Episode 110: Sharing Your Professional Story is Powerful with Rosie McCarthy

On this episode of the Career Clarity Show, we are talking all about how to tell your professional story in a powerful way. These things might strike fear into your heart, not because you don’t think you can do them but because it feels like there’s a lot of pressure to tell a really persuasive personal narrative, especially when you’re trying to stand out from hundreds or even thousands of other people who are applying for the same kinds of roles that you are. 

We’re bringing in an expert on how to tell a compelling, persuasive personal story as a candidate to make sure that you stand out. If thinking about your LinkedIn or cover letter gives you the heebie jeebies and you want somebody who can guide you through that with competence, this episode is for you. We’re joined by guest expert Rosie McCarthy. Rosie shares how powerful answers to who you are can cascade out into all your professional documents and help you stand out from the crowd in a big, big way.

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

Show Notes:

• Youtube: Badass Careers
• Instagram: Badass Career
• LinkedIn: Rosie Career Coach
• Roadmap to a Fulfilling Career eBook

Subscribe to The Career Clarity Show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and Google Play.

And, follow The Career Clarity Show on Facebook and Instagram — and sign up below to receive emails when new episodes come out!

Transcript:

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:04

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. Welcome back to the Career Clarity Show, I am your host, Lisa Miller. And I’m delighted that you are with us today. On today’s episode of this show, we are talking to a guest expert who knows all things about positioning yourself effectively online. In today’s conversation, we are talking all about how to tell your professional story in a powerful way, in all the different ways that somebody might discover you specifically talking about cover letters, and LinkedIn. And if you’re anything like a lot of the people who listen to this podcast, those things might strike fear into your heart, not because you don’t think you can do them. But because it feels like there’s a lot of pressure to tell a really persuasive personal narrative, especially when you’re trying to stand out from hundreds 1000s or potentially even 10s of 1000s of other people who are applying for the same kinds of roles that you are. So on today’s episode of the Career Clarity Show, we’re bringing in the big guns and bringing in an expert on how to tell a compelling, persuasive personal story as a candidate to make sure that you stand out are heard and get opportunities to do an interview. So today’s episode of the podcast is for you. If thinking about your LinkedIn or cover letter gives you the heebie jeebies. And you want somebody who can guide you through that with competence. It’s also for you if you think you’ve got a pretty good start on your cover letters or on your LinkedIn profile, but you love to make sure that you are implementing every best practice and every tip to make sure those documents are working as hard for you as they possibly can. And it is an especially great episode for you to listen to. If you ever feel lost when you have to answer questions about who you are, what you do, what kind of an impact you make, and what you’re looking for in your next role. Because powerful answers to those questions that then cascade out into all your professional documents will make it so that you stand out from the crowd in a big, big way. Now who is my guest expert to talk about all things personal branding on these materials and all things personal marketing. It is the delightful Rosie McCarthy. Let me tell you a little bit about Rosie’s background. Rosie is an ex corporate recruiter and HR professional turned online career coach for ambitious millennials and Gen Z specializing in helping them figure out what they truly want out of their careers, branding themselves, and then helping them to go get it originally from New Zealand as you will all here with her amazing accent. Rosie has her master’s in HR from the Sorbonne University in Paris, and 10 years of experience working for multinationals, tech startups and fortune 500 companies like L’Oreal and the Louis Vuitton moet Hennessy group, she has a modern career with many twists and turns, geographical moves and side hustles. So she loves dishing out fresh, modern advice that resonates on her YouTube channel, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Rosie, welcome to the Career Clarity Show.

Rosie McCarthy  3:30  

Hello, I’m so excited to be here, Lisa, I’m really just stumbling across your profile a few years ago and thinking she is my lady, I could tell that you were also like, obsessed with psychology and neuroscience and geeking out on that kind of stuff. And I just felt an instant connection with you. So I’m really excited to be here.

Lisa Lewis Miller  3:52  

Well, I am delighted to have you sharing your brilliance with our listeners today. Because you and I were talking right before we press record. And one of the things that I was commenting on is that you have built an incredible brand for yourself as a professional. And it’s really proof that you walk your talk on this stuff that you don’t just give out the advice on how to use LinkedIn effectively, or how to tell a powerful story, but you live it out in the videos that you create in the materials that you share and in the business that you’ve built. So I cannot think of a better expert to talk about all things at LinkedIn and cover letter. And You’re so welcome. Well, and one of the things that I remember we were interacting with, as we were getting to know each other before we had you on the podcast was a video that you recently did on LinkedIn. And I feel like everybody’s talking about LinkedIn right now. And I feel like a lot of people have this energy towards the platform of like, oh, not another social media platform. Do I have to why I already have all the other platforms Next you’re gonna tell me how Have to get on Tick Tock new jobs platform. Please tell me No. So, Rosie, let me ask you I know that’s not how you feel about LinkedIn. So what gets you obsessed and fired up about LinkedIn as a platform?

