Click here to join me on Thursday, July 18th at 12PM ET. 

[00:00:00] Wendi: Hey sis, welcome to Beyond the Military Podcast, where faith led military women overcome burnout and create more balance. Just imagine having enough time to focus on your faith, family, and have more fun while still serving as a woman leader. In this podcast, you will walk away with the tools to help you navigate the busy life of a military woman, organize your mind, overcome overwhelm, create a prioritization playbook, and a balanced blueprint for integrating faith, family, and career.

[00:00:28] Wendi: Yeses in that order. Hi, I’m Wendi Wray, woman of God, wife, mama of two, army veteran, and certified life coach. And I’m here to help you create a life of meaning outside of the military, a life of laughter, joy, and intentional free time. If you are ready to overcome burnout and create balance as a faith led military woman, sis, this podcast is for you.

[00:00:50] Wendi: So loosen up your laces and grab your coffee because it’s time to step into freedom and peace.

[00:00:55] Wendi: Hello, and welcome to episode 228. Today, we’ll [00:01:00] be discussing two ways. You need to be spending majority of your time in order for you to get into your next role after the military. And before we do that, I want to remind you and invite you if you haven’t registered already, to come join me tomorrow, July 18th at 12:00 PM Eastern Standard time on LinkedIn where I’ll be going live.

[00:01:20] Wendi: And I’ll be sharing with you 10 common career mistakes military women are making and how to avoid them. And also, by the way, I’m doing a special. LinkedIn profile makeover giveaway, but you have to be there live. So if you’re like, Hey, I have something else, cancel what else, whatever else you have going on, come join me, come ask me questions, come make the most out of your transition and come listen to these common mistakes because I don’t want you to make these as well.

[00:01:49] Wendi: And I do most of these mistakes and I want to empower you to not make these and I want to encourage you to take action. So scroll down to the show notes and go to the link, [00:02:00] register for the event, or just send me a direct message on LinkedIn and I’ll send you the link directly to your inbox. And I hope to see you there so that you can ask questions and to meet you there as well.

[00:02:11] Wendi: Alright, so with that, I want to go over the two ways that you need to be spending your time. For to get you into the next role. And that is one applying and two networking. If you’re not applying, you better be networking. And yes, of course, I know you need to be updating your resume. You need to be looking at other opportunities at other roles.

[00:02:35] Wendi: You need to be looking into the company culture. You need to be taking your professional photo. You need to be preparing your questions for the interview. All of that is great and dandy, but until then. Until you have actually gotten an interview, then I need you to be ready to, um, keep applying and also networking.

[00:02:58] Wendi: And so this is what I mean. [00:03:00] Of course, you can’t prepare for an interview if you haven’t submitted a resume or worked on your resume and haven’t applied. Right? I get it. But if you’re working on that now, I also want you to be working on networking. It’s so important for you to be working on either your resume, networking, LinkedIn profile, networking, applying, networking.

[00:03:25] Wendi: So this is what I mean. You want to be able to be putting at least 80 percent of your time on one of the, one or the other. So if you’re not applying, I want you to be networking. And this is why. When you are applying, I want you to think about it in a way where you’re doing this behind the scenes and you are not showing up and putting yourself in front of as many employers, as many connections as possible.

[00:03:54] Wendi: And how do you do this on LinkedIn? The most simple way. You could do this through other events [00:04:00] that are in person. You can go to events that are hiring. You could go to a career fair. You can go to. A program where they are going to put you in front of employers. That’s what I mean, because you working on your resume, 80 percent of the time is not going to get you hired.

[00:04:17] Wendi: You working on your LinkedIn profile. 80 percent of the time is not going to get you hired. Yes. It’s going to help you, but I only want you to spend 10 percent of your time. So go on there, update whatever you need to update, add whatever you need to add, change your profile picture and get out of there and then network.

[00:04:35] Wendi: But this is why it’s so important to, to have a profile, a LinkedIn profile. And it’s describing exactly what you’re looking for because that’s exactly where they’re going to get their first five seconds of a first impression of who you are. So highly recommend that you work on your LinkedIn profile as much as possible, which the last episode that I had or shared with you here talks all about all about the three things that you [00:05:00] want to at least have.

[00:05:02] Wendi: Thank you so much. Ready, if especially if you’re like 90 days out, so I encourage you to go listen to the episode, but also I want you to be ready to network right? And in order for you to do that, you need to either do it on a LinkedIn or another platform that’s going to connect to other humans, hiring managers.

[00:05:21] Wendi: Or in person, there are also other online opportunities that you could be a part of. There are networking events that are happening every day, all around the world, all around the country. There are also opportunities of you meeting other professionals that are in the role that you’re aspiring to pursue.

[00:05:42] Wendi: So there’s so many ways that you can do this, but we want you to really start taking inventory of how much time you’re spending just on your resume or just on preparing for interview questions if you haven’t even submitted an application. So if you’re not applying 80 percent of the time, we need you to be networking 80 [00:06:00] percent of that.

[00:06:01] Wendi: And in order for you to be ready and get hired, a lot of the times we think that it’s the resume’s fault, but we didn’t do everything that. Needed to be, you know, provided on the resume. And yes, we can always evaluate our resume, um, against the job description, the role. And of course, yes, we can refine our interview skills and answer questions as much as possible and rehearse and do all of that.

[00:06:28] Wendi: But at the end of the day, that’s not going to be the big picture or the major thing that’s holding you back from our career. And I’m going to tell you right now what it is. And that’s you showing up with confidence. And also creating certainty for the hiring manager to hire you, or the interviewer, or the recruiter, even if it’s a phone call to put you into the next phase.

[00:06:53] Wendi: And so if you’re not showing up confident. On LinkedIn, on any event, [00:07:00] or even on a phone call that a recruiter, you know, found you or recommend was referred to you by someone and you pick up that phone or you go on that Zoom call and you don’t show up with confidence. You’re not prepared. Then guess what you are not going to one be confident or to provide that certainty that you are competent for that role that you bring the skills and the experience to that role.

[00:07:28] Wendi: So that’s really the problem here. And so going back into the resume and the interview, if you are not confident in what you bring to the table, the value that you bring, or even show some type of certainty that you were able to fill that role and really help them, you know, With the opportunity that they’re looking to fulfill or to get the job done, then you’re not going to get hired.

[00:07:53] Wendi: So yes, it starts with your resume. Yes. It starts with your LinkedIn profile and your interview prep. [00:08:00] But at the end of the day, you need to be ready to talk about everything that applies to that job role. And that includes asking real questions. Some of you go in there with general questions and that’s not going to help you.

[00:08:15] Wendi: If anything, it’s going to come in to hurt you. And how do you do that? Great question, because that’s what I’m here for. I’m here to help you. And this is what I felt my clients with along the way. Help them not only prepare even before the LinkedIn profile, but also prepare in a way where they’re constantly rehearsing these questions, constantly thinking about stories and examples that they can provide, and also know to show up with confidence.

[00:08:40] Wendi: And so this is something that you’re like, I need help with send me a direct message. I’m happy to help you. But most importantly, if you’re able to catch this episode before I go live on July, 18th, come join me because some of the common career mistakes. Are not being prepared for an interview. Like I mentioned last week, not being [00:09:00] prepared for a LinkedIn profile for your header, and you’re not prepared because you don’t know exactly what you want.

[00:09:06] Wendi: And you don’t know exactly what you want because you haven’t really considered the opportunities out there. You’re underestimating this transition process. And so you’re not putting any time into where you need to put time into. And so that’s why I encourage you. If you’re not applying, you’re networking.

[00:09:23] Wendi: If you’re networking, or you’re not networking, then you’re applying, meaning you’re working on your resume, you’re refining some things, evaluating. And then you’re applying. And so this is something you need help with. Come join me on July 18th, come learn more, come get more of how you can start working on making sure that you’re ready, prepared, and create that certainty, not only for you, but also for the hiring manager.

[00:09:47] Wendi: And if you’re like, listen, I can’t wait, or I’ve missed the actual live, send me a direct message on LinkedIn. And you can also send me a message here on whichever, um, [00:10:00] podcast platform we’re using either Apple or Spotify. You’ll scroll down to the show notes and they’ll send, send a message and you can send me a message there and I’ll respond and I’ll be happy to help you regardless of where you are in your transition process.

[00:10:13] Wendi: But I encourage you to take this moment as you’re listening, either in the car, in the office, or just, um, at home. I want you to take a moment to really ask yourself. Am I confident in what I bring to the table? Am I going to create certainty to be able to fulfill or solve the problem of, you know, in order for, to be hired, right?

[00:10:34] Wendi: Because nothing else matters. The only thing that matters is you getting hired, you getting hired to the position and the role that you know you are able to fulfill, but also in a role that is within your career goals. Your career plan. And so I want to invite you to join me tomorrow. I want to invite you to also send me a direct message just to meet you, connect with you and support you in any way that I can, especially with connecting you on LinkedIn.

[00:10:59] Wendi: Start right [00:11:00] now. Start connecting. Start networking because I’m telling you that is where you can expedite your job search,. All right. I hope this is helpful. Come join me. I look forward to seeing you and enjoy the rest of your week. Talk to you soon.

[00:11:14] Wendi: Hey lady, if this podcast helped you, challenged you or inspired you in some way, please leave me a written review for the show on Apple Podcasts and share it with another military sister. Helping you integrate balance, prioritization and growth in your relationship with God is my ultimate calling. I’m so blessed that you are here and please join us in the faith led military women community on Facebook at bit.

[00:11:36] Wendi: ly forward slash beyond the military GRP. Again, it is. Bitly beyond the military GRP. All right. Talk to you soon. Bye