Success Secrets and Stories
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Success Secrets and Stories
Building a Professional Profile That Stands Out
Can you imagine landing your dream job without ever stepping foot in a college classroom? That’s exactly what we explore in this enlightening episode of Success Secrets and Stories. With insights from Jeff Mazur's Harvard Business Review article, we dissect the shifting landscape of job qualifications and how the Great Resignation has reshaped hiring practices. Learn how companies are increasingly dropping degree requirements to find the best talent and how you can leverage social media to build a professional image. We’ll provide actionable tips on auditing your profiles and creating a standout profile picture that speaks volumes to potential employers.
In our second segment, we share invaluable strategies on proving your skills and passion, even without a formal degree. We emphasize the power of hands-on experience, self-teaching, and engaging with companies' content to demonstrate your commitment. Hear how setting clear career goals and crafting a compelling resume can set you apart from the competition. From my personal journey transitioning from a truck mechanic to a regional director, discover the steps to showcase a diverse skill set and ensure a great fit with hiring managers. Tune in for practical advice on professional growth and building an online presence that gets you noticed.
Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell
Well, hello everyone and welcome to our podcast, success Secrets and Stories. I'm your host, john Wanoloski, and I'm here with my friend and co-host, greg Powell. Greg, hey everybody. Yeah, this podcast is covering something that I think is an interesting subject of the day Do you really need a college degree in order to land a great job? And there's different schools of thought, and part of what I think is important is what has the effects and what has actually helped people in 2024.
Speaker 1:I came across this article from Harvard Business Review from August 11th 2021, from the former director of LaunchCode, jeff Mazur, and the article basically is talking about the labor force versus its demand, and he starts off with the 19th century, horace Mann, a pioneer in American public schools, famously called education the great equalizer of the conditions of men. But for decades now, the education system has revealed and amplified existing social inequalities qualities. About nine years ago, jeff started off a company called lunch launch code, which is a non for profit organization for helping employment gaps for students, and what was interesting in terms of the article that I thought was pretty much on the point is how do you, how do you, help make that transition? He goes on to say companies need more workers and instead of weeding out people, businesses are tasked with figuring out how to bring in new talent and removing the college degree requirement as an effective way to bring in more people. College degree requirement as an effective way to bring in more people. Plainly put, not having a college degree should not diminish the chances to secure a good job and this is good news for many young people entering the workforce. Fewer high school graduates are pursuing a higher education and from his numbers they were looking at like 50% of the students, that 46% of the students from normal high school environments. In the impoverished schools they were seeing even higher disparity. Like 70% of the students were not going on to higher education in college.
Speaker 1:We have the trends nowadays in 2024 of the great resignation where a lot of people are rethinking their jobs. There's a lot of transition, with the older workforces that are going into retirement, that we really don't have that backup of the next generation or, as he described it, the talent pipelines and having a degree and having the job openings they're finding that disparity of. They need somebody to fill into positions and having that college degree as a requirement is really limiting the amount of people that they're able to see. So what Jeff's article was about is bringing in the requirements in order to get hired and what are the things that you need to do to compete with somebody with a college degree. And he had an interesting twist on it. It's time for job seekers to get social, is how he started off the article. Many of the people start their jobs on search sites like Indeed and LinkedIn. They search a few keywords and then browse the first few pages on the listings, but often it's only the biggest, wealthiest companies, the ones that pay money to keep their job openings at the top of those lists, that show up. As a result, hundreds, if not thousands, of candidates apply for a very small pool of job openings. Increasing competition among job seekers, hiring managers are more likely to be in favor of those candidates that have relevant network connections, which puts students with a college degree at an advantage and those without them at a disadvantage.
Speaker 1:For hiring managers, degrees are often a quick proof point. They indicate the candidate has a dedicated and necessary time to receive proper education to build skills relevant to the role. In lieu of a degree, candidates need to be able to prove this is on their own. The social media is a great way to do that. You can use the profiles like a portfolio and engage in the activities that demonstrate your experience, your dedication, your commitment and at bettering your skills. Now I'm going to put a stake in that point and say that he's trying to say that you can be effective without a degree if you apply these skills in terms of social media, social internet and Greg and I talked about this and I think, greg, I'd like you to take the different points of to his point. How do you get started? How do you, how do you make this social media work for the applicant?
