Episode 24, Angela Farmeary, Career Coach, Mindful Careers

In this episode, we welcome back to the podcast Angela Farmeary.

Angela is a career coach with her own career coaching business called Mindful Careers.  mindfulcareers.com.au

Prior to this, Angela was a recruiter for 15 years working in agency recruitment, and internal recruitment for Citibank and Coca Cola. 

Angela is passionate about partnering with our clients to help them unlock their true potential to get the job they want to achieve career success. 

In this episode, we discuss all things LinkedIn and Resumes.

To contact Richard Holmes please call 0403 513 720 or reach out on richardh@hprconsulting.com. https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardholmesfinancerecruiter/

Transcript

Please note that this has been transcribed by AI/Bots so there may be typos and the occasional strange things happening.
 

Richard Holmes  00:00

Welcome to the numbers people Podcast, where each week, we're going to be speaking with some highly regarded senior finance professionals and create experts looking into the ins and outs of what makes finance people and their teams great. The podcast is proudly sponsored by HPR consulting, a leading executive finance recruitment firm. I'm your host, Richard Holmes. Today's episode, we welcome back Angela farmery. Angela is a career coach with our own career coaching business called mindful careers. Prior to this, Angela was a recruiter for 15 years working in agency recruitment, and also until recruitment for Citibank and Coca Cola. punch line is passionate about partnering with our clients to help them unlock the true potential to get the job they want to achieve career success. Angela, great See you then. We survived COVID. Still here, but it seems to be under control, which is good, which is talking about the lucky country.

Angela Farmeary  01:08

We are in Australia, or rather the good old UK. Yeah, it's a good place to be. And we had undulant on the podcast on episode one of season one. And we've now brought back for season two to discuss all things, resumes in LinkedIn, which will hopefully help you in your search.

Richard Holmes  01:29

And knowing Angela for a number of years, she's career coach, has her own business, and has been doing this for a number of years. And Angela was actually my first boss when I got here in Australia many years ago. And she's very good at what she does. So Angela, if you want to talk about Western kick off LinkedIn. Yeah. So I think it's you know, as we were saying earlier, you read everybody's resume is really important when their job search. And I think most people know that importance of resume looking looking good and sound and well. But I think sometimes people forget about the importance of LinkedIn, as well with a job search. So a lot of people and I had just this just recently, the mates share their LinkedIn URL on their resume, which is fine. But you would only do that if your LinkedIn is looking fabulous. So if people are going to click on that URL, you want the LinkedIn to be complete, which is really, really important. And so yeah, I've seen a couple times do that think they just think they should put on their lead to your mobile email number eight email address and forget about the fact that people with a public platform and

Angela Farmeary  02:39

so for me, you know, as you and I oversee nearly LinkedIn

Richard Holmes  02:44

as the main things that are just actually posted a blog on my own website recently on mindful careers website, the main things that I would talk through that are important is your portal, you know, obviously needs to be complete a background image, so you know what I mean by the background. Yeah, so again, a lot of people just go with a generic one, which is okay. But if you want your profile to stand out that little bit and just have that bit more impact, then I would encourage a background image as well. There's a nice website called on splash, splash, un splash.com. This free emojis, and that's what I would recommend to people. So you can basically put in a word in the search bar, and get different options for it. If you're creative and want to design your own one, then canva.com which is the Australian design website. Yeah, which is amazing. I would definitely recommend going back

Angela Farmeary  03:41

just if you compare five profiles and one has a background image before doing clearly tell in that background image really makes your profile pop out and until that until there's another website I've use called snapper snapper, which is quite similar to Canva where you get different images you can up blocks and the titles and things like that. And it's quite easy yet if I can figure it out incredible. Yeah, I can do that. But I think it's snapper it's anything like I think always like come to the role for all the entities as well. Yes. Yes, amazing. We can come up with

