Welcome to the #piratebroadcast: 

​Russ Johns 0:01
Welcome to the #piratebroadcast, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings where you can expand your connections, your community. #Kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let's get this party started.

It's a happy day for a #piratebroadcast. And we are, man. It's July. I cannot believe that it's already July. Today we have a special pirate in the room. kurtis, How are you this morning?

Kurtis Tompkins 0:36
I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right. Glad to be able to #Piratebroadcast today.

Russ Johns 0:42
We've been bouncing back and forth on LinkedIn for a while now and you've helped so many people in this this challenging time. The last six months has been a little bit of chaos, a little bit of confusion for a lot of people and I know as a resume writer, you've done a lot of work and effort, helping people get in there. Kind of started in the right direction. I'm kind of curious how did you evolve into being a resume writer? That's something that you kind of, it's probably a writing as part of it understanding people. Walk us through the story about how you got involved in this process.

Kurtis Tompkins 1:23
Ah, okay. Well, let's go back about a little over a decade ago. I decided that I wanted to go to school, go back to school to get a computer technician certificate. In doing that I had about five years of experience in computers already. After the program, they had job placement. The job developer, he came to me and said, he said, How do you feel about teaching? I'm like, Okay, I'll do it. happening. If I wind up going into a place where we were able to help inner city, adults, they were going to we see our put it we were helping them to become job ready it was more of an underprivileged situation will help him to become so involved resume writing and involve career development, technology training over those things.

After seeing the effect that it had on the people, My mind goes back to a particular graduation that we had and they were talking to me and telling me how the program affected them how it changed their life. And Russ, I'm not a person that cried easily. I had the whole back nine years, when they were telling me what was how it affected them. I said, You know what, this will be something that I will be interested in doing. Over the years I had different positions. Different things. But three years ago, I said, I'm going to use my management experience. I'm going to use my experience with helping job seekers. I'm going to go ahead and start job ready today.

Russ Johns 3:15
That's an amazing story. Essentially the impact that you had on those individuals that you helped made a difference in your own life. It's that feeling, it's that ability, that opportunity to actually help others in their own lives. You just continued so you pick that up and you continue to do that at some point.

Kurtis Tompkins 3:47
well, yeah, so like I said it a little after that. I taught for a little while, and then I got into management. I stayed there for a while, but what happened is around three years ago. Yeah, right. Right before I started job ready today, I was working in management, and they laid everybody off. I was alone. Yeah, I made a decision to say, I'm going to go ahead and make that joke. When I made the jump, that's when I kind of went back into this area. I was still writing resumes, helping people out and giving people advice when it came to careers, but now, full time.

Russ Johns 4:33
That's awesome. That is fantastic. It's a process. I guess my question to you is, and I'm guessing, I don't know, you could tell me if this is right or wrong, is the opportunity or the need for resumes increased in the last six months for you? Have you seen an increase in the people needing help with their resumes?

Kurtis Tompkins 4:59
I would say yes. Of course with COVID-19 going on and people losing their jobs a lot the knee did increase. People, I wish they would kind of get in the mindset of standing out. But I'm elite, I'm gonna leave that right there to let you finish with your question.

Russ Johns 5:25
I love that, because that leads into the next concept of right now because everything's in transition. We have to really learn how to differentiate ourselves. Because there are a lot of people that have skills. There are a lot of people that can do that. I think there's a couple of skills that are not necessarily in a job description, but a life description. It's more around the idea of the resiliency and the ability to adapt. I think there's also a huge value in seeing Identifying transferable skills.

If you're doing something in one environment, if you can look at a different environment and see how your skills can be adapted to this new environment, I think there's opportunity there. I've helped some individuals see that where they didn't see it before. I think that's, it's actually got them jobs. I'm just thinking, how can you imply that and extend that invitation for people to think outside the box? I mean, that's something we're gonna have to learn, I would imagine.

Kurtis Tompkins 6:41
Right? It is definitely something that we're going to have to learn. There are some techniques within itself that people can kind of apply. One thing I'm noticing, when people apply for jobs, people still maintain that concept of submitting that thing. One resume Leave untouched, unpolished. Assuming that a recruiter or hiring manager is going to say, Okay, well, I noticed their skills, let me call them know, somebody get hundreds, thousands of resumes a day, sometimes for one position. You have to be there, you have to really stand out from the crowd. It's important, but many people maintain that same mindset. I know you've seen it on LinkedIn, they say, okay, I've applied to hundreds of jobs, and I'm not getting results. Well. That's why and why.

Russ Johns 7:34
Yeah. Well, something needs to change, right. I think updating your resume would be one of them. I think it's also somebody that it sees it on a regular basis. I would have to believe that how you present your resume and how you utilize the tools available. Like if they're asking for more information, you'll add more information. in there, when you can submit add something else to your portfolio. Other things that you're doing, I would imagine volunteer work is important to add, what are some other elements that people can think about or consider in their resume applications?