Rosie McCarthy  5:16  

Yeah. And to be fair, I used to feel that way about LinkedIn, for sure. I think we all have a bit of resistance to LinkedIn, right? It’s, it’s the world’s largest professional network, we make that mean something about how we need to show up. But things are really changing. And it’s really important to be as authentic as possible. But we’ll get into all of all of that later. But what really, what really gets me obsessed about LinkedIn is that it’s so much more than just a static profile. So a lot of people think, okay, LinkedIn, I need to optimize my headline, read a bit of an About section put my experience on there, and this that, but it actually represents so many Infinite Opportunities, you know, it’s, it’s the opportunity to build quality connections, it’s an opportunity to find a mentor, it’s an opportunity to tap into the hidden job market to showcase your personal brand. Like, it’s a platform that you can truly leverage. And, you know, people are asking, like, do I have to, if you are a career changer, job seeker, or any professional who takes your career Seriously? Yes, because essentially, LinkedIn, you know, as I said, it’s the it’s the world’s largest professional network, got over 700 million monthly users on the air, there are over 14 million users and what were called decision making positions, right, so they actually have influence over who gets hired. And if you’re not leveraging LinkedIn, I like to sort of liken that to attending the world’s most exciting professional networking events, like the biggest event, the biggest cocktail party out there. And you’re just sitting in the corner, not saying nothing. And it’s a real shame. Because of all the users on LinkedIn, only 1% are creating content on the platform, which means of all the billions and billions and billions of impressions that you get on your LinkedIn newsfeed. Every day all around the world. 1% of people are enjoying that impression pie as such. And so concretely, what that means is that if you’re actually willing to show up on LinkedIn, to engage on the platform, to post things occasionally, wow, imagine that, to actually use the platform to its potential, you are going to be able to get so many eyeballs on you the work you do your profile, and actually have people coming to you and discovering you. It’s amazing, amazing visibility to call.

Lisa Lewis Miller  7:46  

And love that. And I have two things to say on that thing. Number one is that LinkedIn, I think you and I would both agree that LinkedIn is a good tool for anybody. But I will give a little asterisk or the caveat that certain industries use LinkedIn more or less than others. So if you are, say, an educator, you might not find your people on LinkedIn. But for most professional capacities, there will be a lot of value and a lot of return on investment for the time that you take in setting up a LinkedIn profile, and then using it to amplify your work. That’s Thing number one. But rosy Thing number two, I want to come back to is that you just clearly slipped in this phrase, the hidden job market as you were talking about the reasons to utilize LinkedIn and why it can be valuable. And I think that a lot of people when they hear the phrase, the hidden job market, they never start with a certain amount of skepticism, like okay, yeah, right, whatever. Like there’s some sort of like secret invisible party where people are just handing out offers all the time. And so we’ll usually have a little bit more about the hidden job market.

Rosie McCarthy  8:50  

Yeah, absolutely. So the hidden job market isn’t an underground culture, anything. It’s just the fact that, you know, it’s estimated that about 80% of roles need to actually reach the point of being advertised publicly because they don’t need to, because they’re being filled through networking and internal referrals.

Lisa Lewis Miller  9:11  

Get that could be a mic drop moment. They’re just right by itself. The listener she said 88, eight 0% of all jobs may not ever make it to a job board. No. So tell people where those jobs are if they’re not on job boards.

