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know that this is a very difficult time right now. I know it's very competitive but hang in there and I know that you can do it. When I was in my six month period of not landing a job, it is so easy to run out on faith. It's like, why is this happening to me?
Welcome to the Make Up Your Mind podcast. I'm your host Jahleane Dolne, and I'm here to help you make up your mind - literally and figuratively. I'm a motivational speaker, content creator, subconscious mindset coach, and the founder of The Postgrad Playbook- the only coaching platform and resource center for post-grads and 20 somethings to release mindset blocks and take action towards their chosen career , no matter how, quote unquote, unconventional that might look.
As an expert recognized by Afrotech, LinkedIn news,, and more, I help you identify what you actually want, release what's keeping you stuck, and have a game plan to take action with clarity, confidence, conviction, and ease. Here we cover all [00:01:00] things, paving your own way and how that looks personally and professionally. Get ready to finally make up your mind.
Let's get started.
Hello, happy Wednesday. And welcome back to a new episode of Make Up Your Mind. I'm so happy you're tuning in today and on the last day of July, um, I can't believe that it's already almost August. I feel like I've been saying that with so many of the episodes that we've been putting out. The year is just going by faster and faster and faster.
It felt like new year's just happened, but here we are almost August.
Today we're going to go ahead and just dive right in. I'm sure you saw the episode title and it's no secret that so many people have still been struggling to land a job. Right after last year, I feel like there've been so many layoffs happening left and right, and there's just so much competitiveness when it comes to you landing a job, that I thought that this would be the perfect time to go ahead and share some tangible resources and tips to go after that career, you [00:02:00] want. Whether you're pivoting or still looking specifically within your industry, I felt like this episode was going to be
the best time to lay out all of my best tips because I've been there right with you and it sucks flat out. It's just not fun. Just getting rejection after rejection, after rejection, after trying so hard and just not seeing any solution.
I read an article that said that there were about, I think, 60, 000 US based tech layoffs alone this year , and that number is crazy in itself. So we're going to go over some tangible tips in this episode so that you can get the job that you want
right away and if you aren't looking for a job, maybe you're pivoting into being a business owner, I still think that a lot of the tips in this episode will be applicable.
Like I mentioned, I have 100% been there before. If you've listened to the past episode, "How to know when it's time you quit your job," you're going to know a little bit about that situation, but to dial it back. When I was nearing the end of my time at the first job that I had after school, I found myself [00:03:00] in a really tough position. COVID was happening. A lot of layoffs were happening. And I also knew that where I was, couldn't provide me with the opportunities for growth that I was looking for. So I made a really bold decision and I quit at the peak of the pandemic. If I'm being very transparent even though there were so many people looking for jobs at that time, because as we know with the pandemic, there are a lot of layoffs going on, I didn't think that it was going to take me as long as it did. But I was quickly humbled by the job market.
And not only was I very green, but I was also someone who was pivoting into a whole new industry. I wanted to move into marketing or traditional sales and that was moving from a traditional business development program that was b2c it was on the ground. It was a completely different environment. So I hit the ground running and I start putting out application after application, after application. And then the rejections just start pouring in. It's just like, no. No, no, no, no, no. And [00:04:00] if you're going through this, you can resonate 100% but it is the most discouraging feeling, especially when a rejection rolls in 0.2 seconds after you submitted the application so you know no one real actually read that application at all. So during this time, I knew that it was just going to be a numbers game and I kept applying and applying and applying, but I kept running into the same problems. So I knew something had to shake something, had to change. And it really came down to two things.
So first I was trying to pivot into a new field where I had minimal experience. So I had to figure out some way to close the gap between where I was and somehow the hiring manager seeing me as the best person for that position. I was looking to be in a marketing role after doing that business development program, and I had mostly sales experience, so I really didn't know how I was going to close that gap.
But then I finally decided that it would be best for me to learn how to start blogging and then also start learning how to post [00:05:00] on social media. And that's where the whole social media journey started. I wanted to have tangible numbers and tangible results that i'd be able to show these companies so that way they can envision me stepping into the role. Of course, this took a lot of time, but I eventually learned how to build a website, I learned about SEO, I learned about social media analytics, and those were stats that I can put under a blog that I created and basically create my own experience from that. In the meantime during this period that I was looking for a new position I was doing what everyone else was doing. I was on tiktok and tiktok was I think it was elite the most elite during that time everyone was dancing.