Kurtis Tompkins 8:17
Well, one thing that people will leave out you have that resume then you have that cover letter, which will kind of open some doors and give a little bit of a different feel from the resume. They're going to receive, hundreds of thousands of resumes, like I said, but that cover letter, kind of giving them a little introduction, this is who I am, and this is why you need, right, not just talking about you, but talking about what you can offer based on what they're looking for.

Russ Johns 8:48
Yeah. What value can you add to the organization overall, I would imagine it'd be a key key component.

Kurtis Tompkins 8:57
That's right.

Russ Johns 8:59
I want to give a shout out Kelly Robinson she was she's a pirate, and she's a recruiter, and we were talking about the same subject. You probably know, Kelly and it's these things go hand in hand it's really important for us to understand what we can do together to define the right fit, because it's not only a right fit for us as employees, it's a right fit for the employer. I think it was Kelly that I was talking to, it's like dating, you have to understand what is what's the ideal relationship that you can build for this position. I think there's a lot of people out there that are doing, they're skimming over the top, they're not really going deep enough to understand what does the employer really need? What role do I need to fill in order to be there and is it the right role for me, if you're just like looking for a job, it's may not necessarily be the right way to look at it. There's Nick Dorsey's out there, my man Kurtiss. Yeah. Warren empowering. Thank you, Warren. Appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. Jonah is saying, I love this. I love this. Then we even have people for Thailand. So that's a great question. Do you do international resumes or how does that work for you?

Kurtis Tompkins 10:39
Oh, yes, yes. I was able to fortunately 22 countries so far. 22 countries we just counted it yesterday

Russ Johns 10:53
22 countries. Everyone One that here's this and thank you so much for being here today in the room I appreciate and applaud the the effort and catching up with the #Piratebroadcasts of #piratecommunity. If you're not connected to Kurtis, reach out, get connected because he's an awesome resource. All of these people in #thepiratecommunity are amazing individuals that we just want to highlight the talents and the gifts they're bringing to the table. Reach out, tell them Russ sentcha you tell say hey, I want to meet a pirate. It's one of those things that you never know. You're one conversation away from having the results you're looking for. Keep having these conversations, keep connecting, keep reaching out. Kurtis how do you walk through people through the process? I mean, do you have to interview them or what walk us through the process and how how people work with you

Kurtis Tompkins 12:02
Okay, so number one, we have to know what you want. What are you trying to do? Many people tell me, Kurtis, I want to do this, I want to do that. I'll have a conversation with them to kind of ask them some probing questions and see, if that's the right fit for them, and I try my best to be honest, and I'll tell them, so just say, for example, you called me and you said, Curtis, I want to be a janitor. We talked a little bit. If I hear different things that you tell them, you may say, Russ, we're going to be honest with you. Here's how I do it. I say you want me to be honest with you? They say, Yeah, please do beyond. I say, I don't think that's for you. And they say really why? I let them know like, Look, I mean, that's just not it. Or if it is, I will tell them like look, you need to go ahead and do that you need to build the confidence and do it. Go ahead and ask those probing questions.

Find out what they want to do. And after that, Kind of give them the direction that they need to actually succeed in the direction that they tried to go. Kind of let them know that this is how your resume should be cover letter, different things, get the things in order. After that interview prep strategy, that right there, like you talked about them a little bit about that a little bit earlier strategy. You can't just go in and think, okay, I'm just going to interview and that's just going to be it. How am I going to show this employer? What I need?

Do I follow this employee on LinkedIn, you might be following the hiring manager, what is he like? Is he posting every day, check this post out to see what it is that he likes, and kind of use those things to your advantage, right, of course, keeping in mind that the interview and all those things, but use those things to your advantage that will help you go forward after the interview, all that good stuff. I mean, the process you know is pretty standard, of course is going to be tailored to each person according to their need. Right. No, case by case sometimes

Russ Johns 14:03
Yeah. Well, I think there's a huge value in, in building relationships with people that are able to maybe either like yourself, coach you on your next career move, or there are a lot of coaches out there that are producing have years of experience in business in your management that can actually guide you on making some walking through the process of thinking about what is it that you want to do, because, when you're in a, when you're in a situation of I just want a job, I just need a job, I just need to pay the bills. That's a different mindset than I want to build a career in an organization that may that makes a difference. Right?

