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When I coach clients on LinkedIn, I always make the distinction that LinkedIn serves as a networking tool first, and job board second. Its primary purpose is to help you make new connections and nurture your current ones, in order to support your long-term career growth.

Since Microsoft purchased LinkedIn, we've seen a number of new features rolled out. The latest is Career Advice. This feature helps you to identify mentors within your industry who can provide advice, and possibly other connections. You fill out a short form about what type of advice you are seeking and LinkedIn will send you notifications with people who can support you. The concept of a mentor can be useful whether you are a job seeker, business owner, or otherwise.

With or without this feature, seeking out mentors in your line of ...

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 ...

They say that the best time to get a job is when you already have one. For several reasons, this is true. Of course, life doesn’t always work that way and nearly everyone will experience a separation from an employer at some point. What matters is that you are prepared and ready to hit the ground running in your job search. Or, maybe you’ve already been scouting out a few prospects. Hence, “passive job seeking”. This phrase has come to describe those who are still employed, and are generally content, but will entertain the thought of a new offer.

Passive job seeking has reached an entirely new level these days due to LinkedIn and similar sites. In private coaching sessions with clients, I do talk about the role of LinkedIn profiles, though I’ve never believed that every single person ...

So much has been written about the millennial generation, particularly when it comes to the workforce. Millennials are roughly those born in the early 1980s to early 2000s, although that number varies depending on what chart you consult. Millennials, who make up a hearty one third of the workforce, have gotten a reputation for being many things, from lazy and impatient, to entitled and addicted to technology. And themselves.  But isn’t every generation just a product of their times? Wouldn’t today’s baby boomers be the same way if they grew up in the same world (and with the same technology) as the millennials?

As a millennial myself, I know that life is substantially different now than when my parents were my age. I can only guess how it will be different for my six year old daughter when she is my age. This ...

 

 

We all know that we aren’t supposed to talk about compensation with our coworkers, right? It’s supposed to be one of the biggest office “faux paus” out there. I always believed this myself in my career and I can recall one particular employer of mine who had a firm rule about this and was straightforward with employees that they could be terminated for talking about their salaries. In fact, I can still recall the conversation with my boss years ago when she was moving me to a management role and we were discussing my new salary. She informed me that disclosing this to anyone else could lead to termination. It honestly made sense to me at the time and I didn’t question it for second.

Typically speaking, you tend ...