Episode 69: Practical Pieces of Making a Transition with Merryn Roberts-Huntley

Welcome to The Career Clarity Show, where we help you find a lucrative, soulful, and joyful career path for you!

Today we are talking about all the tactical nitty gritty pieces to executing on a job search to perfection. We’re covering resumes, LinkedIn, interviewing, and all the steps that it takes to go from being a great candidate to landing a great offer. 

If you are interested in making a transition, either now or later, grab a place, take some notes and pay attention because you’re going to be hearing tons of fabulous practical tactical things that you can be doing to set yourself up for success, starting right now. 

Joining us is Merryn Roberts-Huntley of Made To Hire. With 20 years of business experience and 10 years of career coaching, she knows how to help you land your dream career. 

Want to learn more about our strategic framework for successful career change? Download The Roadmap to Career Fulfillment ebook right here!

SHOW NOTES:

• Made To Hire: How to Get the Job You Really Want
• Made to Hire
• Merryn on LinkedIn
• Lisa on LinkedIn
• Read the Career Clarity Book!
• Email Lisa at Lisa@GetCareerClarity.com

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Transcript:

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:20  

Welcome to the Career Clarity Show. If you want to create a career path you’ll love, you’re in the right place. I’m Lisa Lewis Miller, career change coach, published author and your host, and each week we’ll bring you personal transformation stories, advice and insights from experts about how you can find a more fulfilling, soulful and joyful career.  

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:45  

Hello, and welcome, clarity seekers. I’m your host, career change expert and the creator of the Career Clarity method, Lisa Lewis Miller.  Today, on our podcast, we are talking about all the tactical nitty gritty pieces to executing on a job search to perfection. What we’re going to be covering today is a lot of that will usually cover on the podcast we’re gonna be talking about how to be thinking about resume, LinkedIn, interviewing, and all the steps that it takes to go from being a great candidate to landing a great offer. So if you are interested in making a transition, either now or soon. Make sure that you definitely press subscribe. Grab a place, take some notes and pay attention because you’re going to be hearing tons of fabulous practical tactical things that you can be doing to set yourself up for success, starting right now. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  1:33  

Let me tell you a little bit about today’s guest. Today on the podcast I am delighted to bring on Merryn Roberts-Huntley. Merryn Roberts-Huntley started Made To Hire in 2017. With 20 years of business experience and 10 years of career coaching, she knows how to help you land your dream career. Companies and young professionals call her their secret weapon. She’s the author of the book, ‘Made To Hire: How to Get the Job You Really Want.’ Merryn also. teaches Marketing and Professional Development at the graduate level at the University of Oregon. Merryn, thank you so much for coming on the Career Clarity Show.

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  2:07  

Thanks so much for having me Lisa I’m so excited to be here. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  2:10  

I am delighted to bring you on that. Kind of like I said, we don’t often talk about the execution and the practical pieces of making a transition because so many of the people who are listening to the Career Clarity Show are really on the precipice of deciding, and committing to make a transition and move into something new and different. But I also know that one of the biggest fears and impediments to making a change is the worry that you are going to be unhireable. Nobody’s going to want you, you are going to take this big risk it’s not going to pay off, you’re not going to be successful, you’re going to end up back doing what you were doing before. And that can be a really easy way to talk yourself out of trying something new that would ultimately be a huge increase in quality of life and happiness and all these things for yourself. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  2:57  

So I’m excited to bring you another expert to talk to people about essentially how it can be a lot less scary, a lot more doable, and a lot more strategic and how they might be thinking, but before we get to that, I would love to have you share a bit about your background and how you got into this work in the first place to give people a little peek into what experiences shaped you and shaped your business. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  3:20  

Thank you, thank you for the lovely introduction Lisa that was really kind of you. So I have worked in business for about 20 years fashion I’m aging myself. And I’ve been doing career coaching for about 10 years and initially started as doing mentoring for students coming out of my alma mater, which is the University of Oregon, but things really changed about six years ago when I started teaching at the elbow in Portland where I live, and I was technically teaching my students, marketing, but I was always peppering in my career coaching because finding your dream job really is a marketing exercise and my background in business is marketing products and services. And as I’ve developed as a career coach I’ve taken that mentality of looking at people and figuring out what is the way to put the best version of that person forward. And I started about six years ago really doing this with my students, and it got to the point where they, their feedback was so overwhelmingly kind, and they said Merryn, you have to share your methods with more people. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  4:35  

