Why Recruiters Struggle with their own Resumes—and How to Fix It with Kamara Toffolo

Rhona Pierce:
00:00

Recruiters know how to spot a good resume, but do they know how to write one for themselves? So there are a

Kamara Toffolo:
00:07

few things that I think all TA professional recruiters should include on their resume, and I'm gonna pull it down to 3 points, and they all start with the letter p. Okay? People, we want accomplishments that emphasize what you've done in terms of moving a company's people strategy forward. There's process, What have you done to improve upon or to completely transform and overhaul processes? And

Rhona Pierce:
00:35

That's Kamara Toffolo, a resume writer and job search strategist strategist. Who's helped countless recruiters and TA professionals transform their resumes from not so good to great. In today's episode, she's sharing the secrets to writing a resume that stands out. We spoke about why even recruiters struggle with writing a good resume, how to showcase your accomplishments effectively, how to tailor your resume for specific industries or roles. And Kamara even shared the three things every TA resume should include.

Rhona Pierce:
01:12

These past few years have been rough for us in TA, but I can see things are changing. If you're ready to jump back into the job market and find your next TA role, you don't wanna miss this episode. It's packed with actionable advice to help you create a resume that truly reflects your skills and experience. Let's dive in to my conversation with Kamara. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Kamara.

Rhona Pierce:
01:39

I'm so excited.

Kamara Toffolo:
01:41

I'm so excited to be here.

Rhona Pierce:
01:43

I know. I think we go way, way back. I was just telling my husband, you were the first and practically much the only person I've ever pitched to be on their show or podcast. I remember I was so nervous. I was like, can I be on your live show when you were doing your office hours back?

Rhona Pierce:
02:03

I think it was 2020, 2021.

Kamara Toffolo:
02:05

Yeah. Some And

Rhona Pierce:
02:06

you were like, sure. So it was the nicest person ever to pitch because I was so scared, and you were like, oh, yeah. Of course. Let's make it happen.

Kamara Toffolo:
02:13

Oh, I really appreciate that. But I have to tell you, like, I had you in mind, like, you were already on my list of people that I wanted to approach. So it was kinda kismet that you that you reached out to me. Like, I really appreciate that. So and we had a great episode and it's and I still get, like, great comments on it, which is wonderful.

Kamara Toffolo:
02:34

So thank you for being on my show.

Rhona Pierce:
02:36

Amazing. So I'm so happy to have you here today talking about a topic that I hate resumes. I'm gonna say it. I I think everyone knows this. I hate resumes.

Rhona Pierce:
02:46

One of the reasons is because I'm really bad at writing resumes. That's what I think. Right? I see resumes all day as a recruiter. And the past, I would say, 4 or 5 years, I've been in leadership.

Rhona Pierce:
03:00

I've seen and I've been hiring recruiters, obviously, for my recruiting team. And I think I'm not the only recruiter out there whose resume is a hot mess. So why do you think it's so difficult for recruiters and TA pros to write their own resumes?

Kamara Toffolo:
03:18

Well, I've thought about this from time to time because I have had a few recruiter and TA clients. And when I do see their original resume, I'm like, I'm surprised this isn't better, and I'm surprised that you need to hire me. But I feel like it's sort of like when it comes to resumes, you know, recruiters and NTA pros are are really, like, connoisseurs. But I feel like it's a I know a good resume when I see it scenario. So not necessarily, like, I can tell you exactly what makes for an amazing resume.

Kamara Toffolo:
03:52

It's an intuitive, like, you know, I know a good resume when I see it, but I have to see it. You know? So I think it's just because recruiters and TA pros are just bombarded with 1,000 and 1,000 and thousands of resumes all the time and across the course of your careers. And so I think it's just you know when you like it, but there's you don't have the specifics that really jump out to you as, like, this makes for a great resume. I don't know.

Kamara Toffolo:
04:19

I would love to hear more recruiter and TA Pro opinions on their own resumes and why they think that they're not good.

Rhona Pierce:
04:27

I don't know. I think it's kind of like what you said. We see so many. We know how to spot 1, but I personally am so done at the end of the day from reading resumes that the last thing I wanna do is write my own resume. That's why I for the last couple of years, I've always hired a resume writer.

