Renata Bernarde
- Jun 5

Job Hunting Questions - Q&A part 2 of 2

Episode 189 - Mastering job applications and interviews for career success

Are you feeling uncertain about the dos and don'ts of job applications and interviews? Do you want to approach your next interview with confidence and land that dream job? Then, this episode is for you. In this episode of "The Job Hunting Podcast," I continue to answer questions sent to me by listeners. This is part 2 of a two-part Q&A recording, so make sure you go back and listen to the previous episode as well (Number 187).

By answering listeners' questions, we delve into the world of job hunting, providing tried-and-true tips to help you ace your next interview and embark on or advance your career. Join me as I discuss common challenges job seekers face, as well as industry trends and effective strategies to help you prepare for your next job interview. I hope this episode will equip you with the knowledge you need to succeed.

Below I address some of the key issues we discuss in this episode:

Unveiling the Secrets of Job Hunting

Have you ever wondered what ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is and how it affects your job application? We break it down for you, explaining its significance and providing insights into optimizing your application to pass the ATS screening process with flying colors.

Addressing Ambiguity and Trusting Job Offers

It's not uncommon to encounter job offers for positions in small to medium-sized companies where the job description is vague and the recruiter emphasizes potential over concrete responsibilities. But can you trust such opportunities? We dive into this topic, examining the factors to consider when evaluating such offers and helping you make informed decisions.

Reentering the Workforce with Confidence

Taking a break from your career to raise a family is a noble endeavor, but transitioning back into the workforce can be daunting. We share valuable advice for rebranding yourself, crafting a standout resume, and optimizing your LinkedIn profile to highlight your skills and experiences gained during your time away.

Finding Part-Time Senior Positions

Returning to work after parental leave and seeking challenging part-time roles can be a struggle. We explore strategies for identifying corporate, senior-level part-time jobs that align with your expertise and interests. Discover how to overcome obstacles and find fulfilling opportunities that match your skills and lifestyle.

Breaking Through Ageism Barriers

Are you considering a career change at a later stage in life but finding it challenging to secure interviews due to ageism? We provide insights on tailoring your CV, including whether removing certain dates is beneficial. Additionally, we discuss crafting a cover letter that addresses age-related concerns and showcases your abilities and passion for the job.

Unlocking the Power of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a powerful tool for professional networking and job searching, but it can be disheartening if you're not receiving any responses. We share practical tips, including Renata's LinkedIn audit, that will increase your visibility and attract recruiters. Learn how to optimize your profile and engage with the LinkedIn community to enhance your chances of being contacted for relevant opportunities.

Remember to subscribe and follow The Job Hunting Podcast

If you're ready to take your job-hunting journey to the next level, "The Job Hunting Podcast" has got you covered. With a focus on job applications, interviews, and navigating the professional landscape, this episode provides invaluable advice and actionable strategies for achieving career success. Remember, the podcast is not affiliated with any specific job search platform or company, and the information shared is for educational purposes only, tailored to suit individual circumstances.

Tune in, grab your favorite beverage, and join us for a casual yet essential chat. Prepare to be inspired, motivated, and equipped with the knowledge you need to make a lasting impression and land that great new job!

Disclaimer: The advice provided in this blog post is based on the information presented in the podcast episode. Please adapt the recommendations to your specific situation and consult with professionals as needed.

Resources mentioned in this episode

Other resources from RenataBernarde.com :

About the Host, Renata Bernarde

Timestamps to guide your listening

Transcript of this episode

If you are unsure about -the dos and don'ts of job applications and job interviews, then this episode will be great for you. I am going to share with you tried and true tips for acing your next job interview. I will delve into the world of job hunting by answering questions that have been sent to me by listeners.

So it could be you, it could be somebody else. But these are common challenges that you may have faced or may be facing in the future. And these are strategies and industry trends that I use with my clients. So it might be very beneficial for you to keep listening.

[00:01:00] Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Job Hunting podcast. I hope you have a favorite beverage with you. This is going to be a chit-chat. I haven't really done a lot of preparation for this. I love when I don't do a lot of preparation because I think you can feel it's way more casual. I'm thinking on the spot, and I'm answering these questions.

