Pop Your Career

47. Asking questions in an interview

Bec — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 14:00:00 +0000

Links I mentioned in this episode:

Win At Work Membership

47. Asking questions in an interview – Transcript

[00:00:00] This episode is brought to you by my brand new membership Win at Work. Imagine having your favourite career coach in your pocket for less than $10 a month, except that you don’t need to imagine it. The Win At Work membership is designed to support you in feeling more fulfilled by your career. It includes a private podcast where I’ll be answering all of your burning career questions as well as a library of resources that I am updating and improving every single week. When at work is the place to be, if you’re a heart-centered human who wants to wake up feeling pumped up for the day ahead. Get into your web browser and go to PopYourCareer.com/waw for more information and to sign up. Are you ready to win at work?

[00:00:52] Hi, there I’m Bec McFarland the host of the Pop Your Career [00:01:00]Podcast. As a career coach, I’m most passionate about helping my clients to discover their own personal flavour of career fulfillment. In this podcast, we are going to be exploring ways that you too can feel more fulfilled by your work. So strap yourself in, get ready for the ride. The tips around here are fast and in abundance.

[00:01:21] Hello. Hello. It’s Bec McFarland here, helping you do better and be better in your career. Welcome to the Pop Your Career podcast. I’m so thrilled to have you here, but did you know that I decided to start a podcast in about 2016? Maybe? It has been on my mind for a really long time, and at the time I recorded I think two episodes and I popped them up on SoundCloud. I am sure that they are still floating around. They’re somewhere if you want to go [00:02:00]and find them and embarrass me.

[00:02:02] But this topic that we’re talking about today has been on my mind since then because it was one of the podcast episodes that I recorded way back then when I had my first podcast, if you can call it that.

[00:02:19] The topic is asking questions in an interview, and at the time I titled that podcast episode, Don’t Interview Your Interviewer. And all these years later, I still feel the same. There’s nothing like being on an interview panel and going through the interview process and getting to the end of the interview with a candidate and saying to them, do you have any questions for us? And then all hell breaks loose. This is where the nightmares really begin.

[00:02:54] So the first mistake that people make in this section of their [00:03:00]interview is that they ask the questions that everyone asks. And look, if you’re a seasoned interviewer, you will just do yourself a favor and answer these questions in your introduction so that they can’t ask. The questions are always things like, When are you gonna be making a decision? When can I expect to find out the outcome of this process? And the other most common question is like, can you tell me about the culture of the team?

[00:03:32] Now look, that in itself might be an okay-ish question, but there are definitely ways that you can phrase that much better.

[00:03:44] In terms of the answer to the first question, when are you gonna hear back? How long is a piece of string? You’ll hear back when we’re, when we’re done, right? You’ll hear back when the process is finished, stop trying to push it.

[00:03:59] [00:04:00] So the other really big mistake that people make in interviews is that they think that this is their opportunity to interview their interviewer. Now I get it right, it’s a two-way street. The organization is interviewing you to find out if you are the most suitable candidate for the role, and you wanna find out some stuff about the employer to see if they are actually the kind of place that you wanna work. That’s totally fine. But realistically, your opportunity to ask them questions and do your due diligence and go through the checks and balances actually comes later.

[00:04:35] That’s what happens between the offer and the acceptance. At that time, you got questions, you’d go hell for leather. But when you are in that interview, if you start asking all of these long winded, intricate detailed questions. Oh gosh. As a [00:05:00] panel member, it becomes so painful.

[00:05:05] We are already tired. I’ve said this before, interview panel members are always tired because interviewing is not an easy task. You have to be at attention the whole time.

[00:05:20] And you’re often interviewing quite a few people. It can become a long day, and when you get to the end of an interview, it’s like, oh my God, I’m going to be allowed to have a two and a half minute breather where I might be able to stuff some food into my mouth, or maybe even I’ll get to go and do a wee.

[00:05:39] But when the candidate goes and starts asking all of these really long questions, all of a sudden your meal break and your wee break, I’ve gone out the window now. Of course I am taking a really lighthearted approach to this, but what I can say is that I’ve been in multiple situations [00:06:00]where candidates who have absolutely no chance of getting the job are using that time in an interview to ask really specific questions about the way that work is delegated, the way that work is handled, the way that work is done, and realistically, at this stage in the process, like those things are none of your business, they are not at all relevant. If those things are concerning you, then by all means ask them later on once we offer you a role, but at the moment it’s just a little bit too much.

[00:06:39] So does this mean that you shouldn’t ask questions at all? Well, no. I definitely think that it’s a space for asking questions. I think that a lot of people put pressure on themselves to ask a question, and I think that’s often why we end up in these situations where too many of the wrong kinds of questions are being asked because [00:07:00] of the fact that someone’s been given that sage old advice that you have to ask a question, otherwise they’ll think that you’re not interested. And unfortunately, some people have interpreted that to being ask a lot of questions because then they’ll know that you’re really interested.

[00:07:15] I do think that if you’ve got a question and it’s a really genuine, thoughtful question that is going to help you at this stage of the process, then go ahead and ask. No one is ever going to punish you or think poorly of you or anything like that for asking a question. But if you’re asking a question for the sake of asking a question because of the fact that you heard that sage old advice, then I would just say, like don’t bother.

[00:07:44] It comes across as being really fake and really weird and just not cool, and I can guarantee you that a hundred percent of the time your panel members would much prefer a snack and [00:08:00] a wee over answering silly questions that you are not even really interested in the answers to, okay? I hope this helps.

[00:08:10] As I said, I have taken quite a lighthearted approach to this one, but it is definitely, definitely really, really good advice. Don’t interview your interviewer. Ask questions if they are relevant and genuine.

[00:08:25] Have a great week and I will see you in the next episode.

[00:08:29] Thanks so much for listening to the Pop Your Career podcast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s tips and that you found value in what I’ve shared with you. If you like your career advice quick and entertaining, I would love for you to subscribe. Also leave me a rating and a review. If you wanna continue the conversation, come and join me over on social media. You can find me everywhere at Pop Your Career. I’ll see you soon.

[00:08:55]

The post 47. Asking questions in an interview appeared first on Pop Your Career.

46. Why I hate resume objectives

Bec — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 14:00:00 +0000

Links I mentioned in this episode:

Win At Work Membership

46. Why I hate resume objectives- Transcript

[00:01:21] Hello. Hello. It’s Bec McFarland here, helping you do better and be better. And today I am talking to you about one of my pet hates when it comes to resumes, and that is the objective section. Pretty weird thing to have as a pet hate or something that rubs you out the wrong way, but that’s okay. As someone who has read thousands of resumes throughout my career, I feel like I am in the perfect place to have a really strong opinion on this.

[00:01:56] So why do I hate the resume objective? Well, [00:02:00] because most time it’s rubbish. Most of the time people are really clutching at straws and scraping the bottom of the barrel to get something to put in this resume objective section and most of the time it tends to be a bit of an embellishment or a little bit of fluff.

[00:02:21] You know, like my objective is to secure a role in the Australian public sector where I’m able to contribute to the betterment of the Australian people. Wah wah wah. It’s terrible. It’s absolutely terrible. It just comes across as being so fake and brown nosing. In my opinion, most people’s objective is the same thing, right? We’re all trying to get the job. My objective is to get this damn job that I’m putting in so much effort to apply for. [00:03:00]That is one of the reasons that I absolutely hate it. I just think it’s so fluffy and just rubbish and garbage.

[00:03:08] But the other reason that I really hate resume objectives is that I feel like the people who do need them don’t use them very well. So who are the people who need a resume objective? Well, the only people that I would suggest should include a resume objective are people who are undergoing some kind of transformation. So this could be, for example, if you are making a career change. It could be that perhaps you’ve had a bit of time off work and now you are returning to the workforce.

[00:03:41] It could be that perhaps you are moving, maybe you’re moving interstate or overseas. This is an opportunity for you to tell a little bit more about your story, to give a bit more of an insight into your personality, to tell them why you are applying for this job. Right?

[00:03:57] We all know we’ve spoken about unconscious [00:04:00] bias before. That is episode 27, if you wanna check it out. We also know that employers are going to put two and two together and they’re gonna end up with five. So they may see that you’ve had a gap in your career and make that mean something that it doesn’t. Right? You can definitely use the objective section in your resume to give more insight and context, and when you do this well, it can really, really work in your favour.

[00:04:28] The thing is this kind of information, you could actually include it in your professional profile section if it makes sense, but I think having it separated into an objective section can really, really do well for you if you are one of these people who is, got some change happening, there is some kind of transformation and there’s something that you might want to explain.

[00:04:50] So how would you write it? What would you say? How would you do it? Right. What I would say is just be honest, so you can use your objective section to [00:05:00] say, for example, you know, I’m currently located in Canberra. But I am in the process of relocating my family to the Gold Coast. I will be at the Gold Coast from X, Y, Z date and available for in-person interviews. However, if you would like to meet me via Zoom, in the meantime, I would welcome the opportunity to chat with you about my application and how my experience may be of value to you in this role.

[00:05:26] Right? That would be a really great way of explaining that, because otherwise maybe they will jump on your LinkedIn profile and see that you’re based in Canberra and be like, oh, why is this chick applying for a role on the Gold Coast that, you know, makes things a lot harder for us.

