How to Pass the 5-Second Resume Scan

This week, Jeff and I are diving into one of the most critical parts of your resume: branding and skills. We’re breaking down how to frame your professional story so that hiring managers can see your value in just a few seconds, without you feeling like you're "bragging" or overcomplicating things.

In this episode, we cover:

• Using professional titles to control the “anchoring bias”
• The difference between a job title and a professional title
• How to list skills you’re still learning by using the “enthusiast” tag
• Why you should deprioritize most soft skills in your skills list
• The "one-time" rule for qualifying your experience
• Prioritizing hard skills and industry terminology
• How to use a job description as a cheat sheet for your skills section

Listen in to help us, help you give yourself the best chance of landing your Next Job… NOW :)

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Talk about it. Or like so many people are like, I don't have any employees like reporting into me in this job. I did before we downsized, but now I don't. Well, guess what? You can talk about stuff you used to do in your job in a bullet point as well.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Right. Even if it's their current job, but they no longer have direct reports. You still have a bullet point from five years ago when you had direct reports. Yes. Just put it in past tense. It's that easy. Welcome to Next Job Now. The podcast where we help you get your next job right now.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Greg Langstaff. I'm a certified resume strategist. I've written over 2,000 resumes, and I love helping people get new jobs.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

And I'm Jeff, and I have a lot of questions about job searching. Together, we're going to talk about everything you need to know about landing your next role. Today we are talking about branding and skills. Specifically, how to brand ourselves on our resume and to determine what skills we should be including on our resume. To recap, you've explained this before on the podcast, but if you're a brand new listener and you're listening to this episode only, what do you mean by personal branding and why do you recommend it?

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Well, if you're brand new, welcome. Yeah. We are so glad to have you. What do I mean by personal branding? So, right now we are in a place where hundreds of people are applying to every job. Hiring managers, HR folks are forced to read hundreds of resumes for each application. And we are getting five to ten seconds to impress them, to get into the maybe pile, which is like our first goals from the big pile to the maybe pile.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

In that five to ten seconds, we want to brand ourselves so they can immediately see we are who they're looking for, we have the skills they need, and we're good at what we do.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

So when you're talking about branding, you're not talking about template design, colors, any of that specifically. It's more of how to frame yourself as a professional.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah, it's not like branding as a sports team. Think more like your your slogan and your key benefits as a as a person, as a worker. Your slogan? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Make that connection for me.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Okay. So right under our name, we're gonna use a couple of phrases to describe ourselves that I call our professional title. Right. This is not your job title, this is your professional title. You have full control over what you say there. And it's kind of like how a company might have a slogan, and we immediately know in those couple of phrases or one phrase what they're about. We're doing the same thing for ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Jeffrey Collins. Do do do do do. I'm enjoying him. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

No, but that not that.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

So how do I what's my what is a professional title? What are some examples? And how do I pick one?

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Okay, so you want to, it's like you want to pick a couple short phrases to describe ourselves. The first one that we'll always use is our core function and our level. So maybe I am a business development executive, I am a regional sales manager, I am a staff accountant. Like, what do you do and kind of what level are you at? Chief marketing officer. Like, could be that simple. And maybe it's your exact job title, or maybe it's just describing your function and level. And what's the intention? Like psychologically, what are you doing with that? Great question. When we give ourselves a very nice, impressive, and accurate professional title, the reader is then going to associate everything they read below with matching that initial description. This is the anchoring bias at work. Okay. Yes. Anchoring bias. Yeah, we want there the anchoring bias is a psychological effect whereby our first opinion of something shapes everything else we're going to think about it. So our professional title is our chance to control their anchoring bias in terms of their opinion of us. That's why it's so important.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

So if my professional title was customer service specialist.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

So then you're looking at that, and now you're reading every bullet point, confirming, yep, oh, that's that makes sense. Jeff's a customer service specialist. Here's an example, another example, versus kind of um the opposite effect. If you didn't have professional title, it would be reading, could be like, okay, what's this guy's story here? What's the connection? Like you're kind of creating that through point for them right away so they can anchor it.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Yeah, and then we get control. And in the in in the five seconds they have where they're first judging our resume, if they're thinking, I know I'm hiring for a customer service lead role, I see this person as a customer service specialist, that's all I needed. They're in the maybe pile. And they we are gonna take a closer look and probably put them in the yes pile. And this has nothing to do with ATS. This is these titles are created for the reader? These are created for the reader. It doesn't hurt your ATS score if that's one of the words they were looking for.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Oh, so it could be like a keyword too. Yeah, it could be a keyword. Would you update based on the job that you're applying to, or do you always have the same professional title?

