Career Warrior Podcast #305) Three Ways to CUT Down Time in Your Job Search

Episode Transcript

Chris Villanueva 0:00

Perhaps this is the message you needed to hear, in which you might need to juggle around some things to get your resume and get your applications sent out during your peak energy times.

LinkedIn presents and welcome to the Let’s Eat, Grandma Career Warrior Podcast where our goal is not only to help you land your dream job, but to help you live your best life. Alright, guys, so today, I’m gonna give you three ways to cut down your job search with the primary focus being on resume building and the application process. Listen, so many of you are busy. I know this for a fact, after speaking with many of you. Many of you have jobs, many of you have a bunch of things you’re trying to juggle on the side, and so the job search process is not something that is going to be a breeze. So I want you to take some of that time and effort, and focus and help you with your job search. And to cut down the amount of time it takes not only for you to craft a good resume, but also for you to just get that job quickly. So you can move on next to the next best thing you have going on. So without further ado, this is a quick and dirty minisode, Episode 305 of the Career Warrior Podcast

All right, so quick disclaimer to I guess, let you know who I am as a person but I’ve been obsessed with cutting down inefficiencies. In my own personal life ever since 2019, when I realized I kind of was like this “chicken-with-my-head-cut-off” character kind of just taking on every project and doing every little thing. And so I realized that time was one of the most valuable assets I had as a human being. So I have been obsessed, just taking in any sort of information I can from books like The Four Hour Workweek to Cal Newports, and Deep Work, one of my favorite ones. I’ve just been kind of obsessed with cutting it down in my own life.

In this episode, just reflecting on some of the things that I know, have worked for our clients, but not just that, but just recognizing what are some good principles and getting the job done quickly in your job search, I just want you to be able to stop wasting your own time as you embark upon the job search process. So let’s kick into the very first tip that I have for jobseekers on how to cut downtime in your job search.

Number one is the master resume. Tip number one is develop a master resume for yourself and use that resume to send it out as a targeted version over and over again. So one of the principles in this podcast is targeted resumes coming up with a targeted resume. But did you know that it should not take you a long amount of time to come up with a targeted resume for the different jobs that you’re applying for. Now, this concept means that you should have a generic or master resume that you have at your disposal to send out to various different jobs. Now I’m not saying that even this master resume should portray you as a jack of all trades, I’m just saying get as generic as you need to, if you are going to be sending this resume out to a few different specific types of positions. So let me give you an example of that: let’s say that you have honed on your job search and you know you’re going to be applying for marketing leadership positions, so you should have a master resume that lends itself to the marketing leader that you are perhaps you have some core skills and accomplishments and responsibilities that belong on every single job that you’re applying for. Within that resume, you include probably more things than you would before you start sending this thing out. And so your resume may bleed on over to a third page where as we want to get you cut down to a two page resume, let’s just say. With this master resume, what you can do is cut and create targeted versions of the resume as you send it out to more specific job postings. So I said you’re a marketing leader in this hypothetical example and let’s say that you want to build out a resume for a marketing consultant position. Let’s say you are just going to do some freelance work or you’re looking to get hired for an organization on a part time basis, so you have one type of resume for that. And then you have another type of resume for a marketing director position.

So what you’re essentially doing is getting organized, and you’re not rewriting the resume from scratch every single time that you have a different type of position that you’re going for. In fact, there are a few key areas in which you could focus to get the best bang for your buck when it comes to redesign the resume. You can look at the headline at the very top of the resume, you could read tweak the summary and you could focus on the top bullet points of your professional exposure rinses, these are key areas in which we know that a lot of hiring managers are looking at and a lot of people are spending their time. Just keep in mind that folks are going to be looking at that first page more than anything else, and especially the very top of that resume there. So don’t overhaul the entire resume, just tweak in those key areas in which you know, they’ll make a difference. All right.

Now, the second way to cut downtime and your job search. The second way or tip we’re going to go over today is energy management. Gone are the days that we’re going to be talking about time management here, energy management is the new time management here. So block out the time in which you know, your energy is going to be the highest and devote that time towards your job search. Alright, caveat here is that you know, not all of you care about your job searches right now, perhaps you may be super passive, and you’re like, “Okay, I’ll probably kind of take something that comes my way, if it looks better, I’ll grab it.” But some of you, I’m telling you, you really want that next job, you want that promotion, you want to move into an industry in coding, and you want to really take things up to another level. And these are the folks that I’m talking with talking to with this tip here, energy management. So I was having a really tough time earlier this year, I think I had like a couple of struggle weeks, in which a lot of projects kind of piled up at once, in addition to a couple of like, personal things that I had to juggle the same time. And so I approached a mentor of mine, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m really struggling right now with this thing that I care about. It’s like this marketing initiative that I really care about. And I’m struggling because I’m making like these basic mistakes. And I’m not really moving it forward as much as I should.” And my professor’s response just kind of hit me in the head with this realization that I needed to devote my time in that marketing initiative where my energy was the strongest and where my energy was the best in the day. And so specifically, I have the best energy from 7am to 9am. This is right after I had my cup of coffee, and I’ve had a good night’s rest, and my concentration typically is at its peak level. And all I really did was tweak the timing in which I put out or is when was working on this marketing initiative to 7am to 9am. And I noticed a huge difference not only my motivation levels, but just the quality of work. And so for you, if you really care about your job search, if you’re really looking to move things on over to the next level, perhaps this is the message you needed to hear, in which you might need to juggle around some things to get your resume and get your applications sent out during your peak energy times.