And so, a few years ago is when I decided to finally write the book that I had really in my mind been writing for a decade made to hire my book, and that’s also when I started my online course. Again, giving people very practical career advice on how to actually make the changes that they want to make all the nitty gritty, that you want to talk about today really is, my sweet spot and, for better or worse I am a straight shooter. So I think that’s why my clients come to me is because they find that they’re stuck in a situation, and they want help to get unstuck and they want very tactical practical advice on the things that they should be doing to get where they want to go. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  5:22  

I love that, I love the concept of thinking about a job search, as a marketing campaign and thinking about how to put the best version of you forward, because I think that there’s a lot of misconception that part of a job search is this, this effort of selling yourself and being sleazy and having to be boastful and bombastic and over the top and and misrepresenting who you are. And it sounds like your philosophy really is let’s talk about exactly who you are but let’s make sure that we are framing that in a way that’s going to be the most accessible the most appealing and the most easy to recognize for that dream employer. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  6:01  

Well exactly you want you’re only going to feel good about it if you’re being your authentic self, but it’s interesting how uncomfortable it is for most people to actually talk about themselves and so that’s where I do a lot of work in my book with people, which is figuring out how do I tell my story, whether I’m over video over the phone, whether I’m writing my resume whether I’m on LinkedIn and that’s kind of the first hurdle that I usually work on with people is how do I talk about myself. And once people get comfortable putting forth the best version of themselves. You can see them start to own it, and it becomes an exercise in confidence, and they start to really approach their job search differently when they realize, wow, I actually do have a lot more to offer I just wasn’t framing it the right way.

Lisa Lewis Miller  6:53  

I love that you really focus on authenticity and making this feel genuine making it feel really soulful in the way that people move forward, and knowing that you are the queen of the tactics and the execution side I’d love to give you an opportunity to share some of your brilliance around how to make sure that that authentic soulful brand translates into your professional assets as easily as simply as clearly as possible. And I know that one of the areas that you are really passionate about is LinkedIn and using LinkedIn effectively. So, can you share a bit about your philosophy and strategy, about how to really set up your LinkedIn presence for success. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  7:38  

I would love to, Lisa. As you said I am really passionate about LinkedIn and let’s be honest, most LinkedIn profiles are pretty terrible. There’s a lot of low hanging fruit for most people to make their LinkedIn profiles so much better. So that’s what I want to get specific with your listeners about here’s what you can do. So first off let’s acknowledge that LinkedIn is your virtual billboard. If you’re considering a career change or are already actively looking for a new job. That is your calling card that is you online that is where recruiters and hiring managers are having a look at you and within a couple seconds, they’re deciding Am I going to scroll. Am I going to potentially contact this candidate. So what can you do to make the right first impression that’s what we want to get into right. So one of the first things is your headshot. That’s going to be noticed right away. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  8:33  

And I always encourage people to have a professional headshot something where you actually look happy not overly exaggerated, but not grumpy right so a warm, inviting headshot that is professional. That’s kind of the first thing. Most people are doing that. The next thing is that background image behind your headshot. That is one of the most important pieces of real estate, that is underused really undervalued by job seekers. So, LinkedIn will default that to their just patterned background, and probably half the LinkedIn profiles that I look at have that default and I think it’s just that a lot of people don’t know. You can change that image that’s behind your headshot. So what do you do with that real estate. My recommendation is to put an image there that you can search for online, just search around on Google put an image that represents your professional passion. So let’s say your passion is real estate, you would want to put an image of some sort of housing development or commercial real estate building something like that. Let’s say your passion is something to do with the world of sports, you would want to put an image of athletes on a field or, or something like that right so really think, when someone looks at your own file. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  9:54  

