Resumes and Racquet Sports - Rerun
Welcome back or welcome for the first time to this special rerelease of one of our most popular podcast episodes. We're bringing it back as part of the launch of our new course, personal brand management for the Racquet's industry, a self paced virtual program from the University of Florida. This course was created in response to high demand for expert guidance on job searching, interviewing, and managing your professional brand in the Racquet's world. And this episode gives you a taste of that content, offering insights and takeaways that align directly with what you'll learn in the course. As a student, you'll also get access to an exclusive interview practice chatbot and a thirty minute one on one career consultation.
Kim Bastable:If you're ready to sharpen your edge in a competitive market, check out the course at the website, www.ufdors.com. And if you're one of the first 100 to register, use code WELCOME40 for $40 off. Now let's dive into the episode and into your next career move with confidence. Welcome
Episode Narration:to Racquet Fuel, where we launch into great conversations and share powerful tools to help you become a stronger rackets leader. Your hosts are Kim Bastable, a former all American tennis player and now the director of professional rackets management at the University of Florida, and Simon Gale, the USTA senior director of racket sports development. First, exciting news for 2025. We are expanding our delivery of episodes and plan to release a new one every other Thursday throughout 2025. So do us a favor.
Episode Narration:Subscribe and follow us so you don't miss an episode, and tell at least one friend about Racquet Fuel. Now, today on Racquet Fuel, resume, dos, and don'ts. Here are Kim and Simon with feedback and advice. Welcome
Kim Bastable:to Racquet Fuel. I'm Kim Bastable here with Simon Gale again, and we are going to talk about resumes. This is kind of a just back and forth with Simon and I based on our experiences of seeing many of these. We require them to be submitted through the UF course so that I can critique them and give some feedback. And Simon has received many, many, many in hiring positions and such.
Kim Bastable:We wanna make the disclaimer that we're not resume experts, so to speak, but the practical use of a resume, we have some significant we viewed a lot of them and viewed a lot of cover letters. And it's really just, you know, when you're looking at a lot of them, what stands out, what's good, what's maybe not so good, that's the type of advice we plan to offer today. Is that kind of a fair intro, Simon?
Simon Gale:Yeah. I think when you look at we're talking about being in a a leadership role, any type of leadership role. If you're involved in hiring and firing, I think it's the number one thing you do is the hiring of people and your ability to screen resumes, pick out people and start to understand what type of person you need for a job. It's a critical part of what I do every day because if I don't get the right people and I'm not good at this, it impacts our product and impacts our culture. So I think it's critical as a leader and I think it's a skill you develop as you just do more of it.
Simon Gale:I'm not I don't think it's something you're born with. I think it's something you develop over time.
Kim Bastable:Yes. And I think that as we as as you try to sell yourself out there, you know, sometimes that first the only thing that someone sees is that resume. So conveying what you wanted to convey, clearly letting people know the proper information so that they can, lack of a better reality, scan it quickly and get the the best information from it because someone who's hiring can often look at ten, twenty, 30, even more of these, and it's not maybe a lot of time to scan that piece of paper. So that's why I would like to start with the cover letter, which if there is a cover letter requested, I think some people wanna know what do I put in it because it's maybe just a regurgitation of the resume. And I argue that it should not be because you don't need that.
Kim Bastable:You have the resume. It should be more a chance to personalize yourself for the position that you're trying to get hired for. And so looking at that job description, outlining how you would be a good fit, outlining the fact that you're actually looking at their job description and their need, and then being sensitive to that is better than a cover letter that just says, I this, I this, I did that, I did this. I'm able to do this. I've done this, which sounds a little bit tone deaf that you are just telling everybody what you can and have done, but you're not really sensitive to the actual job.
Kim Bastable:So I think there's a little connect the dots from the job description to the resume on a cover letter. Any thoughts on cover letters, Simon?
Simon Gale:Yeah. I agree a 100%. I'm not sure if a cover letter is a a standard part of an application anymore. I see some, but I'm not sure it's something that's consistent. And I like the cover letter because to your point, the ability to have someone concisely summarize what it is that their skill set and how their skill set fits the job that I'm applying for.