Rosie McCarthy  9:28  

Well, this is why again, I’m such a raving fan of LinkedIn, because they’re in the conversations that people are having are in. They are like companies are hiring your needs popping up all the time and teams and companies everywhere. But the fifth thing, especially at the moment, you know, what, what would you do if you were a recruiter right? Would you post online get potentially 1000 applicants to go through having to really shortly test them out, let them down, go through the rounds and rounds of interviews, narrow it down, finally get to that point and see instead of weeks, if not months on the on the job? Or could you go to your team, your you know, the business leader, you support whatever that looks like and say, Hey, do you know anyone? Have you spoken to anyone really enthusiastic, who’s passionate lately? Who’s really keen to work here? And, you know, it’s just sort of that sort of what’s happening in reality. And as much as we might say, Oh, that’s really unfair. Actually, if you flip the script, is actually a wonderful opportunity. Because now regardless of the school you went to, or the particular career story you have, or the background you have, there’s nothing actually stopping you from being part of this conversation. And I say like, if you’re not networking, if you’re not reaching out to people on LinkedIn, if you’re not conversing with these people, you’re not really playing the game, or you are, but you’re doing it on hardmode. Because the fact of the matter is, is that Glassdoor recently came out saying that, you know, only 2% of job board applications actually received interviews. And employee referrals, actually, four times more likely to land the job. So if you know all of these things, but you’re not playing the game, you are really actively choosing to do it on hardmode. And the thing with LinkedIn is that there’s, you know, a couple of opportunities here, firstly, is, you know, the opportunity to identify really awesome people doing cool stuff and dream roles of yours. Or the decision makers for, you know, particular companies that you’d really love to be a part of, you can find these people so easily. You can see if you have a mutual connection point, you can see if you share, you know, or you do you share in a school alumni, do you share a volunteer? Cause you’re both passionate about? Do you share something in your career story? Are you trying to get into the graduate program? And you see that they started off as a graduate? Like, are they Is there something human and real that you can connect with them on? And if so, if you find your people, you know, jump in and start that conversation, and that is so powerful, just for people in your target roles and companies to know who you are? Firstly, but then, of course, listen on way of getting that really positive attention on LinkedIn is doing things like posting engaging, putting yourself out there and creating a personal brand for yourself as well. And that’s more of what I call inbound marketing. So you’ve got the outbound marketing, when you’re putting things out there, you’re applying for roles, that you’re the one pushing, but what if the recruiters and the right people were noticing you? Right, and they were coming in and knocking on your digital digital doors. So yeah. And just to give people a concrete example of, of the kind of opportunities that are available in this way, when I was working for L’Oreal, I was it was my first role at L’Oreal actually. And I had an awesome project, I was developing a mobile application on the company culture. And it really was quite a world first and that it was a mobile app designed to help people to navigate and decode at a complex company culture with very French roots and, and then some real complexities and nuances. And it was just a specific L’Oreal way that meetings, Miranda’s decisions were made, and it was designed to get me up to speed with the cultural codes. And so I was working on that project. And I developed it. And I actually wrote an article about it on LinkedIn, once it had launched, and it was the first time I’d ever posted anything on LinkedIn. And oh, my gosh, I got so much attention on this. I was invited to conferences, I was invited for paid at speaking events. I had recruiters knocking down my door saying, Hey, are you interested? I just couldn’t believe the reaction. To me just talking about a project I had worked on at my at my company, right. And then I have a client of mine who really wants to work in tourism in New Zealand, which is really tough,

Rosie McCarthy  14:08  

really having closed borders. But she just consistently showed up for the past six months sharing articles she was reading. She was consolidating the key learnings of some core books, she actually started a podcast interviewing tourism professionals around New Zealand. And she had those episodes on LinkedIn. She did all sorts of great stuff for her personal brand. And the CEO of tourism. New Zealand is the top top dog here over in New Zealand for the tourism industry actually created a post about her she had no idea and said this up and coming star in the tourism industry. Do I have anyone in my network who has something for her, you know, please reach out to me I will personally make the connection. And she got noticed and she had a job opportunity. And the job opportunity didn’t come like that. But it came you know after six months of consistently showing up on LinkedIn

Lisa Lewis Miller  15:00  

Those are such fabulous proof points for how being willing to be vulnerable and be visible on these platforms and be courageous with posting things can yield incredible, incredible results. And you said a couple of things earlier in, in your answer that I want to come back to and revisit. One of them being the difference between essentially how egalitarian It is to be able to participate in these conversations on LinkedIn and to build relationships with people, as opposed to the more sort of quote unquote, traditional ways of doing online job applications where you just try to condense everything about yourself into this little two dimensional piece of paper and push sand on it and hope that it’s seen by somebody. And one of the things that I think you were, you were hinting at in there that I want to make sure that we call out explicitly is that when you tie up your entire professional fate into your resume, telling your story for you, and opening doors, there are so many biases that you have to face along the way in that and that’s putting so much pressure on your resume to be the be all end all right, you hear people talking about ageism, racism, sexism, classism, and discrimination based on the university that you went to all sorts of biases, that you know, even the most well meaning HR screener, or recruiter, even if they intend not to have may still have embedded in the way that they think and make decisions, that then you have to make sure that your resume can fight against. And when you get the opportunity to actually build a relationship with somebody, be it through building thought leadership on a platform like LinkedIn, where you are attracting people into conversation with you, or be it reaching out to people through LinkedIn, who you can engage with who might be able to invite you into opportunities. You get to be the author of your own story. And you get to control the narrative, and you get to build a relationship that can be robust, and that can endure beyond just whatever the the job opening does your looks like. So I feel like that fighting biases by playing the game piece is kind of nuanced and tricky. But I think it’s especially important to highlight because there can be so many layers of bias that an individual might be really scared of facing in their professional path. And that LinkedIn is an amazing way to address that.

