How to Create an Effective Job Search Strategy

There are many common missteps that happen when trying to land a job. Submitting applications and never hearing back or refreshing your inbox every few minutes to find out whether or not you have been selected can certainly make you feel helpless.

Learn how to use a simple, two-pronged, proactive approach to feel energized and empowered instead. The more you operate from this position of strength when searching, the more motivated you'll be to take time to do the work AND you'll have more energy to do other things you love.

When creating a job search strategy, it's important to keep two things in mind. You want to have both proactive and reactive goals as part of your approach. In this video, I'm going to define what those are and how to create a really effective strategy to manage your job search with confidence and to feel empowered in the process. 

Let's talk about reactive goals first because this is where I find most people spend the majority of their time. When I talk about reactive goals as being part of your job search strategy, what I mean is just reacting to things that are coming your way. The most common area where I see this is people just applying to positions they see posted online or they're getting job alerts for. While this can be a helpful part of the process, it is not where you should spend the majority of your energy. But that is how most people end up navigating their jobs or when they're approaching it on their own. 

The reason I don't recommend spending all of your time here is that sometimes positions get posted, and they've actually been filled already, or there is another candidate in mind. So when we see them posted we think, “Great, I'm starting at the front of the line,” but realistically, there might be other people who are already being considered ahead of you. If you're spending all of your time and energy justifying to those, it means you're missing a lot of opportunities. You want to be the person that is at the front of the line, and in consideration before something even gets posted. 

This brings me to the proactive approach to goal setting when you're navigating a job search. Being proactive or setting proactive goals, is referring to networking. I know this is not everyone's favorite activity, and there's a lot of stigma and generalizations made around networking. So to kind of counteract, I want to talk about what I mean by that. While your longer-term goal is to land a job, the networking I'm talking about is focusing on your shorter-term goal.

It's important to learn about the roles that exist in the field you're targeting. One should learn what skills are really valued and would make you stand out from your competition. Then ask questions from people in positions that you're targeting like how they landed them, what was the hiring process, what were the interviews like, etc? Focus on building connections and relationships more authentically. It’s so much more than just approaching networking, like many people think, which is “Hi, are there any openings? And can you make sure my resume gets to the top of the pile?” When you shift your perspective to think about networking in this mindset of really learning and building connections, it will help you incorporate more of these strategies into your search. 

A quick fact I’d like to share with you is over 80% of people land positions through networking. So if you're spending your time 80% on the reactive side, and 20% networking; I'd invite you to flip flop that. I'd rather see you spend way more energy building relationships and learning how to make yourself stand out than just blindly submitting applications online. 

One other note on the reactive side is I'm making the assumption you're really tailoring your application materials with each position. Many employers are using artificial intelligence to scan your materials before they even make it to a human being to vet your qualifications. If you're not taking those extra minutes to make sure you're connecting the dots for the employers, then you're spending even more time and energy on things that are not most productive to the process.

Hopefully, this helps you create more of a clear-cut approach to navigating your job search. Each week, I invite you to spend time on both the proactive and reactive goals so you can feel like you're not just waiting to see openings come up. We're also not just waiting to hear back from people for informational interviews. This approach is a more holistic way to ensure that you feel empowered in the process, and you always have some actions to be taking instead of refreshing your inbox every five minutes and waiting for other people. 

I hope you find some value in the lessons I shared today. If you have any questions on your job search, feel free to leave a note in the comments or reach out for a free 30-minute consultation. I'd be happy to be a sounding board and hear what you've been doing in your strategy and see if there's room for any improvement. 

Thanks for watching, and best of luck in your job search.

3 Ways to Make Your Resume Stronger

There are three things that every resume should aim to do, regardless of your level of experience, or which industry or position is at hand. These are tools which will help you maximize the way employers and recruiters scan through your document, ensuring you can get as much information across in as short of an amount of time as possible. 

This quick video will walk you through each of these tips! 

If you're ready for more information, here are two related blog posts with more resume tips, or reach out for a free consultation to ask questions specific to your situation:

• Simple Resume Writing Tips

• My Favorite Resume Loophole

When you're writing your resume, there are three things you want to do, regardless of what industry or position you're applying to. Those three things are to start with strong action verbs, be as results-oriented as possible, and quantify when possible. In this video, I'll go into more detail about what I mean by each of those things. 

The first tip is to start with strong action verbs. I highly recommend using bullets on a resume instead of using the paragraph format when describing experience due to employers only may have time to give your resume a very quick scan. Using a paragraph format is really, really dense to read. 

When using bullet points, start each experience listed with one strong action verb. Phrases you want to avoid using are, responsible for or assisted because they lead the employer to assume you're about to give a laundry list of unimportant information, or that you didn't contribute much assistance at all. If you used the word “assisted” because you weren’t the only one working on the project, you can add you were doing the task with a team or in collaboration with a colleague. 

Starting with a strong action verb will give the employer the opportunity to get valuable information in a short amount of time. If you have trouble thinking of action verbs, a lot of career service offices have resume guides, with a whole laundry list of strong verbs to use. When in doubt, don’t forget to utilize a thesaurus.

The second thing every resume should have is the tendency to be result-oriented. If you scan through your resume as it is now, I guarantee you have what's called a “so what” bullet. A “so what” bullet is where you're describing something you did, but the reader is left wondering,
“so what” was the point of that? What was the intention or goal? What impact did that have on the place of employment? 

Be sure to add a lot more value by talking about what the purpose or the intention of your activity was, and what it was used for. Another important thing to note here is that some people have bullets like this because they left an employer or a job without seeing the project through. And that's okay! You can still add value by talking about what the intended goal or result was, and what your actions were used to contribute to. I invite you to look through your resume and look line by line and see if there's any room to add a bit more results-oriented context to your experiences. 

The third thing every resume should do is quantify when possible. Numbers really stand out in a resume, and they can also show more of a description or more gravity to what you're doing. For example, if you delivered presentations to classes talking about X, Y and Z, that's great to list, but it has a lot more impact if you say something like “I delivered presentations to up to 500 attendees discussing X, Y, and Z. Understand it's not always possible to add numbers, but if you've been in a sales role and you exceeded goals, brought in a certain amount of revenue, or worked on deals, those are all places where you can add some of these numerical pieces of data to showcase to an employer the scope of your work. 

And that's it! Those are the three biggest things you should do on every resume, regardless of what industry field or type of role you're applying to. If you have other questions about resumes, feel free to leave me a note in the comments below. And if any of your friends are working on their resumes or job searches, feel free to share this video with them as well.

What Should You Include on Your Resume versus Cover Letter?

One of the biggest sources of frustration when writing a cover letter is trying to decide what information is most relevant to include for employers. Many people wonder if they're allowed to repeat information that's on their resume, and others wonder how much detail to go into overall.

This video will walk you through an exercise that will help you determine what employers want to read in cover letters, and how to assess which parts of your background are most important to include.

The even better news? The activity I recommend in this video is also an incredible way to prep for interviews, too! 

Today we're going to be talking all about the differences between what material goes on your resume versus your cover letter. I think this is one of the areas where people get most frustrated or confused when they start trying to write a cover letter. Often times it's because they have no idea what the point of it is, what information makes sense to repeat, and what can just be left on the resume. So that's what we're going to focus on today!

