Chelyn Briand is a Salesforce Partnerships Manager with many years of experience in recruiting and helping people get hired for jobs they want. She also helps people clean up their LinkedIn profiles so it better shows their skills and can catch the eye of recruiters.
It is undoubtedly a challenging climate for those looking for a job in tech right now. Chelyn shares some excellent tips on how to stand out and get the job you want and not just the job you need.
We hope you enjoy this quick conversation with Chelyn.
Show Highlights:
- The Supermoms organization that Chelyn is involved with
- What you can do to take a step back and be more successful in your job search
- Focus on your day-to-day goals – rather than a job title
- We all have a personal brand (whether you like it or not)
- LinkedIn’s relevance for the developer architect community and how you can leverage your profile
Links:
Episode Transcript
Chelyn Briand:
… Political science initially, and my parents convinced me that that was a round file degree, and I transitioned into finance.
Josh Birk:
That is Chelyn Briand, a Salesforce partnerships manager. I’m Josh Burke, your heads of the Salesforce Developer Podcast. Here on the podcast, you’ll hear stories and insights from developers for developers. Today, we’re going to sit down and talk to Chelyn about her long experience with recruiting, and helping people get hired, and cleaning up your LinkedIn resume, and a few other things as well.
I am going to go ahead and put an asterisk on everything here. We both acknowledge, it’s a rough time out there for the tech industry. We joke and we laugh. Don’t take that as we are diminishing the fact that it’s a very anxious time, shall we say, in the tech industry. We’re here to help. We’re going to start, however, as we often do, with her early years.
Chelyn Briand:
I started my career in employee benefits, and kind of big business, corporate, lot of money there, lots of spreadsheets, putting together bids. I did use it. It wasn’t the most fun. Yeah, actually, that’s what led me to Salesforce was being part of that industry, and having people working with their medical insurance, corporate benefits, healthcare reform, Obamacare, that whole journey. As a company, we were looking for solutions.
Josh Birk:
That was my next question, how did you fall into the Salesforce ecosystem? You came in through as a customer?
Chelyn Briand:
Yes, yes. We were a prospect is when I initially got involved, and we analyzed a variety of different solutions. I was a sales director, had a team of sales reps that were working with employers throughout the northwest. We were using a lot of old school techniques and looking for solutions. We …
Josh Birk:
Got it.
Chelyn Briand:
… Analyzed many different options and settled on Salesforce, and then I was part of the team that was involved with bringing it in.
Josh Birk:
How would you describe your current job?
Chelyn Briand:
My current job was, it’s so much fun. It’s just an ultimate job. It actually is why I have so much interest in the power of LinkedIn and the things that we’ll talk about today, because I met the individuals that brought me into work at Lorian through LinkedIn and building that relationship.
Josh Birk:
Oh.
Chelyn Briand:
It wasn’t my intention to be on this side of the business in the Salesforce world, but it is such an incredible fit. I initially got certified and wanted to become a Salesforce consultant.
Josh Birk:
Nice. Very nice. Quick side tour, tell me a little bit about Supermoms and your involvement in it.
Chelyn Briand:
Yes, yes. Supermoms is designed to really, their organization is in place to help parents, really anyone, but primarily moms, to find well-paying, flexible roles. Being a mom and trying to build a career is so challenging. Salesforce and the variety of jobs have those components of being able to make a great living, and have flexibility, and be able to make sure that your children and your family still have a priority.
Josh Birk:
Yeah.
Chelyn Briand:
I actually learned about them in 2019 during Dreamforce. I wasn’t there live, but I was just dazzled by Dreamforce on Twitter. At the time, I was studying for my Salesforce certification, I’d quit my job, and I had 90 days to get certified and get a job. I learned about Supermoms, reached out about a particular course that they had, and ended up kind of doing a project while I was finishing my certification, and then the pandemic hit.
I ended up working there. That was my job, which was an incredible opportunity. I was able to work UK hours for chunks of time when my children were sleeping.
Josh Birk:
Oh, wow.
Chelyn Briand:
I was available to them when they were doing schoolwork from home.
Josh Birk:
Wow.
Chelyn Briand:
Yeah.
Josh Birk:
Nice. If people want to hear more about Super Homes, we interviewed the founder, Heather Black, back in episode 146.
Chelyn Briand:
Amazing. Yeah, it’s an incredible team, and just so many individuals. My job initially was having these one-on-one conversations with people to just hear about their dreams and worries and trying to make decisions. I learned so much about what goes into that, and then helping them go from being trained, to launching their careers, and how to work through all the elements of resumes, and LinkedIn, and networking to find the right butt.
Josh Birk:
Nice. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about that, because we all know it’s a pretty difficult time out there for tech at the moment, to say the least. Let’s kind of walk chronologically for someone who’s looking for a job. When it comes to, do you have early planning tips? I’m about start a new career search or a new job search, is there something I can do to take a step back and be more successful before hitting the ground running?
