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There are few people on the planet who can tolerate the process of a job search. The waiting, the rejection, the endless tweaks to your resume. When does it end?

There are plenty of smart, successful people who struggle with finding jobs or a satisfying career. Why is this? Many times, they don’t know how to look for work. Job searching is a skill that we should be taught before graduating high school—but of course, we aren’t.

Before we look at the reasons why you might be lost or stuck, ask yourself the five “bigger picture” questions:

Are the jobs you are applying for the ones that you really want? If your heart isn’t in it and you’re just going through the motions, the results will show.

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Through no fault of your own, you are suddenly out of a job. Thank you, COVID-19.

Now what?

If you’re out of work due to the pandemic, your employer may have furloughed you temporarily or eliminated your job entirely. Or worse, your entire industry is in trouble.

No one knows how long the pandemic will last, so let’s look at how you can take action.

Regardless of whether the unemployment is temporary or permanent, your first step is to assess your financial situation. This includes both your personal finances as well as identifying any benefits due to you, either from your company or government sources.

One of the biggest mistakes many people make after losing their job is not making immediate adjustments in their ...

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Changing careers can be an overwhelming process. Many people worry that they will have to “start over” and settle for less. Others don’t know exactly what they want to do or what they are good at. I am going to help you gain clarity on your path and prepare you for the career transition process.

 When you think about your current job or lack of one, what feelings come up right now? Are you feeling bored, frustrated or stuck? Maybe unfulfilled, underpaid, or underappreciated. Maybe all of these things. Maybe you’ve had a lot of jobs, but never really found a career. I’ve heard all of these from clients. And the problem is that we get ...

We spend a large portion of our lives at work often seeing our coworkers more than our own families. I’m sure you’ve heard that saying before and for many people it’s true. In fact, It’s been estimated that you will spend about 90,000 hours of your life working, or roughly 1/3 of your life. That’s assuming that you work 40 hours a week from age 20 to 65 with 2 weeks of vacation a year. So you can imagine, working long hours—as we’re known to do here in the U.S— coupled with long commutes often an hour or more each way, and feelings of unfulfillment, underappreciation, etc. is a recipe for career burnout. And worse than that, depression. And career burnout = life burnout. If you hate your job, you’ll hate your life.

When we experience chronic stress from our jobs, it bleeds into ...

One of the most common challenges that my clients encounter is the disappointment of not getting a job that they really wanted. You get that dreaded rejection email, usually an automated one these days, and you're devastated. You've pinned your hopes on that one job and it doesn't work out. For some people, especially those who are unemployed, this is a major source of disappointment. It’s crushing.

Here’s what I coach clients to do in situations like this. Decide ahead of time how you are going to respond when the disappointment happens. Part of any job search is not getting chosen for some of the jobs. It’s going to happen. Nobody, not even me, gets hired for 100% of the jobs they apply to. So if you know that something is going to happen, you can get control of the ...

 

If I had to take all of the mistakes that I see job seekers make and boil it down to one critical item, it would be this: Relying 100% on the resume. The resume alone is not enough to get you a job in most cases, and this is THE SINGLE BIGGEST MISTAKE THAT JOB SEEKERS MAKE. Yes, you need to have a great resume and the hiring manager will eventually read it, or at least most of it. However, doing nothing but firing off resumes online rarely gets anyone a job.

The path of least effort= the path of least results.

This also is where a resume writer or career coach can add tremendous value and save you a significant amount of time. My staff knows how to write a quality resume quickly. This saves ...

Let’s face it—much of the job search is set up in the employer’s favor. Employers have access to reliable salary data through compensation surveys, and they often have hundreds of applicants to choose from for just one posting. Unless you possess some very rare and specialized skills, it’s typically up to the job seeker to get the employer’s attention, and not the other way around. Improving your resume and your strategy with a coach is an excellent way to expedite your results.

Some people claim that it's cheating to have someone else write your resume. The notion that hiring a resume writer or career coach is cheating is completely absurd. Is it cheating for an athlete to use an athletic coach? Or for a vocalist to use a vocal coach? Job searching and resume writing are skills ...

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that looking for work can be an incredibly frustrating experience. We’ve all been there. Sending out dozens of applications only to hear nothing in return is a hard pill for anyone to swallow.

In my time as a career coach, I’ve determined that one of the primary causes of frustration for many people is their lack of knowledge of the hiring process. This lack of knowledge is not their fault though! Unless you’ve been a hiring manager or recruiter, how would you know what really goes on in the hiring process? You wouldn’t. Job seekers are at a disadvantage this way, in that their perspective is limited to one side of the equation.

This is where a career coach can be incredibly valuable. Partnering ...

Millenials today get criticized quite a bit for being “job hoppers.” Employer loyalty has eroded, they say, and no one stays anywhere for more than three years or so. It could also be argued that employers no longer have the loyalty to employees that they used to have, either. Take the elimination of retirement pensions as a prime example of that.

An alternate perspective is that changing jobs every couple of years can actually be advantageous. Here’s what we know about people who change jobs more often:

They earn more money. When employees stay with one employer, they can expect a 2%-3% increase each year in most cases. When employees accept new offers from outside their company, they average a salary increase between 10% and 20% (Forbes, 2014).

They have more current skills. After about three years at ...

Changing career paths or industries is a common reason why people turn to a career coach. There’s a lot of moving parts to the equation. How do I explain the change on my resume? Will they pay me the same salary I had? Will I enjoy it, or regret it? Can I afford to take a risk in my career right now? These are all questions that I help job seekers answer.

Personally, I’ve made two significant career changes myself. Three years ago, after a layoff, I made a clean break for a career in human resources and recruiting after six years in retail management, sales and corporate training. Then, just two years later, I transitioned again into what was my ultimate destiny all along, coaching others into personal and career transformation.

Here’s some quick tips for ...