When you're going to write a cover letter, I recommend you go back to the job description and do a little activity to ensure all of your materials are as tailored and applicable to that job as possible. This exercise is something you can do in editing your resume as well. I recommend printing out the job description, or copying, pasting it, and putting it into a Word doc. The reason I suggest this is because when an employer goes to interview candidates, sometimes they remove the listing. If you don't have a copy for your records, you're going to have to ask for it, which can just add another complicated step to the process. 

Most relevant to this exercise is I really want you to sit down and dissect the job description. Don't just look at the qualifications or the skills, which is what many people do, but slowly work your way through the entire document to notice what themes the employer is bringing up. They might be talking about having to work in a fast-paced environment, and the culture being really innovative and new, and that's in the company blurb. Then you move on to the job description where you may see there are similar sentiments shown. It will be beneficial to you to look for the same tasks or qualifications repeated throughout the listing. If it’s repeated throughout the listing, that’s when you know it's a really critical part of what they're looking for in a candidate. Based on that exercise, you can now look at what is most relevant and important to emphasize about yourself in both your resume and your cover letter.

Let's go back to the original question, which is what should stay just on the resume versus the cover letter. When you're doing an exercise of walking through, and really breaking down the job description to notice what themes exist, and how your background and skills align. You will most likely have what I call “aha!” moments. These are moments where an employer is describing a skill set that they have or are a part of a role, and you think, “Oh, that's exactly what I've done in this position, or that's exactly what my job is right now.” In those moments, when you notice there's such a strong connection between what they're looking for and what you have. It's important to make a note that that is exactly what should go into your cover letter. That's really critical information! This section should be the real meat or the biggest part of what you're emphasizing. 

Secondly, anything else repeated in the job description and the qualifications correlating to your skillset should tie into your cover letter in a more narrative. When in doubt, your resume should have certain keywords, verbs, or consistent phrasing that is coming up in the job description.  Remember, your cover letter is the chance to really go into more detail about an example of a skill you have that maybe only got half of a bullet in terms of the description on your resume. If there's a volunteer experience or something that isn't on your resume, but it's one of those “aha” moments, your cover letter is the perfect chance to go into detail and describe exactly what that is. 

I hope this helps give clarification about what makes sense to keep on your resume and what you really need to give more attention to in your cover letter. If you have any other questions, feel free to drop them in the comments section or reach out for a free 30-minute consultation. Thanks for watching and have a great day.

If you found that helpful, keep learning how to craft cover letters that convert through my step-by-step guide!

How Long Should A Cover Letter Be?

One of my goals for 2018 is to create more video content, knowing that people have different learning styles and also feel more connected when they can see the person they're learning from. 

...truthfully, this was a goal for 2017 but I procrastinated because while I love presenting, shooting and editing videos of myself is a totally different experience! I know I'll get more comfortable and my true personality will come out more with time, so I'm honoring this growth period and not letting perfection be the enemy of good. 

So without further adieu. here is my first video (outside of my online coaching program)! It's called "How Long Should A Cover Letter Be?" and you can view it through clicking below.

When helping people with their job search, one of the most common questions I get asked is, “How long should my cover letter be?” If you want more information on the pros and cons of writing a cover letter, I'm happy to share with you my free cover letter writing guide. 

For today, we're going to focus on the length of a cover letter. When you're writing the letter, you want to keep in mind you only have a really short amount of time to deliver a lot of valuable content to the employer because they read your application materials so quickly. With that in mind, knowing you have only a short period of time to deliver valuable information to an employer about why you're the best fit for the role, your cover letter should never be longer than one page. Also, it shouldn't come close to the bottom of the page either. Let’s discuss a little bit more about the structure of the letter so you can get a better sense of what really goes into it. 

In your first paragraph, and I say that loosely because it's only a sentence or two long, should cover what position you're applying for and how you found out about it. This section is where you would name drop if there was someone referring you, or someone you did an informational interview to include a quick summary sentence talking about what you're going to discuss in the rest of your letter. 

For example, you could say “I'm writing to apply for X, Y, Z role, and I found out about it after Bob Smith referred me to this opportunity. The combination of my x y, and z skills coupled with my A, B, and C, makes me a great fit for this position.”

Then you get into the next, the second and third paragraph, which is what I call the meat of your cover letter. So this is where you're really thinking strategically about what is most important about you and your background to emphasize to an employer. It should not be a regurgitation of what's on your resume. It's more of a narrative approach to maybe fleshing out an example or a story that showcases multiple qualifications you have for the role. 

The most important part of a letter that most people leave out is why you want to work for that organization. It doesn't have to be again a verbose thing. It can be a short and sweet sentence or two, explaining what about this organization and what they do is unique and why that makes you want to deliver and use your skills for them in this role in particular. 

So hopefully this helps you get a little bit more clarity on the length, as well as the structure of your cover letter writing. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me a note or download my cover letter writing guide posted in the comments below.

If you learn better through reading, you can see this information in my previous cover letter blog posts or my free comprehensive guide. If you have questions, leave a note in the video comments! 

How To Figure Out Your Career Path

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”

— Aristotle

When evaluating career paths, it can be tempting to look everywhere but inside of yourself for the answers. Common questions that come up when exploring ideas are: What’s valued by society? What does my family think? Hey, Google- what pays the most and where’s the growth? Which companies are rated the best to work for?

While some of the information than can be gleaned from these questions can be useful, it’s wildly ineffective to start there.

Why?

If you’re asking “What career path should I pursue?” and want the world to curate an answer that’s specifically relevant to you, you’re going to be disappointed. Searching in this broad, unfocused, and generic manner will make you extremely overwhelmed, as occupational options are endless. “One estimate suggests that 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that aren’t on our radar yet.” (source)

Use self-understanding to find a job that's the right fit. Get your guide here.

Additionally, you know yourself better than anyone else.

Slowing down, turning inward, and getting more clarity on your values, interests, personality, and skills (VIPS), and how those align with potential career paths, is an incredibly valuable place to start.

Many people get to this point, but then get overwhelmed by how to do this self-reflection. What questions do you ask? How do you think through your interests and different career options?

Knowing this, and that many people like to work through some of this on their own instead of or before working with a coach, I I created a comprehensive 20-page self-assessment guide. It's a combination of open-ended questions tapping into your values and interests, along with more formal assessments like the SkillScan. It wraps up with resources and an action plan for you to have concrete steps to move forward with your exploration.

In my 10 years of coaching people, I've found that the more clear people are on their VIPS, the more certain they are about their career paths, and the happier they are in their work. Start with finding your why, and then the rest of the answers will come.

I hope this helps you in your journey towards finding work you love! 

What Can You Do With a Health Coaching Certification?

Photo by Pure Style Photography

Do you have a passion for health and wellness? Find yourself consumed reading all of the latest research about a superfood or health hack? Are you thinking about bringing some of this into your professional life and wondering how to boost your credentials?

If so, read on.

I get a lot of questions about how I chose my nutrition program and integrated it into my business. I’m sharing my experience in hopes that it helps you on your own journey! If you want to discuss this potential program/path or ask questions about anything that I don’t cover here, feel free to reach out and we can set up a one-on-one conversation.  

