People in Transition

Emily Wong is the founder of Words of Distinction, a boutique firm she created to help job seekers land interviews through powerful career storytelling. Emily has helped hundreds of mid-career and executive-level job seekers earn rewarding roles at top organizations like Meta, Google, Fitbit, Roche/Genentech, Moderna, Abbott, Amazon, Microsoft, Sony, Stanford, Northrop Grumman, and Cisco.
 
 The host of the Career Cohort podcast, she’s contributed to several bestselling books that specialize in resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles, and bios. In addition to certification as a resume writer, she’s credentialed as a Career Transition Coach and Career Storyteller, and is a charter member of Career Industry Authority, an organization where career professionals share ideas on how to best serve job seekers.
 
During this episode with Emily, we discussed several actionable resume-writing tips and debunked a few myths, including:

 ·         The right length of a resume and why.

·         Tips to make your resume visually appealing and easier to read.

·         What it means to “think like the employer” when you write your resume.

·         Why keywords matter and how they impact the applicant tracking system (ATS).

·         What to avoid when you write your resume.

·         The importance in your job search of knowing yourself and what you want.

 Emily is thoughtful, articulate, and generous with her knowledge to help alleviate job seekers’ struggles.  After you listen to this episode, you will have several action steps you can take to find your next job sooner and easier.  Enjoy – leave me your comments – share this with others. 
RESOURCES:

 For more information on Emily, go to www.wordsofdistinction.net/

 To help manage your job search, you can access her free 5 Pillars of an Effective Job Search download atwww.wordsofdistinction.net/launchnow

Emily also invites you to connect with her on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/emilysfwong

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John Tarnoff is an executive and career transition coach, speaker, and author who supports mid and late-career professionals in defining, planning, and achieving more meaningful and sustainable careers. 

 Fired 39% during his 35 years as a film producer, studio executive, and tech entrepreneur, he learned how to turn setbacks into successes in a volatile business. He reinvented his career at 50, earning a master’s degree in spiritual psychology to share his lessons with others facing similar challenges. 

 He is the author of the best-selling book, "Boomer Reinvention: How to Create your Dream Career Over 50" and has created four courses on the multi-generational workforce for LinkedIn Learning.

 Some of the topics we discussed include:

•  In networking, you should follow your “A B G”       (“Always, Be, Giving”): think first about what you can do to support the people in your network before asking for help.
•  Worry about how you can meet someone that can refer you for the job – don’t worry about what the job description says about the role.
•  The role you want in the future needs to connect with your values.
•  Follow three keys in searching for your next great job 1. Focus on your Superpower (what you do best)  2. Build a Community  (like-minded colleagues to refer you to opportunities) 3. Become a Thought     Leader (Stand up for what you stand for, build trust and credibility).
•  The career you want is already inside of you: follow your inner knowing and intuition. Question the negative messages that will come at you.
•  To create your future, you need to reconcile your past: clear emotional baggage and limiting beliefs.

These are just a few of the great ideas and suggestions John shared.  I hope you enjoy
his experiences, thought leadership, and energy as much as I did.  Thank
you for listening to this episode of “People in Transition”.

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Heike Heemann is passionate about helping others shine in their careers. Her specialty is supporting mid-career professionals to find better career opportunities and build their professional brand on LinkedIn. If you need help optimizing your LinkedIn profile or creating your own LinkedIn strategy for attracting clients, connect with her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/heikeheemann and find free resources at https://linktr.ee/HeikeHeemann 

Heike also helps career women improve their confidence, professional networking skills, leadership and public speaking skills.

In this episode, Heike and I discussed several recruiting/LinkedIn tips including:

·        Your LinkedIn profile is a significant part of your online branding; your headline, banner and About section need to be impactful and consistent in their messaging.  Your brand highlights for the world if you are the “Starbucks or neighborhood corner store coffee” in your field.

·        Described who your second-degree connections (e.g., your connections’ – connections) is and how you can use them in networking and information gathering.

·        What does it mean to optimize your LinkedIn profile and why you need to make sure you use key words in your headline to help you be “found” by people you are interested in.

·        Some of the biggest mistakes people make on their LinkedIn profile, including not being specific enough and not being active on LinkedIn.

·        Heike recommends having a current and professional looking picture on your profile.

·        She also recommends to never stop networking – you want to grow and nurture your connections each week.

Heike’s marketing skills, business knowledge and coaching experience help her in making her message impactful and enjoyable. She shared so many great tips and techniques for LinkedIn that I had to go back and listen to her again just to be sure I got all her suggestions. 

I know you will enjoy your time with her – and please – with all the layoffs happening in today’s world – share this with others who can use the information.  Thank you! 

