content creation and the job search w/ me :)

full transcript

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Hello, hello. Thanks for listening to guidance counselor 2.0. Listen, I want to give you a quick rundown of what this podcast is and what you're about to get into as you listen to these episodes. We had guidance counselors in middle school. We had guidance counselors in high school, but we didn't really have guidance counselors in college and now as professionals. We don't really have anybody to turn to to ask a quick question to learn something about the job search or to navigate your career. So that is what I want this podcast to be for you. I want it for it to be a tool for you to navigate the job search and your career.

So that being said, I hope you enjoy this episode and if you need to reach me, Taylor at vacovac.com is how to get in touch with me old-fashioned email social media at tdsintdessey. And then finally, please rate and review this in the app store because I want this to be discoverable for others so they can navigate their careers. Hope you enjoy the episode. Let's go and dive in today. So content creation. So I'm going to give you a background about my story of content creation real fast. So it may be give you some encouragement, right? Because I know I talk about content creation a lot.

It's important you should do it as a job seeker, right? Right blogs, right blah blah. And I know that you can get into it. So I'm going to do it so I'll be able to get to the next one. So that's the first thing that I've done today. So I'm going to do this is ridiculous. Tell me what it's done for you. So I'm going to tell you what's done for you for me now for you. So when I started, so I've been recruiting for 10 years now about in 2018, 2019, I started to get more involved in the speaker circuit. Because I am dying.

So in 2019, 2021 COVID hit, I was like, great. What do I do? Right? Because I was heavily involved in meetups. I was organizing my own meetup. I had a lunch in Nashville where I capped it to 10 people at a time. And I just bought lunch for everybody once a month to only 10 developers could show up. And it was a great way to be in community with others. And then obviously can't do that anymore. You know, couldn't speak a code conference anymore. So it's like, what do I do? And so it's like, you know, so then I started having these calls with developers that we're getting laid off, right?

I was working 14, 16 hour days. I was having all these calls. I was like, man, like, there's just got to be a better way to scale this thing because I'm talking to so many developers across the country now. How can I reach the masses? How can I reach all the developers across the country at one time? And then I got the light bulb of, well, why don't I start doing something on the internet now? I'm very thankful for Vaco. Vaco encouraged me. I was doing a special with a guy who runs our office, Kyle Allen. And they were like, you know, hey, you know, we want you to like, you know, get LinkedIn live.

So I got LinkedIn live. And then I also follow Alex Lieberman and the morning brew founders journal guy. And he was going live for eight to 12 minutes during COVID. And he was basically talking about just building his business, you know, from zero to where morning brews at now, the email newsletter. And so I was like, man, I got some really good idea. So that's when I started to go live with guidance counselor 2.0. Every day eight to 12 minutes. And I just want to give back to people. And so what that's done is over the last two years. So I was a recruiting manager here in Nashville, managing team of 12 people up to 12, we had to lace people offering cover like 10 people.

And basically what happened was is a year to the date that I started to put out content. Right. And I'm going to break down what content is real fast. But the years of the date that I started to put out content, I had hiring managers from across the country hit me up and so they want to use me to staff their teams. Right. And so at that moment, I had to make a decision for my career. Do I continue to be the recruiting manager or do I move into kind of this new figure head role where I'm helping kind of engineers and developers and hiring managers across country.

And so I chose obviously the latter. Fast 40 year and a half. I have a team of six now. How did team of seven somebody gave some guy gave his notice. But so team of team of six right now. And we're successful. We're hiring developers. One of my recruiters today just got a development manager or job. He's been on work for two years as dev manager just for family stuff and going back to school and whatnot. And we and so we're succeeding and we're doing well. And there's no way I would have been able to have a team to speak to the masses if it had not been for me putting myself out on the internet.

Now it's very difficult to push stuff on the internet. Right. One of the reasons why this show and the reason I tell people to comment is I want you to get comfortable with commenting online. Right. Because putting yourself out there because that is a very, very scary thing. And so when it comes down to content creation. I want to kind of give you a few tips. If you want to get into it, I think it is the best ways to job secret to reach the masses. And so what I would do if I were you as that, if I was a job seeker, I would literally document the conversations and the things I'm learning every single day.

Right. So let me ask you this is a rhetorical question because no one's interviewing with me right now live. What did you learn today or yesterday. It's really early. So it's only nine 30 central. It's really early. Maybe haven't learned anything yet. What did you learn yesterday in your job search journey or maybe your current job. Did you learn something new? Did you learn how to implement a new feature within React? Did you learn how to use Azure? Right. What about Azure? Did you learn service serverless functions? Right. I'm just saying things by the way. I don't know what these mean. I'm just saying things because I've had to recruit on it before.

You're like Taylor, what do you mean right about it? Put it on LinkedIn. Well, how long is my posting to be on LinkedIn? It can be two or three sentences. Most of my posts are very, very short. Right. Yeah. But Taylor, like, what if I say something wrong? Here's the deal. You want engagement and you actually want people to comment and maybe even correct you because it starts a dialogue. Right. The what's so amazing about content creation is it allows you to be able to start a dialogue among strangers that you would have never met before. So let's say, let's say you missed type something.

Right. Let's say that you talk about Azure serverless functions and you maybe say something wrong about it and somebody comes in and corrects you online. Most people's initial reactions like, oh my gosh, I'm going to take down this post. This is terrifying. Like I'm wrong. I don't want to seem stupid. So here's the deal. You need to flip it and be like, oh, wow. This is a chance for me to have a conversation with maybe an Azure like architect or an Azure SME who can maybe teach me something. Right. So then what I would do if somebody comments negatively and say, hey, you're not quite right with this post.

I was like, hey, what am I missing? Can you educate me? And then that person's going to comment back on some stuff. Then what I would do is I would slide in those persons DM like, hey, thank you so much. Thank you so much for correcting that. Can we have a chat a little bit more one on one. What that does is that allows you the opportunity that allows you to to the opportunity to have a conversation with a complete stranger without sliding to their DMs randomly. Right. So if you have something in common, I'm going to be honest with you, that is that is the trick that I do to get people on the show.

For example, I don't know if you remember my episode with Dan from HR. Dan from HR is a big, big content creator on TikTok. He's got hundreds of thousands of followers at this point. He's really big in HR space. He actually got tagged on one of my posts. He actually stitched it. If you know what TikTok is stitching is like, you take part of the video and then it like cuts out and you give your own thoughts. He stitched one of my videos and actually corrected me. He was like, I don't necessarily agree with what Taylor said. Here's what's happening. So what happened is is then I DM'd, I DM'd Dan from HR and I go, Dan, I found him on LinkedIn.

Right. I because I couldn't DM him on TikTok because he didn't follow me at the time. I went to LinkedIn. I said, Hey, Dan, it's Taylor from LinkedIn or from TikTok. I would love. I loved your answer. Could I interview you on my show? He goes first off, you're one of the very few people that actually reached out to me after I correct them. And second of all, I would be glad to and he was on the show and now he and I go back and forth on TikTok all the time. I actually stitched on one of actually stitched on one of his videos the other day and like my TikTok blew up because of it.

Right. So again, like you want to, I'm not saying post stuff wrong because then then it'll be obvious you're playing the game. But people, the biggest thing that I see about posting things online is people are terrified of what other people are going to think of themselves or of you. But the thing is though, if somebody corrects you, that is your moment as a network, a networking opportunity for you to DM them to like, Hey, I really appreciate your, your, you know, you coming over and correcting me. And we have a 15 minute chat on zoom real fast so we can unpack this a little bit more so I can learn that person will most likely say yes.

