Angela Buccellato does more than write resumes at the Resume Rescue. She helps clients change companies and careers, and always has her finger on the pulse of the job market. She joins Paula Christine today to talk about just that.
It's vitally important to keep your resume updated. But it doesn't have to be an arduous process. Set a periodic reminder to record what you've accomplished recently - career-wise, volunteering, anything. That way, when you need an updated resume, it won't be so daunting.
Paula and Angela talk about that scary word "networking" - and Angela explains that the concept doesn't have to be so intimidating. It's often easier than you think.
Have you had a 6% raise in the last year? If the answer is no, you took a pay cut. Angela explains why.
LinkedIn is an extremely powerful tool when used well. In fact, Angela can see a world where it's used instead of resumes and the dreaded cover letter.
We'll also hear Angela's back story, and how her experience as a corporate recruiter made her so passionate about being a "personal cheerleader" for her clients, and making sure they're happy and paid what they're worth. She gives us a couple client success stories.
To connect with Angela:
Listen to her Podcast, That's Business: https://thats-business.simplecast.com/
Find her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-buccellato/
Or check out The Resume Rescue: https://theresumerescue.com/
Paula's Website: https://paulachristine.com/
Paula's Email: Paula@PaulaChristine.com
Paula: Welcome to Beyond the Paycheck. I'm Paula Christine. Stop loving paycheck to paycheck and start living the life you dream about by taking control of your money. I can provide you with the knowledge and the tools if you make the commitment to put them into practice. So today we're gonna be joined by Angela.
I'm probably gonna screw up her name, but it's Buccellato. I hope I got that right. And what we're gonna talk about is so many people are being let go from positions or even trying to change jobs and how important it's to have a good resume. I know a girlfriend of mine in Myrtle Beach is looking for a job and she has to apply online, so it's difficult to impress someone when it goes through an email.
So we're gonna talk about ways to improve your resume and how Angela's service can help you. So welcome Angela.
Angela: Thank you. And yes, you did get my last name correct, so thank you for that.
Paula: Yay. So let's talk about that. I know like just even speaking of my girlfriend trying to find a job and she knows it gets lost. How do you make your resume stand out?
Angela: So because it's such a competitive market right now, and it always is competitive, like yes, layoffs are happening, but they have traditionally happened year over year. It's just not the number one headline in the news. So what I always recommend to people is keeping your resume up to date.
The amount of people that have never had to have a resume or just knew someone who knew someone, that how they've achieved every opportunity they've had so far are like deer in the headlights when they get laid off, get fired, whatever the case may be. So it's just even looking at other opportunities as potentials where we were talking about this before we started recording, but building your network or just talking to people and just the six degrees of separation.
It's so true though. So it's just capitalizing on your network. Your friends that have your back really do have your back. Funny enough that Paula and I both have the same guy, Jon, that we love dearly, that he edits both our individual podcasts. It just goes to show how big your network can be and that can translate when you are looking for a job.
Paula: I know that's hard for people to network. It is. It's difficult for people to put themselves out there. and not every position is, I would say has a natural network. So what do you suggest outside of networking?
Angela: So I love and hate that term networking too, but it's even building relationships, right?
Paula: I hate it.
Angela: I know. It's we'll call it growing relationships. How about that? But yeah. And it's even with friends, family, or even if you have something in common, whether it's, you play video games or you're into sports or whatever that looks like, or, my favorite instances are if you just vibed with someone while drinking at a bar or at an airport.
I've built connections with people just merely saying, hey, I like your coat, or I like this. Something interesting that happened yesterday. So perfect segue on this podcast, but was getting coffee with a girlfriend, talking about her career. She also has a podcast and this guy stops us as we go to leave and he's okay, not to be weird, but I've been wanting to start a podcast.
I've been looking to hire someone I don't know what to do. Like I know that's weird, but could we exchange information? And he already emailed me. And that's another connection to add to my network and actually a potential guest to have on mine. But it's just building those small connections. And I think a lot of people are afraid to do that or don't wanna be weird or anything like that, but it's not even, I don't like the term networking, like we talked about Paula, but it's just capitalizing on the connections you have and the commonalities you have even outside of a professional setting.
Jon: I have to jump in here because Angela, full disclosure, as you mentioned earlier, as a client of mine as well, and Angela's an amazing networker. She has quite the group of people that she talks to, and one of the things she and I have talked about, just what she's saying. That word network has just this, it's like a dirty word to some people.