Simon Gale:If I can see that in one or two paragraphs, I'm already potentially connected and hooked to this person and now I want to look at your resume. If I get a generic cover letter that says, I was the number one player from x, y and z country through 1980 and 1989 and I'm asking for a leadership position, I'm not interested in how good a player you were. I want to understand your skill set and how can you apply that in the written form, not bullet point like at the resume, in a written form to say this is why I am appropriate for the job that you're advertising. It can hook me in or it can turn me off you very quickly.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. And you make the point, the written form. I mean, this does show your ability to write the English language in proper sentences and punctuation and and, you know, careful not to have typos. So to have a cover letter be read by somebody else, you know, preread, you reread it, make sure it makes sense, It's care it's important because this is the chance to convey your ability to communicate, which frankly, think is responsibility of of every job, whether you're a leader even on down to a staff pro. There does need to be the ability to write.
Simon Gale:Yeah. That's your first impression, isn't it? You know, it's your appearance. If you're face to face, this is your first appearance in front of someone. What's the impression they're left with?
Simon Gale:And I I hate getting standard cover letters or standard resumes that are just cut and paste and just send that have had no effort put into them to be customized to the actual job that I've advertised. And I immediately will just move on. You might be potentially qualified and I'd have to really sift through it, but I don't want to sift through it if I'm looking at a 100 resumes for one job. I need some standouts and your presentation helps me think that maybe you are professional and you you put time into something and that you've made a real effort and maybe that's gonna correspond with your work ethic when you get here and work for us. So it's it's a small thing, but they all interrelated, I think.
Kim Bastable:Well, yeah. And if it's the potential turn off, that's that's a big red flag. Don't don't do that. So, I think we would both agree that one of the tricks to a resume also is to talk about accomplishments versus tasks. Sometimes under each job, it says a little bit of what you've done and, you know, you ran this clinic and you you ran this summer camp and doesn't talk about growth, accomplishments.
Kim Bastable:How do you answer to, how do you how do you reflect on those?
Simon Gale:Yeah. I would say that there's a real skill to being able to take your career so far and sell your achievements. You have to be able to brag a little bit in a professional way and and and be humble about it, but you've got a handful of bullet points under your previous job. Maybe it is five, ten years to say, I ran the junior program. Well, that is very generic.
Simon Gale:A lot of people ran a junior program. Maybe you ran it into the ground. Maybe you ran it beautifully and has tripled in size in three years. I need to know more than that because every resume I am looking at for this role, they all ran a program because it is a leadership job. What I want to see is that you led a program and increased participation from 100 players to 500 in three seasons.
Simon Gale:That's got my interest and it says that this person actually achieved something versus I don't know why you left that job. Maybe you're leaving because it didn't work out. I want to know you're leaving because you're looking for the next opportunity to grow and you've got all these reasons why you're successful. So I think you've got to connect the dots whether it's in the summary of your your experience and and what you're recognized for and you need to be able do a bit of self reflection. Say what did I actually achieve and what was I good at and then apply it to this job as well.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. I think which is an interesting for someone who's younger in the industry, they might not even think about keeping track of data, even not feeling they're not responsible for that. But if there's a way for you to convey that you have accomplished something versus just, like you said, run a summer camp or or run a ladies program, that is definitely better information.
Simon Gale:Let me pick up on that because I used to do it. I I have a filing cabinet at home which still has endless amounts of paper, which one day I'm gonna take and scan into a computer or something. But before the age of apps and easy storage and so on and the cloud and all these sort of things to be able to organize your life, I would write things down anytime I had an achievement at a job. Now even if, to your point, as you have a twenty year career, it's much easier to write a resume because you've hopefully achieved a few things. If you're just leaving your first job where you taught for two years, well, the sort of things I need to make note of, well, I would put all that in paper, on paper and have a summary of my year and then when I would build my resume, I could pull from that because you will never remember all the details and not the ones that are important and then that is building a case for yourself over time.
Simon Gale:So a younger pro who is not in a leadership role could look at saying something like, instead of taught private lessons, I was high revenue generator who had an 80% retention rate on private lessons session over session. Well, that's pretty impactful as a two year pro who's learning the craft. You're still learning how to look someone in the eye and say, thank you for the lesson today. Can I book you again next week? You know, that takes confidence and time.
