Less Chatter, More Matter: The Communications Podcast

#125 Hiring and applying: top tips for comms jobs seekers and hirers

• Season 1 • Episode 125

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Are you a comms professional searching for your next role, or are you in an organisation trying to find the right communicator for your team? It can feel tough out there right now: talented people are struggling to stand out, and employers are missing out on great candidates because their job ads just don’t connect.

In this episode of Less Chatter, More Matter, we share three practical tips for comms job seekers, including how to write a resume that shows your true value (not just a list of tasks) and crafting an opening statement that sets you apart. 

We also dive into three tips for hiring managers, which includes being clear about whether you need a strategist, an implementer or both. We touch on the importance of knowing the real market value of good comms talent and looking beyond just university degrees to find the right mix of skills.

If you want to land the right role, or attract the right people, this episode will help you communicate what matters.

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Over the past few months, I've helped out a few friends and clients who were either looking for new jobs in the comm sector or hiring for a new communications role. And yes, it is tough out there. There's a lot of talented people on the hunt for new opportunities where they can grow, and there's a lot of different organisations who see the value in having great comms, people on board. But the problem I'm seeing is that Job seekers and job fillers are both making common mistakes, which is costing them great opportunities and great talent. So if you are looking for a new role, either now or maybe soon, or you are looking to hire a great comms pro, what should you be doing differently? That's what today's episode is all about. Hi friends, and welcome back to a fresh episode of Less Chatter More Matter, the Communications podcast. I'm your host, Mel Loy, and I'm recording this on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people here in Meanjin, Brisbane. And in today's episode, I'm going to be sharing some of my top tips for people who are looking for new roles in the communication sector or who are looking to hire. Why? Because despite communication being our core skillset, we're still not very good at communicating our own value when we look for jobs, and despite seeing more value in comms, pros, hiring managers are still not clear on what they need in that role. So today I'm going to share three top tips for job seekers and three top tips for hiring managers to help you get the job and the talent you want. Let's start with the job seekers. So tip number one, and this tip goes for any job seeker, not just a comms pro. Make sure your resume reflects value, not tasks. I've been asked by some friends to put my eyes over their resumes lately, and the same issue keeps popping up. They've listed the roles they've held in chronological order or reverse chronological order, and then a bunch of tasks they did as part of those roles. Particularly when you're going for more senior roles, this isn't good enough because really we can teach anyone to do a task, like manage a social media calendar. What I want to see as a hiring manager is the value you add. So what value did you bring to the organisation in that role? Not what tasks you completed. If you're struggling with this one, think about framing it as your key achievements. So for example, yes, you may have managed the social media calendar, but what was the result of that? Did you improve brand awareness leads, engagement with key audience groups, et cetera, et cetera? What was the result? How did you contribute towards a business goal? The other thing I personally look for in a candidate is someone who loves learning, who is willing to try different things and learn something new. That shows a hiring manager that that person is... Somebody who wants to grow. And in doing so, they'll contribute to your teams or your business' continuous improvement as well. So think about how you might incorporate some of that into your resume too. So like for instance, you may have noticed a trend on social media that you thought would gain traction with your audience and you tried it out, or you actively sought out input from different stakeholders when you were designing a comm strategy. Those things make a big difference. A couple of key points here though. Number one, even though it calms pros, again, I see this all the time, avoid the jargon. I have seen resumes with so much jargon in them that the words just become vague. It's meaningless. I don't even know what people are trying to say. If you were going to use a word salad of corporate speak and people can't understand you, then they're not going to consider you. So keep it simple and clear. The second part is here, obviously. I can't believe I have to say this, but I'm gonna say it. Be accurate and honest. People see through the bs. So if you achieved something as part of a team, say you were part of the team, don't make out like you did it all by yourself. You will get found out eventually. But also remember that the ability to work as part of a team is actually really critical to most skills too. Most jobs too. So you wanna highlight that. Tip number two is sell yourself. Think about the first impression the hiring manager gets when they open up that resume. What would give them a sense of who you are, why you're spectacular? What's your secret source? And here's why I ask this, because too often I see resumes either with no opening statement or so vague and jargon filled that they could belong to anyone. When a hiring manager looks at your resume and reads that first paragraph right away, they should get a sense of who you are as professional and as a person. What role opportunity excites you and why, and what special qualities you bring to the table. I like to think about this as a Venn diagram. So imagine you have three overlapping circles, and in each one of those circles is one of your key strengths, and in the middle where these overlap, that's your secret sauce. If you're not sure what your strengths are, I know some people aren't. Just think about the things that people often ask you about or often ask you for help with or advice on. Maybe they come to you for advice on writing or working with challenging stakeholders or leadership. Maybe you have a unique combination of skills that not many others have. So for example, my Venn diagram, those three circles would be communication expertise, change management, and behavioural science. Now, those three things by themselves may not be unique, but the combination of them is. basically you don't have to reinvent the wheel. The other thing is too, right in first person people want to connect with people. And when it's written in third person, not only does it sound well, basically that somebody else wrote it, but it just sounds a bit weird to be perfectly honest. So your opening statement, let's just say I'm going for a sort of mid-level