The Importance of Telling your Own Story in your Resume
AI-Generated Transcript below. There may be errors.
Claire Davis 0:20
Welcome back to another episode of today's medical sales leader today I have one of my favorite people on the planet with me. It's none other than the wonderful Virginia Franco. So Virginia, thank you so much for joining us. I'm thrilled to have you here today.
Virginia Franco 0:34
I'm excited to be here, you are one of my favorite people to go to.
Claire Davis 0:39
All right. Okay, so I'll give you that 15 bucks, I owe you after the show. Great to go. So Virginia, let me tell you a little bit about her today. She founded Virginia Franco Resumes years ago when she recognized that her years of corporate communications journalism in Social Work offered her a unique understanding of how people read and communicate and share information. She helps clients all over the world, especially if you're trying to test the job search waters or get your resume in order because she's a professional storyteller. And she shared her insights as the host of her own podcast, resume storyteller podcast. And she's a proud supporter, board member and former president of the amazing national resume writer association. So you're kind of a big deal friend. And personally, having grown up with a family business of our own, and then creating traction resume myself, you know, I always joke with you like business was mean back in the early 2000s. It was it was not the place I expected when I opened my own business because I found this incredible community, and you especially who really helped me get on my feet. So for so many reasons. I'm thrilled we're talking today.
Virginia Franco 1:52
My pleasure.
Claire Davis 1:55
Awesome. So So let's talk a little bit about what everyone is thinking about today. And in this day and age, which is layoffs, because there have been massive waves of layoffs, especially in the tech sector. And for many of you listening here today, if you're in medical sales, or in healthcare of some kind, you're seeing that while healthcare is traditionally somewhat insulated to layoffs, they are really cracking down in January. And as of this recording, you know, many of the major med tech companies have experienced layoffs, as well as other companies too. So first, Virginia, can you tell us a little bit about how you got into starting your own business after a significant layoff in your life in your family.
Virginia Franco 2:41
Now, the these headlines that we're seeing around all the technology and technology, adjacent companies are sort of, you know, triggering them because it brings me back to what prompted me to start my business, which was the recession back in 2008, which hit financial services brutally. And I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina at the time, which is home to not one but two bank. And so it was like it people were death walking, it was awful. My husband was in banking. And so when in finance, he was he was a he's in financial services, technology. And so it was a rough rough place it It reminds me a lot of what people are going through now. Lots of headlines, I didn't know about LinkedIn back then. Just a lot of the what I take comfort in is knowing that a lot of the tools that are available now, if they were available back then I didn't know about them. And I feel like they there's a lot of support there for job seekers. But that crossroad prompted me to start my own business I was had lots of little kids at the time, and the idea of childcare would have made me broke. And so I need to figure out what the heck I could do to bring in additional income and I'd always written resumes for free and so I started I started my own business unlike you I did not have you know business entrepreneurship in my blood I was completely accidental entrepreneur and you know, crossroad, whatever Crossroads is the parent of invention or whatever that phrase is, but that was me.
Claire Davis 4:13
Yeah. And do you feel like when the well first so with your husband's layoff? Did he know it was coming? Or was it a surprise?
Virginia Franco 4:21
complete surprise, okay, and we weren't educated in the signs like if we look back now. Now I could recognize them but back then no idea. He'd been with the same company for over 10 years. And so it was not a company that had done a lot of layoffs. And so we were really we didn't see it coming. Right. They were generous in their in their package which was nice. Like some of the companies are now not you know, it's been hit or miss in terms of what just seen but they were they treated us well with them forever grateful for.
Claire Davis 4:53
That's great. Yeah, you know, that's not always the case. I'm really glad to hear it. So if you were to look back back. What would you say that, you know, the signs were that you'd recognize now that were happening then
Virginia Franco 5:07
we weren't paying attention to the, like the quarterly revenue earnings and things like that we weren't aware of. Like you could tell when it comes to start to invest in one area versus another. Where your role fits into that, how close you are to the money that impacts your role. And, you know, we didn't know that when, when a call shows up on your calendar unexpectedly, that is very likely and chances are getting the getting the act. So. Yeah, so it was it was a blindside, we did not know right away. There was a, as I recall, there was a lag time between when he got the news and what we find when we found out what the severance package was going to be. So there were several weeks where we were in utter panic. And I did a lot of things right. And a handful of things wrong.
Claire Davis 6:00
So sure. So you, I love that you just did a post on that. Because yeah, I think that, you know, when we're on LinkedIn, and we're surrounded by these career coaches, myself included in YouTube, where, you know, we talk a lot about the things that you can do like you can, you could post that you're looking for work, you can network, your heart out, like you can get your resume together. But there's so much more that goes into that moment. And it's almost hard to take action because you're in that place of distress. So can you talk a little talk about the couple things that you feel like you did, right, and then a couple things that you feel like maybe looking back, I would have done it differently.
Virginia Franco 6:38
So in terms of the doing right category, what we did was identify what, what a couple of the deal breakers were. And some of those had to do with salary some of those had to do with you know, traveling, not traveling, there was no remote work back then. Or if there was, we didn't know about it. So there were a couple of those deal breakers. And then we recognized that probably the shortest path to landing was the quickest path to landing was going to be insane. And something that was very similar versus doing a really big career change. And I think that holds true today. And then we literally sat down with old fashioned pen and paper and made a list of everyone we could think of that we knew. Analysts list of companies that we thought would make sense to target and we work that list like crazy. Really, he does. He did most of it. I did my part of calling people see but you know, it's his job search. Which leads me to the part that I did wrong, which was I micromanage. I'm a type A control person. And I drove him crazy. Yeah, no. Yeah. So you know, second guessing, offering suggestions when maybe they weren't needed. And if I were to do it all over again, I think I would have said, let's, let's, once or twice a week, regroup and see where we are with this. Versus every single day. Um, because that wasn't supportive. That was, it was counterproductive.
Claire Davis 8:11
It's so hard to know how to deal and how to support someone best because especially when you're, you know, used to telling stories and crafting these documents for people like you're in the career space. I'm sure you want to give as much as you can to your husband in that moment of, you know, support, I probably would have done that too. And been more, I would have been more smothering for sure.
Virginia Franco 8:35
Well, I wasn't I wasn't in the resume in the job search business then. But I was a writer. And so I knew how to I knew about communication. So I was like, hey, this player base, you know, yeah.
Claire Davis 8:48
There's no perfect way. But I like how you assess the situation, and that you put pencil to paper one, I think it's easier to remember things when we actually physically write them down. I think that becomes a lot that's become a lost art. And too, I was talking to a client yesterday, and she is working here in Spokane, and she I'm not going to knock it out your girl. Don't worry. I'm not saying who you are. But she called me to see hey, you know, is there a best way to go about finding a new role? And I gave her the advice that you just shared right now, which is grab your pen and paper and jot down companies that interests you, and write down everyone you know, and she kind of laughed. You know, she's like, everyone I know. And they said, Yeah, I dare you to reach over 150 people. She was really, I said, Well, yeah, there's there's like a psychology behind this. It's called Dunbar's principle. And we can really as people only manage about 150 to 200 relationships in our brain. Like it's just like, it's science, which I love all like behavioral engineering factors and stuff. So it's amazing because I feel like then you You probably have your next position within one to two degrees of your career back.
Virginia Franco 10:05
And it was a friend of a friend of a friend. And that is, and not in layoff situations. But in proactive jobs versus that's the approach that he has been taken. And a lot of times it. It's amazing when you really work that network, how well how well it has benefited him.
Claire Davis 10:26
You know, this is one of my favorite things that you coach on, which is it. And for those of you who don't know, Virginia, and I also we'd run a room about every month with Kenneth Lang. So if you don't know him yet to please do. Yeah. Hey, can it and we do lions, tigers and resumes Omi where if you join us, we will literally answer any question you'd like to toss our way. And then Kenneth is our is our LinkedIn expert. And so he really has tons of information for job seekers. But anybody who wants to up their game on LinkedIn, so join us. But one of the things you talk about a lot is your networking in threes. So can you talk us through that?
Virginia Franco 11:05
Yep. So every time you are wrapping up speaking with someone, you just close it out by saying, Can you think of three other people that I've been speaking with. And what that does is number one, it expands your network. But then number two, it allows you to loop back with that original person and say, Thank you so much. I spoke with them. And this is what came up into it allows you to keep fostering that, that relationship. And we have found out about roles before they were posted immediately as they were posted. It's really been it's quite remarkable.
Claire Davis 11:37
That's incredible. And you know what to is. There's something really powerful about working with a mentor. And then actually circling back like you mentioned with that person who offered you help to say, I took your advice, and I put it into action. And here's how it went. That's a huge, huge accolade. credibility and relationship builder.
Virginia Franco 12:03
Yeah, and I feel like in sales, you have that natural skill. You're used to having to get past the gatekeepers and get key opinion leaders to come to you. And you do it by slowly circling in on those people through your second and third degree connected.
Claire Davis 12:17
Yeah. Yeah. Like sharks, like sharks. Just kidding. Just kidding. No, like sharks. Um, okay. So can you talk a little bit through couple of a couple of ways that you might recommend someone to go about finding right fit companies, because in this, like, let's take tech, for example. You know, if someone says, Oh, I'm interested in working in tech, it sounds really exciting and innovative immediately, we think Google Amazon, you know, all the all these huge names, but but really, I think there are smarter ways to target than the biggest branded company. So yeah, what are some ways that you recommend people go about making the company list?
Virginia Franco 12:59
So first way is to work that list of people and ask them about companies, and they've heard and it starts, when several people start naming the same companies that are good or bad, you've got some things that are worth addressing. The LinkedIn has, is really powerful in terms of filters, where you can search by ethnic ethnic search by size of company, things like the local Better Business, Bureau journals are great. Even things like Best Places to Work lists, I mean, some of those are HR applying. But you start when you start to see companies appearing over and over in a couple of different searches, then it is worth taking a second look. But you have to be clear on what your deal breakers are. So you know, it is what you know, don't have 10 deal breakers. So maybe have two or three. And you can whittle things away by by having conversations with people watching YouTube videos, repeat words, where the C suites are talking about things and presentations. You know, looking at reviews online, looking at talking to people that have left there, I think is a really great thing to listen to, to again, probably a lot of people that leave leave under not the greatest term. So you're you have to keep that in mind. But if you hear the same thing over and over again, then it's probably something that's worth considering. Hmm.
Claire Davis 14:31
Oh, yeah. And, you know, it's, it's interesting when I find people are for in this case, if we're talking about medical sales, like say they want to go work for Medtronic, well, they set those filters to Medtronic in their area. But really, if we look at people who used to work at Medtronic, you know, and have a conversation with them, or maybe two jobs ago. It's powerful Intel you can get because people are willing to give a little more information when they're not behind. Old into the company at that moment, and sometimes a little bit of time away. So if it's two jobs away, sometimes a little extra time away with those people we connect with can even soften some of that anxiety if they left under difficult circumstances.
Virginia Franco 15:16
That's when a lot of people like from strikers, and Medtronic, then go to smaller companies, some more, you know, some sort of issue ones. And if that might be something that you'd want to target, you can do your search for Medtronic, see where they are now. And then you can have conversations with them about how they found out about those companies, how they made their move there, and maybe cut and find out about other companies that they were considering? Mm hmm.
Claire Davis 15:41
What's the difference you see, with folks who take this kind of approach versus the applying online, writing a chat GPT resume, and blasting it to every application on LinkedIn, what, what possibilities are really there for people who take this more targeted approach?
Virginia Franco 16:01
To me, it's the fast path to Disney World, it gets you to the interview much quicker and their first thought is your job first. That's not to say that you should not apply online as a strategy. In fact, you need to when you are networking, you need to make sure that your resume isn't there system. But it will allow you to speak with people that can then get comfort around who you are. And people will always hire will usually hire someone that they have a level of competence and trust about, then someone that's a complete stranger. So it's a way a way to make you less of a stranger. And it really just comes down to the front of the line.