And then what you do is after you have that talk with that person for 15 minutes, then you go, Hey, Mr. Mr. So and so that was awesome conversation. Is there anybody else in your network that can pick their brains about Azure serverless functions. And then that person makes another connection with another Azure SME now you got two connections. Then you're going to talk to that Azure SME for 15 minutes. Then at the end of that conversation, like, Hey, do you have anybody else I can get touched with you see what happens and then all of a sudden you're connected with like 30 Azure SMEs.

I don't know if there's 30 Azure SMEs out there. The thing is though is that what that does is that allows you that allows you the opportunity to build connections so much faster by even being wrong. Believe it or not, I actually want people to correct me in my post because one, I know I'm not right. I know I'm not. I'm one recruiter. You can go and ask 30 other recruiters like how they do things. They're going to tell you differently than me like I'm not the end all be all, but I have a little bit of experience and I've seen a little bit and so I want to share it with you all.

And if I'm wrong, tell me and let's have a conversation about it. I think this is this is going this is skewing to another direction, but I feel like we as individuals in today's world. We don't. We're not good with taking criticism. I'm not I mean counseling for them actually going to counseling here after the show. We're not going to take criticism, but the moment that we can take criticism and turn it into conversation. That's what the magic happens. That's what the magic happens. A few people have commented since since I've been running my mouth. Seth comes in says I tried to write every day when I was encoding bootcamp.

I left it up for historical purposes, even though it's been a few years. I love it so much. Yeah. If you want ideas go check out Seth. Seth I want to give you props man like I see you on Twitter all the time like what are you grateful for today and I never really respond to Seth. But every time I see Seth tweet if you follow Seth on Twitter he always says like you know daily journal what are you grateful for today and I said I just want to give you props man like I think about that all the time. And you remind me to be grateful in that moment.

So I appreciate you a ton for being consistent with that. Michael comes in goes totally agree that it's interacting online as a habit you have to build. I'm so used to just lurking but then nothing ever happens trying to be more active on Twitter. But I have to remind myself to participate. So I'm going to say this joke I've said this joke before there's a comedian out there. I'm sure there's a bunch of comedians I've said this. I'm sure you've seen this to want to meme on the internet. But it's like it's like dating right if you're in in sugar and want to stay at home and you're not going out putting yourself out there on the dating scene.

Are you just expecting someone to break into your house that's your like significant other and you know what I'm saying so again like it's it's one of the you know you're waiting for Mr. Mrs. Wright to break into your house like you got to be out there you got to be involved. Let's see here Mel it's great to see a big dog. Let's see here LinkedIn user I love it so much. Yeah talk about Angular every day. Yeah talk about Angular like if you're diving in an angle or just write about it right about it. Even comes in and goes imagine how much better life would be if we worried about what we thought of ourselves versus someone to be honest with you Ethan I struggle with this too.

I am I am very very I'm I'm very insecure in a lot of areas in my life believe it or not. And and and I sometimes let the voice of one to two negative people affect me and so it is a very real thing and I struggle with it. I struggle with it. I'm great on social media. I've gotten to the point now I've disconnected kind of what other people think of me on social media. So yeah it's very very difficult. Mel comes back and says good stuff don't take us correction take us feedback feedback is it gets how it yeah how are we going to prove if we're going to get feedback right and that's kind of that's kind of what I do in my mind kind of think about.

Dev dot T.o makes it easy for develops blog I blog there and has a couple post shared newsletters I love that so much. Dr T comes in this is great advice how are for those of us really anxiety and feel we're deep trauma this can be overwhelming. I'll suggest a discount just come for a little at a time to do group type stuff with people who can help. Yes I totally understand that and unless and I I'm coming at it from a place again like this is helpful feedback for me right and Dr T I appreciate you speaking truth here for me. I this is this is my story but I totally get this right if you struggle with putting yourself out there maybe it's trauma maybe it's maybe it's something else kind of deeply rooted I totally totally get that.