Simon Gale:So I think if you can highlight what you're good at at the stage of your career, you're not growing the junior program. You are not responsible for hiring 12 pros and retaining 10 of them for five years. You're responsible for teaching great lessons. So how do you reflect that in your achievements and detail it? Because over five, ten years, that's a that's a lot of information that sells you for a potential employer.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. Which I think is an excellent suggestion to keep track of all that. And I think it leads me to the question, is it okay to have a resume longer than one page? Because at some point, multiple jobs or a little bit of information about what you've accomplished might flow into more than one page. What's your feeling on that?
Simon Gale:Well, I will speak from personal experience. My current resume is probably a solid two pages in very small font. It was probably three pages, but it two pages in smaller font. But I think if you can keep it to a page, that's great. A front and back or two page is okay as long as you're just not filling space.
Simon Gale:If it's relevant and it grabs my attention and it's intriguing but I think you want to make sure your last job has got the most built into it and each subsequent job has a few less bullet points and maybe less details because I'm looking at what you've done most recently that's saying that you're only as good as your last job or you're only as good as your last meal if you're a chef or something like that. I think that's true and I'm looking at your most recent job and then gradually working backwards. But if you're later in your career, I'm not that interested in what you did twenty years ago and how good a junior player you were. As I said earlier, if you've been teaching for thirty years and you're a top junior, I don't know if you can still hit a ball or not. That's that's you know, maybe you've got a bad knee now and you don't play or I don't know.
Simon Gale:I want to know what you can do as a coach because that's what's going to impact my business, not how good a player you were. Making it relevant and definitely as concise as possible because if the data is there and the story is there, I'm going to put it on the screening pile and say, let's let's move forward with a thirty minute intro session. I'm interested in this person's story. I wanna learn more.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. I think that's the idea of the cover letter too would be that you could fill in some of those small details if they were relevant, you know, in the cover letter and not include them in the resume if if it was applicable. But as you say, it might be twenty, thirty years ago and and sort of unimportant what you did in a junior tennis context. So how can we, do better research about the job we're trying to get hired for? What what do you what do you expect as someone who's interviewing for people to have researched your position?
Kim Bastable:Sort of a non resume related, but just a job hunting related question.
Simon Gale:Yeah. But it's all connected, isn't it? Because if you understand what I'm looking for as the employer and you understand where you're headed and what the demographics are and what part of the country it's in, is it Northeast and cold and understanding that business model versus Florida versus versus the West Coast, you know, What are the nuances that make all these jobs unique and can you talk to those and understand the model and show some depth of understanding that makes me think, wow, this person went on our website which is the easiest thing to do. It used to be much harder before a website. It's just showing my age.
Simon Gale:Before a website, trying to find out was much harder, a lot of phone calls, but who are the key stakeholders so to speak at that facility? The hiring manager is the director of Racquet Sports or is it the GM or the managing partner? Who am I going to be talking to and understanding their history? And even being able to refer and say, hey, I was looking you up online and I saw that you had a history as a teacher or someone before you became a tennis club director. That's interesting.
Simon Gale:My parents are teachers. Suddenly there's a connection and as we've heard with a lot of our guests, this is a relationship business. Can I show that I can have a conversation with you and it's not just regurgitating my resume to you in conversation? I think going on the website, understanding everything the facility offers, is it just tennis, is it Racquet Sports, is it a gym as well and a health club, indoor, outdoor, number of courts, number of pros and if you go through that, you should come with at least a dozen good questions that intrigue you and things you should ask in that conversation. A thirty minute screening or first interview is not enough time for me to ask all my questions.
Simon Gale:I want more time and I have a lot of questions I'd like to get to because I took the time to research all these aspects of the job and then I like to be able to I'll reach out to somebody and say, Is it okay if I talk to XYZ person at your facility? I'd like to understand more from one of my friends who teaches there or is it okay if I talk to somebody else, a business manager or somebody to understand more? I just want to understand more so I'm as prepared as possible. That would blow me away if someone called me and said, just applied. Is there someone I could talk to to understand more about the national campus outside of what I read on the website?