[00:05:42] Now, again, that is totally a bias and employers shouldn’t think like that, but should, and would and could they will, right? So we wanna make things a lot easier for them and give them the information they need so that they’re not going to fall prey to their own biases. [00:06:00]

[00:06:00] Another thing could be that maybe if you’ve had a little bit of time off work, they could be thinking like, What? You couldn’t get a job? Oh, you haven’t been employed for the last six months. Is that because you were trying to get a job but nobody wanted you? When in fact, maybe you were traveling overseas or maybe you were off having a baby, or maybe you were looking after a sick relative. In your objective section, you can go ahead and say that.

[00:06:25] You know, as you’ll note in my resume, I have been unemployed for the last six months due to the fact that I have been backpacking through Asia. Whatever, you know, I have been, uh, supporting a sick relative. I have been having a baby. You can then use this opportunity though to reassure the employer that now that you’ve had that time off your head is back in the game and that we are excited about returning to the workforce and continuing where you left off.

[00:06:58] As you can see, it [00:07:00] is a lot of storytelling, which is what your resume is all about, right? It’s an opportunity for you to tell your story and give them all of the information that they need in order to understand that you in fact, may just be the most suitable candidate for the role. I hope this has been some food for thought for you.

[00:07:19] If you are not going through some kind of change, get that objective off your resume. Stop wasting valuable real estate and use it for something that might actually help you get the job. I’ll see you next time.

[00:07:31] Thanks so much for listening to the Pop Your Career podcast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s tips and that you found value in what I’ve shared with you. If you like your career advice quick and entertaining, I would love for you to subscribe. Also leave me a rating and a review. If you wanna continue the conversation, come and join me over on social media. You can find me everywhere at Pop Your Career. I’ll see you soon.

[00:07:57] [00:08:00]

The post 46. Why I hate resume objectives appeared first on Pop Your Career.

45. Tell me about yourself…

Bec — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 14:00:00 +0000

Links I mentioned in this episode:

Win At Work Membership

45. Tell me about yourself… – Transcript

[00:01:21] Hello, hello, Bec McFarland here helping you do better and be better in your career. So one of the most common questions that you could be asked in a job interview is tell me about yourself. And so many people get confused about how to go ahead and answer this question really well. There’s a couple of things that I would say to you just in preparation for this.

[00:01:51] The first is that you don’t want to go all the way back to when you were born, okay? So ideally you want [00:02:00] to only talk about the last sort of five to 10 years of your experience, or perhaps highlight when you began working in this particular type of role or industry.

[00:02:11] The other thing is that interviewers are definitely looking for you to provide a really well structured answer to this question, and so if you keep this in mind and you use the formula that I’m about to share with you, then that will really help you to show the way that you can deliver a well structured and well thought out argument.

[00:02:36] So what is this formula? Well, it’s the same formula that I use when I’m helping my clients to put together a professional profile section on their resume. And what this looks like is your skills plus your experience plus your relevant qualifications [00:03:00] plus your passions or your interests equal an exceptional professional profile or response to an icebreaker question, like, tell me about yourself.

[00:03:14] Each of these different sections allows you to communicate something that’s going to add value to this employer and is potentially going to persuade them that you are the most ideal candidate for the role now. There are some nuances to this. The first is that you can go through any of these four things or all of these four things in any order that you like.

[00:03:39] You don’t necessarily always have to deliver it as skills, experience, qualifications, and passions. I would suggest that in fact, you start with the thing that is going to be most relevant or most important to the position that you’re applying. So if you know, for [00:04:00]example, that you are applying for a role where a specific qualification is mandatory and you can’t work in that role without that qualification, then your qualification might be the first thing that you talk about. And from there you might go through and talk about some of the other elements.

[00:04:21] Another thing I’ll say is that if you don’t have relevant qualifications, you can leave this section out. You don’t need to highlight that you don’t have relevant qualifications, and you certainly don’t need to talk about any irrelevant qualifications that you have. Just leave that question out and follow through with the rest of the formula.

[00:04:44] At the same time, I’ve included the passion section or interest section of this formula because it does allow you to share with an employer if there is something very specific about their organization, industry, or role [00:05:00]that really excites you or lights you up. In saying that, if there is not, then I would tell you leave that section out. Don’t make something up. If you do make something up, they’ll know, and it’s just really not a good look because it already means that you’re being dishonest throughout the interview process, and that is a real turn off.

[00:05:26] The way to really use this part of the formula in terms of the passions and the interests is to really connect it to your values. So for example, I am really super passionate about animal welfare and animal rights and animal health, and my husband and I are really committed to supporting organizations that uphold those areas and values. If I was going to apply for a role with an organization like the RSPCA or perhaps another organization that was fighting for [00:06:00]animal rights, it would be really important for me to share that I’m super passionate about that.

[00:06:05] And so I might say something like, You know, I am really passionate about animal rights. My husband and I support a range of organizations including Life of Pikelet, which is an animal rescue in Victoria that focuses on rehabilitating neonatal puppies with birth defects like hydrocephalus and cleft palates and cleft lips. For this reason, I’m really interested in this particular role because it aligns with my values and would help me to work in an area that would allow me to continue exploring this passion.

[00:06:42] Okay? So you can see where if your passion or your interest wasn’t genuine and you were just applying for this job because you need a job and any job, um, then just leave that part of the formula out.

[00:06:55] So what does this look like overall? Well, I would suggest [00:07:00]to have a think about that structure. Think about which part that you wanna start on, depending on what’s gonna be most relevant to the employer, and then just practice, practice, practice.

[00:07:10] One of the reasons that I like this formula is that, as I mentioned it does help you to give that structure to your response. Uh, and what I find is that when you have a little bit of structure, it gives you a chance to be able to pull yourself back into line if you need it. Often when we go for interviews, we are already feeling really nervous. We’re already on edge, and it’s really easy for us to get distracted or do what I call is wandering off the garden path. If you know that you’ve got a structure to come back to, similar to the STAR method that we’ve already talked about, or this professional profile formula, it means that you can check in with yourself and think, oh, I’ve already covered off on skills and experience, that means I’m onto qualifications. You know where it is in your response that you’re coming back to, to [00:08:00]continue it and bring back that structure.

[00:08:03] To give you a little bit of a practical application of this, I am going to go through a very quick example from my own history just to show you how you can use these different parts of the formula to weave them together into a story. Right here goes, I haven’t practiced this, so let’s see what comes out.

[00:08:23] Thanks very much for asking. So I started my career in Human resources in 2005 when I first began recruiting with the large multinational agency Hays. Since then, I have recruited in lots of different environments, both large agencies, smaller boutique agencies. I’ve been the HR manager of a small business here in Canberra, and I have also worked in government.

[00:08:52] Throughout my work in the human resources industry, I’ve developed really strong skills in [00:09:00] coaching, development, as well as HR policies, principles, and practices. I am very confident in managing large, complex HR projects and also leading teams and building capability across organizations.

[00:09:19] I am particularly interested in this role because of the fact that there is a strong focus on coaching. I really enjoy coaching individuals and teams to help them to do better and be better. This is a real passion of mine and I have been exploring this since I completed my DISC Advanced qualification, my certification in neurolinguistic programming, and also the multiple diplomas in human resources, business and management.

[00:09:56] Okay, so that wasn’t perfect. It was [00:10:00] a little bit disjointed, but hopefully it’ll give you a bit of an understanding about how you can use this formula and how you can weave the different elements through to tell a bit of a story.

[00:10:11] If you’ve got any questions about this or you wanna chat about how you can answer this question the most effectively, please feel free to reach out to me on social media. As you know, I am at Pop Your Career everywhere, and I am always more than happy to continue the conversation. I’ll see you soon.

[00:10:31] Thanks so much for listening to the Pop Your Career podcast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s tips and that you found value in what I’ve shared with you. If you like your career advice quick and entertaining, I would love for you to subscribe. Also leave me a rating and a review. If you wanna continue the conversation, come and join me over on social media. You can find me everywhere at Pop Your Career. I’ll see you soon.

[00:10:57] [00:11:00]

The post 45. Tell me about yourself… appeared first on Pop Your Career.

44. Dealing with Interview Nerves

Bec — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 14:00:00 +0000

Links I mentioned in this episode:

Win At Work Membership

44. Dealing with Interview Nerves – Transcript

[00:01:21] Hello, hello, Bec McFarland here helping you do better and be better in your career. Let’s talk about interview nerves. If you are not nervous about going into an interview, you are some kind of supernatural being. Because everyone that I know feels nervous about job interviews. In saying that, I think that often your nerves can increase or become more intense, particularly if it’s a role that you are very [00:02:00] interested in, and this can make things quite hard. So, what do you do about it? Well, let’s talk about a few different options.

[00:02:07] The first thing that I would suggest to you to do is to ask yourself the question of like, what have you got planned before your interview? Are you going to work? And then you’re gonna have to leave work and jump in the car, and then race, race, race to get there.

[00:02:21] And by the time you get to your interview, you’re feeling quite flustered because of the fact that, you know, you haven’t really left yourself enough time. I always say that you should absolutely leave enough time to get dressed, to prepare your clothes, to get yourself in the right headset to drive to the appointment or catch public transport, to find yourself a park, to walk from the park to wherever you need to be interviewed, and also to get abducted by aliens on the way, because you never know when you’re going to get [00:03:00]caught in traffic or when you are going to make a mistake.