And so I would say if you want to get into this area but are having problems or maybe you're very very you know like I said you're you have anxiety you have fear reach out to a doctor T reach out to me right let's talk about this and see maybe there's ways. to kind of get connected but that's why I talk about so I'm heavy on content creation right now this this morning shows content creation but one of the ways I always tell people is if you don't want to post because again I understand posting is not for everybody. Right I understand that you can just comment and like people's posts you commenting so let's say like one of the reasons why I have the show is to allow people to comment and get more comfort for putting themselves out there so you coming on the show every single day right I give props to Erica Erica is always on the show Erica is inconsistent once I get some merch Erica I'm sending you merch on me because like you are just consistent right the thing is is that definitely ease into it but I tell people just comment and like stuff you don't even have to post right just just be engaged with people try to put yourself out there and I think in my perspective the easiest way is just commenting and liking on people's posts and being thought form the comments.

Dev comes in thoughts on blogging platforms honestly if I were you I would blog in LinkedIn like your blog should just be a LinkedIn post because here's the deal. LinkedIn's where it's at my entire business is built around LinkedIn and Twitter I do post a medium. I know dev.to I know about that platform I just still think LinkedIn is where it's at I think if you want to get into content creation especially around documentation around around technology stuff LinkedIn is the best way to reach as many people as many eyeballs as possible. I think I think the next platform is either a medium or dev.to but for me if you're going to go anywhere write it for LinkedIn first.

See your James goes for those that go through this just know there are people who completely understand this want to help you'll find them and make some time yes absolutely. Oh he goes. Gotcha gotcha gotcha awesome yeah at least she comes down not always right but I'm always human exactly so so that's what content creation is done right another another few ideas for you. If you are comfortable getting in front of the video I know that's very difficult but video carries a ton of weight in this virtual world. I would get on TikTok and I would document selfie style about what you're learning right hey today was a tough day I just failed with Azure server functions if anybody watches this that can help me with Azure service functions here's my email tailor at vaco.com and then posted to TikTok because here's the deal.

I've been listening to a few content podcasts this week and and what I've realized a lot of people think TikTok is a dancing app and it is there's a lot of dancing on it but it is a way to reach the mass public quickly because what happens is every single LinkedIn post you have is new eyes right so when you have followers right. Those followers don't see your stuff as much as far as I'm aware of right it's more new people and so TikTok is a way to get in front of a ton of eyeballs like for me if I was a job seeker. I would do every morning I'd wake up I would do a video video recap of either what I've learned yesterday what I'm learning today and then I would I would write it out on LinkedIn and that's what I would do.

What happens is the amount of people that see your posts on TikTok is crazy you can have zero followers zero followers on TikTok and still have two to three hundred people see every single video. So if you're posting four videos a week that's twelve hundred new eyeballs are seeing you every single week let me ask you this how many eyeballs do you think are seeing your resume when you press easy apply. Not many not many maybe none but then you post in the video on TikTok to be two to three hundred per video views eyeballs right again it's all about eyeballs the job searches about getting your information from as many people as possible but again going back to what Dr.

T said if there is a fear if there's a trauma if there's something rooted where you are paralyzed with this reach out to me let's talk about it we can come up with some more ideas on it. But again in my opinion LinkedIn TikTok are the two places as a job seeker union post and also two on the flip side hiring managers oh my gosh you should be posting about yourself and your and how you manage teams and how you care about people on all social media platforms right on all of them because here's why hiring managers it's hard to hire right now right also why would a developer want to come work for you.

I don't know you know how you change that you start putting out content about what you believe in how you manage teams what your philosophies are all that that will separate you immediately so then as a recruiter so let's say your hiring manager that puts out content right Ryan Burgess is one of them right Ryan Burgess gem young front and happy hour podcast. I'm sure they get so many candidates that listen to that that want to work in Netflix because of that right same thing with the same thing that I want to impart to hiring managers that watch this if you are having problems attracting talent to your organization.

