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Hello and welcome. You are listening to the Latinas in Leadership podcast, where I empower Latinas with the guidance and knowledge they need in order to get promoted to the director level position and increase their salary beyond six figures. I'm your host, Alejandra Thompson, leadership coach and first gen Latina on a mission to see more Latinas in leadership. Inside of my one on one coaching intensive program, director week, I help Latinas go from manager to director and increase their salaries anywhere between 10 to 30, 000. In this podcast, you can count on me to share strategies, tools, and knowledge to help you break into the next level of your career. Let's go. Hello. Hello friends. Welcome back to the podcast. It feels so good to be here again. Week after week. So I hope you had a beautiful 4th of July weekend that you had a good time. I went up to a cabin here in Michigan, and it's just always such a beautiful time there. Because it's in the woods. It's quiet. It's like weirdly quiet, you know, as someone who was raised in metropolitan areas, I was raised outside of DC in the suburbs in Maryland. Still busy. A lot of people there. And then I lived in Miami, which is obviously a big city. So when I go up to the cabin, it's quiet to the point where I remember the first time I was, I realized that. Stillness, like just utter quiet. Like that was weird. My body wasn't used to it. I was just thrown off by it. I'm also, still working on my fear of getting eaten by a bear or my dog getting eaten by a bear. So I'm still working through that, but it's still such a beautiful time. It's so peaceful out there. And I just always find that I never know where my phone is. I'm always just. Present in a way that is harder for me to tap into when I'm here at home and the busy-ness of life and just the day to day and work and all that stuff. So I had a great time. It's always pretty restorative and I hope you had a good time too. So today we are continuing our series on how to create your director level, resume that resume. That's going to land you director interviews. How do you break out of the current level that you're at, whether it's manager or senior manager and break into that next level of director. And that starts with having a resume. That's going to speak into your abilities at the director level and no longer at the manager level. In this episode, we are going to cover what a resume summary is. My proven formula for creating one. I have created many of them and the top mistakes I see people make when it comes to creating their resumes. So by the end of this episode, you'll have what you need to go and create your resume summary. That's going to stand out and create some interviews for you at that director level. So let's go ahead and get started here. What is a resume summary, a resume summary is that brief statement at the top of your resume that highlights your professional background, your key skills. And notable achievements. So it's giving that hiring manager a quick snapshot of who you are. And why you're the best candidate for this job? In the last episode, I told you that your resume is like a marketing ad. It should scream out director level. It should scream out very quickly that you are capable of this job, that you are capable and that you are qualified and therefore you should get an interview. And so with that being said, this is a really big piece of making sure that it's an effective. Add that you have a resume summary at the top of that resume, where there are so many words. It's black and white it's, you know, pretty plain. So you want to make that at the top and use it and for it to be effective at landing you those interviews. And so number one, I want to go through the formula that I use. And like I've said I've built many resumes. I've built many resumes summaries. And a formula I give you as a general guideline. This is usually how I go about the summaries. And so just take notes, take it in and see how you can make it work. The way that I like to do it is I always want to be concise. I want to be impactful and I want to be tailored to the director level positions you are targeting. So I'm going to give you my formula, but always know that, of course, when I'm working with someone. I'm looking at the positions that they want to land. Every time I do director week, one of the first things that they'll do before we even meet is I need to see five jobs that you are targeting right now, because that is what helps me. As your career coach, as the writer of your resume, to know how to create a resume, that's going to go, yes, I am qualified for these positions, so I always have personalization added to this, but let me share the formula with you. I usually start off with a opening statement. So I like to start with a strong, concise statement. And usually this will include the number of years that you have experienced in your job title. And any. Really relevant industry experience, especially if you're staying within that same industry. If you have a long history within the same industry and you are applying to that same industry highlighting that industry experience or anything, that's. Expertise that would be relevant. So I like to start off with that opening statement. I'm going to go through the formula and then I'm going to give you examples. So don't worry of trying to like figure out what does this actually sound like? So that's the opening statement. Now, I also like to all in part two of this formula key skills and expertise, I like to highlight key skills and expertise. Mentioned specific skills and areas of expertise that are critical to the role. Again, this has to be personalized to the types of roles that you're looking for. Include any relevant certifications or advanced degrees. So I worked with several Latinas who have master's degrees, and we will include that in there. Include any master's MBA that you have. You want to have that in that summary as well? Part three achievement and results. So. I really like to do this where use a quantifiable achievement that showcases your impact in previous roles. And think about the greatest achievement you've had, preferably something that you. I have had in the more recent past or something over the past three to four years, that has been in a manager position. Use