Richard Holmes  04:20

of work not really, you know, you just give yourself an hour or so to update your profile online. 10, tidy up, whatever you see the little pencil, you just click it and go in and change it. And then the same thing that would really be very important as your headline, which is what sits below your name. Okay, so the default is your current job title and your your position and your current company. So for instance, finance manager, Microsoft, yeah, that would be the headline. But with anyone's headline, you have 220 characters to use there. So I really encourage people to use it for a bit more than just your current job. title, because when people are looking at search people, what they will see is name, headline, photo location, that's all to see. So the more you put in that headline, the more it tells people they're going to do and what you can do. So for instance, you might have marketing executive, then use the little vertical line or a module and a diamond or some sort of shape as a separator. And then you might have a digital, you might have Adobe, you might have different things that relate to what you actually do. So I just would say people don't know your position, maybe have between three and five skills. And then you can even also get industry. And it's, it really makes the headline standout, to be honest. So tell people, what you can do, ultimately, not just finance manager, that Microsoft, which I mean, it's fine, but just take that next step to make it really stand out. So that's the headline. So again, it changes just the pencil.

Angela Farmeary  05:58

But that was sort of sorcery. Until I was gonna say going back to the photo, make sure you've got your photo settings that your photos this way. Yeah, like in the recruitment industry, you click on someone's profile. And if they're a second connector or third connection, you don't see a picture. And he says 1000 words are set up. To be

Richard Holmes  06:21

honest, I've actually seen that quite a bit. And people are not aware because no one tells them. So you can see your own image, even other people who are not fresh contacts, can't see it. So you need to change that in your second, which is quite easy to do. It's really yeah, the easiest way to do it, the quickest way to do it is just be on your own at your own profile, top right hand corner, it'll say Edit public profile, and URL. They'll click it there. And scroll down. And you'll see it will give you options. And we'll see first second third. LinkedIn members public, click public would be my advice that you want to see every week. And again, if you're reaching out to someone, and you don't know where this report your settings like that, all they've seen is that so but avatar, a new photo. totally oblivious with the toilet librarian? Yeah,

07:13

that's quite, quite basically, good to think it's pretty,

Richard Holmes  07:17

it's a good thing to point out actually. And then you know, once you've got your headline, you're happy with it, then it's good about section, include your summary, why people don't use them, and which, again, you're doing yourself a disservice if you're not. So you have 2600 characters to use their LinkedIn in college. And I would encourage everyone to write and the first person from other words, why are your aunt

Angela Farmeary  07:43

tell your story, tell people what you're all about. You know, tell people what you like doing, what your highlights are, where you're different to the next person. And you can even put your contact details there. So it's easy for the courage people to find you that as well. But really use that so important. So I see that every day were senior people, as well as just like, the things were most crucial parts. And the tip I've been telling people as well. And if you struggle to create that about par, try and find yourself on LinkedIn, obviously not your name on trying to find your job title or your peer group in the in the field you're in and just see which ones stand out to you. And before you know, you look at age 123, and some are really good and try and plagiarize, don't copy and

Richard Holmes  08:34

paste, they won't get the ideas from the guys. Yeah, so creative, really good tip bot. And also, you know, people search on words on LinkedIn, I mean, there's 740 million people on LinkedIn, 11 and a half million in Australia. So if you want to stand out, you've got to put the right words in there that people are going to find you for. So make it easy, include them in your headline, put them in your variable. And then the next part, your experience section, which essentially is your jobs. Don't just have a list of your jobs and the job titles and the dates that are actually good. And some, I usually encourage people put in a summary in the experience section, don't copy and paste all your responsibilities, or your achievements, your resume depository and summarize, good chunky somebody on what you were doing and what you achieved. That turkey meat you stand there and link it back to the headline, link back to the experience section. So there's no continuity, coming through what you've essentially what you've done, basically, as well. And again, you know, in the experience section, if someone say has a job title that isn't obvious to say the Vice President and it's not obvious what they are. adapt the job title, you know, we don't need just do those persons could have a finance, job, Vice President stroke, Davis strategy, whatever you just adapted to that is understandable.

