helping people w/ kelly vaughn, director of eng

full transcript

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Alright, so yeah, so I did talk about the friends are in a little bit Kelly basically that it's great engagement's great You know basically our goal is for you to not go through the job search alone. I Don't know if anything else dad. Yeah, yeah, I mean we're both Taylor and I've been in the hiring space for a very long time, you know 10 plus years and With this that means we know how to position yourself to get a job of how you how to actually you know have a solid interview. Yeah, and we want to help You know, it's this job market still sucks And so that's why we created this and we have some paid tears that we're really excited to to get on the calendar soon To do you know live LinkedIn and resume reviews for example That's a really important part of like that first impression I just posted a job a few weeks ago that got 2,500 applications in five days Like this is the reality of hiring right now.

Yeah, yeah You know we have some a job channel Yeah, it's all about job channel real quick. Yeah, so the jobs panel the idea is to To show off some of the additional jobs that are that that are open right now as I think if I come across things on LinkedIn I'm posting them Taylor's posting them others are posting them. I'm also multitasking right now trying to get my You're doing a great job. This is great, but hey and full honesty and full honesty y'all This is what I love about this show is that it's messy. It's real. It's raw I love the produce podcast There is some future plans that I have on the map to do a lot more Professional podcast, but the reason why I like these lives is just it's just broad.

Just nuts. Oh, it's this is a raw They guess and I had this much coffee, which is not much we struggle about saying struggle about something We are struggle busting a hard today. I'm trying to restart my computer right now and maybe that'll fix thing You're fine, but you're your your lag's not here anymore. So so Still I'm still just not connected to Wi-Fi on my phone, which means my network's still not back Which is great. I have an interview in 22 minutes. Oh shoot. All right. Well speaking of that Let's let's go ahead and dive in Kelly. You're doing a ton of hiring right now What are what are some do's and don't I mean?

I mean you're I mean you're you're hiring pretty aggressively? So yes Yeah, first and foremost The resumes like I obviously am going through a lot of resumes Y'all you have to stop using Chashi BT to write your resumes Like just throwing that right out there because there are times when I will go resume to resume to resume as I'm going to You know through through our system to review them Burbetum word for word either the description at the top is the same the bullet points are exactly the same and somebody tells me Like you two worked at different companies. You probably did not do the same exact thing At these jobs like like tell When you're lying on your resume to degree obviously, but yeah, you know, it's fine to use Chashi BT to help inspire like a format for a resume or come up with additional like what else am I missing?

That kind of stuff, but don't copy and paste from Chashi BT. Please I've seen people copy and paste and leave the quote marks in there Like I've seen it on LinkedIn as well. I can tell when you're in something else has written this for you Yeah, let me and again, I think yeah Shane comes in goes how is Kelly multitasking right now y'all are killing it? We have also over 400 people watching right now. This is I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know you know you definitely send me some screenshots with some conversations You know that we've had kind of through text and you know I think one of the things that we talk about a lot is How do you want to be approached as a hiring manager when somebody submits right because I think a lot of times Somebody submits their pro resume.

They're like I'm good. There's nothing else they can do But I've actually had multiple guests recently Say that they love follow-up after submission and I think you do too In a way I do it away. I get a lot of them. I can also A lot of them are the same. I just I don't know how else to say this like LinkedIn you apply for a job in LinkedIn gives you a suggestion of like Following up with this like with I have gotten some Autoreth auto feels like your headline and like with experience and x-y and z when it says You know, I'm really interested in this role with experience and currently unemployed My skills are very deeply aligned with this role and I'm just like did you read this before submitting it Something tells me you didn't yeah Yeah, I think you know again.

I I'd had a live if y'all want to go check this out on my youtube a few days ago um I basically said like how to how to create a good DM how to create a good follow-up and and I think the more real you can get right now Like all right. Here's a little hot take I feel that over Basically most of our generation watching this growing up. We were taught to be very professional very Very box right. Yeah, I think Especially in tech. I think there's other industries go dogs. Stop that. Stop that. No, no, no, no, no We don't we don't we don't need to I wish you didn't say that so But basically I feel like the the Living in a box type thing is actually hurting us now is actually hurting people.

