Episode Transcript

Chris Villanueva 00:00

Making sure to get your resume physically in the right hands of somebody who can make a decision. You can ask around, ask your friends, ask your network, who can I pass this resume along to? And you’ll need some persistence, especially during this time. And welcome to the Let’s Eat, Grandma Career Warrior Podcast. This is how to talk about yourself in your resume. My name is Chris Villanueva, I founded a resume service that has helped over 11,000 job seekers in all different industries. I’m proud to have this resume service and I’m going to be taking some key principles from what we do as resume writers to give it to you as the listener. All of our dirty secrets, I’m not holding back here. And my goal here is to encourage you to talk about yourself in a professional way that feels comfortable, that really gives you that confidence as you were sending your resume out and even talking during interviews.

Chris Villanueva 01:02

So today I want to speak to the person that says I have a hard time talking about myself, describing what I do or what my accomplishments are. This episode should help you to think about what you are good at and help you to express that on paper. At the end of the day, your resume is a marketing piece, and so I’m going to be delivering some key points that will help to get that creative process started. Think of me as your human guide, as an expert walking alongside you as you craft your document. We had a message from a past client before they started working with us who said, I think I may be suffering from imposter syndrome because I find it difficult to articulate my job. I know I’m good at many things and my track record speaks for itself, but I just don’t know how to convey that to prospective employers.

Chris Villanueva 01:49

And another person says that I have trouble coming up with the words that describe what I do, but the good news is that so many other people go through this. You are not alone here. And your competition as you were sending out this document is going to be dealing with the same exact job search as you. So when you listen to this episode, my encouragement for you is to think about the things that truly make you unique and special. Consider this episode your permission to move forward and to come up with an amazing document and to talk about yourself with confidence here because you are solid. You are somebody who is made for this next position here. So just setting the stage here, I’ll come forward with some humility and say that I even had a hard time getting started in this episode. Sometimes I struggle with my own writer’s block in creativity.

Chris Villanueva  02:45

Sometimes I’ll even pop on over to my friend at chat GPT to say, Hey, what should I do? Help me get started and I’ll kind of listen to what it says and then I’ll say, okay, move forward. There are little tricks and things that I like to do, but with this I wanted to give you three things that you can do to help you to talk about yourself on your resume. That will go beyond the resume. It’ll help you with your cover letter, your interview, your LinkedIn profile. So by doing this exercise, you are going to have a great resume that you’re proud of and you’ll be able to interview confidently. And I actually just heard back from a client here just sharing some success stories. A person said, resume help was great. I ended up getting out of the army taking a business development role at a small defense company.

Chris Villanueva  03:32

They’re jumping over to a program manager role for a large defense firm at the end of the month. Another person said that they went into construction project management and got a significant pay increase and then they were able to buy a house. The resume obviously worked out for me, and another person said that they were able to find a new banking job as an economist on the research team. So these principles, a hundred percent work. And oftentimes there comes an unlock when you end up speaking with a professional and whether or not you can afford a resume service. I hope that this listening to me and my words and these three tips I’m going to outline here, I hope that unlocks something special for you now. So the first thing I’m going to encourage you to do, especially if you find it hard to talk about yourself, is eyes on the prize.

Chris Villanueva 04:26

First of all, just take a deep breath and take the focus away from yourself or just a second. Maybe you’re having a hard time because it feels weird talking about yourself or you feel self-conscious. Maybe you feel like you can’t do this next job, you feel like you lack some confidence here. But just for a second, take away the attention from yourself and onto the company you are applying for. Ask yourself these questions. What do the companies you are going to be applying for? What do they want? If this is the private sector, then maybe it’s more performance things. And if you’re applying for a nonprofit, then maybe it’s impact. But think about what these companies want. What are the actual jobs that you are going to be applying for? And what is the hiring manager looking for in that position that there are so many hiring managers out there who were just dying to find talent.

Chris Villanueva  05:22

They might be sitting there hoping and praying that their job will be done when that next resume comes through. So again, take the focus away from yourself from a second, and this might just take some research. It might take some discussions with other people as you focus on what the needs of the company are and looking at some job postings, but eyes on the prize, think about what your dream company wants. The second tip, I’ll move through this next one quickly because I know you just want the advice is just right. The second thing that you want to do as you’re crafting your resume and your other documents, you just want to start to get something on paper. And I’m giving you permission now, and if I haven’t said it already, I’ll say it again. Just brag permission here is you can sound clunky. It’s not going to be pretty because I’ll show you in a second here what you can do to make that sound pretty.

Chris Villanueva  06:16

But just brag about yourself. The question I’ll ask is, what’s your proudest accomplishment in your last role? Think about that beautiful moment you had in which you felt like maybe you couldn’t do it before or you didn’t expect it would’ve gone over this well, but you ended up doing it and it was amazing. What are the top three things that you’ve done in your career that qualify you for this role that you’re going to be applying for? What personal traits do you possess that no one else does that’s going to make you amazing for this role? Now I want to share just a quick personal story here that would get me thinking about my own job search here. And I hope that it helps you as you listen. But thinking about what my unique strengths are. One time I had about 10 times, this is no exaggeration, 10 times the personal credit card debt.

