“How the hell do I stand out in this job market?” If this thought has crossed your mind recently, you’re not alone. Job seekers everywhere are navigating an ultra-competitive landscape, often feeling like their resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and applications are disappearing into the void. It’s frustrating, disheartening, and can leave you questioning your strategy. But here’s the good news: there’s a way to stand out, and in the latest episode of Resume Assassin Presents Recruiting Insider, we’ve got the tools to help you do it.
In this episode, I sit down with the incredible Alexis Rivera Scott to tackle these challenges head-on. Together, we explore actionable strategies for presenting your best self in today’s job market. With her wealth of experience as a recruiting expert, Alexis offers a fresh perspective and practical tips to help job seekers turn the tide in their favor.
One of the standout themes in our conversation is the power of personal branding. Alexis emphasizes that your brand is more than just a buzzword; it’s your story, your value proposition, and the unique perspective you bring to the table. She shares how crafting a compelling personal brand can set you apart in a sea of applicants, making you memorable to hiring managers and recruiters alike.
Your LinkedIn profile also plays a critical role in standing out. As Alexis puts it, LinkedIn is your ultimate “landing page,” and optimizing it is non-negotiable in today’s job search. From a professional profile photo to a captivating headline and well-written summary, each element of your profile should tell a cohesive story about your skills, experience, and career goals.
We also dive into common mistakes that job seekers make on LinkedIn and their resumes. For instance, using overly generic language or failing to quantify accomplishments can cause even the most qualified candidates to blend in. Alexis walks us through specific examples of how to turn bland bullet points into attention-grabbing statements that showcase your impact.
Networking effectively is another game-changer. While it can feel daunting, Alexis highlights how networking doesn’t have to be overwhelming. She shares simple yet effective strategies to build meaningful connections—from sending personalized messages on LinkedIn to following up after events. The key, she explains, is to approach networking as a way to build relationships rather than just asking for favors.
Authenticity is another vital piece of the puzzle. Job seekers often struggle to showcase their true selves, fearing rejection or judgment. Alexis encourages listeners to lean into their unique strengths and values. Authenticity, she says, not only helps you stand out but also ensures you’re attracting opportunities that align with who you are and what you want in your career.
For those feeling overlooked in their job search, Alexis provides a roadmap to regain confidence. She shares powerful insights on how to reframe rejection as an opportunity to refine your approach and keep moving forward. With every rejection comes a chance to learn, grow, and better position yourself for success.
This episode is packed with actionable advice and inspiration for job seekers at all stages of their careers. Whether you’re struggling to get noticed or looking to take your career to the next level, Alexis’s insights can help you bridge the gap between effort and results.
So, if you’re ready to stand out, stop spinning your wheels, and take charge of your job search, tune into this episode of Resume Assassin Presents Recruiting Insider. It’s time to present your best self to the world and land the opportunities you deserve.
Watch and listen here. Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review!! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-present-your-best-self-in-the-job-market-with/id1744810699?i=1000682868253
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3OqtgtzMiMcd6eUpb6IuT9
YouTube: https://youtu.be/1mM0sR212OI
Transcript:
Mary (00:00.859)
Hey guys, welcome back to the show. So I’m excited about our guest today because she’s going to discuss
Alexis Scott (00:19.678)
You froze.
Mary (01:39.07)
Okay. I’m gonna try this again. If it freezes, I’m gonna switch cameras. I’m using my iPhone. And I hadn’t had any issues, and then the last two times I’ve recorded, it’s frozen like that, and I have no idea why it’s doing that. So that is weird. And it probably still showed that it was recording on your end the whole time, right? Yeah, weird. Okay. Okay, I’m just gonna start over, and I’ll edit that whole first part out.
Alexis Scott (01:44.661)
Okay.
interesting.
Mary (02:08.851)
And then if it happens again, I’ll switch cameras and then we’ll just keep going from wherever it froze. Hopefully it doesn’t.
Mary (02:21.418)
Hey guys, welcome back to the show. So I’m excited about our guest today because she’s going to discuss a topic that is heavy on a lot of our minds lately. I recently read a statistic saying that roughly 6 million unemployed Americans are actively looking for work right now. And that’s just those of us who are unemployed. There are a lot more people who are, you know, passively job searching as well. And for many of us,
super overwhelming. You know, we’ve just been laid off or we’re super unhappy with our current job and we really have no idea where to even start. Alexis Scott, also known as the Fairy Job Mom, is here to make it all better for us. Alexa, Alexis specializes in helping job seekers show up and present their best selves.
She’s been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Medium, and Built -In for her job search networking tactics. And she currently coaches job seekers on how to market themselves into their next career move. Alexis, welcome to Recruiting Insider.
Alexis Scott (03:32.51)
Thank you, Mary. Happy to be here.
Mary (03:35.482)
So Fairy Job Mom is a captivating title. Can you share more about how you came up with it and what it represents for you and your mission?
