✉️Name: Natasha Woodford
What Natasha does: She is the Director of Recruitment at Clockwork Talent
Company: Clockwork Talent
Noteworthy: She is the MD of clockworkTalent, the specialist recruitment agency dedicated to supporting the hire of Digital talent for both brands and agencies
✉️Name: Mercy Janaki
What Natasha does: She is the Group Head of SEO at Webenza.
Company: Webenza
Noteworthy: She has worked for websites at national and international levels and the sectors include Food, Travel, Health & Fitness, Technology, eCommerce, Non-Profit, B2B, Healthcare, Automobile, etc.
✉️Name: Roxana Stingu
What Natasha does: She is the Group Head of SEO at Alamy
Company: Alamy
Noteworthy: She specializes in technical and image SEO for enterprise websites. She has been in the industry for over 15 years
Your resumé is supposed to tell a story, your story.
Remember you’re not the only one applying for that job. You need to make your profile stand out and ensure it represents you well and tells your story too.
Never Submit Your CV in a .png file format.
Natasha shares that database readers don’t completely read everything on a resume when it’s submitted as a .png file.
It’s best to submit your resumé as a pdf to avoid these issues.
A lot of Hiring managers will Judge You Based on Your Resumé
Put your best foot forward when applying for jobs, and show what a nice person you are, what a great personality you have, and how smart you are.
If none of that comes out of your CV, and they don’t call you up for an interview. Go Easy With the BuzzWords in Your Resume.
Explain how you Achieved A goal in Your Resume
Roxana shares that it’s not enough to just mention that you achieved a goal. You should go the extra mile to explain how you did it and the tools you used.
Show Value In Your Resume Using the Skills And Tools Section
Natasha says that showing what you can do in the “skill and tools section” is the best way to stand out. Utilizing this section is your opportunity to shine.
Cover letters can help to say more about you
Roxana shares that cover letters can really help you stand out, especially if you are still early career. You can share your learning experience and even the mistakes you’ve made. Keep it tailored to the job posting and not generic. Remember typos in your cover letter are a total NO❌
Connect With The Guests
Follow Roxana on Twitter and Linkedin.
Follow Tasha on Twitter and Linkedin.
Follow Mercy on Linkedin.
Natasha Woodoford 0:03
Wonderful. Hi everyone. My name is Natasha, I run clockwork talent. We’re a digital marketing recruitment agency. And I’m based here in the UK, and we’re looking to help make you make sure your CDs are the best they can be. Hopefully, you can all see the screen. As I said, I work for clockwork talent. We’re basically a small recruitment agency. But we hire for both in house jobs and agency jobs. And we do that for both brands and agencies and brands range from big global brands to small independent business owners. And our mission essentially, is to help you make sure that your CV represents you the best it can be, so that hiring managers choose your CV, so they invite you for interview.
What essentially is a CV is an overview of your employment, your professional skills, everything that you would bring to the table for a job. And there is essentially a recipe that you can follow. And that’s what you see in front of you. Now we’ve put a QR code here, which we’ll find where we actually share this deck with you. And it will take you off to a sort of step by step guide on how to write a great CV. But in front of you, here we have the CD a one page CV for someone fairly early in their career.
You have your contact details at the front, which will be your your full name, your home address, your contact telephone number, your email address, your LinkedIn profile if you have one. But we also encourage you to put your side project on there, lots of people have a blog they run or maybe a website they’re running. I know certainly the coalition, you’ve been encouraged to make your own website, put it on there, it gives you something to talk about at the interview with an interviewer about how you’re practising your craft.
And, you know, you’re not just a nine-to-five person doing your day job, but actually, you’re going home and you’re playing on your own website as well. And then encourage you to write a personal profile. And this is your introduction to an employer of who you are. I often try and say, write it as if you’re writing it to my mom, my mom knows nothing about you try and be really specific as to what you bring to the table, what your strengths are, what your passion is.
And again, all applicable to the job. You know, if you’re a marketing graduate, if your burning ambition is paid social, tell me that in that introduction. We then add a section called skills and tools and skills and tools is a bullet point list of your strengths, the tools that you use all the elements that you’re going to hit the ground running if you started a new job. You know, if you’re amazing at Excel spreadsheets, you could do pivot tables and lookups.
Tell me if you’re great with creative software suite and you do Adobe or Photoshop, tell them that this is your way of essentially keyword stuffing, hear a CV, forgive the pun, but you know it is and it’s a good thing. Particularly because your CV when it goes in an application in for an application for a job, it will generally go into a database AI or an application tracking system. And if it’s seeing all the keywords, this is how the hiring manager or HR could be looking for your CV. So if you’ve got the keywords there, it certainly will benefit you in being pulled out from a search. We then ask you to list your professional experience.
So what work have you done, and lots of people you’ll start in chronological order most recent fast with your employment dates, your employer and the location that you’re working in. And then your job title. If you’ve been internally promoted, don’t just list your current job title. Why don’t you tell me you started as an exec, you got promoted to a senior exec and then promoted to a manager that tells a really good story. Lots of people seem to miss that out and just say that I’m a manager, but tell me that you got internally promoted, it makes you a very employable individual for another job.
So you work your way through your professional experience via each employer. And what we would ask you to do is actually beg your pardon, list your achievements. So lots of people write their CV, talking about their responsibilities responsible for designing this responsible for designing that. What I would want you to do is list your achievements. So if you’re in a digital marketing job, think about your KPIs. Think about if you’re in paid media, driving cost per click down, or your ROI up what kind of budgets have you been managing, think about the KPIs and making those achievements measurable, because that’s going to differentiate you from every other digital marketer CV that I’m reading, like we all know what an SEO manager does, but how good Are you? Why don’t you tell us in your CV.
If you’ve done your professional experience, we would want you to list your education and training. Most people call it just education, we encourage you to quit education and training. Because if you look at just education, it will tell me that you’ve stopped learning at your degree level if you did a degree, or you stop learning at your A levels, or your baccalaureate, or whatever studies you were doing. What I’m more interested in now, as you become more accomplished in your career, is what industry training have you done? Have you got your Sim certification?
Have you got your blu ray SEO manager training? Have you been certified in Google Analytics, this these here in chronological order in your education and training section, and then it tells me that you’re ahead of the curve, you’re keeping pace with the industry, you know, the latest Google algorithms you’ll probably be aware of, because you’re at that level of industry accreditation. And then finally, you’ve got your interests and hobbies section. Some people say don’t put interest in hobbies, I personally believe you really should. People do hire people.