People don't like the networking. It's so intimidating. It's so scary. But all it is finding one thing in common with a person and having a conversation. The way you're phrasing it, Angela, you're taking so much the sting out of that word. So much of the scariness out of that word. It's just talking to people.
Angela: Exactly. That's all it is. It's all it comes down to.
Paula: Okay. But once you start talking to people and you start quote networking. It's still, you have to have a lot of people want that written document. And I know for a lot of people, they struggle to write that document. I'm like, if I have to put a resume together, I haven't had to do one in 30 years, right? I'm not even sure I would know where to start.
Angela: So this is where I always recommend, and people for whatever reason about resumes in their careers, everyone feels like they should know what they're doing. But resume trends change over time. It's not this one size fits all for the past 30 years.
It changes every so often. So what that could look like is, I always relate it to you hire someone to build your deck, you hire someone to fix your plumbing, you hire someone to maintain your house, your car, whatever that looks like, why not hire someone else to do the same with your career? And this is where a lot of people, and I have the same conversation every single day of I know I don't, I just don't know where to start. Or people just get so embarrassed by it. But it's just start somewhere. So even if this document is just a running list of your accomplishments, it doesn't have to be pretty and beautiful. At least you can start and then hire someone to make it pretty and beautiful for you.
Where people go wrong is they forget we're all human. I barely remember what I ate for breakfast today, but if you can set yourself a calendar reminder every end of the month or whatever downtime you have. Do an audit. What did I accomplish this month? What did I achieve in my job? What can I add to my resume?
What events did I attend? Just anything as a whole professional development, volunteer experience. That's where people go wrong and they don't update it until they need it. But for professionals out there, if you're not needing a resume, it's still great to even just keep a bulleted list of your accomplishments you've achieved thus far.
Paula: That's a great idea. Thank you. Who would've ever thought of, that's so simple because you do. I forgot what I did yesterday. So who knows what I did five years ago. And I don't need a resume cuz I own my own business. But like I told you before, like when I applied to be on the board of directors, I needed to put one together. And literally I freaked out. I didn't know what to do.
Angela: Everyone always does. It's so funny. But even for you, Paula, if you're ever asked to do any type of presentations or anything, I mean we have more bio set, but you can use that moving forward where you have your list of accomplishments. I actually just started tracking this cuz I realized I need to practice what I preach.
But I didn't have a list of all the presentations I was on, the podcast I've been on, and the list has grown pretty decently. So now we have an area where I do a track at the end of the month, or it's a part of my habits, like after this podcast, I will go and add it to my list looking back, and then I can say, oh look, I've been on X amount of podcasts, or I've presented to X amount of groups of people and that's gonna generate me more business.
Or for clients it could be, or professionals, I should say. It could be to get that next opportunity. So it translates to both.
Paula: Another great idea cuz I don't have that and I need that. But I know we're meeting on Wednesday anyways, so you're gonna write my bio, but yes, we'll have to. You'll have to get me started on that.
Yes. So that's really cool. Most people don't think about that. They really don't because if you have a job, you think that job is forever. But I know I've picked up several new clients who just were let go for really no reason other than just the economy.
Angela: I don't know if I shared this with you, Paula. Jon knows this story, but how I decided to take the Resume Rescue, my business, full-time was I was fired from my job after a two-week vacation. So I came home all living my high from being in Europe for two weeks, and I came home and I was fired for other reasons that you could listen to my podcast and hear the story 5,000 times.
Michigan's an at will employer state, they can let you go as long as it's not on any type of discrimination term based on religion, sex, gender, anything like that. They can let you go and call it productivity. Yes, the economy does come into play on these things, but at the end of the day, if your boss doesn't like you, they can keep documentation and they can let you go for certain reasons, and some things were happening with my company.
I was making them a lot of money, but it didn't matter. They still could let me go cuz my boss didn't like that I was talking to corporate on some sketchy things he was doing. So you're just not safe. At the end of the day. You have to look out for yourself and nobody else.
Paula: I also think you should be out searching even if you're happy with your current position because you don't know your value until you start searching.
So my girlfriend told me the other day, that she had been let go in the mortgage industry. . And she was grateful when it happened because she didn't realize how underpaid she was. For doing the same position someplace else. So I know I have a lot of friends that keep looking and applying for things even though they don't necessarily want them, but they wanna see what their value is out there. And that's great. When you're going to, it's raise time. You can come to someone and say, Hey, listen, this is, you know what X, Y, Z would pay me if I was to come over there.
