Latest / Sales Trajectory Podcast / “Your Next Career Move: Insider Tips with Pam Foster”

Transcript

“Your Next Career Move: Insider Tips with Pam Foster” · Sales Trajectory Podcast

• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Sales Trajectory Podcast, where innovation meets execution in sales.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jason Howes, your host, a 35-year sales veteran and lifelong student of the game.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is for leaders and sales professionals with a growth mindset.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: You'll hear real sales stories about new products, motivating teams to prospect, and boost productivity.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: We dive deep into sales process, cutting edge tech, and recruiting top sales performers.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get started.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'm joined by Pam Foster, and it's been great to get catch up with you again, Pam, from when we first met about a few months ago.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Likewise, so good to see your face.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: You too.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's always a pleasure.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And look, Pam and I organized a catch-up after we first met because we got along really well and we found that we had a lot in common.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I really enjoyed hearing Pam's story.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And Pam is actually an expert resume writer.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And she also does many other, she does a lot of other work in other areas as well.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: But for my network, I thought it was a great opportunity because I look at a lot of resumes and a lot, there's some really good ones, and there's some ones that need a lot of help, Pam.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us tell us what else you do.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I uh other than telling the amazing stories about the humans I meet, I also offer uh LinkedIn profile writing.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: I do interview coaching and help people transition into new careers.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: So often have a number of people that are coming to me that'll be getting to that, you know, 40 plus mark where they're questioning, what am I going to do?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm, you know, I'm over the thing I've been doing for the last couple of years.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: So what's that next step look like?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: So really fortunate to be able to work with people and help celebrate their story and make that next step in their career.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And how long you have you been doing this for, Pam?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Look, I've been doing it uh in my corporate career for over 10 years, but I set up my business career styler four years ago.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great story.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And look, a few of those key areas you mentioned there are just so important.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I know when I started my business nearly five years ago, I had uh yeah, it was a real challenge to go, well, yeah, what with LinkedIn?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, what do I put on there and what do I write?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and it it's it's a real challenge for a lot of people.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that having someone like yourself that can help, you know, business professionals or individuals to be able to really have a great story is is really important.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, and is that a a lot of your work with the LinkedIn component?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's I would say one third of my work is there, another third is in the coaching space and the resume writing space.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: But ultimately it's all about how do we make that heart-to-heart connection with people, no matter what platform we're uh sharing our story from.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And what I found interesting when talking to you the first time, Pam, was that yeah, not only are you working with individuals, but you also do get involved with major companies as well when there's, you know, when there's a lot of redundancies and offering support for the employees in that area.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell us a bit more about some of those stories?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: So often I'm working with organizations that are going through really significant periods of change.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: And now, unfortunately, sometimes that does require redundancies within the team.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I found that many organizations are now looking to offer more than just redundancy payments.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: They want to set their teams up for success in that next part of the journey.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that looks like me supporting them with regime writing, overhauls of LinkedIn, or really helping them assess like what's that next step for me?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because often when those redundancies come around, we're left in this position going, what do I want to do with my life?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: What's next?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Do I still want to do that thing I've been doing for the last couple of years?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and do you get, and obviously I've, you know, I've had some, you know, big changes in my career as well in the past, like most people.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And do you find it's that sort of aha moment where people go, actually, you know what?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: I really don't think what I was doing was actually the right job for me.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like just in the last 12 months, there's been some incredible transformation stories.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like recently I was working with a lady who had a phenomenal career in health and safety, but there was always something missing for her.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that was actually a love for animals.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: And part of the career transition uh process was helping her uncover what really lit her up and what were the steps to move more in alignment with that.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: She's now um retrained completely and she's a vet nurse with uh Green Cross.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it's amazing.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: My daughter loves animals and she would have loved to have done that job.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's it's really good that you and but you must have some pretty tough discussions as well.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, with some of these people that have lost their job.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that and it is happening at the moment.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's um yeah, it's it's tough.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Not to say everything happens for a reason.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it does, but yeah, that must be hard for you.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I mean, and you I'm sure that you would handle it very well, being, you know, of the your past experience and the way you present yourself.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it must be tough.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I think sometimes the toughest conversations are for the managers or the leaders in the business or the HR managers that need to share that decision with people that they've formed these really strong relationships with in the workplace.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So when I come in, it's you know, really coming in with a very open heart and and guiding people through that process because it really is so emotional.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, sometimes not given much notice and you know, some redundancies are made immediately.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: So there's that emotional cycle that you've got to move through.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: So just what and I I mean, we do recruitment and we see a lot of resumes, and look, yeah, there's some good ones and there's some there's some pretty bad ones as well.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I suppose incorporating the fact that most of us are so busy these days.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we don't have time.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a very skim sort of reading time.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what would what would be say some key areas that you feel is good to when you are helping write a good resume?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because look, for me, I'd rather see a really nice, short, sharp.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I don't want to see, you know, a three to four page or a five-page resume.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So what would be some key areas you think would be worth investing that, you know, someone's time in?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's spot on.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: How do you communicate the story as quickly and as powerfully as possible?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I always recommend if you can get that resume down to two pages.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: There are some really critical areas.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And the first part is around that summary or the the elevator pitch that sits at the top of the resume.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: It can be very easy to go in there and say, you know, I'm a pop sales gun or, you know, I'm a reliable hard worker.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: All of that stuff is probably going to bore recreators.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I always recommend that when you're pulling together your elevator pitch, you know, bring that to say four sentences that really describes who you are and only to make a difference.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you want to talk to, you know, what are those commercial impacts that you can make?