as opposed to proving that area in your mind, that isn't negative, right, instead. And so you have a choice, you can either, you know, prove the good side, right, or you can prove the bad side, right. And you pick. So, yeah. That's awesome.

Thank you for that, Tim. Yeah, this has been fantastic. So thank you for this. I really hope this just helps everyone craft a winning resume and to step into the job seeking process with confidence. But with that too, we have to know where everyone can follow along with you. If someone really resonated and this help, this information was incredibly helpful to them, but they want to dive deeper. Maybe they need help with interview coaching, resume writing. How can they get in contact with you and your team? Well, first of all, thanks for having me. I

had a ton of fun and yeah, I really enjoyed being with you both on your show today, but people can get in touch with me by visiting our website, bestculturesolutions.ca. We are in Canada, as we mentioned, but we work all over the continent and we're happy to do so. My email address personally is tim at bestculturesolutions.ca. And we love helping people. We're on LinkedIn, we're on Facebook, we have Instagram, we're all those cool places. But yeah, we love to help and we're happy to help. Awesome. And I have to mention too, as we close out, Tim has a fantastic podcast. He's the star of World at Work. So go check that out wherever you listen to podcasts. There's some wonderful tips on there as well if you want to continue your education on this topic.

You're just way too nice. Well, thank you, Tim. Thank you so much for joining us. Again, this was fantastic. Cannot say thank you enough. And we just had so much fun having you on the show today. Thanks for having me. I had a ton of fun too.

And that is all for this week's episode. If you're looking to make your next career move, I hope you found this conversation insightful, encouraging, and can take away some great tips for perfecting your resume and nailing your next interview. If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. For more from Marketing Happy Hour, be sure to head over to our website at marketinghappyhr.com or follow us on Instagram at marketinghappyhr. Catch you next week. We are so excited to share that our first ever free marketing happy hour digital resource is now available. Download the dream career game plan today at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash

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