Kamara Toffolo:
04:47

Fair enough. I can totally understand being completely sick of it. So that also makes a lot of sense.

Rhona Pierce:
04:53

So one of the challenges that I see is folks have is quantifying their accomplishments. Right? So what are some creative ways that TA professionals can, like, showcase their metrics and, like, the accomplishments that they've had without it feeling weird.

Kamara Toffolo:
05:11

Yeah. I guess it can really feel weird as a recruiter or a TA professional because when we think about what you specialize in, it's people. Right? So what are we doing counting people? Like, where's the value in that?

Kamara Toffolo:
05:22

Right? So I think what it really boils down to when we are trying to quantify and it not feel weird is we want to reinforce any metric that we share with Business Impact. So, for example, this sounds weird, recruited for and filled 50 technical roles, let's say, as an accomplishment on its own. But if we were to build on that and say recruited and filled 50 technical roles within a certain time frame in order to enable growth or rapid growth for the company, that's a totally different way to present it. So I think as long as we're backing up any numbers we share with that business impact or business enablement, that can help it feel a lot less weird.

Kamara Toffolo:
06:09

I think also using percentages can be helpful. And this isn't just, for recruiters or TA professionals, but many professions. Like, we can make accomplishments, quantifiable accomplishments, sound stronger and more impactful often when we use percentages rather than counting things out. Because when we count things out depending on the audience, it may seem like a small number, may seem like a huge number, may seem like a mid number. So when we are actually using percentages, it does a better job of of making the accomplishment a little bit more universal or translatable across industries or profession.

Kamara Toffolo:
06:47

So I think, especially for recruiters and TA folks, if we're trying to measure maybe something like an increase, I should say an improvement in, like, time to fill or time to hire rates, that's where a percentage would come into play as being really helpful. And we can also use percentages when we're talking about efficiency as well. So if we improve the process, build a process, optimize how we use technology platforms, there's probably some sort of quantifiable accomplishment in there from an efficiency standpoint that we can measure in percentage, and that will hopefully make it feel a little less weird. Like, we're just counting heads. You know?

Rhona Pierce:
07:27

Yeah. Yeah. For sure. That's a great way to think about it and put it. And, also, the real way to stand out as a recruiter, and I know someone who's hired recruiters, you don't wanna be the person who's just like the transactional recruiter.

Rhona Pierce:
07:42

You wanna be the strategic recruiter. And how can you showcase that you're strategic is by tying back your accomplishments to the business. And, also, I see it as a way of, like, putting in like, stepping in the door the right way because I'm not just filling in roles for you. I'm not just putting butts in seats. I'm actually making your business run because without people, it would not run.

Rhona Pierce:
08:10

So when you tie back your accomplishments as a recruiter to business accomplishments, that's gold.

Kamara Toffolo:
08:17

I love that. And I love how you say I'm making your business run. That's exactly what it is. Without people, like, what are you gonna do? You're gonna go.

Kamara Toffolo:
08:25

Yeah.

Rhona Pierce:
08:26

I mean, I I've always been amazed. And from as someone coming from a different industry because, you know, I used to be a software engineer before I moved into TA. How or where did that breakdown happen where companies and people in general, even candidates, have decided that recruiters are like this disposable, not important. They are essential to your business. They're bringing in your people.

Kamara Toffolo:
08:52

A 100%. Yeah. Absolutely. Couldn't be more.

Rhona Pierce:
08:55

So in addition to, like, the accomplishments and the things that we tie back to the business, it's also a people business. Right? Recruiting is about people. How can people showcase their soft skills and leadership qualities on a resume?

Kamara Toffolo:
09:11

So we talk a lot about quantifying accomplishments and quantifiable accomplishments on a resume, and that is kind of the foundation of great resume writing. But I don't want folks to shy away from qualitative accomplishments as well. So while numbers convey impact really quickly, we can still use our words to convey the impact that we've had in our goals. And so I feel like qualitative accomplishments are what you're going to wanna lean on when we are talking about the soccer skills or leadership side of things. So when we're talking about, emphasizing leadership skills, let's say, we'll probably want to highlight instances of where we have led a team to accomplish a certain thing or where we're not a team leader, where we've mentored or coached peers or folks who are junior to us to achieve a certain thing, whatever that thing may be.