[00:03:03] There are so many different ways that you could get stuck and find yourself running late. So we just wanna make sure that you’ve got enough time. I did a really dumb thing once. I went to a job interview and I found a park, uh, in a parking station, and I still had heaps of time left over because of the fact that I’d left so much time. Right?

[00:03:33] And I sat in the car and I played Candy Crush to kill some time. And then finally I thought, okay, like I should probably get out of the car and go and find where I’ve gotta go. And so I got out of the car and I went out of the parking garage and onto the street. And it was at that moment that as I was looking around, I realized that the numbers in this street were a little bit cuckoo and they didn’t quite [00:04:00] make sense.

[00:04:01] And where I thought the building was not where the building was. It was actually all the way at the other end of the street. So I had to start walking and walking and walking. And by the time I got to that job interview, I was now like a sweaty, flustered mess. And I look back on that and I think, yeah, like I didn’t allow enough time. Perhaps I wasted the time by playing Candy Crush in the car. Who knows?

[00:04:34] But you will be so much less stressed and so much more calm if you do. Make sure that you have given yourself ample opportunity for anything to go wrong over the way. And if that means that you’ve got a bit of extra time up your sleeve when you get to the interview place, means that you can stand outside, take a breath of fresh air, you know, go for a little short, non strenuous, non sweaty walk, do some meditation, [00:05:00] something else, altogether.

[00:05:02] On the topic of meditation, I do encourage people to also take some time to make sure that they are in the right frame of mind. So we know that when we’re going into interviews that we are gonna be stressed and often the symptoms of stress are presented on us physically.

[00:05:19] So this might mean that you do have sweat on your brow or worse sweat on your interview clothes. Uh, it could mean that you are a little bit shaky, that your voice is not as strong as it usually would. You know, there are lots of different ways that your fear or your nerves can actually manifest themselves physically.

[00:05:40] So by taking a little bit of time to get into the right frame of mind before you go into your interview, you are doing whatever you can to make sure that you are feeling more calm, because we know that you’re gonna perform better if you are in that right frame of mind. Um, but also so that we can limit some of those physical symptoms.[00:06:00]

[00:06:00] I think I’ve shared it here before, I can’t remember, but I did do an interview once with a lovely fellow. He was just such a nice gentleman. Um, but unfortunately he was so nervous during the whole interview that, um, his body shook, um, he had a little bit of a, like shaky leg, I think from the nerves and it was only towards the very, very end of that interview that he was actually able to settle down enough, um, to stop that nervous shaking.

[00:06:34] I feel as though if he had have been able to take a little bit of time before that interview to calm himself down and center himself and ground himself, that he may have been able to present himself, uh, a little bit more confidently when it came to that interview. I always think of that example whenever I think about interview nerves.

[00:06:52] So there are lots of different options. You know, I already mentioned meditation. It could be that you decide to listen to some music that you really enjoy. [00:07:00] Perhaps you need to distract yourself, so you want to give your friend a call. It might be that you do want to go for a short walk around the block just to clear your head and get the blood pumping.

[00:07:11] You might wanna try something like, Emotional Freedom technique, which is also known as tapping, can be a really great way to move some of that nervous energy out of your body. You may want to work with a coach prior to your interview to do some neurolinguistic programming to help you actually change the way that your mind and your body respond to nerves, or to change the way that the nerves present themselves in the first place. There are lots of different things that you can do, but it’s important that you find the thing that’s going to work for you.

[00:07:43] I love to share lots of different ideas and strategies about this, but sometimes, you know, people do look at me and think that I’m a little bit crazy when I tell. They should go Amy Cuddy style and do a power pose in the bathroom in the mirror before their [00:08:00] interview. If you haven’t watched Amy Cuddy’s Ted talk on the way that your body language shapes who you are, I highly, highly encourage it. I think it’s one of the most watched Ted Talks of all time, and I definitely think that it is a really cool way to just change your state and get into a different mood.

[00:08:22] What I would suggest is just try it. Have a go. See what works for you, see what you respond really well to, and just know yourself. Just trust yourself. But really just making sure that you are giving yourself that opportunity, a bit of extra time before your interview so that you can tick some of these things off the list and walk into your interview feeling a lot more confident and a lot more empowered.

[00:08:49] I would always suggest that if you can take the morning off before your interview, you know, make it a little bit easier for yourself so that you aren’t going to be rushing around. [00:09:00] And it’s not to say that you’re giving yourself more time to sit around and stress about what’s to come, but it does mean that you can just give yourself a little bit more of that self-compassion or self-care, a little bit of a confidence boost whatever it means for you, and make sure that you are then presenting in the way that you want to present during an interview.

[00:09:21] Have a fantastic week and I will check you in the next episode.

[00:09:25] Thanks so much for listening to the Pop Your Career podcast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s tips and that you found value in what I’ve shared with you. If you like your career advice quick and entertaining, I would love for you to subscribe. Also leave me a rating and a review. If you wanna continue the conversation, come and join me over on social media. You can find me everywhere at Pop Your Career. I’ll see you soon.

[00:09:52]

The post 44. Dealing with Interview Nerves appeared first on Pop Your Career.

43. Should I make it work, or leave quickly?

Bec — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Don’t worry! A little blip on your resume is not going to derail your career. If you’ve made an unsettling career mistake, accepted a job only to start and find out it’s really not the one for you, this episode is a must listen. When people are in this situation they always feel isolated, confused and like they’re the first one to ever make a bad career decision. But that’s just not the case. And you don’t need to stick it out and try and force it to work. Just move on and have faith that future employers will not care at all if you have that three month mistake on your resume – if anything it’s a testament to your own self-awareness and strength that you made the decision to find something more aligned with your needs!

Links I mentioned in this episode:

Win At Work Membership

43. Should I make it work, or leave quickly? – Transcript

[00:00:55] Hi, [00:01:00] there I’m Bec McFarland the host of the Pop Your Career Podcast. As a career coach, I’m most passionate about helping my clients to discover their own personal flavour of career fulfillment. In this podcast, we are going to be exploring ways that you too can feel more fulfilled by your work. So strap yourself in, get ready for the ride. The tips around here are fast and in abundance.

[00:01:24] Hello. Hello. It’s Bec McFarland here, helping you do better and be better in your career. And I just want you to imagine you have applied for a new role. You got offered, you accepted, you’ve started, you’ve done your best to try and make it work, but you’re really unhappy. You’re feeling quite unfulfill.

[00:01:53] Maybe the role is not what you expected it to be. Maybe the organization is not what you expected it to be. Maybe [00:02:00] there’s some tension in the team. Maybe you don’t like your manager. Maybe you have found that the commute is too long. You thought that it would be okay, but now you realize that it’s actually impacting on yourself and your family life.

[00:02:16] What should you? I get a lot of clients that kind of come to me and they’ve got a lot of concern about this, and they usually feel like they should do whatever they can to make it work. But often, I think that is not necessarily the best option. If you are feeling in the early stages of working for an employer that it’s not a good fit, chances are things are probably not going to change.

[00:02:42] Most people are really paranoid though about what it’s going to look like on their resume. You started a job, you’re there for a month or two months or three months, and then you move on and you get a job somewhere else. But honestly, I think that most of the time this is [00:03:00] just an unfounded fear. Of course, there are going to be employers out there who are going to discriminate against you because of the fact that, you know, they see it as being a bad thing.

[00:03:11] But honestly, I think it’s something that’s really easy to explain. Much easier than a lot of other circumstances that you could be in. So what I’d encourage you to do is to definitely take the time to evaluate what’s going on. Are there any slight tweaks or changes that you need to make that could improve things in your workplace?

[00:03:32] Does it mean that maybe you could have a conversation with your manager or with a colleague or someone else in the workplace to help you see things differently or change the things that are bothering you? Would it help you to actually work with a career coach to maybe look into your mindset or understand what is going on for you that is making you feel like this workplace isn’t a good fit for you?

[00:03:56] Lots of, lots of different actions that you can take. And yeah, absolutely, [00:04:00] like take a look into it. I think if you don’t like, if you don’t ask yourself some of these questions and you don’t approach the situation with some curiosity, then you are setting yourself up for a lot of unanswered questions.

[00:04:14] And to be honest, I think that you’ll always wonder what really went wrong. But in saying this, I also think that if things aren’t working out, it’s totally okay to leave. You’ll go for your next job interview and sure, they’ll probably ask you, you know, you’ve only been in your current job for the last two months and you’re already looking to move on.

[00:04:36] Why is that? And I would just tell the truth. I don’t think that means that you’re gonna go in there and say, oh, you know, my manager’s a total bitch and I hate her, and I don’t like the way that they operate. But I do think it’s totally okay to say, You know, I don’t think it’s a good fit, or I went into the role believing that it was going to be more of X, Y, Z, and it turned out [00:05:00]that it was more of A, B, C. Uh, you know, so now I’m, I’m looking at giving myself the opportunity to get my career back on track, and I thought it would be a good idea to do that quickly, rather than prolonging the inevitable.

[00:05:15] We tell ourselves a lot of stories about these things that we’re gonna see on resumes, things like quick movements or gaps. And we always feel this need to explain ourselves or put something in the resume or the cover letter. I don’t think that’s necessary. Most employers are going to really understand if you do need to make a move like this.