What message do you want them to. Because they’re going to get it right away so background image. The next thing that I find most important taking advantage of is the headline, so your headline on LinkedIn sits right below your name, What most people do their, their current job title, and that’s it. So when someone hires me to work with them on LinkedIn the thing I’ll say to them is. So do you think that’s all you are, are you just your current job title. And then they’ll stop and think and they’ll realize No, actually I’m a lot more. So you can put several words there perhaps you put your job title which is let’s say sales manager, right. I would also put several other words that represent your background perhaps you, you would, you could put a top performer perhaps you put leader perhaps you put the school that you went to right let’s say you went to u Penn, right. There are multiple words that you could put there in that headline that are going to tell more about your story and intrigue, the viewer. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  11:05  

Well and let me jump in to say to that for people who are contemplating career change. When you set up your LinkedIn profile that headline piece defaults to your current job, and what LinkedIn entails as your current most recent job and ethically if you’re wanting to change careers. You don’t want to be thought of that way anymore. That’s what you want to leave in the past. So I think your point about going in and being intentional and customizing it and making it more forward looking and getting more interesting words to catch somebody’s attention if they are just scrolling through is incredibly helpful.

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  11:41  

I love that thank you for adding that Lisa. So then the next section if we think about as you scroll down your LinkedIn page. The next section that, that is really important is that about section. A lot of people leave this blank. Some people write this really long essay and some people just write one sentence. I would say a couple short paragraphs would be appropriate. But what you’re trying to do in that about section is new telling your story, because if you don’t put something there. It’s like not having an overview statement on a resume. You’re then expecting someone to figure out your story and honestly think about if you don’t have a good headshot you don’t have a strong background image you don’t have a good headline and now you haven’t even really told me your story. I’m moving on, right. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  12:26  

So, that’s your chance to really position yourself and so if you are a career changer and have a decent amount of experience, or the years of experience, put areas that you’ve worked in put transferable skills that you have. And Lisa, one of the things that I say to people is, you know, have a look at my LinkedIn profile as just an example of length of the about section, and the sort of information. It’s kind of how top line I suggest going with your about section. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  12:59  

I love that well we can link to that in the show notes from today so if you’re listening to this you’re already taking notes and you want to look at an example. We’ll include a link to both Marion’s profile and my profile just to give you a couple different flavors of ways, things there so that you can get inspired and excited too, because one of the things that I’ll jump in and add about the about section is that, to your point about LinkedIn being this this professional billboard, the about section. If we think about LinkedIn as also being an incredibly powerful search engine, the about section is like your place to load up with the kind of terms you want people to find you, when they search for. So be not afraid to put a little bit more information there than one or two sentences, even though when you look at a LinkedIn profile, and you look at that ABOUT SECTION typically the only parts that are immediately visible are one or two sentences and then there’s a, you know, read more button, but be not afraid to to add a little bit of length add a little bit of detail, call out some of those transferable skills. Those are all fabulous tips about that. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  14:05  

And so Lisa I could talk about LinkedIn all day but I think maybe I’ll give you two more things and then you tell me if you want more, but two that I definitely wouldn’t get in here, then the next one is job descriptions so a lot of people will simply put the title. Make sure you actually fill in what you were responsible for. And whenever possible talk about impact or results in the work that you did. So just be consistent with all those past positions and actually give, give some meat to it right. And then the one other thing I want to make sure I touch on is using LinkedIn like you just said. Loading Loading important keywords into your profile, but also using it as. This is a funny word to use but it’s fate. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  14:50  

So if you have a great LinkedIn profile, spend time looking at recruiters online so, figure out who recruiters are in the area that you want to be working whether it’s the city or the industry, whatever it may be. Just spend time looking at recruiters. By doing that, and even if you don’t reach out to them just look at them, because by looking at them, they’re going to look back at you and if you’ve got a great profile, and if you have the sort of skills that they might be recruiting for, you’ll find you’ll start getting some notes from them. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  15:24  

That is brilliant. I love that and if anybody’s listening to this and you’re a little bit more of a LinkedIn newbie. So there’s a setting that you can toggle in your LinkedIn, which essentially and you can also toggle it depending on if you pay for LinkedIn upgrades about whether or not if you look at somebody else’s profile they can tell that you have looked right because there are little notifications that you can get that say, so and so looks at your profile, or sometimes it will sometimes look like a more masked version. This is a case where you totally want to toggle that setting so that people can see that you’re looking at their profile, because just by looking at their profile, they’ll get a notification on their dashboard that says, hey, so and so look, and especially if they work in recruiting. If you’re showing any interest in them. It’s like catnip, they’re gonna go and click on your profile and see who you are and see what you’re about. So I love the idea of thinking strategically about bait, and about making yourself easily discoverable to the right people. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  16:25  