Simon Gale:You're already at the top of my list because this
Kim Bastable:You mean you're not a nuisance when you do that? That's a good thing?
Simon Gale:Not at all. I will respond to that any day of the week. It shows some intuition and it shows some you're keen to get the job. I think that's a separator versus an annoyance. If it's annoying to someone, maybe they're not someone you're you're destined to work for.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. No. I think and I think the idea we have sometimes the younger generations are afraid to ask questions. So I like that you suggest that asking and inquiring is not a nuisance. It's actually excellent.
Simon Gale:You you wanna come prepared to understand. I remember my when I first went for a it's a head pro job in Australia. The equivalent would be director. I was only about 18, 19. It was a local club and it was an established club so I thought I'd be a superstar there but I obviously had no clue what I was doing.
Simon Gale:I was 19 years of age. And my dad sat me down and said, Look, here's what you need to do. And to this day, I I still use this word of of like critical success factors. The CSFs he used to call it. And he was, you know, he hired a lot of people and that sort of thing and and I was like, I was 19.
Simon Gale:Yeah. My dad doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm cooler than him. I know what I'm doing. But I've never forgotten it and it helped me because I really tried to understand what is it that's going to what's critical for me to be successful in this job and can I understand that as much as possible before I get to the interview and say something like, Kim, thanks for interviewing me today?
Simon Gale:Three of the top things I've heard that would be critical for me to be successful are one, two, three. Is this still, you know, is this true? Is that a factual statement so to speak? Is that something that we can talk about? Is that something you agree on?
Simon Gale:Again, would blow me away if somebody thought these are the things that they took out of the job description or out of doing some research and asked me that question. I hate interviewing someone and having to lead the discussion. I love after the the formalities. Someone saying, could I start with a question? I'm like, this this is great already.
Simon Gale:So it's you can see the connection between all that research and coming prepared for your your interview. So I think it's critical.
Kim Bastable:Awesome. Awesome. Okay. How about the tough questions on compensation? What how are you how does it hit you when people ask that question within this process pretty early in the interview?
Simon Gale:I think I've evolved a lot and maybe because of the volume of resumes you look at and the number of positions you're hiring as you work at a bigger facility, but I go there in the first thirty minutes. If they don't
Kim Bastable:ask As me an interviewer.
Simon Gale:If they don't ask I go there by the end of the first screening. Especially if I like them. If I think this has got some potential, this process with this person, I'm asking the question and I think it's fine to ask An expert might say you need to wait for that but it's how you ask something like anything, right? I mean, if you said to me, look, I know compensation is listed on the job description, which unfortunately a lot don't have, but I know it's there. For me to make a move, that would be a lateral move for me, I'm really looking to make five or 10% more.
Simon Gale:Is there scope for that or wiggle room if I was the appropriate candidate? That's a professional question that is important to them. At the end of the day, it is one of the number one things for somebody making a decision and I want to make sure we're on the same page. If they don't ask me, I will ask you as the interviewer, Kim, what is your income expectation to make this move? Not what you're going to make per hour, how much are you looking to make annually in order to make this a move that would be worthwhile for you.
Simon Gale:If we're $30,000 $40,000 off, we're done and that's fine to say, Look, I don't have a position for you right now that fits that but I'd love to keep in touch because maybe based on your resume and your interview today, a job in the future that opens up could be in that range. But we're not there for this job and I think we should let it go our separate ways. But I'll keep in touch because you had a great resume. I think that's a professional conversation and I've not wasted your time doing three or four hours of interviews and bringing you in person and then sending you an offer letter with a number and we're way off. What a waste of your time and a waste of my time.
Simon Gale:I think it's disrespect ful on my end as the interviewer to not get there relatively early, but in a professional manner.
Kim Bastable:Right. And so if if the interviewer doesn't go there, I think that is yeah. It's again, well written questions, well spoken questions, not just the direct how much am I gonna make comments. Just and I think an understanding of pay raise philosophy or policies on on pay raises for within a company estimates of things like revenue sharing. Those are always unknown, but if they're a part of the arrangement, they're important.
