how i would approach the job search

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Hello, hello. Thanks for listening to guidance counselor 2.0. Listen, I want to give you a quick rundown of what this podcast is and what you're about to get into as you listen to these episodes. We had guidance counselors in middle school. We had guidance counselors in high school, but we didn't really have guidance counselors in college and now as professionals. We don't really have anybody to turn to to ask a quick question to learn something about the job search or to navigate your career. And so that is what I want this podcast to be for you. I want it to be a tool for you to navigate the job search and your career.

So that being said, I hope you enjoy this episode. And if you need to reach me, Taylor at vacovac.com is how to get in touch with me old-fashioned email social media at tdsintdessey. And finally, please rate and review this in the app store because I want this to be discoverable for others so they can navigate their careers. Hope you enjoy the episode. All right, so I'm going to dive in. Sorry. So networking. Yes, Trey today is Friday. You get it in Jeff. It's great to see a big dog. All right. So let's talk about me. Let's talk about my job search journey because for me, I really realized that I did not know how to do anything.

So I grew up in the restaurant industry. I grew up in working nights. That's just what I did. You know, my dad started the restaurant industry back pre-internet. That's always ever done is the restaurant industry. So I grew up in a household where the only thing I ever knew is night jobs. That's all I knew. I knew nine to five existed. I didn't know how you got into a nine to five. All I knew is about evening jobs. And so when I moved to Nashville, when I moved to Nashville, I was serving tables and well, actually, let me write a little bit. So my son or my senior year, we went on tour.

It came up to Nashville and met some people at our show at the Bluebird. We played at the Bluebird. And one of the one of the individuals we met was this old, not old, he is a songwriter for more the old country stars. So Martina McBride, Yaddie Auden. So he watched the Bluebird. He's like, man, you guys are great. I think you'll have something. We were like, man, this is great. I love it. And so essentially, he was like, y'all need to come up. Once a month to songwrite with me. Well, what's interesting is because I didn't know anything. I did not know anything. Songwriting for musicians is the same thing as having a podcast for everybody else.

When you songwrite with somebody, you literally sit in a room together for three to four hours. You basically have to share each other's stories to write. Because typically, let's be honest, singer songwriters are typically sad or moody. And I can make that joke. Because my lead singer would agree with me. And so you have to share your personal stories. So really songwriting is more or less like a form of networking. And one thing because I was a drummer, I did not go to these songwrights. And so what I did is I just stayed in the hotel room. I moved. I was in Nashville once a month and never went out and networked.

Right? Because I didn't know how to. I didn't know what networking was. I didn't know. And that's why I'm so passionate about it. And for some of y'all that have followed me for a bit, you're like, yeah, go on Taylor, you talk about the same. I've gotten already. You talk about the same thing. I want more depth. Here's the issue though. You don't want you don't need more depth of what I say. You just need to execute better. And so when it comes to networking, what I should have done is I should have hung out on Broadway or I should have gone to singer songwrights and came up and introduced myself.

Because what happened is when I moved to Nashville, the few times I was able to go to shows just to like hang out with people. I met people. Right? I got to play down on Broadway. I wanted the hockey tongue. It was called to Keelah cowboy. You know, played a few times down there. And you know, I met that band. I met that band because I was playing a show and then that person saw me. And then she was like, hey, you need to play with me. Right? So again, putting yourself out there, right? If I would have literally just gone out in Nashville and gone to bars, because at the time, that's how you know where, right?

You go to bars. You go to honky tongs. You stay down on Broadway. That's Deb. You just heard, you just heard, you just heard, Daggum. You know, and so that's what I should have done, right? And I want to encourage you all to get out there to network, right? There's a lot of similarities between the songwriting process and podcasting networking that I should have taken into play. What, you know, Annie comes in here says networking was a struggle for me for a while. It's still scary, but I'm learning what works for me. And I think that's incredibly important. That's why I want to share my story.

So I want to share my music story real quick. I want to go into kind of my mindset was and how I think you should approach the job search. But yes, I agree with this. I think the big key here with Annie said, and Annie's going to be on the show here in a few weeks. I'm so excited to have Annie to talk about her job search journey. But I love what Annie said here. It's still scary. It's same. Like I'm going to Louisville and two weeks to speak at Code Blue. I'm like, great, more networking, right? But what she said is it's important to find what works for her.

So what I want to do is I want to talk more about my professional career and what I would have done differently. So I moved up to Nashville in 2011 and I served table six nights a week. And I wasn't really meeting anybody. I wasn't playing any music because again, I'm a drummer. I needed my night's free. And I didn't know any better. So what I did, my dad called me up one morning. He's like, Taylor, like, you probably need to go get a day job because like, you know, you need to play at nights. I said, yeah, yeah, you're right. How do I do that?

And he was like, I mean, he couldn't give me any really practical advice. Okay. Cause that's all he's done. And so the big thing that I should have done, right? Again, I'm telling you all what I would have done knowing what I know now out of God, know my laptop and I would have gone to LinkedIn and I would have literally typed in the word recruiter in the search filter and hit Nashville. And I would have started DMing every single recruiter all like all day. Hey, my name's Taylor. I'm new to town. I would love to hang out with you for a few minutes. Now, here's the deal.

I'm educating you all here. I didn't know this, but recruiters are incentivized or incentivized to buy you lunch, coffee, et cetera. If I knew that as a struggling musician, I would have taken full advantage of that, right? And so that's what I would have done is I would have gone to lunch, coffee, whatever with a recruiter, right? I would have had a phone call with a recruiter. And here's what I've asked that recruiter, Hey, Mr. Mrs. recruiter, how's Nashville? Like what are the hot jobs? What are some good companies that should research? How do you recommend me starting out my job search, right? Like really lean on recruiters.

Now, a lot of them probably will suck and a lot of them probably won't get back to you, man, but the fuse that can really help you, it's a game changer and notice that I did not say notice that I did not say I went to the job boards and I started applying all around town. To be honest with you, I would have never done that because what I would have done is I would have gone and have lunch with a recruiter, right? And I would have said, Hey, what are the top jobs? Like I went to business school. Like I think I was destined to be a recruiter to be totally honest with you because if I took this approach and I would say, Hey, knowing what you know about me, how would I, like how could I or what type of job would be best for me, right?

What type of job would be best for me? And then I'm sure those, I'm sure that recruiter would have been like, honestly, you probably would be a great recruiter, right? I went to business school. I, you know, I'm fairly decent at communicating. I probably would have ended up in recruiting anyways, but I would have asked the recruiter, like, Hey, here are my passions. What do you think I should do? Because again, the recruiters, I talk about all time recruiters, the good ones, especially are a living breathing like pulse on the market. Like, you know, you know how everybody posts like, here's the Q3 report of labor market trends of 2022, like that's a bunch of bullshit, right?

Like don't even read it. Just ask me, ask a recruiter, Hey, what do you see? Right now you're probably watching this too and go, Hey, Taylor, like, like that works. I get it, but like we're in a global market right now, like fully remote. What do I do the same strategy? Absolutely. Because here's the deal. I also preach this all the time. You should really connect with like two to three recruiters in your area regardless, right? Whether you're in Columbus, whether you're in Nashville, whether you're in Dayton, whether you're in Cincinnati, whether you're in New York City, I would try to connect with recruiters in your local market because you're still need to have a pulse on local market, right?

My team is fully remote. My team is global, but for me, I still am connected to the local market, right? I'm still in Nashville. Now you could ask me about Nashville businesses. I wouldn't be able to probably answer them as well because I'm not as focused, but I am aware of what's going on, right? I keep up with local Nashville events. So incredibly important to link up with recruiters. The next thing I would have done is our to ask the recruiter, Hey, are there networking events I should go to? Like, are there networking events? Where should I go to meet people, right? Again, I'm not going to job boards.

I'm not submitting my resume all around town, right? And here, and this was me basically breaking even or losing money every week, right? Now I was single. I did not have a family. I did not have any kids, right? So it was a little easier for me to do is I understand every person's journey is different. But what I'm telling you is I truly think if you lean into your local market recruiters, they can really start paving a way for you to figure out where you need to go. And in my perspective, I would also find two to three recruiters remotely, like me and my team who can look out for you on the global level.

The thing is, is like as good as my team is, we can't like we can't love on you as much as we want to because we're fully remote, right? Let's see here. A lot of people have commented, be authentic and you will always win networking. This is true right here. Randall goes reframing what networking has helped me. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, and I totally love that. I think networking at the end of the day is making friends and again, getting them in your social ecosystem, whether it's a LinkedIn, whether it's a Twitter, you know, just get them in your circle somehow. At the end of the day, networking is just making friends, right?