Alexis Scott (03:45.782)
Yeah, it is actually not a name that I coined myself. Interestingly, I have been on LinkedIn for quite a while now. I’m building my own personal brand and my network. And it all started really in 2020. I ended up taking a job with a company that specializes in training people in software sales and helping them get hired. And my role at that company was building relationships with company founders and sales leaders to hire folks.
to the industry. So I made a lot of really, really great connections. And I have a knack for matchmaking. So I started just passively matchmaking really high potential candidates with folks who I knew were hiring. And I would share these stories of success. And this was outside of the company that I was working for. So this was outside of recruiting. This was just, hey, I met someone in my network. They’re really great. And hey, I have a great opportunity that
know of and I would connect the hiring manager and the candidate and so many magical connections and hires were made that my followers started calling me the fairy job mom. I thought about it and I was like, you know what? I love that. I love that. Like who doesn’t want someone to magically appear and be like, here, here’s a great job. You need to know about it.
Mary (04:56.675)
Yeah
Mary (05:01.559)
Yeah, yeah.
Yes, I love that. That’s amazing. So, you know, as I mentioned, you’ve been featured in, I mean, a ton of prominent publications. It’s super impressive, mainly for your expertise in networking. So what specific strategies have you found to be the most effective in helping job seekers stand
Alexis Scott (05:16.874)
Yeah. Thank
Alexis Scott (05:27.668)
Yeah, I think the biggest piece of the puzzle is remembering that you are a person and a human and not just quote unquote a job seeker. I think that oftentimes when we are in need of a job, we approach the networking component as a take, right? You want someone to give you something. You want someone to give you that opportunity. And so the language that we use tends to be a little bit off putting in our outreach. So that’s number one, like messaging is everything when it comes to
and building connections with people. I always say, make a friend. Start and make a friend. The other piece is being really succinct and clear in knowing what you offer and what have you. It’s a whole nother conversation. But
way in which I have networked and which is actually what got me in the Wall Street Journal was leveraging slack communities and how to build relationships in these slack communities. There’s often a, I don’t want to call it a hidden job market because it’s not hidden. mean, some of these jobs are posted, but when you hear about a job within a community, you have direct access most often to the hiring manager. And that’s a whole new level of transparency that you don’t get from these larger job sites. So those are my two faves, but you know, we’re all human. It all
with connection and communication really.
Mary (06:46.032)
Yeah, I love the messaging piece for any of our listeners that are out there, they’re on the job hunt and they’re really trying to connect with their network. How would you help that person build that messaging around their job search?
Alexis Scott (07:00.214)
Yeah.
So I think there’s two scenarios that you need to consider. The first is just simply networking, right? Like you’re trying to build a connection with someone who works at a company maybe that you want to work at in the future. That’s scenario A. And then scenario B would be there’s a job within the company you want to apply for or have applied for. That’s a different message. So for scenario A, where you’re simply networking, I would think of, know, how are you gonna make things interesting for this person to respond to you?
similar to sales. You just want a response, right? You’re coming up popping up out of the blue. So what can you say to entice this person to engage with you in a conversation? I would say flattery is something that people love. So hey, so and so I saw your comments on whoever’s post. I really loved it because X, Y, Z be very clear, right? We want succinct and clear communication, not just fluff. So be clear on what you liked about it. And you could mention, I see that you have worked at
Mary (07:43.843)
Yeah.
Alexis Scott (08:02.488)
company for X amount of time. What keeps you there? That’s a pretty good amount of time. Or congratulations, I saw that you just got hired at X company. That’s one of my dream companies. That’s awesome. You should probably include some sort of a question to try to engage that response. But really, it’s light. It’s friendly. You’re not making an ask, per se. If you know of any jobs, don’t start with that. That is not the way you want to build a relationship.
Mary (08:26.784)
No.
Alexis Scott (08:30.548)
Okay, that’s scenario A. Scenario B is you have applied for a role and let’s say you want to reach out to a recruiter or hiring manager. You know that they are somehow attached to that job. I always tell people start by following the instructions. So let’s say you see a post. I’m hiring a sales development representative.
follow the instructions in that post to a T. If they say, apply on the website, you do that first before you send any messaging. Then it’s time to message and you’re gonna say, hey so and so, I saw that you were hiring for X, super excited because, why?
Just wanted to let you know I did already apply online, so you’re acknowledging that you can follow instructions. And then you’re gonna tell them a couple things you’ve done, not a manifesto, not a dissertation, just a couple bullet points of why you’re qualified.
You can then end it and wrap it up with, I’ve attached my resume should you wish to review it. And if by chance you think there’s a fit, would love to continue the conversation and be considered. So again, easy breezy. The other thing I will tell you is if you are reaching out to a recruiter, a lot of people assume that just because a recruiter is a recruiter for the company that they are somehow handling this job requisition.
