job search 101 + solo show

full transcript

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All right. Let's go everybody. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. It is Monday, the Monday before Thanksgiving. You know what? I can already tell like there's nobody online. So if you are tuning in this morning, say, hey, would love to hear from you. This is the last live week. I have to be or not going live today, but I'm going to go live today and then off of the rest of the week. I'm going home and travel. I'm traveling. I'm going home to South Carolina this week. flying home Wednesday. Who here? I'm curious. If you are watching, first off, say, hey, second off, where are you?

Where are you going for Thanksgiving? You? You staying at the house or you traveling? If you're traveling, where are you going? I'm genuinely curious. What people's plans are for the holidays. I'm going to South Carolina. I'm going to be with my family. Or Wednesday Thursday, Friday. So yeah, we'll let them know. We'll let them know where you guys are heading. So comment also just comment. Say, hey, too. This is this is last last live for the week. You know, it's so it's so interesting. Like the holidays, it's tough for my content perspective to keep going because most of y'all are off social media because of the holidays.

And and and then I'm trying to create. So anyways, if you're watching, if you're on LinkedIn, please say, hey, please say, hey, we'd love to hear from you. If you are traveling, let me know what you're traveling to. Again, I'm going home to South Carolina. If anybody's in Columbia, South Carolina, let me know. Not that I probably have time to hang out with you, but we still love to know. First off, we're going to say, hey, this is a networking platform. So the reason why I tell people to say, hey, is to be engaged. TikTok, if you if you do watch this, I'm streaming on TikTok to the left.

I mean, TikTok, if you are watching this, we are live on LinkedIn. So if you want to get engaged in the comments, have one over to LinkedIn. But so yeah, so say, hey, the reason why I tell people to do this is, is to network with each other. Right. So again, what my goal is for you is to essentially create an ecosystem that's easy to network with. Right. So if I were you, I would DM everybody who comments on the show and say, hey, it was just great to hear from you. It was great to see you on the show. Right. I would I would literally just do a, I would really, hey, look, my dad's here.

Look at that. Hey, dad, I'll see you. I'll see you Wednesday. I'll see you Wednesday. My, my dad's in the comments. Y'all, you all go connect with my dad. So that's that's the first thing. Second thing is ask me questions. So this can be a little more kind of Q&A feel. I have no idea where I'm going to talk about. It's kind of just, which kind of kind of wing it. So ask me questions if you have any about the job search. Um, and third of all, I do want to celebrate you. Right. And so what I mean by this is, is if you've had a professional milestone that you have hit lately, you've gotten a raise, you've gotten a title change, you've gotten a promotion, you did something that you're excited about.

Please throw it up in the comments. I, I, I, I really think, I really think a lot of people are bad at talking about themselves. I know they are because I've seen how most of y'all work in the interview process. And so what I'm trying to do is I want you to comment and let me know what you've done lately because I want to celebrate you. I feel like as humans were always on the next thing, right? I got, I got the title. What's the next title? I got the raise. When's the next raise? Right? And so again, I just want to celebrate you. So if you've done something that you're proud about, please throw it in the comments, would love to hear from you.

And again, ask questions, connect with each other. Y'all know the drill. Um, I need to get people who are tuning this morning. Ricardo's going to see you Anthony. Good morning. Everybody. Good morning. Anthony Alex. Good to see a big dog. Robert. Good morning. Yolanda. It's great to see you. Anthony staying at home. Alex is going up to Massachusetts to hang out. Is there a snow up in Massachusetts? Man, I tell you what, there's nothing better than snow during the holidays. We got snow. Nothing. Okay. I sound like an old person talking about the weather. Uh, we got snow last year in Nashville a day or two before that Christmas.

I had my first white Christmas. There was still snow on the ground. It wasn't snowing. Was my very first white Christmas list. You know, I see, I think snow during the holidays is elite. And no one talks about it. Um, and so Robert Robert saying at home, Stephen from Houston, what's going on? Michael's going to see you Brian. What up, dude? Hey, so I want to give a shout out to Brian. Brian was a guest on the show two weeks ago. Brian two or three weeks ago, I would check out that episode. Um, it was fantastic. You can kind of sift through my LinkedIn's, but Brian just can be competed in a Brian was a triathlon.

Is it a triathlon or marathon? I don't know. Brian's really athletic. So go, go connect them. Also, uh, Brian, my dad's on the chat. Uh, dad Brian is in Blacksburg. Um, and we talked about Roanoke. So, uh, yeah, there we go. John is good to see you from West Virginia. I love it, man. Um, Abraham, my guy, what's going on? Do it. Good to see you. Chris Kevin. Uh, I know another Houston, I got to get to Houston. There's so many of y'all in Houston. It's unreal. Uh, Alex, going to be pushing through the holidays, trying to land whatever interview I can that's been a long year.

Yes. So I want to get to this here in a second. I want to get this in a second. Um, Alex, we'll come back to that. I have thoughts. Dana, it's good to see you. Hello there. It's good to see you. Yes. Last show of the week, tuning in from Indianapolis. Hey, we got the crew out today. There's, there, there's just a few bit of y'all. It makes me happy. Look, it's good to see you. Uh, Mitchell, it's good to see you as well. Um, Michael, tune in, not job searching, but finally doing what I planned to do when I left my job in January, much excited.

Also, hey, yo, that's awesome. That's awesome. Erica, it's good to see you. William could have had me on today. I know, big dog. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. How's the coffee? Coffee's great. Oh, yeah. That reminds me. Thank you. I have it. All right. I gotta get smised in my sponsor. I'm all over the place this morning. People who are watching for the first time like this guy's absolutely ridiculous. Uh, first thing, that conference, uh, coffee sponsor of the show. Thank you. Em, for bringing up, um, drinking half calf, uh, because of anxiety. So, uh, half decaf, half, half, a half caffeine, um, that the, the caffeine portion of that conference, uh, the conferences in January, it's great.

Uh, it's an amazing headline. It was go by tickets. You go G. C. Two for a few bucks off your bag of beans. Also want to give the shout out to the premier sponsor of guidance, concert 2.0 moving forward is render, ATL. For those of you not no render, ATL, it is an experience. It is a tech conference out of Atlanta. And it's an awesome, awesome time. It is next year looking to it, highly recommended. Their fish response to the show could not be more thankful for their support. So thank you, render as well. Also, thank you for, uh, I appreciate Em, it for, for bringing it out.

Scott's good to see you. Stephanie John Blake, no snow yet. Damn. Uh, yeah, we should begin snow on Wednesday. Oh, jealous, some jealous Iron Man Iron Man. Yeah, Brian, Brian's V athletic, V athletic. Uh, we're coming and talking to my son to go to a soccer camp this weekend, going to sporting K. C. Hey, I love it. I love it. Sporting K. C. Uh, upset at St. Louis. Um, so shout out to y'all. Um, so yeah, I have an interview to Marvos for customer service, which I don't want to do. But yeah, I mean, listen, Robert, Robert brings up a great point. All right. So I'm, I'm gonna get to Robert's point here in a second as well.

Um, wife is making sugar cookie cheesecake. Dang dude, he sent me some. I give him a address. Let's like, you know, freeze drop it or something. Uh, to hear Joshua from Houston in the dev, oscillates so many Houston folks. I love that. We'll feed you good. I've never been to Houston. I never been to Houston. I need to make it out. It was good group on, on the show consistently from the Houston area. We need to guide his counselor to point out Houston, uh, meet up. We need to make that happen. We're staying at home. I love it. Don't forget to visit Dallas. I got it.

I've not been a Dallas for lovely. Like up with my guy, Danny Thompson. Um, we love to come to Dallas. Um, we are, I'm doing some more traveling next year for conferences. Uh, I need to get out to Texas. I'm going to, at that conference in Austin. I'm speaking out there. But, um, uh, see here. Michael, what's going on? Do is good to see your Robert. Awesome. Upstate New York. I love it. All right. Y'all, that's enough to be running my math. I want to, I want to go and dive in today. So we have questions around the job search. Please ask some TikTok. It's great to see you on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter as well.

So I want to go up to the first thing to Alex said here. Um, not about the snow, but about pushing through the holidays, trying to learn whatever interview I can it's been a long year. Listen, it's been an awful year. I don't, I, I, I've talked to very few people in the tech space this year who have been like, yeah, this year's been great. Like, like, it just hasn't happened. And then that's okay. Right. It's been, it's been a very tough year for a lot of people. Alex, I love your positivity. You constantly show up and I appreciate you, man. Um, and, and I have a lot of confidence in your life.

Listen, listen, it's not shutting down. Recruiters actually saw a post of mine, uh, Aaron, um, Harmon, who is a, a recruiter at Tesla. He posted like, they're still recruiting like the market doesn't shut down. Um, I, I would use this time to really, I would use this time to hone in on maybe some areas that you haven't been able to. Right. So like, if you haven't really hit up recruiters lately, use this time to hit up recruiters, right. Listen, the interviewing, interviewing is going to slow down. It just is. It just is, which is unfortunate. Um, but I love Alex's mindset. I think everybody needs to have Alex's mindset during this time.

I do want to go to another thing that Robert said, which Robert, again, I, I, I appreciate, I appreciate your openness and honesty here. Robert says I have an interview tomorrow, but it's for a customer service. Which I don't want to do, but I can get interviews for software development. Yeah. Here's the deal. I, I've talked about this a lot. Listen, right now, you kind of just got to take a job to take care of yourself and your family. Right. And there's nothing wrong with that. I will have to say, I will have to say, I, I think it's going to be a mass exodus once the market kind of gets back to normal.

Because there's a lot of people leaving the jobs to the job they really want to do. But that's a whole another conversation for another time. But yeah, Robert, again, I mean, I did this is what you got to do. Keep, keep coding, keep working on stuff. Because that's the big thing, right? Like, like, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm counseling somebody right now who hasn't coded in two years, right? And this is like, you have to keep working. So Robert, even if you get the customer service role, code something on the side, keep working on it, keep have something to show because that is incredibly important.

Let's see here, going through here to code. It's good to see you 2023 was definitely my year until it wasn't. But 2024 is love this mindset. And again, I think 2024 is gonna be great for a lot of people in the job search. I really, really do think so. All right. So a few other things I want to talk to you about one attention to detail, right, listen, people like companies are looking for reasons to reject you right now. Attention to detail is everything, right? If, if you are interviewing for a role and they have talked about this role being a little bit more hand, like really attention to detail and like you missed type your email, like you're gonna get rejected.

Like, and again, right, I understand this. I understand your public will tell that puts more stress on me. I get it. But listen, everything is having to be button up. And I get it, you're gonna make a mistake. And that's okay. But I'm just trying to caution you. Attention to detail is everything right now. I want to, I want to time in with Samuel here. There's a good tent. There's there's some good technical roles on a customer facing technical success. Man, Susan, that's how I'm broken the tech. I think there's less. Oh, I love this. I love this. And again, this is something I talked about a lot.

Like, like you don't have to just be a developer to get into tech, right? You can go be a customer success manager at a tech company, right? I, I fully talk about it. I am deep in the tech ecosystem. And I've never touched a code in a damn life. I've all I've done is I've been a recruiter. All right. Now I'm a technical talent advocate or or talent advocate at that, at that gun I owe. And so I'm quite important to say, Mm. Thank you for bringing this up. What I would do if I were you, if you are having a hard time finding a job as a technical person, as a developer, as a QA, as a data analyst, looking to, looking to non technical roles in tech organizations, right?

Like, so for example, I'm going to use an open AI. I'm not even talk about the drama that's happened to open AI because mostly I'm just kind of confused myself. It does sound like a huge soap opera. But let's talk about open AI. Let's say that, you know, you can't cut it and get an open AI, which most people can't. But let's say there's like a customer support role or a marketing role or a copywriter role or you know, it's something like that apply, right? That's your way in. I also talk about this too. When it comes to how to network with bigger people on different platforms.

So for example, I've gotten really, really big into the content creator space. A lot of content creators I've made friends with virtually has been through Instagram. Right now, there's, there's, there's a lot of people who have massive followings on TikTok that I don't message on TikTok. I find them on other platforms and then go to their platform and messaged them again, it's all about attention and how do you get the attention of people in certain ways, right? And so in this case, how do you get the attention of a company who may not want you for one role, you go into the different role, right?

Dana comes in here. I've applied to customers to success major. Yeah. And again, listen, and Dana, you're not alone. You're not alone. I am hearing this all the time, right? Applying applying, applying, can't make it in. One, one of the things that that I've seen online that I want to give a shout out to and it's not my idea is, is if you are trying to interview for a role right now, especially if you're a developer, something hands-on, try to use the tool, try to use the tool of the company you are trying to get into. Right. So for example, right? If you were, let's say you were interviewing with me for like a content crew, like, and I'm in the content creation space and let's say you're a software developer and let's say you developed a piece of software that would help scale my business from a content perspective.

If you developed a little piece of software for our interview that said, Hey Taylor, if we did these things, this would help you scale, I would immediately like focus in on you and have that conversation with you more. Right. But if you come in and we're just talking about what you've done that doesn't apply to me, it doesn't make things and I'm not saying Dana is doing this. I'm just saying this triggered, this triggered my mind reading Dana's thing. Always always try to go into an interview with trying to have used their tool in some way, shape or form. I always say this, right? We, we also, we, we also, I've lost my train of thought for your first second.

All right, let's just keep moving on. See, I tell people all this all the time, just, just getting to the tech space. Take your skills and match the company's communication is a huge area, absolutely 100% Dana comes in here. I'm also using training, let's type to network folks have influence. Yeah, I mean, I think Dana and then Dan, I don't mean to single you out, but, but I think Dana is, is, everybody right now, right? I mean, Danny, you're not alone. Right? You're, you're not the only person that's been calming on stuff like this. Like, is an absolute grind right now, right? And so, you know, my, my, my thought with you is, is continue to keep doing what you're doing.

I love what you're doing, though, is that is, is this, so I know your last comment talked about applying to jobs. This talked about the triangulation tactic, the network folks, that's important as well. But right now you have to do something different to stand out. You have to. And it sounds like you're doing it. But at the end of the day, the market is just, it just sucks. And we're about to go into the holidays. Right? So everything's just about to come to like a screeching halt. Right? So again, Dana, I applaud you for, for doing this. I want to wish you encouragement because it does suck right now.

Randall, it's good to see you. And then obviously Scott, thank you for your kind of words. My friend means a lot. All right, a few other things. During this time right now, take a breather. Right? Take a breather. I talk about this all the time. Right? I think so many people just like, uh, just like literally, uh, white knuckle during the interview process. And you get so burned out that you're not fresh for the next company. Right? You have to understand something. Right? If you white knuckle, it's kind of like working out. Right? So for example, I've, I, I, I'm back to my workout regime after traveling.

And I've been, I've, I've killed it at the gym last three days. I am so sore. I can barely walk right now. Right? If I, and if I keep working out hard, there is going to get to a point where I'm not going to be able to lift the weight, I'm not going to be able to do the movements the way I'm supposed to move. That's the same thing with interview process. If you are white knuckling this thing, if you are white knuckling the interview process, you're going to be exhausted, anxiety written, and you're not going to give your best self to the interview. So my biggest advice for people who are watching this now for the holidays, take a break, take a break.

And it's okay. If you go to your family or you're hanging out by yourself, starting Wednesday, don't, don't do anything jobs are related. I'm not. I'm going to do my vlog, which by the way, the my vlog is going to be crazy. I don't know my dad's still watching, but it is going to be a zoo at the best zoo possible at my parent's house. And I can't wait to, to document it, but all that being said, take a breather. Right. Again, we get so stressed out. And then when you have an interview, you're already so exhausted. You can't bring your best self to the interview.

So make sure you are scheduling time to work out, to touch grass, to walk, do something that brings you joy. Because if all you're doing is you're trying to white knuckle this job search process, it ain't going to happen. And it's going to happen. A few more comments that just came in here. Scott came in for what it's worth a second I was opinion using the tools. I've lost out of about four final rounds because I had no familiar with the company's product. Again, well, one Scott, I hate that for you. But all that being said, again, be familiar with the tool, work with it, mess with it.

Right. Again, like right now interviews, you got to go. So originally the last two years, we came from a sense where you can just sneeze and get offers right now. You can't. Right. So now you got to put more time into one interview than then you would five interviews. Right. So dig in, be intentional with this stuff. Got a question on TikTok. But what if you're not happy with the manager at your dream job? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great question. My thought for this, if you're not happy with your manager at your dream job, is there a way to talk to your manager about what's going on?

If your manager is not aware and does not want to talk, is there a way to potentially jockey yourself over time for either a different division? Because that's what I would do. Right. For me, if there's no way to talk to your manager and you don't feel comfortable talking to your manager one on one and there's no, there's no way out of that. Then what I would do is I would start jocking to get into another division. Right. Because that's happened to me to be totally honest. What's happened to me? Let's see here. Robert comes in. Should we use networking to find out what tools should we use networking to find out what tools?

Yeah. I mean, you should networking for whatever you want. Right. I mean, I think that's yeah, absolutely. That's that's that's why you network to learn. Um, let's see here. As a, do this priest. I'm trying to say, uh, there are two of the, yeah, I mean, exactly. Right. Yeah. Just take some time off during the holidays. Um, what else? Resemaze link did make sure you have it right. Again, job boards are incredibly important. Right. They're tools to the tool belt. Make sure all your job boards sites are updated. Um, and, uh, make sure you're taking time for yourself and, and, and, and, and, and just enjoy these next few days.

Just enjoy these next few days. So, um, I'm trying to think anybody else have any questions. I'm trying to think of anything. Just job search related to encourage y'all. Um, send DMs against send DMs. Uh, you know, one of the things I want to talk about real fast. Um, uh, Kelly Vaughn, um, she's the director of engineering. She's done a pod a few times. She and I've done a few, um, conference talks together. I've been talking a lot about how you should manage message, message managers and ask for five minutes, seven minutes, body, body, out of your body. In my perspective, in my perspective, and after talking to Kelly and a lot of engineering managers, that doesn't work anymore.

Like messaging a manager and me like, hey, do you have seven minutes? Like, they're never going to agree to you right now. And so for me, what I would do if I were you, this is where an leveraging LinkedIn and Twitter, um, it really comes in handy. Right. So like, if you message a manager and be like, Hey, Mr. Mrs. Mangio is great chatting with you today. I want to say, and touch, then what you do is you connect with them. And then every single post they make, you comment, you like it. You know, obviously don't be weird about it, but like just engage with them.

And then when they post something about having an open roll, that's when you slides their DMs and ask for something, right? Same thing with Twitter. Actually, I'm actually tweeting this today. Um, but I think this is a great time to talk about. So, so if, if I was, if I was on the job search, here's how I would use, uh, every single platform to my advantage. So LinkedIn, I would just post once a day on a topic, a trend, something you're passionate about. Right. That's what I would use on LinkedIn. Right. Uh, then second thing, Twitter, Twitter is where the hand to hand combat happens.

You're liking your comment. You're retweeting your DMs. Right. Um, LinkedIn could be very spammy, Twitter. You can cut through the noise a little bit more. That's how I would use it. Twitter is much more conversation. I would be on it 24 seven, especially during the day, liking commenting, retweeting, adding my thoughts, et cetera. I would use TikTok as a thought piece. Right. So there's a green screen feature on TikTok where you can screenshot an article on your phone and upload it as the background of your video. And I would give thoughts on it. Right. And that's how I would use TikTok. Um, Instagram kind of sucks when it comes to the job search stuff.

Um, so yeah, those, those are three platforms I would use. And what you can do is then you can post your videos that you made on TikTok on the LinkedIn. Right. So three platforms, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, I think are great job search tools. LinkedIn, make a post, move on Twitter, much more hand to hand combat, follow people and follow a ton of people if you're getting started to get the algorithm kind of in your favor in the software development space and three with TikTok, do thought pieces. Um, when it comes to your area of expertise. Uh, let's see here. I kind of finishing off a little bit, uh, last little bit of questions here.

Scott regarding tools, crunch spaces is great for giving inside look. Also, don't neglect other people's posts in the same company. Yep. Absolutely 100% love that Scott. Thank you. Um, and Dana comes in. How much is too much fault during an interview process? I'm around three, but the recruiters pretty bad. Yeah. Recruiters are awful. We're cool. And we're awful mainly because we're so overwhelmed right now. So Dana, for me, like, here's the, I love you all. But if you messaged me once in my LinkedIn inbox, I'm not gonna get back to you twice. Probably not the third time I'm probably gonna be like, okay, I probably should get back to this person.

Four time is fine. Listen, we have been told growing up to not annoying people. We have been told to double text, triple text. Listen, you kind of got to do that right now. Now, there's a way to do it nicely, right? And I'm not saying about there and be like, Hey, Hey Taylor, you haven't responded to me last three times. Can you please get back to me? Right? That's gonna rub a lot of people in a wrong way. But I would just say, Hey, I'm just checking in. Just want to hear thoughts. Where do I stand, etc., etc. Be kind. Lead with empathy during the job search.

But also, like, you got to be a vulture when it comes to follow up. I mean, like, following up in my opinion is like 70 for a 5% of the job search process. And I throw around those percentages all the time. But follow up is so key. I'm telling you, I've always I've told this story. I interviewed for Gun I O. The CEO loved me. Tasia loved me. He goes, listen, we can't hire you right now because we're trying to hire a VP of marketing. Check back in a month. I checked back in a week because I know that a month, time, and business world is way too long.

Things happen way too fast. So in a week, I checked back in with him. I said, Hey, dude, checking back in with you a week later. He goes, You know what? I'm glad that you checked in with me. That VP of marketing, Tommy, down, let's get to an offer in a week later. I got the off of just because I checked in. So again, incredibly, incredibly important. Yeah, Abraham, don't be weird. Yeah, very true. I had a recruiter reach out to me for an update from a prior chat. So I sent info along. Then they go to me. Yeah, I mean, listen, ghosting is going to happen.

It is it is a part of the job search. And it is fine. But when it comes down to it, follow up until you until you finally get something. Let's see here, as soon as I get some best for sort of tech goes, like, Hey, listen, random, listen, man, it's it's transition season. This is my fall winner vibe. It's all black or very solid color. So that's just me. Jason, it's good to see you. All right, y'all. So that's it for today. Listen, I know it was kind of all over the place. We just want to hang out with you all. I appreciate it. TikTok.

Thank you for tuning in. It's great to see you all Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. Listen, enjoy your holidays, enjoy Thanksgiving. If you're going with family, enjoy family, take some days off, right? And then, and then get refreshed and let's hit the ground running Monday after Thanksgiving up until Christmas. Let's give it all we got. If you need me, DM me, again, if I don't get back to you DM me a few times, I love you. I promise it just my DM's get a little crazy. So hope y'all have a great rest of week. This is it for me for the rest of the week. I will be for the most part heavily on Instagram.

If you want to follow me on Instagram, it's at TDSM on Instagram. I'll also be tweeting a lot over the holidays and documenting my time with my family, which is always a fun one. So follow me on Twitter and Instagram is you want to hear more of me. I will be off LinkedIn starting Wednesday. And I will see you next Monday. I'm going to see who my guest is next Monday. Next Monday, we have my guy Ashley, who's a speaker at render ATL. He is absolutely amazing and a wonderful, wonderful speaker. So can't wait to dive into him Monday, 27, 28th, Michael. Michael's coming on.

He's in the chat here. The 29th, we have Vittor, my guy, Gun IO coming back on. And then we have a great unicorn finders at Thursday. So really busy week. Starting next week. Y'all have a good one. Peace. Hey, you did it. You listened 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 at T-Dasting on all social media handles and I hope you have a fantastic day.