📺 Develpreneur YouTube Episode

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Personal Branding and Resumes: Building Your Professional Story

2024-11-21 •Youtube

Detailed Notes

In Season 23, Episode 11 of the Building Better Developers podcast, Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche dive into a critical career-building topic: personal branding and resumes. This episode focuses on cultivating habits that help you stand out professionally, ensuring your unique skills and experiences consistently shine through.

*Read More*... https://develpreneur.com/personal-branding-and-resumes-building-your-professional-story/

*Episode Challenge:* Start Small, Build Momentum

To close the episode, Rob presents a challenge: spend five minutes a day for the next week documenting what you accomplished. At the end of the week, summarize your key achievements in one paragraph. This exercise not only helps you build a habit but also lays the foundation for a more robust and authentic personal brand.

*Additional Resources*

* Listing Education On Your Resume and Personal Branding (https://develpreneur.com/listing-education-on-your-resume-and-personal-branding/) * Your Personal Portfolio – Work and References On Your Branding Site (https://develpreneur.com/your-personal-portfolio-work-and-references-on-your-branding-site/) * Your Personal Branding Website – Advertise Yourself On The Web (https://develpreneur.com/your-personal-branding-website-advertise-yourself-on-the-web/) * Protecting Your Brand and Avoiding Legal Trouble (https://develpreneur.com/protecting-your-brand-and-avoiding-legal-trouble/)

*Stay Connected: Join the Develpreneur Community:*

We invite you to join our community and share your coding journey with us. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting, there’s always room to learn and grow together. Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, feedback, or suggestions for future episodes. Together, let’s continue exploring the exciting world of software development.

* https://develpreneur.com/ * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZOuFN_LhczvGyT2KSItH_g/featured * https://facebook.com/Develpreneur * https://twitter.com/develpreneur * http://linkedin.com/develpreneur