So I would encourage you to kind of give us an insight into who you are. It makes it a lot more memorable. It makes you relatable, it could give you a common ground with a brand that you’re applying for. And to give you an example, I had a lady who I’m gonna remember for the rest of my life because she collects dolls houses. She’s awesome at her job, and we did recruit her, but I remember her forever because of her interests. And then another guy, we were recruiting for Adidas at the time, we wanted a global group, social media director, we had lots of very good candidates, but the guy who actually got the job was the first person to paddleboard to Antarctica.
And Adidas loved that, because he really related to the brand, he was like that high achieving competitive, athletic individual. So not only was he good at his day job, but his interests actually married with the brand as well. Hence, I’d really encourage you to list your interests.
Here’s a quick do’s and don’ts. Obviously, these are not going to be in the in the CV was the website, xx xx.com. site, click that link. And you know, it really wasn’t representative of their work. So really make sure you clean up the content that comes across on the CDs, label your CV with your name, don’t label it with a date or anything like that. You want the hiring manager to be able to find it in their folders really quickly. And to know it’s you. Nothing’s worse than getting a CV to come in that actually has somebody else’s company name on it. You know, if you’re making lots of applications, make sure you’re sending the right ones to the right people. And also don’t see see everybody you know, every single company that you’re hiring, you’re sending your CV to don’t CC everybody at the same time.
It’s really bad etiquette to do that. Just make sure you’re tailoring it to each individual. whizzing through lots of different things. But here we go. These are the three CDs that I was sent, I was sent a beer a Monet and Prachi. And I’ve actually spoken to each one of them. Because in my opinion, when you write a CV, that’s how you represent yourself. And when I read it, I’m sure there’s absolutely more to the person than you might have put on the CV and I was absolutely right.
And each one of these individuals, I took a very as an example, a very sent me her CV and a ping file. She’d made it on Canva. I think it Canva automates suggested format is Ping. So she’d sent it in a ping file. And it was quite interesting, because when we take that ping file and put it into our database, it didn’t read it. It didn’t read entry level technical SEO at the top. It certainly wasn’t there. So on this page, I’ve got a Barry’s first CD attempt. This is what she sent to me beg your pardon sent to me in her application. And then on the right you have the finalised version, we basically dug a little bit deeper with a barrier, we found out that she actually likes to be called Cecilia. So we put that at the top of her CV. You know, her name is Cecilia. And whilst she had her contact details, what she didn’t have was the fact that she had a personal website. So she is one of those people who’s not just got a day job. She practices digital marketing in her own time.
So we added her personal website, and it’s really cool. It’s actually for elderly care products, sort of Zimmer frames and so so, so we added that website and she could talk about that at an interview with an employer. So personally, I’d be quite impressed with that. We also found that Cecilia hadn’t added her for early work experience, she decided that she was only going to show me what she felt was relevant. Whereas actually she had had work experience previously.
So she graduated as a biomedical technology student. Impressive. So she knows the medical industry. She understands that terminology, which could be really, really important if she applied to maybe a healthcare company to be a digital marketer. It certainly opens up opportunities. So we encouraged her to bring that Biomedical Equipment Technician role that she was in, and we kept her copywriting internship and her compulsory youth service and freelance coalition traineeship.
So suddenly, she goes from somebody with zero experience and only one traineeship to somebody who’s worked in health care, who’s done copywriting, who actually is doing her traineeship now, with a side hustle. So she’s got a personal website, she actually becomes a lot more valuable for give that to a hiring manager than somebody who perhaps has only done one traineeship. So it’s really be careful when you curate your CV, and what you’re editing in and what you’re editing out. Sometimes it can be really valuable for an employer. But I think her CV actually represents her really well now. She’s such a nice lady. She’s really ambitious, really passionate.
Her personal profile just reads that a little bit more strongly. She’s got her skills and tools and enlists her personal experience, education is a lot more clear and concise about her personal development plans. And she’s a family lady. She’s got two kids. Her personal interests really are about her family. But again, if there’s anything else there, you know, maybe she’s into technology. She’s looking at blockchain or cryptocurrency, you know, whatever it is, it could be anything. So that was the Celia CV. And that’s it from me for now. And if anybody has any questions, I’d be delighted to ask
Roxana Stingu 11:56
if you don’t mind, can you write my own CV? Natasha, can you help me to
Chima Mmeje 12:03
be credible? Does just like I feel like, I feel like
Natasha Woodoford 12:09
Oh, you guys are too kind. And we actually do we do CB critiques for digital marketers. We tend to do them in the UK. But it’s one of my passions is because you speak to somebody and they’re so amazing at their job. But then you see their CV and it’s, it’s not them, where did it go?
You know, so I really encourage people, there is that QR code on the deck. It then leads you to a really popular article I wrote about how to write a great CV has a template in it. I really, honestly, if I can help everybody I would. But there are a CV critique requests that we get through our website as well.
Chima Mmeje 12:46
Okay, that’s awesome. All right, mercy, you’re going to present next 15 minutes, share some tips and maybe do something similar to what Natalie sorry Natasha did with the with the CVS that were sent to you. And then Roxanne. I’ll go next. So messy up next.
Mercy Janaki 13:04
Thanks. Thanks, Chima. Nice to meet you all. And I don’t think so I can do anything similar to what Natasha said did because she’s the hiring queen, and she’s just like, so fantastic.
Natasha Woodoford 13:15
See, I can learn so much from you guys.
Mercy Janaki 13:19
Yeah, great. So, you know, I come from my agency background. So typically, in the last 10 to 12 years, I have been working mainly with agencies only. So probably, I’ll share a few tips on you know, in case you wanted to start your career or, you know, you’re getting an opportunity getting into an agency, what are the things that typically you know, who are in the hiring posting agencies typically look for right.
So, the main thing is, you know, especially the set of people especially, you know, comes from this particular coalition, who are in a, you know, entry level of, you know, carrier led entry level of your career ladder, right. So, it will be very difficult for you to kind of, you know, fill your resume with a lot of you know, achievements or some numbers or figures and all of that probably will be difficult and not not saying that for every one but, because I see that a lot of you are also you know, doing side hustle at this point of time as well. So, you may have certain numbers and figures to you know, showcase in your profile, that is very good, but, you know, in any agency is always you know, kind of tight sheduled environment, you know, something or the other will be always happening, you know, there will be some burning, you know, problems that some of the team will be trying to resolve and there will be always deadlines to meet and all of that.
