How to collaborate with a professional resume / LinkedIn profile writer with Mir Garvy
02/11/20 • 42 min
Mir talks about how to work with a resume and LinkedIn profile writer. This is really important because these are your job search tools! Your resume and your LinkedIn profile represent you, they are your face to potential employers. And you can easily get thrown out of the consideration pool for a job if your resume stinks or your LinkedIn profile is lame. Also, Mir pointed out to me earlier that your resume may not even be seen by a human being if it's not optimized to get past applicant tracking system filters.
Working with a resume writer is a great way to ensure that your resume reflects current thinking and trends in hiring. A good resume writer will be a wordsmith, great with language, able to suggest ideas, formatting, action verbs that you might not have thought of.
If you’re going to invest in a professional to help you with these tools, you want to make the most of your investment by working productively with them. And Mir is going to tell us exactly how to do that.
Career transitions can be so incredibly stressful because they often coincide with other life transitions--job loss, a layoff, a relocation, a divorce, your last child heading off to kindergarten, and so on.
Sometimes your confidence isn’t as strong as it could be, and I’ve seen that working with my team to write, revise, and finalize that resume leaves people feeling more prepared to speak about their skills and experiences at the interview, more energized about their prospects, and more confident in general.
I’m a firm believer that every job we ever have leaves us with lessons learned and transferable skills. In college, I waited tables at an Italian restaurant and had one of my best managers ever teach me about the importance of ensuring positive customer experience.
99% of the time, the job seekers who hire my team trust the process and our guidance, and understand how important their input is. In order to create a document that is accurate, persuasive, tailored for the intended audience, and is something that the client is not only excited about, but the client also has to rely on us and we have to rely on the client. It really must be collaborative.
Every now and then, though, we have clients who fall into either one of two camps, and they are on the two extremes of the same spectrum.
Sometimes we have a client who does not want to be involved at all in the process of writing, revising, and finalizing their documents. Of course, we need to pick your brain, ask you questions, incorporate your answers, and make sure that everything we’ve included in your resume is 100% accurate--from your various jobs’ start and end dates all the way down to how many direct reports you have, what size budgets you manage, and what kinds of outcomes you’ve achieved.
We can’t write a resume in a vacuum, so I would say one pitfall to look out for when deciding to hire a writer is thinking that this is something you can simply outsource without having to provide any input along the way.
On the other end of the spectrum, we sometimes have a client that doesn’t trust the process and, therefore, doesn’t benefit from all that we can bring to their project. In these instances, the “quote-unquote” “finished resume” often looks a lot like the resume that the client had to start with. That’s because any ideas or suggestions we offered weren’t embraced--or were only adopted in part. In my mind, in these instances, I always wonder, “why did you even hire a writer if you just wanted to write your resume yourself?” So that’s another pitfall to look out for.
What could potentially happen if a job-seeker doesn’t do this the right way?
Well, you’re just not getting the full benefit of the service you’re paying for. Personally, if I’m going to spend money on something, I want to know that I’m getting a great value for the money I’ve spent.
If you can, as a client, come to the table with a truly collaborative spirit, the finished resume and LinkedIn profile will be stronger. After all, you are the subject matter expert in your career, in your industry, in the tools you use, and regarding your career goals. You have to bring that background to the project.
The expertise that my team and I bring to the project is in knowing the current trends in resume design, understanding how applicant tracking systems work, knowing what hiring managers look for in a resume, experience writing resumes for other professionals in your field, and strong writing, editing, and proofreading skills.
How-To:
Let’s dig in. What would you say is the first step to working...
Mir talks about how to work with a resume and LinkedIn profile writer. This is really important because these are your job search tools! Your resume and your LinkedIn profile represent you, they are your face to potential employers. And you can easily get thrown out of the consideration pool for a job if your resume stinks or your LinkedIn profile is lame. Also, Mir pointed out to me earlier that your resume may not even be seen by a human being if it's not optimized to get past applicant tracking system filters.
Working with a resume writer is a great way to ensure that your resume reflects current thinking and trends in hiring. A good resume writer will be a wordsmith, great with language, able to suggest ideas, formatting, action verbs that you might not have thought of.
If you’re going to invest in a professional to help you with these tools, you want to make the most of your investment by working productively with them. And Mir is going to tell us exactly how to do that.
Career transitions can be so incredibly stressful because they often coincide with other life transitions--job loss, a layoff, a relocation, a divorce, your last child heading off to kindergarten, and so on.
Sometimes your confidence isn’t as strong as it could be, and I’ve seen that working with my team to write, revise, and finalize that resume leaves people feeling more prepared to speak about their skills and experiences at the interview, more energized about their prospects, and more confident in general.
I’m a firm believer that every job we ever have leaves us with lessons learned and transferable skills. In college, I waited tables at an Italian restaurant and had one of my best managers ever teach me about the importance of ensuring positive customer experience.