A requisition is what we call a job description in RecruiterSpeak. So let’s say you’re applying for a job at Google. Google probably has 50 to 100 recruiters. There’s so many jobs open, right? So just because you see recruiter at Google doesn’t necessarily mean that that recruiter is working on that job. So it’s really important, in my opinion, to acknowledge, hey, I know you might not be the person working on this requisition or this job.
Alexis Scott (10:17.714)
If you’re not, if there’s any way that you could either point me in the direction of who is or share my information with them, I would greatly appreciate that. So you’re showing them that you understand their function. You understand that they might not be the one to help you with your ask. That goes a long way with recruiters. That actually sets you apart from so many people who are just like, I wanna talk to you. I saw your hiring. Please book a meeting with me. That’s not the way to a recruiter’s heart.
Mary (10:44.077)
Yeah. Yeah. I loved what you said about don’t just jump in, connect with the hiring manager, the recruiter, you know, your new connection and start asking them for something. Before you do that, you need to, you know, relate to them. You know, like you said, compliment them. Do something where you’re starting to build that rapport. You’re starting to build, you know, kind of a relationship and
figure out how you can support them before you jump in and start asking them for favors. So I think that those three scenarios and how to approach those are just genius. And I think that everybody should take advantage of those strategies. And I’ve also read, it was either on a post or on your LinkedIn profile, about the importance of showing up and presenting your best self. Could you dive into that just a bit more?
Alexis Scott (11:38.24)
Yeah, I mean, there’s so many ways in which we show up in our careers. Physically, how we show up, how you’re going to show up to an interview, how you’re going to speak, how you’re going to engage, and online. I mean, that’s the other component that we forget is that when you are on a social media platform like LinkedIn, which is, you know,
I don’t want to use the word trolled, but trolled, right? By hiring managers and recruiters, people are lurking. That’s the word I want to use, right? You have no idea who is watching you. You truly don’t. I don’t. I get clients popping up out of the woodwork who tell me I’ve been watching you for a year, you know, that I had no idea. And so it’s really important that the words and the language and the way that we present ourselves online is in line with how we want to be accepted and perceived by others at all times. So
Mary (12:02.6)
Mm -hmm,
Mary (12:10.316)
Yeah? No? Yeah? Mm -hmm? Yeah.
Alexis Scott (12:28.773)
the comments that you make, the things that you’re liking, the posts that you’re writing, it’s really important to say, would I want my future hiring manager to read this? If the answer is no, you probably should not be saying it. And there are other nuanced things that I can talk about such as your LinkedIn profile picture or how you show up to an interview. I
people need to remember to be a version of their best selves at all times. especially when you’re in that interview slash dating phase, right? Where they’re just getting to know you. It’s important to consider what you’re wearing, your lighting, your background. know, if you’re interviewing for a remote job, you want to show them that you have a quiet, safe space where you will be working. These are all things that they pay attention to. So just know that all eyes are on you.
Mary (13:01.671)
Mm -hmm.
Mary (13:18.874)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, I mean, we’re in, we live in a world where we’re putting ourselves out there on social media. So whether you know it or not, there are probably more people that are watching you than you even know. You know, like you said, Alexis, it’s like, and I’ve had this too, where people come to me and they’re like, you know, I was, I’ve been following you for a while or I was listening to your podcast. And it’s, it’s like, man, it’s just so important, you know, whether
in the entrepreneurial space or you’re searching for a job to really show up in a way that represents who you are because people are watching and it might come back in either a positive way or a negative way. So you want to make sure that you are presenting yourself authentically and in the best way possible so that it can actually positively influence your career instead of, you know, end up something that, you know, may end up holding you
from getting that next job offer. And I know that you’re also a big advocate for personal branding and I am too. You know, I’m so passionate about that. So in your opinion, what is a strong personal brand? And for somebody that’s searching for jobs right now, how can they really effectively communicate that brand?
Alexis Scott (14:41.78)
Yeah. So I always say, think about your personal brand as speaking for you when you’re not there. You’re not in the room. What do people know about you? What could they say about you? I would say there are multiple ways to build one, And we all have one, whether we know it or not. The people who have worked with you previously, the people who have engaged with you previously, they have kind of their perception of the work that you do, what you bring to the table, how you engage in the workplace.
Mary (14:59.619)
Mm. Yeah.
Alexis Scott (15:11.242)
whether or not you want one, you have a personal brand, on or offline right now.
Mary (15:12.61)
It’s there. It’s there.
Alexis Scott (15:15.58)
It’s building your online personal brand is a little bit different. And that’s kind of where I come in and where I help my clients with ghost writing on LinkedIn. know, people understand that sharing content, sharing their knowledge helps build their personal brand. Now as a job seeker, if you’ve not been creating content consistently and you know, you don’t have that as, a foundation of what you’re working on, you can start building your personal brand by commenting. think it’s, it’s really interesting
you step up and start engaging, right? We call that engagement. When you start commenting on people in your industry’s posts and they start to see your name repeatedly showing up, the value that those comments bring is what’s going to start building your personal brand. So if you’re just saying, nice post, good job, thank you, that’s not going to build your personal brand.