Chelyn Briand:
Absolutely. I think for all of us, something to remember is the best time to do that work is before you want to be looking for a job. The second best time is when you need to. I think for everyone, this is a great window of time to be reflective and do some preparation. For many people, they get into, “I want a job, and I start applying,” and it just can become very disorganized. My advice, and people that have a lot of success, is to just have a comprehensive approach to it, so that you’re taking a look at what is it that you want next? For many people, they’re not quite sure.
Josh Birk:
Yeaa.h.
Chelyn Briand:
Taking the time to really consider your vision for your career, of looking at what’s your true north, what are the values, what is it that’s going to bring you career success, what’s the schedule that you want to have?
Josh Birk:
Right.
Chelyn Briand:
For some people, they want their weekends and they want to work nine to five. For others, they want flexibility. They’re night owls. They want to be working on their development work at 11, 12, one o’clock.
Josh Birk:
Right.
Chelyn Briand:
They just don’t want to be defined. Getting clear about what is that work life that you want?
Josh Birk:
Yeah, yeah.
Chelyn Briand:
Taking some time to really reflect on your strengths and your talents. We all are born with things that we’re inherently good at, and I think sometimes we forget to consider what is it that I get compliments about? What do people mention? Josh, have you had somebody that said, “Oh my gosh, you’re so good at this,” and you just kind of think, what?
Josh Birk:
What?
Chelyn Briand:
I don’t really get why it seems like a big deal, but it’s because it’s an innate talent, and somebody else that recognizes it. Making sure that you’re clear on deal breakers. What are those non-negotiable elements? Then the type of environment, what’s the boss and the leaders that work best? Do you love someone who can just be like, “Hey, tell me what needs to get done, and then leave me alone while I get it done,” or do you want someone who’s going to really be collaborative and involved?
Josh Birk:
Right.
Chelyn Briand:
I think that’s where people need to really start is having that vision for what would really attract them. Sometimes, that is, I want to be a solution architect, or I want this next job, but not taking the time to really think about, how do I want to live, and what do I want my career to help fuel my life with?
Josh Birk:
Yeah. I think that’s an interesting bit of advice, because it’s sort of like, don’t focus on the title. Focus on what you think your day to day is going to be like, and is that the day-to-day that you actually want?
Chelyn Briand:
Yeah. I think many people, and I find this to be true in some of the more technical jobs, maybe a little resistant to the idea that we all have a personal brand, whether we like it or not.
Josh Birk:
Okay. Okay.
Chelyn Briand:
That is what people say about you when you’re not around.
Josh Birk:
Oh, okay.
Chelyn Briand:
Right?
Josh Birk:
Tell me a little bit more about that. I feel like the first step there is accepting what you said is true, and then the second step is probably trying to envision what people are saying behind your back.
Chelyn Briand:
Yeah, and it’s certainly what they might say in front of you too, but I think there’s this resistant to the idea, I’m not a salesy person. I’m not about marketing or talking myself up or promoting myself, all of those things. All of that may be true, and it doesn’t have to be that way, but we all do have a brand. Josh, I would say the work that you do with Dreamforce, you probably see this a lot, with people who are submitting sessions, the people that are, what are they trying to communicate? What are they known for?
Josh Birk:
Yeah.
Chelyn Briand:
That’s a unique opportunity to see a lot of people in a short period of time, and the brand that they show up with.
Josh Birk:
Yeah, agreed. When it comes to promoting that brand and networking that brand, and this is kind of a leading question obviously, but how central, just to kind of position, how central is LinkedIn these days to making that happen?
Chelyn Briand:
I think LinkedIn is desperately underutilized by the developer architect community.
Josh Birk:
Got it.
Chelyn Briand:
It may not be the place to hang out because it’s interesting, or you’re going to learn a lot, or that’s the community you want to hang out with, but the reality is: the decision makers, the leaders, the people who are looking for talent for those unique, interesting jobs and opportunities, that you all make magic. The people that need you, they are on LinkedIn.
Josh Birk:
Got it.
Chelyn Briand:
I think moving away from the idea of this is the place I’m going to hang out because this is my community, I’m going to learn so much, that may not be the case. There’s other places that you may find are so much more interesting for you personally and professionally, but I would say it doesn’t take a lot of effort to create a powerful LinkedIn profile, a really strong brand, and a network that will do work for you while you’re off doing life. It will allow you to find out about opportunities and people that you would never have known anything about.
Josh Birk:
Gotcha.
Chelyn Briand:
I talk to a lot of developers one-on-one, and they tell me most of the time that their job has kind of been a series of, “I found about this cool job or this next job from somebody I knew.”
Josh Birk:
Got it.
Chelyn Briand:
Right, would you say that, go ahead.
Josh Birk:
Well, no, it is. I think that’s actually very true in tech. I famously have had at least two people, I’m trying to do the math in my head really quickly. Chris Fry was my boss twice. Reid Carlberg I think was my boss three times. Obviously, kind of ping-ponging in between network connections is basically how my careers always take off.