Kurtis Tompkins 14:54
Right

Russ Johns 14:56
Setting that mindset and getting them to think and being honest I'm saying hey, it doesn't sound like you really want to be a janitor you what you really want to be is something more or something different, or maybe a carpenter some of their trade. However, there's these things that you probably see in your business because you're exposed to different things. How do you keep up on the industries and what they're looking for and some of the keywords they're searching for. Because I know a lot of software, if you get a company gets 10,000 resumes, they have to go through that with systems and sorted out to be able to identify at least a handful of the top thousand resumes they have to go through. I'm guessing there's a process that has to be involved in that.

Kurtis Tompkins 15:48
Right, so what I do, I'm going to tell you reading, reading, reading, and also some online learning as well within the last I would say two months, I ordered three different books. On the second one about halfway through, I mean that continuous education is needed because things change. If I decide I want to sit there and say, Okay, well, I'm good, my knowledge is good, the industry will pass me and that's not what I need. Continuous learning, and interesting that you brought the applicant tracking system up. That's the important thing that many of our job seekers need to pay attention to, you need to prepare your resume for the applicant tracking system. Because the sad thing is, there are many people that are qualified for positions, but because they don't take the time to add those keywords and tweet that resume the right way.

Russ Johns 16:46
Right

Kurtis Tompkins 16:46
They go into what they call the bite hole.

Russ Johns 16:50
They just go off into Neverland. I guess it's your reading and your ability to see in some of those industries that are alive. Allowing you the opportunity to actually understand what keywords might be utilized in those industries. I'm guessing, I mean, that's the only way I I'm just thinking out loud, you know, being someone outside the box here. There has to be a process that you can go through in order to think about what resume keywords are going to be used in, in different industries. How does that? I mean, how do you Is it just by knowledge, tribal knowledge and like going through this thing, day after day, Kurtis?

Kurtis Tompkins 17:32
Well, I would say part of it is that and then you have other resources as well. I'm going to choose we have #thepiratecommunity, this will help. I'm going to give a resource. This resource one of them is called job scan, which a lot of people know about jobscan.co. What happens is you're able to put your resume and you're able to put the job description in two different sections and what this just isn't artificial intelligence what it does is it'll search your resume for the keywords and see you know what you're missing and kind of measure it like the applicant tracking system would.

It'll let you know okay you don't want to go over 80% over 90% and I'm telling you man is free and it's an awesome resource and another one is CT scan and CT scan. I think is a cold out UK It ain't coming to me just right now but you can search it in Google is right there CT scan and it's another one called rez runner are easy Are you in ER and all of the ones that I just said they do the same, almost the same things. They'll be able to help you with the the keywords, it will tell you something's missing here. You might want to do this. You might want to do that. It saves you time. It net free so you can't beat it.

Russ Johns 18:59
No Well, that's a good, that's a good first step to understand what the key words could be potentially right. Then you take it from there. I would think, if it were me, I would think I would want to have somebody like yourself that understands the nuances of those systems, and the nuances of the job, even if I did that on my own. I went off and said, Hey, I'm going to master this resume for this job description, right? The next step would be to have somebody validate that information and say, Hey, this, these words come together do the grammar, punctuation, everything else goes along with that. What is that? How important is that? I mean, how deep Do you go with some of these elements? Curtis?

Kurtis Tompkins 19:58
Well, oh, man grammar, punctuation, all of those things are very, very, very important. Because here's how I see it. Here's how I know many recruiters and hiring managers see it. If you don't take the time to go over what you're sending, that's going to be a problem. Because one of the things that is written right there on the website, your resume is going to represent you before you can represent yourself. If you send in that resume is full of errors. They're going to say, okay, Curtis couldn't take the time to correct this misspelling. Mind you, we have Microsoft Word. All you got to do is right click I'm saying correct the word nature. We really have to take that into consideration. To your point, what you just said, After using the system, getting somebody that that knows what's going on, it's good to get professional assistance if you can't do it yourself.

Now you got many out there who can but if you can't do it yourself With that professional assistance, someone to know where to go, and I'm gonna drop this little secret in there that I'm gonna be done and let you finish. When it comes down to that job description, we try to help somebody today, so you have the responsibilities and you have the minimum qualifications, and sometimes you have preferred qualifications. When it comes down to those keywords. You want to try to make sure that you meet the preferred qualifications and the minimum qualifications of course, why because if you meet those prefer the minimum qualifications, you would be the preferred candidate, right? Check your keywords, make sure you have the things in order and when you put that thing together, right.

