How to Improve Your Resume by Answering One Simple Question

question-423604_640 If you’re in a career transition, there’s a good chance you’ll need to update your resume. Maybe you’ve done this recently, or maybe you haven’t looked at it for 20 years. Either way, it can feel like a dreaded task. With so much online noise about how to improve your resume, I want to give you an overview of the basics to position yourself for career change success. I’m going to tackle the questions that I get asked the most. But read all the way through. They build to to the final one, which is the key.   […]

5 Ways to Conquer Rejection During a Job Search

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One of the hardest parts of looking for work is weathering rejection. The piling on of “NO’s” during a job search can feel like one body blow after another. It’s an understandable impulse to want to walk away and stop trying. I learned the hard way that you’ve got to fight that impulse in order to reach your career goals. Though I can’t promise to completely take the sting away, I can offer you a protective shield. Here are 5 empowering strategies to boost your confidence, so you can stay in the game.   […]

What It Takes to Start Over in a New Career

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Starting over in a new career is personal for me. After 20 years in the film industry, I was aging out of the profession, struggling to find work. Despite a focused effort at seeking job opportunities, and making use of a high-profile network of colleagues and friends, I couldn’t get hired. With my sense of self worth seeping into a puddle, it was the most uncomfortable time of my life. Here’s the good news. Being uncomfortable is an essential component to career change, and the more uncomfortable, the better.   […]

When You’re in a Career Funk, Go for the Quick Win

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Unhappiness with your work life is the perfect breeding ground for inertia. It’s scary to make change. With so many unknowns, and so much beyond your control, it might feel safer to settle in on the couch, or in that job you’d love to quit. And the thing about inertia is that it feeds on itself. If days or weeks are passing by, and you’re feeling overwhelmed and inactive, it’s time to go for the QUICK WIN. Put aside the big, amorphous career change goals for the moment and take a baby step. I’m going to lay out 7 options, some directly linked to career change, but others completely unrelated. Here’s the best part – of these 7 easy ways for breaking out of a career funk, you only have to choose ONE – but commit to doing it TODAY:   […]

5 Top Ways to Get Unstuck While Looking for Work

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Looking for work is a hard job. It takes creativity, focus, resilience and a thick skin. If, along the path, you send out dozens of resumes and barely get an interview, and when you do, you’re not chosen, it can start a spiral of negative thinking that leads to nowhere good. (I know. I’ve been there.) If you’re looking to expand a business, progress often feels fleeting, one step forward, four steps back. The only way to ensure success is to STAY IN THE GAME. But how do you persevere when if feels like no one wants you? Where do you turn for solutions when you’ve hit the wall? Here’s my five-point plan for staying buoyant and refreshed as you chart your career course.   […]

How to Use Your Network to Find Your Next Career

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You’re ready to find your next career. This time, you want to love it. You’re looking for a job that reflects who you really are, pays well, doesn’t drain your energy and makes you excited about going to work.

The problem is, you have no idea what that could be.

Here’s another scenario. You’ve already been thinking about career change for awhile, and you have some clues about what you want to do next. But you don’t know how to get started.

If either of these sound familiar, it’s time to enlist your network. Your circle of friends and associates can play a key role in helping you find your next career. Here are 6 action steps  you can take to put your network to work.     […]

If You’re Looking to Change Jobs, Here’s What To Do First

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It takes grit to change careers and find a new job that you love. Few people enter this arena for sport. If you’re visiting my blog, you’re likely at a pivotal moment, either because you’ve reached a breaking point in your present job or you’re without employment (and unhappy about it). There’s good news. As uncomfortable as it feels when you’re looking to change jobs (and I have walked hard in those shoes), the fact that you’re reading this means you’re motivated to move forward. Here are 5 steps to turn your motivation into action:   […]

How to Self Promote When Changing Careers

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Changing careers can be a vulnerable time. If you didn’t leave a job on your own terms, you might have lingering self doubt. What did I do wrong? Am I good enough? Who will want me? In this state of mind, feeling confident may be a hard mountain to climb, even harder is to promote yourself to others. But to find your next employment, that’s exactly what you’ll need to learn to do. That’s why I’m sharing 3 techniques to get you moving and motivated to shape your employment story, even when you’re not feeling on top of the world.   […]

Why It’s Important to Take a Day Off (Even when you’re looking for a job)

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MY WEEKLY UNPLUG

Every Friday evening, I step away from the computer, switch off the lights in my office and ceremonially mark the end to the work week. For the next 24 hours, I don’t respond to emails or texts related to professional life. I refrain from trying to solve job-related issues (unless there’s a bona fide emergency). This moment of unplugging can feel counterintuitive, especially when the to-do list is endless with problems looming large. But I do it anyway. Trust is part of the point. As critical as this is now when I’m loving my career, it was even more important while I was looking for work and it never seemed like I was doing enough. How can I walk away when there’s so much left to do? Wouldn’t it be more effective to keep powering through?     […]