Transcript Text
[Music]
oh and we're back so this one thinking a
uh this something that we' Su one of us
suggested I can't remember what um while
back I was think can get
into um I've got it listed as as your
resume like updating your resume and
keeping that up to date and things like
that but it's also
like uh personal brand and and things
like that is it I think it's getting
into that it's a little bit marketing is
but it's also one of those that I think
we I think that's a great area for
habits and things like that
thoughts so you kind to me that's kind
of two things
so personal branding
resume
um like how do you present yourself
for I I guess that's the thing are you
presenting yourself for hire or are you
presenting yourself to promote your
Consulting your business things of that
nature because to me that's two
different things oh no that's one and
the same to me it's like your resume is
is who is your personal brand it's who
you are it's what you bring to the table
now it may be that your resume is
directly tied like in for example in
your case and sometimes in my case that
our resume is very much tied to our
business or side you know getting
Consulting work but it's the same thing
it's like it may not
be it may not be as much a physical
resume or like I said a physical digital
resume but um more along the lines of
this is who I am and this is what I
bring to the table so it be it could be
your the brand is your resume it is like
this is this is what people expect it's
making sure that it's it's not just you
know resume is like here's what I've
done but a lot of it too if it's done
right is like this is what I bring to
the table this is how I'm going to
address this is how I'm going to problem
solve or this is how I'm go what I'm
going to do to help you if you hire me
as a employee or consultant or whatever
it happens to
be okay so it's kind of along the lines
of exping to others what you can bring
to the table Yeah in the great I mean in
the in the the lay sense I guess yeah
that's sort of like that's your to me
that's what your brand is it's like what
do you expect what are you getting when
you get
me yeah because one of the biggest
problems I have especially explaining in
Vision QA to non-technical people is
what is it that I do what do I bring to
the table and one guy uh one of my
friends has actually asks me almost all
the time what is it that you do
and it changes from week to week because
there's so many different problems we
solve that he still really doesn't
understand software development he
doesn't understand what it is that I do
well and I think that's part that's why
I look at it as a resume is I think it
helps us and I tell this to the the guys
that are the junior guys I work with all
the time when I talk to them about
updating a resume is it's like keep up
with what you like it's it's very useful
and this goes with like a work blog or a
blog or things like that it's like it's
very useful to talk about the stories
that you have been involved in the
problems that you've solved and what
that for lack of a better term what that
Journey was like and so as we go through
that is our resume it's things like I
worked at McDonald's and we you know
while I was at
McDonald's people had a problem that
they were hungry and I had the problem
that they needed to pay the company for
us to feed them and so I worked at a you
know cash register now that's a lot more
wordy way than just saying I was a cash
register you know I worked at McDonald's
for five bucks an hour or whatever it
happened to be but that's what we need
to do is we need to actually build those
stories into our resume and I think when
we do that that builds our uh
effectively our elevator pitch resume as
well because then we can go we sort of
cherry-pick those things or look at them
at a whole and say what is it that I
really do what is it that I bring to T
what is this you know I've got these 18
projects that I did what is the
commonality across those or maybe even
the trend what is the TR trory that I
have is I grew from these little
projects I've gone through it what is it
I do where am I going kind of
stuff okay that makes more sense then it
just yeah it to me when I hear that I
kind my mind goes a couple different
ways that's why I wanted to kind of
narrow down where we were going to take
this and my mind also sometimes does so
we'll see how this goes it's G to be one
of those where it's like I start off in
One Direction and I had a great plan and
then I end up like
you know left turn and I'm an
Albuquerque or something like that so
we'll give it a shot and we'll see how
this goes because I think there is it is
another one there's a couple levels of
this so it could be something we come
back to it uh more
specifically so we'll give it oh yeah
I'll give you a little three well hello
and welcome back we are continuing our
season of building better habits we are
building better developers the
developing podcast I am Rob Broadhead
one of the founders of developing and
also a founder of RB cons Consulting
where we do uh I think they call it's
referred to as like Boutique Consulting
basically what we do we sit down with
you assuming you own a business or
running a business or a department sit
down with you understand where you're at
what are your needs what is your what is
your current situation what technology
do you have you have a whole bunch of
crap or do you have like one thing and
you're trying to figure out how to use
it are you trying to figure out new
things that are out there all of that
comes together and we use simplification
automation integration and even some
sometimes we'll do things like rfps and
walk you through that process to find a
way to get you right sized into the
technology or the technology right siiz
into what can serve you best based on
your budget your resources your Market
all of that good stuff so that you get a
suit that fits you instead of something
you just grabbed off the rack at Walmart
no offense to Walmart and Sams and all
those
people good thing bad things uh let's
see good thing let's I'll go with bad
things first just cuz yesterday was a
good good day bad day kind of thing is
my bad day was I was in meetings just
back to back to back to back to back it
was just and people people were putting
stuff on my calendar like it's a it was
a Friday and they were putting stuff on
my calendar for late in the afternoon
and the funny thing is is they were in a
different time zone so it was even later
for them these are like late late
meetings and they're being put on like
they get on the calendar on a Friday at
lunchtime what's sort of good aside good
is that people showed up because a lot
of times you do that crickets you're
you're GNA have nobody show up for your
meeting so it was an exhausting day of
meetings where I didn't have a lot of
breaks or stuff like that the good thing
is once I got to the end of the day I
got to have one of those little things
we went to this Charity Auction thing
and I don't want to get too far into it
but it's basically short of it uh you
can look them up Trinity hope uh they do
they work with Haiti and they build CL
schools there and stuff like that so
it's one of those it's like a good bad
in itself because it's very sad that
people have to do go through the their
lives are what they are but it's also
good that we can very easily one of
those you know for 5 cents a day you can
help a child eat things like for very
little on our part we can help people
out the really good thing about it is
just having time
to like not think about work and not
think about our life and think about
some other people for a while and and do
a little bit of you know socializing and
things like that just allows you to just
literally to unplug and so it was really
it was a good way to end a long day and
actually a long week on the
challenges um one of the things that we
we talked about was U you know taking
some breaks and making sure that you
don't get like two heads down now
granted now Michael mentioned a prior
one that the pomodoros help that a lot
because they they not almost they pretty
much force you to at least stop and a
lot of times it's when you're done with
that you whether it's 25 or 40 or
whatever minutes it is when you do that
break at least for me the first habit is
to like just you know turn off the
little alarm and then stand up or do
something um that like regular breaks
during the day I've also split up so in
the middle of my day instead of staying
at my desk working basically doing a
working lunch day after day after day is
I'll take 10 minutes basically and go
you know when I'm in an office I'll go
like walk around the building just go
outside and get some fresh air if I'm at
home I'll go like walk out on the back
deck or something like that and just
again get some fresh air even whether
it's cold or hot or whatever just like a
little change of pace so it's a great
habit that is helping me just stay sane
in in many ways forms and Fashions the
to-do list one I've grown this one again
just like I did the pomodoros and went
from one to two and haven't gone to
three yet we'll see how that
goes but the the list thing is I've
really really like refined my list
making in the last couple of weeks as I
went to the dailies but now I have much
more focused which is it's actually sort
of a return to my roots as I've gone
back to be much more focused when I put
together my week that I have for for
those of you a lot of you I think you
would relate very much to like the
effect of me creating a bunch of Jura
tickets that I'm going to go through
this week now this is where you can also
do with Trello or something like that
it's where I have literally a list of
items like these are the things that I
want to go through and sort of gotten
away with from that because I just had
too much stuff and too much change but
I've gone back to having that core list
of like here's some things I want to and
it really does help particularly as I
get into the second half of a week of
like oh crud I like really need to go
back and touch this thing or make some
progress on that thing just like I
needed to make some progress letting
Michael talk a little bit and introduce
himself so go ahead and introduce
yourself to the crowd there Mike hey
everyone my name is Mika MOS I'm one of
the co-founders of developer Nur
building better de building better
developers nether Le how to speak I'm
also the founder of Envision QA where we
help small to midsize business
businesses Elevate their software uh you
know we do software audits but
essentially we help companies unlock
their software's potential either be it
through comprehensive software uh
assessments quality assurance testing uh
reviewing software Stacks or even
helping you find the right software for
your business or build something custom
if we can't find something out there for
you good and bad for the week uh I'll
start with the bad uh similar to Rob had
some added to my schedule the problem
was with these meetings I had to
actually drive to them so there was
actually some uh downtime where I
couldn't get other work done because I
had to drive a vehicle downside of that
I was not able to batch any of that so I
actually lost some time and had to work
later in the days because I lost time
driving
around typically on a good day uh I flip
that around I did have a couple good
days where I was able to batch a lot of
things together so I did not lose time I
was able to use the Pomodoro Technique
and my task list to ensure that I had
things lined up to where I was able to
say focused on one particular thing and
do it in chunks to where I actually got
most of it done in a timely manner uh I
didn't have a lot of overrun so to kind
of reset that kind of off week with the
drive time I followed our to-do to you
know our task our goals to kind of stay
on track get things back where they need
to be and move the dial a little bit
further down the
road bad thing is I can't figure out how