Rosie McCarthy  17:36  

And Lisa, you just hit the nail on the head, and really pinpointed a big frustration. I hear time and time again, which has I’m so much more than my resume. I’m more than the career gap on my resume. I’m more than the fact that I don’t have the right job title right now, especially for career trend changes, right, those transitioning who don’t have that traditional experience, but you know who you are, know, you could do the job, you know, you have those transferable skills. And what I’m hearing that is like, Yeah, well more than your resume. You’re a whole person, you’ve got lots of gifts and talents to bring to the table. So show us, you know, and that’s why I’m so excited, like talking about LinkedIn and the cover letter later on, because they’re two very underutilized and under optimized tools to tell you a story and add that human element in there.

Lisa Lewis Miller  18:26  

Yes, okay. Well, I’m excited to talk about that, too. But I have one more question for you, knowing that you are an ex corporate recruiter, you when you were answering that last question, you were talking about how, what’s easier for a recruiter to go through a stack of 1000 resumes that they received for one position or to go reach out to other people within the company and ask for referrals and recommendations? Can you actually give people a little bit of a peek into what like what a recruiter opens up their email inbox in the morning and sees 1000 resumes to look at how you even manage that, like what’s what’s the process that you are a recruiter would have been using, just so that somebody who’s listening gets a sense of what you’re fighting against to try to grab somebody’s attention out of that pile of 1000 to be the needle in the haystack.

Rosie McCarthy  19:14  

Yeah, absolutely. And that’s why, you know, today, most companies could be using an applicant tracking system. And I know there’s a lot of fear mongering around that. That’s a whole other podcast episode around the ages. But essentially, all it is is a project management software. So you’ll receive all of your applications on there. And yeah, there will be specific ag to deal breakers that you would let the system know that would would automatically reduce the pile that you’re looking at. And then that’s really looking for key and this is again, this is where it becomes really unfair, especially for Korea changes who don’t have that specific job title that perfect like matched experience. They’ll start looking for keywords right. You’ll start looking For people who had the skills, the title, the kind of needs that you’re looking for very quickly in relation to the job description. And it’s not that, like recruiters are inherently bad, it’s that they’ve got 1000s or hundreds of applicants to really go through. And so at some point, you have to make a bit of a sort of culling choice as you go. And then it’s sort of really just yet reviewing. And I think everyone’s sort of heard that stat, which is recruiters spend, on average, six seconds scanning a resume. And I don’t know if that’s quite true, like, but I would say that you can very, very quickly see who’s put effort into the application versus who has though has tailored the application versus who hasn’t. And who’s told a compelling story, versus who has an that that stuff is quick, you can see that very quickly. And you almost do a bit of the first, what would the word be almost like a face value test, and pick up on those kinds of key elements before you get into the detail. Because you couldn’t possibly spend that much time in the detail, and the nuance of every single applicant. So that’s a little bit around how it goes. And then it depends on the company in the role, of course. But usually, you might do a phone screening round with about 10 applicants, therefore present about five for the final hour, the first round of interviews, let’s say and then by the time you get to that final panel panel interview, you might just be two or three.

Lisa Lewis Miller  21:33  

Yeah, so really, recruiters have such a difficult job to sort through so much information that you’ve got to take any any shortcuts or any methods to condense it that you can. And so knowing that there’s such an uphill battle that somebody would have to fight to be one of those 10 for the phone screen. Thinking about using LinkedIn more strategically is a great way to more proactively share your personal brand and your professional story. And to build the kinds of relationships that let you sort of cut the line and become one of those referrals and not have to fight through the 100 or 1000 that recruiters looking at in any given day.

