resources for job seekers

Brought to you by recruiter and sponsor of FIERCE100, Joey Brodsky with Stott & May

1. Resume Formatting / Generation

There are tons of excellent free & premium resume writing tools on the website. Here’s a list of some of my favorites:

• Canva: Canva provides free, customizable resume templates with a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor. Perfect for creating a professional and visually appealing resume in minutes.

  • Be cautious of overly formatted and colorful resume templates, these tend to be harder to read and are more commonly rejected by ATS systems.

• Zety: Zety offers a resume builder with pre-designed templates and step-by-step guidance to craft a resume tailored to your needs.

  • Zety can also help template and create cover letters (or at least give you good inspiration in instances when you may want to send one)

• Enhancv: Enhancv combines sleek designs with content suggestions to help you stand out. The platform emphasizes storytelling and personalization.

  • Enhancv has a been of great role-specific resume templates (Executive, Technical, PMs, Sales, Accounting etc)

  • Enhancv also has an excellent “Resume Checker” feature (on their Premium Plan), that helps combat ATS systems issues when sending it out.

• Resumegenius: With a comprehensive library of templates and industry-specific content, Resumegenius makes resume creation simple and effective.

  • You can download Word File and Google Doc Templates, avoiding having to edit on their webapp.

• Resume.com: This platform offers a straightforward and free resume builder with customizable templates. It’s ideal for quick and polished resumes.

Just resume, when building your resume: Formatting is 1%, Content is 99% of what hiring managers want to see. As long as the format is tasteful and easy to read, you’re good.

Tips and Tricks to focus on:

• Focus content on Performance-Based achievements in each of your previous jobs (project completed, projects shipped, revenue growth, sales, etc)

• Quantify where ever possible (numbers are the loudest words to hiring managers)

• Give content to each role and industry – “set the stage”

  • Stage of business

  • Domain / Industry Insight

  • Brief Description of Product / Services

• Months/Years need to be on all experience lines

• I rarely see photos/headshots being helpful on resumes, but in some instances it can be fine if done tastefully (conversely, a good headshot on LinkedIn is very important!)

Here’s what I think a great experience line on a resume looks like:

Work Experience

Company Name

Brief, 1-sentence description of the company/product/service/domain

Current Title | Month YYYY - Current

Previous Title at same Company (if applicable) | Month YYYY – Month YYYY

- High level over view of the core responsibilities of the role

- A bit more details on the day-to-day responsibilities and tasks (add 2-4 of these lines if needed)

- Performance-Based Accomplishments

o Products you helped build

o Teams you managed

o Quotas you Sold against, logos you sold, deals you closed

o Accolades, Awards, and Ranking

- Skills learned and used on the job

o Technical skills, software used (no need for obvious things like Word/Outlook/etc), coding languages, databases, CRMs, etc

o Methodologies (where appropriate): Sales Methodologies, SDLC Methodologies, Leadership Style, etc.

Repeat for each company

Should you have a skills section or not?

If you’re in a technical position, yes, probably. If not, probably not, and a brief ‘summary’ section at the top should suffice.

Skills section tips:

- I would put this near the top of your resume, or on the side in some formats.

- Break it down intuitively, instead of just listing everything. There are always specific things a hiring manager is looking for.

o Example:

 Databases: XXX, YYY, ZZZ

 Coding Languages: XXX, YYY, ZZZ

 AI Tools: XXX, YYY, ZZZZ

o Start with tools you are most proficient in, and cascade the list from there

Now what about LinkedIn?

• Craft a Compelling Headline – Go beyond just your job title. Use keywords that highlight your expertise and the type of role you’re seeking (“B2B SaaS Sales Leader | Driving Revenue Growth”)

• Optimize Your About Section – Write a concise, engaging summary that highlights your skills, achievements, and what makes you stand out. End with a call to action, like “Open to discussing new opportunities in enterprise sales leadership”

• Use a Professional Photo & Banner – Your headshot should be high-quality, and your banner image can reinforce your brand (e.g., an industry-related graphic or a personal tagline).

  • Professional Photo = Front facing headshot, good lighting, flat background, etc.

  • Read: 10 Tips for Taking a Professional LinkedIn Profile Picture

• Showcase Achievements in Your Experience Section – Instead of just listing responsibilities, emphasize quantifiable achievements (e.g., “Increased ARR by 40% in 12 months through strategic account expansion”)

  • At a minimum do this for everything except your current position.

• Activate “Open to Work” & Engage with Content – Enable LinkedIn’s “Open to Work” feature (visible to recruiters if preferred) and stay active by posting, commenting, and networking to boost visibility

  • I’m not generally a fan of the green-banner unfortunately

2. Job Search Pipeline Trackers

You need to treat your job search as a sales process. Track, Organize, and Optimize all of your search activity. Here are my favorite tools for this:

• Huntr: Specifically designed for job seekers, Huntr provides tools to organize and track every application in one place. My Favorite Tool on this whole list.

• Teal: Track & Organize Your Job Search, and managing all of your job applications in one place.

• Trello: Trello’s visual boards are perfect for tracking job applications. Create columns for different stages, like “Applied,” “Interviewing,” and “Offers.” Huntr and Teal do most of this, but Trello and be a bit more custom built.

3. Salary Guidance

Understanding compensation benchmarks for certain roles and levels of experience is critical information for helping your job search. Candidly, it’s difficult to find valid data on the internet, but here are a few trust sources I recommend looking into:

• Glassdoor: Glassdoor provides salary insights based on role, industry, and location, along with reviews from employees at specific companies.

o These are generally real salaries, that real people are putting in for specific companies.

• Levels.fyi: Focused on tech roles, Levels.fyi provides detailed compensation data, including base salary, bonuses, and equity breakdowns.

o Mostly for technical positions, but has great data on salary, bonus’, and equity at various levels of experience.

o Sort by title, regional, company, industry, and a few other fields.

• RepVue: The best resource for Sales People to see real salaries in software and tech companies.

o Great rating on companies, candid reviews from employees, and legit recommendations based on real data.

• Salary Market Reports: It’s common for recruiters that specialize in your industry to survey, analyze, and produce reports on salary data periodically. Ask your favorite local recruiter (Joey can help with GTM, AI, SWE positions)

4. Job Boards

Once you optimized your resume, it’s all about getting it out there to as many qualified and interesting jobs you can. Here are the best sources to fill your top of funnel:

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the go-to platform for professional networking and job postings, with features to connect directly with recruiters.

o LinkedIn is the GOAT for job searching – it’s where more than the majority of quality job postings get listed.

• Indeed: One of the largest job boards, Indeed aggregates listings from various sources and offers robust search filters.

• Glassdoor: In addition to company reviews, Glassdoor provides job listings and insights into company culture and benefits.

• Wellfound (formerly AngelList Jobs): Ideal for those seeking roles in startups, Wellfound allows you to apply and connect directly with founders and hiring managers.

o Awesome site for those very interested in joining early stage businesses, where they have more impact on day-1.

• FlexJobs: A leading platform for finding remote, flexible, and freelance job opportunities in various industries.

• Dice: Specializing in tech roles, Dice is a dedicated platform for IT professionals seeking opportunities.

• SimplyHired: SimplyHired aggregates job postings from across the web and offers resources like salary estimates and company reviews.

If you need help with your job search or finding candidates, please reach out to the team at Stott & May Stott & May focuses on technology recruitment without compromise.

They help inclusive, technology-focused businesses build more engaging recruitment campaigns to stand out and make mission-critical hires in competitive candidate markets.