The truth is, I found this document on my G Drive. My G drive is overflowing. It happens every few months because. I have very big files in there, and I was cleaning it up and moving things to save documents and stuff, and I found this document with lots of interesting questions that I don't think I have answered on this podcast, and I feel really bad.

Some of them may be a few months old, not too old, but a few months old, and others are brand new. So I know that I've been collating this list for a while, and I had planned to do a q and [00:02:00] a. I think it's because I had covid, and things got a bit out here on podcast hq. To be honest, I had Covid twice.

I don't know, if people know this, if you're new to the podcast, you may not have known, but I rebounded, so I got better, and then I immediately, a few days later, got worse again, and I was sick for quite a while, so things got a bit messed up, and I'm getting back, in order now and doing lots of interesting interviews that I had to postpone because I wasn't feeling well. And they will be coming your way in the next few weeks. So keep listening, follow the podcast, and if you wanna take it a step further if you're very serious or somewhat serious about your career progression, why don't you subscribe to my newsletter?

Because then, I will send you these new episodes to your inbox. And I also always share the most important articles that I see out there that I [00:03:00] think are beneficial for corporate professionals and share a little bit of what I'm doing behind the scenes as well. So, signing up for the newsletter is probably a great idea to make sure we always keep in touch.

And this is how many people send me questions as well. I often ask people to send me questions. And they just reply back to the newsletter, and we hear, collect them, them or myself. We collect these questions so that we can answer them in episodes like this. So remember that this podcast is not affiliated with any job search platform with no other companies except for my own. And the information that we provide here is for educational purposes, right? I am a career coach. I have coaching services. You can find out about my services on my website. This is not coaching. This is me providing you with tips and an understanding of the type of work that professionals put into their job-hunting pursuits and their career advancement plans.

In order [00:04:00] to be successful, I work with many of these clients every day, and I'd love for you to one day consider becoming one of my clients. I make it easy for you to contact me. In the episode show notes, you will have all the details. Okay? So, questions like this, from time to time, come my way, and there is no such thing as a dumb question.

I have found no such thing. You can be a very successful professional in your field and still not know anything about job hunting, nothing, or even career planning and none of that. So I think that, whatever question you have, tell me. I had this question on my list. It is; what is ATS again? So this person probably had heard it and then forgot, and then I love the again, at the end of the question.

It's really cute. But even this week, I had a consultation with a client. And I was explaining to this person what at t s is because they were [00:05:00] sending their resumes to jobs that they felt they were a very good fit for. And I trust the professional on that feeling, that intuition that they are a great fit for the job cause they know their industry, their companies, the sectors way better than I do as a career coach. I don't know every single sector, company, country. I have clients all over the world, so I trust their intuition. They know that they are a good fit. Why didn't I get this job? And. Many times the explanation sits on how they design their resume and the fact that the resume is not at t s compliant.

So ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System, and we have, on this podcast, interviewed some very important experts, people that are doing this every day. They're designing and developing ATS systems. They are implementing ATS systems with their clients. They are developing [00:06:00] improvements for ATS systems and combining different systems to build them a recruitment platform for clients. So I want you to, well, after you finish listening to this episode, so don't go away yet. Consider listening to one of the episodes where we discuss ATS in more detail. And I will have an in-the-show note for at least two episodes with ATS experts that I have interviewed in the past.

Now, from a coaching perspective, we work on the basis that, The ATS system is not super well developed, and we then err on the side of caution and we play conservatively with our resume. So, we work with resumes in a very simple way. You know, Microsoft Word documents? No. Nothing Fancy, no color, no texture?

No. Remember Legally [00:07:00] Blonde and her resume had a scent to it, I think. I thought that was very cute. Okay. Nothing like that goes in your resume. First of all, we don't print it anymore, but no, tables, no columns, no icons, no illustrations, no images, nothing. Right? We want to make the resume as simple as possible.