Kamara Toffolo:
09:58

It could even be career progression for a particular person. So there's been many times where I've highlighted helping someone achieve a promotion. So my clients have, coached someone to achieve a promotion for themselves, and I think that's a great accomplishment to demonstrate leadership skills. From a client management perspective or like a hiring manager manager management perspective, I think it would be a great idea to provide examples of initiatives, let's say, that maybe you, came up with or led or champions that improve the engagement with hiring managers and and that partnership with those clients, so to speak.

Rhona Pierce:
10:39

Perfect. A lot of TA folks, especially now where a lot of teams are slashed and your TA team of 1 to do everything, they also are involved in employer branding initiatives. Like, can you share some tips on how they can leverage that employer branding experience to make their resume stand out? Sure.

Kamara Toffolo:
11:05

So in an ideal world, there's going to be some sort of metric, or measurement tied to these employer branding initiatives. Like, we wanna measure the effort of our output. Right? That's what we wanna lean on if we can. In the absence of having an actual metric, what we can do is maybe consider where there were instances where we maybe came up with the idea for an employer branding initiative.

Kamara Toffolo:
11:30

So let's say as a recruiter or talent acquisition professional, our idea was to use social media to start sharing more like daily or behind the scenes type of content to attract the right type of talent, to us. So if we came up with that idea, then simply explaining we came up with the idea is is an accomplishment in in and of itself and that it was implemented. If there's a metric to tie to it, even better. There's many different ways that you could highlight various employer branding initiatives, whether it's something you came up with or even contributed to. So again, we can quantify where where possible, but I we can also use qualitative accomplishments as well.

Rhona Pierce:
12:15

And now I wanna touch a little bit. I I realized that at the beginning, I said that a lot of recruiter resumes are a hot mess. One of the reasons why or one of the reasons why I call recruiter resumes a hot mess is because you can see in one resume, people try to put everything about the various industries, job types, every single thing they've ever recruited for. How can TA professionals tailor their resumes, like, to effectively showcase their skills and their experience for specific roles?

Kamara Toffolo:
12:51

So, yeah, that's a common pitfall fall across every profession is we always want to cover every possible scenario in our resume. Right? So this really boils down to having a clearly defined target role. So even if you are staying within recruiting or talent acquisition, if we still want to identify at least target industries or target companies, it would be even better. And so in doing that, that's going to give you a solid base from which to refine what you're sharing in your resume.

Kamara Toffolo:
13:27

And if we're making a shift, let's say we recruited for, like, sales before, now we wanna move more towards software or engineering, let's say, we want to consider kind of the common pain points shared between the sales organization trying to attract and retain talent and the software engineering organization trying to attract and retain that type of talent and really highlight instances of where we've done a good job of solving that pain point. But, again, it really boils down to that that target and having that target clearly defined so you're not feeling compelled to share everything.

Rhona Pierce:
14:05

And I don't know. This is, for some reason, controversial because some recruiters think you have to create a new resume for each role. Others like me believe you tailor per industry. And I understand that right now, especially in this landscape, people have been without jobs for a long time, especially TA and recruiting. We've been hit hard with layoffs.

Rhona Pierce:
14:31

So you're not like I know people listening to this are thinking, I don't have a a target industry. I just want a job. What do you think? This is my approach to this. So I've recruited across tech, media, and also sales.

Rhona Pierce:
14:46

I don't like doing sales, so I don't even create a resume. I don't even put that on my resume because I don't like recruiting. So I don't want that job. But I usually create one resume that I can send for any tech roles, tech companies, one resume for any media ones, and then I have one that kind of has, like, the intersection of both because they are companies that have both. I worked at 1.

Rhona Pierce:
15:11

That was my last place. Do you agree with that approach?

Kamara Toffolo:
15:15

I do. That would probably be my approach as well. That approach or more of a master resume approach, which is effectively what you're doing. You just have everything in separate documents. So I think that's a great way to approach it, and I like that you said that you don't include sales because you don't wanna do it.

