114. You’re Not Getting Interviews for a Reason - Let’s Fix That

If you’ve been applying for jobs and not getting interviews, it’s not random - and it doesn’t mean you’re not qualified.

In this episode of Her Next Chapters, we kick off a practical job search series for women who are ready for something new - whether you’re returning to work or feeling stuck in a role that no longer fits.

We start with the resume problem that quietly holds people back: bullets that read like a job description instead of showing real impact. You’ll hear clear before-and-after examples and learn how to add scope, results, and simple metrics - even if you don’t have exact numbers.

Then we shift to strategy. Your resume is not your full career history - it’s a marketing document for the job you want next. That means choosing a direction, using the employer’s language, and pulling keywords directly from the job posting so your resume stands out to both ATS systems and hiring managers.

We also talk about why applying online alone gives you the least control in your job search, and how small, intentional networking steps - including outreach on LinkedIn - can create momentum, conversations, and real opportunities.

If you’re ready to stop second-guessing your resume and start positioning yourself for your next chapter, this episode will give you a clear place to start.

Subscribe, follow along with the series, and share this with a friend who’s ready for a change.

Ready to take the next step?

• Download the free Strengths-First Resume Template to get a clear, confident starting point
• Want personalized feedback? Book a Resume Review and get direct, actionable guidance on what’s working and what’s not

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Work with Me

Want an HR expert’s eyes on your resume?
Book a 30-minute Resume Review with Christina - live on Zoom, recorded, and focused on one goal: getting you interviews. 

Want to talk through your career goals and explore next steps?
Schedule a career consultation to see how I can support you. 

Email me directly at christina@hernextchapters.com

Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kohlchristina

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Free Resource

Grab the Strengths-First Resume Template - ideal for career transitions, whether you’re returning after a break, navigating a layoff, pivoting roles, or ready for a change.