Angela: And even I don't love what's happening and how expensive everything is, but there have been multiple resources and articles that have come out.
If you have not received a 6% increase in salary over the last year, you're actually making less money just with inflation and how crazy everything is right now priced. That's something that goes into play. There's no reason these companies cannot give you more money. I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but if you do the calculation of, if you ask for a five grand raise, it comes down to about 100 or 200 bucks a paycheck.
It's nothing. It's pocket change for these big companies and organizations. So that's where people don't wanna rock the boat. I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna do that. Which I can understand for a small business. When you have these large enterprise companies that are talking about record high profits and they're turning around and still laying people off, I have a problem with that, but I don't make the decisions.
So it just goes to show it doesn't matter how much money you make a company, they can let you go. Or this is a screwed up example Paula, I'll give and then I'll stop ranting here, but you got me all fired up.. This is a dark example, but I'm still gonna do it. If something were to happen to you, they would have you replaced before your funeral.
So you are not invincible. It's 100% true. It's a screwed up example, but it's just goes to show that you need to protect yourself. You need to have everything in order, and it is a vulnerable process looking for a job, writing about yourself. I totally get it, but make yourself the most amount of money and then you can turn around and invest it and live a wealthy life through retirement too.
But it makes a difference. You have to start today.
Paula: I preach that all the time to people, whenever you want, just go and get it right. But a lot has to do with someone's self-worth and they have the confidence to go in and ask for that raise. And that for some people that's very difficult to do.
Angela: Yes. And it is for sure. And you're never taught how to do any of this. You have to learn it yourself. Of course.
Paula: You're right. I know back in the day when I had to do a resume, you had to your resume in a cover letter. Is that still true?
Angela: Another heated topic I have, I hate cover letters. I've hired for large enterprise companies.
I used to work for a staffing firm that hired for Google, Microsoft General Dynamics, BAE systems, like pretty large companies here. Not once did I ever say, wow, that cover letter changed my life. I wanna hire you because of it. Do some companies still require them? Yes, but I'm telling everyone, and I don't care where you come from in life, have examples.
So if you could build yourself a portfolio, I'm trying to think of examples here, like if you're a data analyst and you've used pivot tables to display your data or a power BI, just anything like that. Or if you're in marketing, obviously you have tangible examples. Engineering, just your blueprints of what you're doing.
You can have a beautiful portfolio. I'd rather see that, or I'd rather see a link to your LinkedIn profile that's up to date and really showcases who you are. I hate cover letters. I'm very passionate about my hate for them. Do I write them every day? Yes. But we are getting away from needing cover letters, which I'm so thankful for.
Paula: So when people are looking for their job and when I was younger, sometimes we would just knock on the door and walk in and say, hey, are you hiring? Can you still do that today? Or is it everything done online?
Angela: Most of it is done online. Could you still do that? Yes, but it is a weird time.
Especially, I don't wanna say post pandemic, but still recovering from the pandemic of the core of it, where a lot of places, first of all, are all remote, so you don't even have a physical office to go into. Like we use a co-working space, so we're not even at ours most of the time. But it's better to at least use it online.
You still can pick up the phone if you feel comfortable doing that, but where you're gonna set yourself different is just the simplicity of send a thank you letter after an email. Find people on LinkedIn. You could straight up Google these people's names. Who owns the company? And a good company will pop up like, not to toot my own horn, but if you type in The Resume Rescue or you type in my name, you have all my socials, you have everything up there.
And it's just the simple, hey, look, I applied to this job and this is why I'm a good fit. And people aren't doing that. And it's not that I want everyone to beg for their job, but if you just go that little bit and spend that extra five minutes to send a quick message, you're gonna make a difference. I promise that.
Paula: I don't think it's begging as much as it's. This is how I conduct myself, right? This is who I am as a person, and if you hire me, this is how I'm gonna treat your staff or your clients or whoever, right? That's just who you are. .I told my kids that for years, if you apply for the job, make sure you send a thank you letter.
Send a handwritten thank you. No, it doesn't have to be anything too elaborate, but just say thank you. Thank you for taking the time to meet with me, it would make a huge difference. Of course, they didn't never do it. never, they never listened to me.
Angela: But I'm, I'm connected to thousands of recruiters on LinkedIn and the amount of people that still say, I had a job posted and I had hundreds of applicants.