Speaker 2:Thanks, john. There's no question that it's a different world today for job seekers, especially regarding social media, because pretty much everybody's got some level of engagement in some form of social media, social media connection. Thought it was funny, saw some cute pictures, jokes, whatever, and then maybe saw something in sports. You thought that was good. What I'm saying is maybe you started off social media presence just for fun, but the reality is now it's really your image. It's the 360-degree image of yourself that's out there and if you've got something that's negative, really negative, something unlawful, something that maybe you didn't like another employer and you blasted them, that doesn't endear you to new employers. So one thing you want to make sure you do is audit your social media profiles, is audit your social media profiles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if I can throw in my two cents on this one. Your summer break photos of what you did during your college breaks or during your summer breaks, those you keep in your own file. You don't put them on the Internet. You've got to be careful what you're sharing.
Speaker 2:Thank you, and so one of the things that's really important is the profile picture. We always used to say that you only get one chance to make a good first impression, and so you do want to make sure that picture of you, that image of you, is something that you would like to have out there. So one of the things that makes it real easy yeah, how you're dressed of course, too casual, too formal, you know what's really your kind of style, but smile, make sure people can see you, see your smile, see your eyes. I mean those kind of things are important. It's not required that you get a professional photographer, but you probably want a good headshot, because this is going out to a lot of people for a long time and it's out there essentially forever until you upgrade it or change it. So it does start with that picture. Make sure that picture of you is something that you would like a prospective employer to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and don't grab the phone and do a selfie. Just make a little effort at what that image looks like.
Speaker 2:So let's talk a little bit about experience and job descriptions. Now. In the past people would try to cram as much as they could into a page, maybe a page and a half or, if you had a lot of experience, three pages worth of experience again, kind of chronicling every doggone thing that you had done in the professional world. And likewise, on the employment side, we created huge job descriptions, a lot of detail, a lot of pages and of course, the famous line that said and duties as assigned right.
Speaker 2:But on the social media profiles you want to think about, it differently, because, even though they may give you enough characters to put all the words you want to put in there, people are looking at this on their phone, maybe their iPad, maybe their computer, and so you really want to put in there. People are looking at this on their phone, maybe their iPad, maybe their computer, and so you really want to make sure that you use that space wisely and again, think about the user, the person that's trying to understand what you bring to the party.
Speaker 1:John, what would you add to that? Well, one of the things that I always found interesting is that the resume doesn't match what their LinkedIn account looks like, so there's a disparity between what they were describing and that's not going to bode well either way. Um, it should be where you can expand on it a little bit on a LinkedIn account, but your resume has to be to the point. So you can be a little creative to do what Greg's trying to talk about, but you don't want to write an essay. That's not the place to do it.
Speaker 2:Thanks, john, and again, in a continual effort to audit your social media profiles, just make sure that what you've got out there is something that people can understand. You don't want a bunch of jargon on there, buzzwords, but that it's very clear what you were involved in with your experience, what you bring to the table. So prove your passion. What if you don't have a degree and you need another way to convince higher advantages that you're really interested in the field and that you have the skills to do the job well?
Speaker 2:We used to kid about the school of hard knocks. Sometimes just working hard, paying your dues, making a contribution to an organization, is not too bad for you. If you don't have a degree, that could be a replacement. So do the due diligence, do the work, prove your passion. If you're going to do something that's a little bit around finance but you don't have a finance degree, then understand the cash flow, understand basic accounting, understand how they make money, how they pay their bills, that sort of thing. A lot of that stuff is public information and you can understand that and learn that and then demonstrate that to the prospective person that's hiring.
Speaker 1:John.
Speaker 1:Well, the other thing is that if you're interested in it and it's a company that you find interesting, there's probably a lot of advantage of at least commenting on something that they've done in the marketplace or something that they're bringing out as an article, especially the hiring managers talking about something that's near and dear to them in terms of a passion.