[00:05:38] And if they are wondering, if they’re curious, if they wanna know, they will ask you the question. I don’t think there’s any need for you to preempt that in really any of your documentation. We don’t necessarily wanna draw a whole lot of attention to it or make it seem like there was drama that there wasn’t.

[00:05:56] But I do think that if you are asked the question, then you know [00:06:00]it is a chance just for you to tell them the truth. Let them know. This is why. You know, I feel like it didn’t quite work out. It wasn’t what I thought it was gonna be, and then just move on. It is not going to be something that’s going to have a huge impact on the future of your career. I am sure that, you know, in five years, in 10 years time, it’ll be a total blip on the radar and you probably won’t even remember it, or it’ll give you something to laugh at, uh, later on.

[00:06:29] Now in saying that, if this is happening to you regularly, and if you have moved into new roles a couple of times and you’ve found yourself in this situation where you’re like, oh, oh, this isn’t working out. This isn’t what I thought it would be, then I would suggest to you that you need to be a little bit more discerning as part of the recruitment process. Talked about this a little bit before on this podcast, but I can definitely do another episode about this in the future if it is something that you’re interested in exploring a little bit more.

[00:06:59] But [00:07:00] what I see is that there is a really big gap between being offered a role and then accepting the role. But unfortunately, most people tend to neglect this gap or they don’t spend the time, actually taking a moment to see what’s going on. What I mean by this is that often, particularly when we’ve been looking for a job for a while, or when we’re excited about an opportunity, we get that call to say, I’d love to offer you the job, and our immediate reaction is, oh my God, yes, I’m gonna take it.

[00:07:33] And then we just accept, because that’s what you do, right? If you get offered a job, then you accept it. But here’s the thing, you don’t have to accept it. You don’t have to accept it immediately. It is perfectly fine to ask for a little bit of time to say, yeah, sure. You know, I’ll need 24 to 48 hours to just think this through and talk to my family about it.

[00:07:55] Or you know, also okay for you to say, yeah, you know what, I’m really [00:08:00]interested in this opportunity, but I’d like to find out a little bit more about the organization and what it’s like to work there. I was wondering if it would be possible for me to take one of your team members out for a coffee and just ask them some questions about their experience working there, just so that I can make sure that I make the right decision.

[00:08:16] There’s a lot of these steps that you can take to do your due diligence before accepting a role that will definitely help you to avoid these situations that you could find yourself in. You know, working in a place where you go, uh, you know, what did I do ? This is the wrong bit. And, uh, I have a lot of clients who come to me.

[00:08:36] You know, have experienced this at some time in their lives or their careers, and they wanna do everything they can to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. If it is something that you’re struggling with, working with a career coach can definitely be a really great idea because it can just help you to do that due diligence to approach the situation with that calm attitude and the curiousness to make sure that you [00:09:00] have checked all of the boxes and that you’ve looked into whatever you need to look into to make sure that you are making a really positive decision.

[00:09:09] I hope this has been helpful advice to you, and I am here to help if you find yourself in this situation. But again, don’t be paranoid. You don’t need to worry about this or create stories for yourself. If something doesn’t work out, it’s okay to just say that and move on.

[00:09:29] Have a great week and I’ll see you in the next episode.

[00:09:31] Thanks so much for listening to the Pop Your Career podcast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s tips and that you found value in what I’ve shared with you. If you like your career advice quick and entertaining, I would love for you to subscribe. Also leave me a rating and a review. If you wanna continue the conversation, come and join me over on social media. You can find me everywhere at Pop Your Career. I’ll see you soon.

[00:09:57] [00:10:00]

The post 43. Should I make it work, or leave quickly? appeared first on Pop Your Career.

42. When you just don’t know what to do next

Bec — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000

“You’re not alone” is one of the phrases that is rolling off my tongue more frequently these days. So many clients are coming to me with this sense of worry, that they don’t know what to do next. It’s like a feeling of dissatisfaction with where they’re at in their careers, whilst also having no idea about where they’d rather be.

If this resonates with you, I can assure you that you’re not alone either. This is really common and honestly, it’s one of my favourite adventures to embark on with a new client. Let’s figure out what comes next for you AND help you to achieve it.

Links I mentioned in this episode:

Win At Work Membership
If you are interested in Career Coaching, book in for a free 15 minute consultation.

42. When you just don’t know what to do next – Transcript

[00:01:21] Hello. Hello. It is Bec McFarland here helping you do better and be better in your career. And today I just wanna let you know you are not alone. What am I talking about? ? I get a lot of clients or potential clients who come to me, they book discovery calls, we jump on the phone and they say to me, Bec, I just have no idea what to do next.

[00:01:53] I know that I’m not feeling particularly fulfilled by my current role or by my [00:02:00] current career path, but I am just feeling lost. I know I feel like a change, but I don’t know if a change is the right thing to do, and I have no idea what that change would be.

[00:02:14] Now when these people come to me, they are usually quite upset and quite stressed, and they also feel quite unique in this problem. Everyone else seems to know what they want to do. Everyone else seems to have the clarity, but I don’t, and I always tell them. You are not alone. I get so many people coming to me with this problem. In fact, it’s probably the bulk of the work that I do in my career coaching practice. As I’ve explained to you before, I don’t usually work with people who are just looking for a pay rise or they’re looking for a promotion, or they’re looking for a way to get up the next rung of the corporate ladder.

[00:02:56] I tend to work more with people who are driven by career [00:03:00]fulfillment and who are looking for ways to feel more fulfilled by their career. And as a result, these are the types of clients that come past my desk. Now, personally, I absolutely love it. These are first of all the discovery calls that I enjoy the most, but they’re also some of the clients that I enjoy working with the most because I just think that it can be so exciting.

[00:03:24] There are so many opportunities for transformation or for just eye-opening discussions, conversations, challenges. It for me is really, really fulfilling. I love being part of the process of helping someone to get really clear about what it is that they want to do. For me, like there’s just nothing that I love more than that.

[00:03:47] But a lot of clients when they come to me and we have this discussion during the discovery call is they’re like, I just wish there was a way. I just wish there was a process. I just wish there was something that I could do to figure it out. And that’s [00:04:00] when I’m like, you know what? Like I’ve got you. Don’t worry about it. Because of the fact that I’ve worked with so many clients in this situation, I have developed a bit of a process whereby we are able to do some tests, have some conversation, do a little bit of training, do some exploration, some self-reflection, and get to a point where you feel like you have a bit more clarity about what to do next.

[00:04:25] Now, some of the tools that I use, I’ve already done podcast episodes on. If you’re interested in diving a little bit more into this and knowing what it is that I kind of go through with my clients as part of this process, you can go back and have a look at some of the earlier episodes. Episode six, we talk about career values, and that is definitely part of this process. If someone’s thinking about a change and they’re not quite sure what to do next, we definitely want to dive in, have a look at what is most important to them, how that impacts their lives, and just get a little bit of an idea about [00:05:00]like what sort of organization could you be working for as well.

[00:05:03] This is an interesting piece of information that we use at multiple stages of the process. Firstly, at the beginning to help you understand like what kind of career direction could you be going in. But we also use it later on when we are evaluating a role or an organization or just going through and doing our checks and balances to make sure that we are in fact making the right decision.

[00:05:28] Now a couple of other episodes that you might wanna listen to are number 12 and 13, understanding Your Transferrable Skills and Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should. So the other test that we conduct usually is the motivated skills test that I have talked about in those episodes, and I find that, again, this is really useful in helping you to understand what are those skills that you really enjoy using, but that you’re also really good at because we want you to spend as much time as possible hanging out in that zone.

[00:05:56] Once again, we use this information at the beginning of the process [00:06:00]and at the end of the process just to make sure that we are making the right decisions and that we feel really good about the direction that we are headed in.

[00:06:09] Another thing that I talk to all of my clients about is DISC behavioural profiling. Now, I’ve mentioned this before, and we did have some more tailored episodes coming about DISC, but it is a behavioural profiling tool that helps me to understand who the client is, what their behavioural preferences are, how they manage their energy, what are the things that are going to really light them up? What are the things that are going to really tick them off? And who are the people that they’re going to get along with the best during that process?

[00:06:39] I love going through this process and talking about DISC with my clients because of the fact that they’re usually just so shocked about how quickly I’m able to profile them and give them information about themselves and just make them kind of feel like, oh, that’s a little bit spooky. But it is just such a [00:07:00]phenomenal tool and it really does open up so many doors when it comes to really, really understanding, what comes next.

[00:07:07] So this is a really big reflection process, right? We are looking at what information that we can gather. We are reflecting on what’s happened in the past, which are the jobs that you really enjoyed, which are the ones that you didn’t enjoy? You know, what does really excite you about the idea of a new career? What are the career paths that maybe you’ve considered but not really that seriously.

[00:07:30] A lot of people have got these ideas of things that they would really love to do in their lives, but they don’t pursue them because they think it might be too hard or they’d have to do another qualification, or maybe just because they think that the people around them would laugh at them and that they wouldn’t take them seriously.

[00:07:46] Lots and lots of different reasons that people don’t go ahead with some of the career paths that they’re super interested in. But I think that all of these things are really great pieces of information. You know, we wanna lift up the rocks and have a look underneath [00:08:00] to see like what is it that made you want to be an archeologist for all those years?