Rosie McCarthy  22:13  

Yeah, absolutely. Because if an employee’s coming into my inbox as a recruiter and saying, hey, I’ve met an up and coming talent who’s extremely dedicated and hungry to getting breaking into our company to add this kind of value, I was really impressed by our coffee chat that we had, please check them out. Cool, awesome. Of course, you’re going to or even if you as a candidate, reach out to me on LinkedIn, like with a customized personalized message that connects the dots for me between who you are, and why you’d be such a perfect fit for this specific role. Of course, I’m going to take the time to check you out and make sure that I don’t miss your your name on the list. Because I know it sounds like the kind of thing that everyone would be doing. But honestly, very few people are doing it. It’s just like, you know, following up after a phone interview, following up after interviews that said, that common advice that’s out there, but very few people do it. And it really, really does make you stand out. So reach out to the recruiter, reach out to the people behind the scenes of who have the job post before you even apply, and make sure that you’re you you put yourself out there and you tell them that you’re about to put your head in the rain. Why are you so excited for the opportunity? Let them know, of course that you’re going to apply through their recommended methods and do the online application and all that kind of stuff. But it’s really flagging to them like, oh, I’ll remember that name, you know, I’ll make sure to check that out, and then follow up afterwards as well. It really will give you a better chance of having a human take time on your resume.

Lisa Lewis Miller  23:50  

It’s such a great point. And I think bringing the conversation back to something we talked about earlier today. One of the best ways to build those relationships with individuals that you don’t know is to put information out there about yourself on LinkedIn so that they can get a sense for what your values are, what your mission is what you care about. And he also talked about that that can be vulnerable. There’s something about being publicly visible, and kind of planting a flag in the sand to say, this is a topic that I care about, or I’m going to share an opinion or a step further, I’m going to share an opinion that might be divisive. I sometimes refer to these as like spicy posts that we might make. So what if somebody’s listening to this and they’re thinking Alright, Rosie, Lisa, I get it. I understand that this is important to do, but I am terrified to start showing up and putting myself out there on LinkedIn. How would you suggest they even get started?

Rosie McCarthy  24:53  

Yeah, and I mean, as you know if if we haven’t already driven in the midst of Taiwan, how important this is like no just zoom out for a second. And and, you know, take account of the fact that LinkedIn offers you free personal branding, like Google yourself, it has a really high chance that you are going your LinkedIn profile will be in the top two results, right? So this is something that’s, that’s really, really important. And so where do you start, as you said, I guess like the key word is authenticity is key, what starts freaking people out is that they think they have to put some kind of face on on this platform, because it has that professional stomping ground. And actually, what works best Surprise, surprise, is the real is a human, it’s the sharing of the journey. And you know, there are different levels that you can start at, you can start, let’s say the entry level or level one, you don’t have to necessarily get on there and get on video, get on LinkedIn, live straight away and really go go hard. It’s really about Okay, could you follow some thought leaders in your space? Could you follow some decision makers in your space? Could you follow companies that you’re really excited about? Could you follow the relevant hashtags on LinkedIn? You know, so some people have personalized personal brand hashtags, which is a whole nother level. But some companies have hashtags as well. And you know, look at your notifications when you log onto LinkedIn, what’s fresh, what’s happening right now, what are people conversing about? And what I would really encourage you to start with, is adding insightful comments, comments that add value, not just great article, but really adding your perspective,

Rosie McCarthy  26:38  

a sort of layer of nuanced thought, if you will. And that’s a really, really great place to start. I know someone who was doing that very much wanting to get into the luxury industry, and really just commenting on all the news, adding perspective, showing passion, all of that kind of thing. And she actually she was a student, she got contacted to then create your tech pad in a kind of video for Christian Dior’s. So about questions students had for the about career paths that Christian Do you are. And long story short, she met some people, she started these relationships. And she actually ended that minister through engaging on the platform, she ended up being offered a place in the woman at Dior 12 month female mentorship mentorship program, where she now gets a mentor for a full year, who guides her through the principles of leadership, and all of these great things and impact and diversity and inclusion. And so, you know, again, the opportunities out there are absolutely incredible. So that would kind of be step one is just engaging thoughtfully and intentionally. Step two would be, Hey, could I start writing my own posts, and I know the number one thing people say is like, I’ve got nothing to share, you know, like, I’ve got nothing I could possibly talk about. And you absolutely write your post could be about summarizing books you’ve read, they could be your thoughts on a hot topic right now, they could be sharing some feedback, you just got on something that you’ve delivered, they could be a summary of a course you’ve completed, they could be behind the scenes at the office, they can just be about your journey, what’s going on with you and someone that I absolutely love to follow on LinkedIn is based on shenouda I don’t know if you use follow her, Lisa. But she’s her hashtag is hashtag Basin’s blast, and she’s wonderful. She is an immigrant to the USA. And she was sharing her behind the scenes of her job search, trying to land internships, trying to find graduate jobs, you know, while being on this, you know, without a visa or work visa necessarily for that graduate role and the struggles and the the rejections you know, and everyone got really invested in his story, you know, like, like, I got an interview here, I’ve got my dream job over here. And, and this is how I process my rejection, she was sharing her journey. And now she’s got over 50,000 followers on LinkedIn, I believe she’s LinkedIn actually offered her a role. So she’s got a graduate role at LinkedIn, she gained a lot of traction. So she landed an epic graduate role. And she’s also started up her own business as a career coach teaching people how to get those first internships because she’s gone through the struggle. So a great job of visa business, you know, like these are the kinds of things that can come through just having this really strong personal brand. And and that was literally through sharing her authentic story and struggles but it doesn’t have to be you know, that intense at first, as I said, key learnings from something a little bit about you your opinion on something, and you can build up to the polarizing content, right, you can build up to that. Hey, real talk. This is my opinion. And then I guess, the third middle of showing up on LinkedIn, that looks like being a regular content contributed that looks like writing articles and posts, maybe doing some videos as well, creating infographics carousel posts, that’s really the level of content creator. And not everyone needs to get there that’s really emerging thought leader. But I mean, why not shoot for that the opportunities that could absolutely flourish from that are, are are incredible. But you really just have to start with commenting, engaging, maybe sharing some other people’s articles and adding your perspective, it doesn’t need to be that intense.