But if you bring a unique insight to the post, to the dialogue, that’s where people start to notice who you are. If you want to take it a step further and you feel comfortable writing about what you know, that will really activate your personal brand, in my opinion. Because now all of sudden, you have a perspective. You have a unique set of stories and experiences that people can learn from.
It can be really scary for people, but I am here to tell you living breathing proof. It will change your life.
Mary (16:36.88)
Mm -hmm. Yeah. In what ways has it changed your life?
Alexis Scott (16:41.522)
gosh, okay. So in 2020, I was managing a team of seven managers and 70 sales reps at a travel technology company. And I was so excited. It was my new team and I started kind of just sharing like, we had a training today or this or that. And listen, when I first started LinkedIn, I was only connecting with people I knew, okay. So the times they had changed, but 2020 managing this big team,
Mary (17:08.326)
Mm -hmm.
Alexis Scott (17:11.315)
kind of randomly casually posting and then I got laid off. COVID happened. I was in travel, myself, my entire team got laid off in an instant right at the beginning of COVID and something inside of me told me LinkedIn is going to be the answer. That is how I am going to get hired.
Mary (17:21.084)
Cheers.
Alexis Scott (17:30.334)
And I just started telling my story. I started posting about unemployment. I started posting about interviews I was having, conversations I was having, the unemployment office and crazy phone interactions I was having with their reps. And people were noticing. I started getting DMs. I actually ended up connecting with the founder of the company that I later worked at through LinkedIn, through my posts. it just, the visibility increased. I started getting asked on podcasts.
And ultimately, it led me to my next role, was at that software sales training slash recruiting company. And that continued to transform my life. So I got hired about six months after getting laid off from COVID.
I was very, very lucky that the founders of that company saw the value of the content that I was creating as it pertained to building my own brand and their brand. Like that’s the other thing too, is that when you work at a company and you start talking about the work that you do, that’s free advertising for that company. So I was super lucky. They were very excited, very encouraging, allowed me to spread my wings and that really grew my network. So I got to about 10 ,000 followers in
Mary (18:28.788)
Mm -hmm.
Alexis Scott (18:43.048)
say like a year and a half ish from when I really double down on growth.
And then from there, you know, I’m at about 80 now, but it has created opportunities for me to work with great brands. get paid by brands to promote their brand. it has led me to job opportunities. It has led me to be featured in the wall street journal. you know, it, it, has provide, and this is all inbound, right? So this is all people seeing me and reaching out to me and saying, Hey, are you interested? And I think that’s the other differentiator with having a personal
Mary (18:56.192)
Yeah. Wow.
Mary (19:05.193)
Wow.
Alexis Scott (19:19.284)
is it goes from you seeking out opportunities to opportunities seeking you out.
Mary (19:25.716)
Hmm. Yeah. mean, thank you for sharing that. mean, if that doesn’t inspire everybody out there to start building that personal brand, I don’t know what will, because it’s like, there are just so many opportunities that are out there that we, we don’t even know about. How are we going to tap into those if we don’t know where the opportunities are at or where they could come from? And so what a better thing to do than to, you know, just
Alexis Scott (19:38.014)
Yeah.
Mary (19:55.291)
sharing your own personal journey, your own personal story, your insights, your expertise so that those opportunities are then knocking at your door instead of you. If you’re in the job hunt right now, you feel like the only thing that you can do is just apply, apply, apply to hundreds and hundreds of jobs and rejection after rejection after rejection. there are better, yes, it’s important to do that, but there are better ways that you can get yourself
out there and run into opportunities that you may not have come across if you didn’t start building that personal brand and start speaking out in a way that you did, Alexis, which I might add is also really brave. It’s been something really hard for me too, is I’m also working on building my own personal brand and I’ve never been somebody that just lets people into my inner circle. It’s hard for me to share.
and be really, really vulnerable. And, you know, I’m sure a lot of you out there can relate that it’s just, it’s not something that just comes really easily for everybody. you know, and I will say that you don’t necessarily need to share your deepest, darkest secrets. You know, if you want to start building that brand, you can share, you know, some learnings throughout your career journey and just kind of start there and let it grow and evolve, you know, to talk more and more.
Alexis Scott (20:53.211)
Yeah.
Alexis Scott (21:08.31)
Correct.
Mary (21:21.236)
about your own personal experience.
Alexis Scott (21:24.212)
Yeah, I think the other thing too is to think about the problems that you solve, right? No matter what job you have, you are solving problems every day. And so if you can share how you solve your customers’ problems or how you solve your clients’ problems, there’s a lot of people who find value in that. And I think that’s where a lot of people get stuck is, well, no one’s gonna care. And actually, no matter where you are in your career, you’re ahead of someone.