So, you know, in addition to the AC was specific inputs that you add in your resume in it I would also recommend that you know, under your, probably the soft skill area where you, you know, represent your skill set, it will also be advisable to include something like, you know, time management, meeting the deadlines, you know, a cross functional team collaborations and all of that, right. So, that is very, you know, critical when it comes to an agency environment, because you tend to, you know, work closely with the, you know, development team, because, you know, you will have possibly, probably the SEO team as well as the development team, who will be implementing it, or you will also be working with your client side, you know, in house developers, they will be sharing the deck is your recommendation and they will be implementing it.
So, the cross functional correlations, and, you know, collaboration, and all of them becomes very important as well. And, you know, we and again, you know, our main ones, so, you know, some prioritisation and you know, you will be working in multiple accounts when it comes to agencies, right. So, you need to, you know, make right decision at right point of time, which one you are going to prioritise it, you know, when it comes to execution part of it, so, probably, you know, how you, you know, prioritise the work, you know, how you are able to do that properly, those kinds of, you know, inputs, if you can add it, that would add more value when it comes to agency side of recruitment.
And also these, you know, eight PS, software’s that most of the companies use, you know, to track the people’s applications, especially when it goes to the larger level of organisations, then, you know, these kind of terms will help you to process that, in order to level evaluation and getting to the next level of, you know, reaching the right, you know, HR person, so that, you know, the interviews can be shared. So, you know, these are all the inputs that I may have in, you know, in a very high level. But I have also Shima has also shared three awesome resume with me, and I have a few suggestions over there.
Chima Mmeje 17:12
Sorry, messy, do you want to share your screen? Yeah, I
Mercy Janaki 17:16
wanted to share my screen, Natasha, can I have the share access, okay. So, you know, this is a resume from goodness, and, you know, it is a pretty good resume. A, you know, personally, I would always love to see objective rather than, you know, career summary, when it comes to Junior, you know, level of candidates who are getting into the, you know, SOP, whatever it is, maybe take a CEO or a content SEO, or you know, a PA anything that sort of, so, you know, yields, if it is an experienced candidate, probably you can talk about the, you know, achievement that you have done in the last three years or four years, but when you are getting into a career, then the objective would be really good, where you can clearly state that, you know, what is your passion, and what is that you wanted to achieve, since you are stepping into that, right.
So in that sense, you know, it’s a personal feedback, goodness has really done it done it great. And what I would recommend to improve here would be probably the key skill sets that, you know, it’s added here, maybe, you know, you can put it in a better way, maybe split it in a two level. What I’m seeing missing is definitely the soft skills, right. So whether it is technical, whether it is content, in se most soft skills are pretty much important, like the, you know, basic SEO skills that we have, you know, be technical or, you know, analytics or dashboarding or anything to that startup.
So, you know, if you can add the SEO skills and then probably I mean, narrow it down to your skill level, I mean, soft skill levels, that would also be helpful and probably you can also order it in such a way that you know, to me it looks like you know, we have mixing multiple things here probably you know, you can talk about website audit technical on page keyword research and then comes to the tools that you are familiar with, right like the Screaming Frog and site the all the good tools that you’re using, and you’re familiar with, you can also start writing about that as well.
So, you know, that is very good. And one more thing probably I can suggest here is in the you know, caption in the heading, probably, instead of technical SEO specialist, you have done a great set of certification here. You know, the blu ray, which is really great. You know, everybody is talking about it in the recent time and LinkedIn is full of that. So you can also say that they know blu ray certified technical SEO specialist, maybe that catches my eye even though if I am someone who is reviewing the resuming then probably that would add more value You hear as well.
So, you know, this is a great resume, probably these inputs, you know, from my, you know, personal point of view would be something that you can, you know, take into account. And the other one is Katherine. And this is a very, you know, detailed and, you know, the good thing, I mean, the one that I have liked here is the numbers and the figures that, you know, she has given you, she’s very particular about, you know, what she has achieved, you know, from this to this. And again, in mobile, mobile 97 percentage is definitely a, you know, big achievement, and, you know, good thing to call out here, and, you know, you have done it, right.
And similarly, here as well, you know, the key four key words, or five key words about what is the search volume, and currently where it ranks. So these are all some, you know, very good thing that you have done, probably, in the end, one more, you know, good thing I liked here is the tailoring part that you have done, right, like for organisation, it’s so you know, when it is obviously, you know, when we were in a, you know, search of a job, you know, we will be in the tendency of sending the same resume at every company, but if you’re able to, you know, slightly tweak here and there, that makes a lot of difference, right, that is what she is trying to do here, and I love that thing.
And whenever we send PDFs, you know, you know, when she was shared these profiles, I tend to click the LinkedIn profile and see, you know, what is that person has done, and, you know, what is the level of understanding she has, and all of that, but, you know, certain links are not working, it is just the text. So, it is a small hygiene thing that, you know, you can all, you know, consider because if not every, you know, hiring manager is download the, you know, profile and start looking into it, you know, you can make things easier for them, so that they can click on it, and, you know, start looking into it.
And this one is, again, a very, you know, good, you know, comprehensive profile I saw Natasha was also talking about, you know, it is better to put the experience in chronological order. Maybe that is what is currently missing in this particular assuming, and, you know, you can definitely work on it. So, you know, what is the recent thing that you’re working, you know, what is that your recent capability? And what is the recent responsibility that you have, is what, you know, people are really cared about, rather than what we have done it, you know, a couple of years back or things like that.
So, you know, that is one thing that you can do, and also, yeah, skills, right, like, this is the first time I’m seeing the soft skill also been included. So, that is also very good. I have noted on certain feedbacks on the resume, let me quickly check. Yeah, so you know, it and when it comes to the job description, right, what is the role description that you have explained here, wherever possible, to me, you know, it sounds like, you know, list of responsibilities that you are, you know, accomplishing in that particular organisation were or was accomplishing in that organisation, maybe, you know, with certain facts and figures, like, you know, say, for example, you have done labelling for certain things or optimised title tags for certain things.