[00:08:06] What is it about that career path that really excited you? That’s not to say that I’m going to encourage you to go down the path of becoming the archeologist, but it might be that we have a look at some of the traits of that specific career path and look at how they might actually show up in different career paths as well. So much information.

[00:08:25] Now, the beauty of working with these clients is that once we have a better idea, we’ve got a little bit more clarity about what it is that they want next. It then gives us the opportunity to talk about how we can actually make that happen. And a lot of this is to do with helping the client to really change the way they see themselves and change the way that they present themselves from a sales perspective.

[00:08:49] So we know that whenever we are applying for a new job that that is a sales conversation. The job application is a sales proposal. The interview is a [00:09:00] sales call. We are doing everything that we can to influence and persuade the panel members or the people that are responsible for recruiting that we are the most ideal candidate and sometimes that can be really challenging when we are in fact embarking on a career change.

[00:09:14] It’s so common that people that I’m working with are sort of conditioned to apply for the job that they have rather than the job that they want. So what I mean by that is that caught up selling the skills and the experience that they have demonstrated in their current role, rather than thinking about how those skills and experience translate into a new career environment.

[00:09:38] So I love going through this process with a client and really helping them to articulate why it is that they are the right candidate, to help them articulate why they’re making the career change in the first place, and how their previous experience and the skills that they’ve developed over the years can actually help them to be a really exceptional candidate in the [00:10:00]future role.

[00:10:01] If you are interested in finding out more about this process, or perhaps yourself, you’re feeling a little bit stark, unfulfilled, you’re not quite sure what you want to do next, I would love to have a chat with you. Jump onto my website and book yourself a free 15 minute consultation. We’ll also pop that link for you in the show notes.

[00:10:21] I’d love to have a bit of a chat with you about what’s going on for you and how I might be able to help you by taking. Through this process, helping you to gain the clarity that you really need and then guiding you to be able to sell yourself more effectively for future employers. I hope this has been really helpful and yeah, I’d love to chat with you, so go ahead and book that call.

[00:10:44] I’ll see you soon.

[00:10:44] Thanks so much for listening to the Pop Your Career podcast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s tips and that you found value in what I’ve shared with you. If you like your career advice quick and entertaining, I would love for you to [00:11:00] subscribe. Also leave me a rating and a review. If you wanna continue the conversation, come and join me over on social media. You can find me everywhere at Pop Your Career. I’ll see you soon.

[00:11:11]

The post 42. When you just don’t know what to do next appeared first on Pop Your Career.

41. Leadership vs Management

Bec — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Do you understand the differences between leadership and management? A lot of my clients come to me without this understanding and as we unpack their experience, we often find that they’ve been taking more of a management approach – but calling it “leadership” – and then struggling to articulate their skills in this area. In this episode I’m breaking down the differences and talking about why both management and leadership are important.

Links I mentioned in this episode:

Win At Work Membership

41. Leadership vs Management – Transcript

[00:00:00] Hi, there I’m Bec McFarland the host of the Pop Your Career Podcast. As a career coach, I’m most passionate about helping my clients to discover their own personal flavour of career fulfillment. In this podcast, we are going to be exploring ways that you too can feel more fulfilled by your work. So strap yourself in, get ready for the ride. The tips around here are fast and in abundance.

[00:00:29] Hello. Hello. It is Bec McFarland here helping you do better and be better in your career. Today I wanted to talk to you about leadership, or more specifically, I wanted to talk to you about the difference between leadership and management, why this is important, and how you can go about articulating your own specific skills.

[00:00:53] This episode is brought to you by my brand new membership [00:01:00]Win at Work. Imagine having your favourite career coach in your pocket for less than $10 a month, except that you don’t need to imagine it. The Win At Work membership is designed to support you in feeling more fulfilled by your career. It includes a private podcast where I’ll be answering all of your burning career questions as well as a library of resources that I am updating and improving every single week. When at work is the place to be, if you’re a heart-centered human who wants to wake up feeling pumped up for the day ahead. Get into your web browser and go to PopYourCareer.com/waw for more information and to sign up. Are you ready to win at work?

[00:01:46] I was inspired to talk about this topic lately because of the fact that I was actually delivering a module about leadership versus management for my business coaching clients, talking specifically about leadership versus management in small [00:02:00] business, but it really does apply in every type of business. So what is the difference?

[00:02:06] I have a lot of clients come to me and they talk about leadership, and when I ask them like, what does that actually mean? They supply me with a whole list of things that they do, and most of them fall into the management category. There is a big difference between the two.

[00:02:22] So for me and the way that I define it, it is that management is more about like the day-to-day tasks. It’s more about operations. Management is more about the way that you would delegate tasks to somebody, perhaps the way that you train, that you provide feedback, the way that you make sure that work is getting done on a day-to-day basis. This could include things like approving leave forms or time sheets, all of that kind of operationally needed stuff.

[00:02:50] Now, on the other hand, I see leadership as being more about the future. So this is where we are thinking about how we are going to build the capability of our [00:03:00] team, how we are going to ensure that we improve moving forward. It could be what the vision is of the organization, how we are.

[00:03:07] As a collaborative towards our overall objectives or it could be looking at the way that we support our team and see them as individual people, as well as part of the bigger picture.

[00:03:23] As you can see, leadership, as I mentioned, is more future focused, whereas management tends to be a little bit more focused on the present. So you’re looking at what is happening today.

[00:03:36] So why is this important? Well, a lot of organizations are going to be focused on employing really good leaders. They are going to be interested in making sure that the people that they bring on board have got really good leadership skills, and during an interview process or an application process, it is really up to you to be able to articulate your skills and explain [00:04:00]why your leadership skills are so great, or your management skills for that matter.

[00:04:04] What I find is that, as I mentioned, when clients come to me and we start talking about leadership or management, is that they tend to throw around those buzzwords and they might say, you know, I’m a really good leader, or, you know, I’ve managed teams. And again, when I come back to them and say like, what does that actually mean? That’s when things start to get a little bit blurry.

[00:04:26] Now, leadership and management is not the only place where this happens. I find this happens a lot with lots of different kinds of buzzwords that I think we’ve kind of learned to rely on too much over the years. Things like stakeholder engagement or stakeholder management, even things like communication skills or teamwork, right?

[00:04:46] If you were to ask 10 different people what each of those things meant, you would probably get 10 different responses, and particularly when you are in a situation where you are trying to influence a panel or persuade them that [00:05:00]you are the most ideal candidate for the role, it’s important that you are able to articulate to them what the skills are that you are actually bringing to the table and how they could impact their organization.

[00:05:12] So with these words, these kind of buzzwords or these ambiguous phrases that get thrown around, I often encourage my clients to go ahead and spend a little bit of time doing some defining, and usually the best way to do this is to do a mind map. I love getting out a bit of butcher’s paper and some textas and starting to draw out what this really means.

[00:05:35] So to give you an example of what this might look like, we’re gonna put the main word or main phrase in the center of our mind map, in this case, let’s use the example of leadership. And then from that we want to spring out and look at the different behaviours that might be considered part of your leadership model.

[00:05:53] So this might be something along the lines of a type of leadership style that you’ve heard of. Servant [00:06:00] leadership is one that I often talk about because it’s something that aligns really well with my own values. So I might spring out and leave a point on the butcher’s paper about servant leadership.

[00:06:12] There might also be something about, you know, seeing team members as individuals. I could also have a point about growing individual and team capability. It could be that I have another point about understanding my team members’ individual strengths. I could have another point about understanding my individual team members learning styles, right?

[00:06:37] So you can see that what I’m doing is I’m building out the word leadership and I’m starting to say, okay, as a leader, what are the actual behaviours that I am doing or the further concepts that I’m following in order to make sure that I am the leader that I want to be.

[00:06:54] Now from here, you can continue to build out your mind map, right? Because these things themselves may be still a [00:07:00] bit ambiguous or maybe they deserve to have a little bit more definition. So if it is something like servant leadership, for example, I might then have a point progressing off that, where I talk about the fact that, you know, I consistently ask my team what they require from me in order to get their jobs done right. You can see that that is more of a specific behaviour that we can then tie back to the way that I do leadership.

[00:07:29] You know, in terms of building individual and team capability. It could be that I use a specific skill or talent assessment to understand where the specific gaps are in my team, and then I put together a plan to make sure that everyone is getting the training and support that they need to be able to lift their skills and build that capability.

[00:07:53] So I think this is a really good idea with any of those ambiguous terms that you could be stuffing at your [00:08:00] resume or your interview preparation with. But I would also just really encourage you to have a little bit of a think about what the difference is between leadership and management for you, and how are you articulating this in your interview or in your job application.

[00:08:18] I’ve said this before, but any time that you ask a panel or a panel member to read between the lines or come to any kind of conclusion about you and your skillset, you are potentially leaving yourself open to miscommunication. Panel members are often tired. They have read hundreds of resumes and potentially interviewed quite a lot of people, so perhaps their minds in the moment are not necessarily as sharp as what they are outside.