Transcript

Welcome And Who This Is For

Christina Kohl 0:03

Hi, and welcome to Her Next Chapters Podcast. I'm your host, Christina Kohl. I'm a mom of three and soon to be an empty nester. I'm also a certified HR pro who restarted my career after being a stay-home mom for over a decade. I created this podcast to connect with moms who have an empty nest on the horizon and are wanting to redefine their identity outside of motherhood, which might include adopt search. On this show, we'll raw conversations about our ever-changing roles with moms. We'll hear from women who restarted their careers and share tips for adopt search after a career break. So if that's you, you're in the right place, friend. Let's get started. Hey there and welcome back to Her Next Chapters. Today's episode is kicking off something a little different. Over the next several weeks, I'm going to be doing a series focused on the job search, what's actually working, what's not, and where I see people getting stuck most often. And because I want this to actually be helpful in real time, I'm moving the podcast back to weekly episodes during this series. Shorter episodes, more focused, more practical. So if you've been thinking about making a move or you've already started your job search and it's not going the way you expected, this is a really good time to follow along. Let's start with something that can feel really frustrating. If you've been applying to jobs and not hearing back, it's not random. I know it can feel that way. It can feel like you are doing everything right and you're still not landing interviews or you're not even hearing anything at all. But there's almost always a reason. And the good news is it's fixable. So whether you're coming back to the workforce after time away, or you've been consistently working and you just feel ready for something new. If your resume isn't getting you interviews, it's not because you don't have value. It's probably because your value isn't being communicated clearly. And that's actually a much better problem to have because it's something you can change. So one of the biggest mistakes that I see job seekers make is that the resume reads like a job description and it tells me what you're responsible for, not what you accomplished. One of the fastest ways to fix this is to start thinking in terms of impact and using numbers wherever you can. That could be percentages, dollar amounts, the number of people, the frequency, the scope. And I want to pause here because this is where a lot of people get stuck. They'll say, I don't have metrics, or I don't know the exact numbers. You want to use the numbers to give us context, right? And you don't need perfect numbers. You need reasonable, defensible estimates. Come on, the reality is no one is gonna be fact-checking what happened five or ten years ago or even last year. But you should be able to explain where your numbers came from when someone asked. Let me show you what I mean. So an example be, you know, this is like the more general that you're responsible for managing employee onboarding, assisted with payroll processing, handled employee questions. So that's more of a job description, everything I just listed, right? So you don't really it's not really a resume worthy, it's what you did, but not what you accomplished. So let's rewrite these. We're gonna say for the onboarding that you streamlined onboarding process, reducing new higher ramp up time by 20%. And you could go on to add that because you took a paper process to digital. But certainly if you're in an interview and you're being asked about this, you're gonna describe what steps you took to get to those numbers. How did you reduce new higher ramp up? What was the process before? What did you do to change it? And then how that's the result, right? And then if when we had before assist with the payroll processing, now we're gonna instead say you supported payroll for 150 plus employees with 100% accuracy. See the difference? Like we're giving context. There's 150 employees, you could say that it's bi-weekly. Um, you can name the software that you use for that's ADP or workday or ultra pro or anything else. Um, so you're gonna be more context. So switching gears into more like um social media type of role. So, you know, like you might have things like you did of man, you know, you manage social media accounts, you you you created content, you tracked engagement. Okay, great, you did those things. That's kind of job description sounding right, versus see how this sounds, managed social media accounts with a combined audience of 12,000 plus followers across three platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Okay, that's much more powerful, right? And then, you know, you could say for create created content, created and scheduled weekly content, increasing engagement by 30% over six months. Okay, so we're given context by by those numbers. And again, even if you don't remember exact numbers, you probably have a sense of the scale, right? If you're writing a newsletter, um, I this is one that one of my examples, my personal examples, when I was coming back to the workforce, I had been a volunteer for our school's PTA committee, and I was responsible for the weekly newsletter. And so I included that, that it was for a school with 500 students, and that the newsletter went out to the parents and the teachers, and it was weekly. And then I supported approximately 20 volunteer committees in communicating their information. So those are where you can put some numbers to it versus I wrote a weekly newsletter, right? So you want to just give a sense of scale. Was it hundreds? Was it thousands? Was it weekly? Was it monthly? Start there, and then you can, you know, that it's just gonna make it so much better to have that context. And then let's say I've got one more example on this topic. So this is more like event planning. Um for some reason, a lot of the people that I work with, they wind up wanting to go into HR or they've had experience with event planning. So that's why I guess why these why these are coming up. So you might just have a list of, you know, you coordinated events, you worked with vendors, you managed logistics. Okay, that's kind of job description sounding right, versus you coordinated 10 plus events annually with up to 200 attendees. You negotiated vendor contracts, reducing costs by 15%. Okay, so we want to be it's the same roles, it's the same experience, but you want to give that scope and impact. And that's what gets someone to pause and actually read your resume. Okay, we don't want job descriptions, we want accomplishments. Okay, so that's number one. So number two, the second biggest mistake that I see is that you're being too general and it's hurting you. This one comes up all the time. And what I mean by that is you're basically trying to be a jack of all trades or a gem of all trades, saying, I can do anything, I can do anything you need. And you're showing, you know, such generality that you don't stand out at all, right? And one thing I want to be really clear, it's absolutely okay to have multiple career interests. It's okay to be good at a lot of things. That's not the problem. The problem is trying to put all of that onto one resume. And this is a really key thing that I want, if you take out, take away nothing else from this conversation today. Your resume is not your entire career history. It is a marketing document for a specific job. Okay, I want to make sure that that point like really stands out. We think our resume is all about us and it's our history and everything we've ever done, right? That's kind of how we've approached it. It's how we've been trained and taught to approach our resumes. In reality, it's a marketing document. So anything