Claire Davis 16:46
What are some ways? So I really liked what you bring up there. Because a lot of times we feel it seems like we feel when we have all the right things on our resume, someone will read them and say, aha, this person checks all my boxes, hire them today. But really, I would argue that there's still so much more that has to be done on a trust front, that can't be complete, can't completely rely on just the resume. So what are some other ways that people, you know, that if someone is looking for a role, what are some other ways they can start to build that trust in relationship in addition to the resume? Like what are the other puzzle pieces?
Virginia Franco 17:28
Yeah, so writing a LinkedIn profile that when someone reads it, they feel like they've heard your voice, I think is really helpful. You can use recommendations on LinkedIn that will share with others a lot. You know, a lot of times recommendations speak to someone's performance, but they also speak to someone's character. So I feel like that's an a way to give someone an insight into who you are. Your LinkedIn about Sexton is a place where again, you have the same themes as your resume, but you might be able to tell a little bit about yourself and what drives you. I wrote a resume the other day, he wasn't in medical sales, he was in corporate development, but we talked about how he grown up as a son of a grocery store owner and have that experience, you know, let's that's, again, insight into someone person that makes you feel like you've gotten to know them better.
Claire Davis 18:17
That's such a great example. I had a client recently. And I said, you know, one of the questions I like to ask is, what's something that nobody knows about you? Right? Or what's something interesting about you that, you know, that only your closest friends know, and you know, if you care to share it with me, you know, and he said, I grew up in a car. He said, I was so broke and and our family was really poor. And so for a long time, I grew up in a car, and I would do janitorial work at some of the stadiums around my town. And I said, that's incredible. Now this man now does. He's a CRO for a global company, talk about it ethic and hustle. Oh, 100% and salt of the earth person, as you can imagine. And the next thing that he said that shocked me was and I would never want anybody to know that about me. And I was shocked because to me, I thought, What an incredible story. Like what an incredible and not just because it's a Cinderella story in nature, but like, coming from such humble beginnings to now leading companies in the way that this man deals with people. I mean, the testimonials on this guy where they've made you cry, people were so drawn to him. And but you know, it really wasn't until he and I had talked for him to admit that. And I just thought, Man, that's foundational in your story. I wish more people use those kinds of things.
Virginia Franco 19:49
Yeah. And I get where people don't want to, you know, it's it brings it brings back pain. They don't want to bring it up, but maybe he could have he could have said he came from humbled Beginning? Yeah, before, you know. But anyway, those are ways that you can allow anyone to have an insight into your soul that and then again, conversations with people where you're having those one on one discussions. It gives someone insight into your character what you're about and that that reputation will be carried on as people speak about you to decision makers.
Claire Davis 20:24
I was looking at one of your posts recently up because I follow all of your stuff, of course. And you'd mentioned that 20 years ago, we read everything on paper. And 10 years ago, we read everything on a screen. And now we read everything. If I had it, I'd hold it up on our cell phone. So
Virginia Franco 20:43
So God help me if we start writing on Apple watches? But yeah, so far, we're not.
Claire Davis 20:50
I'm gonna have to get some like magnifying glasses at that point. Yeah. So can you can you talk a little bit about how the resume specifically has made the transition to serve the different kinds of different ways that we read and absorb information. Now.
Virginia Franco 21:07
The reason that I wrote that post is that it's important to understand that we read really differently online than we do in print. Online, our eyes do two things very differently. Number one, we have a hard time digesting dense text. And number two, we tend to jump all over the place, we're super add online, in a way we're not in print and print, we're taught, start at the top corner, go, you know, left to right, top to bottom. And we can read big fat, things like that pretty easily because we are doing this on screen. When we see dense text, our eyes glaze over, we fight the urge to print. And what happens if someone is in a rush, and something is hard to read, you run the risk of they're gonna skip it. What happens with mobile is that a five line paragraph turns into a nine line paragraph. And then it's so long, your eyes again, glaze over and you don't write it. So the good thing is, it is very easy to overcome those things. By keeping your lines, I think of an eight and a half by 11 page on your computer, or whatever the equivalent is, keep your lines, your paragraphs to two to three lines, add a little bit of whitespace in between each and every bullet and paragraph. And that I keep your margins to about no more than half an inch or all the way around. And that will facilitate a skim read on any device. And anything that is written for a screen reader can print out and be read fine. It's just that the reverse isn't true. And those are principles that should apply to emails, wide decks, anything, just don't tell your high school English teacher about them. Because it's very different from what we were taught to write in school. Think about that. It worked.
Claire Davis 22:56
It does. I remember in school. So I got my journalism degree degree from Ohio University. And I remember how we would study these classic writers who didn't follow traditional English grammar rules. And they were like the Cowboys.
Virginia Franco 23:12
Both the novel were Wow, yeah, yeah, we're like, wow, yeah.
Claire Davis 23:18
And, you know, anymore. If we want something to read somebody to read something online, you're right. If we don't use that kind of smart writing, then we'll lose people and that we don't want to do so I really liked how you bring that up. There's a method that I was recently taught from a group I'm in for copywriting. And it was the three, let's say 131 or 3131 method where essentially, it's what you say it's, you know, you've got your headline, and then your space before and after. And then a little bit of meat text, and then a space before and after. And then another headline, and just to keep people tracking, because otherwise, it mean, if you lose someone, you lose someone, that's your only chance. So what are some other ways people can use those kinds of visual cues or visual interest on the resumes that you write? Yeah, keep people interested in keep them reading.
Virginia Franco 24:15
Well, the other thing that I didn't say that but then another follow up is talking about how our eyes jump around a lot. You can use some design elements to draw the reader where you want them to go. And I'm not talking about crazy, crazy design, like logos are graphs and charts. I'll use those from time to time but what I'm talking about really is things like bolding and shading. So for instance, if I want to show that my client has worked with some of the bigger names in pharma or device, I'm going to bold the company name. And I might keep the job titles, not in bold. If I wanted to show that someone has progressed to a certain level, and maybe they've worked with lesser known companies, maybe I will vote or save the company, the job titles instead of the company names. And the other thing I do is recognizing that we will start sentences but not finished them. Because we're jumping online, I front loaded, which means that put the most powerful part of whatever I'm trying to say at the beginning, because I don't know if the reader will get to the end. And that's a really big departure from how we were taught in high school. So if you lead a strategy that resulted in 30%, territory growth, you need to start off by saying, grew territory 30% By doing XYZ versus throwing that number at the end.
Claire Davis 25:41
Yep, absolutely. It's like throwing your line in the water with the right bait, like go for the bait first, let the line be the rest of the work.
Virginia Franco 25:48
That's right. The other thing, when people are reading bullets, skim readers read the first bullet than the last one. And stuff in the middle often doesn't get looked at until a little later down the road. And so I really aim to be strategic and put something super powerful at the beginning. Secondarily impactful at the bottom. And then if I have more than five or six bullets, I will break them up into subcategories because too many bullets. Someone goes up too many too hard to read. I'm not reading that.
Claire Davis 26:17
Yes, yes. Or death by bullets, as I've heard you buy bullets. Yeah. Okay, so um, so we talked, you know, resume, we talked LinkedIn profile, what are some other things that people need to be equipped with to really stand out in today's job market.
Virginia Franco 26:36
Your resume, your LinkedIn profile, your LinkedIn profile needs to be complete, you can't not have a picture you have to have, you need to have the key sections completed to help you show up on search, headline, the about section counter job titles, experience, skills, education, if you have that. I would say, again, a list of company targets Alyssa people that you want to speak with, you need to know your story, you need to be able to in 30 to 60 seconds when someone says What are you looking for, you need to say this is this is what I'm known for. And this is the kind of role I'm targeting.
Claire Davis 27:23
Can we talk about that a little bit more, because you know, what I find is something that I hear a lot when I work with somebody, especially someone who's been in medical sales or health care for like 2025 years, maybe 1520 years. And they'll say, this is the first time now that we've written this resume. This is the first time I learned how to talk about myself. Because I think so often we think, okay, we're going after this job, I need to have this laundry list of all the things I've ever accomplished all my status and my content.
Virginia Franco 27:56
Yeah, exactly.