Yes, thank you. And I think with, with everything we’re talking about today it’s about rebranding and repositioning yourself, like we said kind of putting that best version of yourself forward. But don’t be applying for things and reaching out to or looking at recruiters until you’ve done this work, right, because it’s a missed opportunity if you send in your resume or are looking at recruiters online and you’re not ready right because you haven’t really put the thought into how do I truly want to come forward, how do I want to come into this job search. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  16:57  

Love that. Well, speaking of putting in the work and making sure that you are being intentional and strategic in your marketing upfront. Tell me about your philosophy on resumes. I know you’ve got a little bit of, I don’t know if it’s controversial or counterculture advice but you’ve got some different advice and what people might be used to reading or used to hearing. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  17:19  

Yeah, I usually tell most people to throw out their current resume, because they have been sending it around. And it’s not doing anything for them. There are several things wrong with most resumes, they’re multiple pages, or one resume needs to be one page. That’s my rule, unless you’re an academic, who has been published in multiple journals and you have a PhD. That would be for me. The only exception. I work with people who have 2030 or more years of experience, I have no problem getting them to a one page resume. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  17:58  

Wow. Let me ask you a follow up on that because one of the things to be thinking about when you’re your resume as a strategic marketing document is making sure that you’re selling yourself appropriately. Do you ever run into either fears of nervousness and hesitation or actual resistance from hiring managers when you take somebody who has 20 or 30 years of experience and condense it down to one page, because there is a certain amount of association between length and seniority. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  18:30  

So no I don’t. I think your ability to edit your story in order to amplify What matters is an very important skill, especially the more senior that you get in your career. So if you come to an applique a job application with a three page resume. I am going to be worried about your abilities to refine information and highlight what’s important. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  18:55  

I love that and that worry that you have is the same worry that the HR screener is going to have and it’s the same worry that the hiring manager is going to have, which is really important. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  19:04  

Well and you know we know that the average resume if it ever makes it to humanize right so if it beats resume tracking software right if you have appropriate keywords in there to beat the software, we know that the average resume is looked at for about six seconds. I’m not going to get to page two or three what they’re going to look at is they’re going to look at that about section at the top, where you describe yourself, and they’re going to look at a few of your past positions or your education, they’re going to scan it really quickly and so a couple other important things to think about there is it clean and simple in its format. I see way too many resumes that are over designed and just way too much for the brain to process and certainly will complicate their ability to get through resume tracking software keep it simple, right, that’s another huge thing for me and why I say, most people just need to throw out the resume. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  19:57  

And like we talked about with LinkedIn resumes need that positioning statement at the top, I would say 90% of resumes that I look at don’t have that. So you’re telling me then you want me to do the work to figure you out if you send me your resume with no positioning statement and a positioning statement on a resume should be very simple, it should be two sentences the first sentence to describe your background so perhaps you know experienced business person with 15 years in sales, marketing and merchandising period, seeking blah blah blah. Right, whatever the sort of role is that you’re seeking. Occasionally you might want to add an extra sentence in there about your background but it should be very concise, it should package you in a way that immediately that person looking at it is going to get it, and they’re going to want to look further on the page. I have it by having a multi page resume or by having all sorts of jobs on there with no framing. It just tells me that you don’t know, you don’t know how to package yourself, which is going to that shows me how you represent yourself is going to be how you’re going to represent the company right so if you’re overly wordy if you can’t simplify information down. It’s not sending the right message.