Kim Bastable:Communication about that topic is not off off base.
Simon Gale:Well, I hear often from others in our industry that there's a there's a level of frustration when a compensation range is not listed on a job and I don't know the percentage but it's pretty high I would think where money is not listed. It just says commensurate with experience. What the heck does that mean? I have to go through preparing a portfolio potentially, preparing a resume, writing cover letters, researching and then I get to the interview or second interview potentially before I know the number? What a waste of time if it's not even close to where I need to be.
Simon Gale:You might have a ballpark in your mind because of the type of facility in the market for that area, but I think that's something that should be fairly upfront and maybe there's some wiggle room on top of that range that I know as the employer, but let's get it out there and attract the right people for the pay range that you've advertised. I think that's important. I think it's totally okay to ask what's your pay raise philosophy? Do you have a policy or a system? Is it done annually?
Simon Gale:Do you you know, a lot of factors go into that. Does the business been successful? Did we make money? Did you do your job? Did you reach your targets before you're eligible for a pay raise versus entitled to a pay raise?
Simon Gale:But the general philosophy for our business is we do it annually during the last quarter when we do reviews and you'll know by the end of the year what your pay rate will be starting January 1 if that's your financial year. I think that's fine to know. Why not have those conversations?
Kim Bastable:Yeah. It's the employee centered way to go about it versus the probably the old school methods where we're sure a little bit more you know, the the higher ups are a little bit more tight lipped and not as open and and clear to the employees. So, yeah, that's that's good good advice. How about video submissions? We require one at the University of Florida.
Kim Bastable:I know I have practice in the course with that because I have been on search committees in which we required video submissions. I find them very interesting because it requires people to you know, you get a look at them. They have to articulate. Obviously, we're in a business where verbal communication on court particularly is very important. Presence on court is important.
Kim Bastable:The the leadership persona to be able to command people's attention. So I find a video submission important. And what I've noted at UF is that sometimes when people submit, they're required to answer three questions. They do couple things. They don't put the camera straight ahead from them, and they're either looking mostly you're looking down at the camera if you have, for instance, laid it on your desk in front of you and it was your phone.
Kim Bastable:By the time you record, you're looking down on your camera, which means that at me, the one watching, is sort of looking up at you, which might be that I see the ceiling behind you more than I see you. So that's one thing. Good lighting's important. Professional dress, whether it's, you know, putting on a a suit and tie or or a very nice shirt for a lady or just a professional tennis shirt is is I think important. Doesn't really have to be the suit and tie formal look in my opinion, but I don't think there's a problem with that.
Kim Bastable:And then there's the answering questions. Sometimes rambling on and on and on, which you gotta realize if somebody's asked you for video interview, they have asked probably three to four to 10 people that. And so a search committee is going to be watching multiple of these, and so longer is not better. The idea of being concise but informative in your answer is important. So rehearse your answer, don't just wing it, maybe practice if there was a question or two, practice what you're gonna say or write notes.
Kim Bastable:So those are kind of my ideas and tips. I'm sure you have more, Simon.
Simon Gale:Well, let me ask you this, which would you look at first? A two minute video submission or reading a cover letter in someone's resume? Which one would you look at first in this day and age?
Kim Bastable:Yeah, I think you'd definitely look at the video.
Simon Gale:Yeah, it's easier for me too. I don't have to read. I can just sit there and listen and within thirty seconds, I've got a gut feel about this person whereas on a resume, I have no insight into this person. I can interpret it but you can't beat that face to face and it's interesting you talk about how you use it at UF. For the first time ever, we did it for our Racquet Sports Management Apprenticeship.
Simon Gale:Trying to attract the same sort of people you're attracting for the director of Racquet Sports course and we asked four questions and they had I think two to three minutes maximum. We put a time limit on it so they didn't ramble on and they were all vastly different. As you say, there was ones with the phone on the floor and someone was sitting in the car and someone was eating lunch and it's like the ones that stood out were well presented but they also had great answers and you could tell they had practiced their answers. It wasn't just ad libbing and the minute we watched it, it just we didn't even have to look at the resume. We just said, you know, let's say we had a 100 applicants.