Mary (21:27.714)
Yeah, that’s huge.
Alexis Scott (21:51.282)
And so just kind of keeping that in mind, sometimes I get in my own head about what I know and I’m like, man, nobody wants to hear about that. And then I talk to someone and they’re like blown away and I’m like, maybe I should talk about that more. know, maybe maybe I’m wrong. Maybe more people don’t know about that. And so we can often get kind of stuck in the in our everyday and thinking that, yeah, everybody knows that. But everybody doesn’t know that. That’s why you’re getting paid to do it, because not everybody knows that. So.
Mary (21:56.777)
Yeah.
Mary (22:02.603)
Yeah, yeah,
Mary (22:13.429)
Mm -hmm.
Mary (22:17.086)
Yeah, right. Yeah, I feel the same way. I think that, you know, a lot of that, you know, this is a whole other conversation, but it kind of comes goes to that, you know, imposter syndrome where it’s like, you know, you’re you live and breathe in your own world. Like for me, that’s that’s resume writing. And so I’m thinking about it every waking second. You know, I’m writing resumes every day. I’m talking to clients and I’m like, this is such a simple concept. Why would
Alexis Scott (22:29.038)
yeah.
Mary (22:44.522)
post about it, but in reality most people aren’t living and breathing resumes. And so what I have to say is important. What you have to say, you know, is important to, you know, it could help somebody. Mm
Alexis Scott (22:54.568)
I will tell you, so speaking of resumes, I made a post probably three or so weeks ago about a very simple addition to a resume. So someone was talking to me and they said, well, how do I address that I got laid off? And I said, you put that you got laid off. It’s very simple, just put impacted by risk, by the role that answers the recruiter’s question right there.
Mary (23:13.703)
Yeah. Yep. For sure.
Alexis Scott (23:20.05)
It was reshared thousands of likes. Like, my God, you would have thought that I cracked the code, right? And I’m like, why, why, okay. I mean, but apparently that little nugget was enough to give people that aha moment of like, my God, why didn’t I think of that?
Mary (23:27.099)
Yeah.
Alexis Scott (23:38.772)
So never think that anything is too basic, truly. Like our knowledge is so unique to us and powerful that, you know, I figure if people love it, great. If they hate it, that’s their problem. Take it, leave it, do the rest. Like I’m just here to share.
Mary (23:54.2)
Yeah. Yeah. And I want to talk a little bit more too about marketing strategies specifically for job seekers. And I know you said that that word is a general term, but for those people that are searching for jobs out there and they’re trying to figure out, how the heck do I market myself? I mean, what are
specific marketing strategies that you teach and how do they really translate into career success?
Alexis Scott (24:24.692)
Yeah, so I always liken the application process as marketing and networking, marketing, and then the interview process as sales, right? So you have to get someone interested in you in order to get that interview. So you need to learn how to market yourself. It starts with your resume and LinkedIn profile. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care how connected you are, you’re going to need a resume.
I have people ask me for my resume. They’re like, you I love you. We have an opening. Send over your resume. And I’m like, hold that thought. got to fix this particular job. And that is key to the castle is it’s fine to have a general resume for a certain type of job. But ideally, you should be tweaking it a little bit to
Mary (24:56.503)
Yup. Hey! Yup.
Alexis Scott (25:14.998)
fully fit the role that you are going for. So this is where people get stuck. They’re like, well, I’m applying to 5 million jobs. How can I personalize it for each one?
maybe let’s not apply to 500 jobs. Maybe let’s be really intentional and make sure that you are marketing yourself very specifically for the role that you are interested in. So that’s phase one. So resume, you should be very clear on your accomplishments. If anyone can read your resume and slap someone else’s name on it in your industry, that’s a terrible resume.
Mary (25:28.757)
Yeah, right.
Alexis Scott (25:50.774)
They need to know your wins, your accomplishments, your data, and what unique things you bring to the table. That’s number one. Now, for your LinkedIn, I would say 99 % of the time, they’re gonna look at your LinkedIn, whether it be looking at your LinkedIn to want to talk to you or looking at your LinkedIn after they see your resume. So you need to think about, okay, this is my landing page. What do I want them to immediately think about me?
Right? So it’s going to start with a clear photo of yourself. Do you need a professional headshot? No. But what you do need is a brightly lit looking at the camera photo with not a lot of crap in the background. Nobody else in the picture. No animals, no boyfriends, husbands, girlfriend, whatever. Just you. Get your if you have an iPhone, put it on portrait mode, go stand somewhere very simple and have someone take a photo of you and crop it so that it’s your head. That’s my advice.
Now, also your banner. So on a LinkedIn profile, you have your headshot and then you have your banner. What I like to sell people is this is your billboard. What do you want someone to know immediately upon impact?