It was so carefree but the algorithm picked up that I was someone who was in search for a job and because of that they started showing me so much career related content and I started to learn so many things about the job process that I totally didn't know about before The first thing was that my resume wasn't [00:06:00] ATS friendly
Who knew that your resume can't be created in Canva if you're uploading it to software right? You should really only be creating your resume in Canva if you are just emailing it to someone directly and they can read it. If your resume's going to to be skimmed by a robot, Canva resumes are not the way to go. You want to have a regular word document or a resume that is just very plain. It doesn't have to be designed to the max unless you're going specifically for a design role, but your resume can be plain just bullet points, in the word document detailing your experience. Your education experience. Volunteer experience. Things like that. So that was the very first thing I fixed. Making sure that I had an ATS resume. And that's also what TikTok pointed out to me. Another really big thing that they made sure that I knew was that you need to have an optimized LinkedIn profile.
The first time this came up, I was like, Hmm, I don't know about that. I just think that's whatever, [00:07:00] because I hadn't heard about that before. Until more more and more career gurus. Is kept popping up on my, for you page saying, "You need to optimize your profile. You need to optimize your profile for the job that you want."
And I was like, fine. Okay.
I finally got to the last video telling me to do it. And I think I also maybe saw a testimonial from someone who was able to successfully land a job from doing that.
And I bit the bullet. I was like, okay, I'm going to go ahead and optimize my LinkedIn profile, but how do I do that? I found a course from someone who was selling it for $20, teaching me how to optimize my LinkedIn profile in and out.
And when I tell you, I did not want to spend these $20. Mind you, I'm still in the broke college student mindset living at home with my parents and not really sure if this is going to work, right? You see a course from someone online and you think, oh yeah, is it really going to get me the results that I'm looking for or am I wasting my money?
But then at the same time I was thinking about it and I said, well, this is about the same amount of money for lunch and if I [00:08:00] can't invest this into my career or into myself, then I think that I have a bigger problem right now. So I reluctantly went ahead and purchased the course and went through it right away.
I think it took me maybe just a couple, it didn't take long at all, just a couple hours before I had gone through the course. And by the end of that weekend, I had completely optimized my LinkedIn profile and I just sat and waited. You know, at this point it had been five months and I had just been creating content and spending a lot of times applying for jobs and at the same time feeling very defeated and wanting to move on with my life and usher in the next chapter.
So this really was a last ditch effort, but the next day I looked at my profile, you know, nothing really happened. Next day I'm seeing if anything changed. No, nothing really changed. No job opportunities. But the third day comes around and I get a message from a recruiter.
And I'm like, Oh, like this is really interesting. [00:09:00] A recruiter has never reached out to me before. That's very interesting. And it was for a job opportunity that didn't end up working out. But the fact that a recruiter was reaching out to me after a month of a dry spell was foreign to me. And then more and more recruiters started to come. And within a week, my inbox, I had so many messages from recruiters. Honestly, some of them from the same companies that had rejected me before offering positions and letting me know some roles that they were hiring for.
And I couldn't believe it. It was like my prayers had been answered and I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel coming. Then someone from an organization that helps place underrepresented groups into beginner roles in tech reached out to me and within two weeks of getting connected to that organization, I had interviewed for a new opportunity and landed a job in tech in sales.
It wasn't necessarily exactly the marketing position that [00:10:00] I wanted but with sales I saw so many benefits into going into it in a corporate space with the potential to pivot into marketing That I was just so happy to accept it and also have a lot of earning potential. Just optimizing my LinkedIn profile, six months of searching for a job came to an end in three weeks.
And I cannot stress this enough that this is probably the most important thing that you could ever do for your job search. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is optimized so that recruiters can come to you. And not just optimized for whatever, optimized for the job that you specifically want. And now, what does optimization look like?
What does that even mean?
When I had gone through that mini course I purchased, I realized that it was very, very similar to the blogging that I had done and making sure my website was SEO optimized. That basically just means that your platform or your page or whatever you are putting out Is optimized for whoever you want to find it. So for example, I was putting [00:11:00] that I wanted to have a sales and marketing job. So I was putting in keywords throughout my profile in key areas that would show that I'm the best person for the role and that I had experience.
The way that recruiters use sites like linkedin is that they are using it as a search engine So they go into their tools and they search for keywords on the back end through a tool called linkedin recruiter And they comb through hundreds of applications or whatever populates on that list.
So that way they're able to reach out to people who fit the description of the candidates that they're looking for that are the most ideal to the role. Filling my LinkedIn profile with these keywords that I knew recruiters would probably be searching for, i.e. skills related to the job, I positioned myself to have a better chance to have them coming to me.
Most opportunities are never even posted. They're on the hidden job market, which recruiters have access to and people who are deep into networks have access to.
