Wendi: [00:00:00] Welcome to Beyond the Military Podcast, a space for military women determined to focus on life outside of the military. As a fellow woman veteran who once felt lost after leaving the military, I know firsthand the challenges that we face. Hi, my name is Wendi Wray, a woman of God, wife, mom of three, army veteran.

Life and career coach, and I’m on a mission to equip and empower women like yourself to excel in life and career with confidence. In this podcast, you’ll walk away with a tool that will help you navigate your career and life mentally and emotionally during and beyond your service. So if you’re ready to go from stuck to confident, this podcast is for you.

Loosen up your laces and grab a coffee because it’s time to step up. Into a new chapter with clarity and confidence.

Hello and welcome. Today we have a guest that is [00:01:00] a veteran, and he is a woman advocate. And so as you guys have been tuning in I’ve been talking about, LinkedIn profile. I’ve been talking about the importance of you taking the time and understanding how LinkedIn works and how recruiters use this tool to help them, but also help their hiring managers, their organization.

And so I’m really excited that you all get to meet, but also hear from the number one recruiter. Of 2024 you all, I literally stumbled upon his LinkedIn profile and the way that we met is one of those, , kind of examples that I give before on the power of LinkedIn and why you want to stay connected and active on the platform, because the way it happened, I believe Cody, saw my profile, but I saw his profile and the one thing that caught my attention was that he was a woman advocate.

So I love that he is an advocate for women in technology. And then two, that he was like the number [00:02:00] one recruiter and he has over 30, 000 followers. And so that alone said a lot to me, grabbed my attention and I wanted to learn more about Cody and somehow we had been connected for over six, seven years.

And so Cody and I go way back without even knowing it, but I know that he and I probably both connected when we’re both getting out of the military, learning the platform, but here we are a couple years later, and I’m just so excited for you guys to meet him. And what I want to offer you today, if you’re driving or if you’re multitasking, like we typically do, right, there’s always a thousand things going on.

I want you to come back and tune in to the video that will also be in the show notes that you can watch at a time where you can also take notes because we will be talking about how to amplify your LinkedIn, but also what recruiters are looking for. And we will also talk a little bit about how AI is also powerful for the recruiters in possibly how to find you as well.

So. Without further [00:03:00] ado, welcome Cody Ledbetter to the podcast. Please let everyone know a little bit about you.

Cody Ledbetter: Yeah, thank you, Wendi. I appreciate that great intro. , so I’m Cody let better. I’m a senior technical recruiter and, , prior military did 21 years. So I was a military police officer for 13 years. And then I transitioned into recruiting, , just retired last year. So, last June was my official retirement date.

Then. Yes. So I’m a senior technical recruiter, working for O’Reilly Auto Parts.

Wendi: Yeah. And you guys, I know he’s like really humble. He doesn’t like to put a spotlight on his recruiter of the year. I mean, he’s been out for. A little over a year and you actually already took on that recognition. So I applaud you for that, Cody. And you know, I know a lot of the things that we do.

Is not by surprise, right? It happens because of the skills that you’ve acquired, the experience, the discipline, and also the motivation. I think that that’s one of the biggest pieces here. And for those of [00:04:00] you that are listening, I want to highlight too, that it’s not easy to come on a podcast when You are also in charge of doing a thousand other administrative things, making sure that you’re getting your own, job done.

So Thank you for your time again, Cody. And one of the questions that I had for you.

I think when you and I first connected was, how did you get into your role? I know you were a recruiter in the military, but talk to us a little bit about how you landed that opportunity from the get go.

Cody Ledbetter: Yeah. So a, it’s a little bit of a odd transition story. So, I was probably about 10 months out from my retirement date and I had already been working on my LinkedIn, everything like that, some random lady reached out to me, didn’t even have a profile photo or anything. And she’s like, Hey, I think you’d be great for this position as a senior recruiting manager.

And I started looking into it. At first, I was kind of hesitant because I’ve, Heard horror stories about, you know, scammers. So I kind of ignored it. And then [00:05:00] about a week later, I went back to it and I said, Hey, let me reach out and see if she’s legit. And it turns out she was legit. She was a owner of a company, , that basically recruited for, CIA, , FBI, defense intelligence agency and stuff like that.

And, , I told her I was still in the military and I said, well, let me ask my boss if I could just, Step away from working in the military and, kind of take this job on. And so, , I asked my boss who very cool guy, , he was like, he was like, yeah, as long as you just come in for, you know, drug tests and stuff like that,, you know, go take care of what you got to take care of for your transition.

So my last nine months in the military, I was working a full time job, as a senior recruiting manager,, I also did a career skills program with PayPal, the global talent acquisition team. I did that simultaneously. And then right as I was getting ready to start my terminal leave,, I started looking for other opportunities.

And one of my buddies reached out to me. He said, Hey, , there’s a senior technical recruiter role, I think you’d be good for it. It’s an awesome team, awesome organization. [00:06:00] And so I applied for it, I interviewed for it, and here I am. I’ve been here ever since.

. April of 2023. So, about 17 months now.

Wendi: Nice. So I think for you, it was more so the power of just you putting yourself out there. Like you just took a chance. You’re like, I’m not even going to do a photo. And I think at the time too, which was what, like about two years ago or almost two years ago, I think it was still like LinkedIn was still picking up in a way where I think now it’s, I mean, it’s a lot better.

I connect with more women on the platform that I did. Seven years ago or six years ago. And now there are more veterans that are eager to learn the platform and want to communicate, with recruiters. I think before it was more, like you said, everyone was hesitant. Is this real? Which, I think as veterans, we have this hesitancy already because we’re like, Oh my gosh, we’re military.

We don’t want to give away too much information, [00:07:00] which makes sense, right?

Especially you military police., but for you, when you came in and you, you were approached with, this is the opportunity. Was there a time? And the reason I’m asking this question is because a lot of my audience are women.

And everyone, I think, goes through the kind of like self doubt, uncertain, and the insecurity of like, am I able to do this? But for you, I think it was more along, it was more aligned with what you did already. But tell me a little bit about, were you a little, insecure? Was it something you’re like, Yeah.

I want to, I want to be a recruiter again.

Cody Ledbetter: Yeah, so, I don’t have social media, so I basically haven’t had social media since 2016. I got rid of Facebook, Instagram, all that, and just kind of, , dropped off the grid. And then when I started looking at this LinkedIn platform, I was like, well, this seems a little bit more professional.

And so I started looking into it. I started building up my LinkedIn. I think it was probably two or three years, like you said, outside of my retirement date. And I really started connecting with [00:08:00] people that were, you know, head hunters for recruiting and stuff like that. So at first that was kind of, how do I use this platform?

But it’s really a phenomenal platform. And the better you get at using it and the better you get at networking, it’s just a really phenomenal, social media tool.

Wendi: Yeah, I love that. And it’s true, right? Like, I think the more that we do something, the better we get at, but the beauty of LinkedIn, and this is why I encourage everyone. I don’t care what phase of your transition, if you plan on staying in for 20 years, start now because a platform is still fairly new when it comes to, not everyone is on LinkedIn as per TikTok

There’s more people on TikTok than there is LinkedIn because of, the short form videos, et cetera. But with LinkedIn, I think too, since it’s a professional platform, not only is it good for the audience, like veterans for this example, but also for the hiring managers, for the business, for the organization, because [00:09:00] they’re looking for talent, they’re looking for you, they’re there and they pay extra money to be able to find the right candidates.

And So my, question to you Cody is what has been your secret? And I know we have an article, which also will be in the show notes, highly encouraged that you look at that to kind of get a view of what recruiters are looking for, or also what they are doing to help candidates come through their pipeline.

But what would you say is ultimately your secret on getting the 2024, recruiter for LinkedIn of the year?

Cody Ledbetter: So my, I guess my style, it kind of comes back to my style when I was in the military, , very direct, very honest, highly in integrity, driven and, just foundational principles for communication, As a recruiter, I think it’s crucial to communicate effectively, be transparent during the entire recruiting process.