And again, that's why I tell people to like I want to build a community here. Like I see you on the comments like we're building community as a guidance counselor 2.0 community. That's what I want, right? I want y'all to be able to build relationships with each other off the show. Let's see here. Barrett comes in again, Barrett former guest of the show. You used to do a lot of lunches with recruiters having a long time, but they could be, they could be quite productive plus freelance. Yeah. And they can be productive if you come and ask good questions. Muhammad, which recruiter do you recommend a recruiting agency?

Yes, I do. Which ones obviously, Vaco, the company I work for, I would say my company is not my company. The company I work for, Vaco is great. You know, here's the deal. Like there's great recruiters at tech systems and Robert Half, you just have to find them. Right. I wouldn't focus on the agency, Muhammad. I'd focus on the recruiter, right? Focus on the recruiter because that's incredibly important. It finally comes in. I grew up in restaurants because of my dad and work in the same restaurant. Yeah, that's too funny, man. That's too funny. Yeah, restaurant industry shout out to people in the restaurant industry.

Jeff, yeah, man, let's do it. Dude, hit me up. Jordan, good morning, good morning. Jordan, I've had to teach myself that every conversation and posting is to be an argument for my value in the workplace. Just got to present. Yeah, listen, I think like I was talking to my wife and I've had a bunch of conversations about college and if it's going to be around. I mean, she went to art school, I went to business school. We definitely come into a bunch of different, you know, we come from different backgrounds from that perspective. And I think the one thing I constantly joke about is if I talk class and college, 90% of the grade would be attendance.

Because I'll tell you this, just showing up, just showing up consistently means more than anything else. You know, literally one of my tips that I got early on for my mentor Scott Gordon at Vaco. He said, shut up, go to meetups and not say anything. And for me, like that was such a valuable advice. When I lived in Raleigh for a year, for me, literally I showed up to meetups and basically didn't say a word for like three months. And I took notes and I had a developer come up to me. one of the organizers of the meetup in Raleigh. And he was like, hey, like where do you work?

And I was like, Vaco. And he was like, oh, I've never heard of it. He goes like, are you a developer? And I go, no, I'm a recruiter. His mouth dropped open. Because he didn't expect it. So again, show up, be present. That means more than anything else. Steve, it's great to see you focus on the recruiter. Absolutely. There's so many good. Yeah, again, don't focus on the company if you're trying to connect with the recruiter, focus on, or no, focus on the recruiter, not the agents. He's not the company. I love that. Brandon comes in high, too. I have to be here and comment in follow tips now.

I have to connect. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, go connect with Brandon. I love it. Annie goes, would you say only reach out to Tech recruiter's only or any recruiter? I mean, I always say just Tech recruiter. But like, you know, we have some amazing accounting finance recruiters at Vaco. And they know the market really well also. So I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to reach out. But for me, for time purposes, I would probably just do Tech recruiters. But again, if you see an accounting finance recruiter that's been like in the, because Annie's in Atlanta, right? If you find a finance recruiter has been in Atlanta, like 15 years, I'd connect with them in heartbeat.

And I probably talk about it. Let's see here. Jeff comes in another huge thing. If you are employed with a company, become friends with your company's recruiters, help them understand what the teams need and recommend people and work with groups that try to help people get employed, make connections for your company recruiters to put the work and that put the work in it helps them. It makes them better. Yeah, I love this. Jeff's Jeff's that he just posted is kind of what Emmett said yesterday about like, just always paying it forward, right? I truly think doing the right, this is a Gary V quote. It's not me doing the right thing is always the right thing.

It always comes back to you. I think this is huge. Always try to lift other people up. The need to know I wish, but please connect with me and let's stay in touch. Trey, hey Trey, I love it. Sequel Saturday, right? So again, networking tips for conferences. Actually, if you're not a part of my email in these newsletter, go to my Twitter, sign up. I actually sent out my networking tips yesterday. Again, Trey, pick your speakers you want to go to and pick some people that you specifically want to meet and write that down before you show up, right? That's incredibly, incredibly important. So again, for me, start with recruiters first.

That's what I would have done. I also would have taken a ton of interviews to try to figure out what I was good at, right? Again, I was in the restaurant and initiated it no one any better. This is obviously a little different. But if you're starting in tech, this is the same mentality. Interview for a QA spot, right? If you're a junior dev and you're on a breaking junior dev, I didn't review for QA A spot, see if you like it. Interview for a database role. But Taylor, I didn't do database dev. I get it. But I don't know. Interview for it. If I would take the interview, especially as a junior, figure out your passions and what you like and where you should align because that's what I would have done.