One way to make sure that you have an inbound traffic of [00:12:00] job opportunities coming your way, instead of just doing outbound and applying, applying, applying, networking, networking, networking, is just making sure your profile is optimized it's something that will only take a couple hours and you will not regret it. Even if you do have a job, making sure your profile is optimized at all times is something that will help you Continuously be privy to more opportunities or just keep interviewing while you do have a job
So that same $20 deal isn't available anymore, but what I did do is I created a free PDF for six underrated LinkedIn hacks that you definitely should know that I will link in the show notes and if you're watching on YouTube, I'll link it in the caption. So that way you can go ahead and download that. Just give me your email and I'll send it right to you. And additionally, there is a whole, I think it's like 27 page ebook that I did create all about LinkedIn and the LinkedIn bundle when it comes to you creating content when it comes to optimizing your LinkedIn profile in [00:13:00] depth, having a keyword tracker and so on, that is available on the shop as well. There are a ton of resources that we have available when it comes to getting started.
It includes a lot of bonuses and a lot more from what I've learned about my sales job and my couple of years on the platform being able to find a lot of success. So I will link that for you below.
Throughout this process, I also learned that there are a lot of other key ways for you to navigate your job process that are just not talked about enough. The first is to look at smaller companies and apply for roles at smaller companies rather than the big sexy names to start off with.
I know that this can be a little bit challenging to start off because you might not know specifically which companies you want to work for or even where to find them, but you can use sites and job platforms like AngelList, Indeed, and Handshake, and more, and they usually have a ton of opportunities there.
And maybe you feel like you're ready to pivot, you're ready to look for a new job, but you feel a little bit aimless in your search. You're still trying to figure out exactly what you want to do. So for example, like [00:14:00] when I was looking for new positions and I was interested in marketing and sales, if you're listening to this and you're still in school, there are organizations like Parker Dewey and what they do is they provide you with micro internships so that way you can dabble in a lot of different things instead of just one.
Some other tips that really saved me throughout this process and being able to land the job that I had was taking note of the transferable skills that I had in my back pocket. One really big mistake that a lot of people make when it comes to switching industries or going for a new job is that if their resume doesn't match exactly, they might just think that they're not qualified. When in reality, you probably have a lot more transferable skills than you even realize. Think about the extracurriculars you did at school or think about that volunteer experience that you did. I think I read a stat saying that over 80% of recruiters view volunteer experience. As the same as real work experience. So 100% do not sleep on that, because that can [00:15:00] be the difference between you getting a job that you really want, versus settling for something that you don't. And obviously my goal with The Postgrad Playbook is for you to take action towards your chosen career, not settling for what might come your way.
Secondly, what's especially key is conducting as many informational interviews as you can. If you aren't familiar, informational interviews are basically just when you are reaching. Out to someone who works at a company, having maybe 15 minutes of their time and just learning more about what they do, how they like it, and so on. You're getting a feel for the culture. You're getting a feel for the environment. You're getting a feel for their job. And so on. And informational interviews are just such a great way to network and potentially even get a referral if you have
really great conversation. Like I talked about in a couple of past podcast episodes, your weak ties are incredibly important. So, you know, not just your immediate circle, but a friend of a friend, because they have access to people, places, and opportunities, that you might not have even dreamed of
You can [00:16:00] start your process of finding informational interviews through messaging people on linkedin through that linkedin bundle guide that I talked about. I have my full strategy for messaging people that is very very effective and it's helped me source over six figures of pipeline revenue when I was doing sales and prospecting people and vps of sales and marketing on linkedin. So it's tried and true. It's worked by me and I still use it to this day
next I would say definitely do not sleep on your university's resources. If you've graduated from a school oftentimes, they'll have a lot of resources for alumni. Whether that's an alumni portal or job opportunities specifically for alumni or networking opportunities, schools love to see their alumni doing very, very well.
So just go back to your university maybe email the Career Center and see if there's anything like that or go to the Alumni Center and see how you can get that continued support.
When I was in my six month period of being unemployed that is exactly what I did toward the end of [00:17:00] that era and I got connected with a ucsb alumni who also happened to be an executive at Pinterest and she hooked me up with a couple of interviews that were definitely going to pan out But I ended up choosing the option that I just talked to you about instead
And those really are my main tips for navigating the job market right now and landing a job that you truly want.
I know that this is a very difficult time right now. I know it's very competitive but hang in there and I know that you can do it. When I was in my six month period of not landing a job, it is so easy to run out on faith. It's like, why is this happening to me?
You might see the numbers in your bank account going down and down and down, and just knowing that you need to land something soon. And I promise you, it will happen. You just have to keep going, keep being persistent, putting yourself out there, and following the tips that you see online and something will shake, something will work out.
So as always, I'm always reading for you. All the [00:18:00] resources are linked in the show notes slash caption if you're watching on YouTube.
Make sure to share this podcast on your stories or with a friend or someone, you know that this would really help and Also leave a review if you're on Apple podcasts or if you're in the YouTube comment section write a comment all these things help our podcast grow and my goal is to get this information in the hands of people who need it most and You doing that helps us accomplish that mission.
Thank you so much, as always I am rooting for you, you got this and I will see you next Wednesday. Bye.