If you get overwhelmed by this, I tell people, just put a picture of the city you’re from. Like if it’s that over one for you, go Google picture. It’s not that big of a deal. But if you have the capacity, get on Canva, it’s free, create an account, search LinkedIn banner templates. You don’t even have to design it. You just need to pop in the words. Again, what do you want to be known for? What do you want your billboard to be? Keep it simple, not a ton of words, like just boom, that initial impact. And then you have your headline.
And this is, this is where I think a lot of people get tripped up is with this headline. So more often than not, you’ll see X at X company and that’s fine. But let’s say for example, you want a new job and you want to entice recruiters to reach out to you. I would think about a couple of things. The first is what titles do you want a recruiter to reach out to you for? I would wordsmith.
Alexis Scott (28:00.882)
and try to have those words in there somewhere. The other thing is, have you been working in the manufacturing industry? That is an added bonus to a manufacturing company. Make sure it says manufacturing in there somewhere. Have you been leading people? You can say something like, team leader.
You can say leader, can say manager, you know, make sure that it is going to trigger an understanding of the scope of the work that you do. Because a recruiter in LinkedIn Navigator, not Navigator, I’m in sales mode, in LinkedIn recruiter, you’re going to have search parameters and we are playing SEO games, friends. We are thinking what words are going to ping in their search that I’m going to come back up for. The other thing I will let you on a little secret is there’s a way that they can find out who’s most active on LinkedIn.
Mary (28:38.807)
Yeah.
Alexis Scott (28:58.304)
Don’t you want to come up for that?
Mary (28:59.876)
Mm -hmm, mm -hmm.
Alexis Scott (29:02.107)
Think about that. I’m gonna pause there. I was talking a lot.
Mary (29:06.864)
Yeah, no, mean, I love that I’m soaking it in because I love the idea of, you know, the job search is the marketing piece and the interview is the sales piece. And you’re so right because, you know, when you’re applying to jobs, you have to kind of think of yourself like a product, you know, how are you going to sell that product? Right. So yeah, and that could change, you know, depending on the audience that you’re trying to sell the product to, you know, it depends.
Alexis Scott (29:27.766)
100%. 100%.
Mary (29:36.784)
What are they using it for, right? What problems need to be solved? So, you if you’re applying to a specific company, like you said, it’s so important that you take your resume and you tailor it to that specific position because, mean, ultimately what you want to do is connect the dots for the person that’s reading it. This is the value that I could bring. These are the problems that I’ve solved in the past.
These are the problems that I could solve for you. And this is how I could step in and immediately impact this specific position, not some other position that you’ve applied to this specific position. So I think that that’s really important. And I think that you also nailed it with the LinkedIn profile because every single hiring manager and recruiter that I’ve spoken with that I’ve worked with, the very first thing they’ll do is when they have your resume in hand, they’re looking at your LinkedIn profile. There’s no getting around that. And today’s age is
Alexis Scott (30:29.792)
Look.
Mary (30:33.326)
They want to see who you are on LinkedIn. So at the very least, like you said, make sure that you have a professional photo. Take it with your iPhone, something, anything. It doesn’t need to be professionally done necessarily. It just needs to look nice and make sure that your banner’s on point. Yeah. I mean, that’s, that’s the first thing that they’re, they’re going to look at. And a lot of people, I mean, really that’ll set you apart from probably 90 to 95 % of other job seekers that are out there because I don’t see.
really very often anybody doing anything fun or unique or even just simple, you know, in terms of personal branding with their banner. So that’s huge. And I also agree, you know, with the headline piece because, you know, and I had a conversation with a recruiter just a couple of months ago and she was like, I don’t know what people are doing with their headlines. It’s like, you know, if you put leader or, you know, like team leader driving success, it’s like, that doesn’t tell me anything.
You know, are you in sales? you in marketing? What industry are you in? What, you know, have you led teams? You know, make sure that you’re as specific as possible. And it’s also going to help you get caught up in that web too, in terms of the SEO. When the recruiters are searching for specific keywords, you’re going to land there and then they’re going to see right away with both your banner and your headline. okay. This, you know, this is the person that I’m looking for. I want to talk to this person. So.
You know, it’s just simple things like that. They can really be game changing and not a lot of people are doing
Alexis Scott (31:58.132)
Yeah.
Alexis Scott (32:03.732)
Yeah, there’s a, that recruiter is right also, I will add. I sometimes see things like.
Mary (32:06.635)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Alexis Scott (32:12.086)
passionate about teamwork or, you know, ninja of whatever. And if you are not looking for a job, you go ahead and you put whatever the heck you want on that. Nobody cares, right? But if you are job searching, this is where strategy comes into play. And it is very important the words that you have, like mom of three or dog lover. again, it’s fine, but that’s not benefiting you in any way. So I think you need to be more clear on that.
Mary (32:17.051)
Yeah.
Mary (32:21.385)
For sure. For sure.