[00:08:49] They also could be assessing your ability to be able to articulate your skills and your strengths in relation to the specific role that you’re applying for, and therefore they’re [00:09:00] making a conscious decision not to read between the lines or draw conclusions where you have not accurately mapped them out. Either way or for any other reason, I always suggest that you leave it all on a silver platter, whatever it is that you are trying to communicate to the panel, I would just say what you mean and going through this process of mind mapping out some of these broader concepts gives you the language that you need to articulate what it is that you actually do when it comes to a concept or an idea like leadership or management.

[00:09:39] I hope this has been a little bit of food for thought for you and that this is helpful when you are preparing for your next job, application or interview.

[00:09:49] Have a lovely day. I’ll see you soon.

[00:09:51] Thanks so much for listening to the Pop Your Career podcast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s tips and that you found value in what I’ve [00:10:00]shared with you. If you like your career advice quick and entertaining, I would love for you to subscribe. Also leave me a rating and a review. If you wanna continue the conversation, come and join me over on social media. You can find me everywhere at Pop Your Career. I’ll see you soon.

[00:10:16]

The post 41. Leadership vs Management appeared first on Pop Your Career.

40. Using AI to write or improve your resume

Bec — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Hey there, it’s Bec McFarland, the host of the Pop Your Career Podcast, and I’m here to help you do better and be better in your career. In this episode, we’re talking about artificial intelligence and a tool called ChatGPT, which can help you improve your resume. I’m all about saving time, energy, and embracing your creativity, and ChatGPT can help you do just that. It’s an AI tool that you can chat with directly, almost like having your own personal assistant. You can ask it to write different types of content, including a blog post, social media captions, and even sections of your resume. Plus, you can give it feedback and ask it to make adjustments to match your voice. Tune in to learn more about how ChatGPT can help you up-level your career.

Links I mentioned in this episode:

Win At Work Membership

40. Using AI to write or improve your resume – Transcript

[00:00:33] Hello. Hello. It’s Bec McFarland here helping you do better and be better in your career. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have probably seen all of the excitement about artificial intelligence, and in particular, a tool called ChatGPT.

[00:00:52] Now, a couple of weeks ago I shared an Instagram reel with some tips about how you could get AI, or more specifically [00:01:00] the ChatGPT tool to help you to improve your resume. And one of my kind followers came along with a third tip. I’d love to share them all with you here today to help you use the robots, right?

[00:01:14] I am always an advocate for saving time, saving energy, getting better results, and of course, embracing your creativity. Now before I dive in, I would just like to tell you a little bit about ChatGPT, just so that you understand exactly what we are talking about. So there are lots of AI tools available on the internet, and I’ve used quite a few of them.

[00:01:35] Basically, usually you would go in and you would provide a little bit of a description, and then the AI would go ahead and create whatever type of content it was that you’ve asked it to do. It could be a social media caption or a blog post or an advertising text, so you can see how it would be super useful for a business owner.

[00:01:53] There are loads of different ways that you can use AI to up-level, to get work done faster, more [00:02:00] effectively, more efficiently, and as I said, save the time and the energy. And I’ve been sharing a lot of tips over on my business social media accounts about how I’ve been using AI in my business, and there are loads and loads of different ways. But I think things started to get really real late last year when ChatGPT was released.

[00:02:21] Now, this is another AI tool, but unlike the others, you are actually chatting directly with the AI. So it’s kind of like having your own little assistant. You would talk to them as though you were talking to a friend. So you might reach out to the robot and say, you know, Hey, I was creating a blog post about X, Y, and Z, and about my opinion on this topic.

[00:02:45] I was wondering if you could please write me a blog post outline, or could you please write me an introductory paragraph or you know, go, go the whole hog, ask it to write the whole blog post, right? So it’s quite exceptional. It also means that you can give [00:03:00] it feedback and you could say to it, Hey, you know, what you wrote was good, but it wasn’t quite in my voice.

[00:03:06] Can you please make it a little bit more casual or more informal or more factual, or however it is that you would usually talk. So there are lots of different ways that you can use this in business applications, and I’ve seen that it’s just blowing up on the internet with people sharing all of their really cool and innovative ideas about the way that they can actually use the AI and more specifically ChatGPT to get some of this stuff done.

[00:03:30] But what I thought was interesting is that you can go ahead and use ChatGPT to help you improve your resume. So there are plenty of applications for ChatGTP outside the business world, and this is just one of them. So, as I said in the Instagram reel that I shared a couple of weeks ago, I did talk about two different ways that you could use ChatGPT and then one of the followers of my account came through and shared a third idea, and I’m about to dive in and tell you what they are.

[00:03:59] [00:04:00] This episode is brought to you by my brand new membership Win at Work. Imagine having your favourite career coach in your pocket for less than $10 a month, except that you don’t need to imagine it. The Win At Work membership is designed to support you in feeling more fulfilled by your career. It includes a private podcast where I’ll be answering all of your burning career questions as well as a library of resources that I am updating and improving every single week. When at work is the place to be, if you’re a heart-centered human who wants to wake up feeling pumped up for the day ahead. Get into your web browser and go to PopYourCareer.com/waw for more information and to sign up. Are you ready to win at work?

[00:04:52] So the first tip that I shared is that you can go ahead and ask ChatGPT to [00:05:00] rewrite sections of your resume. So I say sections because I find that ChatGPT works the best when you do break things down. It doesn’t take as long, like it’s a lot faster to respond and it tends to get less confused. So when I have used this, I’ve gone ahead and broken my resume down into the natural areas or titles that it usually has, and then I’ve fed each of those sections into the software one by one.

[00:05:30] So to give you an example, I would go to ChatGPT and say, hi, I’m working on my resume at the moment. Could you please rewrite my professional profile section to make it stronger? And then I would paste in the professional profile that I’ve already got on my resume, and then the AI goes ahead and does its work.

[00:05:49] So it would go through and reword my professional profile and use stronger language that’s gonna be more convincing and more persuasive. The way that I [00:06:00] have seen it work is just really phenomenal. As you know, you may not know, I was a professional resume writer for many years, so I have written a lot of resumes in my time and I like to think I’m pretty damn good at it too.

[00:06:13] But when I uploaded some different professional profiles that I’d written into the AI software, I could see that there were these little tiny tweaks that it was making to my work that did just elevate it, take it to the next level, or help me to make it more persuasive. I think that was a really, really handy way of doing things.

[00:06:31] Now the second way that I shared that you could use AI or ChatGPT to improve your resume is more for people who want to have a little bit more control. So I know that there are a lot of people out there who are feeling really skeptical about AI at the moment, or they’re concerned about what it’s going to look like in terms of duplicate content or whether there is going to be software available that will essentially highlight if AI has been used to write something. So [00:07:00] I know that there is a lot of concern about this. Also, I know that a lot of people just like their own writing style, and they prefer to have the control of writing themselves rather than having a robot take over.

[00:07:11] And that’s totally great, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use ChatGPT to help you get a leg up. So the second tip was that you can go to your ChatGPT robot and you can ask them to give you suggestions about how you could improve that piece of your resume. So again, I used the same professional profile.

[00:07:30] I said I’m working on my resume at the moment. I’m wondering if you can please provide me with suggestions on how I can make this piece of my resume stronger and more persuasive for potential employers. The AI then basically went through and provided me with a whole list of ideas of ways that I could change it.

[00:07:49] This would look like, you know, you said, X, Y, and Z, you know, if you made this more subjective by providing examples of how many or how much, [00:08:00] then this would make your application stronger. The feedback that it gave was really, very helpful. I think it was all really, really sensible and there was nothing that I have seen that has suggested so far that is too sort of outside the box, I guess you could say.

[00:08:18] Now I always say you do need to still proofread and you may still wanna make tweaks and changes to ensure that your voice or your personality is coming through in the writing. We are not just expecting the AI to come in and do our work for us. It does still take some finessing to make sure that you are happy with the end result. But if you’re short on time or you are just looking for ideas about how you could improve a piece of work that you’ve already done, then I think that ChatGPT is a really great way of doing it.

[00:08:53] Now, as I mentioned, one of my beautiful followers on the Pop Your Career account shared a third way that you could potentially use [00:09:00]ChatGPT to improve your resume.

[00:09:02] They suggested that you could actually also provide ChatGPT with your resume text, and you could provide them with the text from the advertisement or from the position description for the role, and you could ask the ChatGPT bot to go ahead and tailor your resume to that specific role. I think this is an exceptional application.

[00:09:28] Again, it is really sort of thinking quite innovatively and looking at the ways that you can do things differently. I’d be really interested to see what ChatGPT comes up with and the way that it does go about tailoring your experience and your skills and the way that you present yourself. So that it is more reflective of the position that you’re applying for.

[00:09:51] Anyway, I hope that these ideas help you. If you haven’t already checked out ChatGPT highly recommend that you jump on and give it a go. It is [00:10:00]free. There is a paid option, but if you’re just gonna be a casual user, there’s really no need for you to dive into the paid plan. Just keep in mind that sometimes the servers overload and it can be a little bit difficult to get on. You just need to keep refreshing your screen, and I promise that you will get on there and be able to have a little bit of a play.

[00:10:19] If you give this a go, definitely let me know. Come across to social media. I am at Pop Your Career everywhere. Continue the conversation and let me know how you have been using AI in your career or even in your life, I am always looking for different suggestions about the way that we can do things better. Have a beautiful day and I’ll see you next time.