Russ Johns 21:50
Magic happens. I want to go back to the community here and get some feedback. I just love this. The community here. All the bands amazing. There's a lot of people that are probably. Nick was saying also Kelly Robson's core value. Randy Martin. Hello, pirates from Toronto. Joseph. Hey, Ira spellcheck. Yeah, Kelly says spellcheck yes 100% and hire best to hire professional. Thanks, Kelly. Appreciate that. Then top notch. There's so many things and I Bowman, want to fix your resume. So it's a Ts compliant, free help here. Project help you grow. I know he's been doing that and you you and Ira connected. That's been something that you guys have been working with. On diligently and I really appreciate the fact that you guys can get together and do this

The other side of the equation that is a little more soft skill, and that's really empowering for LinkedIn. I know, you understand this is, and we touched on earlier in the conversation is build a relationship with some of the people in the industry, learn what their challenges are, learn what their struggles are, learn what they're, you know, look at their posts, see, see, look for clues. What are they searching for? What do they want to accomplish? What are some of the goals are there and differentiate yourself to the point where you're actually building a relationship with them? I have to be completely transparent and I probably haven't had a resume in I don't know at least 30 years

I've had resumes, I've put resumes together. I used to actually build in when the.com bomb took place, and especially around 2006 2007. Again, I was building websites for resumes, for people that are looking for it. So they have a that actually have a website, the dial in your name, and you put it up online and so you have kind of a portfolio of whatever you're doing. That's another way that you could stand out. These things that you're looking at accomplishing. If you could just do one little thing that makes a difference, have one little conversation that makes a difference, and do go a little further than the next person. What do they say Curtis? The last mile is the loneliest one there's fewer people running the last mile. That's kind of the mind we're gonna have to take right now in in 2020 and Either that, or think about, like myself, doing your own thing and consider being like yourself take a skill that you're doing that other people need, and then extending your talent to the community. It's wonderful to think about that.

Kurtis Tompkins 25:29
Right.

Russ Johns 25:30
How long have you been doing this? You've been doing resume writing for a while now.

Kurtis Tompkins 25:35
Well, about close to close to 10 years.

Russ Johns 25:39
Okay. You've created a few resumes

Kurtis Tompkins 25:44
Oh, yes.

Russ Johns 25:49
Created a few words here and there. It's awesome. It's awesome. Are there any other questions that you have, or any advice Outside of resumes, just life in general right now that you'd want to share with the community and kind of give them a little bit, courage and inspiration and kind of lift them up a little bit. I mean, what words of advice would you share with people right now?

Kurtis Tompkins 26:20
I will say this in this climate of COVID-19 going on. It's hard for many business owners. It's hard for jobseekers in many may feel like that. There's no end in sight. But something comes to my mind. I believe there's a town called Barrow, Alaska. In that town in the winter time, 67 days, there's no sunlight when it's summer comes. There's 80 days of unending sunlight. I say that to say this is dark right now for a lot of people, right? The next day, no sun, but is coming and when the sunshine is going to continue to shine. So why did I fail to that? Hold on? Don't give up. Because if you gave up, where's that going to get you to stay the course to keep pushing is going to send it because everything will come together.

Russ Johns 27:37
I love it. I love it. stay the course. keep shining, keep adding. That's kind of what I share with people is this theme of kindness and,, this whole idea that you can make a difference. Everybody makes an impact. If you just add a little bit more to life in and help people out add value, when you're adding value, it's really hard to not be seen. It's really important for us to make a difference. And yeah, it is. It is kind of challenging time for a lot of people right now. Like the darkness you mentioned. It's temporary. Right?

Kurtis Tompkins 28:30
Right.

Russ Johns 28:31
Yeah. Kurtis, I really appreciate you and all the things you're doing to help others in the community. I just wanted to spotlight some of the things you're doing and introduce you to, to maybe a few more people out there that are thinking, What do I do next? If you want to reach out to Kurtis, you can reach him at you can connect with him on LinkedIn. I know he's active on LinkedIn, where else is there somewhere else? We can track you down and find you, Curis

Kurtis Tompkins 29:04
Twitter at job ready today. Facebook as well. Kurtis Tompkins you'll be able to find me that way. There's also a place called a lineup. I don't see too many people in there, but I'm on

Russ Johns 29:22
How active are you?

Kurtis Tompkins 29:23
Oh man, I need to do better. I'm not gonna lie to you man. Like catching

Russ Johns 29:31
up Guilty as charged. Like I only have so much time in the day, right. Well thank you so much for being here and I just want to I just want to highlight it's just like, there's Dr. Gina, thank you so much for being here and your message today. New

ic that Joseph I am on a line. Yeah, so great encouraging words. Thank you so much. He kills it with his words for sure. So Fantastic. Well, everyone, I just want to thank you so much for being here today. You know, the pirate broadcasts, I hope you have a safe insane week. In the US, we're having the Fourth of July weekend here. Be careful, be safe, and make sure that you're with your family and friends and whoever you like spend time with So, Kurtis, it's a pleasure. Always. Stay connected. Now that you're a pirate, you're, in good hands, man. Take care of everyone

#kindnessiscool. #smilesarefree, and you #enjoytheday.

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