to unmute my mic but now I did so this
this episode I this is sort of a one of
those that could actually get very very
big but I really want to talk it's
really about your resume or your
personal brand and in particular I think
I want to like focus in on the keeping
it up toate kind of of challenge that we
have
because if you look back uh like right
now look back at just you know take a
second look back at what have you done
in the last year now what you probably
first come up with is things that you've
done in the last week or the last
quarter maybe if you go back and and
look at your calendar from this month a
year ago and what you were doing what
are some of the Challen what were some
of the the meetings that you were in or
you know maybe you got like if you're
blog what were you blogging on or if
you've got status reports what were your
status reports like looking at those
you're probably going to be like oh wow
I'd forgotten i' done that or wow that
was like that was a whole year ago or
that was only a year ago you know things
like
that that can be uh they get lost
basically get lost in The Shuffle Now
when we you know we get to a point where
we're like frustrated where we work or
we get laid off or we're trying to like
launch a new business and do some side
hustle and get a new customer we get
into a mode then of like oh I've got to
update my resume whatever my resume
looks like I need to go you know whether
it's my resume whether it's my site
whether whatever it is I need to go and
make sure that what I'm presenting is
where I currently am because with the
building better developers that means
that you are a better developer today
than you were a year ago or two years
ago or however long it was that you last
got into this searching for work selling
myself mode that we have to do from time
to
time so one of the things that I think
help you is one weekly status or daily
status of some sort particularly weekly
status and a lot of people like I've
talked about people in the past that do
like journals and things like that that
just for themselves and it could be as
simple and actually as useful as a Blog
that you get to end of the week and you
can just nobody else has to read it but
I think you would find there would be
readers that if you just say hey this
week this is what I worked on and just
give a little brief thing of you while
you're still near enough to it to just
give a you know if somebody says hey
what was this like what was that
experience like this week give just a
brief paragraph of what that was like
you know it's like oh you worked on
solving this problem what was that like
well you this is what the problem was I
had this thing that I was asked to do
and so I wrote some code that did this
and I found out in doing that that it
was really easy to Loop through all this
data and then just sum some stuff up and
I got the solution or I thought it was
going going to be very easy but then I
found out that I needed to bring in
these three other pieces of data or
something like just really simple it
doesn't have to be you don't have to go
nuts with it the thing is is that if you
do that even weekly
basis the end of the year you got like a
book worth of of content probably which
could be a pain because you're like I'm
not going to put all that in a resume I
I don't need a resume that's 48 pages
long or I don't need a website that has
that much stuff but maybe you do from a
website point of view in particular if
you are in
uh if you're a consultant or if your
company is consulting or actually if you
want to have a which is I think
something that a lot of people are
starting to go to that's got a l value
is a an online resume of some sort which
could also be something we like called
LinkedIn or one of those kinds of places
where you have this this work
history you have the real estate to be
able to actually go Fairly deep into
some of those things and so I think it's
very valuable to take those particularly
a Blog is great because you can just say
hey I am Rob the developer and if you
would like to get a sense of what some
of the things I do are here's my blog
and you know you can title them by days
you can do whatever you want so it's
very easy for somebody to actually
literally look at a detailed resume of
what you do now are they going to do it
probably not but if you highlight it or
if you go back like say once a quarter
or even once you know every six months
twice a year go back take what you
looked what you did look at that and
summarize it and turn that you know
maybe you know pages and pages of
information turn it into like a little
you know half a page paragraph or you
know a half page couple paragraphs or
something like that something that is
very easy to for somebody to look at and
very quickly read particularly if you
have a couple you know like a title and
maybe like a you know what was the
problem how did I solve it doing those
in a sentence each something like that
and then have a little more detail that
kind of stuff is invaluable and it
allows you when you get into a point for
example let's say you're working at the
same company for 20 years and you get
laid off and now you have to build a
resume that is an almost insurmountable
task if you have to go back 20 years and
try to build that thing all the way up
but if you've been doing this along the
way it's going to allow you to have a
resume that you could put together
fairly quickly more importantly because
I think a lot of us when we talk about
personal brand and resume we think about
I'm leaving a job or getting a new job
if if you do this it's going to help you
when you have a review when you get to
the end of the year or the end of your
your review period it's going to help
you say this is what I did and help you
properly argue for if you need a raise
now if you look at what you did and all
you did was like I learned how to play
games better or something like that okay
you don't deserve a raise but if you
said hey I learned this new language I
solved this problem I did this major
thing for the company those are the
things that you want to be able to
highlight so that they say wow you bring
a lot of value to the table
we want to give you more money which I
think lots of people like to hear that
kind of a review but it really helps us
keep um keep really like a a sanity
check on ourselves but also reality
check it's like yes we are doing stuff
we're making progress and it helps us do
better as far as like you know get that
raise argue for a promotion or something
like that but also I think on the the
flip side of that is when we get
into tough times when we're in like a
death march or something like that we
can at least look back and say yes we
have made progress yes things are moving
forward so we don't feel like we're just
constantly running into a brick wall
just like now I think I've hit my brick
wall so I'm gonna like break through and
let Michael talk on the other side of
this thanks for Rob so not to get too
far out of the box because we could take
this many different directions one of
the biggest challenges you will have uh
over the years is like Rob say if you've
been working for a company for 20 years
you've got a lot of information you need
to unpack and put onto your resume or
update your blog or your website how
wherever you promote
yourself the trick comes in in those
early years too where you only have one
or two jobs or you just have college you
know what did you do in college you know
how do you beef up that resume to show
the skills that you have you know if
you're just out of college listing your
uh the classes you took isn't
necessarily the best way to to promote
yourself what you might want to do is
you might want to go through what were
some of the big projects I worked on
what are some of the accomplishments I
did in my classes you know did you write
like a Linux system did you write an
operating system did you build some
websites write some programs you know
you can highlight those projects and
build that out if you kind of take that
mindset as we go through our career any
little project you work on or challenge
you have that is a good little point to
hey write it down put it aside or put it
into your list of things that you have
done and when you come around to
building your resume or building that uh
online uh information about yourself to
sell yourself you can then kind of go
cherick this information to kind of put
on your resume or put on these forums to
kind of promote what it is that you're
looking
for one of the challenges I have
especially since I've been in Tech now
for well over 20 some years is what do I
put on my resume you know if I'm looking
to apply for a job if it's a management
job if it's a software engineering job
what is it that they are really looking
for that I am the person that they need
to hire the problem I have is you know
I've got over six pages of notes I've
taken over the years for the different
types of jobs different things I've done
and so you really don't want to hand
them a six-page resume they're not going
to read it they're only going to read
the first first page and even then
you're lucky if they read that they
might even read just the first job and
then call it done so what you need to do
is you need to highlight what it is that
they're looking for that you can bring
to the table you know what is it that
you bring that you are the right person
for the job it could be for a job it
could be for a Consulting business it
could be for whatever why is it that
they want you kind of like the old Uncle
Sam thing you know Uncle Sam wants you
for the military you know
if you flip that what is it that you
bring to the table and then what you
need to do is you need to highlight that
at the front now I find it interesting
that cover letters are coming back these
days with a lot of job resumés where in
the past I've noticed that those kind of
faded out over the years but they're
coming back because so many people are
can go on these online tools and apply
for jobs so they want to know why it is
that you want to work for a company so
if you looking for like an AI firm oh
hey we are looking for AI developers why
is it that you want that job why is it
that you want to build AI tools so you
kind of take what you have summarize it
in a paragraph or two as to what it is
that you've done why you are a good fit
for the company or for this particular
job and then provide your rme but make
sure you highlight the skills the tools
that you have used that apply to the
situation that you're looking at that
you're applying
for now if you're trying to be
generic by building blogs your blogs are
going to kind of be your tag so you're
going to tag your blogs and such way
that on your main page when you come in
it's like here are the things I've done
click this tag and here's going to be
the Articles related to what you've done
LinkedIn is a little bit harder because
you can still write blogs but they don't
have a great sorting way of like
highlighting oh this is for this skill
or this skill they do have a good way of
listing out your job details and things
of that nature but even then it's hard
to find what you're looking for if
you're an employer going to these sites
looking for people you need to stand out
so how are you going to stand out so
other things you want to do is not just
rely on the tools but stand up your own
site like Rob said write some blogs do
an online resume you know one of the fun
things is we've been doing developer
nerve for so long I can almost point to
Any Given blog or article I've written
and say hey I've done this or hey I can
do this or we've talked about this if
you don't have that start making a list
today and start recording yourself just
do something write it down record it and
then just stick it out there put
yourself out there so that you can start
building that virtual resume and people
make may just run across you and say hey
you look like a person that I might need
for this particular job so you may not