com comms role. Um, I'm not gonna be leading people. Uh, it could sound something like this."I'm a highly experienced strategic internal communication professional with a love of learning and creative problem solving. I'm known for my unique ability to work with diverse stakeholders, to get everyone on the same page and help projects progress effectively. I'm looking for an opportunity to continue to learn and grow my skills in an organisation that also values innovative thinking." Now, that's not perfect. Obviously, I made it up. But a couple of things to note. That's only three sentences, but a person will know straight away more about my background, my area of specialisation, the strengths I bring, and what I'm looking for. That last part, what you're looking for is really important because you want to make sure the company also aligns with what you want, but also knows I didn't use any jargon at all. Very, very clear. So in short, make sure you're selling yourself from the very first impression, the very first sentence. One more note on that before we move to tip number three is look at the design of the resume itself. It absolutely does matter. It needs to be clean and clear so people aren't struggling to read it. So choose a sans serif font, so one that doesn't have all the curly bits on the ends, and stick with black text on white background as much as possible, and a decent sized font as well. Also, I got asked by a friend last week if it's a good idea to include a photo on your of yourself, on your resume. Unless you're going for an acting or a modeling job, absolutely not. There is a ton of research out there around biases and job applications, especially for women and for people of colour. So. In fact, people actually make decisions about others based just on their name and their gender without even seeing a photo. So limit the level of bias somebody can apply. Keep the photo off the resume. If they really wanna take a look, they can stalk you on LinkedIn. Okay, tip number three for our job seekers is be clear on what you want and tailor to suit. So like we say all the time in comms, there is no one size fits all approach to communication. That's because every audience is different. And needs and wants different things. The same is true for your resume. You should absolutely tailor it according to the job and the organisation you're going to. So the default for most people is simply just to list their job history in reverse chronological order. The problem with that, particularly if you've got quite a varied background and history, is that it's really hard for the person reading it to see straight away how your experience is relevant to the job. So how do you tackle this? It's really very simple. Just use this, a heading right at the top that says Most relevant experience and list those jobs and achievements there. So help the reader narrow in on what makes you a great candidate for the role. Then you can have maybe another subheading that could be labeled other communication experience and list those roles. I would also make your relevance even more clear by having another section labeled key relevant achievements and list your relevant highlights as well as the learning that you've undertaken. Remember that hiring managers are going to be reviewing a. Stack of resumes, which means they're only skim reading at best, so you need to make it really easy for them to read and draw their attention to the things that matter most. That might also mean you need to tweak your opening paragraph and hone in the skills that are going to be most relevant. Okay. Those are the three tips for our job seekers. Let's move on to the hiring managers, so those people who are hiring for comms roles or who might be tip number one. Be clear on whether you need a thinker, a doer, or both. Some organisations need strategists who can come up with the overall approach to how you'll manage communication in your organisation. Some organisations need doers. They've already got a comm strategy, and they just need people to put it into action. And in other organisations, particularly small businesses and nonprofits, they need a unicorn who can and will do both. Whatever it is you need, you need to be clear. So let's start with the thinkers. These are the people you need when you have no strategy or one that. It's not been working for some time, and you often need a new comm strategy when you have a new organisational strategy or when the business environment is changing. When you're launching something new, the economy changes basically to support a big transformational change. So if comms were a ship. This is the captain setting the course. They're a person who has a great deal of business acumen and experience. They can work really well with stakeholders and in some cases they might also need to lead a team. The doers are typically more junior comms professionals who haven't quite yet developed that strategic mindset, and you need them to help put the strategy into action. So on that comms ship, they're hoisting the sails, steering the rudder, and other terrible analogy things Here, they will work with stakeholders, but not at that senior C-suite level, and they'll need to be really willing to learn and take feedback on board. And then you have those situations where you need both a thinker and a doer in one. Now, this last one is much more challenging because there's a tendency to get the responsibilities bucket and throw everything into it. And I've seen job descriptions for these types of roles that are just totally. Unrealistic. You want the person to do the comm strategy, engagement strategy, marketing strategy, manage change, as well as manage social media channels, create content, support the C-suite, write speeches, blah, blah, blah. It is ridiculous. If this is you right now, take a good look at that list of responsibilities in the job description and cut it in half because any comms person worth their salt is going to look at that and immediately say, absolutely not, and wonder... How much they're gonna be paid extra to do the jobs of three people. Instead, look at those responsibilities and carve them down into something that is more feasible and sustainable. And you might even mention that although that person is responsible for X, Y, and Z, you've got agencies on board that help them out with some of that work, just again, so it's not as overwhelming. So to recap on this one, if you want a thinker, then advertise for a role where it's all about strategy. If you wanna doer, then advertise a role where it's taking direction and getting things done. If you want both. Be realistic and one final rant here, which you may have heard from me before, but I can't help myself stop advertising for change Comms managers, unless you want an actual change communication specialist. If you want a change manager, hire a change manager. If you want a comms manager, hire a comms manager. They are two different roles. Okay, now for that rant tip number two, know the market and the worth. Now, while there is a lot of talent out there, it's not on them to sell themselves to you before that even happens. You need to sell the role to them. You need to get their attention, and that means you need to know the market and you need to know what good comms talent is worth. So for years now, I've subscribed to Seek. And Seek is the job major job search site here in Australia. And I do that just to stay on top of what's going on out there in the comms world. And it's really interesting to see the roles that keep popping up. Now, There's been one role that has been advertised for almost two years now. It comes up all the time. And when a role hasn't been filled in two years, you've got to wonder what's going on, which I did, so I looked into it. Here's the rub. There is no flexibility. They want people in the office full time, and it's not a CBD location, so that makes it even less appealing. It's one of those roles where they want you to do everything. So like two or three roles in one. From what I've heard, the culture is shocking and the pay is atrocious. Basically, they want a minion. Now, some of these roles I see are quite frankly insulting. It's clear whoever's hiring doesn't value strategic communication, and that that organisation is also not willing to attract good talent. So first things first, get to know the market and what you're up against. What are other organisations like yours offering to attract talent? What could you be doing differently? What can you expect to pay a person with the qualifications and the experience that you have said you want? Then sell that there are too many job ads out there that start with, here is this role and all the things that we'll do. Oh, by the way, here's some benefits. Instead, start with why people should even want to consider working for you. Get them from the first impression. Maybe it's hybrid working, great salary benefits. Maybe it's really interesting or really meaningful work, et cetera. Different things will appeal to different people of course, but appeal is the key word here. The other piece here is to be prepared to negotiate and get creative. So for example, if you are a nonprofit and the salary you're offering is strictly as high as you can go and it's still not competitive, perhaps you can make it a four day role at that price point rather than a five. Remember, a great person will still get work done in four days if the workload is feasible. Maybe you could negotiate extra leave or won't work from home days, shorter days, whatever. Yes, there are HR hurdles you'll need to navigate, but if you want great people. Then you have to do these things, and if you have great people, you have a great business. Tip number three for our hiring managers is look beyond the university degrees. Most of the job descriptions I see have a communication degree of some type in the requirements. And in a way, I'm actually really glad to see that because it represents the professionalisation of what we do. In the olden days, most of the comms people were ex journos, and many of them had come up through internships rather than formal university study. But some of the best comms people I have ever worked with haven't had comms degrees. But what they do have are qualifications in fields that make them uniquely qualified to be great comms people. Here's what I mean. A person on my team used to be an analyst with a big bank, and her best skill because of that, is making the complex simple. Her qualifications of which there are plenty are all finance related, but she has exceptional experience, a real knack for simplification and is great at seeing potential risks. Another one of my team members has a law degree and a business degree. Again, no comms degree, but the comms skills she gained through those studies and her experience makes her an incredible asset. She's smart. She thinks of people and is highly analytical, and again, those are all skills that strategic comms pros need. One of my good friends runs a very successful digital marketing agency, and she doesn't have any qualifications to her name whatsoever. So what I'm saying is don't discount people based on qualifications. Some people were just never cut out for formal study situations like university, but that doesn't mean they don't love learning. They just do it differently, and there are plenty of fantastic skills that are transferable across professions. Again, though, it comes back to knowing what you want in that role. If you want someone with awesome business acumen, for example, there may be somebody with an economics degree or background that could be a brilliant addition to your team. All right, team. So it is time for your episode recap and today I talked through three tips for comms pros who are looking for work, and three tips for hiring managers who are looking to hire comms pros for our job seekers. My tip number one was make sure your resume reflects your value, not just the task you've done. So be really clear about what value you can add to the organisation you're going for. Number two is sell yourself what makes you unique and put it out there. Remember, first impression is the most important impression, and people are just skim reading these resumes, so make sure you're grabbing attention from the get go. And tip number three, be clear on what you want and tailor your resume and your cover letter to suit, especially your resume. So that means not just reverting back to the reverse, chronological chronological order of things, but actually pulling out the things that are most relevant for your audience. The three tips for our hiring managers, well, number one was be clear on what you want. Do you need a thinker, a doer, or both? If you need a thinker or a doer or both, then make sure that the job role reflects that. But if you do want both, also make sure that the responsibilities are feasible. Tip number two is know the market. And know the worth of comms. Pros. If you want to attract talent, then you're going to have to do things to attract talent. And that means looking at what other people are doing to attract that talent. But getting people in from the very first impression you have to sell to them before they sell to you. And tip number three, look beyond the university degrees. See what other skills are out there. So go back again to what you want. Don't just think about, I want experience in, you know. Um, I don't know, creating a comm strategy, but what other skills do you want? Do you want people who are really good at stakeholder relationships, who have great business acumen, who can make things simple? Because those roles things, or those skills aren't just comm skills. They come from all sorts of places. So make sure you're open to other ideas. All right, team. That's all we have time for today. I hope you enjoyed today's episode, that you got a lot out of it, or maybe you know somebody who's looking for a comms pro or who's hiring, and this episode would be useful for them, so pass it on to them. As always, please, please, please leave a review or rating for the show. It really helps, and I will see you all again next week with another fresh episode. We've got a few more interviews lined up, which I'm really excited about. In the meantime, keep doing amazing things and bye for now.