Mary (32:37.533)
Yeah, it’s not Instagram people.
Alexis Scott (32:40.938)
So the other component that I think is really important to mention is if you are, sometimes people get desperate because they have been applying, applying, applying. And then it’s like, well, I’m in sales, but I could do customer success or I could do marketing or I could do whatever. So you start applying for these other jobs, but your LinkedIn says sales, sales, sales, sales, sales. That’s an auto reject, my friends from a recruiter because they’re going, well, wait a minute.
Mary (32:54.941)
Yeah. Mm.
Alexis Scott (33:08.808)
everything you’re all sales. Why would I call you for marketing or why would I call you for customer service or you whatever it is. So it’s important to be intentional of what’s on there. You know, for me, for example, I have a friend who keeps trying to get me to go to his company and he’s like, send me your resume. And I’m like, but for what? Like what, what exactly are you wanting me to go there for? And I said, and people are going to go to my LinkedIn and your company and be like, what the heck is this? She’s the fairy job mom. Why is she applying for a sales role with us? You know, like what,
Mary (33:32.997)
Yeah
Alexis Scott (33:38.712)
going on here? And you you have to align each of the pieces of your puzzle so that you’re telling a story. Ultimately, that’s marketing, right? It’s a narrative. And so they all have to come together to make sense. It’s the same thing with your resume, right? Just like you said, Mary, there should be no questions left unanswered by the time they read that resume. I tell people, answer them up front. If a recruiter has to answer a question by the time they’re done reading your resume, there’s a 99 .9 % chance they’re not calling you. They don’t have time. They’re going to go with the
Mary (33:46.735)
Yeah,
Alexis Scott (34:08.692)
that they already know the answers for. So be very thoughtful with that.
Mary (34:12.975)
Yeah.
Since you work with lot of job seekers, I’m also curious to know, I mean, what are some of the biggest mistakes that you’ve seen job seekers make and how can we avoid those?
Alexis Scott (34:28.114)
Yeah, I think the biggest one is duty oriented resumes, hands down. You’ve got to have the data. I always tell people, read each bullet point and ask yourself, so what? Why should somebody care? If you lead a team of five, OK. And? And what? Who cares? Is your team performing? Are you a great leader? How do I know?
Mary (34:44.939)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Alexis Scott (34:51.155)
and think about all those things. How can you answer those questions? I always say, did they increase something? Did they decrease something? Did you impact something? Did you implement something? Like what can you show performance metrics around that they would care about? And the answer is in the job description. I cannot tell you this enough. The job description is your key to the castle.
Mary (35:07.369)
It is. It’s right there.
Alexis Scott (35:12.958)
Right? So, you know, let’s say in general, you’re in marketing and you’re applying for marketing manager roles and let me get more specific. Let’s say you’re going to be a social media manager, right? In general, most social media managers are going to do the same things. But I firmly believe in every job description, we have these little outliers where they’re going to be like, and we want you to have done X and you’re like, okay, cool. I’ve done that.
Mary (35:36.171)
Thank you.
Alexis Scott (35:40.406)
but that’s not on your resume, because that’s not gonna be on your general resume. So you’re gonna go back in and you’re gonna be like, yes, I know that you want me to have managed a budget for X department. I have done that and I saved my company $5 million in ad spend and blah, blah, blah, blah. That bullet point right there could make or break them calling you from somebody else.
Mary (36:02.257)
Mm -hmm.
Alexis Scott (36:02.774)
because you have now checked all their boxes. So be really clear on the impact that you’ve had, not just what you did, but were you good at it? And show me the money, show me the numbers, show me however you were graded. But honestly, that is the biggest, biggest miss. It’s just people sharing what they did. And nobody really cares. They want to know how you performed.
Mary (36:23.377)
Yep. They want to know the impact that you’ve made. You nailed it. Yeah. Yeah, and I agree. You know, the answer is typically in the job description. you know, people just they tend to not read those job descriptions word for word. And I’m a huge proponent. like, no, don’t read the job description. Like, you read the job description, read it word for word.
Alexis Scott (36:28.522)
Yeah. Yeah.
Alexis Scott (36:36.746)
Yeah. yeah.
Mary (36:50.85)
look at all of the requirements, I always start with the required qualifications and then go down to the preferred qualifications. And that could be where those hidden gems are too. Okay, yes, I meet all the required qualifications, but do I meet any of those preferred qualifications? And how can I pull that up and highlight it and make it look really, really good? Not only do I meet those, how did I exceed expectations and make an impact on my previous companies to
that alignment for the person that’s reading it, think that that’s critical.
Alexis Scott (37:23.158)
So I think it’s funny that you do it that way. So I don’t do resume writing. I do what I call resume optimization. So I work with job seekers and we go through your resume line by line. And I’m essentially teaching you how to write a resume. But before we begin, my homework for my clients is to send me their resume, their current resume, and go find three to five job descriptions for roles that they’re interested in. They could have applied, they don’t need to apply. I just wanna see what is it that you want to do?