What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, no, I completely agree. There's so much competition out there Everyone's going after these same jobs and if you're not different you're self in some way How am I supposed to you know see you as any different from from Jim and Alice who have the same skill sets Who speak the same exact way? Who are you know their comp ranges exactly what I expected to be in the same way that I'm looking for it There we go. You're back. That was a good. That was a good still love that. Yeah I think yeah, I think you got to be different right.

I mean the kind of what I said is like so if I was approaching Kelly I didn't know Kelly be like hey Kelly Saw your post. I went ahead and submitted my resume You know, I know you probably don't have time to talk right now But here my qualifications if you can remember me when you kind of sift through resumes Obviously, I'd be honored to hang out with you and interview with you Yes, I like that a whole lot better than hey, do you have 15 minutes to talk about my resume? No, I don't have 15 minutes to talk about your resume So that is what I use so so again, right if you watch my content I've changed what I've said over the course of the years.

I used to say that right? I used to say hey let's hang out. Do you have 15 minutes right? You know, let's let's do that that doesn't work anymore right like you we always have to be You know changing and adapting to what's going on so Kelly you send me a message the other day Let me try to bribe you You talk about That's that work I think it does I think it got hot take hot take I think bribing is where you got to go right now That's a very hot take I don't know if I would agree with that. Um, basically what happened was I posted something on LinkedIn and I guess Uh, they I was not very clear in my messaging Um, in my first my basic end we'll see um, I wasn't very clear in my messaging and I clarified and I was like yes, sorry There it is again There you go every time it asked for my Wi-Fi password on my phone.

It freezes my face You know what we're going Most of you live. I've had and I don't think it's a coincidence. It's just a hot mess and I think people love it I'm just fine. Maybe we'll have to four to four hundred fifty people now. We're up to four hundred fifty six people I'm high everybody. I am so glad you can see me from my phone. Here's the painting that I still haven't hung up Talk about bribing. Do we do it right now? I think we should. I'm not into it. I'm not into it I don't I don't like I don't like brides. I don't like the pressure.

Basically this person sent me a $15 start off gift card because I said I haven't had my coffee today Which by the way by the way if that person was really good, you would have sent a rev gift card Ha ha that's right. This is this is unofficially sponsored by Rev and by unofficially sponsored me and I buy my own coffee But I'm a really big fan of right we need we need rev to sponsor the friend zone Kelly We do we really do Yeah Let's see here. Yeah, I'm trying to go into comments here I oh there we go. Now let's try this Look up Everyone has a price.

Yeah, I know nothing Yeah, love that so what else Any other tips tricks comments? With the job search right now Be patient honestly. I know it's hard. I know it's really hard, but we are We're hiring for I think four or five different roles right now. It's spot and it can be very difficult to We don't have many recruiters like internal recruiters doing the scheduling and everything it can take some time to actually get through applications and get get interview scheduled we're gonna move forward with an interview and so it's not always going to be something We can quickly jump on So you know know that we're okay As thought we don't ghost people like we're not ghosting you I can't speak for other companies because I think we all have been ghosted for an interview after an interview at some point or after an application Review at least hopefully not after an interview But this try to be patient with them like we're moving.

It's quickly as we can I want to get people hired as quickly as possible because I want more people on my team This is a big commitment for you. It's a big commitment for the company as well to hire it's a lot of you know resource planning around when people are available to schedule or like available to actually conduct interviews as well Right I want to get to bear its comment then getting ghost a lot by recruiters lately. I put out a piece of content yesterday about getting ghosted and I think It is very hard right now to treat everybody with respect at scale That that is a that is something I've been trying to solve for less four years through content I still don't do the great job of it right and that's something that I'm honestly trying to scale with my own content But also trying to scale with company content and and and because you know This is this is the biggest complaint I hear I Agency recruiters suck for the most part There are only a handful of us by the way.