Lisa Lewis Miller  21:19  

That’s so important and if anybody’s listening to this and thinking, Oh gosh, I am not a great person with words I don’t know how I would do that and feeling a certain amount of stress or distress about hearing this, I think that seeking out help and support and this is a fabulous thing to do, right, don’t let any of your perceived limitations or your perceived weaknesses. Make you take yourself out of the running. There’s so many ways to get support, even from just talking to a friend or family member for free to working with a professional to help you really craft a strategic well targeted marketing message. There are tons of different ways to get support and Merryn let me underline to another thing for career changers again to be thinking about is that if you submit your resume to somebody without a professional positioning statement at the top, or an executive summary at the top, knowing that you’re trying to change careers is going to make it incredibly difficult for somebody to read through your past experiences and understand who you want to be moving forward. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  22:15  

Agree. Great point. Lisa, you know, and everybody goes through changes in their careers right but but make it easy for us to understand this transition that you’re making, and really highlight those transferable skills in your job descriptions, make sure that you’re really highlighting the sort of experience that they’re looking for, even though it might be from a different industry or it might be a little bit different. Put those nuggets in there that you see in the job description that you know you have right it doesn’t have to be perfect. And I think that’s where people get nervous and they kind of just stop right yeah and I like what you’re saying too which is, if this is overwhelming for you. There are lots of professionals out there who can help you with your resume right so you want to be really confident about that document before you start sending it out. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  23:06  

Another thing that I noticed I’m just kind of putting my head around thinking about career changers and some of the challenges that they face. Another thing that I often recommend is, if you’ve had gaps on your resume if you’ve had just any kind of bumps in the road like most of us have using years in terms of years of employment instead of months and years is one clever way to not make the gaps look so obvious. I’m not saying hide them if asked about them. But that’s one way where you know perhaps you were unemployed for six months. You can talk about it if directly asked about it but, again, putting the best version of yourself forward you don’t need to direct all that out on your resume. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  23:56  

I love that and I think that in addition, knowing that job seekers face biases and face prejudices in your search. The more that you can get ahead of those kinds of narratives and having other people decide what your story is and having other people decide, you know what that gap might be or what those transitions might mean. The more that you can focus on developing relationships I get a good tell your story to a human before it is to try to interpret it from a document exactly makes a lot of the pressure off of your resume to have to be her perfect.

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  24:32  

I totally agree with you, Lisa. Yeah. Two other things I think we should talk about with resumes because as you said I have, I have a lot of opinions on resumes and one of them that drives me completely nuts is, you know, I’ll talk to someone and they’ll be frustrated by the job search process right and they’ll say I send in 100 resumes and I haven’t gotten any response and I’ll say to them. What else have you got, and they’ll look at me. What do you do what else have I done I’ve been sending in resumes applying online for weeks. It’s not enough, right. So, if you think that just sending in your resume is going to get you the job, you might as well put it in the trash. It’s not enough so you need to be it’s not your thing. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  25:18  

Well, what should I be doing well, you need to actually be figuring out who is connected to that position, you can be trying to network with perhaps there’s someone in your network perhaps you can reach out to somebody in the company on LinkedIn, right these are little things that you can do to give yourself a better chance of actually getting called because somebody is working it more right so somebody is actually building relationships to get their name or their resume and higher in that virtual tile. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  25:51  

Absolutely, and something to be thinking about too is that it’s not that you can never land submitting an application online right the the Wayne Gretzky quote about missing 100% of the shots you don’t take is still true technically, but especially in times like this where unemployment is at higher levels and we have seen it in years and decades for some of us in our lifetime. You’ve got to be thinking about ways to up your game and be willing to take the extra step be willing to put in the extra effort to be the person who gets pulled out of the pile of resumes to be reviewed. Because, you know, even six months ago nine months ago. If you were job seeking, you could imagine that if you submitted your online application you would probably be competing with hundreds of other people. Now, the table stakes have gone up, you are competing with thousands of other people. And the hiring manager hasn’t hired more HR people right they don’t have more bodies in the office to be processing this huge influx of applications. So, sending your application by itself, and crossing your fingers and hoping that you are the needle in a haystack that gets discovered can work some time, but if you want to take control over all the things that are under your power and under your influence to optimize your opportunities and your chances. Following Merryn’s directions here will be a fabulous, fabulous step for you. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  27:22  

Thank you. Yeah, that’s all great if they said no I want to share another kind of secret with your listeners and it’s really only something I usually talk about with clients in my private group coaching practice and that is a resume isn’t enough we talked about how you know you should be networking and all of these things but when we think about the tools or the documents that are going to represent you, a resume is one of many. And I talk in my book about this idea of a portfolio. And that’s something that I would love to encourage your listeners to think about, because they will likely be competing against someone who puts together some sort of a document or a booklet about themselves. And if you want the best chance of being a person ends up with the offer. I really encourage you to do this and I’d be happy to share with you some ideas on what you could put in that portfolio Lisa if you want. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  28:21  