Kamara Toffolo:
15:34

So that's really something that we should be following for resume writing across across every profession is don't include stuff you want less of. So if you don't wanna do sales, don't put, like, sales recruiting, don't include sales recruiting accomplishment. But, yeah, I really like your approach. I think tailoring especially when you have a clearly defined role, like, you're like, I wanna recruit. And the variation is within or is across industries.

Kamara Toffolo:
15:59

I think that approach is is a perfect one, exactly what I would do. Worst case scenario, you have a base resume and then you might tailor it a little bit depending or tailor your accomplishments a little bit depending on what you want to attract for your next role. But, yeah, I love your approach.

Rhona Pierce:
16:19

Great. Yeah. I I think and when you mentioned the the not putting things that you don't wanna do, I learned that the hard way because I remember putting something on a resume. That was back when I was working in as a software project manager. I remember putting a type of project that I absolutely hated.

Rhona Pierce:
16:36

Well, guess what? Next job, turns out that they hired me specifically because of that type of project. And I was like, I can't get away from this.

Kamara Toffolo:
16:46

Oh, no.

Rhona Pierce:
16:46

And I didn't say anything, but I remember my manager saying, like, I'm so excited to hire you to for this because we're about to start this. And I was like, great.

Kamara Toffolo:
16:54

Oh, no. More of the stuff I hate.

Rhona Pierce:
16:57

So there I learned, things I hate, even if I'm great at them, do not go on my resume.

Kamara Toffolo:
17:03

That's right. That's right. Just because you're good at it doesn't mean you have to do it. Right?

Rhona Pierce:
17:07

Yeah. So let's say a TA professional is targeting a new industry or a new role.

Kamara Toffolo:
17:15

Mhmm.

Rhona Pierce:
17:15

What are some resume tailoring tips that you can share in that scenario?

Kamara Toffolo:
17:20

So this really, again, comes back to those common pain points between the recruiting that we've been doing and the recruiting that we want to be doing. So I think earlier I mentioned about maybe, like, retention being a problem. So let's say you previously recruited for a profession that has, like, higher, like, new higher turnover, but you it's something that you were able to solve or or improve upon and that you're move you're looking to move into a industry that has that similar challenge, that's that's an example of something that we would want to highlight as an accomplishment. Are you wondering about going from recruiting into a totally different profession or just industries mostly?

Rhona Pierce:
18:03

Yeah. Industries is good. But, for example, what about a lot of recruiters wanna go into, like, employee experience or employer branding or HR proper, like HR business partners. How would you tailor that? Sure.

Kamara Toffolo:
18:19

So if we're planning on making, like, a profession change a profession career change, we really wanna focus on translating, so to speak, the the accomplishments and experience that we do have to make sense towards that new direction. So let's say we wanna do recruiting to, as you said, proper HR, we would really wanna make sure that we are highlighting instances, especially of strategic work, where we are building, developing, and implementing people strategies. So that would be really important. Ways that we've advised hiring managers on whatever in order to achieve what are whatever their objectives are and how you help them achieve that. So really taking, say, maybe that straight recruiting experience and just morphing it a little bit and massaging it a little bit so that someone can understand it in the HR context as as an example.

Kamara Toffolo:
19:20

Again, this like, before we do any of this, it really comes down to that target job.

Rhona Pierce:
19:24

It's all about the targeting, and, I know both you and I are on the same page on that, so I know it will come up many times throughout this interview. Yes. But Right. It is it is something important, and it is something that a lot of people don't take into account. And to me, it's the most important thing if you're job search.

Rhona Pierce:
19:43

You need to know what you're looking for, what you're targeting.

Kamara Toffolo:
19:46

Mhmm. Agreed.

Rhona Pierce:
19:48

So TA is very competitive. It always has been, but even more so now. What are some unique ways that you think TA professionals can make their resume stand out from the rest of the pile?

Kamara Toffolo:
20:02

I think that the TA recruitment folks who really stand out from the crowd are those who are really focused on upskilling. So staying on top of technology innovation, staying on top of the new tech tools and trends that are emerging, and maybe even taking it upon themselves to engage in additional professional development in order to show that commitment to staying at the top of their field. I think that's really what it's what it comes down to. Of course, we wanna show we're qualified and that we are doing great things for the business. That's priority 1.