Mary (37:25.123)
Mm -hmm.
Mary (37:48.003)
Yeah. Yep.
Alexis Scott (37:50.59)
and we go through those job descriptions line by line. Now, I don’t do it by the qualifications, I actually do it by the duties. And I just say to them, have you done this? If they say yes, great, tell me more. And we have a doc and we make bullet points for those.
Tell me about some wins around that. Have you managed a team? OK, great. Have you balanced a budget? Whatever it is that they’ve done. Now, then we go into the qualifications. So it’s like, what do you have under your belt? The other thing I think is really important for people to highlight is their tech stack. So what technologies have you used? If a company is calling out a technology and you have used it, you better make sure that that is somewhere on your resume, that you know how to use that technology.
Mary (38:21.781)
Mm -hmm. So important.
Mary (38:30.808)
Yes.
Alexis Scott (38:35.126)
And I would tell people, listen, if you know G Suite or you know Microsoft, nowadays that’s table stakes. You really don’t need to put that. But if they are asking for industry -specific or role -specific software, yes, 100 % highlight that and show that you are proficient in it for sure.
Mary (38:54.174)
Yeah. Yeah. And I always, the reason that I start with the required qualifications is because sometimes companies can set those up on their ATS. Now, typically, you know, know this gets some controversy with the ATS that it’s not, you know, typically it’s not an auto reject type of thing. Typically humans are reviewing those, but some companies do set up an initial screener where they’re looking for those minimum qualifications. If you
meet them, then sometimes your resume could be auto rejected because of that. So I’m always looking at those things first and then I do what you do where I go up to the top. You go down line by line and determine how your background and experience aligns with that specific company. Yeah.
Alexis Scott (39:39.85)
Yeah. And I think too, you the, the size of the company does certainly matter. I play a lot in the startup world and they use an ATS more of like a CRM more so than a disqualifier or a qualifier. Right. So they’re not setting these parameters, but I do know you’re right. Like larger organizations.
Mary (39:45.268)
for sure.
Mary (39:51.496)
Yeah.
Alexis Scott (39:59.22)
they get a ton of applications. And so they do have a different screening process. So yeah, I mean, that’s something to consider as well. And, you know, we could talk about formatting and colors and go on for days, but I always tell people the simpler, the better, the least sexy design, the better, you know, just black and white, plain, get your bullets on there and make sure it’s really, really clear on why you’re qualified.
Mary (40:04.272)
for
Yeah. yeah, all the things. Yeah. Yeah. Right.
For sure.
Mary (40:25.764)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. What’s the number one thing that our listeners should do today to show up and present their best selves?
Alexis Scott (40:39.494)
in what capacity?
Mary (40:41.398)
in a, from a job searching capacity.
Alexis Scott (40:45.714)
I would say get your LinkedIn profile in order.
And the other thing too, I will say is in your experience, don’t just have a company and a title. Put your big wins, really, truly, not just duties, two to three big wins for each role. If you got promoted, make sure you have that on there. Recruiters do read that. Are they going to read pages and pages of LinkedIn jobs? Or I’m sorry, LinkedIn experience? No, but they are going to look at your first kind of three to four, however many jobs. And if they can see right off the bat, ooh, this person is a top performer. I need to talk to them. You get on their short list.
So make sure that’s on there, make sure it’s complete. Also for your about me section, if you have your about me section, please don’t write it like it came from a Google search or it came from chat GPT. I mean, we can tell we’re all human and it just feels very disconnected.
Mary (41:38.431)
Yeah, that’s a great way to kind of personalize your LinkedIn profile is through that summary section. And I agree, think that a lot of people are, they’re afraid maybe to show quantification and numbers on their LinkedIn profile. And I’ve had so many conversations with recruiters over the last several months to several years, and they want to see those numbers. mean,
Alexis Scott (41:41.802)
Yeah.
Mary (41:59.797)
they’re probably reviewing your LinkedIn profile before they’re even looking at your resume in some cases. They may glance at your resume, go to your LinkedIn profile, and then go back to your resume. So showcase numbers on your LinkedIn profile. It’s okay to do.
Alexis Scott (42:00.074)
yeah.
Alexis Scott (42:11.252)
for sure. Definitely. And I would say like, listen, it doesn’t need to be a cut and paste of your entire resume. I don’t necessarily believe in that. But I do think you want to highlight your top wins. What’s going to make someone go, I need to talk to this person.
Mary (42:25.387)
Yep, 100%. Awesome. Alexis, where can we find you on social media?
Alexis Scott (42:30.452)
Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn, of course. My name on there is Alexis Rivera Scott. You can also find me on my website, thefairyjobmom .com.
Mary (42:40.583)
Awesome, thank you so much for coming on today.
Alexis Scott (42:42.912)
Thank you for having me.