When are your peak energy times? For a lot of us were trying to get our resume sent, and we’re trying to, you know, make our job search like this after thought, like after we are done with work and we’re tired, and we have kids to deal with and we’re like, “Ah, let me get out that application.” But in reality, we need to make time when we feel the highest amount of energy and a level perhaps this isn’t the morning, again, we’re in our cortisol levels are the highest and we may have that increased alertness and that focus and the job and task at hand. But I’d asked you when that is for you. And really to make it happen and make the job search a priority. I’m telling you, this is going to cut down a 10-hour a week job search all the way down to an effective two hours if you do this the proper way. In addition, a new thing for me that I’ve found binaural beats can be very effective at this time. So I’ve been listening to binaural beats, these are simply variations in sound. So you have a basically like a sine wave on your right ear and then another sine wave on the left ear that have slight variations and this has scientifically been proven to increase energy and focus as well. So put this on for five minutes before you go into your job seeking out, perhaps listen to this a little bit while you’re in the act of applying for jobs. But find things that increase your concentration energy and use that to your advantage.

Alright, the third way to cut downtime in your job search, use a resume service partner with a resume writer who can get the job done for you and make it to where you don’t have to actually write the darn thing yourself. Alright, so this is a huge one for folks who have the money but do not have the time and I’m speaking especially to my mid-level folks, to perhaps my career changers or my senior level folks who simply find that they are in a bind all the time. So depending on your job search situation, this could save you anywhere from a few hours to 10-plus hours in the actual resume writing process. For a lot of us, we don’t have a strong command over Microsoft Word or the English language or marketing sales speak or or just technical writing in general, and this is why I have created a resume service nearly 10 years ago, because I knew that if we could just get the art and science and craft of resume writing and take this pain and time out of our clients hands, it would do justice. And so nearly 10 years later, after writing 1000s of resumes and packages for our clients, I can speak confidently here today and tell you that this has saved 10s of 1000s, possibly even hundreds of 1000s of hours of time for our clients. And so I don’t give a crap if you choose us like this is not like the pitch for Let’s Eat, Grandma, but if you can find a good resume service, then this will literally take the time out of your hands. Moreover, if you get a good resume in your hands, and a good collaboration process, and you know that your resume is going to actually cut down the weeks in your job search, that’s time right there.

So Alas, these are three ways to cut downtime in your job search. Number one, the master resume. So you’re creating this generic-ish resume that you can cut down and whittle by focusing on key points in the resume that you can tailor and target. So those key points being the headline summary and the top bullet points. The second way to cut downtime is energy management, finding exactly what time of the day and what time of the week you have the most energy and really devoting your time to that I can literally cut down so much time. And number three, if you have the means to get a resume service a partner up with a professional that can literally write the resume for you and save you weeks potentially through getting you the job faster. Since it is 2023 and honorable mention to ChatGPT, four ways to cut and save time in your job search. Listen, it’s a great technology. AI has come a long way over the years, and I think this is especially the year. But be careful with this, this can actually save you time in the sense that it can come up with a decent baseline cover letter, for instance, or a generic professional. But oftentimes, it may not actually connected with your accomplishments and it may not do a good job in actually like portraying the human side of what you’ve done and making a connection. But it can save time because it can literally spit out some documents for you and I think that that’s great. All right.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s Career Warrior Podcast episode. I love doing these and cannot believe we’re already at episode 305. So please show me some love and give me your review. Spotify, if you’re listening on that platform, also gives you the chance to comment. So you’re welcome to leave a comment for me, and I will read it. Thanks so much for tuning in to Episode 305.

I will see you next week in which I connect with Maya Grossman, an amazing career coach here in Austin, Texas. And we cover seven uncomfortable truths that job seekers should know. These are seven things, I think they’re surprising for people when as they build their careers as they move forward in their careers. And so this was an engaging conversation and we’re finally releasing it out to the world and I can’t wait to see you there. Alright, Career Warriors. Take care and I’ll see you next time 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 in 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.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai