771 Mary Southern:

Happy New Year, and if among your resolutions is finding the perfect new job you’ll want to listen closely to this first Wings episode of 2023 where we unpack the perfect resume and what it takes to stand out from the crowd to land your dream job – with Mary Southern, the founder of the fast-growing resume consulting business Resume Assassin.

MELINDA

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock, wishing you a prosperous and joyous New Year! Welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where for 7 years now we’ve been sharing the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m a 5-time serial entrepreneur and founder of the interactive podcast app Podopolo. Please take a moment and listen to this over on Podopolo, where we can take the conversation further with your questions, perspectives, experiences, and advice for other female founders at whatever stage of the journey you’re at! Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together.

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who is on a mission to help people find their perfect dream jobs.

Mary Southern is the founder and CEO of Resume Assassin, a resume consulting business that has helped thousands of executive and professional job seekers land jobs at some of the world’s leading companies, including Google, Amazon, Tesla, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, NASA, SpaceX, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, 3M, Dell, Pfizer, Goldman-Sachs, Johns Hopkins, and many more.

What makes a resume stand out from all the rest?

You may be surprised by how many qualified people fail at what many recruiters regard as the basics.

We’re going to get into how to avoid common job-hunting mistakes, starting with how to craft the perfect resume with the founder of Resume Assassin Mary Southern.

A couple of quick hints:

Make sure you tailor your resume for the specific job you are seeking, and focus on highlighting the results you have driven.

And there’s more, so let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Mary Southern and be sure to download the podcast app Podopolo so we can keep the conversation going after the episode.

Melinda Wittstock:

Mary, welcome to Wings.

Mary Southern:

Thank you so much, Melinda. I’m excited to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, I love the name of your business, Resume Assassin. What led you to found Resume Assassin?

Mary Southern:

When I decided that I wanted to start a resume writing company, I knew that I wanted a name that would stand out from the rest of the companies in the market, so I did a little bit of research. I’m located in Austin, so I was looking at companies around the Austin area, and one of the biggest things that I noticed was the names of the companies were very boring, dull, almost trying to be professional, but landing overly professional. And I wanted something that more fit the culture of Austin and that stood out from the crowd. And I also wanted to motivate and inspire women and men in their job search. And so Resume Assassin was kind of created and birthed out of that.

Melinda Wittstock:

Fantastic. So what is the main mistake that all people, but especially women, make on their resumes?

Mary Southern:

On their resumes, the biggest mistake that I see is that they’re not tailoring their resume to the individual position. So a conversation that I have almost daily with my clients is they’ll come to me and they’ll say, “Hey, I think I have this really great resume, but it’s just not getting me results.” And so I’ll take a look at it. And one of the biggest reasons that I see that they’re not getting the results is that they’re not tailoring it to that specific position that they’re applying to. And that can be a challenge.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So we’re hiring a whole bunch of positions at Podopolo…

Melinda Wittstock:

And I would find that a lot of people would apply, and believing they were qualified, but then the resume didn’t line up with it exactly. But if there was something about it that made me want to talk to them often they were very different. They’re so much more accomplished than their resume would suggest. Or it could be the opposite. But I thought that was interesting. And it was particularly interesting with women. Actually trying to hire women in senior positions where the research shows that women tend to apply for jobs only if they are convinced they can do 90% of the things, whereas men, two out of 10 is fine for them and they’ll apply.

Mary Southern:

Yep. Yeah, it’s funny with a lot of the female clients that I work with, even in that first five minute elevator pitch, when I ask them to tell me just a little bit about their background, they’re telling me all of these really super impressive things. And then when I see resume for the first time, I’m like, “Oh my goodness. None of what you just said is the story that’s being told on your resume.” So I think that you’re absolutely right. Whether it’s being modest or women just struggling to really talk about themselves, or in a sense brag about what they’ve done, it’s definitely a big challenge for women.

Melinda Wittstock:

I once, as part of a startup accelerator for women, we had to do a two minute elevator pitch about ourselves. I swear to God, one of the women was an astronaut and she failed to mention. Another woman had had a $500 million exit, and she didn’t mention that in her two-minute pitch about herself. So why is it that we leave these things off?

Mary Southern:

I know. And I think what I’ve seen, one of the reasons that occasionally women will leave some of these really impressive things, especially off of their resume, is because they see it as more of a collaborative project or a collaborative event, and they don’t want to take credit for it. Where maybe men are more likely to brag about themselves and maybe take a little more credit than even where credit is due. So that is, honestly, that’s a conversation that I have with a lot of the female clients that I work with is, of course these things are collaborative events or collaborative achievements, but it’s okay to talk to them or talk about them on your resume as if they were your own or even in a sense that they played a key part in achieving these great things.

Melinda Wittstock:

100%, I know when interviewing men, I have to be very diligent about trying to figure out whether they were ‘in the room when’ or if they actually did it.

++Melinda Wittstock:

And whereas with women, if it’s there, you just more likely that, yeah, they actually did it, otherwise they wouldn’t have put it there.

Mary Southern:

Exactly. Absolutely. It’s interesting to see that between my male and my female clients..

Melinda Wittstock:

So what got you interested in not only disrupting this space, but really helping people with a resume? So what was your lived experience that brought you there as an entrepreneur?

Mary Southern:

Sure. I don’t know that I even identify as an entrepreneur, even though I’ve been one for so long. I mean, only because growing up, I never would’ve pinned myself as someone that wanted to be an entrepreneur or someone that even had a skillset that could lead to the entrepreneurial life.

Even in the job search process, when I started, back in 2007, job searching, I kind of initially went into human resources and career services. So I’ve been writing resumes for years and years and years. And my favorite part about that entire process was the job search itself. So I kind of saw it as a game. I loved going through the job search process. I loved writing resumes and cover letters, creating a resume that was tailored to the individual story, that really aligned my skills and experience with the target position. And then as soon as I got the interview or the job offer, I was like, “Oh, well now the game’s over.” So it was always, that was the most fun part about my career, up until I started a resume writing business and realized I could actually help people do this, write resumes and get interviews and win these high profile jobs, and make that my career.

Melinda Wittstock:

So when you start out, all entrepreneurs, when we start out, we think, “Oh God, how hard could this be?” What are some of the early challenges that you had to overcome?

Mary Southern:

Oh my goodness, how far back do you want me to go?

Melinda Wittstock:

Whatever you’d like. Because I mean, really, we have people at all stages of the entrepreneurial journey listening to this podcast. And honestly, there are challenges at every stage. I think we can often think that, “Oh, once I reach that destination, it’s going to be easier.”

Mary Southern:

Nope.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s not necessarily, it’s just different, because they’re new challenges or different ones at different stages.

Mary Southern:

Absolutely. [inaudible 00:07:32] Yeah, I mean, initially when I was thinking, “Okay, maybe I want to start something that’s my own,” I really remember taking a walk with my husband and my dog in Austin thinking, “Okay, I don’t think I have any skills to actually start a business.” And I know that there are a lot of people out there that maybe they want to start on an entrepreneurial journey, but they just don’t think that they have skills that they can market and actually make money with. And from what I’ve found, you don’t have to have any incredible, you don’t have to know a hundred coding languages. You don’t have to be that tech savvy. You don’t have to have these crazy skills. You just have to think of something that you know can do really well that other people need. So I even went back to thinking, “Okay, maybe I could start a dog poop picking up service or an alcohol delivery service or something like that where I could monetize. Or a dog walking service.” And resume writing was something that I ended up landing on.