Simon Gale:The videos that were outstanding were already in the must interview pile. Then we looked at their resume because the video just told the entire story is like, this is someone who is a future leader. This is somebody who speaks well into a camera. This is someone who thinks about their answers. This is somebody who could I could envision in front of a classroom or in front of a group of 12 adults or 20 kids and six coaches doing their thing.
Simon Gale:I can't get that from a resume. I just can't. So I was fascinated by that process and I think we will see more of it as a request because it's quite easy to with technology to record and upload. I wouldn't be surprised if we see it utilized more. I will be using it more for a lot of positions going forward and I think it saves a lot of time weeding out resumes.
Simon Gale:I I I look at the video and yes, no, move on.
Kim Bastable:Some businesses use it as a second level, like they do the resume, you know, walk. They they walk read the resumes and then they provide, you know, 10 people and say, do the do the video submission. But, yeah, it could be totally from from the get go and think the technology is so easy to do. I'm finding it fascinating you said two or three minutes. I have a time limit on mine at UF, but I'm amazed at how people don't adhere to that.
Kim Bastable:And it really is important when someone gets in their head that any search committee or hiring agent is watching multiple of these. And so be good, be succinct, be clear, but don't be long. Yeah.
Simon Gale:So 100%.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. And I also say at the end, say thank you. You know, have good energy, good tone of voice because this, like you said, could be the only presentation that someone gets from you and for you to just, like, cut the video off at the end without even saying thank you is it's not bad, but it's not as good as just a kind thank you for your time, Finale.
Simon Gale:The show. Absolutely.
Kim Bastable:So yeah. So that's good. There's a little bit of hopefully, for our listeners, a little bit of, insight into what we've seen on the resume side. Love feedback and comments and contact back to Simon and I with questions or thoughts on this subject because it's as we say, it's not there's not one answer to these questions. There's there's a lot of opinion on our side.
Kim Bastable:Any final thoughts?
Simon Gale:Yeah. I think it's it's we all know how important it is and while we have a shortage of pros and an abundance of positions, you're still looking for the best candidate or applicant and your resume is the first thing I see. You know, I'm not saying anything we haven't all heard before, but I do think making sure you customize it to the job, do your research, understand where you are applying to work can separate your resume and put you in that top 25% very quickly versus the standard resume that you send to every job. I think you've got to put in the time, and you will send a strong message to that employer that, you know, this is potentially someone I should interview. So, this has been fun.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. Yeah. You know, another thought I thought back to the technology before we forget is that if you have listed a bunch of clubs, to put some backstory on what those clubs involve. Because I do think that sometimes we don't know whether a club has 35 courts or five courts, and if it has pickleball, paddell, and and tennis, or it has just tennis. I mean, the context of the club matters, and a website link for that club, even if it's a private club and you really can't get any information, just provide the website link just, again, for contest.
Kim Bastable:That's, again, sort of a like the video submissions, that's a technology thing that that we need to add to resumes for when we submit them.
Simon Gale:Yeah. If you have a LinkedIn LinkedIn page, that should be on the top up there so I can quickly
Kim Bastable:find the have a LinkedIn page, FYI.
Simon Gale:100%. So, yeah, lots of little nuggets here and hopefully it's been helpful and if someone can take something away that helps the building of their resume or even if you're an employer who's interviewing and what you're looking for, then hopefully this has been of benefit.
Kim Bastable:Yep. Excellent. Alright. That's all we have for you today on Racquet Fuel. We'll see you next time.
Episode Narration:That's all for today, but we're not out of fuel. You can find more information and resources in our show notes and by visiting racquetfuelpodcast.com. If you liked what you just heard, please subscribe. And also, leave a review, which helps other people join the mission to become stronger Racquet's leaders.
Conclusion:This podcast is a production of Athlete Plus, the people, stories, and science behind elite athletes and teams. Athlete Plus is the official podcast network of the Institute for Coaching Excellence, a research, education, and outreach center in the College of Health and Human Performance at the University of Florida. The Institute for Coaching Excellence offers various online certificate programs and degrees in partnership with the Department of Sport Management. Learn more today at coaching.hhp.ufl.edu.