99% of the time, the job seekers who hire my team trust the process and our guidance, and understand how important their input is. In order to create a document that is accurate, persuasive, tailored for the intended audience, and is something that the client is not only excited about, but the client also has to rely on us and we have to rely on the client. It really must be collaborative.
Every now and then, though, we have clients who fall into either one of two camps, and they are on the two extremes of the same spectrum.
Sometimes we have a client who does not want to be involved at all in the process of writing, revising, and finalizing their documents. Of course, we need to pick your brain, ask you questions, incorporate your answers, and make sure that everything we’ve included in your resume is 100% accurate--from your various jobs’ start and end dates all the way down to how many direct reports you have, what size budgets you manage, and what kinds of outcomes you’ve achieved.
We can’t write a resume in a vacuum, so I would say one pitfall to look out for when deciding to hire a writer is thinking that this is something you can simply outsource without having to provide any input along the way.
On the other end of the spectrum, we sometimes have a client that doesn’t trust the process and, therefore, doesn’t benefit from all that we can bring to their project. In these instances, the “quote-unquote” “finished resume” often looks a lot like the resume that the client had to start with. That’s because any ideas or suggestions we offered weren’t embraced--or were only adopted in part. In my mind, in these instances, I always wonder, “why did you even hire a writer if you just wanted to write your resume yourself?” So that’s another pitfall to look out for.
What could potentially happen if a job-seeker doesn’t do this the right way?
Well, you’re just not getting the full benefit of the service you’re paying for. Personally, if I’m going to spend money on something, I want to know that I’m getting a great value for the money I’ve spent.
If you can, as a client, come to the table with a truly collaborative spirit, the finished resume and LinkedIn profile will be stronger. After all, you are the subject matter expert in your career, in your industry, in the tools you use, and regarding your career goals. You have to bring that background to the project.
The expertise that my team and I bring to the project is in knowing the current trends in resume design, understanding how applicant tracking systems work, knowing what hiring managers look for in a resume, experience writing resumes for other professionals in your field, and strong writing, editing, and proofreading skills.
How-To:
Let’s dig in. What would you say is the first step to working...
Previous Episode
How to decide which job to take as you return to work
Going back to work after taking a career break is different than a typical job search because you have a gap in your work history. I know, this shouldn’t be a disqualifier for getting a job. And it isn’t. Let me say that again, it’s important. Taking time off from work does not mean you can’t go back. But it does require you as a job seeker to have a thoughtful way to talk about what you’ve been doing while you were out of the paid workforce.
I’m going to throw a few stats at you, just for fun.
Did you know that Women Account for 46.9% of the Total Labor Force in the US? according to Catalyst.
We need to welcome women back to the workforce after taking career breaks. For starters, what’s more important than raising a family or caring for family members who are ill? I can’t think of anything more important. Also, it makes sense for the economy. Catalyst reports that if women’s participation in the global economy were equal to men, the global annual GDP would be $28 Trillion, yes trillion, dollars higher in 2025.
I want to talk about how to decide what job to take as you return to work. Women ask me a lot if they should just take any job or wait for the right one. So I hear this a lot and it’s a question that I asked myself often as I looked for a job after being out of the full-time workforce for many years. Here’s the easy answer: It depends.
Really though, the answer to this question depends entirely on what is motivating you to go back to work, so step 1 in deciding what job to take is to examine your motivation. Motivation is important here. If you need to start earning income for you or your families’ survival now, then you should take the best job you can find quickly. By “best” I mean highest paying. Life is expensive, kids are expensive and it takes money to survive. Pure and simple.
Divorce often forces women back into the workforce, or your spouse might have been laid off. Whatever the situation, if quickly earning income has become your primary motivation, then find a job and bloom where you’ve been planted. You don’t have to stay there forever but my personal rule of thumb is that you do have to do your best while you’re there. If you sense that you’re just passing through, work diligently so that when you leave you’ll have a great recommendation and can feel good about the work you did.
While the need for money motivates many women to return to work quickly, others find that their timing isn’t quite so urgent. To you folks, I say - lucky you! You have the luxury of waiting for a job that will check more of the boxes for you. You can do the 3 steps of Reflect, Research and Activate that I think are so important to a successful job search. The Reflection step is of critical importance in a job search because this is the step where you think deeply about your skills, your past experiences, and your current interests and add them all up to set a course for your future.
I want a career break to become a very normal part of a person’s career (both women and men) and for employers to view these not as breaks from real work, but as opportunities to develop more deeply as people, as parents, or as caregivers of aging parents. Your ability to reflect on what you’ve learned and how you’ve grown during your career break is a key part of finding direction for your job search.