And there were so many challenges that you’ll face along the way. And like you said, it kind of depends on what stage you are in your entrepreneurial journey. In the beginning, it’s really thinking about, “Okay, how can I stand out in the marketplace? How can I reach customers? Really, how can I get my first customer? And then after I get my first customer, how do I grow from there?” And then once you do start growing and scaling just a little bit, how do you continue to serve your customers in the best way possible so that they’re, in my case, I’m writing resumes, I want them to get interviews. That’s my top priority.

If you’re working with me, I want you to succeed, because when you succeed, it makes my day, it makes my month, it makes my year. I’m so happy when I hear of my clients, they’ll reach back out to me and say, “Hey, I just got 30 interviews in the last two weeks.” And I’m like, “Oh my goodness, that’s incredible”. So as you start to scale, you’ll see what I found is it gets challenging because you get really, really, busy and you’re wearing all of these hats. So trying to introduce automation and different things to really streamline the process and make that customer journey even better as you go along.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, 100%. And so you scaled this up, without funding, starting a small business. How did you get the word out successfully about your business and get those first clients?

Mary Southern:

Yeah, sure. So I launched my company about eight years ago. I was scrappy in the beginning. I did as many things as I possibly could to get my company’s name in front of an audience. One of the very first things that I did was create these really cool, catchy, Resume Assassin flyers that I posted all around Austin, which in hindsight is probably super annoying because I was posting, they’re paper flyers that are all around, but I actually got a little bit of traction from that. Starting social media accounts was something that I did initially and really just starting to build a network and getting in front of an audience.

And another part of what I did was kind of play around with pricing and some of the deals that I was offering my clients. So I like to say that I basically gave away my services when I started, because I wanted my clients to get the most bang for their buck. I wanted them to get great results. I wanted them to have a great experience so that then they would word of mouth, they would tell their friends, they would tell their family, they would tell their colleagues, “Hey, go check out Resume Assassin because she’s awesome and I got all of these interviews.” And so a lot of my strategy in terms of building, growing my business, growing my brand awareness, has been through word of mouth and just organically building up my business’ brand that way.

Melinda Wittstock:

That is really astute because the best way to grow a business, and for that matter, the cheapest way to grow your business, is through word of mouth, turning your customers into your salespeople.

Mary Southern:

Exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:

Which it sounds like you did from the early stages. A lot of people don’t really know how to do that. They’re posting on social media or they’re doing paid spend, or they’re doing all these sorts of things, but it’s expensive and it takes a lot longer.

Mary Southern:

And that’s what I preach too. You nailed it. It’s creating customers that are brand advocates, because as a small, service-based business, you can spend so much money on advertising and pay per click, but the return of investment is not going to be nearly as great as creating clients that are incredibly happy that will then go and spread the word for your company. And now I have clients that are like, “Oh, I heard, I saw your business, somebody posted, there was an Instagram story that somebody used your business and they had all of this great success.” Or there’ll be people that come to me and tell me that they saw my business on a blog post or on Facebook or somewhere that I didn’t even know people are talking about my business. And then the word just spreads organically that way. And I guess I’ve been incredibly blessed in that sense to be able to grow my business organically and not have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on paper click ads.

Melinda Wittstock:

So you start with it doesn’t cost anything, and then you raise your prices, and then you keep raising your prices. How have your prices changed over the years?

Mary Southern:

Yeah, that’s a great question. My prices are evolving. Over the last five years they’ve definitely evolved. Like I said, I think I started at $100 for a resume and it took me, the first resume that I wrote took me about eight to 10 hours. So as my company has grown, as my brand has gotten out there and word of mouth referrals have grown. And I’m really, at this point, I’m really active on LinkedIn, which wasn’t something that I started initially either. But I have a decent present presence on LinkedIn where I can really interact with people that are obviously job searching and provide really great free advice that way.

So yeah, I guess in terms of pricing, the more demand, it’s kind of supply and demand, so when I felt like I was extremely busy, I’ll bump my prices up just a little bit. A couple of years ago I was just drowning in resumes. And what a lot of companies do, or resume writing companies specifically, is sometimes they’ll hire out the writing component of resume writing. But what I’ve found is I’m an incredibly picky writer, so I like to be the one that works with my clients, I like to write the resumes, because I’m incredibly picky and I know what’s going to be successful. And usually when I have my initial conversation with a client, I immediately get a picture in my head, “Okay, this is what they need to be successful in getting interviews for that specific position.” And so I’ve kind of based my pricing structure of just on demand. So as when I feel like I’m way too busy, then I’ll bump my prices up just a little bit. And I don’t have a set hard and fast strategy that I use.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s so, so, smart. So take me through your process of how you help people craft their perfect resume.

Mary Southern:

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. And so I actually write all of my resumes from scratch. So most of my clients, I would say more than 95% of my clients, come to me with an existing resume. And typically I’ll have an initial conversation, about a 15 minute call, with my clients just to get to know their background, what their goals are with this resume specifically, just to get a better idea for what we’re working with and the best way that we can work together. My onboarding process kind of goes through my website. So essentially when a client purchases a resume package through my website, through resumeassassin.com, they’ll then work through my onboarding process. So they’ll have an online form where I’ll have them upload their current resume, 10 target positions, and then I’ll work with them to capture just a bit of additional information that’s useful for our resume, like achievements, impact, and quantification.

But really, I’ve been writing resumes for so long that no matter how much information or how little information a client gives me, I’m pretty good at, like I said, I’ll get that initial idea as soon as I talk to my clients and I kind of know exactly where I need to take their resume. So I’ll collaborate with my clients throughout the process. So if I need more information or if I think I can get quantification or more achievements out of a certain area, I’ll set up a phone call with my clients. Otherwise, I just use my expertise and my experience to craft their new resume.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s a really interesting approach. So when you’re looking at a resume, I get all sorts of different resumes. I have some people that really, they’ve gone to town on the design and making it-

Mary Southern:

Yeah. Yep.

Melinda Wittstock:

And it is eye-catching. On the other hand, is it a compensation for not having much to say?

Mary Southern:

Sure.

Melinda Wittstock:

On the other hand, there’s others that are very dense, they’re not pretty look at, but they have a lot of, how do you navigate that in terms of what it should actually look like?

Mary Southern:

And it depends. So all of their resumes that I create, how I like to explain them is they’re friendly to the applicant tracking system and they’re achievement focused and all of them use storytelling to align with the position that they’re applying to.

So to kind of back up just a little bit, when I say applicant tracking system, most companies, if it’s beyond the startup phase, have automated the first part of their hiring process essentially. So when I get clients, many times my marketing clients, advertising clients, they’ll bring me these beautiful resume templates, like you said, but they’re not getting any results. And many times it’s because they’re not getting past the first phase of the hiring process, which is the applicant tracking system. The reason that you see a resume that may have quite a bit of information and be pretty information dense, achievement dense, is because it likely is more optimized to the applicant tracking system.

So as my clients are applying to these positions, essentially I’m translating their background and their experience into the language of the position that they’re targeting. Which is also a great way to not only get past the automation, but to connect the dots for the reader. Yourself, as a hiring manager, you want to know how can this person step in to this position that they’re applying to and make that immediate impact? So you may not care so much how good their marketing skills are if they’re applying to a finance position. So you want to make sure that it’s really highly tailored and also conducive to all of the HR processes that are put into place today.

Melinda Wittstock:

So tell me about some of your before and after individual success stories. What is the end result of someone working with you? How long does it take? And what is the kind of measurable difference that you’re able to case study kind of thing? Any stories like that you’re able to share?

Mary Southern:

I have tons of them. I worked with a woman, she was a COO in the healthcare space. She worked with a lot with medical devices. And she found this position, it was the perfect fit position. She was like, “This is me. This job description was made for me.” She applied to the role. Didn’t hear back. She came to me two months later and she was like, “This position is still posted. I applied to it a couple of months ago. I didn’t hear anything back.” We worked together. I rewrote her resume, updated it. She had an interview for that position within the week.