even be looking but they may find you so
these are some of the cool things you
can get out of this uh that might not
simply be what you're looking for from
the get-go but there's a lot of Pros
that come from doing things like
this I think I want to sort
of follow up from that last point I have
over the years had more than a couple of
times where I have ended up in a job or
had a customer that came out of a
discussion from a Blog article or
something like that where it was there
was something that I put out there that
they were searching or uh they asked you
know like like Michael says like
there'll be something in the job
description that I'll just point like
maybe as my cover letter say oh by the
way I just covered this topic you know
last month in a blog article or on uh a
mentoring class or something that we did
you know some presentation or something
like that now he may say that's great if
you've got you know 500 blog articles
and hundreds of of video podcasts or
podcast stuff that you've done or you
know 800 episodes of a podcast but you
know what there was a point when I had
zip zero nada I had none of that and I
started somewhere along the way and the
next thing you know I had one and so
when I had one they I hope that they
what they want is exactly what that one
topic was but then I had two and then I
had three and over time what you're
going to find more importantly
than being able to like check off the
boxes to you know when you submit a
resum or when you apply for a job you
when you write a proposal up for a job
more importantly that you have the check
boxes when they say have they you know
have they done this language have they
solve this problem blah blah blah what
you have is a way to connect to their
problem what you have is a way to start
a conversation what you have is a way
for them to relate back to you and more
importantly to all of this is for them
to see what you do how you do it how
often you do it get a feel for even if
you don't know it they can get a feel
for what are your strengths what are the
things that you enjoy doing and that
makes it so much more likely that you're
going to end up in a job that you
actually like that is actually something
where you go to work you're like this is
what was born to do because now you're
getting what everybody really should be
looking for is the resume matching the
job your position your skills your
experience your personality your the
culture that you want to work in matches
the job that you're in whether that's as
a contractor consultant whether it's
employee whatever it is is making sure
that your skills match their needs
because honestly if your skills don't
match their needs
then probably particularly if it's a
full-time job it's a thing that's making
up taking up most of your time you need
to move on because you want to find
something where you do fit more
comfortably it's just like a pair of
clothes if you've got shoes that are
comfortable you can walk all day if
you've got shoes that are not that
comfortable you can walk for an hour and
you're going to feel like you're
crippled now maybe I'm old and so I'm
overr dramatizing that but that has
happened to me so just watch out get
shoes that are
comfortable that being said let's talk
about the challenge for this
because it really does come from as
Michael said when you've got pages and
pages and pages of
stuff and then you're trying to sort
back through it or you've got like you
know years of calendar entries or status
reports you're trying to figure out it's
very difficult to do so what I'm going
to challenge you to do is start with
every day take five minutes maybe you
don't have to take very long just write
a little synopsis of what I did today do
that for seven days and then the bonus
basically at the end of the week because
we don't work five you know we work
usually 5 days a week on the sixth or
seventh day or both of them write a
summary of the week same thing it do
like you may now have you know four or
five paragraphs of stuff from the week
summarize that down to one paragraph
make it like if somebody said what was
cool that you did this week what is it
that like I'm going to buy you a drink
you know if you're old enough to buy a
drink or I guess a soda or whatever it
is if you can convince me that you like
you did work worthy of it this week
write that sentence write that paragraph
just do that once a week do that for a
while and then you know further down the
road it'll be things like then take
those and then combine those and turn
those into something you know that's
very digestible like a a paragraph
because if we do it while we're still in
it while it's still fresh it is so much
more valuable we're going to get the key
points and actually it's going to be
very tough as we get further along
because we're like wow 's this key thing
and that key thing and that key thing
and I really want to bring all those
together and either you're going to find
a way to abstract them or you're going
to say I need a Blog Page and I need to
just like throw this stuff out and have
like here's what I did but here's the
details that you really want to read
because they are
valuable just like if you send us an
email we're going to really want to read
it because it is very valuable because
this is why we're here is to share with
you and to get feedback and to figure
out what is it that we can do to make
you better what are the things that you
feel that you can improve that you can
some habits that you can build some
things that you realize these are things
that are like dogging me and slowing me
down or impacting my ability to progress
on my career road map or things like
that we want to help you out and if we
can't we want to throw that out to the
Greater Community and see if the
community can help you out because we
may not have those tools but we may be
able to find somebody that can so we can
bring all that stuff back to you you can
do it via email info@ developer.com you
can contact us on the developer.com site
we've got contact form there we've got
comment areas everywhere on all of our
blog articles likewise on YouTube on the
developer Nur channel uh also anywhere
that you get podcasts you can leave us
feedback there we love it however we get
it we consume that we use that to build
a better podcast as we move forward that
being said it is time for us to build a
better day and go out there you do the
same go out there and have yourself a
great day a great week and we will talk
to you next time bonus
material so we've given you guys a lot
of information to unpack especially
making list keeping track of the things
that you're doing or even compiling you
know online
blogs things of that nature the other
thing we've talked about in the past
that we didn't really touch on today is
also make sure that you've got those
GitHub repositories or bit bucket
repositories and that you start building
a code repository of the things that you
have done not only is that good for you
for referencing but it's also good to
present the work that you have done or
the work that you can do based on the
skills or the things that you have done
the other thing is if you have a long
laundry list of skills like I do uh AI
is a great
tool if you're looking to apply for a
specific job take your jobs uh your
resume or take your job history and your
skills plop that in a and say hey
summarize this based on this job role it
may not be perfect but it could give you
an idea of how to kind of squish that
down and get into a bite-sized chunk
that your employer or potential uh
customer would understand and be able to
consume based on their
needs that wow that one's worth that is
gold right there is take you can take a
huge amount of information and shove it
into like a you know any AI engine
basically and have it summarize it and
it is amazing the insights that you can
get from how it's going to summarize
that because sometimes you're going to
be like that is not at all what I
thought I was giving you in which case
change the wording is you need to make
some adjustments you need to do some
stuff to say well okay this is the story
that I want to tell and you realize that
maybe your experience the way you
labeled it doesn't actually point out
that experience doesn't give tell the
story that you want it to so that is
very
valuable the bonus I would the the thing
that I want to focus on
is yes we're technologist and it comes
down to like you know which quiver which
arrows do you have in your quiver what
language have you used what environment
you've involved with blah blah blah blah
blah but the reason I think that cover
letters are so valuable the reasons that
I think that it is more
about other than that checklist of the
the technologies that we've done it is
the problems we've solved and the story
about that it is and that is where like
technology tests and skill tests and
stuff like that really in a lot of cases
if they're done right that's what
they're trying to get it's not can you
to solve this problem in Java it is if
you have this problem how are you going
to approach solving it ideally it would
be an unsolvable problem basically it's
something there really is no solution to
but it's just trying to figure out do
you have the ability to see a problem
and then craft a solution even if you
craft a solution and realize it's not
going to work and then have to craft
another solution and another solution
and another solution because that's
probably what they want is like how fast
can you get from a problem to I'm
working on a solving it and then if that
doesn't work how do I make it fit the
problem particularly if the problem
starts to change or something like that
which we do see so think about it more
as telling a story as opposed to I did
this so it's like instead of and this is
one of the things I think is we get said
here's a bonus for the h overall instead
of as you're building a better developer
in yourself instead of being I was a
Java developer and now I'm a Java and C
developer and now I'm a Java and a c and
a ruby and a python and a database
developer flip it from the technology so
instead of I can h a hammer really well
and I can drive Nails change that to I
can build a house I can I can repair a
wall or something like that this is and
obviously that's different I changed you
know analogies there a little bit but
from the coding Point like what are
problems you can solve so it's things
like I can build a website for a
business to do e-commerce I can build a
website that allows somebody to display
their product Library Online I
can take a pile a pool of data and help
somebody turn that into uh Trend
analysis or things like that I can help
them to figure out where there are gaps
how they can improve their processes
there's all these things are all valid
potential Solutions and stories that we
have so find out your story and find the
best way to tell that my story and I'm
sticking with it is that we are out of
time and so we're going to wrap this one
up as always feedback is very much
welcome I want to thank you once again
you guys are all guys and gals and
whatever you want to call yourselves you
the community are
incredibly appreciated we love you guys
hanging out there listening to us we
know recognize and uh you know respect
the time the offering that you give us
of your time to listen to us to watch us
to do these things and so thank you
again for for what you contributed to us
uh along those lines be looking forward
to we've got some uh holiday specials
coming up very soon Thanksgiving and
Christmas in particular and the New
Year's we're going to have a couple
little like you know side trips off of
this but those are always fun for us to
do and hopefully it'll be very you know
informative as well for you guys to get
something a little different from this
this uh Journey that we're on and all of
these
challenges as always go out there have
yourself a great day a good time we will
talk to you next time around
[Music]
Transcript Segments
1.35

