Section Four

YOUR CAREER TOOLKIT

Landing That First Interview:

Our Focus on Reels, Resumes, And LinkedIn

Reels, Resumes, LinkedIn and Elevators Pitches That Win!

I addressed the broadcast news business specifically in an earlier chapter when we spoke about an industry in disruption and shared PEW Research looking at some alarming trends. Recent events in the broadcast news business give us evidence that this is an industry in contraction. Think about the acquisitions of stations/brands or agencies Napoli and 3Kings cashing out and selling to a private equity firm. In the Apollo/Cox case, the ability to consolidate and roll up underperforming players creates an opportunity to buy on value and thrive in a down market. In the case of the talent agencies selling to a private equity group, there will be 'optimization' or 'rationalization' and potentially the businesses will be repackaged for sale in 3-5 years, or as soon as valuation hits the right multiple. That’s what the majority of private equity firms do. Buy for value, increase valuation, then sell for a handsome profit. 

There are many drags to cash flow and impact to the multiple, but payroll usually plays a significant role and that points to ultimately right sizing the number of agents and fire unprofitable clients. It’s not just the TV News industry either. Think about what's happening in the retail world or higher education.

From Robin Lewis in Forbes: "Since 1995, the number of shopping centers in the U.S. has grown by more than 23% and GLA (total gross leasable area) by almost 30%, while the population has grown by less than 14%. Currently there is close to 25 square feet of retail space per capita (roughly 50 square feet, if small shopping centers and independent retailers are added). In contrast, Europe has about 2.5 square feet per capita." Square footage has ballooned over the past 30 years and the costs associated with operating them. We all know what has happened to online business over the same time, right? Just 5 years ago Amazon stock was $500/share. Today it will likely close above $3,200/share.

As mentioned in an earlier post, other industries in contraction include higher education, both public and private institutions. This includes the new start up ‘for profit’ educators like the University of Phoenix. Throw a pandemic, social distancing and remote learning on top and you have a rather dim future if you are an university employee working in facilities, maintenance, administration or any other support position. Even worse news if you are an educator struggling to adapt to lecturing over ZOOM and administrating classwork online.

Professors and associates that are highly dependent upon enrollment and class size will be seeing contraction of 30% or more depending upon major. The good news here for young MMJ’s and reporters already in the workforce is that there will be less J-school grads headed for their jobs in an industry in the midst of rapid contraction. Public universities around the country are feeling the pressure to deliver classroom experiences during a pandemic that has made remote learning necessary. Most higher education institutions have not reduced tuition and fees despite closing their campuses and recently, students have filed class action suits demanding refunds and credits putting further pressure on college administrators.

So, what to do next? You need to slow down and start to prep for a transition. It’s time to start the process of packaging yourself and improve your marketability. You may need to move to a stronger organization in the same industry or you might need to jump from Education to a corporate position in a Training Dept. Maybe from a Reporter to a Communications Manager. Let's dive into best practices around Resumes, Reels, LinkedIn profiles and Elevator Pitches.

Resume:

Although the availability of online profiles has minimized the importance of a resume, it's still a critical document in the career transition process. Your resume represents you in your absence. Beginning before that first interview or long after the last one, your resume is floating around an organization and people are either opting you in or out without even meeting you. A computer and software, not people, might even be the first screen. If you are lucky enough to get human eyes on your resume, it's probably a recruiter or someone in talent acquisition. That screen gets ..... wait for it ..... 17 seconds. On average, the first pass gets only 17 seconds of human eyes. You had better make a great impression given in that fraction of a minute your fate could be decided!

In terms of your resume’s structure, it's important to move up content that tells the story of why your competencies and skills are transferable to the position you are applying to. It's not your education or job experience that is going to lead. It's your career summary, competencies, and accomplishments or results.

The best way to make sure you are incorporating forward looking language is by doing your homework. Go out to career sites and job boards to find roles that align with your career objectives. Pull down the job descriptions and look for two critical things:

·      Desired results

·      Keywords

Make sure the bullets in your resume’s previous roles clearly address the desired results in the job descriptions you are looking at. The best way to check this is to answer the question about each bullet, “resulting in what?”

Below you will find text from an actual job description for a role at a TEGNA station in Texas. How can you incorporate these responsibilities into your resume? Remember, you need to answer the ‘resulting in what?’ question.

Some suggestions could be:

·      November 2020 sweeps portfolio of stories written, shot, edited and hosted included 18 packages aired, 6 studio stand ups, and 32 live hits.

·      Using a lead gained from Los Angeles County CPS’s twitter feed, I developed an investigative story about illegal adoption in Santa Fe Springs which was Emmy nominated.

Both incorporate the desired skills outline in the job description and answer the ‘resulting in what?’ question. See the sample below and think about the bullets in your resume using this concept.

This is the text from the TEGNA career site, how are you going to build bullets like the above that answer the “resulting in what?” question while addressing the role and responsibilities desired below?

In This Role, You Will

·      Develop story ideas, write, shoot and edit news stories for on-air broadcasting.

·      Write in an exciting, captivating and authentic manner.

·      Use the latest editing and photography tools to tell great stories.

·      Develop original content through social listening and independent sources.

·      Deliver on-air news events in an engaging, exciting, and accurate manner.

·      Interview news subjects and research for facts and credibility.

·      Develop news sources for general assignment and special areas of interest.

·      Produce news stories that are unique and captivating.

·      Operate news gathering vehicle to and from various locations.

·      Write and post daily on all digital platforms including social media.

·      Enterprise news stories.

·      Shoot, write and edit packaged reports.

·      Write for the web, including attaching images and streaming video.

·      Use creative production techniques such as graphics and new forms of media (viewer pictures, webcam interviews, etc.) to enhance stories.

·      Transmit and present exciting live reports with current technology.

By far the most frequent question I get on resumes is the length. How long should it be? Can it be more than one page? The answer is it depends. Being a senior executive with 30 years’ experience, my resume’s first page is completely focused on relevance and doesn't even get into education or job experience. If you've been in the workforce more than four or five years, you could have enough relevant experience to push into a two-page resume. Some other rules of thumb:

·      Take your address off the resume. It is not needed and you can't control where the document goes. Additionally, many of us post our resumes on our websites. If you are a young reporter or news anchor, do you really want your address posted online? Employers know how to find you, trust me.

·      Use clear and easily (machine) read font and format. New Times Roman, Calibri, or Arial, 11- or 12-point fonts in black on a white background works exceptionally well despite how bland or boring it looks. Color, photos, highlights are acceptable depending on industry and the role but listen, color or size of print is not what is going to get you hired. It is your interview that seals the deal and I address them in the next chapter.

There are many great free resume templates online but our favorite at TalentBlvd is Novoresume. The first page of your resume is essentially free but the more complex it is or when you get to more than a single page, you must move to a premium membership and a small nominal fee (as of Dec 2020, it’s $18). You can find a link to Novoresume and samples on the TalentBlvd.com’s Resource Library tab. See www.TalentBlvd.com for more info.

Final point regarding resumes is that they are very personal and just like a demo reel, there is no such thing as a perfect resume. There is however a perfect resume for you and your next role if you follow these tips and hacks. My advice to clients is that you need to treat your resume like you would the suit you wear into an on-site interview. It needs to be professional, fits you well, and you are completely comfortable with it.

LinkedIn:

First, when it comes to your LinkedIn profile, you can't think of it as a dump of your most recent resume. It is wired completely differently than a sheet of 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. It's highly interactive with media and links that tell your story. In fact, you should probably consider it "My Career: The Movie". The most important thing about LinkedIn, other than being your new virtual Rolodex and professional network, is that it is going to be the most searchable platform you can use to promote your brand. Want proof? For most of us when our name is searched via Google, one of the first three results is usually your LinkedIn profile.

There are three pieces of advice I always give my clients related to around LinkedIn. First, the title bar below your name is the second most searchable field after your name. You can't waste those very valuable characters on just your current title and company name. The exception would be if your title and company name are critical to your next role and will stand alone. Maybe like ‘Astronaut’ and NASA. Even then, it's best to incorporate other searchable fields like ‘SpaceX’. 

There are two best practices regarding this field:

·      Use the title bar as an opportunity to incorporate keywords that will lead an inquiring party to you. “MMJ” “Investigative Reporter” “Asst News Director” “Executive Producer” “Editor” or “YouTube Content Creator” are all examples. Also consider trending descriptors like “Streaming” and “Digital”.

·      Use the straight bar above the ‘enter’ key on a standard keyboard along with a space, it’s the character that will separate keywords and make them individually searchable.  An example would look like this:

President | Founder | Chief Talent Officer | Head of Talent Management at TalentBlvd / Managing Director at The MBAR Group | Author

Next, images are especially important. The photo's really turn into the 'hook'. Thinking about the Murphy Lee song "Wat Da Hook Gon Be" and in this case, it's Gon Be your profile photo. Smiling, inviting, approachable, and solo. No couples, no action shots, no animation, etc. Think recent headshot, yearbook, annual report, in most cases not Facebook, Instagram, or Snap.

Finally, writing a great summary that tells a story and catches attention is key. This is a place for a compelling elevator pitch followed by relevant media clips and links. These first three elements; photo, title bar, and summary can be your best advocate or a deal breaker. Once you get them right, turn your attention to your experience. Company logos/icons correctly placed, responsibilities and roles briefly highlighted. Also, think about the Recommendations section as an opportunity to illustrate where you are going, not where you've been. Offer to help write a recommendation sample for the people you’ve asked to be a professional reference. We are all busy and giving them some brief text as a suggestion can be extremely helpful and very appreciated.

Recall Important Concept: Just like your resume and reel, this is as much a looking forward document as a historical representation of your career. As Gretzky said, not where you’ve been but where you are going.

Reel:

I'm not going deep into reels in this chapter because quite frankly, it's not my area of expertise but I have reviewed hundreds if not a thousand or more reels. I outsource most of my media client reel work to professional on camera coaches and our News Director advisors. We have put a number of ‘how to’ videos on our TalentBlvd.com Resource Library to help you put a reel together.

Like LinkedIn and other social media platforms, strong images and your best work are critical. Forget about cramming everything you've done into a reel. I had a client win an anchor job in a top 25 market with a 1 minute 57 second reel.

Here's what I’ve seen as best practices:

1.     There are two distinct elements that go into crafting a reel. They are Structure and Content. Structure is how it is constructed and how it flows. For example with Reporter/MMJ reels, 99.5% of the time the reel starts with a stand up, runs through a number of examples and then rolls into packages. Content is the meat, the video that reflects your talent, experience and abilities. We tend to get too carried away with the Structure and miss opportunities to showcase our talents by jurying our Content. If a ND wants to see more, trust me, they’ll ask. The Content you showcase better be your best work and on point.

2.     Make sure you understand your brand, what differentiates you from everyone else in the industry. What is your value proposition to the viewer? YOUR story is THE story when it comes to reels. The way it was written, shot, presented and edited is the story.

3.     Start big and end big. First and last impressions are key. This means leading with great stand ups and an attractive slate. I’m currently working with a young MMJ that loves the way their reel starts but guess what? Analytics say 48% of the viewers drop in the first 5 seconds! Crushing that opening is critical.

4.     Making it 4-5 minutes in total length is adequate. Stand ups sandwiched around a package or two works best. A long slow package and you lose the viewer. They'll click away in 20-30 seconds. The average time a News Director spends on a reel is less than 2 minutes. Our stats tell me that 80% of the audience drops by the time you get to the 90 second mark. 

5.     Think about trends and incorporate samples if possible. A short Facebook Live clip could be very helpful. That's the way the business is tending so embracing it early will help. You’ll be recognized as progressive and that can be key to landing a role with a company that prides itself on being cutting edge.

6.     Hiring Managers and Directors want to hire people that can interact with others. Your reel needs to have an example of collaborating interaction with interviewee or anchors. I was recently sent a reel and it was VERY obvious that the reporter and anchor didn't like each other. Not the right impression, and no one wants a diva in their newsroom.

7.     Get several sets of eyes on your reel. Remember there is no such think as a perfect reel but you’ll be amazed at the different feedback you’ll get from professionals that are in identical roles. Listen to logic in their insights and if it aligns well with your brand, consider incorporating those changes into your reel.

Need help with a reel, we have resources that can lend you a hand inexpensively. Again, try heading to the TalentBlvd Resource Library and you’ll find two different “how to” YouTube videos on best practices putting together your reel.

Important Takeaway: 80% of your reel viewers will drop in the first 90 seconds. The first minute and thirty seconds must be; your best work, highest quality video/audio, and compelling content.

Elevator Pitch:

This is one of the very first things I focus on with my clients and your most important networking tool. The best thing you can do is check out the on topic "Your Elevator Pitch in 3 Simple Steps". The three steps are simply:

1.     Who You Are: This is a very brief overview; "I'm a University of Missouri-Columbia grad and I've been working as multimedia journalist at WXYZ TV since 2014"

2.     What You've Done/Your Skills: "My ability to develop a story from concept to camera has been recognized as Emmy Award winning and along the way I've built a social media audience of 30k followers."

3.     Where You Are Going/What's Next: "Having reached my goals of being the lead reporter in ___ (market), I'm ready to expand the scale and scope of my stories to a larger audience, specifically a top 10 market."

You need to use this pitch every time you get the question "So Susie, what are you up to these days?" or when you get an opportunity to introduce yourself while networking. Sometimes this can also be called a "reason for leaving statement" or "my reason for change" if you have recently left a job or company.

In summary, resume, reel, LinkedIn and elevator pitches are the foundation for a career in the midst of transition. The brief notes above are the tip of the career management iceberg. These skills focus on creating and articulating transferable skills, and that will make you timeless.

Amazon book details: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Struggle-Reel-Career-Management/dp/B08TZ5HWN4

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