Chris Villanueva 07:08

Then what my monthly income was felt like. I was delving into a debt spiral, and this is several years back, but I put on my analytics hat, and I remember that day I thought carefully about the exact amount of money that I needed to make, and I ended up grinding through some extra hours, some extra jobs that I took on, and I kept at it week after week. And eventually I was able not only to pay off that credit card debt, but I was able to save up for a down payment that would become my first house. Financial analysis, cost savings, persistence. These are three core traits that I would bring to the table. And I don’t think I would say this in an interview or a resume, even though it was a feat for me given the personal nature of it. But in my mind, what I’m doing here when I’m thinking about my resume and just kind of bragging here as I’m starting to unlock what I truly believe will be valuable for this upcoming job.

Chris Villanueva 08:07

So again, in my mind, I am bridging the gaps and coming up with 10 other mini examples of how I was able to do that in my professional life. I was able to reduce our costs, for example, 10% in a single month by switching vendors. And I was able to analyze and come up with a system basically to give us more financial clarity that would end up reducing the amount of time it took to do the accounting by let’s say 15 hours a month. So I am again, thinking about what my strengths are. I’m thinking about really what am I proud of, not just some BS thing that I think sounds good, but what can I show up with confidence and clarity and let that just flow on paper and out of my mouth during an interview without feeling like it’s braggy. It has to be authentic.

Chris Villanueva 08:58

So the third part of this, so I said tip one was eyes on the prize, take the focus away from you for a second. Two is just write, get this all on paper. It does not have to be pretty, but just start to answer these questions. I asked, what do the companies you’re applying for want? What jobs am I applying for? What does the hiring manager want? What are my strengths? And the third thing is to finesse. This is where the technical part of resume writing comes into play. So I want you to stare at that hiring manager in the face and say, out loud, what makes you qualified for this role? Pause the tape, pause this podcast and say out loud what you think will qualify you for the role. And I want you to say it over and over and over again until you feel like in your body, in your entire body that you are the person that is it.

Chris Villanueva  09:47

You were the person that is ready for the role. And think about what that is. Getting this on paper, I’m thinking practically. So you’ve already done the exercise of talking about what you’ve done at your last role, what accomplishments you’re feeling it again, you’ve said these things out loud. And then the next thing that you can do is get this on a resume. Again, if you’re working with a resume writer, they’ll take care of all this for you. But sometimes converting this through use of chat GPT, just to get started, maybe you want to find a way to take what you have done the answers and to refactor it in the format of a resume. And I would say this is going to help you not to sound braggy, is if a, you get some help to do it because sometimes it makes it easier.

Chris Villanueva 10:32

But don’t be afraid to focus on the achievement first and foremost, you want to make sure you have the right types of keywords. For example, financial analysis, making sure that those are on the resume, but at the same time, what was the result? My example, it was cutting down the amount of time, 20 hours, or it might’ve been reducing the costs by five 10%. But that is really what I’m focusing on when it comes to the phrasing of the document. And if I’m going to cut anything down, it’s not going to be that accomplishment. It’s going to be making sure that that stands out in the document. So rinse and repeat. So say your phrase out loud to your friend, give your resume to somebody who might be able to give you some feedback and you would be amazed at what they notice in the document.

Chris Villanueva 11:20

Again, if you get clear on the things that make you valuable for that organization, again, taking the focus away from you for a second, your resume is going to come across as strong, impactful, and it’s going to be attention grabbing. So in closing, don’t forget ginja strategy as well. Make sure you have the document, but you are making sure to get your resume physically in the right hands of somebody who can make a decision. You can ask around, ask your friends, ask your network, who can I pass this resume along to? And you’ll need some persistence, especially during this time. So if you want, repeat this episode back before you write your next resume or before you hop on that interview and know that we are here with you and we want to make sure that we are available always to help you with your job search.

Chris Villanueva 12:10

So hope this was helpful. We have another episode coming out on Monday. And of course, make sure to send your resume for a free review at letseatgrandma.com We’d be happy to give you a quick scan. Thanks so much and I hope you have a great rest of your week. Bye-bye. Career Warrior Podcast. And before you go, remember if you’re not seeing the results you want in your job search, our highly trained team of professional resume writers here at, Let’s Eat, Grandma can help head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast/ to get a free resume critique and $70 off any one of our resume writing packages. We talk all the time on the show about the importance of being targeted in your job search. And with our unique writing process and focus on individual attention, you’ll get a resume cover letter and LinkedIn profile that are highly customized and tailored to your goals to help you get hired faster. Again, head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast/ Thanks, and I’ll see you next time.