So, if it is possible for you to include what is the CTR that you have achieved, after implementing that changes, probably that might standard, I’m not saying for each and everything, wherever it is possible, it, we can add that that would add, you know, a lot more, you know, value to the ones that we have here, and also the skill set again, coming back, you know, as for the very first resume way I was referring to, you know, if we can split that into specific SEO skills, and this specific soft skills also would be great. And you have done a Google Analytics certification.
So, you know, better you know, call it out, you know, Google Analytics certified technical SEO specialist would be, you know, great thing to that, that is the first heading, you know, that catches anybody’s eyes, right, like the h1 tag, and basically, you probably, this is the one for the resume section. So probably, we can also do that. So that’s it. Otherwise, all the three resumes of super good, which small tweaks here and there, from my experience, this is what I could suggest.
Chima Mmeje 24:29
Merci. As you said, you didn’t you don’t think you could add anything but you’ve added so much value, so much value, like the value coming out of this session is just insane. It’s just insane. I’m just so happy that that the not just the class, but other people who are let me take su are going to be able to use this to improve their resume. So seriously, this is so good. I’m just so happy right now. Roxanna, you’re up next.
Roxana Stingu 24:57
Hello, everybody. Sorry, we were late. Um, just a small problem with the link for the for the call, but we’re now here. Um, let me share my screen as well, I think it’s easier just to follow on the resume. Right? So let’s do this. Are you seeing? Are you seeing a various resume now?
Chima Mmeje 25:20
Yes. Oh god, I think I sent I sent you the same resume, that’s a mistake on my end. But
Roxana Stingu 25:25
normally, I think it’s good because I do have some extra stuff to add. So not not a problem at all. So just to give you give everybody a little bit of an intro, my name is Roxana Stringer, I work for Alamy. And I’ve been in SEO for 15 years and technical SEO for about 10 years of those. And I’ve been a hiring manager for about eight years of those now, and had the opportunity of looking to hire new people at every single different levels, on almost every single year of my career, not because people left but because my teams are growing. So good thing. But that did put me in a position where I’ve seen hundreds of technical SEO Seabees.
And I got to a point where I’m very picky. And I’m really quick to judge somebody based on their resume. And this is why I’m here to tell you that I’m not alone, a lot of hiring managers will judge you based on your resume, so put your best foot forward, because otherwise, you’re not going to make it through the door to show what a nice person you are, what a great personality, how smart you are, if none of that comes out of your CV, and they don’t call you up for an interview. So I have a very here, Natasha already pointed out this resume came in as a jpeg or a png. So an image file, which is problematic, because systems can’t really read images.
And I mean, a lot of the people on the call today trained with a leader. So I’m sure she covered image optimization. And one of the things in there clearly says don’t put text in images. Right? When it comes to Google, it doesn’t read text in images, you’re not going to rank for that text. It’s the same with a resume. If you send it in as an image or a PDF, that’s an image and doesn’t contain tax, it’s a problem because systems won’t find it.
And it’s not just for people like Natasha who have specific software to browse through these. But I say resumes I get in in a folder in SharePoint and SharePoint is great because you can actually search inside files. So if I’m thinking, Oh, I had a candidate who was able to do this or that I can remember their name, but I remember their skill, I can actually search in all the files until I find that one CD I’m interested in. But if it’s an image, you’re not going to come up, and I’m never going to find you again. And I’m most likely not going to call you up. So don’t lose an opportunity just because of this. Otherwise, it looks great.
I love reading series that are kind of structured this way. I’m a very visual person, it helps a lot when it’s not a big block of text. And it’s separated into different sections. So I have some notes here. Oh, I noticed you link to your Twitter profile. And just so you know, I always visit these when I find them in resumes. And I always check Do you have pictures of yourself drunk last night and I’m happy to say nobody did your Twitter’s are very, very professional. You don’t have anything in there that would make me think I don’t want to hire this person because they’re gonna slip in and be late tomorrow morning.
So make sure if you do offer links to your personal websites, your personal social media, there is nothing in there that an employer might use against you. So again, don’t don’t minimise your chances of getting that call because you posted a picture of being out at 3am. We are on in the middle of the week, because that means you’re not going to be very performing the next day. Then there are some things I always look at as a resume and that’s misspells. When it comes to technical SEO you have when you say Attention to detail, you have to mean it. You have to notice all the different things that go wrong on a website.
So when I look in your resume and I find Miss spells that you didn’t notice, you can tell me you have great attention to detail. I’ve never believed you. So make sure your CV is formatted correctly. You’re not doing anything wrong. You don’t have any misspells everything is perfect. You are showing the attention to detail through how you build your resume. Then there’s there’s certain buzzwords when I hear from my skin crawls because they mean nothing. And I’m sorry to be so honest, but I have to because I think this is why you’re here to hear how people interpret these these resumes when they come in.
So there are things that say, right I can do I think it wasn’t here site analysis, or I can do Site Audit. Or what does that mean? Because I’m sure the site analysis you can do and the site analysis somebody else can do would involve completely different things. So I need to know what that involves. So don’t just go generic on page optimization Off Page Optimization. What does it mean? Because it’s, it means different things at different levels. And since you’re a beginner, I’m not expecting you to have you know, a long list of things you can do, but at least list the ones you can, I know, I’m hiring somebody who’s just entering the technical SEO field.
So if I see that you already can do certain things, I’m thinking, Well, my job is going to be easy, training you further because you, you can already do more than half of what I would want you to do anyway, but listed up because if you don’t, it means nothing. Then there’s expressions or things like seeking to leverage my skills in your firm. It’s good, but it could be better. So your engineer, you can’t really say I’m here to put all my expertise to work and make your business better, because you’re a junior, you don’t have a lot of expertise, right. So then maybe it’s it’s an opportunity to use kind of the intro paragraph to also communicate what you want from from a job.
So you can say, I want to be part of a technical team have peers that I can learn from, right, you can describe some of the things you’re looking to get as well, because that helps a manager understand are you going to be a team player, and they can see that for what you want to do. And you don’t have to just say, I’m a team player, because again, it means nothing, I can say anything I want, it doesn’t mean it’s true. But you can kind of show it, it’s true through the things you’re looking to learn in that in that job. If you’re going to get it. I do like the skills on the side, that’s a very nice that the only thing I would say it, when it’s a mix of different tools and skills and other things, it’s kind of hard.