It's still beautiful for the human eye, and this is really important, but it acknowledges that the first thing that will read your resume is not the human eye; it's a bot. Right? It has been developed to, See through all of the hundreds of applications and make it easier for the recruiter or the talent acquisition professionals that work in the HR department to identify the top candidates.

ATS systems are getting better and better, and they are validating the [00:08:00] results by comparing it with how humans would choose the top candidates and making sure that the ATS systems work as closely as possible to that way that recruiters used to select and shortlist candidates in the past.

But hopefully without biases. So, you know, the great thing about HS systems is that you can design it to overcome biases by cliques, you know, which university people go to or your high school people went to, by gender of course, it improves, you know, in terms of diversity and inclusion and helps with those metrics.

So there are benefits to using ATS systems that go above and beyond the financial benefits, of course, and the time, and the performance, the optimization of the whole process of recruitment. It can also benefit the organization in terms of developing a better culture [00:09:00] and a more inclusive workforce.

Us. But in order for you to succeed in this first qualification process of your job hunting, is ensuring that your resume complies with most ATS systems out there. And also, you know, it depends on the country you're in. So there will be different designs for the ATS. I'm talking to you from Australia.

Here. We know that there are ATS systems that are used for graduate roles all the way to very senior C-level executive positions. So this is also, now if you're very senior, you're thinking you don't have to worry about this, you are wrong. Especially if you're applying for jobs in large consultancies in banks, FMCGss, government, there will be, also, you know, lots of large global recruitment companies.

I was talking to a client today,[00:10:00]. He's looking at jobs in many different countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and He called me. This is a private client, so we've been working together for a few months. He called me, and I said, you realize that the last three conversations that you've had are with the same global recruitment company, and he's like, oh, oh yes, you are.

Right. You know, so it means that his resume is already part of the CR r M system. It had gone through some type of ats even though it wasn't a job when he first contacted this organization. We have, inside my program, in fact, an inside researcher career, which is a very, very, Budget-friendly investment to be made. There's an email there that you send out to recruiters. To introduce yourself when there is no job. And he used that template, of course, adapted it, sent it, and it was to this global recruitment [00:11:00] company. And now he's been kind of contacted three times from three different countries, but it's the same organization.

And I'm like, have you noticed that this is happening? And that's when he noticed. So, you know, even when you are contacting a recruitment company, they are putting your resume through some sort of system, identifying it, registering it, archiving it. And there's a research team that works with the partners and the senior recruiters. Whenever they have a new assignment from a client, they will go through their database and see if they have candidates they have already spoken to that fit the bill that can be shortlisted for opportunities. So yes, it's important to comply. It's important to have, oh yes. So this client, in particular, had a very beautiful resume that was done for him by another provider.

And I said, well, this is beautiful. It's really pretty, but it's good for the human eye. It's not going to be good for you [00:12:00] to apply for some jobs that have that ATS system. So he very quickly, he's a very good client, very quickly, learned his lesson and did a different version. And we have both. So if a recruiter tells him, send me your resume by email, let me have a look, or if it's a connection, a network, somebody from the network, you know, a former colleague, he can send that pretty one. I understand that people have that need. But that's not to say that the ATS-compliant resume is not pretty. It is. It has to be. Right. So putting too much stuff on one page and not having any margins, and making it very difficult for the human eye to read it that's not good.

So we really work hard to make the best possible resume that is good for both the bots and the human eyes. And look, the bots are not artificial intelligence. They still need to be, worked on by humans. So the humans will add in [00:13:00] the position, detail the keywords that they're looking for in the resume, and that's really what makes the resume really special.

A resume that speaks to the job, the job that they're applying for. And that uses keywords and similar narratives. So part of my coaching, I mentioned this before when I recorded part one of this, q and a session that, you know, my coaching is quite unusual. People get really surprised when they work with me because we work a lot on linguistics and narrative and storytelling and social sciences, and we really try to understand that; you know why?

Because people that work with machine learning are hiring people that have those skills because the machines need to know how humans work and how humans select candidates, and linguistics, ethnography, and social scientists, are being hired to work in AI and machine learning [00:14:00] organizations.

So that's what I teach my clients as well. ATS is important. If you're job hunting, you have to know more about it. So I'm glad that you've asked the question, and hopefully, you will work on your resume, either DIY it or work with a coach like me in a research career. I mentioned it before. We have that.

Lovely email template that you can send to recruiters, but you also have two templates, one for an American-style resume and one for an Australian slash UK-style resume. It's a long one. We're very lucky in Australia, and you can adapt that, and that's definitely ATS compliant. All right. Let's look at another question.

If a recruiter tries to sell you a position for a small to medium size company where there is no PD, the responsibilities are vague, and describes it as having a lot of potentials, can you trust the job in the company? Well, it is a [00:15:00] really interesting question. I really like it. I don't know who asked me this question, but I assume it's somebody that comes from a large; I can tell where it comes from a large.

Corporate background with companies that are very well established, more mature and sophisticated in the way that they hire people, in the way that they have policies and procedures from most things, probably very bricks and mortar, or even if it's more of a tech company, very well established, most small to medium size companies.

They are very fluid, they are very nimble, and when you join them, you are helping them get more sophisticated with time. So if you are in HR or for tech or legal, chances are you are going to walk into what could be a family business or a startup, an up-and-coming company, or a very successful, medium-sized company that is growing [00:16:00] and trying to establish themselves.

And they may have noticed a need for somebody to take up a project or add a different function to the organization. And the PG hasn't been established yet. Can you trust the job and the company? You cannot trust them at face value. It's important for the job seeker to do their due diligence, right? So you have to find as much information as you can from the organization.

Can you talk to people that have worked there and that work there now? Do you know anybody that, even if you don't know anybody in that exact company, people that work in similar companies or even a competitor so that you can understand the lay of the land or other? People that you know, that work in small to medium-sized organizations and, maybe, have moved from a larger organization.

So ask them to share with [00:17:00] you what the challenges have been. We have discussed this in the podcast several times as well, so this is an important, Aspect of moving sectors, moving industries, and moving companies your ability to adapt. It can be hard. You know, if you've been in a large organization for a long time and you're very set in your ways, it can be hard to all of a sudden find yourself getting your hands dirty, you know, because it is more fluid in smaller organizations.

So, last week I had a consultation with a client. She was in my group coaching program, and we had a one-on-one consultation after the group coaching ended. By the time the group coaching ended, it was seven weeks long. She had a new job, which was fantastic. She was very happy. She moved from a larger [00:18:00] organization to a smaller, up-and-coming growing organization.

She was delighted with the culture, with the ability to work together with the senior, you know, leaders and founders of the company. But there was somebody that had started on the same day that she. I did that wasn't finding it so fun. And then, you know, I think it really depends on your personality and your talents and your strengths.

The things that speak to you, your drivers, you know, the career drivers that you have, your personal values, and sometimes investing in doing that sort of assessment is also a great idea. We have one as part of our portfolio of services. It's called Talent Predicts. I have spoken about it here on the podcast, and it can help you identify what could be the very best next step for you.

So it's a [00:19:00] mix of you identifying if you will fit that sort of small to medium size culture, and you also make sure that you do your due diligence and ask for as many reports, financial reports if you can, strategy business, access to the leaders to so that you can ask them questions and doing your own business intelligence research on the side.

Okay, let's move on. Another question. I am reentering the workforce after taking an eight-year break to have kids after eight years and want to venture into a new space. How do I brand myself, present myself, and create a resume and edIn profile? Alright, this is a big one. This is a very interesting question and one that I often get.

My very first online client was somebody who found me on LinkedIn and asked if I could coach her. [00:20:00] She was in the US; I was in Australia. I hadn't even thought about working like that. Back in 2000. And when was this? 2016. And since then, I think most of my clients now are overseas, not in Australia. So there you go.

And she was like this person coming back from being, raising her kids for seven years, and also wanting to change and venture into a new space. This is what I have to say. Ideally, you would want to consider two options, right? If you want to go back to your existing career DNA, you would have to reskill, start doing some courses, catch up with your network, and come back to that sort of area of expertise that you had before.