one of your greatest achievements within that manager position and include that. In your resume summary. Again, it may be in a bullet point, which is okay, but we want. That summary to highlight to really make an impact on, okay. I want to keep reading. Right? So use a quantifiable achievement to showcase your impact in previous roles. Preferably something more recent. And this should include a metric, a specific result to demonstrate that you bring this professional value and can help this organization. Part four, you can include soft skills and personal attributes. So really important, especially at the director level, including soft skills, those things that align with the job requirements or. If you're in the nonprofit space, for example, including something that's of like a passion that's aligned with a nonprofit organization, those are the key things that I do. Opening statement, key skills and expertise, achievement and results, soft skills and personal attributes. And so let's break this down with some examples from resumes that I've worked on in the past. With an opening statement. When I said that I will do this and start with a strong, concise statement. That includes a number of years. And relevant industry experience. This is an example of one that I did. The opening statement for this resume summary is strategic financial professional with an MBA. And over 12 years of experience in accounting and financial management. This is someone that has an MBA that wants to break into a level that's higher than where they are at right now, as manager and accounting, they want to go into that next level and their, their level is not called director, but it's basically the equivalent of director in. Their industry jargon. And so that's what they wanted to break into. Now. I wanted to make sure that the adjective that I use, strategic financial professional, the reason why I used the adjective strategic in this example was because when I analyzed her jobs, I realized that strategic is something that comes up a lot. And so you want to make sure you're looking at that because when you work with me in director week, I will go through the jobs that you want to apply to. I. I will analyze them. I will make sure that your resume summary speaks into them specifically. And so you need to do that. You need to make sure that the words that you're using, aren't just whatever word you feel like using, but is actually attached to what it is that they're looking for. Because the moment they open it, they're going to go, oh, strategic. Okay, great. That's what I'm looking for. And so I like to have that opening statement number of years of experience and again, industry relevant experience. Number two. I said key skills mentioned specific skills and areas of expertise that are critical to the role. Right? And so with key skills, I put here expert in leading financial reporting, managing accounting operations, and ensuring gap compliance. These are, some of them are industry jargon, but these are key things that they're looking for. Expertise that they're looking for in the jobs that they had for you. This may be, you know, proven experience in managing teams or cross-functional collaboration or whatever that thing is. And the expertise that you have. The next thing I said was achieve men's and results. And this is so important. This is, uh, I mean, I don't want to get ahead of myself. We'll talk about mistakes, but with achievements and results, make sure that you pull something that. Is actually backing up what you're saying, because here's the thing is so many people can put on their resume. Dynamic leader, strategic professional, all these fluffy words. And it's not that you shouldn't use them. Like I just said, I have them in here, but I love to put an achievement because it backs it up. It actually says, Hey, I'm saying that this is who I am. Let me give you a result that proves that I am who I say I am. That I'm capable of what I say I'm capable of doing versus just the fluffy words. I think just when they read it, they're able to look at it and go, yes. I like this. I want to learn more about this person. It just backs it up more. And so achievements and results. And this one I put proven. Ability and mentoring individuals and providing strategic financial guidance with excellent communication collaboration skills. And then this is the part where I say you include that achievement. I, I put here my ability to manage client relationships effectively and optimize financial processes led to improving my client's financial health and nailing them to show. A 5 million to$10 million profit and sell their company achieving a 40% reduction and month end close. So here we have my ability to, and then skill and skill. That's important for the jobs with results attached to them. So now I'm seeing numbers now I'm seeing results. Now I'm seeing, okay, this person is good at what they do. Right. And then after that, we'll go into soft skills and personal attribution. So something like known for being adaptable and collaborative. Advocating for data-driven decision-making excellent stakeholder management, those types of things. Those are good to put in here. And again, these are things that now that you've kind of put in the middle of your summary, this really great achievement. The rest of the things. Now just start to sound more like, oh, this is true. This person is great. Like this, it just gives it more of that. Um, reliability that I think is really, really important for your resume summary. So you can close out with something like that. Soft skills and personal attributes. All right. That's an example. For that one, I can go over. One more example here with you. And this opening statement. What I put down was dynamic talent acquisition leader with nine plus years of experience in strategic recruitment and diversity equity and inclusion initiatives. And then I put the diversity equity and inclusion. I put the parentheses DEI. That I like to do, just to be able to in the future of the resume, put DEI, instead of continuing to write out diversity, equity and inclusion, because resumes, you want to just be super strategic about the number of. Characters that you're using how long it is. And so I like to always do that. If there is a word that's long that, you know, can be. Abbreviated use at one time