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it's always good to give yourself a little bit of a credibility boost in there.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: And if you've got some great results that you can tie into that elevator pitch, that can really hook recruiters in in those first couple of seconds.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great one.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think even in business, yeah, the elevator pitch and pitch and the uh value proposition and stuff like that is so important.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and again, a lot of people, yeah, really struggle.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure that you would give some great help for to help people.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And again, that being that sort of outcome focused language as well is really important.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So just a quick one before you go to the next one.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So photo or no photo, what's your opinion on that one?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: If you're in the Australian market, I would say no photo in some of the European markets.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's a non-negotiable there.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you're working in modeling, then you'll definitely need that in your portfolio.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: But the only difference I would say is in the Australian market, if you are going for a board of directors role, that would be the exception to include a small headshot to periodically.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so not a half page photo.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh photo.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's good.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And what else?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what what other key areas would you recommend?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so then there, when we reflect on someone's career journey or their work experience, in the past, resumes would have listed all of the task and the day-to-day responsibilities of your role.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: What I would encourage any resume writer or any person writing their resume to do is how can you say those, those day-to-day responsibilities in one to two sentences max, and then use the majority of the space with some really well-crafted bullet points around your impact and your results.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, really need to quantify how you've made a difference.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not enough to say that, you know, I generated a significant uh boost in sales.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Get into the nitty-gritty around well, what kind of percentage boost was that?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: What was the key component that led to that result?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that just helps tell a very different story.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, that's that's a good one.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, yeah, look, I mean, I've seen a lot of fairly confidential data put in resumes and you know, like about the actual sales figures of their territories and sort of stuff like that.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, you do have to be careful.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's nice to use percentages and that sort of stuff.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I think from a professional point of view, yeah, I mean, and look, I mean, could whether were the numbers true or not, I don't know.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I think you do have to be mindful of that you don't want to be sharing too much confidential information because that could, you know, the the potential new uh manager could go, hey, look, I don't want that being shared as well.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So what's your thoughts on that part?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Part of this will be around, like you said, the confidence on the reality side of things is important.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: So go back, look at those employment contracts before you're writing the resure.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, with growth uh can be a safer way to communicate your impact than necessarily giving the uh bottom line.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and um so for me as well, like uh would you recommend that people put their acts the actual reference people or would you they just say um subject or available on request?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: What would be your recommendation there?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, unless you're applying for a government role where it specifically asks for that in the job advertisement, they'd say leave it off, use that precious one or two pages to talk more around your results and your impact, or you know, calling out any qualifications that might be relevant for the role, as well as uh making sure that you've got an area of expertise section uh somewhere within the resume.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: And this is really important here, particularly if you are applying for roles on job boards.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: You want to keyword optimize your resume.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: So having a little look at that job advert, looking for the keyword frequencies there.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: So if people are using words like leadership versus in management in that area of expertise section, make sure you get those keywords in there.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So is there anything else that you would recommend or or um or suggest, you know, our uh network can leverage off to make sure they've got the best, you know, re resume uh in the in the pack?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, another thing to consider is around personal branding tagline, something that's really short and memorable and sums up how you make a difference.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you could add that tagline to the top of the resume.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: And again, it's all just about how do I hook people in as quickly as possible so that they can see the value I've got to offer.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, that's and that's great advice.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually quite like that.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking to someone the other day.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, because I think if you've seen now, like sometimes when people are on social media or whatever, they'll have the company name then then their name.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and it's actually quite effective.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: But and then when they go to the next company, it's like, oh, well, such and such is, you know, I'm now such and such at at this company.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I think having that personal brand is definitely uh a great way to go because yeah, social media has definitely most certainly become a great branding platform for for professionals to be able to say, hey, this is who I am and this is what I stand for, and and these are the benefits that I bring to the table.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's becoming a lot more um common now.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, talking of social media, one thing that I believe is underutilized, uh particularly say with LinkedIn, is for job seekers, how are they building those relationships with recruiters and hiring managers?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: And LinkedIn's the perfect place, and there's so many wonderful options to start building that relationship just through direct messaging, whether that is uh sending an introductory video to the recruiter when you've spotted a role of interest or even just sending a a voice note, it just helps to personalize that and really start to build rapport with recruiters and hiring managers.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: I I agree with you there.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's for sure.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: So would there be um so if someone wanted to get in contact with you, how does how do you sort of start your process when you're working with companies or professionals?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so people can jump online and connect with me via the website or any of the social media platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: The experience of working with me is really in a three-step process.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the first part of that experience is I invite my new clients to do an online career journey tool.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a place where they can reflect on where they've been, where they're heading, and really some of that information around those proudest moments in their career.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: But where the juicy stuff comes is in step two.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where we really dive deep into their career story and their brand.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we spend at least 90 minutes together via Zoom or over the phone.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I ask her a lot of questions to get to the heart of who an individual is, and then from there take away all of this, these wonderful stories and call together the career marketing tools that someone may need, whether that is the resume, LinkedIn profile or a snazzy little pitch letter to really cooking the recruiters.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's a fantastic work and again, such an important area.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think it's uh you definitely would highly recommend anyone in our network to contact Pam and have a discussion.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's just there's so much value in what you do, and I do really appreciate you, you know, sparing some time today and coming on and having a chat with us about yeah, about um how you thank you so much, and it's always wonderful to see your face and the amazing work that you're doing in the community as well is uh is making a huge difference.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: And thanks so much for all that you're doing.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it, Pam.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Got a product that's struggling or launching something new?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Reach out.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're inviting guests who want to make a real impact.