If you are going to reinvent yourself. Venture into a new space. [00:21:00] I'm not really sure what that means, but if it, that's a brand new career, you're starting from scratch, and there is no problem with that as well. Look at me like I started two university degrees. Did not finish them. I started my own business whilst having my kids, so I had a travel agency for seven years. While I was raising kids as well. And then, I sold that, moved to Australia, and at the age of 29, I started a new degree and studied for a Bachelor of Commerce at Melbourne University. I did my honors at Monash University and, you know, changed careers again.

And now, I'm a career coach, so I left corporate and became a career coach in my late forties. So, If you were fi finding that it's too late, it's not, it's definitely not too late, but it's important for you to draw out a plan for you, especially if you have kids in the [00:22:00] plural. So, what I'm trying to get here is that career planning for this person is really important. Otherwise, you're gonna spend a lot of time reinventing the wheel.

Duplicating work, chasing after things that are not the best use of your time, your time poor. So working with somebody that can help you drop up a good 10-year plan. Identifying the stepping stones to achieve whatever it is that you're trying to achieve is more important than you sort of reacting to what you think the job market needs from you.

So I hear you. I've been there, and many of my clients have been there. And you can definitely either go back to your career d n a. Right. And, I say this because I have had clients that have felt that after such a long time, they can't add any more value to their [00:23:00] Existing profession. And that is not right.

It's not right. There is still a lot in you that you can leverage and then use that to springboard you onto whatever it is that people in your profession are doing now. And I have done that for clients as well. You really hate what you were doing before; you need to reinvent yourself and find a new career, which is.

Okay. I mean, if you, you know, if the hard work needs to be worth it, right? So don't work super hard to go back to a career that you don't want. Oh, I hope you get a coach. It's gonna be so much easier. Anyway, do you have, okay, another question? Do you have any advice on looking for a corporate senior?

Part-time jobs. I'm returning to work after parental leave and finding it difficult to find a sufficient, challenging, interesting [00:24:00] part-time job. Okay. I agree that part-time senior corporate roles are not. That is common, but they are way more common now. They are way more common now than they have ever been, and that has been, I think, brought forward because of the pandemic and the lockdowns and the sort of tectonic changes that we have experienced in the workplace. But that trend was happening already before the pandemic. Again, this is another topic that is really important for corporate professionals that have 10 to 20 years ahead of them of work to do.

Because we see a trend to employers. Hiring out talent rather than buying talent. So that is an analogy that Jacinta Willin, who we have interviewed twice on this [00:25:00] podcast, uses. So she uses the analogy of buying talent as people hiring you as a permanent full-time person to work for them. And. Hiring somebody who wants a talent to come in part-time or under a contract as a casual for a short time.

And that is happening more and more. Some countries have advanced this further, so the UK, European countries, and others are catching up like us, Canada and Australia. And I also see that happening in Southeast Asia as well. And in the Middle East as well, because, for example, in the Middle East, that's a good example.

They may not be able to ever find somebody that wants to move there, but they really need that expertise, so they will hire somebody. As a consultant here in Australia, I can see a lot of people working like that, and by seeing a lot of people, I mean clients of mine that are doing this. Legal [00:26:00] council work, company secretary work, CFO type jobs, HR jobs, part-time, and also under short-term contracts.

So see if you can find wherever you live recruiters that are specialized in this and there are recruiters that are specialized in this. I have also found that recruiters that are working with the C-suite and senior exec roles are starting to work with that sort of; we call them entering executive appointments as well.

Even the most traditional recruiters here in Melbourne, where I live, have offered clients of mine part-time roles at sea level. So it is growing. Talk to your recruiter. Make it clear to them that that's what you want, and you have to plant those seeds and nurture them and see what comes out of it.

I have a client now, and she has, she's a portfolio. Professional. We [00:27:00] have spoken about this in previous episodes as well, and she has found that it took her between three to six months to start getting lots of interesting opportunities, and probably now she has too many. So this week, for example, she had to reject an opportunity to work with an organization 10 hours a month because she had already signed up for a day a week with one organization and now four days a week with another organization.