abbreviated. And then from then on just use the abbreviated version. And so for this. I put dynamic, because again, when I analyzed her jobs, I realized that that's something that they say over and over again. So I want to use dynamic. And then talking about the number of years of experience. I obviously want to talk about recruitment because this was a big piece and DEI, a lot of the roles that she was looking for really ma. They really valued someone with DEI experience. Key skills and expertise. I said, proven track record in managing full cycle recruiting. Processes and enhancing employer branding to attract top talent. That's what I went for. Key skills and expertise, achievement and results successfully led and coached recruitment teams, improving hiring efficiency by 44%. And increasing the representation of diverse candidates. This is why it's so important for you to have quantifiables because they speak volume. They are really able to paint a picture. For someone when it comes to the results that you can lead. And so if you don't have any quantifiables in your resume, go back and listen to the previous episode on mastering. Powerful bullet points, because that is going to help you. I even gave you some tips in there on how you can. Create the quantifiables. If you don't have them top of mind right now. And then the last part for soft skills and personal attributes I put excellent communicator and cross-functional team leader with stakeholder management experience. That's what I put here in soft skills and personal attributes. And so now that we've covered the formula, let's talk about common mistakes candidates make with their resume. Number one, they don't include a resume at all. I am not surprised anymore. Sometimes I still get surprised when I open up someone's resume. They have 10 years of experience and they don't have a resume summary. And I'm like, what? This is a huge mistake, especially when you have, I mean, when you're applying for a director level position, you're no entry-level person you've been in the game for many years. So at this point, I need you to give me the spark notes version. I don't have much time as a hiring manager. I don't have that much time as a recruiter. I have other jobs I'm probably hiring for I'm under pressure, and I'm trying to get the best candidate for this organization. So you gotta put yourself in their shoes as well. And think about that and go, they don't. Want to read through all your bullet points they want to know immediately. Is this a good person that I can. When I say good person, I mean, a good candidate, someone that is qualified. That I should continue reading the summary. So that's one of the biggest mistakes I see is you don't have a resume summary at all. And without it hiring managers may struggle to quickly understand your qualifications and what brings. What you bring to the table. Okay. So that's mistake number one. I see all the time. Mistake number two is you're vague. It's just generic statements like experienced professional experience, marketing, professional, seeking a challenging role in this I hate, oh my gosh. I try not to use the word hate, but. I do not like I strongly do not. Like when I see someone put seeking a challenging role, no boring, boring, boring, boring. And it's also, so like a challenge. What does that even mean? What does a challenging role even mean? So be specific about your skills, your experience, and what makes you unique at number three? Is it lacks quantifiable achievements? This is actually something I don't see very often and I. Really, really love using this, this type of a style of writing a resume summary. I don't see it often, even when I like Google. If you right now, Google, if you're not driving. If you right now, Google resume summaries, even for your industry and you start going through all the images, you're not going to see the tip that I just showed you most likely. Cause I haven't come across. It could be wrong. But I haven't seen that. So I actually really pride myself in having this type of style where I include an achievement in your resume, because I just think it's such a great way to capture someone's attention. And so I don't see that usually in a resume summary, I don't see a quantifiable, I don't see a great achievement that people include in there. And then mistake number four is people put a lot of jargon. If they do have it, they might have so much jargon. And it's just like, okay, it's, it's too much. It's too much. Like you're saying a lot without saying anything. Example of that could be something like. Innovative. Synergistic leader with extensive experience in leveraging cross-functional. Teams to optimize operational workflows and enhance organizational scalability through strategic initiatives. And it's like, I just can't like, I don't even know what you're saying. So don't overload it with jargon. Be clear, use key words. But don't overload it. Okay. Number seven or actually, sorry, number six. Number six is it can be too long or too short. So I like to aim for three to five sentences. I kind of just look at it visually. It shouldn't. Definitely shouldn't take up half the page, you know, like it should be something that's brief. But it wouldn't be one to two sentences either. Like there again, you've been in the game for many years, usually somewhere between a lot of my clients. I mean, it's a really huge range. I've had people who come from. An experience of seven years, all the way up to 20 years, 22 years. And so that really can range, but I would say the average person that I'm working with usually has 10 years somewhere around that. So you want to aim for three to five sentences too long, and it's overwhelming too short, and it might not provide enough information. Okay. Um, definitely don't ignore soft skills again, director level. These are going to be really important. Leadership, communication, collaboration. Those are all crucial for Dulla or director level roles. And going back to that achievement is that it always anchors it into something real, not just, I'm just saying these things about me, but it's not really true. And then the last one is you're not tailoring it to your job. So you need to have a summary. That's why you need to be targeted about your job search. Like, if you're not even clear, if you're like, I kind of want to land, I want to get promoted, but like, I don't really, I could go in this path and I could go in that patent. And now, like, you need to be targeted in what you're looking for so that your resume is clear. Like, imagine if someone was trying to sell something to you and they don't even know your OD, they don't even know their audience. They don't even know. Your mindset. They don't even know your problem. They don't even know what you care about and what you want. They're not going to be able to sell you. They're not going to be able to sell you successfully. Cause you're gonna, you're not gonna feel that versus when you read or when you see an ad or when you watch a TV commercial, and you're like, that's for me, this is for me. It's because they're thinking about you. They're thinking about the person on the other end of that TV on the other end of that podcast, whatever it may be. And they know what your problems are. There's examples just coming up for me. But I was, I don't know where I was, but I saw an ad and it was for a cleaning service, a house cleaning service, and I saw in big letters. Take your weekends back. And I remember when I read that, I was like, oh my God, I want my weekends back. Like I spend the freaking weekend. Deleting the house or like I'll pepper it in during the week. That's one of the great things about working from home and, you know, being an entrepreneur is I kind of have a little bit more flexibility with that. But when I saw that, I was like, that is such great marketing. And guess who they're marketing to? They are marketing to probably, if I had to take my guests, this is my educated guess is probably the working mom, the mom who has kids at the house who works a full-time job. And she therefore spends her weekends usually. Usually cleaning the house, trying to get everything together. Because that's really the only time she has. And so this statement of get your weekends back. I was like, that is so good, but they know who they're talking to. They may not be talking to the stay at home mom who probably cleans from day to day and it's different for their schedule. They have an audience, they know what their problem is. And you need to think like that you are not a business owner. You may not be a business owner. But you need to think in the matter of I am selling my professional experience, I am selling my career experience to this organization that is currently hiring. And so what is their problem? What are they looking for? What are they say they want in their candidate? And that's what you need to speak into. So if you're not targeted in your job, search, your resume is not going to be targeted. They're not going to open that and go, oh, this is the person for me. It's going to be very hard to do that. I just went totally wild on that tangent, but it's so important. It's so important. And I see this problem all the time. So by avoiding these mistakes that I just went through. For your resume summary. You can create one. That's going to grab attention and set you apart from other candidates. Okay. I remember. Your resume summary is your chance to make a strong first impression. It should capture the essence of your professional journey. And highlight why you're the ideal candidate for that position? And if you're finding this hard, if you know, you listen to my episodes and you're like, but I just don't know how to put it into practice. I get it. I totally get it. I listened to things all the time and I'm like, I still don't know how to do that, actually. So I get it. And if that's you and you know that you want to break into the director level position. I invite you to join my coaching intensive program director week. This is a coaching intensive program where we'll work together to completely revamp your resume. Include a powerful resume summary that showcases your leadership skills and achievements, and you will start landing those director level interviews. And that's not all within the week. This is a one-week coaching intensive. You'll also get a LinkedIn profile that screams director level, a director level interview success kit, which will give you mock interviews. It will give you behavior-based questions and a framework on how to answer them and how to cover any behavior based question that you get. A strategic followup plan, a job and informational tracker that I created for my clients to stay organized and templates for messaging, hiring managers, so that they can actually be more proactive in their search and land more of those interviews. So director week is designed to give you everything that you need, the confidence you need, the tools you need to land those director interviews. I just wrapped one up with someone and she was just saying like, I've wanted to revamp my LinkedIn for so long. I knew that it wasn't representing me accurately and it just feels so good to finally get that to. No that I'm over this hump to know that I'm not going to just sit here and feel overwhelmed by my resume and my LinkedIn, but that I actually there's momentum now. Right. And so you can make sure that you have that momentum as well. You can join director week the link to book a sales call. That is a free one hour call, where we chat. I learned more about you. You can ask me any questions about the program and we can talk about whether or not it's the right fit for you. The link to book that call is in the show notes here. Of this podcast episode. And so you can go ahead, check it out. There is going to be just an opportunity for you to chat with me and see if this is the great opportunity. That you are looking for right now. And so thank you for tuning into today's episode on how to create a powerful resume summary. That's going to land you director level interviews. I look forward to chatting with you again and have a wonderful week. Y'all ciao. If you're ready to get promoted into the director level and get the title and salary you deserve, I invite you to book a sales call with me. This is a one hour call where I will assess your career, your obstacles, what's prevented you from breaking into director level and your goals. I will tell you exactly the way that I can help you in director week. And we can talk about whether the director we coaching intensive program is the best fit for you. The link to book your sales call is in the show notes. I'll talk to you soon. Ciao.