Career Change

Feeling Stuck in Your Career? 10 Questions to Help You Move Forward

by • Career Change, Job-Search Strategy, Life, Work •

So you’re feeling stuck in your job or career; you’re unhappy and unsure what to do about it. To get unstuck, take the first crucial step and conduct a thoughtful self-assessment. Accurately diagnose the cause and identify the cure by reflecting on three areas: your life experiences, your current situation and your vision for the future.

One assessment approach I use with clients to gain the needed insight involves answering 10 questions that cover these three areas. More

The No. 1 Way to Get Attention on LinkedIn

by • Building a Business, Career Change, General, Getting Interviews, Job-Search Strategy, Org. Effectiveness, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo, Social Media •

Business prospects or employers are probably searching on LinkedIn for someone like you. The single best way to ensure you’ll show up in their searches, and stand out from competitors, is to have the right profile “keywords.” These are the words or phrases that resonate. They’re used in search queries, and answer your target audience’s main question: “How can you help me?”

Profile keywords have benefits beyond boosting your LinkedIn search ranking. Since search engines like Google and More

Looking for a Job? Don’t Tell LinkedIn

by • Career Change, Getting Interviews, Job-Search Strategy, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo •

While having a resume means you’re looking for a job, having a LinkedIn profile doesn’t send the same signal. As a result, many jobseekers think their profile needs to say that they are actively searching. Otherwise, how else would an employer know to contact them? So they’ll add phrases like “open to new opportunities” or “seeking a position in…”

As I discuss in my book Advanced LinkedIn, however, you’re making a mistake if you add anything to your profile that indicates you’re looking. Here’s why. More

Don’t Reject Yourself in a Job Search

by • Career Change, Getting Interviews, Interviewing, Job-Search Strategy •

dont-reject-yourself-canstockphoto19270108If you want to speed up your job search, adopt the mindset of a successful salesperson. Sales professionals know a few things about rejection that can help jobseekers. They know you shouldn’t assume rejection if you haven’t heard back from a prospect. They know that it’s often possible to overcome an apparent rejection or hesitations about the services you are offering. And they know how to skillfully keep in touch when there’s no interest now.

Many of my new job search clients, however, are too quick to see rejection and give up. They More

Write These 6 Things to get a LinkedIn Introduction

by • Building a Business, Career Change, Getting Interviews, Recruiting •

One of LinkedIn’s killer applications is its ability to leverage your “first degree network” to get introductions to your second degree contacts– for recruiting, landing interviews or prospect meetings, partnerships, or just to learn from others.  To get the meetings you want, make it easy, for both your first degree connection to forward your request and for the recipient to agree.

Let’s take an example based on a client’s situation. Ellen wanted to meet Susan, a second degree connection, and she saw that John was their mutual first degree connection.  Ellen’s introduction request to John contained these six elements, in the sequence below:

More

When They Say You are “Overqualified”…

by • Career Change, Getting Interviews, Interviewing, Job-Search Strategy, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo •

What do you do if a hiring manager says you are “overqualified” for a position? First, you need to know that what they really mean is a) you’re going to want too much money, b) you’re going to be bored and will leave in six months, or c) you won’t fit into the culture. All three of these underlying issues can be addressed with these two approaches: More

Land Your Next Job with LinkedIn’s Volunteer Marketplace

by • Career Change, Getting Interviews, Job-Search Strategy, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo, Social Media •

LinkedIn now makes it easier to find volunteer opportunities. Gain access by going to http://volunteer.linkedin.com or by clicking on the “Jobs” menu option, selecting “Advanced Search,” “More Options,” and then entering “volunteer” in the job title. LinkedIn has partnered with some major volunteer matching sites to make this happen. Here’s why this feature is so great. More

How to Find & Use Keywords for Your Job Search

by • Career Change, Getting Interviews, Interviewing, Job-Search Strategy, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo, Social Media •

Keywords in your resume, LinkedIn profile, emails and ‘pitch’ help to communicate your value. To job prospects, your use of the right keywords tells them you are an “insider” (everyone wants to hire insiders) and that you understand the problems they face. Organizations use keyword filters for candidate searches, so your use of strategically placed keywords will improve your likelihood of being spotted.

When someone is searching on LinkedIn for a candidate with your skills (increasingly LinkedIn is the first stop for candidate searches), keywords in certain parts of your profile  matter more than others. More

Top Resume Mistakes to Avoid (Part 2)

by • Career Change, Getting Interviews, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo •

Oops!In Part 1, I covered the top two mistakes that I see clients make on their resumes.  In this post you’ll learn how to avoid six more resume pitfalls.  Topping off this list:

Your resume places too much focus on responsibilities, not enough on accomplishments

Which phrase do you think is more powerful?

  1. Responsible for running monthly financial reports.
  2. Redesigned monthly financial reporting process, cutting production time from one month to five days. More

Top Resume Mistakes to Avoid (Part 1- the top two)

by • Career Change, Getting Interviews, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo •

Oops!(Update: Part 2 is here) When a potential employer reviews your resume, s/he thinks: a) Can this person help me to do my job? and b) I have about10-30 seconds to scan this resume. Hence, the Golden Rule of resume writing: Your “how I can help you” message needs to jump off the page in the 10-30 seconds it’s being reviewed. You’ll hear many rules (like this one) tossed around by experts. My suggestion from experience and training is to forget all those other rules, and just follow this one rule.  Anything that serves this Golden Rule is good, anything that doesn’t is bad– which brings us to the top two resume mistakes: More

1 2