That's too much. So something to consider and invest time in if that's what you want. There is a growing market coming, so be aware and be ready for it. I love it. I think it's gonna be great. I am working through changing careers at 58. I have had some success, but finding it hard to get interviews.

Look, I think changing careers at 58 is a really bold move, but it can be done. We had a member of [00:28:00] our group coaching program. I'd like to say May 2020. One of my early ones; I've been doing this since 2020, so it must have been the second group. And he was in his early sixties, and he had just done the CPA program to become an accountant.

So that was a. Big career change for him. He was from a completely different area, professionally, and frankly, I was worried. I was very worried, but Lord and behold, he sent me an amazing testimonial. I hope I have it on my website. I'm pretty sure I do have his testimonial on the job hunting Made Simple page where I explained the group coaching program because he found a job, and I think that there is a protocol, a roadmap that I have created that will make it easier for you [00:29:00] at.

That age of 58 and above to go through the recruitment process, whatever situation it may be, but especially if you're changing careers, you know, because you need to explain yours, your transition is in a way that's both rational and emotional. I think that people sometimes forget to tell a story that is compelling, that is human, that has a heart, not only just logic to it, and I think that that is what's going to win.

People over when you're changing careers later in your professional life. So, the success in the interviews will come from you having honed down that pitch, that storytelling around the reasons why you're changing, and showing that passion and commitment so that people can trust you to grow into this next [00:30:00] chapter of your career.

So you want to change careers now. People need to trust you to grow into that role. And trying to bring as much transferrable skills as possible from your previous work experience. You know that wisdom, that patience, that managerial leadership style. So make sure that you identify and make it crisp and clear to them what they are so that you can be the best possible candidate for this new role.

And add all these additional benefits that somebody much, much younger won't have. I know it sounds hard, but I know it can be done. So good on you. I'm really excited to hear what happens. If you're listening, please email me or send me a message on social media. Let me know how you went. I have some amazing stories of people that have, changed jobs and changed careers and found work in their [00:31:00] late fifties and sixties.

My oldest client is 70. And still very active and very keen to work and doing some amazing, sort of, opportunities, you know, building a portfolio career with some non-executive roles and some advisory roles and consultancies. So if you are, you know, in that space, there's definitely a lot that you can do, and it's important too.

Have that energy as well, and showcase that enthusiasm when you go for opportunities and talk to people about what you're doing. Own it. I like that, my clients. Alright, number six, wondering if I should remove some dates from my CV and if there is anything I should say in a cover letter that may change my thoughts about ageism and regarding my ability to do the job.

Okay. So you should remove dates from your LinkedIn. If you have [00:32:00] dates on your education on LinkedIn, those can be removed. Okay. I am not a big fan. I'm not a fan at all of removing the dates of your education on your cv. Unfortunately, for. The due diligence that the organization needs to do to employ people, those dates need to remain there.

In fact, most of the large organizations I have found these days will do a thorough check before bringing you on board, and they may ask you for transcripts or diplomas and stuff like that. Why? Because unfortunately, people lie on their resumes, and well, Companies can't afford to hire frauds anymore.

They need to make sure that you are who you are, that you have done those degrees, and they may need the very tail end of the process for you to show your transcripts or your diplomas, [00:33:00] your certifications. So be ready for that as part of the job hunting. Made a simple program. In group coaching that I do, there's a time during that coaching when we work on amalgamating and archiving all of the documentation that we may need.

So that, you know, when it comes to, to that time, we have everything on hand, and we don't hold up being onboarded in an organization for lack of the documents that we need to showcase. Right? And for that same reason, the date should remain in your cv. Is there anything you should say in a cover letter that may change your thoughts around age regarding your ability to do the job?

I don't think you should mention ageism. I think you should mention how well you can do the job, right? You want the role, you can do the job, and these are the reasons why. And it may be that ageism is real, [00:34:00] right? Most of it is not under your control. But there is a lot that is under your control. How you position yourself, the confidence you have in your own skills, your ability to keep up to date, and improve your professional development ear on the ear to make sure that you are, responding to the trends in your profession, that you know how to write a cover letter that converts to a job interview.