Claire Davis 27:59
But really, I mean, we know as people, we connect over story, so that's why you're an executive storyteller, right? So do you find that often just the process of writing someone's resume can help them to one understand their story and to learn how to tell it.
Virginia Franco 28:16
It helps them to identify themes that they maybe haven't considered before. I am amazed how many times I, when people have the luxury to tell their whole story, they realize that there are commonalities, often they are known for going in and fixing a territory that was hot, or launching a product or overcoming obstacles like you know, in from a blackbox way, there's, there's commonalities that they are, they tend to be brought into over and over again. And when we identify that that is, that's how they describe themselves. That's their brand or their reputation. And so that's when someone says, Tell me about yourself. That's the kind of stuff you talk about. But without having that conversation where they have reflected back on their career in its entirety, that doesn't become, you know, often apparent, because we're too close to our own blood, sweat and tears. It's a lot easier for a stranger to see it, which is why I didn't write my own resume.
Claire Davis 29:13
Same same. That's why I got branding help as well. I need to truly or too close to our own story to tell it well,
Virginia Franco 29:18
we bury the lead.
Claire Davis 29:20
Yeah. In in we probably know too much.
Virginia Franco 29:24
Yeah. Well, to pick out what's relevant and what's not.
Claire Davis 29:29
Right. Right. I think that's something that when we're in that, you know, if we're talking layoffs, when we're in that distressed place, it can be hard to go after something with strategy, because we get a little bit like knee jerk. We want to do knee jerk reactions because it's that place of desperation fit. I've been there plenty of times, so I know it well. And I think that reverse engineering is a is an undervalued way to go about writing a resume and it sounds like that some thing that you do with all of them?
Virginia Franco 30:02
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. What I like about the healthcare has sales space isn't there, a lot of times they have more staff than other people? Not always. But they can say here, here's my rank, here's my quota. Here's the contest that I want, whatever. And so you can have a little, like a call out that explains all that. But then the bullets are focused on the story. Yeah, this is how bad the territory was. And this is what it's like. Now, the before and after story is what you're sharing in those bullets.
Claire Davis 30:31
Oh, yeah. And you know what that's it for, for folks who are listening, like Virginia is absolutely dead on here. Because you do get your quarterly numbers, you do get your rankings, you do get your territory volumes. And if you're in pharma, they might come six months to a year late, but you're gonna get them. And but the thing is, if you have a bad quarter, you have a bad quarter, there are more things to measure. So I really like how you emphasize the story there and the overall impact. So we're not locked in to I was six this quarter instead of third. Well, there's a lot more you were doing just then just besides being in the context can matter.
Virginia Franco 31:10
I just didn't read a sales resume last week, and the person was thrown in the territory with dead in the water account, like people companies that were bankrupt. And he only made inroads and like, at like 1244 accounts. And so we said, made inroads in 1244 accounts that were dead in the water. And boom, you're a miracle worker.
Claire Davis 31:30
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I feel like you help people give themselves more credit. You know, truly, because at the end of the day, which we all love to say in sales, I can't believe I just said it on here. But you know, we were more than just that rank. And I think that being able to tell your story well is really powerful. So if if you guys are not yet following Virginia, do not wait make it the next thing you do. And Virginia if people want to connect with you follow you see what else you're doing online. Where can they find you?
Virginia Franco 32:03
My company name is Virginia Franco resumes.com You can follow me on all my socials are pretty much my name and with the word resumes at the end. And I'm on LinkedIn and Twitter, Instagram, all the usual stuff.
Claire Davis 32:18
Oh my gosh, you're on Instagram too. Okay, I gotta
Virginia Franco 32:22
barely but yeah, I'm on everything. Yeah.
Claire Davis 32:25
Don't look up on my Instagram. It's no good. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I've learned so much from you in my own business and my own career. And and I know that you're a really powerful storyteller. And I love what you're doing in the space with helping these executives tell their stories better. So thanks for all of that. And thanks for joining us today. It's been wonderful having you.
Virginia Franco 32:45
Thank you. Great questions.
Claire Davis 32:47
All right till next time. We'll see you later.
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