So you know, even mercy said, Separate soft skills from a tools, I would say take it even further, have tools on one side have platforms on another how you know, like have clearer groups of things you can work with, be a bit more organised when it comes to this. It just helps me then quickly see, okay, you know, the CMS is you know, these tools, you know, these things, if I’m reading this, I forgot how many Google platforms I’ve encountered here. And I kind of have to go back and look through it.
So your job as an employee is to make your boss’s life easier, make it easier from the first step from the CV when you send it don’t make me work to understand what you can do for me just make it as easy as possible. Then I put in notice this date, when you say 2020 to the present, it’s like it’s still it could have been yesterday. So make sure you have dates down, at least at month level, to kind of indicate periods, but again, just shows attention to detail in the situation. And then just reading kind of some of the actions you did, it’s what you would typically see in a CV like this, but what I would prefer to see is, this gives me the what you did, but you’re pretty much missing the how and the why.
So when you say right, I did a Site Audit, how did you do it by using all these tools by putting these skills to work? And then why did you do it? Right. So I, as long as I can kind of read about the what the how and the why I’ll be happy that you told me about to what I needed to know. So to give you an example, there was a line here saying write a new website page in Google, which is what we all want to do all the time, which is great if you did it, but it it doesn’t tell me how did you do it? Because he could have done it in so many ways. So I still don’t know what to learn to help you get to that point. It doesn’t tell me why you did it. So you rent that page.
Now what? Like I want to know that you understand the consequence of your actions you ramped it because want to drive more traffic that converts gets more revenue hits business goal. Yeah. So, you know, something that would have been a bit more descriptive for me would have been instead of saying I wrapped a new website page in Google, it could have been I applied all the above learned knowledge and managed to rank a page about whatever talk Pick in position, whatever the position is because we all know even even ranking first is not a big thing nowadays anymore with rich snippets and everything.
But it is a it is something, you know, that could be celebrated. So mentioned the position you brought the the main keyword then mentioned the search volume of that keyword because of course, some keywords are less competitive than others.
And then say how long it took you as well. Yeah. And you don’t even have to leave it here. You can also explain how ranking this keyword served the greater purpose for the company, right? You want it to rank better for this keyword, because it’s bringing you more leads, you’re selling more products, you’ve increased revenue for for your channel, like, why did you do all of this?
And if you put it that way, then I know what level of understanding you have, which is more than just I rent a keyboard. I now know you know how business works, how things work together. I know you can work with other departments if you’re kind of telling me how it integrates in everything. So for me, it’s more actions and not words. It’s not enough. If you say I work well with others, I feel that when you say it, I managed to rank this keyword by doing this activity with this team.
And by working on this project with this team. And by doing all this combined stuff. And then I believe you work well with others because I see the results of it. So try to always think how can I show that I do these things and not just say about them on my resume? Right? Should we move? Let’s see, I have another one, don’t I? Right? I have a Deborah here? Do we go British? Or do we go American? Is it Deborah or Deborah?
Chima Mmeje 36:59
I think that one is fine.
Roxana Stingu 37:04
Right? So with the CVI can immediately say thank you for using large font, I wear glasses, I appreciate that. But if you kind of look at it, it’s three pages, I think when it shouldn’t be, it kind of feels like you’re stretching it out make it look bigger than it is and you don’t have to. So the large fonts are great for me, but they might not be appreciated by everybody. Then just kind of reading through it. I find the same buzzwords I see everywhere, but I see no proof of them. So it just feels like everybody’s copy pasting the same expressions from other people. But I see no proof in your data in your numbers in anything to show me those things are true.
So easy. With the buzzwords, I’d say. Things like write them down. You can see I’m you know, I’m self motivated, who isn’t? I’m just saying everybody is where it should be, at least. But um, you know, how do you show yourself motivated through the things you describe that you do in your work? That will make me believe that’s true? Yeah. Then why did I have here? You have some mentions here of, you know, you work with Excel, which is great. on page optimization, time management, these are things I can’t measure, if you don’t tell me how good you are.
So if you say Microsoft Excel, what does that mean? Because on a one to one on Excel, you know, given I have to google some stuff, I don’t know everything, but I can pretty much do 90% of my of my work without having to Google something. But what’s your Excel level? When you say this? Do you? Do you just open it and close it? Or do you use pivot tables? Do you do your data analysis? And like what, you know, what’s your Excel level? And even if this means just listing, like some of the top formulas you use all the time, it’s still very useful for somebody who’s hiring to understand your level, right?
So you can say, I’m very good to VLOOKUP I use search and match and I use data formatting, like whatever it might be, you can kind of list it to give somebody an idea of your level. Same with on page optimization, what do we exactly do when you say that so just list some of the things that kind of go on to that. Time management is a harder one. I don’t know how you measure that one. Right? But if you just say I have good time management, how do you prove it in writing quickly in a resume?
So have a think about that? Maybe? Right? Um, I think we had a third one. I’m just quickly checking when notes if there is anything new there? Oh, yes, it was. So let me move here to Sadiq. Yeah, that is a lot of experience in a lot of different things. I read this like blog post, I really enjoyed it just kind of reading all the different areas. Some of my notes here, I didn’t quite like the first paragraph, it feels like it’s written like a Twitter bio. It should be a bit more human. Right? It should be a paragraph talking about you saying things about you. But I also understand we live in this digital age, and we don’t tend to write like that anymore.
But unfortunately, applying to jobs should still be treated in a classic way. Just because it’s respectful, you don’t know who’s on the other side, if it’s a younger person who’s helped with the digital stuff, or if it’s an older person who’s not and will not appreciate this. So you can never go wrong with a clean paragraph where you talk about yourself.
Wrong, right. Then, yeah, this was the list, I was reading this list and thinking, why would you apply to a junior level position, you’ve done so many things. And this is why if you had a paragraph kind of introducing explaining why even though you have all this experience, you’re interested in an entry level position on technical SEO, it would help me understand that maybe you’re trying to do a career move, you’re trying to change the field where you’re working in.
But I kind of read this and thought I should hire me as my manager. So you know, this kind of takes away from what you’re trying to achieve with this job. And you might be that if if this is what you want, do you want an entry level job in technical SEO with this resume, you might need to tone it down, at least until you get through the door. And when you talk to a real person, you can tell them, Look, I did all this stuff, but I want to change careers. Now this is what I want to start doing. But otherwise, this is a bit intimidating. And most people might say you’re overqualified. Mind, you’re not going to be happy in an entry level, and they’re not even going to call you.