Kamara Toffolo:
20:41

But when we wanna add to that, that's where we want to consider kind of those stretch opportunities or or where we've tried to, again, upskill and and really stay competitive ourselves and take it upon ourselves to stay competitive. I think that's really where people are standing out.

Rhona Pierce:
20:59

Yeah. And I think it's a way of not only showcasing that you are qualified for the present role, but recruiting changes really quick. So it's a way to future proof your resume and show that it's like, okay. This is what I've done. This is what I've accomplished.

Rhona Pierce:
21:15

But I'm all I'm someone who's constantly learning and evolving. So I'm not just going to be good at this thing at whatever they throw at me tomorrow, AI 2.0, whatever. Yep. I'm gonna be good at it. Absolutely.

Rhona Pierce:
21:31

How can TA professionals leverage AI tools in their resume writing process without losing their unique voice?

Kamara Toffolo:
21:42

I I was having a an extensive conversation about AI today, actually. I admit that I have not adopted AI effectively, and I am not the most knowledgeable person about AI. And I and this is this is a cue to me that I need to to do more, studying and investigation. But when we think about tools like the Chat GPT, and making use of that for our resume writing, I like Chat GPT from a prompt perspective. I like using it for ideas, but we can't use its output directly.

Kamara Toffolo:
22:19

I mean, it's I you you could probably speak better into this than I can, but, like, I know that folks are are applying with Chat GPT resumes that scream Chat GPT. Right?

Rhona Pierce:
22:32

Yes. They're doing it, and it's not only non TA job seekers because that's, to be honest, out of control. But recruiters are also doing it, and it's like, come on, guys. We expect more from a recruiter resume, to be honest. And I don't know if it's fair, but I know when I'm hiring, I want to see, yes, I love that you're using AI.

Rhona Pierce:
22:58

That shows me that you're someone that's staying at the cutting edge and all of that. Do not use those AI buzzwords that we all know unlock, unleash. No one before AI, I never saw anyone unleash anything on their resume. Like, that's not have you have you ever seen the word unleash on a resume before and using it. Really?

Kamara Toffolo:
23:23

I'm guilty of use I I don't think I used unlock, but I used unleash, a few times to the but I never used it in an accomplishment. So it was more so in branding statement. So guilty as charged. But that's good to know that that's a buzzword. But I, yeah, I think there's no way to pull, recruiter pull the wool over recruiters and tell tell them what acquisition professionals' eyes.

Kamara Toffolo:
23:49

Like, you're they're gonna know if it's it's a direct copy paste from ChatGPT. Let's just use chat AI and ChatGPT for ideas. And I think that's that's where it's safe and also advantageous. Like, if you're really stuck on what can I highlight on my resume, ask chat gpt and maybe it'll give you some really solid ideas, and then you come up with the writing on your own?

Rhona Pierce:
24:11

Yeah. And I I wanna say I did not and I would never disqualify anyone because I can tell that their resume was written with Chat GPT. What I can say is I would be way more critical of the accomplishments because it's like, are they real? Like, who fed this accomplishment? Did TagTPC

Kamara Toffolo:
24:34

come up

Rhona Pierce:
24:34

with it, or is this a real thing? So it's it's a resume that I would do a lot more digging into to be like Right. Okay. Let's try and find what's real, what versus what isn't real. And that's why I stay away from copy and pasting from chat gpt because it just I think it kind of, like, doesn't build the trust that you need to build with a resume.

Rhona Pierce:
24:59

It's a quick trust of, like, oh, I wanna know more about this person. But if you're already thinking, is this true? Is this not true? Mhmm. There's a lot more digging, and ChatGPT doesn't necessarily help you answer those extra digging questions.

Kamara Toffolo:
25:17

Right. Oh, that's that's such a good point. Yeah.

Rhona Pierce:
25:20

Let's see. So I wanna provide, like, some actionable takeaways for our listeners. Can you share, like, 3 to 5 key things that every TA professional should include on their resume?