Angela Farmeary  09:55

But I completely agree with Angela and often there's no harm in in believing, say Vice President and how brackets Yeah, financial control, or equivalent of

Richard Holmes  10:05

scam, whatever it is. He also asked me all the time, is it okay to do the same, it's been helpful, because you'd explain it to people what your job title was, rather than the generic job title that's maybe to other people outside your business doesn't make sense to revolvers what you think doesn't make sense? What's the Market Report. And then with education, so obviously, you create education in your way with education, you do not need to create yours and keep doing 3d printing, just click the word here, to LC from two efficacies, you can just click the word or it says, start year NGO. Or you can just click the word year, you don't need to use visa status. As I get asked all the time, does my age count against me? Angela? It's a regular question. So if you're thinking that people knowing you need to make count against you, then don't put the year in complete your undergrad service payoff, it should be as well, but you did. But both personal choice. Some people want to but be aware you don't have the education. And then if you've got any volunteer experience that you've been doing, you can add that as well. It's really nice to have that. And then skills. So skills on LinkedIn, you can have up to 50 by zero, most people put around 25. But again, like you know, like Richard just said, If you're unsure, look at look appears just other people and see what they do. And then look at a job board. See what the job boards asking for and make sure you've got them on your profile. Basically, there's no point in having to wait skills on their on your profile if you want it to reflect what the market is currently looking for. And skills are so important. When somebody loads the job advert onto LinkedIn, they have to select 10 skills. So an automatic thing. So when you can view the skills if you have the page link to the Cobra, if you've got a free account does not see them, unfortunately. But if you've got premium, you can see it. So if you're looking at a job Advair and you can see 10 skills, it's asking for that make sure the only profile before you apply laughter you apply. That's again how you write that would be that would be the main thing and have it. Obviously reflecting your resume your resume shouldn't have definitely are really different job titles to what your LinkedIn.

Angela Farmeary  12:43

But I guess we both see that quite a lot where the resume is different to the different job titles, different dates you've seen, I've seen. One is good and the other is

Richard Holmes  12:55

a lot better resume is looking pretty good. Now look at the LinkedIn. And it's just not the note here. I think if you're going to be if you're going to be on LinkedIn, make the effort to have a complete LinkedIn affair to all star optimize emphasis complete. Otherwise closure profound don't know if it really hit LinkedIn or what have you on it. Yeah, put your misrepresent yourself. Really, if you have enough profile on here, that's not what people look at. So it's a public platform you deal with really, really important

Angela Farmeary  13:33

some really good tips so Angela, and robots the first one photography. Recently, we've just launched a new website, HDR, we did our all pictures. If you have an apple iphone, use the pole train, and it blurs out the background and you take a few pictures and it looks like professionals. So if you've got an iPhone great, and if you don't, I'm sure some some fighters got the similar uniforms are great. So you just got a new shell, we just put it all in your office and did it ourselves. Yeah. cringe worthy, but it's just so easy to do these days. And that's the thing with and we've been working in recruitment, it's perception is it want to make sure you come across as best as you can, like we see people with, with the kids and with dogs and things like that, which is which is which is fine. It's fine. We're not saying don't do that, but it's perception isn't Yeah, so look at this guy with his dog, like, yeah, you might get negative. So kind of stay where you want.

Richard Holmes  14:28

And also don't don't have a profile photo shooting your friend, you've cropped half your friend. And it's really obvious your friends are near as well. It's just like now you know, as a professional business platform. Yeah, it's not Facebook. So make sure you represent an equally though it's also not passport photos. Some people don't literally put a passport photos on it. But if the photo is not very warm, not being invited to that you do want it to still be used and smiling and everything else. You know,

Angela Farmeary  15:01

the most pitches on LinkedIn where people aren't smiling, just smile? Just try to be natural. Exactly. But don't be Don't be grumpy on your LinkedIn picture. People aren't judgmental. I see you. I click on profiles.

15:15

Yeah,

Angela Farmeary  15:17

it's hard to kind of get pasta. I

Richard Holmes  15:18

totally agree. I mean years often LinkedIn chain for years, COVID, nine years now. And I think in the beginning, when I would meet people want to want to do training, maybe 30% of people will know, it's like, you know, and if they haven't, then we'll get on. Definitely. So if they find a profile, photo photo, or other profile, sorry for a while. And I'm not sure whether the nor the freshmen, whereas I used to get pushed back years ago,