So just something to think about if that is the situation. One more thing, and then that’s it will turn into questions. There was one mention here, I don’t know exactly where you said, I always complete projects within budgets, which is everybody’s dream, right? But I immediately thought does that mean quality will suffer because you’re trying to meet the deadline, or you’re or you’re going to stretch the budget to make it work, but then you know, the quality is not going to be there. So for something like this, I’d say you know, think, think how you can spin it, say the same thing, but in a way that it can be used against you.
So for instance, instead of talking about budgets and things, talk about time management, right? That you’re organised, you’re a very good planner, you can estimate tasks in order to execute them in a timely manner. That doesn’t mean you don’t complete them in time. But it also doesn’t make me feel like you’re, you’re just going to do anything it takes to get it done, even if it’s not great. So sometimes just a matter of perspective, can you say the same thing in a different way that makes you sound, you know, puts you in a better light and doesn’t leave any room? For doubt? I’d say. So see if that is something you can do. Right? I have lots more notes, but then we won’t have time for questions. So I’m going to stop here.
Chima Mmeje 44:04
Okay, that was brilliant. I like how you went step by step with the notes. To kind of like show them Oh, this is this is what you did wrong. This is why you do so.
Roxana Stingu 44:14
I mean, nothing is wrong. If you know, if you look at it, nothing is wrong. We’re not here to say you don’t know how to do it, or you didn’t do it right. We’re just here to say if you had an opportunity to do it again, maybe these are some things you want to look at to do it better. Or these are some things that kind of jumped me and I think maybe I don’t know, I’m not so sure. Right. So these are all just kind of things to help people understand. You can improve if you want to. These are some things that potential hiring managers might think it doesn’t mean everybody thinks the same. You don’t have to go home and be sad, right? Overall, these are very good resumes to
Natasha Woodoford 44:54
have. Yeah, yeah. By showing you some that
Roxana Stingu 44:57
I’ve seen.
Chima Mmeje 44:59
Yeah, what did just point that out for the FCC, those who are because right now that are listening, this is not a critique personality. So please don’t take any of this personally, is just a way for you to improve. I will reach out to Natasha after this call and beg her to help the FCC class because class to revamp the ICD because what I’m saying they all need a severe revamp, at least the remaining seven people in the class we could really do could really use that scene and within happy tears from August, September Adobe going into internship, so that would really like give them an advantage with the internships that they are going for. So yes, thank you so much, Natasha. Alright, so I think the first question is when Tasha, the Joshua wants to know, what is your take on adding a profile? photo to the CV, I think, you know, I
Natasha Woodoford 45:50
get asked that a lot. It’s quite interesting. So I’ve been recruiting for 25 years. So I’m quite old. And I think old school, you know, financial services insurance, the less sort of energetic modern businesses, they’re not accustomed to seeing photos on CVS. But we work in digital marketing, digital marketing is modern. I think the first adopters of photos were Europe, Europe, a long time ago, had photos on their CVs as part of their ID profile.
That actually, I’m really comfortable with photos on CVS, there’s a lot of curious curiosity, whether it helps diversity and inclusivity or not, personally, myself, if a business that I’m recruiting for, they have inclusivity in their recruitment programme anyway, so having a photo on it makes it more relatable, you’re a person, you’re a human, I like to see that person on a profile, I will go and look you up on social media, I will know what you look like. So I think photos are a good thing. Please make sure they’re professional, though, I don’t want to see you and your dog posing. I would like a professional profile. You don’t have to pay 14 for it, but just make sure it’s clean and presentable.
Chima Mmeje 47:11
Brilliant, brilliant. Alright, so the next question just was different has a lot of questions. He says, really a university degree affect your chances of getting a job in SEO. Especially if you’ve studied something that is not related to digital marketing. That’s a good one.
Roxana Stingu 47:29
And I can I grab this one as a university dropout, I dropped out in my last year before my diploma because I started working in SEO, I went for the only SEO job in my town I got in and now I’m here. So if you’ve ever applied to a job where people tell you, you don’t have the degree for it, and it’s an SEO job, you ask them what school teaches you SEO better than actually doing it.
Because, yeah, you go to any school, and the courses are two years old, because they don’t update them, you know, but all these certifications, you’re doing all the courses, SEM, rush, glory, everything you learn from from a leader and everybody else is happening. Now. You have up to date information. And that’s why they hire you. Now, for some diploma you got 15 years ago. And then if that economy is in a different field, it doesn’t really matter. Because, you know, there’s no university that taught Seo 15 years ago, there just isn’t.
Chima Mmeje 48:26
Alright, brilliant. I want Messi to answer this one message. Does location play a huge role? In a resume, we are looking for remote roles.
Mercy Janaki 48:39
I don’t really you know, see that as a reason, especially if you take my case. You know, I grew up on from a very remote village in India. And now I’m in Bangalore, but you know, the entry level when I started that, it is, you know, it’s a kind of village, you know, we call it in India, it’s a very small place. I added that my resume and currently I’m in Bangalore, probably, you know, one of the bigger metros in India, but you know, to my experience what I have gone through, I don’t see that as, you know, negative aspect of adding that.
Chima Mmeje 49:17
Sorry, sorry. Yes, yes. That’s that’s, that’s That’s true. To some extent. I wanted to answer that because you are also by talk. And I think that’s something that a lot of bipolar people face that limitation for location. So Natasha, I want to just show this back to you. For someone who is living in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, and is trying to learn remote roles in Europe, UK, US where the good paying jobs, how would you advise them to show value on their resume?
Natasha Woodoford 49:50
Can I go back one step further. You were asking about location for a second so i i find it really interesting it British employers tend to With the pandemic, we’ve become a lot more accustomed to remote working and hybrid working. But there are some employers who still can’t yet employ people overseas. So when we write jobs, we make it very clear on job location where the job can be employed. So if it says UK remote, then it’s because of HR or payroll that it has to be in the UK.
But when we get international or global remote, it also says it on the job advert, so when you’re looking for the job, make sure you look to see where they’re allowing the job to be located. I always believe honesty is the best policy, I think if somebody doesn’t put location on their CV, there’s a reason. And I’m like, okay, so they’re applying for a London based job that has no location on their CV, there’s a story, there’s somebody telling me that story much better just to be upright about it.