I’ve shared a bit about my wellness story before, but in a nutshell, I went from not taking great care of myself to rabbit-hole-ing on any and all information I could find. I wanted to learn more about the theories and science behind all of the conflicting information out there and to understand how there seemed to be so many dissimilar paths towards healthier and happier ways of living. I knew, though, that I didn’t want an experience that only focused on the hard science -  so, right there I knew I wasn’t going to pursue Nutritionist or Registered Dietician studies.

Here are a few of the reasons I chose the Institute for Integrative Nutrition:

• They cover over 100 different dietary theories in the curriculum, and some of the speakers are experts in the field including: Deepak Chopra, MD, leader in the field of mind-body medicine, Andrew Weil, director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, Dr. David Katz, MD, MPH, director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, Dr. Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, chair of nutrition at Harvard University, Mark Hyman, MD, founder of The UltraWellness Center, Geneen Roth, bestselling author and expert on emotional eating, David Wolfe, raw food leader and nutrition expert, Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, professor at New York University’s Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, and WAY more! You can get a taste of the syllabus here, or sample a class here.

• More than just western medicine principles, they also go in depth about wellness beyond what’s on your plate. For example, they discuss the idea of primary foods vs secondary foods. Your primary foods are things like your career, relationships, spirituality, and other non-food forms of nourishment which can all impact your wellness greatly. For me, this was a huge piece of what attracted me to IIN because many people know what foods and lifestyle habits are good for them, yet they still fail to incorporate them or feel unwell. I wanted to learn more about this concept and this program has an immense focus on it.

• They provide a plethora of coaching resources. If you do want to work as a health coach, they give you countless guides and handouts to use with clients, 6-month coaching program forms and resources, outlines and ideas for wellness workshops, and more. They also have mandatory coaching calls before you graduate to make you practice some of the skills in advance, ask questions, and learn from others in the program too.

• The format is flexible to fit into a busy life. I was working full-time, just launching Aspire with Aileen and doing coaching on the side, completing a 200-hour yoga teacher training… and had a new puppy :) While I don’t recommend having that much on your plate at the same time in general, let alone when doing a program like this, it worked. A new module is released each week, but you have a grace period to complete the work if your life is extra hectic that given week.

• Though it’s mostly online, you still build a community. The IIN network is HUGE, for better or worse, and the name is incredibly well known in the health world. I assumed since it’s a global program that I wouldn’t make many connections in Boston, but I’ve met people both during my time in the program as well as afterwards who have become good friends, and/or collaborators for wellness workshops! Most of the coaches I looked up to, followed, and learned from studied at IIN as well, so I knew that was a good sign.

What can you do with this certification?

Before investing in a program like this, you’re likely curious about career opportunities and how people use this training… and if not, this question will likely arise during your studies!

Some people do this program solely for their own learning and development. If you’re just curious about these topics or want to improve your own wellness, simply soaking up the knowledge for your own sake is certainly one option.

Many people begin that way, and then become inspired to incorporate what they’ve learned into their professional lives too. Here are some of the many paths you can take:

Become an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach.

This is the most “traditional” path that’s discussed throughout the program and where much of the training incorporated throughout the modules focuses. Some notable full-time coaches include Robyn Youkilis, Andrea Beaman, and Maria Marlowe.

Be on the wellness committee (or create one!) at your current place of employment.

American businesses lose $300 billion annually to lowered productivity, absenteeism, health-care, and related costs stemming from stress. Stress is the root cause of the majority of chronic illness. Offering workshops and programs that address these health concerns and reduce stress benefits both the employer and employee, and this is becoming more of a common practice these days. You can influence decisions around wellness programming, or offer to run sessions yourself!   

Integrate this coaching into other areas of a business.

Many graduates combine health coaching with yoga, acupuncture, life coaching, (or career coaching like me!), business coaching, or other services instead of having it be the focus of all of their attention. You can find tons of examples (I'd say the majority!) of graduates doing this.

Create products.

You may already know this, but if not, you’ll soon learn that what we put on our bodies also has a big influence on our health. IIN Grad Adina Grigore created a super successful product line S.W. Basics.

Elizabeth Stein wrote “start a natural foods company” on her notebook while at IIN and now is Founder and CEO of Purely Elizabeth, which is the #1 selling granola in the natural food space. These are just two examples of how graduates used their education to create something innovative.

Create change.   

Some graduates go on to work to create change in our food systems. For example, Amy Kalafa created a movie and a movement to create healthy and sustainable food options in schools.

Do an advanced search on LinkedIn to see others!

There are so many potential paths, and what may sound appealing to you is dependent on your own values, interests, background/skills and more. I recommend doing an advanced search on LinkedIn to see what others have done and explore other ideas/people to speak with to inform your decision.

Additional paths/options:

• Finding a career in nutrition

• What health coach jobs are there on the market

• 9 professional paths you can pursue as a health coach

• Superstar Graduates

What next?

I hope this post has given you some insight into what the Institute for Integrative Nutrition program entails, some of the related career options, and how to learn more before making a decision. In summary, I’d recommend reviewing the certification (perhaps looking at the curriculum), doing some self-reflection/exploration on what your goals are/what you’re hoping to get out of the program, and if everything sounds good, then sign up*!

If you do enroll and mention you were referred by me Aileen Axtmayer, I’m an Ambassador of the school so you’ll receive significant savings! Let me know when you’ve done so and I’ll gift you four free 30-minute coaching / mentorship calls to support you throughout the program and while you explore ways to integrate this into your career. These sessions can be used at any point in your program and up to 6 months post-graduation.

I’d be happy to be a sounding board for you and to point you to additional coaching resources to help you get wherever it is you’d like to go.

*If you do enroll and use my name, be sure to email me to get you set up with the free coaching!*

Additional Resources

In addition to what IIN provides, and my mentoring if you do enroll, there are many other resources available to support you both throughout and after completing the program. Two examples include:

• Healthy Profit University: Michelle graduated from IIN and not only has a successful health coaching practice, but also a business coaching program to help other health coaches get their businesses off of the ground. I completed her program and found it incredibly helpful for everything from refining my target market to managing the nitty gritty technological components of setting up lists, programs, and offerings.

• Melissa Danielle has a podcast "Grow Yourself, Grow Your Health Coaching Business" which provides a lot of information to aspiring or current health coaches. We did an episode together about the business side of coaching, but we also got to speak again about why loving your work matters!

Good luck with this exciting decision!

6 Ways Yoga Can Help You Reach Your Career Goals

Pure Style Photography

What does yoga have to do with your performance at work? Can nailing a headstand get you that promotion? It may sound strange at first listen, but there are a few ways yoga may help you excel on the job.

1)  Mental Clarity

Every time you step on your mat, your practice is different, even if you’re moving through the same sequence. From frequent mindset shifts to our bodies feeling differently every day, our perspective is never exactly the same.

We have to learn to meet ourselves where we are, and to check in with what’s real and what we truly need versus what we expect or think we “should” need/feel. Once we’re more in tune with this skill, it can be applied to life off of the mat. We can use this as a tool to decipher what we really want in our work – if it’s a promotion, what are we craving? If it’s a change in paths, what are the sources of dissatisfaction?

The more deliberate way of harnessing/developing this self-understanding is through the meditation within a practice (or that you do on your own). Asana, or the physical movement of yoga, was traditionally created to prepare the body for meditation, enabling you to be more comfortable sitting in stillness. Meditation teaches us how to notice when we may be stuck in a cycle of self-limiting thoughts. In some forms of meditation, we’re encouraged to notice our thoughts as they arise and redirect our attention elsewhere. When we do that, we take some of the power away from those thoughts.

