156: If You’re Looking for a Job, Listen to This

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Steve has hired countless employees, and the hiring process never fails to shock him. From no-shows to unpolished resumes, he’s seen it all.

In this episode, he shares the brutal truths job seekers need to hear—why some candidates never get a second look, the simple mistakes that ruin your chances, and the key habits that make you stand out.

If you’re looking for a job (or ever will), this is the episode you can’t afford to miss.

Disclaimer:
BYFIQ, LLC is a wholly owned entity of Coltivar Group, LLC. The views expressed here are those of the individual Coltivar Group, LLC (“Coltivar”) personnel quoted and are not the views of Coltivar or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, Coltivar has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.

This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendations. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. Please see https://www.byfiq.com/terms-and-privacy-policy for additional important information.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What blows my mind is how many people schedule an
interview and they don't evenshow up.
No show, no follow-up, no call,no text, no email.
I'm like what the heck?
No wonder why you don't have ajob.
Good luck.
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principles taught at byfiqcom.

(00:20):
My hope is that you'll applythe lessons learned and that we
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Enjoy the show and don't forgetto subscribe.
If you are currently lookingfor a job, it doesn't matter if
you're right out of school oryou're 90 years old.
Okay, this applies to you.
And the reason why I'm doingthis episode is because I just

(00:41):
hired two new employees atColtivar, my company, and during
the process I was blown away bya few things.
So, since I care so much aboutyou, I'm gonna share this
counsel with you in a verydirect and blunt manner, just
like I would with one of my kids, because obviously I love my
kids and I want them to besuccessful, and I want the same
thing for you.

(01:01):
All right?
So just know that this iscoming from a place of love, and
I'm kind of coming in hotbecause I'm just like I said, I
was blown away in the processand I'm like, oh my gosh, I
cannot believe that this is sopervasive out there in the world
.
So, number one, let's get intothe resume.
Your resume should be formattedprofessionally.
Now, I know this may soundbasic, but it's like choose the

(01:25):
right font, choose aprofessional font, make sure the
margins look good, make surethe spacing looks good on the
page, and then you have solidbullet points.
They all align.
You have different size fonts,whatever it is Like.
Trust me, I've seen it all andit's crazy to me.
But if I look at your resumeand right off the bat there's
formatting issues, it's going inthe trash or I'm just deleting

(01:48):
it right, right out of my inbox.
You're not even going to get asecond look.
The next thing is when you godown your bullet points, like
your experience, every singlebullet point should start with
an action verb.
If you're currently working ina position, then you're going to
use present tense verbs.
So, for example, manage, lead,analyze everything in present

(02:12):
tense and they should all beconsistent.
So don't have one bullet pointthat says analyze and then the
next one says I'm a hard worker,right?
That doesn't start with a verb.
Every single bullet pointshould start with an action verb
.
Okay For experience, that is,in the past.
You should use a past tenseverb managed, led, analyzed,

(02:34):
reconciled, whatever it is.
You're using the past tenseversion of the verb and make
sure every single bullet pointstarts with a verb.
Don't start one with a noun oran adjective or an adverb.
They should all start with averb.
Okay, all right.
The next thing you shouldquantify your experience.
Don't just say I led a team andwe did some great things.

(02:56):
Say I led a team of five and wereduced costs by 38% or
$250,000 in 24 months.
Right, when you quantify yourbullet points in your experience
, it just makes your resume thatmuch stronger.
The next thing is when it comesto your job history, if you have
switched jobs like every single, like six months or every year,

(03:20):
that's gonna be like a no-gofor me.
Maybe you're early on in yourcareer and you've done some
internships, or maybe you'vejust had a string of bad luck
working for bad companies andyou've hopped around.
Okay, you got some explainingto do.
Maybe you want to leave offsome experience, I don't know.
But when I look at somebody'sresume and they've been at like

(03:40):
five jobs over the last threeyears.
Yeah, it's a no, no go, becauseI'm looking for stability and
people who commit.
And this is just straight upadvice for you, like, if you are
constantly looking for the nextshiny thing in life, like you
go to a job and you're like, ah,this is terrible, you don't
have to build spreadsheets allday.
Well, guess what?
Suck it up.
Do the hard work, becausesometimes it sucks, but you have

(04:03):
to put in the hard work and youhave to have grit and you have
to stick it out, because that'sgoing to say a lot to a future
employer.
I can tell you the grass is notalways greener on the other side
, and what I look for inemployees is this attitude of I
will do whatever it takes tomake your company successful.
That may mean taking out thetrash.
That may mean learning how tocode a website or build a

(04:26):
financial model.
The can-do resourcefulnessattitude goes a long way with me
, and I think too many of youare just switching from one
thing to the next, or maybeyou're getting fired from jobs
because your attitude's terribleand nobody wants to work with
you, so you might need to checkyourself, okay.
So that's what I want to sharewith you.
As far as the resume, like Isaid, I'm coming in hot, I'm

(04:49):
coming in out of a place of love, just being direct, you may be
doing a lot of great things.
So if you're like Steve,whatever then hopefully I'm not
offending you too much, allright.
Number two what I want to talkabout is do your homework
Seriously.
Like I would get on a zoom callwith an applicant and they
wouldn't even know what the heckColtivar is and what we do.
So before you interview with acompany, go to their website.

(05:12):
At a minimum, read through allthe copy on the pages and get an
understanding of the business.
The last thing you want to dois have your first question to
be so what does Coltivar do?
I mean?
That'd be terrible.
So do your homework Seriously.
It could take five minutes, butthe more you put in, the more
prep you put in, like, the moreit's going to show.
So that's the second thing Iwant to talk about.

(05:33):
Number three I'm just going tosay this just as a general
phrase brush your hair.
This is coming from a guy who'sbald, right.
So I say brush your hair.
I kind of of chuckle, but whatI mean by.
That is like present yourselfwell.
I just did an interview with aguy.
I was pretty excited about him.
He had a solid resume, reallygood background.
I get on the zoom call and hishair is like a foot tall.

(05:54):
It's going in all differentdirections and I'm like what the
heck did this guy seriouslyjust get out of bed and in his
background he had like christtree lights, like tape to the
wall.
He had a bunch of crapeverywhere and I was like wow,
if this is how you live andmanage your place, like how are
you going to manage my businessand this important role where
attention to detail is critical?

(06:17):
So brushing your hair is just ageneral phrase that I use to
like show up and lookpresentable.
Ladies.
Like brush your hair as well.
Like wear something nice, beprofessional.
I did this other interview withthis girl and she was in like a
t-shirt and it looked like shejust got out of bed.
And I get it, you're doing itover Zoom, but that doesn't mean
you can't present yourself well.

(06:37):
Sit up straight, take a shower,shave your face, comb your hair
, whatever it is but lookpresentable, because that's
really important.
How you carry yourself is goingto be a big indicator for how
you're going to perform in therole, at least in Steve's world
and in my opinion.
All right, and the last thingthat I'll say is send a thank
you email, follow up with athank you email.

(06:59):
Like, how many people don'tsend thank you emails?
I interview with them, I spendmy time telling them about the
company I'm offering them apotential position with my
business, and after theinterview, I would say like one
out of 10 people send a thankyou email.
And whenever I come across areally good candidate, I'm like
please, please, send a follow-upemail, send a follow-up email,

(07:21):
because if not, I may not hireyou.
And so one of the employees Ijust interviewed she was awesome
, a rock star, she was on it,she presented really well, she
touched on all these points.
And then, at the very end, Iwas saying a little prayer and
I'm like okay, please just sendin a thank you email.
And she did and I was like youcrushed it.
Now you get the offer letterand she's joining Coltivar here

(07:42):
soon.
So that's what I want to sharewith you today, just some tips.
And, like I said, I'm comingfrom a place of love, so
hopefully I didn't offend youtoo much, but this is what I
would tell you if you were likeSteve, can I hop on a call and
just learn more about how I canwork with you one day?
This is exactly what I'd tellyou.
If you can't touch on thesefour things and cover these
basics, yeah, I think you'regoing to struggle out there in

(08:04):
the professional world,especially when it comes to
getting the job that you want.
And the last thing I'll say iswhat blows my mind is how many
people schedule an interview andwe do our first rounds over
Zoom.
A ton of people schedule aninterview and they don't even
show up.
No show, no follow up, no call,no text, no email.

(08:25):
I'm like what the heck?
No wonder why you don't evenshow up.
No show, no follow up, no call,no text, no email.
I'm like what the heck?
No wonder why you don't have ajob.
Good luck, so go out there andcrush it.
I believe in you.
You got this.
You're listening to thispodcast, you're learning.
You want better things in yourlife, and the best way to do
that is to present yourself well.
Follow all these steps and goout there and get the job that
you want, or go start thebusiness that you want and you

(08:46):
will do very well.
All right, until next episode,take care of yourself.
Cheers.