I mean, I’ve lived all over the world, I’ve lived in the Middle East, I’ve, I’ve been I’m from Hong Kong, originally myself, I’ve lived in the States. And every time I’ve had a job, I’ve put the location on the CV may not be what the employer wants me to be living in that city, but you know, it is where I am. So, you know, make the most of it. I think, what can they do to overcome this or help themselves? In terms of applications, I would say that you’re accustomed to working remotely in the CV.
So if you’ve had remote roles before, tell them you know, tell them that you’re self managing self governing, because it’s very different from somebody who’s never worked remotely, you know, in the US in America, and India, wherever it is. Tell them that you’re adaptable. Tell them some of the project management tools that you’ve used, or the timekeeping tools or the, you know, if you use a sauna, if you whatever tools you’re using, that help you in that remote, remote working role, make sure it’s going in that skills and tools section or in your introduction section. I think it can really help. An application process if you see that person is accustomed to doing go hit the ground running doing it. That’s brilliant.
Chima Mmeje 52:12
Roxanna, this next question is for you. What formats can I use to send my resume since you said images can be called by HR software.
Roxana Stingu 52:23
So the best format to use is a PDF, but not a PDF. That seems like an image right? So you can actually copy text off of it. People can copy your name if they need to, they can highlight things they like in your your CV. If you go with them Word doc, it might look good on your computer, when I open it, it might be mango, if you have a lot of stuff in there. So with a PDF, that doesn’t happen. So I’d say just go PDF.
Chima Mmeje 52:47
I was gonna ask that question for you again. Because you see, okay, wait so Rosanna, because that more detail might make the CV long. How many pages would you have a CVS
Roxana Stingu 52:59
say this is the same thing I’d say about backlinks have quality, not quantity. Yeah. So you add detail where it matters. So you talk about current things and what results you get put numbers go detail. But then 10 jobs ago, I really don’t need a whole list of what you did. Yeah.
So keep it short with past jobs that are not as relevant anymore, or they’re just a step in your progression. Because I don’t need to know you did the same things five years ago, but you do them better now just focus on how you do them now, and just mentioned, you know, I did this for this company. So keep it short in areas where it doesn’t matter that much. So then you have enough room in the areas where it does matter. And I’d say two pages anything after too, you might get too boring to read.
Chima Mmeje 53:47
Alright, messy question for you. I like our just be round with the question. And this is fun. Question for you mercy. When it comes to adding hobbies, your CV, I think people again, this is very important because people always try to be tactical with adding hobbies to CV. So are there any kind of hobbies that sem managers or hiring managers like to see in a CV?
Mercy Janaki 54:12
Yeah, I think it’s, it’s a personal choice if you asked me and, you know, maybe, you know, one thing that, you know, whenever I get certain restaurants and I see, you know, very basic things like reading books or singing songs, probably, you know, if it is too, you know, common or too vague, or if you have, you know, certain specific skills that you really wanted to, you know, tell people that I am good in that, you know, other than what I do in SEO, why not call it out.
So, I think it’s a first personal choice, and you can definitely go with that, but probably don’t, you know, add a paragraph or sentence or something like that, as Roxanna said, you know, have no specific small, small, you know, kind of widgets or module where you can do Maybe added just to you know, tell them not show them what you’re capable of why not?
Chima Mmeje 55:06
Natasha, question for you. Do you have templates for SEO resumes that the community can adapt to?
Natasha Woodoford 55:17
We have a generic template, there’s not one specific to SEO. But I think if you apply the generic tips to your SEO job, that template, I mean, it echoes a lot of what Regina was talking about a lot of what Mercier and I were talking about, you know, think about your KPIs. Think about actually what your actions make happen and talk about that in your CD, then I get really excited. I mean, I have an entry level person at the moment who, who has never worked in SEO professionally.
But they you were talking about hobbies, were saying she has a passion for baking, she built a website, she played around with it all doing another job. She’s actually in a very different industry. But this is her passion. That website, because she has been studying a bit of SEO has generated 64,000 visits a month at the moment. You know, how amazing she gets what she’s on second interview. So it’s if you have a passion, follow that passion, apply it to SEO, or apply SEO to your passion.
And that actually is an amazing sort of marriage on how you can start. And so you don’t have to study at a university. University degrees weren’t around for digital marketing a few years ago, it’s only now that you can start studying digital marketing at university, best digital marketers. I know they just fell into it. Maybe there are musicians, musicians make great digital marketers. Maybe they did geography or history at university, because they’re good essay writing good analytics. It’s, you know, it’s a passion that you guys have. I think it’s an amazing career choice for you guys to have as well. But you’ve got to get the Seabees right to land a really good jobs. Hence, I’m really excited about CVS.
Chima Mmeje 57:05
All right. This next question is for Roxana. Okay, okay. This is this is very interesting. Okay, so imagine you’re a freelancer, and you have an extensive background, we have an extensive, you’ve done a lot of stuff in your freelance career, how do you represent that your resume to show specific themes that hiring manager wants to see? So we understand question, right?
Roxana Stingu 57:32
Yeah, just even if it’s freelance, and you know, there’s no company for somebody to call and say, How did this employee do because you kind of, you know, you did some work for friends and family, and maybe you got paid or not. But always, always put KPIs down, that could be verified. So if it’s somebody who paid you and you had an NDA in the country and disclose what you did for them, just share the SEMrush visibility number, that’s a public metric.
Nobody can tell you, you know, you can disclose it. And you can say, when I joined, This website’s visibility was 2000. A year and a half, it was 7000. And that’s actually what I did for anime. Those are the exact numbers I know, because I update them on my resume as they happen, because I keep that updated all the time. You never know. Right? So um, anything you do, just keep the numbers. But don’t forget, don’t don’t tell me just the word. Also tell me the how, and the why. Yeah. So don’t just say I increase this website’s traffic. How much did you increase it by? And how did you do it? You know, through what? SEO work?
Chima Mmeje 58:38
Okay, that’s
Roxana Stingu 58:40
it for a company or somebody else? Who cares? You did the work, it’s same work.
Chima Mmeje 58:44
Okay. I have a question. And this is me now asking the question to you, Roxanna, because I’m confused what you said in how and why? How do you show that in a two page CV?
Roxana Stingu 58:56
Is every line you write should have these three elements. It doesn’t mean it has to be a whole story, right? It should just be you know, what did you do? I did on page optimization. How did you do it through speed improvements, calm content, updates, whatever keyword research, and then the why. To increase visibility of the page by 20%. That’s, you know, a sentence. It’s not really more than that, but you can cover these aspects.