We learn how to change the channel, and can recognize when we’re being unkind to ourselves or starting to believe our thoughts instead of experience. We can redirect our energy to something more productive. For example, imagine consistently telling yourself you’re “not as good as ________” (insert colleague name) or underserving of being rewarded and praised for your work, when those thoughts have no basis in reality. By building awareness of when these thoughts arise, you can then shift the energy away from feeding them, perhaps to a positive, empowering mantra like: “I am worthy. I am skilled. I am enough.”

2) Goal Setting

Many yoga classes start off by encouraging students to set an intention for the practice. This serves as a guiding framework for your thoughts and energy; it’s a simple focal point. This intention setting, working to keep it front of mind, and directing your energy towards it is analogous to goal setting in your career. Many people only set career-related goals 1-2 times/year (January 1st and during performance reviews, perhaps?!). Developing a way of checking in with yourself, or breaking large goals down into smaller intentions, can set you up for greater success and increase your motivation to keep this front of mind.

Pure Style Photography

3) Keeping Calm

I once read that “Yoga without breathing is just stretching” and think it’s important to point this out. “Awareness of breath and synchronizing breath and movement is what makes yoga, yoga; and not gymnastics or any other physical practice.” (source) That resource describes how this breathing has physical, emotional, and biological impacts. To focus on one, deep belly breathing activates your parasympathetic nervous system. Simply put, it helps our bodies relax and stop operating in a state of stress. As you can imagine, having the ability to remain calm can be incredibly useful in the workplace!

Managing difficult coworkers or clients, dealing with a stressful situation or approaching a deadline can all feel a bit differently when you tap into the power of your breath. In a culture where many outwardly exude high stress, you can stand out from your peers.

4) Developing Self-Awareness

There’s an assumption that if you’re flexible, you’re automatically skilled at yoga… but that’s not what it’s about and even bendy people need to be mindful. If not, they can hyperextend, injure themselves, and/or lose the mind-body connection which is integral to the practice. The movement requires both self-reflection and, perhaps most importantly, self-compassion. From cold weather to travel to stress, your body can show up differently each time regardless of your skill level, and you have to be comfortable listening to what you need in that exact moment and not pushing yourself beyond your limitations. Not all bodies can do all poses, just as at work, very few (if any) individuals are a master of all skills. In both situations, we must pause, notice our strengths, and build upon those instead of forcing it where we’re less gifted. Just as forcing a pose can lead to injury, forcing a skill you just don’t enjoy can lead to burnout.

5) Feeling Energized  

A big focus on my work is to help clients restore their energy through making changes to their work and/or lifestyle habits. I’ve discussed other ways to increase productivity, and touched on movement in that post, but it deserves another shout out. When doing inversions, you’re literally shifting your perspective. You can also achieve a similar mindset shift by taking a break and just moving your body. If you’re frustrated on the job, this physical practice helps you release endorphins, your “feel good” chemicals, so you can clear your brain and approach your work with new energy.

““It is confidence in our bodies, minds and spirits that allows us to keep looking for new adventures, new directions to grow in, and new lessons to learn — which is what life is all about.” Oprah Winfrey

”

6) Building Confidence

Doing yoga poses all around Boston in front of people definitely required confidence! (Photo by Pure Style Photography)

Lastly, when we’re consistent with a yoga practice, we notice progress. Maybe we can do more chaturanga push-ups without taking a break. Perhaps that elusive arm balance that once seemed impossible is now in your arsenal. Or it may simply be the ability to stop running through your to-do list and focus on your breathing (easier said than done!). Whatever the change, this growth can help you build confidence in yourself. That confidence can be contagious and spread to other areas of your life, including at work. From asking for a raise to deciding to change careers, believing in yourself is key. Keeping your spirits high and having faith in yourself is particularly useful if you don’t feel valued at your company or if you’re not hearing back from employers when job searching.

Not a yogi? You can reap some of these benefits through other forms of movement. From spinning to weight lifting, this same sensation of accomplishment and pride can be present.

Whether it’s through yoga or not, how can you create more space in your life to do more of what will propel you forward towards reaching your personal and professional goals?

4 Essential Steps to Find Work You Love (+ exciting announcement!)

If you get my newsletter, this isn't new information for you (Want to hear news first and get access to freebies? The form is at the bottom of the page!). For the rest of the world, I have an exciting announcement. Last week, I ran a webinar "4 Essential Steps to Find Work You Love" and officially opened registration for something big! 

I've just launched a new online course "A Holistic and Strategic Approach to Finding Work You Love"

It's comprised of five modules (delivered over four weeks) of videos, assessments, workbooks, expert guides, and activities. The self-paced model lets people fit this process into their busy lives when it works for them, while still having access to one-on-one support from me. I have over 10 years of career coaching experience and compiled the most critical tools and skills I’ve used during this decade into this program.

The content covers everything from clarifying what you want to pursue in your career to the tactical side of getting there. One module focuses on how to take care of yourself, so you can have the energy and mindset needed to manage any additional stress that can come with this work. Full details and a program schedule can be found through the webinar.

Registration closes on Halloween (10.31.17). If you'd like to get a sense of my style and this topic, listen to the webinar while it's still available or reach out for a free consultation to decide if it’s the right fit for you.

I hope to see you there! 

How Do You Address Your Cover Letter?

Read more about the benefits of writing letters here.

A common question that arises when writing cover letters is which person should be addressed in the opening of the letter. Here are some options, along with the pros/cons for each of them:

To Whom It May Concern

This is your worst-case scenario option. It’s fine, it gets the job done, but it’s cold and doesn’t show much effort to get more personalized information.

Dear Hiring Manager or Dear Selection Committee

Still not ideal in terms of personalization, but it's a bit warmer and a better option if you truly can’t find any information regarding the person/people in charge of hiring.

Dear Mr./Ms. _________ (insert last name)

Best-case scenario! But indeed, not always possible. This would be the name of the person in charge of the department/office/team you’re applying to, and there are a few ways to dig in to try to find this information. Start by looking on the website of the organization, as some have tons of information including names, emails, and an organizational chart.

If you strike out there, you can do an advanced search on LinkedIn. Try the name of the organization in the “company” section and input the division you’re applying to in the “keyword” section. If that doesn’t work, play around with other keywords or try your luck with Google to see if there may be clues in publications/news.

This little step can help demonstrate your attention to detail and enthusiasm for the opportunity. Bonus tip: if you’ve done an informational interview with someone before applying, ask them for a name and/or include their name in the body of your cover letter too!

NEED MORE SUPPORT? DOWNLOAD MY COVER LETTER WRITING GUIDE SO YOU CAN STOP STRESSING AND START WRITING LETTERS THAT CONVERT TO INTERVIEWS!

Prefer one-on-one support? Or not even sure of what you need to land work you love? Learn more about the 3 benefits of working with a career coach.

My Favorite Resume Loophole

Need more resume support? Click here for my top tips, or reach out for a free consultation!

Writing a resume can be challenging. My clients often come to me with these three common concerns:

• Is it too long? If I delete something that’s less relevant to save space, will employers think there’s a gap?

• I do have an employment gap. How do I make it less noticeable?

• I’m changing roles/fields and something from years ago is now more relevant than my most recent work experience. How do I get that to stand out more?

There is, amazingly, ONE solution for all three of these. The answer, and my favorite resume loophole, is this:

Divide your experience into multiple sections, so you can work around the rule that everything has to be in reverse chronological order.

For example, imagine you’re applying for a research role and want to highlight the job you held two positions prior to your current role. You could have “Research Experience” and “Additional Experience” as your two sections, include the older role in “Research Experience” and your current role in “Additional Experience” (research is just one example, but you can put whatever field/industry you’re targeting in the title).

Side note: the word “additional” reads better than “other” as the latter implies the experience is not really relevant.  

This brings the more related experience up the page on the resume, helping it be seen by employers during their first quick glance. It also changes around the order of the dates, so the employer would have to spend more time looking at each date to check for a gap.

Try this simple yet effective trick and you’ll notice how much more creative you can be on your resume!

Was this helpful? Here are more ways working with a career coach can help you land work you love.

Flow + All About Aspire

I'm working on something REALLY exciting that I'm planning to launch this fall, and because of that I'll be doing a few blog posts per month instead of a weekly edition.

When I started to put pen to paper on this new idea for Aspire with Aileen, I found I was completely enthralled and in a total state of flow (and I'm not talking about a "yoga flow" in this case!).

If you've never heard of this concept, here are two great articles to get you up to speed:

• Your Ideal Career is the Intersection Between Flow and Meaning

• Find Your Flow and Success Will Follow

Do you experience this in your career? In your personal life? How can you make changes, personally or professionally, if not?

Photo from article linked above

Finally, I recently realized I never shared an interview I did with Just Us Gals Boston. If you're new to this page or want to better understand why I focus on helping clients with both personal and professional goals, click here to read the full article. And if you already know you're going to be working on a career goal, here are 4 ways to work towards it without sacrificing your physical or mental health. 

Want to stay informed about this upcoming announcement? Members of my monthly newsletter will be the first to know and you can sign up here! 

Job Search Resilience

Other than balancing a job search with everything else going on in your life, one of the hardest parts of looking for a new position is keeping your spirits up throughout the duration of the often-tedious process.

Whether it’s deafening silence from employers or making it to the final round of interviews only to not be selected, the experience can certainly take a toll on your confidence.

Those examples are (unfortunately!) a normal part of looking for a job whether you’re highly qualified for what you’re applying to or not. From political hiring decisions, technical interference causing your application to never be seen by a human, or simply an extremely competitive market, there are a handful of challenging layers that have nothing to do with your competency levels (let that sink in!)… yet, the longer you spend applying, the more likely you are to start to doubt yourself.

So, how do you keep your spirits up?

I heard this definition from Jennifer Racioppi while listening to a webinar on emotional resilience

As with many challenges in life, it comes back to resilience. There are countless definitions and studies about this concept, but two of my favorites include: “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness” and meeting life exactly as it is and being able to thrive anyway. Some believe that “more than education, more than experience, more than training, a person’s level of resilience will determine who succeeds and who fails. That’s true in the cancer ward, it’s true in the Olympics, and it’s true in the boardroom.”

Below are a few of the strategies I’ve found help job seekers recover from the challenges and setbacks that come with the territory.

Talk to people.

This will sound like the last thing you want to do when your confidence is tanking or you’re doubting yourself, but trust me on this. Networking not only increases your likelihood of landing a position, it also can do a myriad of things to get you out of the job search rut. For example, people in your field can:

• Validate that your background is impressive/you do have valuable and relevant skills. You can get this information through asking questions such as “What skills do you think make someone stand out in this field/role?” or “What qualities make someone most successful in this position?”  

• Help you see your blind spots and where you may be lacking competitiveness. That may sound like bad news, but this insight can show you where to seek out development and growth to proactively increase your ability to compete.

• Give you ideas about other companies, job titles, or openings to look at that you may not know about.

Any of these outcomes can serve to reinvigorate you and the energy you need to keep plugging away.

Look in your happy-face-folder 

This may sound weird if you don’t have one, so let me explain. Every time I get a thoughtful thank you email or positive feedback after an event, I file them into a folder aptly titled “😊.” If I have a really challenging day or am doubting myself (in the life of an entrepreneur it happens often!), I skim through and am reminded of my skills, value-add, and the positive impact I’ve had on other people’s lives. If you don’t save these types of emails, I recommend that you start!

If you don’t have these emails, you can still seek out this kind of info from other sources. Old performance reviews are a good place to look. Chatting with any colleagues you’ve let in on your search, checking in with your references, and reviewing former letters of recommendation can all raise your spirits too.

Take Care of Yourself

When in doubt, taking extra care of yourself is always a good idea. It may sound counterintuitive to step away from applications, but restoring your energy and mindset will ultimately make you much more productive. That renewed confidence will translate in your application materials. You have permission to take this space. Often a short stint away, or coming back to an application after a restorative activity is all you need to reframe your perspective.

This comes back to stress and the impact it can have on our personal and professional well-being. Clinical psychologist George Bonanno has been studying resilience for over 25 years and he says the following: “All of us possess the same fundamental stress-response system, which has evolved over millions of years and which we share with other animals. The vast majority of people are pretty good at using that system to deal with stress. When it comes to resilience, the question is: Why do some people use the system so much more frequently or effectively than others? One of the central elements of resilience, Bonanno has found, is perception: Do you conceptualize an event as traumatic, or as an opportunity to learn and grow?”

Taking time to take care of yourself and counter job search stressors can make it easier to view whatever challenges have come up in your process as opportunities to grow, and you can use this resilience to handle other life hurtles with more grace and ease.  

• What are some examples of challenges you’ve faced in your life that you see as teaching moments or times of great personal growth?

• How can you reframe your perspective of your job search to meet it where it is and yet thrive anyway?

• Where can you apply these mindset shifts to other areas of your life to restore your energy and get back to feeling like your best self?

Answering Negative Interview Questions

Interviewing can be stressful enough, let alone when a prospective employer asks you a question that brings up some negative emotions.

Common interview questions where this may happen include:

• Why are you leaving your current position?

• What did you like least about your most recent role/company?

• Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a colleague/client/customer.

• Tell me about a time when you failed.

• What’s a weakness of yours?

Fun list of topics, eh?

The basic strategy for these questions is this: provide an adequate and truthful answer without sharing too many dramatic details and while keeping a professional, calm tone.

Sounds manageable, but if you’re caught off guard by a negative question or you’re describing a situation that involved particularly high emotions, it can be quite challenging. When I do mock interviews with clients, I point out how even just one word choice can make a difference in how polarizing an example can sound (for example: That made me so furious vs That made me so frustrated. One word, big difference!).

So, what do you do?

Use the PAR approach.

This strategy works when answering any behavioral interview question because it gives you a framework for what information is most critical to include, along with how to organize it. People tend to be most long-winded when answering this style of question, and this method can help to weed out extraneous details. PAR stands for problem, action, result – a similar acronym is STAR which stands for situation, task, action, result. In short, you want to assess what problem or situation you’re going to describe, what action YOU took, and the conclusion (or the goal of your action if you didn’t see the conclusion/get the result you anticipated).