Lisa Lewis Miller  30:34  

I love that I think that the power of a, an effective comment on somebody else’s post is way under appreciated. And I’ll say that some of the coolest relationships that I’ve created on LinkedIn have been a function of seeking somebody out who I thought was doing cool work, following them. So maybe not even connecting with them, but then finding something that they had posted, that I had the opportunity to engage with. And usually what happens at that point is, then they seek you out, and then they send you the connection request. And then they are really invested in you responding to them to be a connection and the power dynamic, and how cool that feels to have that kind of inbound interest in you is so, so helpful. It creates so much momentum. And so if that is one thing that if you’re listening to this you haven’t done today, just hop onto LinkedIn, give yourself a timer for like 10 minutes, maybe even seven minutes, if you’re feeling Zippy and find something that somebody in your network has posted that you can write a two or three sentence response to something that shows a little bit of thoughtfulness that shows that you read what they wrote or read the article that they link to. and just see what happens from that in terms of inbound connection requests, responses or replies, even people engaging with your response by liking it. And you might be shocked at how little activity it takes to start to generate really positive momentum outputs from it.

Rosie McCarthy  32:09  

Yeah, amazing relationships. You’re right. And it’s not even always about the job house. It’s just about having an epic network, right? We never know who’s watching, we never even know. And that was, you know, 700 plus million professionals on the network, you truly never know who might see your comment, resonate with something you’ve put out there and say, Hey, that looks like a cool person. I’d like to get to know so yeah, absolutely.

Lisa Lewis Miller  32:37  

Well, let’s take this same concept of a telling your professional story and creating a brand and a persuasive narrative. We’ve been talking about it in the ecosystem of LinkedIn, and how you do that by selecting what you’re engaging with, and how you tell your story on your profile and what you share. But we also do that within our cover letters. So when we’re applying to jobs, and we don’t know if the hiring manager or the HR screener has ever heard of us, and we’d love to catch their attention and stand out and tell a persuasive story. What do you see as the the recipe, if you will, for a memorable stand out cover letter?

