The Real Work of Proof of Work: Rob Pakulski on How AI is Changing Resumes

If you think your resume is getting you hired in 2026, you may be playing a game that is ended. Right now, before anyone even looks at the PDF of your resume, AI and digital auditing tools are building a full profile from what you've actually built, written, and delivered. The resume is not dead, it's just a little bit downstream of your proof of work. So welcome back to Real Work Ideas. I'm Jennifer Tarl, your host. And today we are joined by a friend of the show, Rob Pekulski. We are going to unpack how talent is actually evaluated today with AI and data vetting and why traditional resumes are losing their leverage and how you can intentionally build a digital footprint that makes opportunities come to you. Plus, we're going to be looking at a real world case study from Real Work Ideas, yes, from this show on how one of our guests shifted to a proof of work model and watched his career leverage rocket. Rob, welcome back to the show. So good to be back. Love being here, thank you so much. Always good to have you. So most people I know, this is what we've done for years, spend hours and hours just thinking about that perfect word to put into your resume. I've been there. We are old enough to remember looking for the perfect paper to print that resume on. Those days are over. So I feel like we're just shifting again with how people are applying and looking for jobs. So what is actually happening when a company is vetting a candidate today? Are there AI tools? What's happening before you even get a callback? Great question. I mean, the biggest thing that is something to be aware of is the resume is basically marketing material. That's the resume. You're doing marketing. Now, what people are really looking for, because they want to solve a problem by hiring the appropriate person, is they want to see proof of work, proof that you are who you say you are. And the biggest thing is that you have accomplished what they need to have accomplished or what you think is there. So it's really, that's what they're looking for. You look at an employer, they have a problem to solve and they want to solve it with little risk, which is they want somebody who has solved problems like this before, or they have experience in actually getting this done. It's less looking at a resume as an archive or a chronology from the time you were young to now, just a list of things you've done. That's not what they're looking for is a list of things you've done. They're looking for proof of work that you have solved problems that they have. They want to be able to see, are you a good problem solver? The best way to do that is to see digital proof of work somewhere. There should be somewhere digital proof of work that you've done this. And to the example that you mentioned is we did have people come on the podcast and talk about what they've done. And then you could see immediately that becomes a type of proof of work, not the only one, but it's something that is third party. It's in a podcast that you've done this. It's in this podcast. And so that gets fed into different large language models like a chat GPT or a Gemini or several others. And that becomes something that is discoverable. And so, wow, if somebody says you're an expert at this and then they go and ask a large language model, is that true? If you now turn up in this podcast or another podcast or there's a repository that has this on it, then there's digital proof of work that indeed you did do this. There is digital proof of work. It's not just marketing that you supply. I love that our show has actually helped someone and we have a great example of this. There was a past guest on here who will remain nameless and he actually did some work on getting his name out there. And I'm gonna call it upgrading his digital footprint and shifting just from a standard resume that you would send out to really showing his proof of work on the internet. So when you look at a case like this, what specific things do you need to change and what turns your sort of invisible profile to visible and a little more high leverage? Agreed, and I get exactly what you're saying is the good news on this, if you are somebody who has rated results and you're very driven, this is perfect for you. It is absolutely fantastic because you have a track record of producing results. Now you just have to figure out how do people know about it? So one of the worst things that can happen is if you tell an employer on your resume, you've produced all these results and they go to verify it online and there's nothing, nothing. You may have absolutely done that, exactly what you said, but they're like, I don't see a thing. I don't see a sub stack about it. I don't see a podcast. I don't see a GitHub repository. I don't see a website. I don't see a conference list. I don't see any speakers. I don't see it. So I cannot verify that what you said is correct. So there are a few ways to be able to get this verifiable signal. That's what you want recruiters to be able to get a verifiable signal versus marketing material that is supplied. So one ways to do that or different ways to do it is you can create your own website. You can speak at conferences that have online presence. You can come on podcasts. You can post on social media platforms, your points of view. Even if there's not a lot of subscribers to your LinkedIn profile or your sub stack, it really doesn't matter. It's there, it's there. And that is something that you now are no longer a ghost and they can see that you've actually have some proof of work. So again, for people who are really good at their jobs, this is the best of times. This is absolutely fantastic because you can lean into this and you have many ways, many, many ways to say, here is my proof of work. You just have to take a little bit of effort to put it up. I love that. And I think that so many people that