Practice out loud.

This aligns with previous interview prep tips I’ve shared, and it’s because I can’t emphasize it enough. You’ll notice how delicate the word choice is, and it’s better to stumble over it on your own than in front of the employer. Ideally, have a friend or career coach listen to your answer and give you feedback as to how it translated.

Choose your examples carefully.

If you get feedback that your answer is still a little bit touchy, or you’re continuously struggling with getting it to a place where you feel like it's a strong answer, choose a new example if possible. Those are signs that the situation was too complicated to describe easily or that you’re still feeling too strongly about it to share it with an employer in an interview.

a simple (and silly) example to help illustrate these practices

...fun fact, this is a true story from the job I held at Super Kmart at 16 years old!

Question: Can you tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult person (client/customer/colleague)?

Answer: While working as a cashier at Super Kmart, a middle-aged gentleman tried to purchase cigarettes from me. The strict store policy required employees to ask for ID from everyone, even if they appeared to be well over the legal purchasing age. The gentleman forgot his ID so I politely informed him that unfortunately I couldn’t complete the sale. He became extremely agitated and began yelling. I calmly replied that I’d be happy to refer him to my manager if he’d like to continue the discussion, as there was nothing I could do to change the policy. He agreed, I brought in my manager, and they sorted out a solution together so I could move on to serve the next customer.

In reality, I thought this man was completely inappropriate and rude, and that the policy was a bit extreme, but those stronger feelings aren't present in this response.  

Use these tips and you’ll feel more confident when answering negative questions during your next interview!

Want a deeper dive into the strategies behind answering the two most dreaded interview questions (including the infamous weakness question)? Download my guide which includes a bonus: the simple but often forgotten tactic to nailing an interview.

Interviewing Tips

Helping people prepare for interviews is one of my FAVORITE things to do (yes, I realize how nerdy this makes me sound, but I’m okay with that).

There's so much anxiety and fear that comes along with the excitement of landing this precious time with an employer. One of the reasons why I love it so much is because it's so rewarding to use my holistic perspective and coaching skills to move people through those feelings to a place of confidence.

If you're battling a bout of the pre-interview scaries, read on to get moving!

The first thing to do is remember that there's a reason why you're being interviewed!

Really, that’s step one. It sounds simple, but my clients often get swept up in the overwhelm and overlook this critical information. Employers go through hundreds or thousands of applications before narrowing the pile down to a first round of interviews. They don't have the time or resources to interview you just for fun. Something in your application materials made them interested enough in you to connect.

Use that not only as a confidence building tool, but also as guidance on how to prepare. Go through all of your application materials and know them like the back of your hand. Assess what you think, from their perspective, is most attractive about you and practice speaking to those things.

This may sound obvious, but so many people have information on their resume that’s from a few years ago and when I ask them to tell me about it they fumble with remembering what they actually did.

Take a peek at your resume right now and skim to one of your oldest bullets – is that true for you, too?

Don’t let this happen with an employer. You may think the older information has nothing to do with the prospective job, and you may be right, but sometimes they’re intrigued to learn more for exactly that reason. It can break up the monotony for them when reading resumes of candidates with very similar backgrounds and experiences.

In summary: be able to speak to every single line on your resume.

The more you “overprepare” for an interview, the less anxiety surrounds it and the more you’ll be able to start off the conversation from a place of confidence.

Continue to use the clues you have in front of you to keep plugging away, instead of jumping over and Googling “interview questions.” If you followed my exercise for how to write a cover letter, you’ve already dissected the job description (if you haven’t, download my free guide to help make cover letter writing less painful while simultaneously setting yourself up to be ahead in your interviewing prep work). Based on the themes you’ve noticed in the post, you can anticipate what types of questions you’ll be asked, and then practice them out loud. You can also find sample interview questions on recruiting or career services sites with a quick Google search.

It will likely be uncomfortable practicing out loud, but it’s always worth it.

The way you think you’ll answer something in your head often translates very differently when it comes out of your mouth. Notice what part of the job or skills you feel weakest in and spend extra energy practicing how you’ll approach those instead of just hoping they won’t ask you about them.

Next, scour the company website, Glassdoor, and the news to be as informed as possible about how they’re branding themselves and what information is widely known about them.

Lastly, ask for information if you don’t have it.

I’ve had clients get so excited to be asked to interview that only later do they realize they don’t have very important information. One extreme example is when a client of mine didn’t even have a job description! He’d done an informational interview and they asked him to come in and interview the next day for a position that hadn’t even been posted yet. He accepted the interview and then had no idea how to prepare. When I asked him if he asked them for the details he said no. It’s a completely reasonable thing to ask for, and after some encouragement he realized he had nothing to be afraid of and sure enough they sent it his way when he asked.

Consider: Who will you be meeting with? How many people and at what times (and if it's a full-day interview, what snacks will you bring?)? What are the details of the job? Can you confirm the location, especially if they have multiple locations?

I can go on, but these guidelines should get you off to a very comprehensive start.

One last thing... If you’re nervous, don’t forget to breathe!

Deep belly breaths will help trigger your relaxation response to counter that stress. There’s debate about some other more holistic approaches to your mindset and physiology, but breathing should definitely be on your to-do list.

If you’re on a roll and want more tips, read on for how to answer negative interview questions or strategize your “What’s your weakness?” answer instead of just dreading being asked it!

For personalized support on thank you note etiquette, navigating the salary conversation, managing energy when interviewing back to back, and everything else… reach out or send this along to a friend who is job searching. Good luck!

Should You Quit Your Dream Job?

Dream Job. What’s yours?

I was looking back over old emails when I saw what I wrote to a reference of mine a few years ago. “eeeee this is my dream job!!” …yes, I wrote “eee” and no I don’t recommend you do that in your emails to your references, unless you’re very close to them like I was in this case!

Considering I'd left that job to start career coaching on my own full-time, it got me wondering if I’d labeled any other former jobs the same way. Sure enough, after some digging, I found older emails about other jobs I’d held where I described them in just the same way.

Now, maybe my 20-something-year-old self just had a tendency to overuse the phrase, but it got me thinking about our development and how it shapes our perspective of what our “dream” is…

In my opinion, one of the keys to both our personal and professional success is the ability to continuously reevaluate the things that matter to us.

But it can’t stop there and happen in a vacuum.

We then have to look at how our life is, or isn’t, providing space for us to experience those things.

So often, we don’t take the time to slow down long enough to do this reevaluation (in either a formal or informal way).

When I led a work life balance workshop recently, I invited participants to do a pen-and-paper version of this exercise. Once they completed it, and looked truthfully at their lives, they were shocked to see how little overlap there was between their values and their daily actions.

When we name what these disconnects are, it helps us to understand where possible sources of anxiety and frustration may come from.

For example, let’s say one of your values is spending time with friends and family, but work is so busy that that’s been more of an afterthought. If there’s no indication you’re going to be less busy any time soon, you may understand why you’ve been getting cranky on Sunday nights before the workweek begins.  

So, what changed for me 10 years after initially using this "dream job" phrasing?

My passion for career coaching remained strong, but my interests and skills expanded to include corporate wellness. The combination of some changes in my office, coupled with an unanticipated spike in clients, led me to feel pulled in too many directions. I had a check-in with myself (and my husband!) to assess it all and realized that I valued the success of my business, and the ability to tap into these newer skillsets, more than the work environment of higher education I'd previously adored. It took some time to process the notion of leaving this previous dream behind for a newer one, but I haven't looked back since.   

How can we be proactive about making sure we’re living in alignment with our values, before too much time passes and stress builds to scary levels?

Here are some ideas:

• Prioritize bringing more awareness into your life, in general. Continuous awareness of how you’re feeling and what you’re thinking will make it less likely that you’ll wake up one day wondering how you ended up wherever you are. Meditation (especially apps like Headspace!) can be a great way to increase awareness while decreasing stress.

• Schedule check-ins with yourself. Just like many employers have performance reviews, you could set up an annual or semi-annual values review.

• If you need extra accountability, schedule a check-in with a friend, colleague, or career coach. It doesn’t have to be anything formal but some people need this kind of structure for it to actually happen. It can also be helpful simply to get out of your own head.

These are just a few ideas. In what other ways can you bring more self-reflection into your life?

Make a commitment to put these practices into place now, so that if life moves along and you notice your dream job is no longer fulfilling you in the same way it used to, you’ll be empowered and informed enough to take action.

P.S.

I'll be talking more about self-reflection and mindfulness as it relates to the way we eat our food in a blog post soon. If you're interested in the topic, I'm hosting a free "Mindful Eating" talk in Boston in just 2 weeks too!  

The Biggest Advantage of Writing a Cover Letter

True or false: you rolled your eyes at the thought of writing a cover letter, or perhaps let out an audible sigh?

Cover letters are one of the biggest sources of frustration my clients have - before they start working with me. I empathize with them and acknowledge that this isn't a fun activity, but after we cover what they're really all about, along with some strategies to figuring out what employers want to read, it's much less painful of a process. 

So, what's the biggest advantage writing a letter will give you?

The space to show your knowledge of and passion for the organization.

Sound obvious?

Maybe, but OVER 80% of my clients don’t address this at all in their letters. The most interesting part is that they often think they do. When applying to mission-driven organizations, it's even more critical.

For example: One client was applying for a competitive role without much full-time experience. The global health organization described itself as "relentlessly committed to improving the health of poor and marginalized people." She highlighted founding a national HIV/AIDS awareness group as well as her four health-focused internships abroad. She also spoke to her commitment to the mission and the passion she'd bring to the role and ended up landing it. If the employer was just using her resume, she wouldn’t have looked as qualified.

One other advantage... 

It's extremely hard for your personality to shine on your resume, but you can begin to show it in your cover letter.

With so many places hiring based not only the skills you have, but also your fit with the office culture, this is a big chance to shed some light on that side of yourself and demonstrate how it aligns.

Thinking you need to start writing cover letters, or revamping your current approach to them? Get my full FREE guide to writing cover letters. Here's what one client had to say about the guide:

“I now use Aileen’s “Cover Writing Guide” every time I write a cover letter, and its the single best resource I’ve found in my job searching process. Honestly, she has unlocked the mystery for me in cover letter writing and more importantly, how to decipher a job description so you can really understand what the potential employer is looking for. Its like magic but way simpler!”

— Amanda S.

It includes tips on how to figure out what you can just rely on your resume for, examples of when you don't need to write one, how to get past writer's block, and more. Enjoy!

Aspire with Aileen Manifesto

In case you're new to my website, my manifesto is one of the best ways I know how to introduce myself. It encapsulates the three areas of my business (career counseling, health coaching, and yoga) and hopefully helps you get a sense of what perspective I bring to my work with my clients. 

I believe life is short, but the days are long if you’re not happy with what you’re doing or if you’re uncomfortable in your own skin.

I believe we hold more power over our paths than we typically imagine. Our original circumstances are certainly out of our control, but if we ask the right questions of ourselves, we often find that opportunities to ignite change are plentiful.  

I believe laughter and food are both medicine.

I believe that our breathing can be an amazing instrument of change.

When I wake up in the morning, my very first thought is how grateful I am for my health and how excited I am to be spending my day doing what I love. It breaks my heart knowing some people feel nothing but dread from the moment their alarm goes off until their head hits the pillow again.

I believe we often get in our own way, unintentionally, and that the power of human connection can be a magnificent force in helping us shift our perspective.

I believe in my mantra “To know even one life has breathed easier because you’ve lived- this is to have succeeded” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) and hope to help you breathe easier. 

Photo by Pure Style Photography

I couldn't find a way to incorporate my assistant, Buster, into my manifesto so I'm sharing a photo of him with me to make my introduction complete! (It may not look like it in this photo but I swear he loves me too.)

More on Analysis Paralysis

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about what I do. When I describe it, some people seem surprised to see a passion for both career and health coaching while others realize how interrelated the two are.

One commonality I've noticed is that in both areas, I see “analysis paralysis” because of a tendency to rely a lot on other people and sources for making decisions instead of turning inward.

I see this in career coaching when people ask everyone (including Google) to tell them what to do with their lives. They’re left with a million opinions that are all based on the values of the people giving the advice. Every person has a different perspective because of their differing values and that, coupled with using the interwebs to get advice, leads to lots of conflicting information and overwhelm. 

In health coaching, this shows up when my clients try to follow all of the latest diet and fitness trends. The recommendations from one source are typically the opposite from another (For example: Fat is your friend! Fat is the devil!) and can lead to instant confusion and frustration. While there's a lot of good information out there, a lot of it assumes that what worked for one person will work identically for another and ignores the important concept of bio-individuality. 

This makes sense when you think about how we’re typically taught about wellness –  we often eat the way our families or the government has told us to, based on their traditions or definitions of healthy. With exercise, many people stick with the sports that were required in school or the general guidelines given by medical providers or social media.

So, what do I recommend people do differently?

The answer in both cases is essentially the same:

Stop. Slow Down. Breathe. Turn Inward. 

In career coaching, I always advocate for people to make decisions based on their internal drivers. Specifically, using their VIPS (values, interests, personality, and skills) to guide them can increase their likelihood of being satisfied with their jobs. Many people come to me when they’re finally ready to do this. They admit that they've had a nagging feeling in their gut all along that something was off, but they just followed the advice or expectations others put upon them.

In health coaching, I help people learn how to quiet the noise and chaos of the wellness world. I share ways to pay attention to not only what they eat, but also the way they eat it, and how they feel afterwards. I also encourage them to find the type of movement they actually enjoy.

When people change things up and eat the foods they feel nourished by, and exercise in the ways that their individual body craves, they're much more likely to continue than when they just go through the motions of following what they've been told they're "supposed” to do.

This may sound so obvious, but can you think back on a time when you behaved differently than this? Maybe it’s still going on in some areas of your life today? 

These are just two examples of how I see people tune out what their intuition has to say about the career move that will make them happiest or the foods that actually make them feel good. By solely looking externally, people get so much more overwhelmed by all of the options available and that’s often what makes them too afraid to make changes or take any action.

I didn't know what graphic to use for this post, so this my best attempt at an "I'm thinking" photo. Image by Pure Style Photography

Though career and health coaching are indeed very different, in both areas I help people slow down, cut through all of the information overload, and see that it really can be as simple as turning inward to find the answers. It all comes back to asking the right questions and taking the time to do the work.