[Music]

27.359

oh and we're back so this one thinking a

32.52

uh this something that we' Su one of us

34.239

suggested I can't remember what um while

36.76

back I was think can get

38.52

into um I've got it listed as as your

42.039

resume like updating your resume and

43.879

keeping that up to date and things like

45.16

that but it's also

46.64

like uh personal brand and and things

49.84

like that is it I think it's getting

51.32

into that it's a little bit marketing is

53.559

but it's also one of those that I think

55.359

we I think that's a great area for

57.76

habits and things like that

61.32

thoughts so you kind to me that's kind

63.879

of two things

65.6

so personal branding

68.72

resume

71.36

um like how do you present yourself

74.6

for I I guess that's the thing are you

76.96

presenting yourself for hire or are you

79.119

presenting yourself to promote your

83.52

Consulting your business things of that

85.28

nature because to me that's two

86.92

different things oh no that's one and

88.479

the same to me it's like your resume is

89.92

is who is your personal brand it's who

91.479

you are it's what you bring to the table

93.04

now it may be that your resume is

94.88

directly tied like in for example in

97.28

your case and sometimes in my case that

99.439

our resume is very much tied to our

101.119

business or side you know getting

102.6

Consulting work but it's the same thing

104.52

it's like it may not

106.84

be it may not be as much a physical

109.92

resume or like I said a physical digital

112.36

resume but um more along the lines of

117.2

this is who I am and this is what I

118.68

bring to the table so it be it could be

121

your the brand is your resume it is like

123.92

this is this is what people expect it's

126.119

making sure that it's it's not just you

128.2

know resume is like here's what I've

129.56

done but a lot of it too if it's done

131.599

right is like this is what I bring to

133.08

the table this is how I'm going to

134.68

address this is how I'm going to problem

136.4

solve or this is how I'm go what I'm

137.84

going to do to help you if you hire me

140.8

as a employee or consultant or whatever

142.8

it happens to

144.319

be okay so it's kind of along the lines

148.84

of exping to others what you can bring

151.92

to the table Yeah in the great I mean in

154.76

the in the the lay sense I guess yeah

158.12

that's sort of like that's your to me

159.319

that's what your brand is it's like what

160.519

do you expect what are you getting when

162.08

you get

163.8

me yeah because one of the biggest

166.08

problems I have especially explaining in

168

Vision QA to non-technical people is

170.319

what is it that I do what do I bring to

172.599

the table and one guy uh one of my

175.76

friends has actually asks me almost all

178

the time what is it that you do

180.36

and it changes from week to week because

182.12

there's so many different problems we

184

solve that he still really doesn't

187.64

understand software development he

188.68

doesn't understand what it is that I do

191.959

well and I think that's part that's why

193

I look at it as a resume is I think it

194.64

helps us and I tell this to the the guys

197.159

that are the junior guys I work with all

199.68

the time when I talk to them about

200.76

updating a resume is it's like keep up

203.44

with what you like it's it's very useful

205.76

and this goes with like a work blog or a

207.319

blog or things like that it's like it's

208.56

very useful to talk about the stories

210.92

that you have been involved in the

213.28

problems that you've solved and what

215.68

that for lack of a better term what that

218

Journey was like and so as we go through

220.319

that is our resume it's things like I

221.959

worked at McDonald's and we you know

225.159

while I was at

226.28

McDonald's people had a problem that

228.12

they were hungry and I had the problem

229.959

that they needed to pay the company for

231.319

us to feed them and so I worked at a you

233.599

know cash register now that's a lot more

236.2

wordy way than just saying I was a cash

238.239

register you know I worked at McDonald's

239.84

for five bucks an hour or whatever it

241.079

happened to be but that's what we need

243.76

to do is we need to actually build those

245.72

stories into our resume and I think when

247.28

we do that that builds our uh

250.68

effectively our elevator pitch resume as

253.439

well because then we can go we sort of

255.079

cherry-pick those things or look at them

256.799

at a whole and say what is it that I

259.44

really do what is it that I bring to T

261.759

what is this you know I've got these 18

263.919

projects that I did what is the

266

commonality across those or maybe even

268.6

the trend what is the TR trory that I

270.36

have is I grew from these little

272.4

projects I've gone through it what is it

274.039

I do where am I going kind of

277.639

stuff okay that makes more sense then it

281.28

just yeah it to me when I hear that I

284.24

kind my mind goes a couple different

285.6

ways that's why I wanted to kind of

286.8

narrow down where we were going to take

288.84

this and my mind also sometimes does so

291.32

we'll see how this goes it's G to be one

293

of those where it's like I start off in

295.6

One Direction and I had a great plan and

298

then I end up like

300.16

you know left turn and I'm an

301.32

Albuquerque or something like that so

303.88

we'll give it a shot and we'll see how

305

this goes because I think there is it is

306.68

another one there's a couple levels of

308

this so it could be something we come

309.24

back to it uh more

311.96

specifically so we'll give it oh yeah

313.919

I'll give you a little three well hello

316.72

and welcome back we are continuing our

319.72

season of building better habits we are

321.96

building better developers the

323.28

developing podcast I am Rob Broadhead

326.039

one of the founders of developing and

328.4

also a founder of RB cons Consulting

330.12

where we do uh I think they call it's

332.6

referred to as like Boutique Consulting

334.84

basically what we do we sit down with

337.479

you assuming you own a business or

339.52

running a business or a department sit

341.72

down with you understand where you're at

343.6

what are your needs what is your what is

345.72

your current situation what technology

347.36

do you have you have a whole bunch of

348.88

crap or do you have like one thing and

350.16

you're trying to figure out how to use

351.12

it are you trying to figure out new

353.16

things that are out there all of that

355.16

comes together and we use simplification

357.4

automation integration and even some

359.759

sometimes we'll do things like rfps and

361.4

walk you through that process to find a

363.36

way to get you right sized into the

366.56

technology or the technology right siiz

368.479

into what can serve you best based on

370.88

your budget your resources your Market

373.36

all of that good stuff so that you get a

375.919

suit that fits you instead of something

377.88

you just grabbed off the rack at Walmart

379.8

no offense to Walmart and Sams and all

381.84

those

382.96

people good thing bad things uh let's

386.199

see good thing let's I'll go with bad

388

things first just cuz yesterday was a

390.08

good good day bad day kind of thing is

391.96

my bad day was I was in meetings just

394.24

back to back to back to back to back it

395.96

was just and people people were putting

398.56

stuff on my calendar like it's a it was

401.919

a Friday and they were putting stuff on

404.24

my calendar for late in the afternoon

406.759

and the funny thing is is they were in a

408.44

different time zone so it was even later

410.28

for them these are like late late

412.479

meetings and they're being put on like

414.4

they get on the calendar on a Friday at

418.16

lunchtime what's sort of good aside good

421.08

is that people showed up because a lot

422.52

of times you do that crickets you're

424.68

you're GNA have nobody show up for your

426

meeting so it was an exhausting day of

428.72

meetings where I didn't have a lot of

429.919

breaks or stuff like that the good thing

432.039

is once I got to the end of the day I

434.56

got to have one of those little things

435.759

we went to this Charity Auction thing

439.12

and I don't want to get too far into it

440.28

but it's basically short of it uh you

442.12

can look them up Trinity hope uh they do

445.479

they work with Haiti and they build CL

447

schools there and stuff like that so

448.16

it's one of those it's like a good bad

449.599

in itself because it's very sad that

450.919

people have to do go through the their

453.16

lives are what they are but it's also

454.879

good that we can very easily one of

457.479

those you know for 5 cents a day you can

459.28

help a child eat things like for very

461.52

little on our part we can help people

463.12

out the really good thing about it is

465.28

just having time

467.36

to like not think about work and not

470.08

think about our life and think about

471.36

some other people for a while and and do

473.12

a little bit of you know socializing and

474.84

things like that just allows you to just

477.84

literally to unplug and so it was really

480.4

it was a good way to end a long day and

482.919

actually a long week on the

486.12

challenges um one of the things that we

488.639

we talked about was U you know taking

490.52

some breaks and making sure that you

492.159

don't get like two heads down now

494.28

granted now Michael mentioned a prior

496.36

one that the pomodoros help that a lot

498

because they they not almost they pretty

500.08

much force you to at least stop and a

502.4

lot of times it's when you're done with

503.96

that you whether it's 25 or 40 or

506.12

whatever minutes it is when you do that

508.08

break at least for me the first habit is

510.479

to like just you know turn off the

512.8

little alarm and then stand up or do

515.32

something um that like regular breaks

518.8

during the day I've also split up so in

521.24

the middle of my day instead of staying

522.959

at my desk working basically doing a

524.56

working lunch day after day after day is

526.64

I'll take 10 minutes basically and go

530.279

you know when I'm in an office I'll go

531.959

like walk around the building just go

533.88

outside and get some fresh air if I'm at

536.08

home I'll go like walk out on the back

537.959

deck or something like that and just

539.2

again get some fresh air even whether

541.48

it's cold or hot or whatever just like a

543.48

little change of pace so it's a great

545.32

habit that is helping me just stay sane

549.04

in in many ways forms and Fashions the

551.88

to-do list one I've grown this one again

554.12

just like I did the pomodoros and went

555.44

from one to two and haven't gone to

557.12

three yet we'll see how that

558.6

goes but the the list thing is I've

562.72

really really like refined my list

565.64

making in the last couple of weeks as I

567.519

went to the dailies but now I have much

569.48

more focused which is it's actually sort

572.16

of a return to my roots as I've gone

573.8

back to be much more focused when I put

575.36

together my week that I have for for

578

those of you a lot of you I think you

579.44

would relate very much to like the

580.839

effect of me creating a bunch of Jura

582.8

tickets that I'm going to go through

584.279

this week now this is where you can also

586.32

do with Trello or something like that

587.399

it's where I have literally a list of

589.44

items like these are the things that I

590.8

want to go through and sort of gotten

592.48

away with from that because I just had

594.24

too much stuff and too much change but

596.839

I've gone back to having that core list

598.12

of like here's some things I want to and

599.839

it really does help particularly as I

602.04

get into the second half of a week of

603.68

like oh crud I like really need to go

605.64

back and touch this thing or make some

607.839

progress on that thing just like I

610.16

needed to make some progress letting

611.64

Michael talk a little bit and introduce

613.519

himself so go ahead and introduce

614.56

yourself to the crowd there Mike hey

617.16

everyone my name is Mika MOS I'm one of

619

the co-founders of developer Nur

620.68

building better de building better

622.64

developers nether Le how to speak I'm

624.959

also the founder of Envision QA where we

627.6

help small to midsize business

629.32

businesses Elevate their software uh you

632.279

know we do software audits but

634.24

essentially we help companies unlock

636

their software's potential either be it

638.079

through comprehensive software uh

639.76

assessments quality assurance testing uh

643.399

reviewing software Stacks or even

646.04

helping you find the right software for

648.12

your business or build something custom

650.16

if we can't find something out there for

652.279

you good and bad for the week uh I'll

655.2

start with the bad uh similar to Rob had

658.92

some added to my schedule the problem

662.04

was with these meetings I had to

664.399

actually drive to them so there was

666.639

actually some uh downtime where I

669.12

couldn't get other work done because I

671.04

had to drive a vehicle downside of that

673.639

I was not able to batch any of that so I

676.639

actually lost some time and had to work

679.68

later in the days because I lost time

682.68

driving

684.2

around typically on a good day uh I flip

688.519

that around I did have a couple good

690.12

days where I was able to batch a lot of

691.639

things together so I did not lose time I

694.04

was able to use the Pomodoro Technique

696.24

and my task list to ensure that I had

698.6

things lined up to where I was able to

700.6

say focused on one particular thing and

703.56

do it in chunks to where I actually got

705.48

most of it done in a timely manner uh I

708.24

didn't have a lot of overrun so to kind

710.519

of reset that kind of off week with the

712.839

drive time I followed our to-do to you

716.24

know our task our goals to kind of stay

718.68

on track get things back where they need

720.839

to be and move the dial a little bit

723.04

further down the

726.76

road bad thing is I can't figure out how

728.92

to unmute my mic but now I did so this

732.44

this episode I this is sort of a one of

734.88

those that could actually get very very

736.199

big but I really want to talk it's

737.959

really about your resume or your

739.76

personal brand and in particular I think

743.04

I want to like focus in on the keeping

746

it up toate kind of of challenge that we

748.92

have

749.76

because if you look back uh like right

752.519

now look back at just you know take a

754.8

second look back at what have you done

756.56

in the last year now what you probably

759.76

first come up with is things that you've

761.32

done in the last week or the last

762.88

quarter maybe if you go back and and

765.959

look at your calendar from this month a

769.6

year ago and what you were doing what

771.959

are some of the Challen what were some

773.24

of the the meetings that you were in or

776

you know maybe you got like if you're

777.04

blog what were you blogging on or if

778.6

you've got status reports what were your

780.079

status reports like looking at those

782.72

you're probably going to be like oh wow

785.199

I'd forgotten i' done that or wow that

787.48

was like that was a whole year ago or

789.639

that was only a year ago you know things

791.32

like

792.16

that that can be uh they get lost

795.839

basically get lost in The Shuffle Now

798.24

when we you know we get to a point where

800.32

we're like frustrated where we work or

801.959

we get laid off or we're trying to like

803.839

launch a new business and do some side

805.519

hustle and get a new customer we get

807.32

into a mode then of like oh I've got to

810.279

update my resume whatever my resume

812.32

looks like I need to go you know whether

814.56

it's my resume whether it's my site

816.44

whether whatever it is I need to go and

819.279

make sure that what I'm presenting is

821.079

where I currently am because with the

823.399

building better developers that means

825.079

that you are a better developer today

827.079

than you were a year ago or two years

829.04

ago or however long it was that you last

831.32

got into this searching for work selling

833.8

myself mode that we have to do from time

835.92

to

836.759

time so one of the things that I think

839.32

help you is one weekly status or daily

843.519

status of some sort particularly weekly

845.6

status and a lot of people like I've

847.519

talked about people in the past that do

849.04

like journals and things like that that

851.68

just for themselves and it could be as

853.68

simple and actually as useful as a Blog

856.04

that you get to end of the week and you

857.36

can just nobody else has to read it but

859.88

I think you would find there would be

861.079

readers that if you just say hey this

863.44

week this is what I worked on and just

865.279

give a little brief thing of you while

868.72

you're still near enough to it to just

872.24

give a you know if somebody says hey

874.88

what was this like what was that

876.199

experience like this week give just a

878.44

brief paragraph of what that was like

881.199

you know it's like oh you worked on

883.68

solving this problem what was that like

885.56

well you this is what the problem was I

887.839

had this thing that I was asked to do

889.639

and so I wrote some code that did this

891.32

and I found out in doing that that it

893.44

was really easy to Loop through all this

895

data and then just sum some stuff up and

897

I got the solution or I thought it was

898.88

going going to be very easy but then I

900.12

found out that I needed to bring in

901.639

these three other pieces of data or

903.079

something like just really simple it

904.839

doesn't have to be you don't have to go

906.48

nuts with it the thing is is that if you

909.04

do that even weekly

910.88

basis the end of the year you got like a

913.079

book worth of of content probably which

916.04

could be a pain because you're like I'm

918.12

not going to put all that in a resume I

919.56

I don't need a resume that's 48 pages

921.24

long or I don't need a website that has

923.36

that much stuff but maybe you do from a

925.92

website point of view in particular if

927.959

you are in

929.6

uh if you're a consultant or if your

931.279

company is consulting or actually if you

934

want to have a which is I think

935.8

something that a lot of people are

937.199

starting to go to that's got a l value

938.88

is a an online resume of some sort which

941.759

could also be something we like called

944.68

LinkedIn or one of those kinds of places

947.519

where you have this this work

949.92

history you have the real estate to be

953.56

able to actually go Fairly deep into

955.319

some of those things and so I think it's

957.16

very valuable to take those particularly

959.079

a Blog is great because you can just say

961.44

hey I am Rob the developer and if you

964.279

would like to get a sense of what some

966.04

of the things I do are here's my blog

969.72

and you know you can title them by days

971.399

you can do whatever you want so it's

972.48

very easy for somebody to actually

973.72

literally look at a detailed resume of

976.48

what you do now are they going to do it

978.8

probably not but if you highlight it or

981.319

if you go back like say once a quarter

983.399

or even once you know every six months

985.199

twice a year go back take what you

988

looked what you did look at that and

989.839

summarize it and turn that you know

992.399

maybe you know pages and pages of

994.319

information turn it into like a little

996.16

you know half a page paragraph or you

998.399

know a half page couple paragraphs or

1000.04

something like that something that is

1002.8

very easy to for somebody to look at and

1004.92

very quickly read particularly if you

1006.959

have a couple you know like a title and

1009.12

maybe like a you know what was the

1010.44

problem how did I solve it doing those

1012.36

in a sentence each something like that

1014.199

and then have a little more detail that

1015.639

kind of stuff is invaluable and it

1018.92

allows you when you get into a point for

1021

example let's say you're working at the

1022.44

same company for 20 years and you get

1024.24

laid off and now you have to build a

1026.4

resume that is an almost insurmountable

1029.72

task if you have to go back 20 years and

1031.439

try to build that thing all the way up

1034.199

but if you've been doing this along the

1035.959

way it's going to allow you to have a

1039.039

resume that you could put together

1040.36

fairly quickly more importantly because

1042.4

I think a lot of us when we talk about

1044

personal brand and resume we think about

1045.839

I'm leaving a job or getting a new job

1048.679

if if you do this it's going to help you

1050.84

when you have a review when you get to

1052.96

the end of the year or the end of your

1054.76

your review period it's going to help

1057.2

you say this is what I did and help you

1060.559

properly argue for if you need a raise

1063.36

now if you look at what you did and all

1064.64

you did was like I learned how to play

1066.039

games better or something like that okay

1067.559

you don't deserve a raise but if you

1069

said hey I learned this new language I

1070.72

solved this problem I did this major

1072.08

thing for the company those are the

1073.559

things that you want to be able to

1074.96

highlight so that they say wow you bring

1077.44

a lot of value to the table

1079.48

we want to give you more money which I

1081.559

think lots of people like to hear that

1083.76

kind of a review but it really helps us

1087.28

keep um keep really like a a sanity

1090.52

check on ourselves but also reality

1091.96

check it's like yes we are doing stuff

1093.96

we're making progress and it helps us do

1096.559

better as far as like you know get that

1098.159

raise argue for a promotion or something

1100.52

like that but also I think on the the

1102.32

flip side of that is when we get

1104.88

into tough times when we're in like a

1107.36

death march or something like that we

1108.6

can at least look back and say yes we

1110.08

have made progress yes things are moving

1111.76

forward so we don't feel like we're just

1114.24

constantly running into a brick wall

1116.76

just like now I think I've hit my brick

1118.36

wall so I'm gonna like break through and

1120

let Michael talk on the other side of

1122

this thanks for Rob so not to get too

1125.679

far out of the box because we could take

1127.2

this many different directions one of

1129.52

the biggest challenges you will have uh

1134

over the years is like Rob say if you've

1136.36

been working for a company for 20 years

1138.24

you've got a lot of information you need

1141

to unpack and put onto your resume or

1143.84

update your blog or your website how

1146.799

wherever you promote

1148.24

yourself the trick comes in in those

1151.24

early years too where you only have one

1153.919

or two jobs or you just have college you

1156.72

know what did you do in college you know

1158.48

how do you beef up that resume to show

1160.84

the skills that you have you know if

1163.039

you're just out of college listing your

1165

uh the classes you took isn't

1166.88

necessarily the best way to to promote

1169.08

yourself what you might want to do is

1171.36

you might want to go through what were

1172.6

some of the big projects I worked on

1174.44

what are some of the accomplishments I

1176.76

did in my classes you know did you write

1179.52

like a Linux system did you write an

1181.52

operating system did you build some

1182.84

websites write some programs you know

1185.039

you can highlight those projects and

1186.96

build that out if you kind of take that

1190

mindset as we go through our career any

1193.799

little project you work on or challenge

1196.12

you have that is a good little point to

1198.76

hey write it down put it aside or put it

1201.72

into your list of things that you have

1203.559

done and when you come around to

1205.52

building your resume or building that uh

1209.2

online uh information about yourself to

1212.44

sell yourself you can then kind of go

1214.44

cherick this information to kind of put

1216.64

on your resume or put on these forums to

1219.08

kind of promote what it is that you're

1221.32

looking

1222.28

for one of the challenges I have

1224.88

especially since I've been in Tech now

1227.64

for well over 20 some years is what do I

1231.48

put on my resume you know if I'm looking

1233.919

to apply for a job if it's a management

1236.72

job if it's a software engineering job

1238.799

what is it that they are really looking

1240.72

for that I am the person that they need

1242.88

to hire the problem I have is you know

1246.6

I've got over six pages of notes I've

1249.72

taken over the years for the different

1252.039

types of jobs different things I've done

1254

and so you really don't want to hand

1255.159

them a six-page resume they're not going

1256.919

to read it they're only going to read

1258.28

the first first page and even then

1260.039

you're lucky if they read that they

1261.44

might even read just the first job and

1263.84

then call it done so what you need to do

1266.84

is you need to highlight what it is that

1269.039

they're looking for that you can bring

1270.559

to the table you know what is it that

1273.48

you bring that you are the right person

1275.4

for the job it could be for a job it

1277.919

could be for a Consulting business it

1279.52

could be for whatever why is it that

1281.799

they want you kind of like the old Uncle

1284.6

Sam thing you know Uncle Sam wants you

1286.279

for the military you know

1288.88

if you flip that what is it that you

1291.72

bring to the table and then what you

1293.84

need to do is you need to highlight that

1296.36

at the front now I find it interesting

1299.36

that cover letters are coming back these

1301.52

days with a lot of job resumés where in

1304.159

the past I've noticed that those kind of

1305.799

faded out over the years but they're

1307.48

coming back because so many people are

1310.4

can go on these online tools and apply

1313.24

for jobs so they want to know why it is

1316.4

that you want to work for a company so

1319.799

if you looking for like an AI firm oh

1321.96

hey we are looking for AI developers why

1325.24

is it that you want that job why is it

1327.44

that you want to build AI tools so you

1330.24

kind of take what you have summarize it

1334.32

in a paragraph or two as to what it is

1337.559

that you've done why you are a good fit

1340.039

for the company or for this particular

1342.84

job and then provide your rme but make

1346.12

sure you highlight the skills the tools

1350

that you have used that apply to the

1352.44

situation that you're looking at that

1354

you're applying

1355.24

for now if you're trying to be

1358.2

generic by building blogs your blogs are

1361.88

going to kind of be your tag so you're

1363.36

going to tag your blogs and such way

1364.88

that on your main page when you come in

1366.799

it's like here are the things I've done

1368.679

click this tag and here's going to be

1370.44

the Articles related to what you've done

1373.6

LinkedIn is a little bit harder because

1376.6

you can still write blogs but they don't

1378.76

have a great sorting way of like

1380.48

highlighting oh this is for this skill

1382.44

or this skill they do have a good way of

1384.84

listing out your job details and things

1387.159

of that nature but even then it's hard

1389.32

to find what you're looking for if

1392.36

you're an employer going to these sites

1393.919

looking for people you need to stand out

1396.44

so how are you going to stand out so

1399.279

other things you want to do is not just

1401.12

rely on the tools but stand up your own

1404.4

site like Rob said write some blogs do

1408.12

an online resume you know one of the fun

1411.32

things is we've been doing developer

1412.52

nerve for so long I can almost point to

1414.24

Any Given blog or article I've written

1416.36

and say hey I've done this or hey I can

1418.6

do this or we've talked about this if

1421.48

you don't have that start making a list

1424.4

today and start recording yourself just

1426.88

do something write it down record it and

1431.32

then just stick it out there put

1432.64

yourself out there so that you can start

1434.76

building that virtual resume and people

1438.279

make may just run across you and say hey

1440.32

you look like a person that I might need

1443.2

for this particular job so you may not

1445.44

even be looking but they may find you so

1448.4

these are some of the cool things you

1449.76

can get out of this uh that might not

1454.4

simply be what you're looking for from

1456

the get-go but there's a lot of Pros

1458.08

that come from doing things like

1460.799

this I think I want to sort

1463.96

of follow up from that last point I have

1467.679

over the years had more than a couple of

1469.559

times where I have ended up in a job or

1473.2

had a customer that came out of a

1475.36

discussion from a Blog article or

1478.159

something like that where it was there

1479.84

was something that I put out there that

1481.159

they were searching or uh they asked you

1484.48

know like like Michael says like

1486.2

there'll be something in the job

1488.84

description that I'll just point like

1490.799

maybe as my cover letter say oh by the

1492.159

way I just covered this topic you know

1494.76

last month in a blog article or on uh a

1498.399

mentoring class or something that we did

1499.96

you know some presentation or something

1501.279

like that now he may say that's great if

1504.12

you've got you know 500 blog articles

1507.36

and hundreds of of video podcasts or

1510.799

podcast stuff that you've done or you

1512.48

know 800 episodes of a podcast but you

1515

know what there was a point when I had

1516.84

zip zero nada I had none of that and I

1521.24

started somewhere along the way and the

1523

next thing you know I had one and so

1526.2

when I had one they I hope that they

1528.84

what they want is exactly what that one

1530.48

topic was but then I had two and then I

1532.48

had three and over time what you're

1536.08

going to find more importantly

1539.6

than being able to like check off the

1541.84

boxes to you know when you submit a

1544.12

resum or when you apply for a job you

1546

when you write a proposal up for a job

1547.72

more importantly that you have the check

1549.08

boxes when they say have they you know

1550.96

have they done this language have they

1552.279

solve this problem blah blah blah what

1554.72

you have is a way to connect to their

1558.399

problem what you have is a way to start

1560.72

a conversation what you have is a way

1562.84

for them to relate back to you and more

1566.72

importantly to all of this is for them

1568.44

to see what you do how you do it how

1571.279

often you do it get a feel for even if

1573.88

you don't know it they can get a feel

1575.32

for what are your strengths what are the

1577.32

things that you enjoy doing and that

1579.679

makes it so much more likely that you're

1581.48

going to end up in a job that you

1583.279

actually like that is actually something

1585.919

where you go to work you're like this is

1588.039

what was born to do because now you're

1592.76

getting what everybody really should be

1594.84

looking for is the resume matching the

1597.52

job your position your skills your

1600.919

experience your personality your the

1603.6

culture that you want to work in matches

1605.919

the job that you're in whether that's as

1608

a contractor consultant whether it's

1609.559

employee whatever it is is making sure

1611.919

that your skills match their needs

1615.08

because honestly if your skills don't

1617.6

match their needs

1618.76

then probably particularly if it's a

1620.36

full-time job it's a thing that's making

1621.88

up taking up most of your time you need

1623.919

to move on because you want to find

1625.44

something where you do fit more

1627.36

comfortably it's just like a pair of

1629.76

clothes if you've got shoes that are

1631.84

comfortable you can walk all day if

1633.48

you've got shoes that are not that

1634.76

comfortable you can walk for an hour and

1636.279

you're going to feel like you're

1637.039

crippled now maybe I'm old and so I'm