There’s a lot of recruiters out there that just kind of skip over the transparency piece and [00:10:00] just try to move the candidate, to the next phase, so talking about salary, talking about, , different, Aspects of the job and stuff like that. You got to be up front with the candidate and you’ve got to be direct, networking continuously as a recruiter, I think is also crucial, I get a lot of referrals from people that I’ve interviewed previously. So building that network up, I think has also, allowed me to kind of take advantage and find the right candidates. And then also supporting veterans, obviously, you know, as a recruiter, I think, being able to highlight.

That platform as a veteran and as a veteran advocate, and also a women advocate, just being able to utilize the platform that you have, really, I think kind of sets you apart from other recruiters. So that’s just a couple of things I would

Wendi: Yeah.

no, I love that. And one thing that stands out to me. Is the transparency and honesty, right? I think that, and you’re right. I was a recruiter and there were times where they’re asking me too many questions and I don’t have the answers. So should I just kind of like tell them what [00:11:00] they want to hear so that we can, you know, get into another call and, and learn about them because it was great talent, right?

Like I didn’t want to let go of this candidate because there’s so many options available, but at the same time, I wanted to also offer them the opportunity to. Kind of be in understanding that I don’t have all the answers, but I will get back to them. Right. And, you know, this is something that is ongoing, at least for the opportunities that I was recruiting for is more of a conference style.

It wasn’t a, , specific, you know,, actual job that we were recruiting for. There were many. And so I love that you bring that up, Cody, because here’s the thing. And for those of you listening, especially if you are getting out within the next 90 days or even. 180 days, six months. It’s so important for you to also be honest and transparent, because one of the things that I’ve not only experienced myself as a recruiter, but also saw other candidates suffer, I want to say, or, you know, get into a [00:12:00] place where now They are not being taken seriously because they weren’t honest from the beginning.

And so this is what I mean. It’s a two way street. If you’re asking a recruiter a question and the recruiter says, and I love that you mentioned salary, right? Because I don’t know about your experience, but my experience, veterans didn’t ask really about salary until stage number three. And, you know, I think that that’s something that we need to work on, right?

From the very beginning. Like, What’s the salary range? It’s completely normal. It’s a great question to have at the very beginning because if it’s not a salary that meets your needs for the opportunity that you’re looking for, then you’re wasting your time unless there’s some wiggle room for negotiation.

But for the most part, I think we know that there is a range. And if it’s way over the range, like, We’re wasting our time here. And so being honest from the beginning, right? Understanding what you want is what’s going to be required. So if you don’t know, yes, explore that conversation. [00:13:00] But at the same time, as soon as you know, you need to be honest because now you’re both wasting your time.

And so Cody, with that, I do want to give an example or maybe something that will help be beneficial to someone that’s listening where, you know, , an opportunity was missed Or maybe even specific to a veteran that you’ve helped before.

Cody Ledbetter: Yeah. I mean, I think the salary piece, a lot of people there’s, there’s tools out there like salary. com. There’s, other tools, Glassdoor and stuff like that. Before you start looking into having that conversation, you need to have an understanding of where the ballpark range should be. Because if you shoot for the moon, That recruiter is going to be like, there’s no way I can, I can’t go that high.

And so if you utilize salary. com or you utilize those platforms out there, , and have a ballpark idea of where you’re, going to land a lot of companies, they’ll post the salary range, some states actually require it. And so they’ll post the salary range as long as you’re somewhere in the middle of that salary [00:14:00] range, not too high, not too low, you know, that recruiter is going to be more than willing to have a conversation with you.

So it also depends on your qualifications, your educational background, your, experience and stuff like that. And that’s going to be commensurate to what your salary is going to end up being, but having a good starting point, I think it’s probably the most beneficial, , before you even start asking about salary.

host_1_09-12-2024_134044: Yeah, no, great advice because that’s actually one of the things that I recommend when I work with women that are looking into specific opportunities or really want sometimes a salary more than the growth opportunity at the moment. So they’re not so worried about growing Right away, but they would want to start off on the right salary range based on their experience skills, like you mentioned education one of the things that I always recommend for them to do is to know exactly where they’re relocating and if they know it’s going to be a remote opportunity to ensure that that’s also.

A part of what they’re looking for. Right. So for example, if they want to be a human [00:15:00] resources manager or talent manager in the, Washington, Seattle area, then they need to be specific with where they’re looking the position and not only look on, like you said, salary. com, but other sites that will provide that.