I'm I'm creating. I got more It's all my to do list I've just been overwhelmed lately with with work and and some life stuff and so I have a Twitter list I've started about my favorite recruiters I also put out a LinkedIn post where I got like 20 or 30 recruiter recommendations So I'm going to compile all this stuff for everybody so so you can use but basically Barrett Try not to take it personally. I know it's hard Um and Right now it's just kissing a lot of frogs it's just kissing a lot of frogs right now and moving on It's moving on. It's moving on And then ultimately if you find a gem if you find a diamond in the rough stay close to that one, but yeah, it's it's um It's not fun.

It's not fun And then like hiring managers like listen Kelly I mean you're getting what thousands of applicants for one job posting right now. Yes. Yeah. I mean There's just no way to keep up with everything. It's just not. It's just not so Um Again, I'm not I'm not giving an excuse Barrett Um, but I just think it just it is what it is right now Um, let's see your market so Ben comes in here marketplace for American public media just had a piece of uh on ghost job postings Which are postings that every? Yeah, so basically Ben. So this is the problem with the ghost job postings in my opinion is a lot of HR stuff Um Typically if you work with agency workers So I also when I manage the recruiting team so I will be honest when I was at Vaco and I managed recruiting team We would put up fake postings, but they weren't fake postings because we knew we get those type of jobs consistently And so we wanted to go ahead and screen you So we can move faster on the back end and so But a lot of times I've seen is HR on the internal company side Has to post a job Just to post a job when they already even have a candidate to fill it.

So again, it this whole job search thing is just it's just a hot mess hot mess Think I might love it. I love it when companies are transparent If I did or didn't get a job, please let me know 100% 100% it's not hard. It's not hard right It's not hard at all so But unfortunately and and this is where like my marketing brain comes in like I say this all the time Your interview process is essentially marketing for your company You have a shitty interview process or a shitty experience like that is a direct correlation of Potentially the company and it's a bad marketing bad mark I've actually heard hot take here.

You can separate yourself from other people by just even providing a great interview experience for the rejected people 100% Like we send very personalized Rejection letters to people like emails whether it's at the application level or I'm almost background by the way firebox at the trick. Right Yeah, yeah Those some questions we're inching close to 600 people now watching this which is insane So Osama comes in. I have a strong technical skills to take a bow and mind doesn't work in interview cvs and stuff What can I do so? This is a great Are we back are we back? I mean I am connected to my neighbors Wi-Fi so So here's the deal Osama so I deal with this too So I black out during interviews a lot of times right and and this is something that I've had to work on a ton And so for me my my best advice to you is I would really focus on Writing things down before the interview right so basically like Like when it comes to this But before you're stepping to the interview know what your interviewing for and write down some stuff so you don't black out and also have your resume with you Right a lot of people like I don't care how good you think you know your background when you get into an interview You lock up.

I have gone through interviews around with you the job search After vaco I locked up like I'm out here preaching all this shit, but I still lock up so again like That is what I would do any thoughts on this Kelly I like Looking at a pool of questions that I might be asked answering those questions recording myself answering those questions Learning for like looking for keywords to kind of use as bullet points as I'm interviewing again This is all remote and you're not going to walk into it in person interview with like here here in my note cards for answering questions The more you

practice think about it when you're doing like public speaking You're doing you're giving a talk One of the things that I think a lot of people who don't do public speaking are new to it They think that they have to remember 100% of what they intended to say When you're actually speaking you're going to remember 85% maybe there's about 15 like 10 to 15% of what you intended to say that you will completely forget until after the fact But the thing is nobody knows What you forgot to say because you didn't say it So applying this idea to interviewing as well Use keywords like give

yourself practice bullet points Like if I'm saying tell me about myself I want to hit these five things if I'm going to talk about why I'm looking like in this particular role Like what am I most excited about?

I'm going to do my research and then I want to write down these bullet points and say hey This is like keeping in the back of my mind. I want to use these three key words to remember for this answer That way you can at least hit most of what you intended to say, but it doesn't feel scripted either I find that helps a little bit when when things are locked up. The other thing I will say is Somebody asked you a question in an interview It's okay to not just like immediately jump into an answer Like you can give yourself a second Sir not all of us are really good on the fly There was so much who are doing a lot of things like you and I are doing right now We're good.