If you are motivated to return to work by a desire to re-engage your professional self, to grow as a person in a professional capacity, to put your valuable skills to work and to earn a good income while doing so, then you have the luxury to look until you (a) find the right job or (b) find a job that offers a trade-off that you are comfortable taking. Every decision we make is a trade-off between things that are important to us.
Step 2 in deciding what job to take is being really clear about the trade-off involved. As much as I’d like to think there is a perfect job out there, well, let’s be real! I really think everything is a trade-off. So consider all the implications of the jobs you are considering.
Compensation, commute, opportunities for advancement, leadership, benefits, how’s the team... If you’re weighing multiple opportunities - lucky you! - then map these things out to see how they compare.
The third step in deciding what job you should take is to consider the possibilities of the job in front of you.
Especially if you’re returning to work after a career break, If your job search is starting to feel like it’s taking a long time, and you’re considering taking the next job that comes along, here are a few questions to ask yourself:
- Will this job keep me moving forward? (In other words, will I learn here? meet people that will grow my professional network? feel good about the work I’m do...
Next Episode
How to become an informed candidate using Glassdoor with Ellen Dunn
Ellen Dunn is an Account Executive at Glassdoor in Chicago. Ellen has been at Glassdoor for 2 1⁄2 years after starting her sales career at IBM and then moving onto Morningstar. Ellen is a very special guest because she also happens to be my niece! But she’s not my guest today just because she’s family, although that’s a good reason. Ellen is an expert on what Glassdoor offers and is here today to tell us how to become an informed candidate using Glassdoor. I used to think Glassdoor was primarily a place where people went to rate their employers and leave reviews about their experience working at different companies, but it turns out that Glassdoor is much more than that. And if you’re a job seeker, it’s a great resource for you because there’s a ton of information you can find at Glassdoor that will help you become an informed candidate. And everybody knows that informed candidates make better career decisions.
Ellen shares what it is like working at Glassdoor and she also answers the question, do people review Glassdoor on Glassdoor?
And just for fun, we'll read some hilarious glassdoor reviews.
Here are the steps to steps to becoming an informed candidate using Glassdoor:
1. Read reviews and ratings at the company level. Once you have a company that you think you are interested in applying in, make sure it's going to be a good fit. Search the company on Glassdoor, and read through reviews. Filter by your specific role/location, look for common themes in reviews. Is it somewhere you see yourself?
Example: I am an Account Executive, who is not a fan of making 100's of dials a day. During my job search, as reviewing companies, some reviews specifically mentioned the cold calling, 40 dials a day, smile/dial work environment, after reading these reviews, it gave me a better understanding of what companies were going to be a good fit for me, and which ones were worth my time.
2. Review interview reviews before your interview. After you apply to a job and land that interview, it's time to prepare! Glassdoor hosts a ton of sample interview questions, for you to make sure you are prepared to answer. More specifically, a lot of companies on Glassdoor will have interview reviews from people who have gone through the process. You'll learn about how many people are on their interview panels, is it good cop/bad cop scenario, and any curveballs you should be prepared for. You have the ability to understand the difficulty of an interview and in some situations specific questions that have historically been asked. This way, you can feel confident and prepared so you can ace that interview.
Example: A client of ours requests that after every interview, the candidate goes on and discusses their interview experience on Glassdoor! This one candidate chose to write about an assessment that they were required to take and where she felt she missed the mark, While this candidate didn't get the job she helped provide insight to future candidates and give the company some feedback on that specific recruiter to where they can improve as well. Companies know this information is out there so they want to make sure you are prepared.
Katie: A company that asks candidates to review it after every interview is one that had better have a good interview process and candidate process! That really keeps them accountable if they know they are going to be reviewed.
I heard recently that some new thinking on interview practices involved actually giving candidates a list of questions they might be asked before the interview. That surprised me! But the thinking was that then candidates that came in and didn’t know how to answer the questions they were asked were people who obviously didn’t bother to prepare and not the kind of people you’d want to hire. I don’t think this practice has been widely adopted. But as an interviewee, I love that you can get interview questions off of Glassdoor because that makes it easy to prepare. And that’s one of those things that I don’t think everybody knows you can get from Glassdoor.
Here are some more funny Glassdoor reviews: This is a company local to Raleigh. They have 4 reviews and here are the 4 headlines from those 4 reviews:
- The embodiment of engineering disappointment
- Worst company ever
- Backward management and dated software
- Sinking Ship
So I think I’ll avoid working there.
3. Understand Your Worth. You crushed your interview, and have an offer on the table. Is it an appropriate offer? Having an understanding of what the industry is paying, what the company typically pays, and just knowing your worth is leverage for negotiation. Under the salary tab, you can enter the job title in which you are interested in, experience, and location, to get an average salary. This way you know t...
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/get-a-job-heres-how-24294/how-to-collaborate-with-a-professional-resume-linkedin-profile-writer-1316476"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to how to collaborate with a professional resume / linkedin profile writer with mir garvy on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy