Hi, Rebecca here. So welcome back. Now we're going to learn about how to get past the filters and screenings. Let me share my screen with you. And let's get the interview that you want. So you know how to build your executive summary.

We looked at how to get your achievements on how to rank your judgments and make them look big. So now we're going to look at getting past the filters in the screenings. So consistency is something really important for a recruiter. That's what they're going to look at when they look at your resume. How do you want to be perceived so you want to be perceived as somebody who has planned their career in a in a consistent way, not somebody who, Oh, I got a job here. I got a job there.

And let me just list them all up. And it looks a little bit inconsistent. It looks like Okay, you had six months here, nine months here, 11 months here. And the titles are constantly changing the industry is different every time. Are you really actually planning your career in a purposeful way? Or is it just because you got the job and you kind of went with the flow.

So you need to show to the recruiter that your career is very elegant, right? It's it's, it's a purposeful career. It's something that you actually planned. So this is why your current title has to be aligned with your future title. Let's say you want to be a senior operations manager, you have to be today and Operations Manager at the very least, in order to apply to a senior operations manager position. So that's something recruiters are going to see inevitably.

So the first thing they check is your executive summary if you have one, and you really love if you do and then the next thing to check is your currency. title and if it's aligned with the title that you want to have in the future. So the other thing that I see people forget to do or don't know how to do, or think they don't have the right to do is to put more than just, for example, let's say you're an operations manager or an office manager, and you're doing a lot of marketing or events, then you could put Operations Manager slash events manager, you could put, you know, if you're a personal assistant, and you're doing a lot of events, or a lot of marketing or project management, then you could say, you know, personal assistant slash project manager, I want you to add to your titles, everything that you're actually doing, and it's maybe not going to be in your job description.

Maybe it's not something that you are paid to do, but you're doing it because it's on your desk, right. So and a lot of you are doing more than you are paid to do. And I also want you to mention regions and languages in your titles. So for example, you're an account manager, and you have clients in Europe. So instead, instead of just saying you're an account manager, you could say I'm Emir, account manager, you know, Europe account manager or you just add the region where you operate or international account manager could be a good one too. And the languages are important as well, because maybe you use a lot of languages every day at work.

So instead of just say executive assistant, you could say bilingual executive assistant because you're using two or even three languages like trilingual executive assistant, because this is what you actually do. This is this, this is your revised title, and it's not a sin. It's not for Britain to revise your title and put down what you actually are doing. Okay. So but don't Don't give yourself like a massive upgrade. If you're an analyst, don't call yourself a manager, because that would be deceiving.

But I want you to be specific about what is it you do in your titles, okay to put all the chances on your side, don't put your objectives in your resume. Why? Because this is going to restrict your options. I know a lot of you have in your resume a section called objectives. And then you write down Oh, my goal is to become, you know, whatever a finance analyst and the Big Four, don't write objectives. Take that all out.

Delete the whole section. Don't limit yourself, because you could be so much more than what you're writing out there. And if you have something there that is going to restrict your options, that's it, your act, you're not going to pass the filters. Don't explain gaps that are shorter than three months because that's like holiday. You don't want Have to go in there. Okay.

Don't explain small gaps. That's not me that at all. And don't add the fact that you had like a temporary contract because I see a lot of you put in your resume, you know, the nature of the contract that you had, oh, that you were outsourced or that you were hired by another company that you were working with a contract from this other hiring from you don't have to put the nature of your contract in your resume. That's personal information. It doesn't. It's nobody's business, okay.

You just put your title, the name of the company where you are working. So let's say I have a lot of people who work in banks, or in big tech companies, and they're hired by external agencies, recruitment agencies, or simply placement agencies, and they and they fear to write that they you know, they fear to admit the fact that they're hired by an external agency, it's dead, it's not gonna do you any favor, take that all out. If you're sitting inside, I don't know Google or UBS or whatever it is just but the name of the company where you are physically working, okay? Don't put the name of the company who's hiring you, the placement agency, whatever it is that arrangement behind the curtain doesn't. It's nobody's business, it's your personal information. So you just put your title, you put the company where you are working, where you are sitting at, and then you put the dates like I explained.