I just like you throw me a question. I will give you an answer whether it's good or not Most not comfortable doing that Don't have to immediately jump into an answer. That's totally fine Yes, absolutely Also, by the way, I was in our the friend zone. Somebody goes. I just look at the friend zone very cool Yeah, we love it. We're adding a interview prep to tier one paid just now so Based off these questions. We're getting right now. This is why I'm doing the first is why we're doing the friend zone We are going to you know the live audience feedback. So if you want interview prep Questions around interviewing join the friend zone tier one paid 29 bucks a month and you get resume LinkedIn What what what what levels resume LinkedIn you get Interview prep and then like resume templates and and and all that stuff.

So hopefully see you there um If you could make an income and you got a bounce in six minutes if you can make all the rules What would your picture perfect job can't hire pipeline? Look like Interviewing I let's let's take this from interview inside of things picture perfect job candidate hire pipeline. Yes, hire pipeline Like an applicant comes in they see or or I post a job and somebody sees they're interested in this role and they're qualified for this role I guess that's that's where I'm starting like we're going to make an assumption that this person would actually be good at this job What I like to see is Apply for the role.

We don't know whether or not a company does referrals for a simple most You know if a company doesn't do referrals Don't ask for a referral from somebody who don't really know because that gets really awkward um But look at you know just go ahead and apply for the role Reach out to the hiring manager or recruiter whichever one you have contact with and say like we said Hey, I just applied really excited about this role. Here's why super quick message Do not send me an essay about why you're really excited about this role because I will not read it Unfortunately, I just don't have time to do that What I also like to see is it who in your network either works at this company now or Used to work at this company or no somebody who works at this company So we're talking second level connections at this point reach out to them and say hey I would love to get on a call with you to understand a little bit more about it's like to work in this company It doesn't have to be I'm going to sell you Myself to get on to get this role.

I'm not pitching to the wrong person You're starting to make a connection within the organization where if somebody to work home to me and say hey I would love to understand a little bit more about what it's like to work at spot when they're not Hiring or it's not my role that I'm hiring for I might say hey This other engineering director. I just talked with so-and-so just about you know the company in general They're super cool. Look for the resume. Yeah. Yeah 100% I love it. I love it. I'm it's good to see you man Let's see here. I'm Yeah, I mean Barrett Barrett senior is career in these terrible interviews.

I mean everybody is like just because you're senior doesn't mean you're great interviews Well this from the random practice till you become muscle memory love that Nobody yeah, I love that nobody knows what you forgot to say 100% The great Danny Thompson in the chat this morning. What up big guys gonna see you man great see you Cool, all right. We got three minutes left Kelly any final wrap-up thoughts as we finish up here join the friend zone first and for It's a good time I have free option just jump in if you want to think about you know what I Truly believe that our paid option is going to be fantastic and it's something you should seriously consider But at least join the community and get to know the other folks who are also of job hunting or if you're not job hunting right now You might be job hunting in the future.

So just don't hang out with some friends I just serve for some self promotion as well. I probably tune in letters One is called the modern leader. I focus on leadership qualities This is not just for tech. This is you know, they they apply across the board a lot of my examples are could are tech because I am in tech That is the modern leader. I asked or modern leader. I asked not I got now Just you modern leader without the just modern leader. I asked Cool, that's number one number two It's called tiny triumphs. It is a short email. I send every weekday morning at 7 a.m.

It has one little Ex-wise, they were back to it There we go That is it another newsletter super super quick reading the morning. I use these productivity tips of sending myself So I highly recommend taking a look at both of those You can find You can find My own website which is kv. Oh, I dot com. I'm not putting that down there. Cool. Love it Anything else. Thank you again. Appreciate y'all. You guys have a great Thursday I'm off tomorrow and then Labor Day is Monday. So we will be back next Tuesday. I'm still working on an Emily Freeman back on the show And have I have I have some updates for y'all.

I have some personal updates. So I will share those I will share those Tuesday. So y'all have a good one. We'll see y'all next week 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.

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