If you’re interested in learning more about either of these areas of coaching, reach out here for a free 30-minute consultation!

Simple Resume Writing Tips

Has it been a while since you last updated your resume? Or perhaps you want a quick "how-to" on approaching this thing that has potentially been on your to-do list for ages? Below is my attempt to succinctly share how to navigate this process. 

Overall Strategy/Approach 

1. Always, always, keep it updated

This one is hard to stick to, but so worth it if you do. If you haven’t and want to start now, go back and take a look at past performance reviews, your job description, or even your work calendar for the last few months (or years!) to jog your memory of not only what you do, but also what you’ve accomplished.

Similar to what I discuss in my cover letter guide (grab it at the bottom of the page!), some people get paralyzed by perfection. Start where you are instead of feeling like you need to have the most beautiful phrasing in the world. You can edit and refine later but begin by pretending you’re telling a friend what it is you do on a day to day basis, season to season. This simple exercise has helped hundreds of my clients move from a blank page to a full resume.

2. Don’t have someone else do the entire thing for you

I’m an advocate for asking for guidance on your resume, but having someone else put it all together for you is completely different. The ability to use your own voice to describe your experience is such a critical skill to have in your life. You know your story best, and employers will want to hear the version of the story they read in your application materials. Make it your own.

I’ve worked with clients who have to go back to the person they paid to write their resume every time they want to change it. For everything... even a tiny tweak in formatting or the use of one new word. You want to be able to make tailored versions of your resume for every application you have, and having to go to someone for this every time will slow things down (and out of pocket costs will go up!).

Getting tactical 

1. Looks matter      

There’s debate about how long employers spend actually reading your resume. It’s safe to assume if they’re feeling generous, the maximum amount of time you’ll get on a first read is 30 seconds. So, while it may sound shallow, the aesthetics of your resume really matter. If you give them any reason not to want to read it (it’s too busy, it’s too long, and so on) they just won’t. Along the same lines, think about the way we read (left to right, top to bottom) and use the prime real estate on your resume accordingly!

2. Top 3 rules to follow no matter what industry you're applying to

I could write 100 pages on resumes and still not cover everything. This is how I summarize the most important criteria for content to everyone, no matter their industry:

• Be results-oriented: say what you did AND why it matters

• Quantify when possible: Taught 450 elementary students vs. Taught students makes a big difference

• Use bullets and start them with strong and varied action verbs: paragraph format takes too long for employers to read + the thesaurus in MS Word is a goldmine

3. General Housekeeping:

• Your margins should NEVER be smaller than .5 on all sides (at the smallest!)

• Always send your resume as a PDF when possible

• Be mindful of the file name for your resume – If you accidentally apply to Starbucks with “My Dunkin Donuts Resume” it’s going in the trash. “Resume Version 284” isn’t the best look either.

• Use spellcheck, but have someone else (like me or a friend) take a look at it – asses and assess are both words, but you’re a lot more likely to use one of those on a resume over another!

I hope this helps you get started on updating your resume, which is often the hardest part. Next up is deciding what to include in a cover letter.

If you have questions or need help, as always I'm available for a free 30 minute consultation, and resume writing is one of my favorite things to help clients through (nerdy, but true).  If you’d like to take an even bigger picture look at what it’s like to work with a career coach, the linked post goes into a lot of depth on that as well. Good luck!

How to Fit Your Full-Time Job Search into Your Full-Time Life

“Looking for a job is like a full-time job!” 

... says every job seeker ever. Whether this expectation is present when going into the process or not, the amount of time and energy needed to land a new position is often still surprising. For people who hold full-time jobs already, finding extra time for job-seeking in an already packed day can be a true challenge. This doesn't mean unemployed people have it easy; they can become overwhelmed by having too many options and not enough structure or guidance on how to focus their energy.  If either of these scenarios resonates with you, here are some tips for organizing and fitting your efforts into your schedule, no matter what it looks like.

Set Goals

This is the foundation. Submitting applications and never hearing back, sending thank you emails after interviewing and receiving cryptic replies, or refreshing your inbox every few minutes to find out whether or not you have been selected can certainly make you feel helpless. On the flip side, setting continuous goals and taking proactive steps to reach them can lead to feeling energized and, most importantly, empowered. The more you operate from this position of strength when searching, the more motivated you'll be to take time to do the work.

Use a two-pronged approach to determine what kind of goals to set: proactive and reactive.

Proactive goals include researching new companies to add to your target list and sending out informational interview requests.  Reactive goals include applying to vacant positions that are already being publicly advertised. The overarching guideline for both of these is quality over quantity. Instead of applying to a job you are not really interested in just to go through the motions, find someone with a background similar to yours at a company you admire and learn from him or her about the hiring process. You'll get more out of that conversation than you will from any application you submit when your heart isn't in it, as your passion (or lack thereof) will be evident in either scenario.

Prioritize Where You Spend Your Energy

This is similar to goal setting but relates to the bigger picture of assessing when you'll be able to do this work. If step one is clarifying your goals, step two is taking a realistic look at opportunities to introduce tiny shifts in your routine to make space for progressing forward. To keep yourself from getting overwhelmed, start by looking at one week at a time. If that feels like too much, try just two days and then build from there.

First, write down all of your responsibilities for that duration of time. Place meetings/appointments on the days they are scheduled, but then plug in your other responsibilities including everything from meal preparation to the job-search goals you want to achieve.

This kind of prioritization sounds so simple, perhaps even obvious, but many people don't spend time on these little actions, or they write things down but never look at them again. The result is decreased productivity and increased frustration. People typically in this culture of “busy” look at one day, one hour, or one task at a time without considering the landscape of the rest of the upcoming days. The days and responsibilities can swiftly get away from anyone.

For example, you may set a goal to craft and submit an application “this week,” but then you work late two nights, have a commitment another evening, and spend one night cooking meals, and suddenly you're left with one weeknight to complete your entire application.

If you put that pressure on yourself to get everything done in one sitting, you risk setting yourself up for failure.

Applications can take longer than anticipated, whether due to writer’s block or more documents and forms to complete than assumed. Leave space for multiple drafts, edits, and opportunities to walk away and return with fresh eyes. It may seem like you're spending more time overall on the application, but in reality, you're just dividing your efforts differently and giving yourself a chance to bring more attention to the process.

To make space for this, find the non-negotiables of your schedule (such as childcare, train times, or standing appointments) and decide where, outside of those, you can create buckets of time for yourself in 30-to-60-minute increments throughout the week.

Next, add those to your calendar just like any of your other standing appointments. Then...

Show Up for Yourself!

Do you notice that the busier you are, the harder it is to commit to your self-care activities?

Finding a job that gratifies you is a form of self-care.

The more responsibilities you have on your plate, the more likely it is that these seemingly “non-mandatory” activities will continue to be delayed. Just like you avoid being a no-show for a meeting with a friend or a doctor’s appointment, honor the commitment you make to yourself and your goals in the same way.

If you need help holding yourself accountable, ask for help!

Reach out to a friend or family member for - the simple act of sharing your goals with others will facilitate a deeper sense of obligation to seeing them through. Working with a career coach can help you be held accountable, too!

Remember that you have more power over the process than you think, and that there are many people who will be happy to support you on your journey. 

My content and the first photo were originally shared on SharpHeels.com: Prioritizing a Job Search