Rosie McCarthy  33:19  

Yeah, and I’m so obsessed with a good cover letter. So firstly, what a cover letter shouldn’t be a cover letter should not be to whom it may concern. I’m genuinely excited to apply for this position, I believe I have the relevant skills and motivation required to do the role. You know, that kind of thing like that cover letters for sure did like that cover letter is over expected generic, it’s not going to shift the dial what you want to do with your cover letter or say, hey, in addition to my resume, I’ve got a whole other a4 here to use my marketing pitch. So it’s a place where you can make your resume a little bit more dry and sexual in a way, right? And that’s accomplishments and achievements and numbers. And very much like, yeah, it’s that side of you. It’s achievement side of you. The calculator can be your story, it can be more human, and it really helps to connect the dots between you and why this job, why are you a perfect match. And so successful cover letters won’t let a lot of you know marketing collateral, follow the ADA model. That’s what I use. It’s it’s the model that’s used everywhere and advertising marketing. You’ll you’ll notice it on from billboards to Instagram, captions from businesses, it’s everywhere. And Ada stands for attention, interest, desire action, and that’s the exact framework we want to use for a successful cover letter. So a attention so you want to grab their attention and this is what I call nailing the hook. So in the hook, you really want to make them feel special like that the only company You want to work for it as a match made in heaven. And for this, you want to tell them something very authentic, very real. And you’re going to need to do the inner work to figure out why are you applying to this company or this team? What is the link between who you are as a person? And what they do? Do you share some similar convictions? Or values? Are you a longtime customer? Did you grow up with this brand? Do you just get the big problem that they’re trying to solve? Do you want to be part of the game? You know, how can you say something human and enticing to really hook them and to keep to keep reading and I have a couple of examples for you here. So this would be an example of a more like personal connection or story. So this person is going for Cosmopolitan magazine. So it could start something like this. I’ll never forget the first time I read a Cosmopolitan magazine, Skullcandy, 14 years old giggling about dating advice with my girlfriends in our teens. Today, it’s my go to pick me up empowering me to show up as the best version of myself and work and relationships, coaching me and everything, from skincare, to finances to networking, we truly grew up together. So that would be an example of a personal story. And then a second example is maybe more around the problems the team of the business is trying to solve. So this would be particularly for a UX designer. So all the pixels and all the code in the world can’t save a website, from a bad user experience. When you when your website literally is your business with 6 million customers worldwide, relying on your interface to be all different flavors of awesome, it truly is a matter of survival. So this is going for like a young startup, whose website is literally their business. But these are just kind of ways to make the reader stand up and be like, Oh, I wasn’t expecting that. I love that I want to react to that, before I go into the rest of the framework. But

Lisa Lewis Miller  36:57  

now it’s so good i that i mean a cosmopolitan, one, you paint a whole picture, you’ve told a whole story and what four sentences there, that anybody is now going to be sitting on the edge of their seat about. And so I think that that idea of grabbing attention through a really compelling personal narrative is something that, you know, people can also do on LinkedIn, with the types of things that you’re sharing there as posts and the way that you’re initiating when you’re sending a contact to somebody, and you’re putting in that little note about why you’re connecting. But I think the way that you’re framing it up as a part of a larger recipe, or a larger framework for a cover letter is a brilliant way to start. Because once somebody is perched on the very edge of their seat, you’ve got them right where you want them to share more about who you are.

Rosie McCarthy  37:46  

So we covered the talk about the AI. Yeah, I feel it. Yeah, the AI. So next, we want to grab the interest. And this is basically your profile in a nutshell. So this is the I can do the job, I promise. So we’ve grabbed their attention. And now it’s like capturing their interest. Okay, I can do this job. So what we want to do here is sum you up in a nutshell, new USP. So what makes you different, what you’re great at what are your strengths, we wanted to get across a couple of one or two big accomplishments that are really kind of like Hallmark accomplishments for you so far. And we want to tell them what you want next. So again, it’s sort of like three sentences, maybe four sentences, where you’re really able to continue continue that build up. So if I take the Cosmo example, again, you know, it might say something like that. So, you know, I even remember using Cosmos interview tips to land my first writing job seven years ago, and neither imagining that I would one day be applying for my dream role as a staff writer with you. Since then, I’ve forged an international writing career, connecting with experts around the world and curating compelling content for print websites and social media. Today, nothing would excite me more than joining the Cosmopolitan team, empowering women worldwide through the power of modern, impactful storytelling. So in that, you know, again, it’s just a few sentences, but you’ve already gotten across it, you’ve been writing for seven years, you’ve you’ve fortune, international career around the world, you’ve got epic relationships, and you believe in their why and their mission, and you wanted to be part of that to make it even more compelling. And you could you could add numbers or accomplishments. So if we take the UX example, so your interest paragraph might sound like something like that. So as a UX and graphic designer with nine years of experience in designing new website functionality, nowadays, I pride myself on getting measurable results and elevating the customer experience across all forms and devices. Most recently, I designed a new website interface for an e commerce client that resulted in a 3.6 increase in customer retention, always seeking to optimize work. So I also convinced our head of design to switch to a different UX design tool, which increased our team productivity by 40%. I’d love to bring similar results. Dida as the VP of UX and design. So again, that’s the same sort of concept that’s like, I know how I who I am, I’ve got the sort of secret sauce, I’m good at this. And this sort of reading the end without having to explicitly say it. Rather than saying, like, I have strict with XYZ, you sort of get that across, and, and dropping in some accomplishments there and linking it back to why you’re applying for this role. So those are just a couple of examples of how you start to build interest.