SPEAKER_00 5:44

No, I would update. I would update if we're applying to completely different roles. Like if you're applying to like the global manager of uh of digital marketing at one company and you're applying for like a digital marketing uh head at another company, like one title's gonna be fine if you're saying like global uh digital marketing executive or something. Like that's gonna work for both. You don't have to perfectly keyword match, okay. Uh especially for this.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

So the branding is kind of like the whole thing, right? So you can't just have your professional title and your key skills, and then your bullet points always stay the same. There's a bit of making sure your whole resume is aligned and branded, whatever you're trying to do, whatever job you're looking for. Yeah. Am I understanding that right?

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Uh yes. Like when I do when I talk about professional branding, I'm talking about everything that is above your experience section. So I'm not necessarily talking about your experience, but what you're saying, which I agree with, is when we're tailoring our resume for a specific job, that's going to affect our branding very much. But we also need to take a look at our experience as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Okay. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Let's talk about uh creating the professional title. So you gave some examples. You walked us through a little bit of that format of remind us of that format again.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

So the first title is usually your core function and your level. Core function, level. And then after that, we're just gonna mention like either an industry that we're an expert in or maybe a couple of our other core skills.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Okay. So do you think you can do this on the spot?

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Confidence. I have some examples that I've made up, you know, my day-to-day. Let's create Jeff some professional titles. Okay. All right. Uh so if I told you that I respond to urgent customer complaints.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Uh customer service specialist.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Okay. I create complex process workflows to reduce time and drive revenue.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Uh process improvement leader.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

I love to organize hilarious office pranks.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

I would not mention that one.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

There's not a you can't frame that in a positive way, like uh creative director.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

No, no, creative director is a very specific and different job. So don't use that. Uh I would say a relationship-oriented community builder.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Okay. Um I make sure 95 residents get their medication at the correct time every day.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

I mean, I would probably go to whatever your nursing credential is if you are, because that is typically something on the nurse's plate. So if you're like a certified registered nurse, like yeah. If it's medical or a credentialed thing, put your credential at the very beginning of your professional title.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Okay. Uh I'm learning how to build websites.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Oh, learning how to build. Enthusiast? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Talk to me about why enthusiasts. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Enthusiast is for when you love something and you are still learning to do it. It's great for students, it's great for people changing careers. And it's a nice way to say, I really want to do this and I'm not an expert at it yet.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Let's talk about skills.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

How do I determine if I'm qualified to list the skill? So this is a good bridge. When can I put, if I'm an enthusiast, when do I know I can now put that as a skill on my resume?

SPEAKER_00 9:26

So in your key skills section, like there aren't there aren't hard and fast rules. I wouldn't put anything in there that you're not prepared to talk about or do on your first day of work. So, like, if you've taken courses in something, you've practiced it. Let's say it's programming with C sharp, you've been practicing, you've never been paid to use C sharp before, but because of the courses and the projects you've done, you are comfortable with that, you could use that skill on the first day at work, put it in your skills section.

unknown 10:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

That feels like a nice baseline of determining am I qualified enough to put that on my resume?

SPEAKER_00 10:12

There's another rule. Oh. Another guideline. Talk to me. If you have done something in a job, even one time, you can put it in your skills section. Because you've Because you've done it.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

You've done it.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

And you can write a bullet point about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

When we're talking about the skills section, what are your prioritizing? Soft skills, hard skills, tools.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Yeah, hard hard skills. It so hard skills are like things you literally do in the job. Do you have an example? Could be proofreading, could be customer service, could be uh like inserting IVs into patients. Like the actual functional things are your top priorities. Okay. Then we have like uh technology and equipment, QuickBooks, uh industry terminology, also important, like pediatric respiratory support. Like that's that's like it just terminology within the industry. Um and then the last piece, like I would de-prioritize a lot of soft skills. Like in your skills list, we're not gonna talk about organization, attention to detail, like scheduling and stuff, unless like we're that's a core piece of our job. Um, the exception is like leadership-related soft skills. So, like managing managers, talent development, performance management. Those are again more like functions. Presentation? Or is it public skills? Speaking and presenting, yeah, that one's fine if that's an important part of the job we're looking at. The key is to prioritize the skills that go in our skills section based on the phrases they're using in the job postings that we're applying to.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Let's do a little activity. You're a big sports fan, so I've come up with a draft. Ooh, draft. The key skills, areas of expertise, draft. Wait, I don't know what that's all good. Yeah. Greg and I are going to each draft five skills for our job. I got my job that I'm applying to. Greg has his job that he's applying to. We do not know each other's jobs. We don't know what industry, we don't know what skills are required. 12 skills. We have a limit of 12 skills, and we are going to draft five each.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Should we write down our our like what our jobs are and reveal them after?