I would have literally been like, I would have interviewed for a recruiter job. I would have, you know, I know what I'd know now. I would have interviewed for like a project manager job or maybe an analyst job, right? So again, incredibly, incredibly important to network. Put yourself out there, be open to having different types of conversations. I think one thing I see time and time and time again is that junior developers take so long to get a job because they only look at junior dev roles, right? Maybe they could literally go to be, yeah, I'm talking to Randall said I'm talking to someone about a BA role.

I think a BA role is great. I think, and oh my gosh, this is another topic. I don't want to go too long today because it's a solo show and people can only hear me talk for so long. This is another incredibly important topic that Randall brought up right now. Like there's so many ways into tech that's not just a developer, right? You have data analysts, business analysts, project managers, right? You know, if you're really good with people and you love talking to people and you love like tran, tr, basically like dumbing down tech talk to normal talk, a BA role is great for you.

If you just love talking to people in general, maybe a tech recruiter is a great because here's the deal. As a tech recruiter, I get to do everything a software developer does. I get to go to conferences. I get to go to meetups. I get to hang. I don't have to decode, but I get to do all the fun stuff that developers get to do, right? So again, there's so many ways into tech. I actually talked about this at render when I was back there in June. So many ways to get into tech over the meeting developer. Let's see here. Josh comes in here. My coworkers used to be annoyed with me because I would take every call from a recruiter when a recruiter got me a huge promotion.

Another company, my coworkers started asking me for how to get recruiters to call you more. Yeah, again, listen, recruiters can wear you out. There's a lot of bad ones. But if you can get the mindset that there's a lot of bad ones and you just have to like sift through them to find the good ones, I think your mentality becomes a lot better. Let's see here. I saw a post about this the other day getting a QA sounds like a great way to be a better developer. Yeah, I mean, I think so. I think this is great. If you're a junior dev and you want to get into development, take a QA job to figure out like how to become a better coder, right?

So again, just a thought there. Let's see here. Allen comes in. I'm a recruiter and I take recruiter calls and they reach out. I love it. All right. Well, listen, that's it for me today. That's all I want to share with you today. If I started my job search again, so if I moved up here to recap, if I moved up here to do music as a musician, I would have gone to bars and gone to the places. where my people hung out, right? So Broadway singer, songwriters, shows at exit in wherever in West End. That's where I would have gone. If I was a developer, right?

And I wanted to network. You've got to go where the people are, right? Two meetups, two conferences, right? Have the conversations. Have the one on ones that again, the next thing I would have done if I were to start on my professional job search, I would have leveraged LinkedIn. I would have gone on LinkedIn. I would have talked to as many recruiters and learned as much about the market I live in and the jobs available to me as I feasibly could. So all right, y'all, that's it for today. Twitter spaces. Thanks for everybody hanging out today. Glenn, I see your listening. I didn't get your question, but I think that's a great question you asked on Twitter.

So I'm going to get to that next week. So I appreciate that. It's you tweeting me this morning. LinkedIn Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. Thank you all for tuning in this morning. I appreciate it. Trey goes, I need a two hour solo stream. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe have enough to say. Go ahead, listen, if you like this, if you like this episode, share it. I really, truly think somebody needs to hear this this morning. If you also liked it as well, please connect with people on here. There's so many people that commented this morning. If I were you, again, my tip for you all is one, I would connect with every speaker I have on the show.

And number two, I would connect with every single person that comments every single morning. Because what happens is, I've had over probably 200 speakers on the show that are all hiring managers, job seekers or leads, tech leads with great minds. So you would have had 200 plus more connections. And then all the people commenting on my show, I would slide into their DMs. That's my networking strategy for today. You all have a great one. Have a great weekend. What happy Friday? And I'll see you all next week. Peace. Hey, you did it. You listened to an entire episode. And I am very grateful because you know why there's a lot of podcasts out there.

There's a lot of episodes and I myself rarely finish an entire episode. So I appreciate you so, so much for listening. Quick reminder, please rate and review this podcast in the app store. I want this to be discoverable to others and the only way that happens is if you take the time right now and rate and review it. Please like right now, unless you're driving, then don't do it. So thank you again. If you need to reach out to me, Taylor at Vaco.com or at T-DESSON on all social media handles. And I hope you have a fantastic day.