Chelyn Briand:
Yeah, which can be terrific. You might also not find out about some really special, perfectly aligned opportunities, because maybe you don’t know the person that was involved, but they also didn’t know about you, because you don’t have a way for them to find out about you.
Josh Birk:
Let’s walk through that bit by bit, a little bit.
Chelyn Briand:
Yeah.
Josh Birk:
I know you’ve done whole, I think 20, 30 presentations …
Chelyn Briand:
Yes.
Josh Birk:
… On this topic. It’s only a 30 minute show or so, but when you look at a LinkedIn profile, what are you looking for that’s like, these are areas that you could improve. This is how you were not leveraging your profile to its maximum effort?
Chelyn Briand:
Yes. I would say in general, the majority of developers and architects in the community do not have photos, headlines, profile images that showcase that they’re available, who they are. That’s one important piece is just that having your face, that they actually get to see you, see your eyes, see your headline, what you do, if you have a niche that you serve. I’d say the other element is many people have their profile, but it doesn’t optimize for the job that you want next. I’d say that’s one really important piece of advice.
You all are masters at getting to information, but the types of jobs that you want next, those job descriptions, those companies, those leaders are going to spell out the skills, the experiences, anything that’s unique about what they’re looking for. Those keywords need to be those phrases as experience, the impact that you have needs to be in your LinkedIn profile, so that they can find you. Many people have skills from 10 years ago when they set up their profile, but not all of the really cool things that you all work on, the impact that you’ve had.
Making sure that from top to bottom, it looks exactly how you’d want it to look to the ultimate hiring manager. If you had 10 people who could hire you for your ultimate next job, the exact thing that you want to do in your career progression, really unique opportunity, what are they going to be looking for if they weren’t talking to you yet, they were just investigating you or a head hunter that they’ve asked to do that, that your profile is like, yeah, this person looks really good for this opportunity, let’s talk to them.
Josh Birk:
When you say top to bottom, is there any place that’s more important?
Chelyn Briand:
Yes.
Josh Birk:
Is it just important to make sure you’ve got about and experience, and everything sort of shift shape?
Chelyn Briand:
Yes. Yeah, I would say that the top, right? Anytime when you’re in on digital, it’s that top section. Your profile photo, it’s not the time for that great shot that was taken at a wedding. Some of the creative photos that are so cool in other places, on LinkedIn, you want to be like, this is somebody I can trust with my business and my system. It’s just you.
Josh Birk:
Right.
Chelyn Briand:
That would be a big one that you have it turned on so that it’s visible. A lot of people have it only that your profile photo only shows up for first level connection.
Josh Birk:
Okay.
Chelyn Briand:
A lot of people just see you as a grayed out image. The headline doesn’t need to be your job title at the company you work for. You want to think about it in terms of, this is what I want to do, leaning into what I want to do next. It might be your certifications listed. It doesn’t need to be a job title, but more, here’s my expertise. Anything sort of unique that you might do. For you, for instance, the Salesforce developer podcast, if you wanted to move into more of that type of work, that’s a great place to have that in the headline.
Josh Birk:
Right.
Chelyn Briand:
Your about section should make it clear what’s really intriguing about you, and make it seem connected to what you want to do next, and how to get in touch with you. That’s another piece. I’d say your skills, that section, a lot of people just don’t understand that the skills section is actually how recruiters and headhunters find you, because they’re using LinkedIn recruiter. You’re actually searching for specific skills, so that matters.
Josh Birk:
Got it. Okay.
Chelyn Briand:
I’d say for many of those in the developer, architect community, sometimes your work, it’s hard for you to know the impact, because you’ve worked on a project.
Josh Birk:
Yes.
Chelyn Briand:
I find a lot of people struggle with that of how am I supposed to really put impact or numbers to what I’ve been doing? It’s a great opportunity to go back and talk to the business areas about, what did this project actually do, so that you can get clear, we were able to elevate turnaround times on this by 40%, because of the project that I was involved in. Sometimes, it’s making it clear that who you’re selling yourself to, or maybe if you don’t like that terminology, who’s buying you, is that they want the impact of what you can do, not necessarily just that I was responsible for this particular piece. In my job descriptions, here’s my responsibilities. It’s important to showcase how you made a difference.
Josh Birk:
Yeah.
Chelyn Briand:
That person who wants to hire you wants to know not just that you can do the work, but that you’re going to have a passion and interest and reliability around, how can you help me accomplish this in my business? What am I trying to do?
Josh Birk:
That’s our show, now, unfortunately, due to a virtual studio error, I had to cut my conversation with Chelyn short. We’ll get her back on the mic though. If you’ve got any questions about your career search, please let us know through social media. If you want to learn more about this show, head on over to developer.salesforce.com/podcast, where you can hear old episodes, see the show notes, and links to your favorite podcast service. Thanks again, everybody, and I’ll talk to you next week.