Do you wanna know how many people reached out to me? One, and I can even talk to this too, I just hired for a new position. I had, I think 52 applicants, two of them reached out to me, and funny enough, it ultimately was the two I hired. But it makes a difference because I don't wanna read through hundreds of thousands of applications.
And recruiters aren't, anyone that works at these large enterprise companies, they could say what they want. They're not reading through every single application. Nobody has the time. But if you send a quick message to me on LinkedIn, you email me anything, what do you think I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go through it and be like, who is this person emailing me?
Let's see what they have. You're already going to be a preferred candidate for that reason. And it doesn't have to be a lengthy message. It could just be, Hey, Paula saw your job opening. I see we both went to X college. Looking forward to connecting. I mean it, it can be so simple there.
Paula: Yeah. That's another great idea. It makes you stand out.
Angela: Right? If you're looking for a larger company, you can find this on LinkedIn. You don't have to have premium, but you can filter by the college you went to, a previous company you worked for, common connections. That's what you wanna do.
I just sold a client the other day because I went to Penn State and she looked through our Penn State alumni network and I kept popping up for being a resume writer. So it goes to show, it's just, again, building connections, not necessarily having to network, but if you build connections, you're involved. The world is your oyster there with these opportunities.
Paula: But I think if you're gonna use LinkedIn to make connections, you need to make sure that your LinkedIn page is current up to date. And have your photo. Your photo. It'd be nice too. I'm surprised at how many people use LinkedIn don't put their photo on there.
Angela: Yes. It's interesting too, because think LinkedIn came out in 2008. I don't quote me on that, but early 2000’s, and it used to be where people say the stuffy business platform, oh, I'm a transformational leader. I change lives. You know the things that make you roll your eyes.
But LinkedIn is a place for connection where I foresee a future where we're gonna get away from the traditional resume and we're gonna go off of a LinkedIn profile or a portfolio instead. So take the time to do this now and previous LinkedIn hater here. So I will tell you it actually works when you put some love into it.
And I've had some really impactful and awesome guests even on my podcast or that have referred me a lot of business from LinkedIn. It's such a powerful tool. Hired my first employee off LinkedIn. I've built some of my consultants off LinkedIn. Some of my friends I've met off LinkedIn. I know that sounds weird to say, but it's true. But it's just,
Paula: I have, I have friends from LinkedIn.
Angela: They're the best. I swear. It's just use the platform and it's, I was just re relating this to someone the other day. You didn't just learn how to ride a bike. You didn't just jump in a swimming pool and know how to swim. You took the time and effort to learn it.
So why would that be different about your career, about LinkedIn or about anything else? Like I see, I stole this from the book, Atomic Habits by James Caesar, which is an incredible book. He talks about this topic of building a good habit. So it's set yourself a timer for 10 minutes a day. You wanna spend 10 minutes a day on LinkedIn.
It's so easy to do. And when that timer goes off, you're eventually gonna say I got another 10 minutes. I could do it. Then that turns into 20 minutes, then a half hour, then an hour, and now is just a part of your day-to-day.
Paula: Do you recommend LinkedIn for all types of jobs?
Angela: I recommend it for anyone. Some of my favorite people, someone works in construction, another one sells laptops. They're very untraditional paths. Someone that does life insurance that does LinkedIn really well, but it's, you find your network of people within it. Yes, mine is the obvious one that it makes sense for me being in career services.
However, I always, when I'm deciding who to work with or what I wanna do, I look at their LinkedIn, are they up to date on LinkedIn? What are they doing with it? Because I, I'm just curious for myself, but it's just like another selling point. You could get recommendations, you could put your certifications, you could put your podcasts.
You can really do a lot with it. And so many people just don't do anything with it. And it's just like a, it's just a really big lost opportunity there. And the nice thing what we were talking about earlier of you never know what's gonna happen if you get laid off or fired or anything.
Recruiters can reach out to you in the meantime. You want your inbox flooded with jobs and hopefully that are more money and aligned with what you're looking for. But let LinkedIn do the work for you. You spend five minutes a month updating it or just whatever that may be. I've had so many people say, oh, I wasn't even looking for an opportunity, but hey, it's a 20 grand increase.
I'm not gonna say no to that, just because they had their LinkedIn profile up to date.
Paula: Oh, do you remember that story you shared with me when we were talking on the phone the other day about the woman who got the $45,000?