[00:10:42] Thanks so much for listening to the Pop Your Career podcast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s tips and that you found value in what I’ve shared with you. If you like your career advice quick and entertaining, I would love for you to subscribe. Also leave me a rating and a [00:11:00] review. If you wanna continue the conversation, come and join me over on social media. You can find me everywhere at Pop Your Career. I’ll see you soon.

[00:11:08]

The post 40. Using AI to write or improve your resume appeared first on Pop Your Career.

39. Using Canva to design your resume

Bec — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Using Canva to design your resume can be a really great idea as resumes are becoming more designed focused. There are just a couple of things I would warn you about before you dive in and start designing.

Links I mentioned in this episode:

The Career Clarity Quest
Canva (affliate link)

39. Using Canva to design your resume – Transcript

[00:00:29] Hello. Hello. It is Bec McFarland here helping you do better and be better in your career. Now, one of my favorite business tools is Canva, which is an online design software. I have been using Canva since I’ve first started my business, and it is one of the pieces of software that I have a paid plan for that I would [00:01:00] never ever give up because it is so, so incredibly useful.

[00:01:05] If you have not already used Canva, please feel free to head across to the show notes where you can pick up my affiliate link. It will give me an opportunity to earn a little bit of a kickback from Canva for the referral if you decide to sign up for one of their paid plans, but just noting as well that it will never cost you any more than what it usually would to support me through affiliate links. And also, I would never use an affiliate link or recommend something if I didn’t believe in it wholeheartedly.

[00:01:38] Today though, I didn’t want to talk about Canva in terms of a business sense. I actually wanted to talk about how you can use the Canvas software to create your next resume, and two things that you need to be very mindful of when you do this.

[00:01:55] So I find that Canva is such a wonderful tool and it [00:02:00] is really great to use for your resume, particularly as resumes are becoming more design focused. As we move into the future, you are able to use a little bit of design finesse on your resume to make your resume stand out from the crowd, and to also show off a little bit of your personality. I think it’s absolutely fantastic. I can tell you as someone who has sifted through hundreds and hundreds of applications at a time, the one that has got that little bit of design going on, is it is so much more exciting to look over, particularly when you’ve got a pile of just black and white.

[00:02:40] Canva is based in the cloud, which means that you can access your designs from absolutely anywhere and you really only need the free plan, unless of course you are a business owner, in which case, I would suggest that you definitely, definitely upgrade. You’ll love the extra features.

[00:02:59] Anyhow, in [00:03:00] Canberra, you can use their drag and drop technology to use shapes and different design elements to pull your resume together. And the great news is that they actually have a huge library of resume templates already available to get you started, particularly if you don’t have a lot of experience in design or you’re not really sure where to start.

[00:03:22] But here is where my first warning comes in. When I look through the resume templates on Canva, I find that most of them have a space for your photograph. Now, we’ve already spoken about that on the podcast, but just to reiterate, there is no reason for you to have. Your photo on your resume, unless you are applying for a role as like a model or an actor or something like that where you are making money directly off your looks. For the rest of us, what you look like has absolutely [00:04:00] no bearing on whether or not you can do a job or how well you can do the job. So we definitely wanna leave that off our resume. As I’ve said in the podcast episode, that was about putting your photograph on your resume, I know that in other countries it’s still quite popular, particularly in the US I think there is a lot of photographs on resumes, but here in Australia we are definitely not doing that.

[00:04:25] So the first thing that I would do, if you’re gonna use one of those Canva templates, is to get rid of the photos template off there, the photo frame focus on embellishing your design and creating a really clean, sharp design without that photograph section.

[00:04:45] The second tip that I will give you or warning perhaps, is to just make sure that when you are doing your design, that you do still keep it really clean and sharp, as I mentioned. I know that there are a lot of [00:05:00]templates there that are quite busy, and they’ve got lots of different design elements going on. This isn’t a design test. So although you have the capacity to include some design elements, and as I said, to show off a bit of your personality, you don’t want the design to actually take away from the content. So what I would say is stick to a colour scheme of one or two colours. Make sure that the fonts that you select are very easy to read. And if you are using a serif font you may choose to actually size up. We’ve spoken about that in one of the previous episodes as well. And just keep an eye on, you know, not using too many little bits and bobs on the design because we don’t want it to be distracting. Ultimately, your resume is there to sell you as the product, and we don’t want a potential employer to be turned off by a [00:06:00] design that is just too over the top.

[00:06:02] This episode is brought to you by the Career Clarity Quest, my absolutely free, seven day program, which is designed to support you in getting so much clearer about your next steps. Find it at PopYourCareer.com/quest.

[00:06:22] The third warning or tip that I’m gonna provide you with today is that a lot of the Canva templates that are out there are not necessarily set up to go through application tracking software. So a lot of companies these days are using computers to follow through and do the first shortlist. Now, this does not happen in Australia quite as much as what happens in some other countries.

[00:06:52] Here in Australia, a lot of recruiters and employers are still doing their recruitment and selection the old fashioned way, where [00:07:00]somebody is actually physically reading every resume. But there are employers and organizations that do use application tracking software. And what this means is that they Pull all of the text out of your document and then basically dump it into a text file that has no formatting.

[00:07:21] Now, specifically, the templates that you will have issues with are the ones that are mapped out in columns. So if you’ve got like a little column along one side and then you’ve kind of got the body of the resume in the middle, then you might find that once that is actually chewed up by an application tracking software, and then it’s spat out at the other end, it can actually look really, really messy, unappealing, and also be unreadable.

[00:07:50] Now there are quite a few different tools available on the internet that actually allow you to upload your resume and they will run it. Through an application tracking [00:08:00] software and spit it out and show you what the end result is. I would suggest to you that this is worth taking a look at if you are looking at one of those more complex multi columned designs, just to make sure that you are not completely wasting your time by submitting a resume that can’t be accessed on the other end.

[00:08:20] My final tip today is to just also keep in mind that some of the templates on Canva have been created as what we would call an infographic resume. Now I will do a whole episode on infographic resumes. I’ve got a fair bit to say about them, but I do find that a lot of the little elements that can often be used in an infographic resume aren’t really actually very useful.

[00:08:48] They are far from being objective and they don’t really tell much of a story. And what I’m talking about specifically are situations where you may label a skill and then give [00:09:00] yourself a number of stars out of five. So it might say communication four out of five stars, stakeholder engagement, five out of five stars. This kind of thing, putting it on your resume, absolute waste of time because what you think is four out of five stars could be vastly different to somebody else. There is no key or no measure. There is no standard interpretation of what that means. It might look cute on the resume, but it actually doesn’t mean anything. So if you do come across some Canva templates with that kind of design on them, I would be spending a little bit of time actually changing that around and giving a little bit of context to the skill that you have, rather than just popping in a certain number of stars. It’s just not helping anyone.

[00:09:49] Anyway. As I said, I think Canva is an absolutely brilliant tool, and I’m excited about the fact that we have got something else that we can use these days to create resumes [00:10:00] other than boring old Microsoft Word. If you give Canva a try, please let me know. I would love to hear how you find it. As I mentioned, my affiliate link will be in the show notes for you, and I thank you for your support. I look forward to hearing back on what you think about this new way of preparing your resume. I’ll see you next time.

[00:10:23] Thanks so much for listening to the Pop Your Career podcast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s tips and that you found value in what I’ve shared with you. If you like your career advice quick and entertaining, I would love for you to subscribe. Also leave me a rating and a review. If you wanna continue the conversation, come and join me over on social media. You can find me everywhere at Pop Your Career. I’ll see you soon.

[00:10:49]

The post 39. Using Canva to design your resume appeared first on Pop Your Career.

38. Asking for a pay rise

Bec — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Is it time to renegotiate your remuneration package? I don’t often talk about this topic – it’s not something I’ve got a load of expertise in, because my own personal drivers aren’t money related. But I do have experience supporting clients with their pay rise requests and have some thoughts about what it’s like to be on the employer end of such a discussion.

Links I mentioned in this episode:

The Career Clarity Quest

38. Asking for a pay rise – Transcript

[00:00:29] Hello. Hello. This is Bec McFarland helping you do better and be better in your career. Now, in today’s episode, I am going to be talking about a topic that I don’t often talk about, and that is asking for a pay rise. Usually if I have clients come to me and they say that they’re looking for a pay rise I will genuinely and generally refer them to a different career coach.[00:01:00]

[00:01:00] Now, this isn’t necessarily because of the fact that I believe people don’t deserve pay rises. Absolutely. I always think it’s a great thing and if you don’t ask, you don’t get. My expertise, however, is definitely not in the area of salary negotiation, so I often feel as though if a client wants a pay rise as their number one priority, then they are better going to somebody who actually does have some more expertise in that field.

[00:01:30] With that being said, a lot of the clients that I deal with tend to be more values oriented, and the reason that they’re coming to me is that they are looking for more fulfillment in their career. Now, usually this is not centered on money. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get paid what you deserve, so that’s why today I’m sharing my tips on how to ask for a pay rise and have more [00:02:00] success than perhaps you have in the past.

[00:02:03] My first tip is to consider the timing. You may feel as though now is the right time and that you deserve a pay rise, but if there are other things going on in the business, it may not be in your best interests to ask. Now, what I mean by this is if the business is struggling, if they are openly having financial difficulties, if people are being let go, then that is generally not a great time for you to ask for more money.