So there are two different things here. And I think that cover letter writing is often really misunderstood by most professionals. No matter what age they are. And just last week, I worked on two consultations with professionals that work. They were incredibly qualified to do their jobs but had terrible cover letters for the jobs that they were applying for.

So, yeah, so see, I don't think that age is, is necessarily linked to that. I think it's more of a [00:35:00] misunderstanding of what needs to be written in a cover letter in order to be shortlisted for the row. All right. Next question. No one has ever contacted me on LinkedIn. Do you need to have a premium for that?

Hmm? No. You don't have to have a premium for that. I don't know who you are, but I want to make sure that you have it over. Hopefully, over 500 people on your LinkedIn connected to you. That would mean that your LinkedIn is well connected, that you have a feed on your LinkedIn of posts from those people and from companies you follow, and so forth.

That is. Interesting for you to read that you are using LinkedIn and that your LinkedIn profile is optimized for searchability. So those are the things that [00:36:00] make people contact you on LinkedIn. I have the other problem; I have the reverse problem of that. Too many people contact me on LinkedIn, and 90% of the time, it's a waste of my time.

They're trying to sell me services I don't need. They're sending me requests for connections without telling me who they are. So. What I expect from my clients, the ones that have done LinkedIn audits with me and the ones that work with me as private coaching clients is for their LinkedIn to be optimized so that they don't.

You have even applied for jobs, right? What most people don't understand is that recruiters will be, as soon as they have an assignment locked in, they will be searching LinkedIn recruitment, which is a different platform that you don't see only recruiters and [00:37:00] HR departments have, and they will be searching for people that fit the requirements of that job that the client, needs to fill.

And they will be sending LinkedIn messages to those potential candidates, and they will be saying, we have found you on LinkedIn. We are working with this client on this job, and we feel that you would be a great candidate. Here's a link you should be applying, or would you like, if it's a more senior role? They will say, do you wanna have a conversation about this?

So they are searching for people, and those people that are being found in that way, scouted for those roles, they have an upper hand. So if you are applying for a job that you think is perfect for you, but no recruiter has contacted you, and this is a Bo job for a bank or a big company, chances are your LinkedIn is not optimized.

Okay, so,[00:38:00] I copy-pasted something that a client wrote when she attended one of my free master classes. She said Renata's LinkedIn Audit and Tips is making recruiters contact me directly. I get contacted via LinkedIn. At least once or twice per month. That may not look like a lot, but this person had a job, so it's not like she wanted, you know, a new role.

And she was also in a very specific industry that's not as common. I have clients that are, let's say, finance directors, and they get contacted way more often. HR directors as well. The company, secretaries, marketing people, and yeah, so the jobs will be coming to them, and you can, of course, ensure that on LinkedIn you are open for opportunities, not necessarily open publicly with that green banner, [00:39:00] but opened, privately just for people that have LinkedIn recruitment.

And then you can say that you are casually browsing or actively looking. So make sure that you optimize thinking to make sure people are coming to you, but your entire profile needs to be written in such a way that will attract. Those jobs that you want to apply for. So again, you know, within my services, I have a LinkedIn audit, which I love doing.

It's a very popular service and worth every penny, as far as I can tell. People love it whenever they do it. I, I, Immediately get some amazing feedback. People send me statistics. I love when people send me the sort of visual charts that LinkedIn provides people, especially if they have premium and they, they do an image, grab and send it to me by email so that I can see how much better their profile is [00:40:00] performing.

So that's really great. All right. Last question. I'm going to read this question, and it's such an important one. I was actually listening to a podcast about this issue when I got this message on LinkedIn earlier today.

It says my company is in trouble, and people are saying there is going to be a restructure soon, and that could mean I could lose my job. What can I do now to prepare for the job market? I've been working here since I graduated. Yes, I can see that coming. I was thinking about that. I was listening to an episode of After Hours, which is a Ted Talk.

A Ted, not a Ted talk, a Ted podcast. And it's a great podcast. I'll put a link below to this specific episode. If I can find it, sorry, if it's not there, just go to after [00:41:00] hours and, and listen to, to that chat because it's a really, great podcast for corporate professionals, but, Companies like ey, pwc, Deloitte, they are in trouble, right?