I worked with a client who, he had just moved to Austin. He was in the product marketing space. And so he wasn’t originally from Austin, so his experience was just a bit different. He was trying to transition into the tech industry and had some hesitations because he’d never worked with a resume writer in the past. We worked together, created a really highly tailored resume to senior product marketing manager roles. And he reached back out three or four weeks later and he said he had 30 interviews. He had seven job offers. And so he was choosing between seven really highly lucrative job offers with huge top tech companies.

Melinda Wittstock:

So it really makes a difference. So a lot of people think about the algorithms though, that a resume is up against, on some of these platforms as well.

Mary Southern:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

Do you have to keyword stack them or how do you manage with all of that?

Mary Southern:

Yeah. Yep. And so that kind of comes down to the applicant tracking system or that’s a part of it anyway. So I guess a good rule of thumb or good practice in resume writing is to create a skill section. And that’s kind of the easiest way to incorporate keywords into your resume. I also like to weave them into the professional experience section. So it’s not just pulling a bunch of buzzwords at the top of the resume, it’s also aligning what you’ve done, your skills and achievements, with those specific keywords. But you can create a skill section where you call it maybe core competencies, areas of impact, key strengths, and you can list that at the top of your resume where you essentially pull some of those major keywords out of that specific job description and include them there. And that’s one way to really boost your chances of getting past the ATS.

Melinda Wittstock:

What about things like showing results as opposed to saying what you’ve done? I get too many resumes. “I did this, I did that. I was responsible for this, I was responsible for that.” It’s like, “Okay, but what was the result?”

Mary Southern:

Yeah, you nailed it.

Mary Southern:

Yeah. I don’t care what you did. What did it do for the company? Yeah, exactly. So I like to think of that in terms of, and you may have heard of the car method before, C-A-R. So it’s challenge, action, result. And then when you’re writing it on your resume, you do that, you write it in reverse, because you want to show the result of the action and the challenge that you overcame. So all of your bullets, so when I’m writing a resume, I like to have within the professional experience section, I like to write a paragraph where it’s a few sentences of this was the kind of a summary of what you do, and then action bullets below that where it shows where you use the CAR method. So you’re showing the result, the action, and the challenge. And so it kind of goes back to you don’t want to list a whole laundry list of duties. “This is what I do on a day-to-day basis.” No. You want to show, “These were my major achievements, this was the impact, and this was the result for the company long term.”

Melinda Wittstock:

100%. This is so important. So, Mary, what’s next for you? What’s your big vision for Resume Assassin? How big is it now? Where’s it going next? What are your big to-dos for 2023?

Mary Southern:

Yeah, I’m always pushing forward. I absolutely love what I do. I love my clients. I guess what’s next for me and for Resume Assassin is just continuing to figure out ways that I can help my clients even better. Whether that’s through streamlining my processes and working with my clients, creating documentation that I include free with my resume packages to help them on their job search or help them tailor their resume. And then also continue to grow a presence on LinkedIn so that I can provide content and advice, just free content and free advice for job seekers all across the board, no matter what stage of their job search that they’re in. And then I guess that goes hand in hand with blogs. Blogging has been a big part of 2022 and now 2023, and so I want to continue creating blogs that provide a lot of value to my clients and to the audience that I reach.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. So if anyone is listening to this podcast thinking about applying for a job, what’s the best way for them to get in touch with you and work with you?

Mary Southern:

Yeah, so they can check out my website, is resumeassassin.com, and you can schedule a 15 minute phone call, just a free get to know you phone call with me. Or you can check me out on LinkedIn. It’s Mary-Southern and I’m happy to connect that way as well.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Mary, for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Mary Southern:

It’s been a pleasure, Melinda.