Yeah, let’s talk about that and also if you’re listening to Marian and you’re thinking, I bought a copy of her book, we will also put a link to her book in the show notes from today, I haven’t gotten a chance to read it myself. It is fabulous. It is highly tactical there are examples of everything. So if you want to get your hands on the, the physical version of this we can make that happen. But man, I’d love to have you share some examples of what might go into a portfolio, because there are some career vad’s where it’s pretty accepted that you’re likely to have a portfolio right if you do anything in design you sure as heck better have a portfolio. But what would be some more, more, non traditional things that might go into a portfolio. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  29:00  

That’s funny you say that at least I because people will often respond to me and saying you want me to make portfolio, but I’m not an artist. And it’s not about art, it’s about you telling your story and so there are lots of different things you could put in and it depends on your background and the job, but some examples would be, you could create a suitability map. This is one of my absolute favorite things to do. So what you do is you take the job description. And that usually will have a 10 responsibilities that they’re looking to hire the person to do right so you take the job description, you take your background and you create a one page document that basically maps, the responsibility to how you meet that requirement that they’re looking for and let’s say in the job posting there are 10 things and you think to yourself, gosh, I really only have seven or eight of these, then you just put the seven or eight that you have on the suitability map right you’re not going to put all 10 and. Right, I don’t have this. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  29:59  

So suitability map is a really great way. It’s a selling tool right so right way to visually show. I am I have, what you’re looking for. And one other thing you could use that kind of an exercise for is for your interview prep. Totally. It’s funny how, when I, I asked clients to do that, they’ll come to me and then we’ll do a mock interview and they’ll say, I’m so ready, just because I built this suitability map. So thank you, Lisa, that’s a great way another document that could go into your portfolio is a 30/60/90 day plan. So that is you actually sharing with the hiring manager, hey, here’s what I’m going to do if given the chance. In this role in the first 30 days in the first 60 days, and in the first 90 days, and I talk in my book Lisa about kind of typical things that you would want to be thinking about and each of those timeframes you know for example the first 30 days is really an onboarding right you’re getting to know the team you’re getting to know the company. You’re really kind of doing your research to get comfortable. But that’s another way for the hiring manager to understand you and again inside your head, and it’s impressive when candidates come into an interview, basically saying, not only do I feel like I’m right for the job. But here’s how I would approach it if given the chance and, you know, as we’re building this portfolio in our minds as we’re talking. Think about the difference between candidate who you interview who shows up with a resume versus a candidate who puts together multiple pages to tell their story. What does that say about the sort of work that those two people are going to do. What do you think difference?

Lisa Lewis Miller  31:44  

And to your earlier point about how the way that you position yourself on your resume with that positioning statement gives them a sense of how you would be positioning the company how you’d be representing the brand and the mission and all that in an external way. This is a tactic that does the exact same thing. You’re giving the hiring manager, a proxy to say, you know, if you like this initiative if you like this strategic thing gig if you like this fullness and care, you’re really gonna like it with me. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  32:17  

Absolutely. I love that. Yeah. Let me give you one more. There are lots of different things you could put into a portfolio but one of my other favorites is a work sample. So no you’re not actually going to put a physical item into the portfolio. But think about a project that you worked on and turning it into a one page document that’s image driven right so whether it’s one or two images that show what the project was about, you would write an overview statement of what this project was or a project description, and then you would write something about the results or the impact of the project. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  32:51  

I like suggesting to have one or two work samples in a portfolio, it’s nice for the hiring manager to look at, but it’s also a really great tool for you to use during an interview. You can say to them. If you look at page three in my portfolio. The story I’m about to tell you is actually from when I did this right so that shows your ability to effectively really can manage a conversation and tell a story, and lead. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  33:20  

That’s fabulous. I can already think of different ways that different current clients could be applying some of these tactics to really stand out really make an impression, really sort of elevate the conversation around professionalism and initiative and being a self starter. So, that’s all fabulous. But I wanted to bring this to a close today with having you share a little bit more about interviewing, because in this Corona world. When we are doing video interviews and trying to meet people and connect with people in this two dimensional digital modality. It can feel hard, it can feel uncomfortable it can feel a little bit awkward. So, what kind of guidance Do you give to people who are preparing for a video interview and maybe have never done one before, or maybe have done one but weren’t totally sure how to set themselves up for success?