So I am assuming that there will be restructures coming soon to these organizations because of the way that governments are. Now choosing to spend their money with consultancies because of the conflict of interest that exists between companies that have government departments and agencies as clients and also corporations that are trying to leverage that knowledge, and it's really icky inside, and EY is.

Potentially going to restructure. That's what I was, you know, listening today, to avoid so restructure into smaller, [00:42:00] consultancies to avoid that, that problem of the conflict of interest internally between the different areas of. The company and how they service clients. So I wonder if this person that messaged me is going through something like that.

I forgot to check their LinkedIn profile, so I'll have a look later. But it doesn't matter. It could be any company. It could be a pharmaceutical company; it could be, you know, the government. It could be a telco, FinTech, anything really a bank. And chances are, eventually, there will be; they will start to announce it.

They will start potentially with voluntary redundancies. A lot of people have contacted me in the past for one-on-one consultations, which you can book online to discuss should I, you know sign up for voluntary redundancies or not. And we brainstorm ideas and what it would mean and why you would want to do that and not stay and [00:43:00] pros and comes and.

And I really enjoy doing those sessions. So there will be possibly an announcement like that, or they could go straight into announcing the redundancies and explaining which areas are going to be affected and what the packages are. I guess even if you are far away from that situation, which I assume, you know, could be, could take a year, until things start to sort of crystallize and, and those announcements are made, I guess it's important to build a runway.

Okay, because we are more optimistic than we think we are. Even you. The worst type of pessimist out there listening to this podcast may. Bias towards a potential good outcome to come sooner than you think, right? So people often come to me after just losing their jobs. So I have an email in my inbox now [00:44:00] from a person who said I lost my job on the 1st of April.

Sorry, 1st of May, and I still haven't found anything and haven't got any interviews. Today is the 18th of May. Okay. It hasn't been three weeks yet, and this person is already freaking out. Let me tell you, the average is 12 weeks or more. The more senior you are, the harder it is.

If you're moving from McDonald's to Jack in the box, you can get a job in a couple of weeks. If you are a C-level, a senior executive, a manager, or a project manager, it can take months. So building a financial runway is really important. Understanding. That you need to build. The perseverance and the grit to withstand rejection is also really important because it's not like you're going to apply for a job, and it [00:45:00] will all go smoothly.

That's not how it happens. You apply for a job; it doesn't go very well. You learn from it. You do a better application next time, and then it gets better and better. And then eventually, things just line up, and you end up with two or three. opportunities in your hand. Why? Because you've learned how to do this.

You've learned how to apply for a job successfully. You haven't lost your mojo; you haven't spiraled down. You may maintain optimism and perseverance, and grit through the job-hunting process. So it's both a financial runway to withstand it. Make sure that you shrink your budget accordingly.

You know, when we're not earning, we need to sort of be more conservative with our expenses and also, knowing that this too shall pass and you will get another job. If you can invest now in coaching, that's [00:46:00] the best time. I always tell people the best time to invest in coaching is when you don't need it.

Because it's usually tax deductible and depends on the country you are in, just please check. I'm not a financial advisor, but here in Australia, for example, if you have a job and you'd want to do professional development, it's tax deductible. If you don't have a job, it's not tax deductible. So that's really how it works.

And understanding become that, that career readiness and career nows, you know, the knowledge of how to advance in your career or get another job is different from actually doing the job that you do, right? So if you are a financial director, for example, you can do your job, but. Before you do your job, you need to convince people to like you and trust you enough, and you'll be competing with other finance directors and understanding that competition, [00:47:00] the lay of the land and how to perform well, and showcase your knowledge in the best possible light is something that I know how to do well.

So I hope I can help you with this podcast, and if you wanna take it a step further, you can work with me. Yes, that's it. Oh, wait, eight questions. How long did it take us? Almost an hour. I'm sorry it took so long. Look, you know where to find me. My website will be in the episode.

Bye for now, and I'll see you next time. Bye.