From Invisible to Irresistible: Standing Out in Today’s Job Market
an interview with Haley McNeel Drake
In this edition of The AHA! Moment, I’m joined by Haley McNeel Drake, a former recruiter turned resume writer and job search coach. After over 11 years of agency recruiting, Haley founded The Career Revisory — a lifeline and resource for your job search. Her goal is to equip clients with the tools and confidence they need to land their next great opportunity.
Haley helps clients create standout resumes that land interviews, interview preparation coaching, LinkedIn profile optimization, and corporate outplacement partnerships.
If you are looking for some extra support with your job search, resume, or LinkedIn profile, be sure to connect with Haley on LinkedIn or reach out via email Haley@CareerRevisory.com!
We’re unpacking why job seekers are getting overwhelmed (and ghosted), the most common mistakes on resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and cover letters, how to actually stand out to recruiters and hiring managers, and her take on what’s coming next in the world of job hunting. Be sure to listen to the latest episode of The AHA! Moment Podcast now for the full conversation!
What’s your current take on today’s job market? Are some industries more competitive than others?
We're still in correction mode. Post-COVID, there was that huge surge where it was easy to get a job; it was more candidate-driven market. During that time, there was a lot of over hiring, which you'll see a lot in the tech space, to speak on specific industries. I think that also a lot of people did potentially just take a job to make ends meet. Now you have these people who are not fully content in their job and also people who are being laid off because there's such a slew of the layoffs happening right now with all the economic and political uncertainty.
That's the biggest thing right now, is cutting through the noise. In terms of specific, I think tech is probably one of the ones that's just known to being hit really hard. Especially in product management or customer success, it's a really tough area to get into right now. But it's also difficult because there are less jobs actually available.
I hate to say it because it's almost the bearer of bad news, but right now is not really the job market to make a pivot in. I'm not saying it's impossible, but if your back's against the wall, I would say lean on your strengths and what's going to help you get to the next level.
It's okay to take an interim job when the job market is this difficult — I speak particularly to someone who might be facing unemployment right now. I know how discouraging it is. I'm such a big fan of contract work too, to fill in the gaps, which is a great way to just even expand your skillset or your industry.
There's also ways to really cut through the noise and just be clear in what you want too.
How do you stand out to employers and land the career you’re looking for?
I think that messaging the hiring manager, although you hear that recommendation a lot, it's still so underutilized. I really feel like any sort of outreach and human touch to your application process is the way to go right now in this market. Personally, I'm also trying to my clients into more of that networking aspect.
I feel like networking is such a cringey and no one wants to hear about it anymore. One of the things I've been doing with a lot of clients is saying, let's download all your LinkedIn connections. You can download a full spreadsheet of all the people you're connected with. I like it as almost a backdoor way of job searching of, let's see where you have the connections and let's go look at their career pages. Who can I ask for that intro?
There's also this huge aspect of companies want to hire through referrals. they literally will pay their employees a referral bonus. So keep in mind that it's not just an empty ask in most cases.
I'm seeing more and more on LinkedIn too right now of people posting jobs. Like just posting, hey, I have this opening, who in your network comes to mind? Questions like that. I think just being active on that end, following people that are top of mind and voices in your field is going to be a great way to see what conversations are happening. Who's hiring, and then also in the comment section of different posts is where you're going see a lot of great information.
One other final thing I like to do and recommend is following companies that you want work for. There's also the I'm interested button that LinkedIn rolled out, I don't even know how long ago but, you can highlight a company that you're interested in. So if anyone internally at that company, if it's an internal recruiter for example, they can see that you're interested.
Where you see the future of job hunting and career growth going?
Obviously AI AI is going to play a role in it. But one thing that I really harp on a lot is that humans are still reviewing your resume and humans are the ones making the match. Humans are the ones who are gonna be interviewing, even if they have those awkward robotic, ‘answer these questions in front of a camera’ first steps.
So I do feel confident that humanization is still going be a part of the hiring process. Honestly it just can't not be, you know what I mean? It can't be eliminated. I do feel like, and especially for the entry level candidates out there right now, it's really hard because if you think about it, entry level roles are going to be very focused on the support capacity to really learn a craft.
So AI is unfortunately taking over some of that grunt work. In reality, that's such a great learning experience for recent grads and early career professionals. So it's an unfortunate side effect but I think that it's going to help streamline a lot of things, which is a good thing, the backend wise.
Also, if you're having a bad kid experience with the hiring, it's such a clear indicator of what the employee experience is. So read between the lines, and again, that's back to the due diligence of making sure you're interviewing these companies that you're applying for and interviewing with just as much as they're interviewing you. I think that there can be a lot read between the lines of how they are going to treat you.
You want to work for good companies. You don't wanna work for companies that are trying to cut corners with X, Y, Z strategies.
Where can people find you and your resources?
Free Resume Template & Storefront
Cheers,
Angelina