15:47

before do

Richard Holmes  15:48

not put on my resume, which is true. But it's a global platform. And hopefully, it's just how often it's you have to have an expectation, that's when someone clicks on your profile. There's a fall to the SLS, and people are a bit suspicious. No and creative. We have photos on resumes with the dawn and Australia. It's just not. Culturally, what we do here are some countries do but Australia doesn't. So yeah, don't see me the old 2 billion in college of LinkedIn. But as I say, if you're going beyond that, to hopefully do it, well, yeah, do it. Well, don't undersell yourself, do yourself a disservice by having a weak profile and just push it for

Angela Farmeary  16:31

fun, it doesn't take that long. To set it up

Richard Holmes  16:33

at all, the delta is a very intuitive system as well, you know, you build it really as for the prompts, so I used to say, people, if you're going to set yourself up from scratch, powerful tool, be happy with ideally a background image, and give yourself a couple of hours to just go from top to bottom and have it complete. If you've got profile on there already, and you've not touched it for ages, which has been normal. Again, give yourself a good hour, to just go through it from every little pencil You see, as an edit button, just see what it does. Scroll up, scroll down, see what the options are, as Richard did look at other people's profiles for ideas, and get it done. But then you can go back and change it, you know, you can improve it, you can enhance it. Or if you think leader, Archer don't like my four anymore, they've

17:20

got a new one Australian,

Richard Holmes  17:22

it's totally fine to do that. You should be active with your LinkedIn, you shouldn't it's not just that you will set a goal for st leaf rather, you should be active with them continually on their

Angela Farmeary  17:36

worship advice, say, new to LinkedIn or just creating a profile, I'm pretty happy with it. How do I go about contacting my network. So all the people I've worked with before and the people, I think, what's the best approach.

Richard Holmes  17:51

So what I say initially, when you've set up where you've maybe got a profile, and you've not used it for ages, as an infant, at least 50 to 100 contacts. So you know, people that are literally just starting out, aim for ideally 100. But you as a white people go, I've been told I should get a minimum of 500. It's not about quantity, it's about quality. So if you're looking to stay in Australia, as a manager, initially, for your contacts to be added to really, then I would connect with your colleagues, and connect with people that you used to work with. So to do that, just go on the company page on LinkedIn, click on people. And it'll bring up everyone that works there and then start connecting with them. But you can just go to the top menu bar and click on my network. And if you scroll down on that, it will prompt people to connect with and it bases that on who you're already connected with. So even if you only got five connections, it's prompting you to connect with people based on your five connections. So that's an easy way for looking at someone's profile. And then the right hand side, I think it says something like both of you. That's another way. So there's lots of ways to build your network. But I think on a very basic level, if you've got an old box of business cards, that you've connect with them like that, really true. Yeah, but basic. First, first thing I would say is create what you call, connect with your friends connect with your partners. colleagues know just fully built a name for it ideally.

Angela Farmeary  19:27

Would you send them a message when you connect with them?

Richard Holmes  19:29

Definitely. So when you click on Connect, it will bring up the option send or add a note. I would always add a note Yeah, and you can again without the 100 characters and I usually just say something like a or hi Richard I've recently finished out working in x y Zed bank wanted to build my network within the bank can you do that you could to connect people see or you know hey that church, a CD he also knew Angelo darlin undervolted As well, looking to build my network, so just take them make the effort to cool, the connection requests every day. They few top notes, and the ones that are not as to why I'm always very committed,

Angela Farmeary  20:15

but it makes a difference is that one thing I would add to that on your desktop, on the mobile? If

Richard Holmes  20:24

it doesn't on the mobile, we can get round up smartly clicking someone's profile, which is actually really brilliant on my phone, just remind myself, how do you click on someone's profile and click on More? Right? It will bring up personalized invite, and that drop down? Right? Let's say that, that's how you do it. So it's the exact same thing, basically. So if you click More, and then it will say a person, there's quite a few options on there that we can actually personalize the invite. So I think that's often why most people tend to connect with people through their mobile phones, and then all the way up. It's not obvious why LinkedIn should make it more obvious. So you're right. You know, I think most people are more people are not going away. Yep.