I talk to have a slight fear sometimes about how things are changing and maybe they're going to be left out. And I love what you said that this is no longer about a chronology. It's about actually what you did. And so you can help craft your own story. You can help get out there all of that stuff that you're really proud of so that people see that yes, we're talking about a podcast because we're here, but I even think, and I've found people and discovered people because they have a sub stack or they have presented at a conference and that conference has them listed and what they've spoken about. And so that is a proof of work as well. But I do think coming on a podcast and call us, we're always looking for guests and we would love to feature you because everyone has a story to tell. That is such a great way to get out there all of your accomplishments and to help people actually in turn because you're using your knowledge to help other people. Okay, so all of this being said, it does make me think as well. I really believe that you need to be authentic. You're not trying to create a story that is not true. I think that's a very fine line. So for someone who has a lot of experience and doesn't want to be a full-time creator, let's face it, it's a lot of work. What does putting out just one high signal proof of work, what can people do? And really it is a shift and it's a pretty big shift that is occurring right now is that everybody thinks the first interview is a human eyes are looking at your submitted resume. That is not the way it works anymore. Usually the first thing to look at your submitted resume is a program, either it's an AI scraper, AI program, executive digital platform, something that the HR department has or the company has that will vet you before any human eyes see it. So there is a filter that goes on that previously in years past did not occur. And so now that is something that is getting to be more and more common. So something to be aware of that the first interview is basically an invisible interview. It's basically digitally it's happening with no human eyes taking a look at it. So that is something to be aware of that it's not just what you put on the resume. It is a program that is looking at not only what you supply, but also what you have in the other digital world. So it's not just your resume it's looking at, it's looking at your resume plus other things that you have done that are in the online world. That is a new thing. That is absolutely something that didn't exist years ago, but it's definitely a reality now. I love that and I work as you know, with a lot of people who are not in the US or originally from the US with my other YouTube channel Tarle speech, which works on communication, executive communication and pronunciation. So many of my students have no online presence and they don't even have a LinkedIn. And I was really shocked at the difference in searching for someone because I always search for every one of my new potential students. I want to learn a little about them, see what they're doing and they're not looking for a job. This is just me going out. The difference between someone who has a LinkedIn and this is a very simple thing to do that just has some of their accomplishments listed. And if you don't know how to do that, ask Gemini, ask chat GPT, ask them how do I improve my LinkedIn profile? How do I add this, whatever that you've done to show people what you've done, that is one of the easiest places to get started. And then also I would just leave as an aside, people will be looking for you. And the easiest way to get in touch with you is through LinkedIn because people can send you a message. So I cannot say enough about LinkedIn as a really easy way to get started. Just do it. Just get out there, put something on LinkedIn that is actually considered social media for people who think that only Instagram, Facebook is social media, YouTube is social media, LinkedIn is social media. All of that will get your name and your accomplishments out there. That's a good question. So the first step I always tell folks is just do like an audit of yourself. So just take a look out there, open up either a chat GPT or a Gemini and say, tell me about this person. See what comes up. Say, who is this person? What have they accomplished? What are the pros and cons of this person? What are their points of view? So have a discussion inside chat GPT, Gemini, Copilot, whatever you have from a large language model, you'll see what comes back. Now, the biggest red flags that come back is if you have been overly negative about something, that you're very strong, that you're basically saying how negative things are. Most of the time, people don't wanna hire extremely negative people. They wanna hire people who see opportunities in everything and are good problem solvers. So usually complainers are not problem solvers. So that's something to look at. Now, the good news is if you do see that come up, say, oh, this person always complains about this, well, ask them how, ask the large language model, chat GPT or Gemini, why do you say that? Where's the data coming from that you're saying that? And then you can address that once you find out where it's coming from. So that's number one I always tell people is do an own audit of yourself. Ask these large language models who you are, what are the pros and cons? What are your strong points of view? Those will come across because they pull from, these models get trained on many, many, many different platforms. And so you'll see what comes up. And then secondly is stop looking at like a LinkedIn as you just do an archive of everything you've done. That's not it. It's more your framework of how you see the world or what you are solving, what problems you have solved. That's always the biggest thing to look at it. It's not just a list of, just a list of your archive of everything you've done. It's more, what's the narrative? What's the story that you want to be able to tell? And what is the data that will back that up? The first thing is do that audit yourself, put yourself in there, see what comes up. Okay, so we now have, we know you need to get everything out there. What if you have something out there that you don't really love? Are there any red flags and how can people clean up their online profile so that you're not filtered out for something that maybe companies aren't looking for? Yep. First thing is I would say, recognize that you do not have to be an influencer. That's not what you have to be here. So number one, recognize that's not that anybody's expecting of you. They're not expecting you to post something, three times a day or something like that. That is all different social platforms. So other than that, I would say number two, then do the audit yourself. I call it the forensic audit, which is type your name and ask about yourself, either ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Grok, whatever you're using for your large language model. Number three, think about where do you wanna focus your attention and building up your accomplishments? Is it in LinkedIn? It's usually the easiest, but YouTube can be a great place to, or Substack or a GitHub if you're technical. Where can you put your proof of work? If you have your own website, that's great, but you can start using LinkedIn. Where do you start putting your point of view and be able to focus and start posting there? And again, it's not bragging, it's saying this is what you've done. And one other thing I will add to that is, you may wanna find somebody that you think does a really good job of this, see how they come up in ChatGPT or Gemini. Type their name in, see what they've done. You don't have to do everything. You don't have to do Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, all of that, you do not have to. You can focus on just one platform and say, I'm just gonna put things here and that's what I'm going to do. So that is a big thing to try to make it simpler. And it's really, you do not have to have every single platform. You do not need to do that. Just treat this as you're somebody who solves problems. What are the problems you solve? How did you do it? And if you do wanna get on a podcast or something like that, extremely helpful. If you do wanna be a speaker at a conference, very helpful. These are all online, verifiable things that back up your narrative of the types of problems you solve. Yeah, very good points. Okay, so to wrap this up, let's give people some things that they can easily do. So maybe give us three things. Are there three things that people can do today to really improve their proof of work? The biggest thing I will mention is a lot of executives or people looking for jobs say, you know what, I'm going to be invisible online and that will show that I'm so busy that I don't have time to have anything online. And also I'm a little mysterious because I don't know who you are, all that. And again, you have to look at it from the perspective of the employer who's looking to employ you. They're not as a ghost, if you have nothing, you're more like an unvetted risk. They don't know anything about you. So if an automated scraper or a board search committee, if there's nothing out there, you can just fall out of the pipeline. They're not gonna contact you back and say, you know what? I didn't see anything online, that's why. You'll just fall out of the pipeline. You won't get that feedback. It will not give you the feedback on that. You're just gone. And so that is my big, exactly. So my biggest suggestion is don't be a ghost. Do not be a ghost online with zero. So you think that's something that's adding and showing, no, I don't have time to do any of that because I'm so busy. That is not the message that it sends. It sends a different message, probably one you don't want. If in this day and age, you have zero digital presence, that's probably not seen as a positive and may not get you to the next step. So that is the biggest thing I wanna mention to people is being invisible or being a ghost online is 99% of the time, not a positive. So that's something to address and you can address it easily. Okay, love it. So let me just recap that. So first step, you can all admit you're not an influencer. That's great. That kind of gets people over the hump. I love another thing that you said kind of paired with that. This is not bragging. This is stating and publishing your accomplishments online. It's just fact. It's not bragging. It is just you are putting facts about your work out there so people can find you. And number three, I love how you said this. Think about what you solve and how you solve that and kind of how that makes you special and then build those accomplishments on your preferred platform. LinkedIn, YouTube on a podcast, GitHub, Substack. Publish your own website if you're a developer and you can show people, oh, I made this via blah, blah, blah. And then that will just show people what you have done. Also, I will say a really nice feature on LinkedIn for people who aren't familiar with it along these lines is that people can write a little recommendation or something that they are really pleased about your work. And so if someone gives you a compliment at work, you can always ask that person, thank you so much, I really appreciate this. Could you post this to my LinkedIn? And that is really helpful as well. And I will say, people want to help. You just have to ask. And so if you ask your colleagues, I know they are going to step up. Rob, is there anything I am not talking about that we should be talking about or anything that I forgot? Okay, all right, everyone, get out there. Put out your proof of work and good luck in all your future job searches and ventures. Rob, thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. Everyone, have a great day and we'll see you again soon.