Chima Mmeje 59:28
Okay, that’s that’s that clarifies it. So last one. Before we go, I just want each of you to share one tip on how to show value in your resume. We’ll start with Natasha Rosanna and then end with message. What would be
Natasha Woodoford 59:42
one tip
there’s so much one tip to separate you from the pack to just say yes. I think your skills and tools section show me what you can do. Show me what you know. You know, you’re talking about soft skills, soft skills, you know, what activities can you undertake already yourself? And what tools can you use? That will give me a really good impression of okay, so how much do you know what level of expertise you out? Huh?
Chima Mmeje 1:00:19
That’s, that’s great. That’s great. All right, everyone you had that the tools and skill section? I think you said something about education also, not just writing education, but writing, training and education, I think. Yes.
Natasha Woodoford 1:00:35
It’s so there’s so much on your CV, that if you apply the thought process of what is a hiring manager looking to know about you, they’re looking to know what do you know, how well can you do it, and have you done it before? You know, they really want to know, and you can show that in every single other, each heading in a CV, the education and training section, your professional experience, listing your as, as Roxanna was saying, Your how, and your why, and your, what you achieve. If you if you apply all of those, it’s like a little recipe on your CV and just find the recipe, put the ingredients in, you’ll come out with a really good cake at the end.
Chima Mmeje 1:01:17
That’s brilliant. That’s the reason you want to
Roxana Stingu 1:01:21
I want it would be cover letter. Most people don’t do it anymore. It needs to be a one page letter where you just kind of ramble about yourself and what you want to do live like. But I think, uh, because your entry level in your experience doesn’t say much about you, your cover letter could help you say more, right? So if you keep your CV simple, then use a cover letter and say, you know, I don’t have much experience.
But I have been doing all these trainings, I’m really passionate about this other stuff, talk about things you learned, mistakes you made in especially mistakes you made, because that shows me that you’re you’re a good learner, you learn from mistakes as well. So just use a cover letter is something to set you apart from everybody else. And to give you an extra chance of people calling you back.
Chima Mmeje 1:02:11
I think we’re going to have a lot of debate about this in the slack group. Because cover letters are controversial. And you have a lot of gurus on LinkedIn saying you don’t need cover letters anymore. And hiring managers to ask for cover letters or daemon sets from health.
Roxana Stingu 1:02:26
You know, they’re not wrong. But I think it depends, like everything in SEO, right? It depends. If you don’t have a lot of everything else to offer. A cover letter could be that extra.
Chima Mmeje 1:02:38
Agreed, agreed Natasha, you raise your hand I figured you were that’s something
Natasha Woodoford 1:02:42
I did I cover letters. So if somebody writes me a cover letter, I’m the recruiter, I’m going to be pre screening you before you go to an employer. So I’m an external recruiter. So I’m not a hiring manager. I’m an external recruiter. And I think your CV coming to me has a different process. Because I’m going to take the time to give you a call, even before you’ve really been considered for a job or going to give you a call to get to know you and find out the person behind the CD, and probably offer you some suggestions about how you can improve your CV to to make it reflect you better.
A cover letter to me if it got typos, grammar or anything like that, I have to say it’s gonna turn me right off. I do not, I’m not if that’s the quality of what you’re prepared to show me. I’m not interested. But actually, if you pay attention, you’ve really given me a great cover letter. And actually, it is interesting, and it gives me a really good insight into who you are and how much you care about this job. And you really are excited about it.
You got me I’m in. You know, I think the other thing I’ve seen most most awfully happen on cover letters is when you’ve, you know spammed the industry with one cover letter, but maybe to one company, you know, did Microsoft, I’d love to work for you. And you’ve sent it to everyone and I’m like, Oh, really you? It’s not great. So tailoring, you don’t have to personalise them or I personally get really offended when I get Dear Sirs.
And you’re sending it to me because I have two brothers. It is me and you wrote Dear Sirs, I am all over the internet. People know I’m a woman. Why is India sir? It really offends me. I know. It’s like a generic, you know, greeting. But actually, it’s not it excludes me automatically. So it turns me off you. And I hate to say every single part of your job application process does get scrutinised. So it’s so easily to offend people just don’t you want to give yourself the best chance so if you can’t be specific and say dear Natasha, or hi Natasha, then don’t put it do put deserves because you will offend somebody. But cover letters are a good thing and you really must do them.
Chima Mmeje 1:04:56
As that’s that’s really good advice. I like the context of have, maybe when you start to get more advice that you don’t need them anymore? Because I think, yeah, it’s different that but when you’re just starting out, and you don’t have a lot of experience, like most of you are in the beginning stages of still learning tech SEO, yes. So definitely something to consider is massive. Yeah. Tip. Yeah.
Mercy Janaki 1:05:19
So, you know, I would say probably get creative and, you know, use the summary or the objective section wisely. Because most of the time, you know, that is where you can, you know, precisely talk about, you know, what you’re good at, or where you wanted to reach. But most of the time, I see, you know, it’s a, like, a cover letter that Natasha and Roxanne was talking about, right?
Like I see very often, it’s, uh, you know, same sentence probably spin, you know, in a different way added there, we really can’t see, you know, what is that really the person wanted to, you know, achieve or what they have actually done it. So use that space wisely. And, you know, be creative enough to, you know, get that traction, because that’s the very first thing that a new recruitment manager or you know, the consultant would really look into
Chima Mmeje 1:06:11
it. Alright, so this is the end of today’s session, this is, okay, this, I’m gonna be passionless and this has been the best so far I’m going to be had for future events to stop this because I’ve had so much fun. And I’m pretty sure that our Slack group is going to be buzzing. With all of the questions and conversations coming out of this session. Thank you so much, everyone for doing this in the hall. Everyone here is manitech SEO from scratch.
So this is really, really instrumental to their growth. Thank you so much. If you have any questions for Natasha, I’m just going to give you guys a moment, just typing your Twitter message. I don’t think you’re on Twitter. So you can put your LinkedIn so that people can reach out to you guys directly and ask question. We always do that because we never have enough time for questions so they can just like reach out to you personally, and then ask the questions on Twitter or LinkedIn. All right, thank you guys so much for coming in.
Roxana Stingu 1:07:08
Can I say right before we go, a bearer Deborah and Sadiq if you do make updates to your resume and you want to run them past me just hit me up. I’m happy to give them another look
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