Angela: Oh yes. This was a previous client we worked with. She had reached out to me on LinkedIn about a year ago. And we talked and she was like, I don't wanna pay the money to get my resume done. I just feel like I could do it myself, which is fine. Some people can do it themselves, but it's a lot of work. So she comes back to me almost a year to date and she's okay, you know what? I didn't even have to sell her on anything.
She's Angela, I've been following your posts for the last year. I'm so sick of this job. I just need to go. So let's work together. Send me a scope of work and let's get started. So I get on the phone and we touch base. She's underappreciated. She's been in the business 25, 30 years. She's still making not great money at all.
She thinks she was making like 40, 50k and then getting screwed on bonuses and whatnot. So we go through this resume. She spends the money with me. And she gets a $40,000 increase in salary. A $2,500 sign on bonus and a $750 stipend for a car allowance every single month cuz she's in sales working for her company's competitor.
So when she had come back to me, she had said, I wish I would've reached out a year earlier because I could have been closing out the year 2022 with that extra $40,000 in my pocket. And it just goes to show, you wanna hope that your company will appreciate you. You wanna hope that they have your best interest in mind.
But these companies don't. She had been there, I forget, I think it was like 12 years or something crazy. Worked directly with the CEO. Expressed her complaints, expressed some concern. There were some other internal issues, but she's I just cannot believe I waited on it. But I'm so thankful for that opportunity.
Now, granted, she closed the job. Girl works in sales, so I'm sure she negotiated her salary too. But I instituted that what her net worth was. She's I'm fine with taking a pay cut. Like you are not taking a pay cut. This is what you're worth in your market value and what you bring to the market.
And this is where she presented that and she had her cake and ate it too, which was. great.
Paula: So you're not only helping to write a resume, but you're actually her cheerleader.
Angela: Oh. And so funny you bring up cheerleader. Cause that's what I say to all clients is that I am your cheerleader. And I had a client even this morning, she's like thank you.
I'm so glad we talked. I've just been down in the dumps and I'm not gonna find an opportunity, but I get fired up about this if you can't tell already. I am someone that I just let so many bad bosses take advantage of me, of my salary, of my work ethic and everything. Cuz in my head I had the hopes that they would appreciate me.
If I'm making you multimillion dollars, you're gonna give me the money I deserve. Why wouldn't you? But that's not the case. So now how I run my business and how I am very passionate about this when I post on social media and my own podcast. I just want to give that information that I wish younger Angela had that I wish someone would've told me, would've coached me through and got to where I am today.
Cuz I was not this confident person. If you would've told me I would be running my own business, I'd be posting it on social media. I would've laughed in your face a few years ago.
Paula: That's the whole reason I started Paula Christine, is because I wish I would've known about money, like I do today.
I'd probably be a millionaire by now. And so I figure if we could teach someone or change someone's life today, where could they be, 20 or 30 years from now. So how does someone get ahold of you if they wanna reach out?
Angela: My email is angela@theresumerescue.com, our website, and pretty much everything is just the resumerescue.com is our website, social media. We're on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn of. And yes, my last name is very long and obnoxious. Angela Buccellato. But you could just copy and paste that. Connect with me on LinkedIn. But we offer free consultations for everyone, even if you just need a, should I look for a new opportunity?
Or whatever you should do. You can schedule a free consultation on our website and we could get to talking.
Paula: What is the name of your podcast?
Angela: Oh, and my podcast is called That's Business, which Can be found on Apple, Spotify, and Amazon, and other platforms.
Paula: Just quickly, what's in about?
Angela: So I interview people from all walks of life. So I essentially start with, what'd you wanna be when you grew up? How'd you get into your industry? And it's just an inside look to a lot of fascinating people and how they've changed the career paths. And it's all people I find fascinating or that I have really enjoyed. I heard them speak, anything like that. So you always learn something new and you get the occasional rant from me about how silly. The job search process is.
Paula: Yeah, I think I'm on my fourth career path.
Angela: Hey, we love that. We love a good career change.
Paula: Yeah. You never know where your life's gonna lead you. Okay. I wanna thank you so much. I learned a lot. You had a lot of great ideas. Thank you for sharing.
Angela: Thanks for having me.
Paula: You're welcome. So you can reach out to me at paula@paulachristine.com or check out my website at paula!Christine.com. Thanks, Angela.
Angela: Thank you.