People in Transition

Tracy Hooper is the Founder of The Confidence Project.  She leads dynamic presentations for high-achieving employee groups of any size. 

Tracy has been a TV news reporter, anchor, producer, and voice-over professional.  Tracy’s aim is to cultivate a culture where people elevate their presence, communicate with clarity, and work together better.  

 As a result of working with Tracy people often share that they have more control over how they present themselves, more impact with the people they interact with, more trust in their communications, and more influence with the people they serve.

 Tracy is the author of The NEW Hello. It addresses the challenges and opportunities of meeting, greeting, and communicating with confidence in The New World of Work. Her follow-on book, The NOW Hello has just been published and is available on Amazon.  

 In this episode, Tracy discussed several key points including:

 ·         Three keys for all job seekers:

o   Words have impact

o   Practice makes progress

o   Trust yourself

·         The power of pause in your presentation/speaking

·         Why do filler and hedge words negatively impact your brand

·         How to use the right words in your speaking and not sound too formal or stiff

 Tracy is smart, funny, and caring.   Her down-to-earth advice will help you in your job search, in your job and for your life in general.   I know you will enjoy this recording and will want to share it with your friends.  

Send us Fan Mail

Mike Thomson has been in the recruitment agency industry for thirteen years, he launched Spark at the end of 2021 with the goal to change how everyone attracts top talent.  Hiring is uninspiring, generic, faceless, and lacks personality but not anymore.  He is an entrepreneur, matchmaker, sales professional, storyteller, father, athlete and optimistically curious about people.    For more information on Mike, go to his web site https://www.sparkrecruiting.ca/

 In this episode, Mike shared his thoughts on the future of recruiting, including:

·         To help you make your resume standout, make sure you are describing the impact your work had on the company and keep it simple for the reader.

·         Remember that social media sites are used by hiring managers, so you want to be your authentic self but be professional.

·         One of his favorite questions for a candidate to ask of hiring manager is, “what did you see in me that made you interested to talk with me?”  Gives you great insight about what is important for the role and the candidate can really play to this area.

·         The perfect answer to interview questions is your answer – you must be you and authentic.

·         Mike shared why he thinks the recruiting process can be FUN for the candidate.

·         His 3 things he tells his clients who are changing jobs to do starting Monday are:

1.  Update your LinkedIn page
2.  Think about what you liked about your past jobs/bosses – this will give you a map for places to look for your next job
3.  Take ownership of your job search – you are unique – this change gives you options for your future.

 Mike is a great businessman, recruiter, marketer, and career coach – a rare combination that really makes the advice he shares so special and important.  I know you will want to share this with others who will want to jump start their job search and create opportunities for their future.  Enjoy!

Send us Fan Mail

Rupert French was teaching in a country school 40 years ago when he discovered that one third of the students leaving the school would be facing long-term unemployment. In response to this, he helped to establish a community support for unemployed youth. Ten years later, he transitioned to career and job search coaching and training.

Impressed with the writings of William Bridges, and borrowing methods from sports psychology, he encourages job seekers to see themselves as self-employed, the CEO of You & Co, and to adopt business strategies to market their services to prospective employers.

The revised edition of How to Get a Good Job After 50 takes the job seeker step-by-step through this process. It is his 4th book on effective job search strategies. Link to purchase How to Get a Good Job After 50 go tohttps://geni.us/HowToGetAGoodJob

Some key points we discussed during our episode are:

·         Concerns employers have regarding older applicants and why they are false.

·         Why and how do you want to write your own job search mission statement.

·         Why you should think of your resume as a business proposal.

·         Networking made easy.

·         Some practical steps to help you stay positive during your search.

Rupert has a wealth of knowledge and experience that he shares easily and, in a fun/interesting manner.  I know you will be like me and want to go back and listen to him again – please share him with others – love to hear your comments on this episode.  Thank you!

Send us Fan Mail

When Neha Lagoo Ratnakar was in school, she wanted to be a postwoman, then a librarian and then a doctor. After a failed attempt at the entrance test and a stint with Clinical Psychology.  She found her true calling in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. 
 Her first job was in Training and Organizational Development, and she realized that there was a better way to onboard and train executives beyond a traditional classroom (and don't even get her started on sterile classroom team building sessions).
 In her next role with a retail chain, she storified onboarding and gamified product knowledge sessions. She was floored by the response and thought this could be the next big thing!
 Life took her to 8 different countries in the next 12 years, waking her inner entrepreneur. In addition to earning her MBA, she also designed websites, blogged, volunteered, and even made Henna. 
 Then motherhood happened and, as a mompreneur, she turned to her original calling of Industrial Psychology, experimenting with treasure hunt style games in various corporate settings and even family gatherings. 
 These days she works with global teams at IMA, which is a Finance non-profit to help make sure their educational offerings are meeting the diverse needs of almost 140,000 members around the world. 

Her book, Back on your Feet, is for all of those job seekers who need help in finding a path forward.

Some of the key take a ways from our discussion include:

·         “If you self-reject and don’t even try, your failure rate is 100%” – and what can you do about this.

·         Some ideas on LinkedIn update to consider.

·         How the wrong introduction of yourself, by your partner, on social media or your own, can sabotage your brand.

·         What is your career portfolio and how do you use it in your search?

·         What is strategic volunteering and how can it help you in finding a job?

Neha is smart, creative, and giving of her thoughts and experiences.  I know you will enjoy listening to her ideas and will be able to put into practice next week, several of her suggestions.  Enjoy!

Send us Fan Mail

Ben Wiant works with professionals in career transition to define, own, and confidently communicate their professional value and narrative. He helps them create and implement effective job search strategies to overcome the complexity of the modern job search using The 3 Doors Job Search – a foundational model he created to strategically access new career opportunities.

 As a former recruiter, Ben knows what happens behind closed doors in the hiring process – he has reviewed over 175,000 resumes, formally interviewed 2,000+ candidates, and worked with 100s of hiring managers.

 Ben earned a master’s degree in Instructional Systems Design from Florida State University. He also holds graduate level certifications in Human Performance Technology, Program Evaluation, and Human Resource Development. Ben is active in the Raleigh-Durham, NC job seeker community as a guest speaker and presenter and for the past 7 years has paid-it-forward as a facilitator at a weekly job seeker support group. For more information on Ben, go to his website www.the3doors.com.

 During our discussion, Ben provided many tips and ideas on being a better and more effective candidate, including:

 ·         Unless you are in a design focused industry, use a standard resume format, but most important is that the content of your resume must tell the story of how you solve companies’ problems.

·         We discussed how you can access the “front, side, and back doors” as a multi-faceted approach to increase your chances of success in your job search.

·         Executive search and recruiting firms work for the company and not you as the candidate but it is a great idea to be sure you are in their database so if they have an appropriate position, you are on their list of people to follow-up with.

·         Often candidates are their own worst critic; they should “flip their scripts” to be positive, believe in themselves, and know that they are worthy.

·         Ben explained the difference between general networking, targeted networking, and strategic networking – each has a role/purpose – but the strategic networking will have greatest positive impact on your job search and future career potential.

·         During your search, remember it is important to know your values, stay professional, and take any negative feedback in stride as a learning opportunity. If you get ghosted, know it is more about them than about you.

 Ben has so much real-world job transition experience, we could have gone on for so much longer. This episode provides insights you can put in action today to help you move closer to your next great job opportunity. Listen to it a couple of times – share with your friends – leave me comments on your thoughts/reactions – ENJOY!

Send us Fan Mail

Michael Yinger is a seasoned senior executive with experience creating, building, and managing organizations and providing strategic advice via Board of Directors membership both in the US and internationally. Over the course of his career, Mr. Yinger has delivered positive results (sales growth of 10-20% in a down market), dealt with senior level clients (CxO level), and established efficient organizations and partnerships in several different industries, within startups and established companies.  Currently, he is Co-Founder and COO of Resume Sieve.  “The Sieve™ is a cloud-based AI driven platform designed to help the recruiting and hiring community take the guesswork out of evaluating and ranking resumes against the required and preferred skills for the job.”

 During our 30 minutes together, Michael shared many tips and ideas on how to find your next great job, including:

 ·         Provided guidelines on how to make your resume ATS compliant.

·         Key mistakes he has seen in resumes like, leaving things off that should be included. editing mistakes, and not tailoring resume for the position you are applying for.

·         On your resume and all social media platforms, it is best that you speak to the results you achieved, this is what recruiters are looking for.

·         More jobs are posted at the end of the week so you should schedule your time then as you will find the opportunities listed greatest at that time.

·         It is best that you set small goals for yourself, daily and weekly, and work to accomplish these goals, this should ultimately lead you to finding your next great job opportunity, but that is really the result of achieving the daily/weekly goals.

·         In you search, it is important that you always remain honest (with self and others) and be persistent (job search is hard and it takes determination).

 Michael is a seasoned business professional that understands recruiting and hiring process.  He was very candid and transparent in his comments.  If you are looking to help make your job search, go faster with more positive results, Michael can assist you.  As always, please share this episode with a friend and leave me any comments or questions you might have.  Thanks!

Send us Fan Mail

Michael Levitt has seen and done it all!  He is the founder and Chief Burnout Officer of The Breakfast Leadership Network, a San Diego based burnout media firm. He is an in-person and Certified Virtual Speaker, a Certified NLP and CBT Therapist, and is one of the world's leading authorities in burnout recovery and prevention. In addition, he is a Fortune 500 consultant, #1 bestselling author, and host of the Breakfast Leadership Show, a top 200 podcast on iTunes.  Michael was a former Healthcare executive, CIO, and CFO overseeing $ 2 Billion budgets.   

On this episode of “People in Transition”, Michael shared several important ideas to support you in your job search, including:

·        Effective networking is about you giving as much as receiving

·        Be confident, energized and an attitude of “I can do it” in your interview – you must believe in yourself before the recruiter believes in you

·        We are often our own worst critic, need to stop beating ourselves up and keep our energy flowing

·        Burn out can happen in your job search – you need to pace yourself, eat/drink healthy and remember it is OK to do things that you enjoy

Michael had so many other practical and actionable ideas to help you jump start your job search.  I know you are going to want to listen to this episode several times to get all the information out of it.  If you have a question on his material, or any other job transition questions/comments – please share them with me. 

For more information on Michael, go to:

website:  https://BreakfastLeadership.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bfastleadership/
Hire Michael to speak at your event:  https://www.breakfastleadership.com/speaking

  I hope you enjoy this recording as much as I did!

Send us Fan Mail

Aletta Rochat is a professional speaker, a speech Coach as well as an interview Coach.  She shows you how to speak like a professional when it matters most, so that you are remembered, hired, and promoted.

Clients come to her for:

●       Presentation Preparation

●       Interview Coaching

●       Coaching to Increase Influence

You can find more information on Aletta at her website, https://www.alettarochat.com/.  With us she shared so many interesting and useful job transition ideas, including:

●       COVID has made gaps in work experience more common, discuss with the recruiter what caused the gap and what have you done to improve/enhance yourself during this time.

●       Candidates can make their ZOOM interview more positive by:

o   Make sure you know how to use the platform you are on

o   Enhance lighting ( the direction it is coming from is important)

o   Adjust your camera angle to give you the best full-face exposure

o   Lean forward into the camera and don’t sit or slouch backward

o   Use a professional looking background, be careful of virtual backgrounds

o   Practice your answers

●       Remember, you have many strengths, be ready to talk about them, you must believe in yourself.

Our discussion with Aletta was lively, fun, and filled with great advice.  Please make sure you leave any comments on this recording (or any other episodes) on my LinkedIn site and share this with others.  Thank you – enjoy – best wishes in finding that next great job opportunity!

Send us Fan Mail

Dan Cumberland is on a mission to help you set yourself “on fire”.  Years ago, he found himself in a job that didn't fit for him and no easy way out, so he set out to learn everything there is to learn about meaning, purpose, and work.  After a Master's degree and a lot of experimentation, he's now doing everything he can to help you find where meaning, life, and work intersect and to inspire you to push into those places.  He's been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, Career Builder, and other publications.  More importantly, he wants to help you find and do your best work in any way that he can.
 
Today he is the host of the Meaning Movement Podcast and blogs at themeaningmovement.com, where he curates the best advice on finding your passion, calling, and life’s work and runs a software incubator, UpsideBuilders.

 Some of the key points we discussed in this episode include:

 ·         You must be the solution to the hiring manager’s problems to have any chance at the job.

·         To find a job with purpose, your focus should be on:

o   People

o   Product

o   Process

o   Profit

·         In transition, you can feel lonely, you need to have support structure for you.

·         How can you do “mini experiments” to see if the industry/job is right for you?

·         To really find out the culture of a company, you need to see how they live – day in and day out – how they make decisions – how are things like conflict or success handled.

 Dan is smart, caring and a broad thinker, who really does want each person to find the job that fills them with purpose and positivity.  You will be energized after your listen to this episode, and I hope you leave us your thoughts and comments on it.  Enjoy!

Send us Fan Mail

Victoria Pelletier is a dynamic, innovative, and passionate Senior Executive with over two decades of progressive executive experience in strategy, operations, growth initiatives, and business and talent development in organizations such as Brookfield, American Express, Aon and IBM.  She is currently a Managing Director at Accenture, leading much of North America’s Travel Industry Client Portfolio.

She is a visionary leader with a passion for innovation, creativity and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.  In fact, Victoria has won both the 2020 Mentor of the Year award from Women in Communications & Technology AND the 2019 HSBC Diversity & Inclusion in Innovation Award. Victoria was also named as 2021 50 Most Influential Business Leaders in Technology.

Victoria serves as a board member for several organizations; she is also a published author, regular contributor to Forbes and a member of the Forbes Business Council. She is an in-demand public speaker and appears regularly on national radio and television.  An inspiring professional with impeccable credentials, Victoria is a trusted voice among peers and emerging executives. 

In this episode, Victoria shares so many key job transition ideas and coaching for the candidate, including:

·         On ZOOM interviews, it is important that you appear confident, in control and to look directly into the camera to create some type of eye contact connection.

·         In today’s job market, a candidate having multiple jobs in their past is really expected so don’t worry about being labeled a “job hopper”.

·         It is important that you set strong goals for yourself and have the resilience to work toward them; to be very aware of your strengths/areas to improve – this mean you are doing a critical self-assessment and do something with the information; model the behavior you want to be seen as – your self-brand is very important for your success.

·         You don’t have to be an extrovert to be successful at networking – you just need to take steps early on, be strategic in your efforts and build it over time – you will be able to leverage that network for your success.

·         Our workforce of the future will see an even faster pace of digital transformation, a constant need to upskill and fluid/new ways to work will be the norm.

·         In your work life, you are going to have ups and downs, accept this, build resilience into your character.

And Victoria had many other comments and observations for the person who is changing their jobs/life.   For more information about Victoria unstoppable approach to work/life, go to her website  https://victoria-pelletier.com/ 

Send us Fan Mail