And also, you know, going on LinkedIn and looking at the salary there specifically to the industry. To the company, because company a may give you, you know, maybe 20 to 50, 000 more because they are a bigger corporation versus company B. So again, you want to know what you’re getting into because you don’t want to waste your time.

If we value anything here time. And we know this because we already have very limited amount of time to focus on our transition on our career search. So I think, that you doing your work ahead of time is key. And, you know, Cody, thank you for highlighting that because it really is important.

And I, it breaks my heart sometimes when I ask the question, I’m like, okay, so what’s [00:16:00] your salary range? And they gave me like a starting point and it’s still like very like hesitant. Like, oh, I’m okay with 65. it’s like, well, it doesn’t meet the, the job, like the job is actually paying 85 right now in this area.

So do you maybe not want to have more of an entry level opportunity than an actual, mid,, level opportunity. And so again, all of that I think is important for you to start doing before you start talking and communicating and reaching out to recruiters. And Cody, one thing that I really want to focus here and for our listeners, as we’re talking about time, right, to really get out of this conversation is their LinkedIn.

What recommendations do you have from a recruiter? From an employer perspective that they could do today or [00:17:00] maybe in the next couple of days that they could work on, because the whole point of this podcast is for them to take action, but also to do it in a way where it’s going to serve them. So if there’s one thing that you could recommend, what could it be?

Cody Ledbetter: I think, , taking advantage of LinkedIn, , before you get out, , you know, two years out, maybe start networking, start building up your LinkedIn, , get rid of that DA , profile photo,

host_1_09-12-2024_134044: Yes, please.

Cody Ledbetter: all the military stuff, get rid of a lot of that military jargon, , They give a LinkedIn premium to active duty service members now.

It used to be for a year. I think they made it now to where you’re actually serving. , if you’re serving actively, then you can get LinkedIn premium the entire time that you’re serving. So I think

they just recently changed that.

Wendi: Did not know that. Well, thank Cody.

I learned something new. Nice.

Cody Ledbetter: Yeah, Cory Boatwright, he’s the program manager for LinkedIn, [00:18:00] and he actually changed that. But , even military spouses can get a year of LinkedIn premium for

free. So starting out with your, building up your network and stuff like that, again, getting rid of that horrible DA photo, , or even in fatigues or whatever, that scares a lot of corporate recruiters away.

They see, oh, this GI Jane looking person. And it’s like, Hey, you know, , find something in a suit I mean, there’s even apps where you can do professional photos utilizing AI, so you can even put yourself in a suit or whatever. You don’t have to spend the 250 bucks or whatever to go get a professional headshot.

You can do it with an app.

Wendi: Yeah, no, I love where you’re kind of segwaying us into the next topic of AI as we’re getting closer to kind of closing up our conversation here. Great point on the DA photo. I’ll post the link here in the show notes of please do not. Provide a LinkedIn profile picture if [00:19:00] you’re in uniform and you’re getting out right now.

I mean, I kind of feel like if you’re still thinking about the transition or you’re still in, that’s fine. But if you are packing in, you have your, terminal leave, all of that stuff ready. You want a photo in a professional title, especially if that’s what you want to do. Now, if you want to go into construction, you want to, meet that same.

Level of, , actual attire, but the other key piece that you mentioned was if like, let’s say you’re like, Oh crap, I literally have that right now on my profile. I have my, OCPs or my class A’s on there and you want to make a change fast and you still need to schedule a photographer, which by the way, photographers can be a little, , behind schedule too.

So you want to use, and I’ll provide it in the show notes. , as well, I have no sponsorship, nothing, no affiliation. They’re not paying me to promote this. So I just want to say that ahead of time, but I actually use this personally. It’s the app art flow, ,

that you [00:20:00] could do literally in like five minutes or less.

And again, not something that I would say would be the first choice, but if you are within 30 days and you still have that photo and you don’t possibly have one in a suit yet or in a professional attire, I recommend that one. And so now that you talked about AI Cody, I want to ask you, and I know you and I didn’t talk about this much during our introduction, but I wanted to offer the audience, because this is something that I will continue to talk more about because I use.

AI, ChatGPT a lot more than I did two, three years ago. And by that, I mean, not only, , with my content that I am getting ready to provide here on the podcast or my LinkedIn lives, but also with my clients. So we work with different, kind of ideas based on their experience, their non commissioned Evaluations, same for the officers, their OERs, their evaluation reports, [00:21:00] and kind of get an understanding of what the opportunities could be for them.

So I’m curious to know how you are using AI as a recruiter and possibly how that also may help the audience with their LinkedIn profile and to consider also using it for themselves during their transition.

Cody Ledbetter: yeah, so I do use AI every single day. , I think. As far as helping out veterans, one thing that I do is I, like, I think last year I helped around 50 veterans, , redo their resume, because the resume that you get from TAP is just, Horrific. And so, , so I, I, I sit down with them and I go over, , what their qualifications are.

And I try to like reword and get rid of the military jargon and make it more corporate specific or more relevant to, to a civilian world. , so being able to, I mean, I’m not an English, , You know, major or anything like that. So, , I utilize AI to help me kind of reword their, , resume, take [00:22:00] their military experience and translate that to what a civilian equivalent job would do.

, I use it for content creation, , when I’m, when I’m giving tips on what to improve on your resume, or I’m giving advice on job seeking and stuff like that. , they have. Image creators. ChatGPT has a thing called, Dolly3, where it’s basically like, it’ll create images for you based off of the prompts.

And so, you know, I’ll create a prompt and I’ll create an image of a recruiter looking at a stack of resumes. And then I’ll say, Hey, this is how you make your military, , you know, experience stand out. This is how you translate it. And I’ll create a post based off of that. And so, , I use it every day. I think a lot of people are scared of AI.

, they’re scared that the, AI is going to take my job. AI is going to do this, but I think AI is, it’s just a supplementary. As long as you don’t lean on it as a crutch, I think AI can really make you that much more proficient and utilizing it as just maybe a foundational building block. , I think that’s the [00:23:00] most crucial part.

It’s just kind of focusing on that, , building block and utilizing AI for. Idea generation or, how am I going to word this professionally or whatever? So, I mean, I use it every single day. And so, , I’m not afraid to tell people that I utilize it. I utilize it sometimes to send emails because in the military, , you know, you would send an email and it’d be very stern and direct and, and however, didn’t really need a professional tone.

Whereas in the corporate world, You can’t be as direct. You have to be a little bit, you know, softer and a little bit more professional tone. So I’ll tell it, hey, take this email and write it a little more professional. And so it’ll, it’ll regenerate it and it’ll, it’ll reconstruct it for me. So it’s, it’s been, it’s been a great tool.

Wendi: I love it. And everything you said. It makes a lot of sense because I literally use it for that same reason and I can tell you that it does save me time. Like you said, you know, reword this instead of me sitting in front of the computer because that’s one of the things [00:24:00] that I don’t like to do. And of course, there’s pros and cons to every technology tool, but for the most part, you are still using your brain, right? You are still able to decide, okay, this is something that would be more my tone, or, you know, I’m going to add my own, Kind of like the example that I got from one of the podcasts that I listened to, I forget his name, but he did say, think about it when you’re using AI, think about it as a recipe that you have.

And you just want to spice it up a little bit, but when you put it in and it gives you like a different thing to spice it up, you also want to provide it that like love that special touch, right? So your tone, not only leaving it as the recipe that was provided, but still adding a little bit of you.

The analogy that he gave was, the recipe for your grandmother’s cookies. You want to give it that [00:25:00] smell, right? There’s always something that we remember of our loved ones, like a cookie, a dessert, something that we share, cherish, and that we remember because of the smell, right?

Our senses. And that’s exactly what we want to give it. We want to provide it. A personal touch, essentially, like the love in the recipe, the smell, whatever it may be for you. But I thought that was genius because that’s literally what I do now, right? Like even this podcast that we’re recording, I’ll get the transcript and I say, give me the most important or summarize the most important kind of like topic that we discussed.

So this is something that we already created. And now it’s just given me, instead of me listening for the next 30 minutes, Chat GBT is going to give it to me in less than 10 seconds. And so now I know where I can start my conversation in an email or a post and go back into our initial conversation.