1638.919

overr dramatizing that but that has

1640.919

happened to me so just watch out get

1643

shoes that are

1644.36

comfortable that being said let's talk

1647

about the challenge for this

1648.76

because it really does come from as

1651.08

Michael said when you've got pages and

1652.559

pages and pages of

1654.36

stuff and then you're trying to sort

1656.399

back through it or you've got like you

1658.24

know years of calendar entries or status

1660.399

reports you're trying to figure out it's

1661.88

very difficult to do so what I'm going

1664.799

to challenge you to do is start with

1667

every day take five minutes maybe you

1669.919

don't have to take very long just write

1671.24

a little synopsis of what I did today do

1673.519

that for seven days and then the bonus

1676.72

basically at the end of the week because

1678.36

we don't work five you know we work

1679.679

usually 5 days a week on the sixth or

1682

seventh day or both of them write a

1685.32

summary of the week same thing it do

1688.32

like you may now have you know four or

1690.76

five paragraphs of stuff from the week

1692.799

summarize that down to one paragraph

1695.44

make it like if somebody said what was

1698.44

cool that you did this week what is it

1701.36

that like I'm going to buy you a drink

1703.279

you know if you're old enough to buy a

1704.519

drink or I guess a soda or whatever it

1706.72

is if you can convince me that you like

1710.08

you did work worthy of it this week

1712.24

write that sentence write that paragraph

1714.84

just do that once a week do that for a

1717.679

while and then you know further down the

1719.399

road it'll be things like then take

1720.76

those and then combine those and turn

1722.36

those into something you know that's

1723.799

very digestible like a a paragraph

1726.44

because if we do it while we're still in

1729.519

it while it's still fresh it is so much

1731.24

more valuable we're going to get the key

1733.2

points and actually it's going to be

1735.399

very tough as we get further along

1736.76

because we're like wow 's this key thing

1738.96

and that key thing and that key thing

1740.279

and I really want to bring all those

1741.72

together and either you're going to find

1743.36

a way to abstract them or you're going

1744.799

to say I need a Blog Page and I need to

1746.44

just like throw this stuff out and have

1747.88

like here's what I did but here's the

1749.799

details that you really want to read

1751.279

because they are

1752.48

valuable just like if you send us an

1755.159

email we're going to really want to read

1756.559

it because it is very valuable because

1758.559

this is why we're here is to share with

1761.32

you and to get feedback and to figure

1763.159

out what is it that we can do to make

1765.2

you better what are the things that you

1766.76

feel that you can improve that you can

1770.2

some habits that you can build some

1771.6

things that you realize these are things

1772.919

that are like dogging me and slowing me

1774.519

down or impacting my ability to progress

1777.519

on my career road map or things like

1779.36

that we want to help you out and if we

1781.2

can't we want to throw that out to the

1782.2

Greater Community and see if the

1783.399

community can help you out because we

1785.48

may not have those tools but we may be

1787.2

able to find somebody that can so we can

1789.399

bring all that stuff back to you you can

1791.36

do it via email info@ developer.com you

1793.519

can contact us on the developer.com site

1796.2

we've got contact form there we've got

1798.08

comment areas everywhere on all of our

1799.679

blog articles likewise on YouTube on the

1802.399

developer Nur channel uh also anywhere

1804.679

that you get podcasts you can leave us

1806.12

feedback there we love it however we get

1808.72

it we consume that we use that to build

1811.08

a better podcast as we move forward that

1814.159

being said it is time for us to build a

1815.76

better day and go out there you do the

1817.679

same go out there and have yourself a

1818.88

great day a great week and we will talk

1821.12

to you next time bonus

1825.559

material so we've given you guys a lot

1829.36

of information to unpack especially

1831.399

making list keeping track of the things

1833.039

that you're doing or even compiling you

1836

know online

1837.44

blogs things of that nature the other

1840.2

thing we've talked about in the past

1841.799

that we didn't really touch on today is

1843.6

also make sure that you've got those

1845.48

GitHub repositories or bit bucket

1847.559

repositories and that you start building

1849.72

a code repository of the things that you

1852.039

have done not only is that good for you

1854.279

for referencing but it's also good to

1856.96

present the work that you have done or

1859.519

the work that you can do based on the

1861.799

skills or the things that you have done

1864.039

the other thing is if you have a long

1865.639

laundry list of skills like I do uh AI

1869.919

is a great

1871.08

tool if you're looking to apply for a

1873.48

specific job take your jobs uh your

1876.48

resume or take your job history and your

1879.159

skills plop that in a and say hey

1881.96

summarize this based on this job role it

1884.96

may not be perfect but it could give you

1886.799

an idea of how to kind of squish that

1888.559

down and get into a bite-sized chunk

1890.72

that your employer or potential uh

1893.32

customer would understand and be able to

1895.639

consume based on their

1897.72

needs that wow that one's worth that is

1900.6

gold right there is take you can take a

1902.2

huge amount of information and shove it

1904.279

into like a you know any AI engine

1906.76

basically and have it summarize it and

1910.399

it is amazing the insights that you can

1913

get from how it's going to summarize

1914.799

that because sometimes you're going to

1916.2

be like that is not at all what I

1918.88

thought I was giving you in which case

1921.88

change the wording is you need to make

1923.279

some adjustments you need to do some

1924.48

stuff to say well okay this is the story

1926.399

that I want to tell and you realize that

1929.08

maybe your experience the way you

1930.72

labeled it doesn't actually point out

1933.76

that experience doesn't give tell the

1935.679

story that you want it to so that is

1937.84

very

1938.88

valuable the bonus I would the the thing

1941.72

that I want to focus on

1943.639

is yes we're technologist and it comes

1946.6

down to like you know which quiver which

1948.48

arrows do you have in your quiver what

1949.72

language have you used what environment

1950.96

you've involved with blah blah blah blah

1952.6

blah but the reason I think that cover

1956.32

letters are so valuable the reasons that

1958.24

I think that it is more

1960.32

about other than that checklist of the

1963.279

the technologies that we've done it is

1965.72

the problems we've solved and the story

1967.36

about that it is and that is where like

1969.96

technology tests and skill tests and

1972.2

stuff like that really in a lot of cases

1974.279

if they're done right that's what

1975.279

they're trying to get it's not can you

1977.84

to solve this problem in Java it is if

1981.32

you have this problem how are you going

1983.639

to approach solving it ideally it would

1987.559

be an unsolvable problem basically it's

1989.679

something there really is no solution to

1991.2

but it's just trying to figure out do

1993.24

you have the ability to see a problem

1997.2

and then craft a solution even if you

1999.36

craft a solution and realize it's not

2000.72

going to work and then have to craft

2001.799

another solution and another solution

2003.32

and another solution because that's

2005.159

probably what they want is like how fast

2006.72

can you get from a problem to I'm

2009.519

working on a solving it and then if that

2012.44

doesn't work how do I make it fit the

2015.84

problem particularly if the problem

2017.24

starts to change or something like that

2019.12

which we do see so think about it more

2022

as telling a story as opposed to I did

2024.88

this so it's like instead of and this is

2027.44

one of the things I think is we get said

2029.44

here's a bonus for the h overall instead

2033.2

of as you're building a better developer

2036.159

in yourself instead of being I was a

2039.639

Java developer and now I'm a Java and C

2042

developer and now I'm a Java and a c and

2043.679

a ruby and a python and a database

2046.159

developer flip it from the technology so

2050.119

instead of I can h a hammer really well

2052.32

and I can drive Nails change that to I

2056.56

can build a house I can I can repair a

2059.919

wall or something like that this is and

2062.28

obviously that's different I changed you

2064.44

know analogies there a little bit but

2065.879

from the coding Point like what are

2067.879

problems you can solve so it's things

2069.399

like I can build a website for a

2072.159

business to do e-commerce I can build a

2074.72

website that allows somebody to display

2076.44

their product Library Online I

2079.919

can take a pile a pool of data and help

2083.44

somebody turn that into uh Trend

2086.119

analysis or things like that I can help

2087.8

them to figure out where there are gaps

2089.839

how they can improve their processes

2091.2

there's all these things are all valid

2094.04

potential Solutions and stories that we

2096.72

have so find out your story and find the

2098.8

best way to tell that my story and I'm

2102.48

sticking with it is that we are out of

2104.56

time and so we're going to wrap this one

2106.68

up as always feedback is very much

2108.64

welcome I want to thank you once again

2110.28

you guys are all guys and gals and

2113.28

whatever you want to call yourselves you

2115.72

the community are

2118.24

incredibly appreciated we love you guys

2120.56

hanging out there listening to us we

2122.119

know recognize and uh you know respect

2125.079

the time the offering that you give us

2126.599

of your time to listen to us to watch us

2128.92

to do these things and so thank you

2131

again for for what you contributed to us

2133.44

uh along those lines be looking forward

2135.16

to we've got some uh holiday specials

2137.48

coming up very soon Thanksgiving and

2138.839

Christmas in particular and the New

2140.16

Year's we're going to have a couple

2141.2

little like you know side trips off of

2143.52

this but those are always fun for us to

2146.2

do and hopefully it'll be very you know

2147.64

informative as well for you guys to get

2149.079

something a little different from this

2150.72

this uh Journey that we're on and all of

2152.52

these

2153.28

challenges as always go out there have

2156.16

yourself a great day a good time we will

2158.72

talk to you next time around

2164.79

[Music]