that is not relevant to the job that you want next, it does not belong in your resume. The example, and I've given this before. So if you've been a long time listener, you've heard me say this before. I have done payroll as part of my career in human resources. When I've worked for smaller organizations, payroll and HR are tied together, um, which makes sense. Like, you know, someone's pay, somebody's onboarded, somebody had a baby, so now their benefits have changed. Someone's um, you know, changed departments, they got promoted. It's all kind of connected, right? So when I was working for smaller organizations, I did payroll. And I'm good at it. I've de you know the details of it and catching the all the things, but here's the thing. I don't like doing payroll and I never want to do payroll again. So when you look at my LinkedIn profile, when you look at my resume, you're not gonna see anything mentioned around payroll because it's not relevant to any job I would want to go for in the future. So even though I've done it, I have that experience and I've done it well and I have accomplishments around it, I don't want to do it again. So it's not part of my resume. Okay, because my resume is a marketing document, not a historical document. Okay. So the other thing, instead of trying to create one resume that works for everything, which I see this all the time, what I want you to do instead is start with the job, the the job you're interested in. Right? So go find a role you're interested in, you know, search the ways through the internet, and don't even worry right now. Like you're just looking to find, find a job to give you as a target to um to aim your resume towards. So it doesn't matter like where it's located, if it's remote, if it's in, you know, a different state. We're not worried worried about that right now. What we want to focus on is a job that you're interested in that you can then point your resume towards. And you're gonna study that posting. Those mysterious keywords that people talk about. I actually had someone that I was helping with her resume, and she's like, I don't know what the keywords are. Those, you know, the mysterious magic keywords. I don't know what they are. Well, I'm gonna help you out here. They're not mysterious. They are literally the words in the job posting. Okay, so there are nothing magical about them. The words, the keywords are in the job posting. You want those keywords to be in your resume. And it doesn't mean you have to have a completely rewritten resume for every single job you apply for. You might have two that are like kind of pre-written the templates for you, one for, say, more marketing and one for more communications, right? And then you just like make some small, small minor changes. One example that I have for you is like in the nonprofit world, there's a lot of fundraising. Well, in the last, I don't know, 10 years or so, five years, I'm not sure. I'm that's not my field, but I do know that that language has shifted. They call it development or donor engagement rather than fundraising. But if you are still using the word fundraising and they're using the word development, you're it's gonna be a mismatch. The ATS, the machine reading your resume the first before a person does, isn't gonna pick up on that necessarily. It might, depending on how the person behind the programming programmed it, but it might not. You want to use their language. So, like I'm gonna give you the example here for nonprofit fundraising. So this is the before that you're an experienced professional with a background in fundraising, marketing, and communications seeking new opportunities. Okay, so you're like a jack of all trades here. You can like do anything. But when you're going after a particular role, you want to be more specific and want to use aligned language. So here's the after. Development professional with experience leading donor engagement strategies, managing campaigns, and increasing contributions through targeted outreach. So that's much more targeted, right? Rather than I can do anything. And if they call it development and you're calling it fundraising, there's a disconnect. Even if it's the same exact work, same experience, different language. But you want to make sure you match the language they use. Okay, so a third mistake that I see, this is really common, a mistake that I see job seekers make, is that you're relying too much on applying online. This is where a lot of people get stuck. And because applying feels productive, but it's also where you have the least control. So you might be applying to 30 jobs online and then you wait and you hear nothing. And then you get discouraged, right? And it's really a frustrating situation, right? But yeah, what what I want you to do is more target is to apply to targeted roles, to apply to fewer roles that are better aligned, and also be reaching out to two or three people at each company and try to have conversations that lead to referrals or to insights about the company. So you want to try to find someone after you submit an application or even before if you can, find someone at the company on LinkedIn and send a short message expressing interest. And I know you're gonna say, but Christina, I don't know anyone there. So what you're gonna do, instead of just widely applying, you're going to you're going to apply, but then you're going to search for alumni, past coworkers, or second-degree connections on LinkedIn. And you're going to send a simple message. I came across your profile while exploring roles at Target Company and would love to hear about your experience there. Simple. And this isn't about being pushy. It's about creating connections. So you're not just another application. So if you're getting ready to apply for jobs or you've been in the job search for a while and you're not getting results, three simple shifts that we talked about today. We want you to focus on your impact, not just responsibilities on your resume, right? That resume is not a job description. It is the highlights, the star stories, the accomplishments of your career. And the other thing is you're going to choose a clear direction. Okay. You're not going to be a jack of all trades, like I can do anything, everything. You're going to be more specific, which means you're going to be leaving things off of your resume. Only relevant things are going to go with you on into your next job. And then lastly, you're going to start a few conversations. So networking. It's, I know that sounds scary. We are going to go be going deeper into each of these topics in the next few episodes, resumes, networking, interviews, um, LinkedIn, all of that. So this is a really good time to follow along with a podcast. And if you're listening and thinking, okay, I know my resume needs work, but I don't even know where to start. I have a free strengths first resume template that walks you through exactly how to structure it and what to include. I'll put a link to that in the show notes. And if you want personalized feedback, someone to actually look at your resume and tell you what's working and what's not, that's exactly what I help with in my resume reviews. I'll link to that in the show notes as well. I would love to help you. And if this episode is helpful, stick with me for this series and send it to a friend who's been talking about making a move. You get to write your next chapter in your career and your life. I'll see you back here next week. Thank you so much for listening today. I hope this episode hit home for you. And if you haven't already, be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn and say hello. I can partly thank you for listening. Until next time, remember your story is ready to be your own. And your next chapters are ready to begin.