[00:02:36] I would also suggest that if you have a performance review due very soon, then it could be in your best interests to actually just wait until that performance review and to have the salary negotiation conversation as part of your performance review rather than having it separately. And that is because the expectation would be if you have been performing well, which [00:03:00]usually I would hope you are, or if you’re gonna be asking for more money, then that will already be drawn to attention in the performance review. And it does mean that you are leveraging the evidence in that performance review to actually ask for your raise.

[00:03:16] My second tip for today is to not make it about you. Now, this is something that a lot of my clients in the past have struggled with because perhaps they feel as though they deserve more money, and that’s really lovely. However, the company is going to pay you your salary based on what you have to offer them, not based on what your financial obligations are. So if you are finding that the cost of living is going up or that you want a new car, they are not great reasons for you to go to an employer and ask for more money. Instead, I would focus on what you [00:04:00] have achieved, where you are adding value, and wherever possible use quantifiable data.

[00:04:06] So if you have gained X number of sales or saved them y number of dollars or made their processes more efficient so that they need one less staff member or so on and so forth. Then those are the types of things that I would be bringing to your boss’s attention during your salary negotiation meeting. You really wanna focus on what they are receiving from you, not on what you wanna spend the extra money on.

[00:04:37] They don’t care about that kind of stuff. It really doesn’t benefit them at all, so you really wanna focus on what does benefit the business.

[00:04:46] One thing that I would like to add here is that, if your role has changed recently or you have taken on additional responsibility, this can be a really good strategy to use to [00:05:00] renegotiate your salary. I had a client recently who was going through this process and she had said to me that she wanted to ask for an X percent increase, and she outlined all of the reasons that she felt that she had deserved this. What we were able to ascertain though through the conversation was that her role had actually changed significantly. So rather than this necessarily being her asking for a raise, it was actually her asking to be remunerated for the new role rather than just continuing the remuneration of the old role. This actually proved to be a very successful strategy. She said to me that as soon as she mentioned this to her boss, she saw the look on his face change and he was immediately on board. He actually said that her argument of the remuneration for the new opportunity or new position [00:06:00] actually gave him what he needed in order to be able to go to the executives and argue the point on her behalf. So just keep in mind that if you are looking for a salary increase to tie it to your responsibilities, and if your role is changing significantly or you are taking on a whole lot of extra responsibility like my client, then you may find that this changes the way that you frame your request.

[00:06:29] Another tip for you today is just to keep in mind that a pay rise doesn’t always necessarily need to be money or cash in your bank account. I have found in the past, and particularly for myself, I’m not incredibly motivated by money. I have other motivators that are much higher on my list that in fact, asking for other things instead of money has been a really successful request.

[00:06:59] It’s [00:07:00] also been really great for me. So one example of this is that I asked for an extra couple of weeks of annual leave per year rather than an incremental increase. So it was only worth maybe an extra few thousand dollars to them over the year. It meant that they actually didn’t need to pay me any more money, but it did mean that for me, I had a little bit more flexibility and freedom and I was able to save that leave and then go on a longer holiday, which at the time was around the time of my wedding, I believe.

[00:07:40] Another example when I’ve used this strategy was when I actually did ask for a pay rise, and the company that I worked for told me that at the time they weren’t able to financially afford to give me extra money. They actually provided me with an [00:08:00] alternative, which was ‘hey, how would you feel about working for the same money that we’re already paying you, but only working four days a week instead of five?’

[00:08:10] This, to me, was a fantastic negotiation. I was very grateful to them for offering me this option because again, it meant that I had a little bit more time to do my own thing that I was still being remunerated really fairly, but I felt like I had a lot more of that work-life balance, which again, is much higher on my list of motivators than money itself.

[00:08:36] This episode is brought to you by the Career Clarity Quest, my absolutely free, seven day program, which is designed to support you in getting so much clearer about your next steps. Find it at PopYourCareer.com/quest.

[00:08:56] Now, finally, what I wanna share with you is when you [00:09:00]have decided that you want a pay rise, you have thought about your argument, you’ve got the points down around how it is that you actually benefit the employer and what value you add to them, you can start to think about how you’re actually going to make the request. Now, generally, I would suggest to you that any request like this, you should plan to have it in writing. I find that, particularly in writing, it means that you have an opportunity to put all of your points down to do that in a really structured way, and to make sure that you get your point across really effectively.

[00:09:34] Sometimes this doesn’t necessarily happen if you ask in a meeting because you might get sidetracked or distracted. Maybe you’ll miss a couple of points and your position isn’t necessarily as strong. Now in saying this, if you work in the same location as your manager, and particularly if you and your manager have a good relationship, then I would suggest that you actually do have a conversation with them.[00:10:00]

[00:10:00] But I would be open in that conversation about the fact that you have prepared a request in writing and that they can expect to receive that request after the meeting. This then gives them a chance to go away, to be able to reflect on the points that you’ve made, to read through what you have prepared to consider what it is that you’re actually asking for, and then to decide whether or not that is within the budget or whether there is something else that they could offer you instead.

[00:10:27] And finally, I would just say to you, please avoid using unethical tactics. I have seen this happening so many times, and for me, it just goes against all of my values. And again, this is one of the reasons that I don’t do a lot of coaching in this space because I am a very values-oriented individual. I don’t really like a lot of the tactics that are used when it comes to salary negotiation, but these unethical tactics in particular, [00:11:00] I find to be really off-putting.

[00:11:02] You’ve all heard somebody make that ultimatum, ‘you pay me an extra X dollars, oh, I’m going to leave’. Now if somebody came to me and said that, Oh, I would tell ’em to leave. I’d tell ’em to get out the door because I don’t think that that is a really genuine or effective way to approach a problem. I just think that ultimatums, whether they be in working relationships or in personal relationships, for me, it’s just gross.

[00:11:38] Another thing that I’ve seen people doing is lying in salary negotiations, and you may have heard this one before, perhaps you’ve even used it yourself. ‘Since Sally left, I’ve been doing two jobs, and so I deserve to be remunerated fairly’. Now, I actually had a client who came to me and told me this, [00:12:00]one of their colleagues had left, and it meant that he had taken on some additional responsibilities from this person. The thing is though, right when you say that you are doing the job of two people, that is generally a real over exaggeration. You know that there are only so many hours in the week, and yes, you may have taken on some of Sally’s responsibilities, but chances are that means that you have either dropped some of the things that you were doing before, or you just aren’t doing them to the same level of quality that perhaps you might have in the past. There are other ways to sell the fact that you’ve taken on extra responsibility without embellishing on the truth, or coming across as being a big fat liar.

[00:12:51] Another thing that I have seen used on money occasions is the idea of throwing people under the bus in order for you to make a [00:13:00] buck. So this is where you might say ‘there’s this person in the team who aren’t doing their job properly, they aren’t pulling their weight, and so I’ve been picking up the slack because of this, I deserve…’ Yeah, no. There’s no need to throw other people under the bus in order for you to win. Somebody else doesn’t have to lose. Now, if you do have an issue with somebody in the team that is not pulling their weight, there are ways and means of dealing with that, and I’m very happy to discuss that in another episode. But what I will say is that is a completely separate conversation to the conversation that you are having about your pay increase.

[00:13:44] Now the final unethical negotiation technique that I will say to steer clear of is deliberately seeking out other offers to elicit counter offers. Now, if you want to go and get [00:14:00] an offer from another organization that is absolutely your prerogative, I would suggest to you that if you get to the point that you are seeking other opportunities, then it’s because you have made a decision that you are ready to leave. I definitely don’t think that it’s a good idea for you to go around the industry and seek offers from other places just so that you can come back and throw it in your manager’s face. This will lead to damaging your reputation. What ends up happening is that you get a counter offer from your current employer, you end up accepting it. You’ve burnt the bridge with that other company that has offered you and this continues on in an ongoing cycle. There’s just no need for it. It’s shady and it just makes me feel really uncomfortable.

[00:14:50] Now obviously if you choose to use these tactics, go ahead. We are all different and it would be very [00:15:00] unrealistic and unfair of me force my own values and boundaries onto you. But I do share it in this forum because I think it gives you a little bit more of an understanding about who I am, what drives me, how I work, and the way that I feel most comfortable working with my clients. And if I had a client that was planning on using some of these techniques that I have labeled unethical, then that would be a really obvious flag to me that it was not a good coach and client fit. They wouldn’t be a client that I would want to work with, and I would absolutely without hesitation, and also quite respectfully refer them on to one of my colleagues in the industry who focuses more on helping people with their salary negotiation.

[00:15:53] Anyhow, I hope that this has been helpful to you and that perhaps it sparked a few ideas about [00:16:00] the way that you can approach your next salary negotiation. Have a beautiful day

[00:16:05] and I’ll see you in the next episode.

[00:16:08] Thanks so much for listening to the Pop Your Career podcast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s tips and that you found value in what I’ve shared with you. If you like your career advice quick and entertaining, I would love for you to subscribe. Also leave me a rating and a review. If you wanna continue the conversation, come and join me over on social media. You can find me everywhere at Pop Your Career. I’ll see you soon.

[00:16:34]

Find me online:

The post 38. Asking for a pay rise appeared first on Pop Your Career.