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Catherine Lamb is a leading UK-based career transformation expert who helps professionals manage their fear of failure as they go through a job transition.  

 Catherine worked for 15 years in recruitment and is a qualified coach from Henley Business School.  She brings together her wealth of knowledge and expertise to work with professionals who want to change careers and dread not being an expert in their new job or who want to step up into a key promotion but feel like an imposter.  

 Catherine has developed a successful action plan that helps her clients rapidly build their confidence, recognize their value, and get back into their comfort zone as they go through their job transition.

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

 ·         One of the common mistakes people in transition make is that the job will just leap out – it takes intentional search by the candidates.

·         When you get a “no” from a company or hiring manager – it is important that you remember the “no” is temporary and not forever.

·         A journal of what you did well and what you can do differently in your recruiting efforts helps you see the job search as a learning process – this is an important mindset and will help you build confidence along the way.

·         “Who else do you think I should speak with?” is an important question to use in person or on LinkedIn – it is in general not your second level contacts that will lead you to a job but your 3rd and 4th level – so growing that network is essential.

·         We discussed imposter syndrome (feeling like a fraud) and how it impacts your job-hunting efforts.

·         And she coaches her clients that the job search will make you feel unconfident, but that you are not alone, reach out and people will help you.

·         Remember, you can have an imposter moment; but that does not mean you have to have an imposter life.

 Catherine gave so many useful ideas and is such a warm and supportive person; you are going to want to listen to this more than one time.  Please leave me your questions and comments and remember to share this with others – we want to help the world of job seekers.  Thank you!!

Music is "Le piano troix" by Torley on Piano is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. 

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Dominic Imwalle believes you should be able to obtain your career dreams and that’s what he helps professionals do.  His clients have landed roles at Oracle, Deloitte, EY, Tata Consultancy, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Eaton, Salesforce, KPMG, PWC, Dell, Higher Education or started their own venture. But, landing your dream role doesn’t happen by chance, it takes hard work, patience, perseverance and working your job search plan.

Dominic has seen how treacherous the job searching process can be; automated rejections, ghosting, 14 rounds of interviews, and 250 applications a week. He does not want you to have to live in the process that every candidate believes to be normal.

We discussed many  things that will help you with your job search plan, including:

• What are the two things that hold most people back from being successful in their job search?
   
  • Being too hard on yourself, now is the time to be a bit gentler and
  • Have a bias for action, you can revise your cover letter and résumé for hours and not be further along than if you this week, meet with five people that you want to be like and talk about how to get there.
• Dominic shared that everyone should create a file of “winner notes” about your work, to remind yourself that you are an accomplished and good person. 
•  It’s OK to check out job opportunities, even if you don’t need a new role today.
• When you are networking, make certain that you are strategic about who you speak with, you want to connect with those people who are going to support you and help you in meeting other people that can help in your job search.
• Make sure you spend time around new people; they will help energize and stimulate you.
• We also went through a role-play exercise of several of the most common interview questions and what Dominic suggested to be home run responses.

Dominic is a caring, smart, and creative executive who really understands the recruiting and job transition environment. I think you will enjoy listening to this podcast several times and remember leave me your comments and share this with friends. 

Wishing you a great and employed 2023!

Music is "Le piano troix" by Torley on Piano is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. 

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Mark James, CPC, is the founder and president of HIRE Consulting Services (HCS) established in 1999. He is a Certified Personnel Consultant and the author of "The Interview Mindset: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Your Career!"  (2022) Available on Amazon:  https://a.co/d/4N7KqJ7. Mark is equipped with over 25 years of experience in Executive Career Management Coaching, Outplacement, and Executive Search Consulting. He is also a quarterly speaker at Operation Connect, a program offered by the North San Diego Business Chamber that provides free business networking events for transitioning military service members. To learn more about Mark, visit www.HireConsulting.com.

What a great episode we had with Mark.  We covered so many topics, a few of them are:

·        Several of the 6 interview mindsets from his new book, The Interview Mindset: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Your Career, to help you present yourself well in interviews and get the most information about the role and company.

·        Your network is your net worth and gave several ideas on how to expand it.

·        96% of search firms use LinkedIn to help find candidates – how you can use the 5-3-1 method to increase your LinkedIn presences.

·        The hidden job market is right there in your cell phone and how you can use it.

·        Get off job boards and connect with people – that is how you can find that next great job.

·        To be most effective in your job search – you need to have a strategy, create a plan and then work it – you are not selling yourself, you are telling about you and the values you bring.

Mark was so thoughtful, sharing and experienced in his comments/tips.  I know you will have a much better job search plan after you listen to him.  Enjoy and make sure you share this with a friend.

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Max Chan helps professionals with their job search in order to land more interviews, generate more job offers and make more money.  His company, Chan with a Plan, (https://www.chanwithaplan.com) offers a variety of services, including:

·         Recruiting plan and guidance

·         Cover letter and resume writing

·         LinkedIn profile optimization

·         Job interview preparation

In this episode, Max provided his expert guidance so you can find your next great job faster and easier.  Some of the points he covered includes:

·         Resume construction ideas for recent grads and more experienced professionals.

·         Why using numbers and metrics in your resume is critical.

·         How you can effectively deal with work gaps for your resume and in an interview.

·         If you can’t get interviews, change your resume; if you can’t get job offers, change your communication.

·         Candidate should review job description of position they are interviewing for to get ideas on what will be asked by recruiting team and prepare response that is in line with what company is looking for.

·         Rejection is a part of networking and job hunting, but you can develop a recruiting strategy that can help speed up your search and reduce your anxiety.

This is a powerful episode with so many great tips and ideas for you during your transition. Max will help you change your perspective on how you manage your transition - enjoy!

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Gina Riley is a career coach, a talent selection and interview skills trainer, and an executive search consultant. As the creator of her Career Velocity coaching program, she uses her executive search experience to the benefit of her clients, sharing the best tips and tricks from a stand-out resume and LinkedIn profile to networking, marketing, and interviewing practice and the creation of a thought leadership plan.
 
 She Transforms her clients' approach to their career development and helps them build a sustainable process to last their entire career.
 
 To find out more about the Career Velocity System: www.ginarileyconsulting.com

During our recording, Gina shared many great ideas on job transition, including:

·         The person you are networking with ultimately must know, like and trust you for them to be an effective advocate for you.

·         One of the building blocks for an effective career is to have layers of experiences – which means that job changes are not always bad.

·         When answering interview question – think SOAR (e.g., situation, obstacles, action, and results).

·         Rambling on and on can be a real problem in any interview.

·         We each own our career and the planning process it takes to be successful in it.

·         Do you know what your “awesome sauce” is and how to communicate it?

Gina is smart, caring and so full of energy.  You will really enjoy listening to her and hearing all the great recruiting and career tips she shares.  

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Donna Star spent 30 incredible years in Corporate America, and then she took the leap to entrepreneurship.  She is now an Executive Coach, Business Consultant, and Writer who leverages her extensive experience to help companies and individuals maximize their potential. 
 Currently, her work centers around working with professionals who are dealing with work transitions - promotions, job changes, corporate politics, and everything that comes with managing a career and a life. 

The transformations she has seen with her clients are powerful and humbling.  Donna shared with us some of the points she discusses with her clients including:

·        Always remember, if someone would ask you for help in their networking, you would support them, don’t think you cannot ask others for their help.

·        Bringing your negative thoughts and attitude into an interview does not help you, you need to deal with these emotions, or your job search will be more challenging.

·        We discussed the ‘great resignation’ which for many has evolved into the ‘great regret’ and what that means for job seekers.

·        Remember, it is ok to acknowledge you have feelings during your job search process.

·        Sometimes you may need to step away from your job search to regroup and energize yourself.

Donna is thoughtful, action packed and willing to share what she has learned – sometimes the hard way.  I think you will want to listen to this episode a couple of times to get all the nuggets she shares – oh and share this with a friend – they will thank you for it.

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Adrian Choo has helped thousands of clients successfully achieve Career Clarity™ with his holistic approach to their Careers through a proprietary framework and deep understanding of Career Dynamics™. 
 He has been a C-suite Headhunter with Top Global Search Firms for more than a decade, published several books, and has a regular show on National Radio, "Happy @ Work with Adrian The Career Strategist" on One FM 913 every Thursday Morning that is in to its Third year! 
 Adrian loves helpings people at their Career Crossroads, or those who just need a new perspective on their Career Challenges.

Some of the key take-aways from our discussion with Adrian include:

·        The reasons why resume don’t “hit the mark” include:

o   Too long

o   Not updated

o   Bad English or grammar

o   Gaps in experience not explained

·        The hiring manager is trying to answer these questions during interview, and you should make it easy for them to understand your answers:

o   Who are you?

o   Why should I hire you?

o   Will you fit into our team/company?

·        It is critical the candidate is authentic in their responses – don’t try to be someone you think the hiring manager wants to talk with – you need to be you.

·        It is ok, in fact a good idea, to ask the hiring manager at the end of an interview what are the next steps.

·        The best time to start being ready for your job change is today – even if you are not looking – because to wait until you must change jobs is starting way behind.

Adrian has so much recruiting experience, insights into the hiring process, and firsthand experience in dealing with the hiring manager.  You are going to want to listen to this episode again and again. And as always, I would love your comments on our discussion – and please share this with others.  Thanks!

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