I would spend the money and invest in a content that's why I pimped out my my guy Brandon R. Brain and 78 because he can help with that but basically I would invest any marketing dollars your company has to your hiring managers right now in my perspective what I would do. if I was managing a marketing team at a company right now I would cut a ton of marketing spend around ads. Like you shouldn't spend anymore on ads right I have talked to so many hiring managers are so many people in the content space that that ad spend just doesn't work as well as as organic content.

And so for me what I would do is I would if I was a marketing manager I would cut out all the ads spend I would cut out all of that and what I would do is I would go to every hiring manager in the company that is growing their teams and I would say what can we do for you how can we put a content team around you and start to develop content specifically around the hiring manager or the leaders within organizations. So you can attract better talent because I will tell you this you don't need you're going to not need to post on dice.com or indeed calm anymore.

You're going to be able to attract all the candidates because let me let me put this in perspective for you I brought in me just me 400 resumes last year purely on content I don't post I don't post to LinkedIn anymore I don't I mean I don't post jobs anywhere I got 400 resumes last year. That is core developers that does not include people outside of the development community like accounting finance folks junior developers or overseas folks that I get right I probably got 800 resumes last year because of content. 800 resumes 800 hiring managers HR people that watch this down the future how many resumes are you getting in a year from from one person not your entire team right keep this in mind I'm really passionate about this because this absolutely changed my career and I want to impart that on hiring managers today.

Let's see here at least she comes in goes dev I grew to I just like publish on LinkedIn but blog elsewhere the challenge LinkedIn is that within a few weeks your great content disappears yeah 100%. I like this this is a little bit more tactical we can get into this maybe another episode for me I would do your long form like if you like typing a lot your long form three four five paragraphs needs to go on medium needs to go on dev.to I would condense the three to four paragraphs to probably like three or four sentences on LinkedIn. I would take those three to four sentences and make them a sentence on Twitter and then what I would do is I would make a video post for all four I would make a video post for all the tweets the one sentences on TikTok.

Right so say that again long form three to four three to four paragraphs. I would put that on medium dev.to I would condense those three to four paragraphs to four sentences on LinkedIn I would then take those four sentences and tweet four times and then I would also make four videos based off those four sentences on TikTok. Cool sweet let's see here and more comments sweet all right y'all well that's it today I think that was enough of me ramblin about content I appreciate y'all for hanging out hopefully enjoyed it I saw some comments and they said they did enjoy it so it means a lot.

If you are interested in talking more content please reach out to me I'll definitely try to make time to hang out with y'all and talk about how we can develop content for the job search. But again in my perspective you want to try to get as many people many eyeballs in front of your resume and you as possible the only way to do that is do content. Right but again it's not for everybody so if you're worried about and that you're struggle about putting yourself out on the internet shoot me DM let's talk about it. That's great weekend listen next week is crazy chock full with guests let me pull it up real quick next week I have a VP of engineering on a Raleigh shannon Smith Tuesday I have a fantastic local recruiter of the Nashville Hunter Mitchum we're going to break down the just a recruiting industry Wednesday I have my VFF from Seattle her name is Sarah Ray she works in the fitness industry but their company is adopted the four day work week and we're going to talk about that.

Unicorn finders we have the great Kent Dodds on the show Thursday and then Friday I have Alex Sheridan who is a tick-tock genius about putting out content. So again next week is going to be lit when it comes to guests you all have a great one have a great weekend. Holly if you need me love y'all peace. Hey you did it you listen to an entire episode and I am very grateful because you know why there's a lot of podcasts out there there's a lot of episodes and I myself rarely finish an entire episode so I appreciate you so so much for listening quick reminder please rate and review this podcast in the app store I want this to be discoverable to others and the only way that happens is if you take the time right now and rate and review it please like right now.

Unless you're driving then don't do it so thank you again if you need to reach out to me tailor at vaco.com or at t-dasting on all social media handles and I hope you have a fantastic day.