Speaker 1:That's the kind of thing that, even if you're just opening up their particular article, they start seeing your name, that you've been looking at their website. It does make a difference that that does show up if they're looking for interest in whether you follow the particular company, like I one of my first companies that I worked for, johnson and Johnson. I still have on on my LinkedIn account that I follow Johnson and Johnson. I look at what that industry is doing. I just find it a very interesting company. That's the kind of thing that helps when we're talking about getting hired. If you see their company as an interesting company, nothing would be a better caveat than to see that you are following them. That will speak volumes on whether you're interested.
Speaker 2:Thanks, john. Also, you want to develop and show off your skills, so college is not the only way to master technical skills. If you've heard our podcast before, you know John and I talk a lot about development, training, learning and development opportunities. A lot of times companies offer or they might be free online. I would recommend learning what those are, where you can find them, and using that to build your competencies in various industries. And using that to build your competencies in various industries. There's a research by Gartner I think most folks have heard about the Gartner studies shows that 43% of job candidates teach themselves one or more of the skills they need to do their jobs. If you are looking to expand your skill set before applying to a role, then again use one of those online learning platforms or open universities.
Speaker 1:They're a great place to start. I've actually found that the LinkedIn Learning Center and some of the LinkedIn articles we've used in the podcast great resource too. Anyway, there's a number of them on the internet that are really really helpful. Thanks, john.
Speaker 2:And again, you want to continue to develop and show off your skills, and so, in today's hiring landscape, you don't need to count yourself out of the running just because you don't have a degree. It just means you need to work smart. It can be a little harder in some respects, but there's ways to compensate for not having that degree. What's more important is to show that you're driven, passionate and you possess the skills that the workforce needs, and you possess the skills that the workforce needs. The recruiters are now turning to social media to learn more about potential candidates, whether they have a degree or not.
Speaker 2:So, if I may, let me tell you a little bit about my approach to ongoing resume building and, I guess, a couple of things that are real important. So this is also some HR keys, I think, in hiring talent. So you get to see both sides what you think about as you develop your resume and what the prospective hiring people are thinking about when they look at your resume. So I always like to start off with a career plan at least five-year plan, you know minimum and I like to look at where I've been and where I want to go, at least where I think I want to go and connect those dots in between.
Speaker 2:That resume really helps that recruiter know how I thought about my career, how I've been thinking about it, how I've been acting on it. Then I like to show variety in assignments. I'm not kind of a one-trick pony. So let me pick on HR. I've done a little work in employee relations. I've done some work in training and development. I've done some work in compensation and benefits, union negotiations, et cetera. Real important to show that variety, if you have it to show, and how I've grown and learned from those types of experiences. And also for me it's exposure.
Speaker 2:I've been very fortunate in my career, especially early on, to be able to be in front of board of directors and how you represent your function really quick like that. I've mentioned in a previous podcast some talent management things we did. That was global. I had a chance to help put some material together and be in the room when we discussed our best and brightest talent, what the company was planning to do with them for development in the future.
Speaker 2:And then finally, when I'm looking at my ongoing resume, I like to think about my fit in that company and how that company fits with me. What I mean by that is, you know how are they viewed in the community. Volunteers, charitable contributions, social presence there, do they do things for kids after school? Whatever? How to make sure that they're making an impact that I'd like to make an impact on in the world? Definitely, my mother were really the kind of folks that appreciated and wanted me to appreciate how to make people feel appreciated, how to make them feel good, how to make them feel important, and so I like to work for companies that share that same kind of theme of trying to make people feel appreciated. John, how about your approach to an ongoing resume?
Speaker 1:I'm going to just add a tag on to a little bit of what you said that I've seen on the resumes. That I think is a really good reference point. I just want to get your view. Most resumes are asking for three forms of reference. They're looking for professionals that are going to be collaborating some of the things that you were writing in a resume. Linkedin has this wonderful little ad on it. You can have people write their recommendations, their referrals, on how they interacted with you and how it actually made their lives better or their organizations better, but you can put that into a LinkedIn profile and it's almost answering the thing in terms of references right off the bat.