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  34:13  

Thank you for asking this Lisa I do get a lot of questions about this. So first off let’s start by acknowledging that there are two types of video interviews, there is the pre recorded one where basically you’re talking to a screen, there’s not a human there, or there’s a typical live video interview so those are quite different. Definitely in that first one the pre recorded one, you’re going to have about 30 seconds to make the right first impression before whoever’s viewing all these videos is going to move on to the next person. So, you know, everything we’ve talked about here today in terms of how you tell your story and really, you know, having that overview statement having kind of, you know, having a sentence or two that describes you succinctly is going to be especially important in a pre recorded video interview. a couple simple things. So, you know, Lisa You and I are obviously seeing each other here on zoom in a video interview, be very mindful of the environment that you’re in right so make sure you’re in a quiet room, not overly busy. Make sure there isn’t distracting stuff coming out the top of your head. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  35:25  

As you look at yourself on the video right so setting the right impression showing your professionalism, dressing appropriately is really important in a video interview. A couple other thoughts. You know that it’s uncomfortable for a lot of people looking at themselves or talking to somebody in in this way over video and so if you’ve never done it before practice. So, have your mom, your sister, your friend, call you on zoom or whatever platform you’re using and get comfortable doing this, you don’t want the first time that you do this to be in an interview situation. And then I’ll give you one other piece of advice on video interviewing and actually it pertains to regular interviewing to or in person interviewing or even phone interviewing. And that is, before the interview already know the stories that you’re going to tell that are going to get you the job. So you know again thinking about that suitability map right and how you actually match with the job you know why they’re going to choose you. It’s just a matter of if you actually share those reasons, and turning, turning your experience into interesting stories and looking for ways to plant those stories against the questions that you’re asked is what I call strategic interviewing it is a bit of a game, but you will you will know at the end of the interview, if you’ve had the chance to place those stories and, you know, I’ll say to my clients just have five keywords on a piece of paper, next to you and be mindful of are you getting those stories in and at the end of the interview if you’ve checked off all five words, odds are pretty good. you’re either moving on, or you’re getting that offer. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  37:13  

Love that. Yeah, when it comes to upping your job search game, and really standing out from this incredibly crowded sea of competitors, these are all fabulous tips and tactics to be applying. So, Merryne, thank you so much for all of these gems, these pearls of wisdom that you’ve been sharing. And if somebody’s listening to this and they’re saying oh my gosh I know what I want to do I’m ready to make my transition and I need some merit to help me make it happen. What are the best places for them to find out more about you and your work?

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  37:45  

 Yeah, so I have a website madetohire.com and I have a blog on there I have lots of free career advice I also as you said Lisa have a book me to hire me to hire how to get the job you really want, and then I have an online course so you go to me to hire.com you’ll get all the advice, you could possibly want from me, and certainly reach out to me on LinkedIn, I’d love to connect with any of your listeners who want to join my network on LinkedIn. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  38:12  

Fabulous well we will link to your LinkedIn your website, all that good stuff in the show notes from today. Merryn thank you so much for coming on the career clarity show. 

Merryn Roberts-Huntley  38:21  

Thanks so much for having me. Lisa, I really enjoyed it.

Lisa Lewis Miller  38:24  

If you are listening to today’s episode, and you have feedback for us, don’t hesitate to let me know you can send me an email at Lisa@GetCareerClarity or leave a review on Apple podcasts. Every time you share with us what’s helpful what’s working, what you learn what you wish you had heard it helps for us to create more episodes of the podcast I can really serve your needs and help you make the transition into lucrative soulful satisfying work. So don’t forget to head over to the show notes from today’s episode, you can find those at getcareerclarity.com/podcast. And if you are contemplating a career transition of your own and not totally sure where to start, don’t hesitate to pick up a copy of career clarity the book, you can get to that at getcareerclarity.com/book, because, remember, if you don’t love what you’re doing. We should talk. Because life is way too short to be doing work that doesn’t light you up. Talk to you next time.