Treat your job search like a full-time job.

Who hasn’t heard that from well-meaning coaches and others in our orbit who want us to get focused and get a job—fast.

Seriously?

Think about it. First of all, it’s nebulous, with no start or end date.

Second, it can be daunting to think about adding another 40+ hours to your already-packed week.

Even if you’re unemployed, you’re (hopefully!) either filling those traditional employment hours with upskilling or volunteering in a meaningful way that will help you advance your career and give you a sense of purpose.

I’d never suggest that you approach a product launch or bathroom renovation with a second-job mindset, so why would I ask you to do that with your job search?

Instead, I’d recommend managing your job search like a project, which means setting up a plan just as you would any other major endeavor.

Following are 5 rules to create a framework for your successful job search project:

Continue reading “Don’t Treat Your Job Search Like a Full-time Job”

It’s so HARD for me to talk about myself! 

I hear this a lot. And I get it. 

You don’t feel the need to shout your achievements from the rooftops. You’re a high achiever, and there’s a reason you got where you are: you spend more time showing what you can do, so you haven’t needed to talk about it. 

And to be clear, showing vs. telling is the first rule of creating a standout career profile.

But you have to promote yourself to rise above the competition. 

So, where’s the balance between obnoxious self praise and underselling yourself?

While all elements in your career profile should complement each other in promoting you as the best candidate, each plays a slightly different role in the process, and therefore works best with a nuanced tone. 

Let’s look at  the 3 main elements of your career profile—your resume, LinkedIn page, and cover letter—and how using those subtle changes in tone for each will create a compelling package that’s irresistible for the reader.

Continue reading “Is it OK to Brag?”

I don’t know about you, but my favorite Winter Olympic sport is snowboarding. Besides the fact that they seem to be free of controversy, it’s one sport where the competitors seriously look like they’re having FUN! 

Here are 5 things I learned from their performances and culture:

1. Experience still matters. Man, it was fun to watch Lindsay Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner. They’ve both struggled in the past, as one would with that kind of longevity—but they pushed hard to the very end to win the mixed team snowboard cross, adding to Jacobellis’ gold for the individual snowboard cross the night before. One of the announcers joked that they had 76 years of experience between them. Yep.

2. Life isn’t fair, and we may not always be adequately recognized, but that’s not a reason to give up. Ayumu Hirano showed us—even with a WTF gasp-inducing score after his first completion of a triple cork, which had never been landed in Olympic competition—we don’t go off and sulk. We get back up and do it again, if for no other reason than to give the judges another chance to get it right. Thankfully, they did.

3. We can step away from our career and not lose our edge. We all know Chloe Kim is a superstar, but I didn’t realize she’d taken time off to “discover who Chloe is outside of snowboarding and then come back and be in a better mental state.” Did this sabbatical give her the refresh she needed to win her second gold? Who knows. It certainly didn’t hurt. In any case, she reminded me that doing so doesn’t mean we have to forfeit our chances for continued success. 

4. Even if we compete in an individual sport, we can be part of a team. Nothing says community like a bunch of snowboarders. Watching the other snowboarders pile on top of Anna Gasser after she became the first female snowboarder to land the triple cork, or Baumgartner’s rival wrap his arms around him as Jacobellis rushed to the finish line was so darned refreshing, and another reminder that there’s always room to celebrate others—even if they’re our direct competition.

5. We can fall. We can fall in a messy way. It’s OK. It’s what we do afterward (and before!) that matters. That’s what legacies are made of. Thanks for a great run, Shaun White!

In 2020, I finally admitted to myself that my days of running were over, and with my gym closing and my devoted canine companion Clover staring up at me with her beseeching brown eyes, I committed to walking every day. Mind you, although this was something I enjoyed doing periodically with friends, walking was never an activity I relished doing solo.

So, how was I going to get myself out on the trail? I’m a big fan of pairing fun activities with what seem to be mundane (albeit necessary) ones to make the latter a little easier. I’m one of those who like a little sugar to help the medicine go down.

The first step was to distract myself by listening to the Godmother of podcasters, Terry Gross. And lo and behold, I soon found that I could actually forget the task at hand. Since then, I’ve built a library that includes all kinds of topics, from the writing craft to meditation to comedy. I got so into podcasts over the past year that I even launched my own.

Continue reading “My Gift to You: A Career Podcast Playlist”

As the youngest of eight, I’ve been blessed with lots of nieces and nephews, many of whom now have small children of their own. Normally, I can count on connecting with most of these families at least once a year, since we’ve been going through a bit of a growth spurt with weddings and new babies. As we hunkered down in March and came to grips with the possibility of not seeing our family “live” in 2020, I was also feeling special compassion for parents of younger children who were suddenly thrust into the roles of second-grade teacher and camp counselor while maintaining their “day” jobs and navigating new technology, to boot.  I knew that if my own boys were still in elementary school, I’d surely be pulling my hair out. So, with the idea of connecting with the little ones while (maybe) lightening the load of their parents, I reached out to see if they’d be interested in virtual story time.

Continue reading “What I Learned from Auntie Em’s Story Time”

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we’ll have evolved when this is all over.

Will more people decide that they’re actually just as productive if they work from home? Now that they’ve staked out their own workspace and have invested in new equipment, will they discover that it’s not so bad, after all?

Continue reading “What Will Our Story Be?”

If I could tell my younger self one thing, it would be to loosen up and not be afraid to be myself — in interviews, in social situations, and in business meetings.

I encourage this with the job seekers and entrepreneurs I help, as well. I’m amazed by some of the stories that shake out during our conversations. I’ve worked with hundreds of clients, and one thing’s consistent: there’s always something sparkly and genuine and unique that bubbles up from their background. Yes…always. From there, it’s just a matter of them confidently flying that flag. Continue reading “Let’s Get Real!”