Angela Farmeary  21:20

That's a good point. Well, I've done it myself, Well, suddenly, connection went for that I'd love to come up. It's just sent me like, Oh, I'm one of these have just sent a connection. And then resumes. What are your top tips around resume CVS, because before we started recording this, Angela and the self have been in the recruitment, freeze space for a long, long time, every day? Well, especially. We see some terrible resumes, right? And we there's no excuse this, you can google resume template CV templates in this free ones there. And, and we see it not just during the people seeing the people as well. And some of the senior people actually have worse, unfortunately, so what are your top tips,

Richard Holmes  22:10

so whether with any one resume, my number one tip would be it's all about page one, if I was, you know, being a recruiter richer, now I'm an extra crew myself for a long time before going to career coaching, you make a decision pretty quickly. So what you see on page one, for me should primarily be name, email, mobile, LinkedIn URL, if you've got a LinkedIn profile, there's some sort of career overview career profile, executive profile explaining what you do. Then I usually say something like major accomplishments, bullet point, you don't believe that, or key areas of expertise is a nice one, as well. So you pick it out, you find many key things. And then a career so many, so what that is, is a snapshot. So it would just be the company name, your position, and the years. So as a recruiter, as a hiring manager, I've got that on page one. And I can I quickly have an overview that maybe five years you're going to want to invest in young. But lately, you've been working at different companies. Yeah, so but I can see that as a snapshot. And then excuse me, that experience section in the detail starts on page two. So then it would just be more free to draw

Angela Farmeary  23:21

into your points wife in the first about first page, it's by far the most important, the first part of the first page should be that executive summary, query, profile profile, whatever you want to call it. And when you touch on with the LinkedIn profile, make sure it's applicable to show people exactly.

Richard Holmes  23:38

So you know, I used to say people want to have that profile at the top, excuse me, what the half bullet point is underneath can be interchangeable. So you know, you might have five skills listed here, but change them depending on what you're applying for.

Angela Farmeary  23:55

Exactly. as basic as this tip. Sounds. If say you're applying for a financial planning and analysis manager, make sure you put that in the first couple of sentences of your profile. on page one primer, yeah, experience financial planning, analysis management that term as well. Yeah, because this is probably for another podcast for atss in the keyword searching, it's, it's really important every keyword in your resume or somebody ephant out there, just a couple of good little tools and you heard this job scan and scope.

24:29

Skill thinker.

Angela Farmeary  24:30

Yep. Skill cinco Wilson.

Richard Holmes  24:34

Excuse me, skill s KIW, l cinco, Ace y NCR. semblait jobscan, but it's a bit newer. And I think they're really cool. So you can copy and paste your job advert. Copy and paste your resume, if it tells you how you match and the main thing is it tells you the words you need to keep repeating a bit more and the ones request

25:01

to pay for that. Or

Richard Holmes  25:03

you get a phone, you get a couple of times for free. And then you need pay. Yeah. So just use it wisely. It offers you one free turn a week. Yeah, it gets a bit more than job scout because as

Angela Farmeary  25:18

soon as you basically you can get the job over and material to measure. Exactly. Yeah.

Richard Holmes  25:23

And, you know, use your common sense. Like, it's just words that you know, the word meaning, for instance, and here is use data main net, you could choose mining, mining, it's used in many ways. Yes. So keep that in mind. It's just words that it's coming in. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But it's very clever. And it's a good way of knowing what you need to change on your resume, because you can never expect anyone to read between the lines. Like it's just people don't have time. Just move on to the next phase.

Angela Farmeary  25:57

Look at this. If these platforms are not telling you what to put in 30 more keywords, then do it. I know, you guys find this kind of crazy, but you have to have these keywords in your resume. But if that's the difference between getting a phone call or not exactly getting an invoice rather,

Richard Holmes  26:13

yeah, I mean, that's the thing, your resume is there, to win your job search and to get you an interview. If you're sending it to five job adverts, and getting five interviews, it's also it's doing its job. If you're sending out a lot and hearing nothing, often it's because it is a piece of work. And people are just unaware that you know, as page one is so important, it's most important.

Angela Farmeary  26:39

Wanted to the actual jobs, you actually pay for a job, what would you want?