Don't put the nature of your contract. Don't feel obliged to display the names of your clients. So if you're like a freelancer, so you could just say that you're freelancing for private clients, you don't have to display the names of those clients. That's also private information. And you could just say you know that they are in this or Got industry, but you don't have to explain much about your freelancing activities. That's personal as well.

You don't want to omit crucial information. So for example, if you are like, let's say, a special advisor, don't just say, a special advisor, say, Well, I'm a special advisor to the chairman of the company, to the executive director to whoever it is that you are advising. So you want to make it clear in your title, how big of a responsibility you have, okay, so, or maybe let's say you're a finance VP, and you're also part of the executive committee of the company. So you want to put that in your title. For example, finance VP or, you know, senior finance leader slash member of the executive committee, that's part of your title. I want your title to be as complete and as aggressive as possible.

Here are some examples of evolution that I like. So let's say you started like a customer service clerk. And then you went up to becoming like a client relationship coordinator. And then you became I don't know an associate, and then Junior Process Manager and then operations man, this is like a really nice, consistent evolution. It feels as if you were planning from the very start to be in operations. Okay, so it does feel really purposeful.

The other one that I like as well you started like an auditor, you went to senior auditor, then assistant controller, then controller, and CFO, then, you know, I think this looks beautiful. And it shows that you were planning all along to get there to that final position. Associate advisor, then you became an advisor, then you became a deputy officer then became an officer, then the regional officer, and so on. So I know that it's not so linear. I know that your career is not always planned beautifully. I know that Sometimes you move around, and you don't have always the opportunity to stay very consistent in your career, but let's try to make it appear consistent on your resume on your LinkedIn profile.

Okay? So why and how and when do you use sr? A lot of people ask me, can I put sr? When can I put SR so here are the rules of when can you put SR in front of your title you have, you can put SR if you have contributed, and sort of a leadership capacity to train people, to coach people to monitor to mentor peers, and to transfer knowledge. That's one of the things that a senior person does. The other thing that a senior person does is you you are committed to your ongoing you know, learning and development.

So you took on certifications, specialized training, you joined like professional affiliations and different memberships, so you're really wearing that Roll full on. Okay, so so so you, you're you're extremely invested in your professional career. And the other thing that a senior person does is they're usually involved in hiring decisions. So they're usually part of internal committees. They took decisions internally that affected the course of business like hiring or firing, or at least contributing to those decisions. So if you have been in any of those, if you feel like like you've done some of this, then you could add senior to your role.

Okay. I want you to keep in mind, that consistency is extremely attractive. We are always trying to stay in line with what we said was what we promised was what we appeared to have committed to so people trust you when you appear to be steady and regular. And when there's like a consistency So keep in mind that so state, they really focused on this whole consistency, you know, philosophy when you're writing and drafting your resume. Think about does this look purposeful? Does this look like a clear, elegant career evolution.

The other thing here that I want you to remember is that you need to state your skills, proudly. So the languages that you speak, this is something that most of you are doing wrong. If you were to receive, for example, an email in Spanish or Italian, would you panic? Or would you actually be able to understand what's written and then respond to it in English? If you can do that, then you have a good working knowledge because the email is going to be processed, it's going to be answered it's going to be, you know, it's not just going to be ignored. If it wasn't Japanese, maybe then you have absolutely no good.

No nothing. Okay? So don't just just be fair to yourself, if you can sort of read Read and process information in a given language, then it's good working knowledge of it. If you are fluent in a foreign language and you have no accent when you speak it, then you considered native in that language. Okay? So if you have, for example, used some computer programs in the past, but you haven't really been up to date, like it's been a while, but still, I mean, you've seen it, you have an idea of how it looks like, then I would mention it in the CV, okay, you don't have to be super highly performing in order to mention those programs that you've already used in the past.

And make sure to list all the programs everything like that you can do social media, Excel, PowerPoint, you know, strong Excel and strong PowerPoint goes a really long way. These are like the main skills nowadays. If you have strong Excel, you can go very far in your career. And this is something that recruiters look at, and she can do Photoshop. If you Do video editing, even if you do that as a hobby, mention it, Adobe world WordPress, if you have built a website, if you've built a blog, if you created any web page, you know, mention it, make sure to mention it because whatever it is that you can do as a computer, don't forget to mention it. Here are some examples of customized sections because some of you have a very particular profile like some of you have a more specific and not not not a random type of profile.

So some of you have a lot of recognitions I want you to then add a whole section and then write it down, you know enlist that those recognitions those awards, or maybe some of you are, you know, lawyers and you're a member of a bar or an affiliation and professional association. I want you to create a section for it in your resume so that you can sort of break This, this to the attention of the recruiter, some of you have publications, I want you to put them in there as well. Some of you have done a lot of research, extracurricular activities and volunteering that you want to mention. Perhaps volunteering is always going to look very good in your resume. So don't hesitate. I just don't want to see hobbies, because that's not relevant.

Unless it's remarkable, like you're a marathon runner, or like you play in in a very incredible band or you know, then then Yes, okay. I would never want to see objectives, like I mentioned already. That's a section that does not exist anymore. Take it out. Education, this is the last thing you want to put in your resume. So the first thing is the header, then the executive summary, then all the jobs you had listed by so the order is you know, the most recent to the oldest.

Then you can put your skills, your language Software skills, recognition, awards, publications, everything you want. And then the last thing is education. So education comes last. And you just have to add the year of graduation if you don't want to put the year graduation, don't don't put it. Some people don't work because they think they can be judged based on you know, Oh, she graduated, you know, 2030 years ago, so she's not that young, and you couldn't be right. There are a lot of recruiters that are quite biased.

And if you don't want to add to your graduation, if you feel it's not going to do you justice, then don't add it. But you don't have to add you know, the month and the date that you graduated. A lot of people put way too much detail around the education people just want to know the name of the school. The diploma you got it was it a bachelor Was it a master was an MBA was a PhD was a certification, there's no such thing is specialization or you know, it's either certification or a bachelor or A master or an MBA, there's just not much more than that. And then that's it, and then the year of rotation, so if you want to, and I think you should mention if you have had, you know, any distinction or if you were in the top of your class, or, you know, yeah, so so you want to add anything that stands out.

If you haven't concluded some of you started and then didn't finish. Okay, so I want you to still add the university that you didn't finish even though, you know, some of you might think, oh, why should I add it? I didn't finish it, it's gonna look bad. They're gonna think that I'm not the kind of person who finishes would they start? Anyways, I think it's always valid to add any sort of education that you had. But, but of course, not all the courses right, just like the Masters the bachelor's dissertation.

But not like every seminar and every training you took on because that's a bit too much, right? And then you just add in progress. If you haven't finished, don't put not finished or don't put, you know, interrupted or whatever it is just put in progress, because who knows, you might finish Sunday. Okay. And if you obtained any degree in a foreign country, like you're applying for a job in Switzerland, but you finished you didn't study here, you studied I don't know, in Latin America. So I want you to write down to contextualize the foreign information.

What do I mean by that? You know, you graduated in Moscow, and you are applying for a job in Switzerland in Zurich. If a recruiter here doesn't really know much about the universities in Russia, or in South America, so you want to contextualize foreign information for them. You want to make their job a little easier. So you put, for example, I don't know, University of San Paolo, and then you you put, you know, the most competitive and prestigious university in South America so that they know where you're coming from, because they don't. They're not supposed to know the ranking of every university around the world, let's be honest, okay?

Or you could say the most renowned or the most selective or the best, so that they have an idea of where you stand. So don't assume that they know everything about all the institutions but all the acronyms because they don't. I want you to keep in mind that there's no such thing as a one page resume. Three page Max, I don't want anything over that. But one page is, is almost impossible. Unless you're recently graduated from university I don't think it's possible to fit everything one page.

Three page is fine and being We'll look at three pages. Okay. Number The pages, I think you should use consistent funds and blue icons. Sometimes people have the bullet icons. They're different, like sometimes it's a little ball and then it's a square. And then it's, you know, you want to make sure that the bullet fonts and icons are very consistent throughout the whole resume.

I want you to use words not PDF, not PowerPoint, not you know, just just work. That's what recruiters want. That's what the applicant tracking system can process. And this is really what works best. Remember to not use abbreviations and acronyms because recruiters out there I'm not supposed to know all the acronyms of all the industries. It's just not fair for them, okay, so just break everything down and make it really easy for them to understand what you did.

Now, I want you to understand That it's very important to highlight your skills in a way that makes you stand out. So for example, let's say you were an executive assistant, and you are going to list your achievements as in, I answered incoming calls, I maintained diaries, I booked travels. And I've filed, you know, information, information, confidential information. So these are tasks, these are not even achievements, okay. Some of you are listing your achievements as in tasks, tasks. They're not a big deal.

They're not attractive. Okay, anybody can do tasks, but achievements. That's really where the magic happens. So let's transform tasks and achievements. I'm going to show you how. An example here.

So here the task they're, they're listed in the present tense, I want you to list your accomplishment. In the past simple tense. Remember, I gave you a list of words In the previous section, a list of verbs in the past simple tense that you can use to start your sentence. So instead of saying, for example, answered incoming external calls, that's the task, I'm going to say screamed and redirected incoming external calls and acted as a first impressions manager to ensure client's needs were met in a timely and efficient manner. Doesn't that look better? Already Here you see a lot of keywords.

First impressions, that's a key word that's a key expression, a timely and efficient manner. That's also a nice key expression that you see in a lot of job description. Okay, so to ensure client needs were met, that's really important, because it's all about the client. I think this looks a lot better, don't you think? Let's look at the next task, maintain diaries and arrange appointments. So how can we make this look sexier for people example we could say manage the calendar of high ranking officials arranged appointments after a careful assessment of the critical need to meet and defined the nature of the meeting, phone call video call or in person meeting.

That looks a lot better, right? It looks as if you took a lot more responsibility. You had to take decisions you had to work under pressure. This is how you make the recruiter feel attracted to your profile, not by saying maintain diary and arranged appointment. I mean, anybody can do that. Right?

But not anybody can do the accomplishment that I just listed here, being really careful with the time of your manager. Another example here, so booked official travels and external corporate meetings. You can see that or you could say made travel arrangements, hotel bookings, and requested the necessary visas and clearances for official Visit was critical attention for details and cognizant of stringent, stringent deadlines. I love this. I absolutely love it because here you go lots of keywords when you say that you had a critical attention for detail, that you were aware of the tight deadlines that you had to respect because working and you know, as an executive assistant is definitely going to put a lot of pressure on you. So this looks a lot more attractive.

And a recruiter and a hiring manager will look at this and be like, that's the person I need, because they know exactly what it takes, right? file kept confidential information. So you can say that or you could say I managed highly confidential information filed I retrieved I destroyed official documents when needed, and I maintained both physical and virtual files, up to date and optimized okay. So you Saved space. And you managed to you know, you could you could say I scanned documents, or you could say that you maintained highly confidential information files retrieved and destroyed. I think this is when you do justice to your work.

So in other words, I want you to brag, I want you to be a bit of a show off, I want you to be okay not in real life. But I definitely want you to be fair to yourself in your resume in a way that you're not yet being in alignment with the job description. When you want to get past filters and screenings, the best thing you can do is be aligned with the job description that you're applying for. So once your tasks are transformed, like I just showed you transform the tasks into accomplishments. They need to be aligned with the job description. So You have you're not done yet.

Okay, so you list your, your, your tasks, you make them, you transform them into accomplishment. And then the third thing you can do is you can actually align them with the job description that you're applying for. So let's look at an extract of a job description for an office manager role. Normally, you know, an executive assistant has the skills to apply for an office manager role. So let's see how we could align the accomplishment of that executive assistant that we just looked at so that she could perform this job and be called for an interview. I'm just going to go through the job description with you.

So here are the responsibilities provide best in class service to external clients, receives mails and packages daily manages all ongoing outgoing mail and outgoing courier service performs a broad variety of admin duties. Then there's a you have to be responsible for maintaining placing all service calls organizes and maintains the appearance of internal meeting spaces, maintains conference room calendars communicates directly with the building owner landlord, assist with preparation with new hires so that you onboard and help people get up to speed. Maintain the supply closet and change in the kitchen area ensures that kitchen is stocked and restocked on a daily basis confirms sufficient resources are provided updates necessary forms and assist with document storage. So this is just a list of tasks, okay. But in this list of tasks, there are a few things that really matter. So we're going to read between the lines, I read this a bit fast because I don't want to bore you.

But let's look at what the hiring manager wrote in there that actually matters to him. Let's decode the job description, shall we? So here you go. Professional. interacts with clients that matters. Okay, that's not a task that comes with experience ensures funds are added timely, you got to be on time you got to be on it right?

You got to be efficient communicates directly organizes and maintains the appearance of the Office of the meeting spaces. timely manner, okay to be on time with your tasks, direct calls to the appropriate person best in class service to external clients promptly sorts, sorts and processes. Okay, so these are the thing that matters to the hiring manager. So, that's your future boss, or at least you want it to be, how do you align your achievements with what matters to them so that you can be seen by them so that they can feel Oh, she got me. She really understood what I'm looking for. So here it is.

So this accomplishment was screened and redirected incoming external calls and acted as a first impressions manager to ensure client's needs were met in a timely and efficient manner. So here, we could tweak it to make it look a little bit like it was on the job description. So we could say screen and we directed incoming calls and acted as a first impressions manager to ensure best in class service to external clients in a timely manner. So this is what I underlined here. I took it from the job description and I put it right here. It's not a copy paste, I this this is not how a copy paste looks like.

This is not going to be evident to the hiring manager or the recruiter. As a matter of fact, they're going to feel like oh my god, they really understand what we're after. We have here, the same expressions, the same keywords. But of course, you have to contextualize have to make it subtle. Don't make like A very sort of blunt copy, paste, okay, you have to make it a little bit more elaborate than that. So it's important to show to them that what matters to them matters to you too.

So you reuse the same keywords and the key expressions back at them. This will induce them to trust you. This is also the best way to get through the applicant tracking system. This is the secret to getting through the filters and the screening process. So here's a really good example that I like to show my clients. This was the Hilton Hotel in 86 versus 2018.

This is in Shanghai, China. So these were the skills required back in 86. Excellent character willingness to learn bachelor degree, you have to be between a certain age proficient in English, good health, and live close to the hotel location. Okay. It's pretty simple job description, don't you think? Nowadays, oh my god this skills are so much more focused on your soft and social you know strengths.

So for example hospitality experience positive attitude, focus on high level customer service ability to work independently competent it you know, level and then university degree, this is what they require today. This is just to show you how the job market how the recruitment industry has changed dramatically. And it's also to show you that, you know, the same person it's the same job, okay. But it's two very different job descriptions is the same hotel is the same city is the same job essentially that they're going to perform. But the nature of business has changed, right, the requirements has they have changed and, and the focus on your soft skills on your influence Seeing, you know, social power has has become more and more of a trend. So it's really not about the task because the task anybody can do it.

It's about how you package your skills, how you're able to sell what you can do. So, I want you to look at another job description here. I've copied a job description from LinkedIn and it's, you know, they're listed here the tasks that they want you to perform. So they're looking at some someone who can anticipate needs to be a strategic partner, ensure managers are prepared and briefed, maintain an efficient flow of information and accuracy and completeness and consistency. So I just highlighted What are not tasks Okay. What are the soft and more subtle And strategic, you know, sort of capabilities that you should have in order to perform this job.

I hope you can understand how this work, it's about reading between the lines and understanding. Okay, so this is the kind of person this is the kind of profile that they're after. And these are the words that I want you to add into your profile as well. reusing those keywords. So somewhere somehow in a subtle way, in the profile in the LinkedIn in the resume in the cover letter, and of course at the interview, so you have to fit them into the context and be subtle. Like I said, you have to act as a private investigator when you read the job description to really read between the line and go a step further to get under their skin.

It has to be as if you were going to solve the problems that others can solve, and they will see how incredible you are And you know, getting into their, their, their needs to actually understanding. Wow, they really get me they really understand what I'm after. Because you're you're almost in their head when you're when you do when you do this well. So this is the last thing for this section. next section is going to be about covering gaps and in consistencies. I hope that you enjoyed it.

Please leave your comments or text me or email me, call me and make sure to implement everything we learned today. I see you in the next chapter.