Kamara Toffolo:
25:35

For sure. So there are a few things that I think all TA professionals and recruiters should include on their resume, and I'm gonna boil it down to 3 points, and they all start with the letter p. Okay? So people, we want accomplishments that emphasize what you've done in terms of moving a company's people strategy forward. There's process.

Kamara Toffolo:
25:59

What have you done to improve upon or to completely transform and overhaul processes that did a better job of enabling a people strategy forward. And platforms, how have you leveraged the technology that your organization uses in order to help grow teams that further enable the business to do what it's wanting to do. So people, process, and platforms, I think when we stress accomplishments in these three categories, we'll be able to build a really solid, professional experience section.

Rhona Pierce:
26:35

Perfect. I like that.

Kamara Toffolo:
26:37

Thank you.

Rhona Pierce:
26:38

I think there is one other thing I wanted to ask that I forgot.

Kamara Toffolo:
26:42

Okay.

Rhona Pierce:
26:43

So with AI becoming more prevalent like, I just came from a conference from RecFest, and every HR tech vendor out there or most of them are talking about AI, AI this, AI I was like, at one point, one of the hosts said, like, let's do AI bingo anytime they the word AI happens because it was like it was that much that you were hearing

Kamara Toffolo:
27:07

about it.

Rhona Pierce:
27:07

So, yes, AI is important. I don't think AI is taking over jobs. Like, I'll put that out there. But it's important to know AI and to be, like, knowledgeable of what's out there. How can someone highlight AI literacy and experience with AI tools on their resume?

Kamara Toffolo:
27:29

That's a really good question because I've done a horrible job of of building my own AI literacy. A lot of it comes down to exploration. So exploring AI and its capabilities, not necessarily making use of it, but kind of kind of playing around with it and seeing what it could possibly do. I also think that there is a self study component. That's what I'm gonna strive to do as well.

Kamara Toffolo:
27:56

There are a lot of courses out there. Mind you, this is a very still an emerging concept. So the courses, they're still just scratching the surface at this point. But I think there is benefit to taking some even freebie courses on AI as it relates to HR, AI as it relates to recruiting and talent acquisition in order to just build your base familiarity with AI. If we have actually used AI on the job, what we wanna make sure we do is highlight what business impact resulted from that, but we also wanna make sure that we are indicating how we've used AI responsibly.

Kamara Toffolo:
28:36

Because AI is misunderstood in a lot of cases and also can run a little wild in some cases and is always subject to scrutiny. So we just wanna make sure that we're indicating the action we took with the AI, what the result was of that AI, and how we made sure to remain compliant in our, you know, from a people perspective while making use of that AI.

Rhona Pierce:
29:03

That's a really good call out, and I hadn't thought about it. But, yes, as a leader, if I were hiring a recruiter, yes, I want someone who's familiar with AI, who has leveraged it in some way, but has done it responsibly. I don't want someone who is so into AI that next thing I know, every single job description, offer letter, everything is just going to be, hey, Chad GPT, do this without looking through stuff because that's legal liabilities and a lot of things we slippery slope, we don't wanna get into. So that's a really good call out. Thank you.

Rhona Pierce:
29:45

So this has been a great conversation. I know folks are gonna get a lot of benefit out of it. How can listeners connect with you?

Kamara Toffolo:
29:54

I am Kamara Toffolo everywhere, but where I'm most active is LinkedIn and YouTube. So if you just look up my name, Kamara Toffolo, you will find me there. Perfect.

Rhona Pierce:
30:06

Thank you so much for being on the show today, Kamara.

Kamara Toffolo:
30:10

Thank you for having me.

Rhona Pierce:
30:12

Thanks to Kamara for being on the show. Remember, your resume is not just a list of past jobs. It's a strategic document that should highlight your unique value proposition as a TA professional. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for this nightmare TA job market to be a thing of the past. Over the next few weeks, I'm sharing episodes that will help you get back in the game.

Rhona Pierce:
30:39

Be sure to subscribe to throw out the playbook podcast wherever you get your podcast. And if you liked what you heard today, please leave a 5 star review. Reviews help other listeners find us. Thanks for listening, and I'll chat with you next week.