Good afternoon, friends. It's Rohan and I'm back with the latest edition of Coached — your personal mentorship email that takes a few minutes to read, but speeds up your career by years. |
Some people at work seem to have the trust and respect of everyone around them. In today's Mentor's Corner, I'm diving into what I think builds that kind of solid reputation - and how we can build it for ourselves. Plus, for those on a job search, see the resume advice at the bottom of the email. |
Estimated read time: 5 minutes 22 seconds |
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🌐 A post I thought you'd enjoy |
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Before we get into it, here's a post I made on LinkedIn yesterday. People found it particularly useful so thought I'd share it here. It's about ten fixes you can make to appear more confident to others…at work and in life: |
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If you're not following me on LinkedIn yet, I share bite-sized, candid career advice like this on there pretty regularly. People tell me it gives them an easy way to stay motivated and learn how to navigate their careers. Follow me there so you don't miss a key insight. |
And if you don't use LinkedIn, you should! Or at least keep your profile updated. You never know who'll contact you about an opportunity you'll like. But make sure your profile's optimized so recruiters find you — use this free AI tool to guide you. |
P.S. The above screenshot just has the first 5. See the entire post for all 10. |
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📈 Mentor's Corner Insights put together by me. One practical lesson a week that will make a measurable impact on your career, delivered right to you — for $0. |
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How to build your reputation at work |
A long time ago, in a university far far away, my friend (you're probably reading this, hey Rob!) told me to read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. |
"What, is it good?" I ask. |
"Dude, it's the quintessential revenge novel." (His exact words.) |
Intrigued, I bought it. |
And Rob was right. It is the quintessential revenge novel. |
The story: |
A young sailor named Edmond gets set-up (and sent to an island prison to die w/o trial) for a crime he didn't commit. After 14 miserable years, Edmond escapes and plots to take his revenge using the vast fortune he finds via clues given to him by his cellmate. |
The only problem? |
By that time he gets out, the three men who set him up are some of the most powerful people in France. |
So what does Edmond do? |
He fashions a new persona for himself - The Count of Monte Cristo - and decides he must infiltrate his enemies' social circle so that they come to trust him, and with that trust, destroy them utterly. |
Of course, the only way he can reach those rungs of Parisian society? |
By building his reputation. |
(How he does this is genius - read the book) |
Now… |
I know you're not looking to rise to the top of society to exact terrible revenge on the guy who stole your lunch money. (I hope) |
But, if your goal is to rise to the top of your company, industry, or just to enjoy more respect at work, building your reputation is just as important. |
Question is.. |
How do you do it? |
Well, here's 5 things to keep in mind: |
⏳ Value people's time |
The other day, I saw this on Twitter: |
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So. darn. true. |
If you respect other people's time by…showing up on time, delivering things on time, and cutting the flab out of needlessly long meetings? Your colleagues and superiors are going to notice. |
Also, let people know when a meeting is optional — give people an easy out if they don't need to be there. |
🪣 Ditch "buckets" where possible |
There's two ways of collecting water: grab a bucket which you'll need to do over and over, OR, put in the effort to build a pump, meaning you'll never need a bucket again. |
If you want to earn "credit" at work, replace as many "bucket-jobs" with pumps. |
For example: |
You and your colleagues are always rifling through email conversations to find important documents. Build a system for this by compiling a handy "mother" document. |
Some other ideas: |
Create a shared portal or knowledge base for key documents and questions that people keep having. Develop an interactive dashboard or report for metrics your team or manager needs. If you notice the same documents being created again and again, create a reusable template that saves everyone time.