Richard Holmes  26:44

So with a current job, and I mean, I'm a fan of habit. main responsibility. So memecan job, advert, degree and then achievements, so picking out 33 achievements, but each job and and with an achievement. I always say people think beyond just couldn't implement in a new ncp system, I think I always encourage them to think about car and then drive a car. So what was the challenge or context? What actually to what was the result? So take the achievement beyond just one line statement and actually see what difference it made for the business value and value is this how do you stand out

Angela Farmeary  27:25

in how you write the resume itself is talk about what you did? Exactly. I mean, don't just do that for the resume. But I did this and the result was this. Not so bad that car circumstance action result is the best way to

Richard Holmes  27:41

truly learn to read your major achievement by yourself and see so bored. what difference did it make, basically? And then you'll think, oh, okay, yeah. Oh, yeah, actually, I saved some money or, you know, streamline the process or merge something together, or your records down and division meant there. So whatever. So tell people what the outcome was, rather than just she did it. Yeah,

Angela Farmeary  28:05

we say that a lot. But he worked on a particular project. And he was like, Oh, that's great, then what the outcome is just guessing.

Richard Holmes  28:13

Yeah. And then with them, it's what you can also use for interviews. So when you start to get interviews and news people know that you know, behavioral interviewing, you can use your achievements within your resume. That is your answer. So it's your story it all links together.

Angela Farmeary  28:30

And with with resumes, and CDs and templates, you can find them all on Google, just just Google that I've got one of my LinkedIn profile, Richard Holmes, if you want to download that, or send me a message, but it's like, I think it's the only one tip I would say until the voicemail is given to you finding your friends, get them to read through it and just just get them to be honest with the feedback. Yeah, they'll see things that you've missed or what about this and just other it's a learning isn't it?

Richard Holmes  28:57

Totally and make sure you do the basics as well of spell checking and stuff you know, obviously a few that have got spelling errors in the end and that's absolute no no so spell check it two or three times in all honesty and save it and word causer open it up again make sure pinch off as well to make sure that you've not what tiny font that we defined on your and large screen but when some of these printed off the interview, you can have a via So again, thank you to all our

Angela Farmeary  29:25

sponsor great and I had a I actually saw something on social media a couple of weeks, but that having pictures, graphs, lines, tables, he actually rejects the former a lady a couple of weeks ago, she sent me a resume food in her name, which was in a box was half in the box half of them's nuts. And that was just a plain to me answer with jet. We don't have like an ETS system or anything like that. So we're running short. What are you looking at? It's fine. So take out graphs,

Richard Holmes  29:56

graphs, tables, and energies. I know like people Links in the resume on Canva doesn't work well, no, not not. If you're applying online, if you're just sending it to a friend or you know, that's different. But if you're applying to online job adverts, and it probably will go through some sort of football, essentially, you don't want any emojis, tables, graphs, that it will think it's spam, and it just dumps them. So yeah, I always discourage people from doing that. I don't, I'm not even a big fan of people. A lot of people will use the header at the top to get their name stuff in there. Put it in the main folder. So you don't want anything other

Angela Farmeary  30:38

than just have your name, your email, your mobile number, and

Richard Holmes  30:42

you don't need your address.

Angela Farmeary  30:44

You don't need your marital status. You don't need any kids. You've got your driver's license, you definitely don't need your diaper. It's just don't need that. And I was going to mention before going back to LinkedIn profiles, I've seen people people put the resumes on the LinkedIn profile which you can do what's what's your opinion,

Richard Holmes  31:02

not a fan, that To be honest, I really feel as a student and again in LinkedIn is a resume depository and detail people that are not as a business networking platform. Not fun. I think it should your profile should represent you well enough that you want people to ask for your resume get the details

Angela Farmeary  31:19

but agree with I saw a kind of a no actually call them to the side of lobbying his resume is quite a home address on them. And this is a public platform anyway. I don't think he really realized that just advertised all these details. But again, I'm not telling him to do that. But I just don't think

Richard Holmes  31:38

LinkedIn should be enough really and then as the seat of the board, the detail that the resume will detail and probably to close out and make sure you've got your contact details on LinkedIn, the amount of time where I want to headphone someone and the phone numbers. just combine your contact info even if you saw your work email address, your personal email address the phone number so we can make it easy. For example, you know, make it easy because if you don't don't be want the next one, then you may have lost that. So make it easy.

Angela Farmeary  32:17

Well hammock I think we cook quite a bit that joins quite a lot of people to take in but hope hopefully it's helped and insightful