Lisa Lewis Miller  40:28  

Beautiful, is so compelling, and it highlights a lot of the things that are best practices in the way that one builds their resume or their LinkedIn profile in making sure that your accomplishments are punchy, they’re outcome oriented, they have measurements when appropriate. So love seeing all those principles come to play here. Now, let’s get go on to the next letter in the framework.

Rosie McCarthy  40:49  

Yeah, and the next ones are a bit quick, I’ll just sort of give you the key principles, because we can’t write a whole mixture, unfortunately, on the podcast, but the is for desire. And what I like to do here is I assume, because you’re an excellent career changer. You’ve done a deep dive analysis and really decoded the job post. And you’ve written down, okay, what are they looking for? And how do I align with it? Now, out of that base work that you’ve done, I’d like you to pull out like two to three key points, like what are the two or three things I need to know about you what you can do what you can bring to the table for this specific role. So bring those out, I actually quite like to use bold, bold font, and sort of give it a bit of a headline, and say something like, you know, strong project management events and organizational skills or, you know, trends, transforming complex information into bite sized, engaging stories, or whatever it is like sum up that competency that you’re able to do. And then under that give me a bullet point with a proof point as a short story proof point, that proves you’ve actually done it, you can walk the talk and you’ve actually delivered against that competency. So I would say like hitting proof point, hitting proof point, hitting proof points, you may even have a couple of proof points, if they’re nice and short and steady. And trying yet weave those those numbers in there and really back it up. And then the fourth letter being action, so what action do they need to take. So this is where you’re going to go in for a strong, close, we don’t want you to sit out here and say, you know, please, if you might have the time, I would be forever grateful. But you also don’t want to do the hard sell of like, Great, well, I look forward to meeting you, you know, like, isn’t my kind of a bit, you know, of course, I’ve got this. So, what I like to do for a lasting impression is just do something like you know, if this leader has ignited your curiosity, or if this leader has sparked your curiosity, I would love to carry on this conversation with you in more detail, or I would love to discuss with you what kind of value what what other value I could bring to the team in this role or or discuss with you potential fit for this role, something like that. And then I can be reached at any time on email, phone number, make it super easy for them. So it’s pretty simple to close out. And if you can honestly create a little bit of urgency, it’s good terror. So for example, you might say something like, you know, I’m graduating on May 17. And I’m actively looking to secure a role before the state. You know, if you can honestly say that and create a little bit of urgency that’s always good, or, you know, with my move to Switzerland imminent, I’m actively looking for my next opportunity, and would jump at the chance to discuss my fit in greater detail. So if there is something that gives them a little bit of a deadline, somehow that can also be powerful.

Lisa Lewis Miller  43:44  

Hello, that succinct clear, using tons of persuasion principles from the marketing world, effectively bringing across a lot of the principles that people like you and I talk about all the time when it comes to resume and LinkedIn fundamentals. That is a killer formula for how to make a cover letters feel less stressful, less scary, make it more fun to write and make it way more compelling and fun for somebody to read. Rosie this has been brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing all of your thoughtfulness and your tips with us. For anybody who has been loving this conversation and wanting to hear more from you about your work and get support from you. Where can they find out more?

Rosie McCarthy  44:27  

Yeah, absolutely. So I’m on YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn on YouTube. It’s just slash like youtube.com slash badass careers if that is curious on Instagram, and on linkedin@linkedin.com slash i n slash rosy career coach. So that’s where they can find me and I’d be really happy to gift your listeners and your show notes as well. My free guide which is called nail that hook it will help you with the hook part the attention part of the cover letter which a lot of people say Maybe the trickiest it guides you through that. And it gives you loads of concrete examples from all sorts of different angles and industries and stories and, and just things that will inspire you to be able to write your next cover letter.

Lisa Lewis Miller  45:14  

Amazing. Well, Rosie, that’s an incredibly generous offer. And you have been so generous with your brain with your brilliance today. So thank you so much for coming on my Career Clarity Show. Thank you so much for having me. I had a blast.

Lisa Lewis Miller  45:33  

And that’s a wrap. Let us know what you thought about today’s episode. leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Because not only can your stars and words help us find great guests and topics to feature on future episodes. Your input also helps other people find the resources they need to discover the work that lights them up. And make sure to check out my book Career Clarity Show finally finds the work that fits your values and lifestyle for the link to order it go to GetCareerClarity.com/book. And don’t forget to get your other tools resources and helpful goodies at GetCareerClarity.com/podcast. Thanks again for joining us for the Career Clarity Show today. And remember, if you don’t love your work, we should talk because life is too short to be doing work that doesn’t light you up. Talk to you next time.