Right? Like that would be the smell, like my own tone on top of what chat GBT has given me. And so last thing that I want to ask Cody, [00:26:00] and I think you touched on it a little bit, but the last thing that I would love to touch on to help our listeners here. When we’re using. Or when you’re using ChatGVT and you’re using it for, you know, possibly your job descriptions, how would that also benefit the person that’s, you know, looking at the job description and they’re looking at their resume or they’re looking at what stories can I give based on my NCOERs or OERs evaluation reports when it comes to preparing?

Like, what would you say about that?

Cody Ledbetter: Yeah, so you can actually take a job description, you can upload your resume, and you can ask ChatGPT, how do I match up? And even when you’re doing your resume review, if you take your resume and you upload it and say, I’m currently applying for a program manager role. , what do you see on my profile that I can improve?

And it’ll give you advice and stuff like that. So there’s so many different things that you can utilize chat [00:27:00] for. , originally it just used to be the prompt engineering and then they open up the GPT store, which it’s still free. , you can create your own resumes and stuff like that. But I mean, I even asked it to, you know, I uploaded my resume and I said, Hey, I’m applying for this role.

Can you tell me exactly what I need to focus on? And it allowed me to kind of tailor that specific, , area and really make it to where my resume stands out. I mean, it’s just a really great tool and, , I live by it. So yeah, that’s something I would recommend.

Wendi: Yeah, no, same here. That’s what I do with my clients. We use keywords, you know, the search engine optimization. We want to make sure that we at least get through the ATS system. And so again, if you have not considered or thought about it, this is your time. And with that, Cody, I would love for. Not only the audience to connect with, you have that opportunity.

, so can you share with us what’s the best platform? I’m sure it’s LinkedIn, but go ahead.

Cody Ledbetter: Yeah, it is LinkedIn. , I don’t have any [00:28:00] other social media platforms that I utilize. I don’t have Facebook, Instagram, Tik TOK, all that stuff. So I’m just a regular, you know, LinkedIn guy. , that’s probably the only way you’ll find me. , so reaching out to me on LinkedIn, , I communicate with tons of veterans.

, I help out tons of veterans on my own time, , revamping their resumes. , if somebody just says, Hey, Can you take a look at my resume and just give me a couple of tips and stuff like that. I do it all the time. And I, you know, I spent a lot of my free time just kind of dedicating to helping, , veterans transition.

Cause again, you go back to tap and the resume that they kind of help you build and stuff like that. It’s just not up to par with what you’re looking at when you get out into the civilian world. So LinkedIn would be my best, , best way to get ahold of me for sure.

Wendi: Yes, thank you, Cody, for that. And listen, you all, I know you are probably going to want to hit up Cody right away, but I want to offer to please also be respectful of his time. [00:29:00] Connect with him, yes, but ask him questions when you know you have something to ask, not just, you know, like all these random questions because, again, time is valuable.

He has a lot of Candidates, I’m sure.

and other jobs that need to be filled that he has already going on. But Cody, thank you so much again for your time, for what you do, for not only empowering, but also being an advocate for women in technology. And it’s been a pleasure again, from the very beginning.

Thank you so much for just providing a positive energy, providing, you know, just a great, , just positive, , Attitude with me, you know, kind of saying, Hey, come to the podcast. So thank you for accepting the invite. And I’m really excited for, you know, what the audience is going to take out of this.

And I look forward to continue to connect with you on LinkedIn.

Cody Ledbetter: Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Wendi. I really love what you do and the platform and, , you know, your podcast. I’ve watched several different podcasts and you really go into detail. , a lot of your, , people [00:30:00] that come on to the podcast really have some valuable information. And so, , yeah, it’s, it’s a pleasure to be here and I really enjoyed our time together.

Wendi: Thank you, Cody. You all have a great rest of your day and go look at your resume and go open that chat GBT app. All right. Have a beautiful rest of your week. Bye

Cody Ledbetter: bye.

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. I’m so blessed that you are here and please join us in the military women community on Facebook at bit.

ly forward slash beyond the military GRP. Again, it is. Bitly beyond the military GRP. All right. Talk to you soon. Bye