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By building these "pumps", you'll show that you're not just there to do the bare minimum, but to make a real, lasting impact. That's how you build a strong rep, and one of a problem-solver. |
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🤼 Don't wrestle with pigs |
There's an old proverb that says, |
"Don't wrestle with pigs. You'll both get dirty but the pig likes it." |
In other words, avoid getting sucked into petty office politics and drama. There's zero upside, and a lot of potential downside. |
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On the flipside, be the person who compliments others when they're not around. When a colleague's name comes up, say something genuinely nice about their work or character. |
If you're a manager, this is especially important. Make a habit of praising your team members when they're not in the room. When word gets around (and it will), it builds trust and shows people you've got their back. |
Getting involved in office politics and gossip erodes trust. But consistently being a positive voice? That's how you build a reputation as someone people can rely on and want to work with. |
👩🏻💻 Do your job |
Kinda goes without saying, but just showing up, and being reliably good at your job is the most solid way of building your reputation. |
On the flipside, if you're atrocious at what you do, it doesn't matter how many "pizza Fridays" you treat people to. |
Q for you: Are you getting better at your job every year? |
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🙋♂️ Take extreme ownership |
Jocko Willink tells this story in his book, Extreme Ownership, of how he was leading an operation in Iraq that took a major turn for the worse when two of his platoons radioed in that they were under heavy fire, and needed back-up asap. |
But as it turns out? |
Because of poor planning, the two platoons had (unknowingly) been attacking each other! (Luckily, none of his SEALs were hurt, but they could've easily been killed.) |
Afterwards, in the mission debrief, his superiors understandably want blood. |
Who's fault was this? |
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So what does Jocko do? |
He stands up and says, "You know whose fault this is? It was MY fault. I'm the leader of this mission, and everything that happens rests with me." |
Now… |
What do you think happened to his reputation afterwards? |
Here's what: |
He got more trust from his superiors, and more respect from his subordinates. Because he didn't try to pass the buck. |
So, how about you? |
Do you play the blame game at work? Or, are you taking ownership? |
| | | | …by the way, if you use LinkedIn, go to my profile and hit the 'Follow' button. I share a mix of practical career strategy and mid-week motivation — stuff that makes it easy to keep your career on track.
Topics coming up this week: negotiation hacks, how to build instant rapport with anyone + more. See you there. | alright, let's get back to my essay… |
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That's a wrap for today. These emails take me freakin' forever to put together and cost a lot in email sending costs. But I keep the whole thing free, without sleazy 'pay to read the rest of it!' type of stuff. So in return, here's the 'fee': |
If an email changes the way you think, opens your mind to a new perspective, or gives you an insight you get value from, do one of these: |
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Stuff like this helps and makes all the efforts feel worth it — thank you. |
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 | being a lifeguard for professional swimmers is probably also the 'easiest' job in the world |
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🔎 Speed Up Your Job Search One actionable piece of advice to help you hack your job search. |
How to target your resume to a job |
Read the full article here. |
Some people say you should make a new resume for each job you apply to. If you had all the time in the world, then, yes, that's a good idea. |
But most of us don't and want to be more efficient. If that's you, do these two things instead: |
✴ If you don't have a lot of time, edit just your skills section |
This is the quickest way to target your resume. Look at the job description you apply to, pick out core skills, and update your skills section with the ones you have. This helps you get past the ATS, especially if the recruiters are looking out for any specific skills. |
To make this easier, use a tool like Targeted Resume to automatically find which core ATS skills you're missing (based on the job you're applying to). |
⚡ Create 3-5 resume versions for the sub-fields you are targeting |
Create one for each 'job type' you are applying for. For example, if you're applying for marketing roles, you might have a resume: |
targeting sales and account management roles, highlighting your experience speaking to customers aimed at branding and design roles, highlighting your creative experience and tools you've used like Canva and Photoshop targeting more user acquisition or media buying roles
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🎯 By the way, if you haven't yet used Score My Resume to get an instant resume review, do that first. The tool will scan your resume for key things hiring managers look for and tell you where it falls short. |
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From Our Team Tried our other AI tools? | Want to make your LinkedIn profile work for you? Our optimization tool will show you how to optimize it so you get more leads, jobs and opportunities. Optimize your profile |  |
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Here are some reviews of last week's email. Leave one here. |
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If you're new here, let's get the intros out of the way. |
I'm Rohan. Six years ago, I found myself frustrated with the sea of misleading career advice online, so I started Resume Worded. The goal was simple: provide guidance that actually works. |
But resumes were only the tip of the iceberg. There was a lot of clichéd, generic career advice out there. So, I started this email series, Coached. Each week, I talk about real career strategy, informed not only by my experiences but by my conversations with industry leaders, senior coaches who train CEOs, and people with way more experience than I have. |
Every email you receive is written by me, not a ghostwriter. I'm here, on the other end, reading your replies. |
Until next time, |
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Rohan
Founder at Coached & Resume Worded |
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P. S. To make sure your career never goes off the rails, don't miss my future emails. A simple way to make sure you get each email is: |
If you're using Gmail, hit the 3 dots at the top-right corner, and choose Move to -> Primary. Or drag this email to Primary if you're on your computer. If you're using Apple Mail, tap on our email address at the top of this email (next to "From:" on mobile) and click "Add to VIPs.".
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