Speaker 1:It's like a jump on trying to fill out a resume that that you can get. The people that are supporting you that are are your references and they have the ability. I have an architect who is on my page. Um, I have a um manager who was reporting to me on my page. I have a manager who was reporting to me on my page. So it's a very effective tool and it's helpful.
Speaker 1:So about resumes and for myself again, greg and I both have the five-year goals and trying to make sure that you're progressing your career that there's either an advantage in terms of learning something or there's a career advancement, but you're trying to make that career path grow. And the other element the four basic elements that I liked is the five-year goal. The second is always looking into the growth experience and try to understand how your skills can be improved upon by taking those different kind of examples, those different kinds of jobs. The example I give people is I started off as a truck mechanic and I ended up being a regional director of facilities and at one time I was a director of construction. And it's just how do you move those different kinds of experiences and continue to grow? And one of the interesting ones is when I started off as a mechanic and the people who were in production at Johnson Johnson were asking how is this relevant? I was able to tell them look, a mechanic can do hydraulics, mechanics, pneumatics. They understand frames and they understand the appearance, customer service, support At some level. It's all relevant. And you're trying to explain to the executive, to the hiring manager not the executive, the hiring manager that you can make that transition, that it's relevant.
Speaker 1:The next point that I think is important is making sure that you have an education goal too. You have a five-year plan or a 10-year plan and maybe the organization that you're going to work for will help pay for that education. For me, I wanted to go that next step of management. I wanted to go manager, I wanted to make it the director, I wanted to make the regional director and I needed help in terms of financing my education. I wanted to also understand that the organization that I was going to work for was going to help me with my education and I had made a decision that I couldn't afford to go to school. It was just too much of a burden with a young family and college payments and holding a full-time job. So organizations that would help pay for my schooling was also another element that I thought was important to look at when I was trying to make my changes in career and how I would write up a resume, but mostly evaluating that company on whether I wanted to work for them or not. So let me go to the bottom line.
Speaker 1:This article and what Greg and I have been talking about is you have to sell yourself, and sometimes some people don't know how to do that. They're they're self-conscious, they don't believe that they should be selling themselves. The resume should should be able to do it. The people in the organization should be able to understand that you're looking for promotions. You have to sell yourself and part of that is explaining to the organization how you can benefit and your employment can make it better for the organization and at the same time, you have to know to yourself that the assignment will help you in your career development and sharing that with your future employer is actually a good idea, not a bad idea that you have ambitions and you do want to do something in terms of building a career. Bad idea that you have ambitions and you do want to do something in terms of building a career.
Speaker 1:But I'll tell you the one part that is probably the most important in terms of a resume.
Speaker 1:It's making sure that the person that is hiring you, the person that you're going to be reporting to, is somebody that you think you can work with.
Speaker 1:That interviewing process, that resume process, is all an exchange between both of you both you as a candidate and them as a leader on whether you think that you can find a commonality in the career growth because of that connection. So, from a secret success secrets and stories, greg and I thought that this was kind of important to talk about the hiring process and and the importance of understanding how to craft your, your career, how to craft your resume and and being careful in how you start to create that social um, that social media kind of kind of footprint of what you look like on the uh, on the internet, of footprint of what you look like on the internet. So I think we've covered the subject pretty well. If you like what you've heard, my book Building your Leadership Toolbox is available on Amazoncom and Hulucom. My e-book is available on Barnes Noble. The podcast is what you're listening to and other popular podcasts, and that's.
Speaker 1:Dr Durst's book on MBR, a program that we really like as far as a management tool, is on successgrowthacademycom. If you'd like to get a hold of us, we have buy us a cup of coffee. We also have email. Mine is wandos75.jw at gmailcom and Greg.
Speaker 2:I can reach at gpowell374 at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:And the music is brought to you by my grandson. So we want to hear from you. If you get an opportunity, drop us a line. Thanks, Greg.
Speaker 2:Thanks, sean, as always. Next time, next time.