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Yes. Okay. You got yours? Yeah. All right. Here's a list of our draft. Rock, paper, scissors goes first.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Shoot. Oh shoot. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

All right, Greg, you got first draft. Okay, I'm gonna go with Agile Project Management.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

I will take people leadership.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Oh. Okay, I will select workflow optimization. Incident response. Hmm. Okay, I'm gonna go with quality assurance. Okay. Cloud management. Ooh. Strategic planning still on the board? Yeah. Give me strategic planning.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

I'm gonna go cybersecurity operations. Okay, I'll take data analysis. Alright, I think that's it. Okay. Do you want a graphic?

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Crime scene processing.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

That's awfully specific.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

I feel like all the ones I picked were very valuable for most people, but very especially valuable for this.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Okay, so you picked project management, data analysis, strategic planning, workflow optimization. I'm gonna guess that you are applying to some sort of sport leader analysis.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

I was way more vague than that. Oh. I picked the most common job. Oh, tech bro. Project manager.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Project manager.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Wow. Okay. I went specific. Oh. In my mind. What do you think I am? I don't know. You picked crime scene investigation. Crime scene, cloud management, instant response, cybersecurity operations, and people leadership.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

You are like a forensic cyber cop investigator detective.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

I am an X-Men hero. Get out of here! I'm gonna get that cloud management storm specifically. So I can really make sure that uh our weather system is approved.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

That's not the right type of cloud. That we didn't say I thought this was gonna be an educational game. Uh it was. These are great key skills to have on your resume. All the project managers out there, I came up with a good list. If you're an X-Men hero. Who doesn't want to be an X-Men hero? Then use Jeff's. No, they need other skills as well.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Do you have any other top skills? I got I got a whole list here. Accounting, ad management, ad campaigns. Um, we got audit and assurance, automotive repair, brand design, budget management, CAD design, clinical research operations, compliance management, financial analysis, fraud analysis, game development. Like some of these are hyper-specific, or what we talked about, like project management, agile project management, very broad. So you can really get in deep crime scene investigate.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Yeah. You want a good mix.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

A good mix.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Yeah. But like, I guess prioritize specific to your job. Wait, speaking of attention to detail, I don't think I answered your last question properly. I went on a rant and I don't think I answered the question. What was it again?

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Oh, was there any skills that you think every resume should have?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Yes. Um great point.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Thanks for circling back. What attention to detail? Attention to detail.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

I caught a mistake. Yeah. Um, like there's stuff that comes up a lot. Like people leadership, whenever you've done it, should be a key skill. Strategic planning, yes. Uh like data analysis and reporting, often very valuable. Budgeting, very valuable, project management for a lot of people. But there's nothing that goes in every single resume, obviously. Yeah. Yeah. But those are like ones I'm going to pretty constantly. Makes sense. And if you don't know what to put in, look at the job description. Just it all the words are right there in the job description.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Amazing. I think it's time for the unusual interview. This segment is where we ask each other questions that we hope you never get asked in an interview. Speaking of skills, Greg, what was the very first skill you developed?

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Um fitting my fist in my mouth. That straight out that that was it? Yeah, and I sadly can't do it anymore. Would you say that that's a skill? Yeah. That's just body proportions. No, no. A baby. I was a child, a young uh yeah, a toddler perhaps, and I was very impressed, and I remember getting some great reactions.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Oh, so it's like I at the end of the day, performance then, because you were doing it for the show. I was certainly bragging about it a lot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Fist in mouth.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Yeah, I remember like it was-I'm really good at putting my foot in my mouth. With your hip flexibility, I assume that's an analogy. Yeah, not physical. No. Um, yeah. I've what the day my sister was born, I the I have two memories. One is like being told she was born, and the other was telling everyone. Telling everyone I could put my full fist in my mouth at like three years old. Hey, baby sis, look what I can do. It's the first thing she knew about me. Yeah, welcome to this world. All right, Jeff. Um it's 1152 a.m. Love it. What are you feeling for lunch? Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

I always love either a burger or a burrito.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

All right. Well, we have both of those options very close by.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

All right. If you can tell, I'm thinking food right now.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

I'm getting hungry. All right. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Next Job Now. If you enjoyed it, please like, subscribe, send to a friend who's looking for a job. We really enjoy making these. We would appreciate a rating. Give us five out of five if you are loving these.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yes. And if you're not loving these, why are you watching to the end? Find something that brings you joy.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Yeah. Don't forget to grab some free resources off of Greg's website, greglangstaff.com, and join us next time where we're gonna break down complex work history and how to list that on your resume.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Mmm, that'll be a very good one.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

I think I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Take care.