But that’s OK, you can still get hired.  Have you ever watched the interviewer when you’ve had an in-person interview? If you haven’t, you should. They don’t actually read your resume, they skim. We casually talk about “reading resumes”, but no-one ever does. Everyone skims.  The only goal of a resume is to get you an interview. It's a marketing brochure. So you need to make your resume skim-friendly. To do that, it’s helpful to think of skims happening incrementally. 1️⃣ An

It’s that top few inches. Your profile pic, your banner, and your “About” section. Because unless you hook the reader there they probably won’t read any further. Getting the profile pic right is easy. It should be reasonably recent, professional, and a good resolution. I’ve seen bad selfies, and I’ve seen portraits that look 20 years old. Both give the impression that maybe you don’t care that much about the details, or your standards are low. If budget is a concern, many tra

What can you learn from marketing to help your job search? If you try to sell to everybody, you sell to nobody. That’s marketing 101. 𝗜𝗻 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵. This is true even if you only offer a single product. I once worked for a software vendor that sold analytics. Its two main mar

Let’s pick up the career pivot thread again. Hopefully you’ve already figured out the ideal work/roles you'd like to move to. (If not, check my earlier post). But, can you make the pivot? The next step is figuring out your transferable skills.  It’s easy to look at your current job title and think that’s all you are. 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝘀, 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 - 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲. You just need

I n other words, are your tech skills getting stale. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗶𝘀𝗺? 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲... Easier said than done? Perhaps - it definitely takes time and effort. I’ve written a couple of posts already on how to craft your resume when you’re over the age of forty. One area we haven't touched on is keeping your tech skills up to date. And I don’t mean AI. Sure,

If you want to get more interviews, don’t write your resume to be read.  𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗱.  Resumes don’t get read, they get skimmed. Put the information that really matters where it will be found with a quick skim. I’ve already posted about how to change your summary paragraph to be skim-friendly. So let’s talk about how you tweak the roles in your professional experience section. There are 3 key points: 💡 Showing your impact is alwa

Hopefully you’ll never need one. But if you do, I’ve had some practice… What is it? It’s what you say to explain a layoff, so it’s important to have a strong one. If you need to write one, here’s some guidance. Do this before your interview. Draft it out, revise it, and at least memorize the key themes and flow. You don’t have to learn it word for word. But you want to be confident in your delivery at what is typically one of the most stressful moments in an interview. A good

I'm running my first ever free in-person workshop for job seekers this week. It’s a hands-on workshop, not a presentation. It’s forced me to get some of my career coaching ideas and guidelines out of my head and built out as tools and worksheets. You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule - poshly known as the Pareto Principle if, like me, you forked out for an MBA 🙂. It’s a rough rule of thumb that seems to run through most of life. 20% of something leads to 80% of something e

Arguably, this is the most important question you’ll ever get asked in an interview. Why is it a BFD? Because this is the best, the earliest, and possibly the only opportunity you have to control the interview. You - deliberately or by accident - set the tone and direction of the interview. “Tell me about yourself.”  Too many of these answers are tl;dl. I’ve heard long rambling answers in both real and mock interviews. True confession, I can remember giving a long, meandering

𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗜𝘁. I’ve experienced ageism during a job search. I got aged out for a younger candidate, and I’m OK with that. Let me tell you why I’m OK - and why you should be too. It’s simple. I don’t get angry or emotional about things I can’t control. There’s no point. I can’t control how old I am. My parents - either by accident or design - determined my age a long, long time ago. I didn’t have control over it then, I don’t have control over it now, and guess what? I

But they're possible, even in today's tough job market. Which is good, because I seem to be meeting more and more people who want to pivot. Just a sign of the times... I've pivoted a few times myself, there are four basic steps 1️⃣ Very obvious, but not always simple - figure out where you want to pivot to 2️⃣ Figure out your transferable skills 3️⃣ Map your transferable skills to your target industry and/or role 4️⃣ Make the pivot happen Let's talk about where to pivot to -

𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗼𝗼𝗿. In my experience as a career coach, the most common response to an open-ended question is "I don't know." And that’s perfectly fine. "I don't know" isn't a failure. It’s a sign that the client is feeling overwhelmed, afraid of giving a "wrong" answer, or perhaps just needs a moment. Truth is, it's not a dead end, it's an invitation to go deeper. So, how do you manage that situation? There are a few approaches. But, the most important thing is that the coa

A lack of focus in your resume?  When you’re over 40 and struggling to land interviews it’s easy to label it as ageism. And you might be right. But there are other factors too. It’s obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: The older you are, the more work experience you have. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻, 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆.  For example, Claudia is 6 years out of college, started their

So don’t bring up the less than amazing stuff from your career. Definitely be prepared to defend it, but don’t spotlight it. This is sales & marketing 101. Sales and marketing can have a bit of a dodgy reputation if we’re honest. Some companies I worked for early in my career were absolutely guilty of over-promising and under-delivering. Frequently.  But even the most ethical sales and marketing people follow these guidelines   1. Promote the benefits of the solution, not its

Many of us have felt it. It’s that nagging feeling that even though you’re ticking boxes in one area of your life, other parts are collecting dust. Maybe your career is flying — but your health, your relationships, your hobbies...not so much. Truth is, most of us are flying blind. We don't have a simple way to see the big picture. That's where the Wheel of Life comes in. It’s a simple circle - divided into segments - as spokes of a wheel. Typically there are eight spokes (or

Why is an exercise as simple as identifying your core values so powerful? The "Values Exercise" is powerful because it provides a structured yet personal path to self-awareness. Self-awareness is the cornerstone of a fulfilling life and a successful career. The exercise is broken down into three manageable steps. After your initial selection of words that matter to you, you're prompted to organize these into a maximum of five groups that make sense to you. This is where the d

I didn’t set out to be a coach. It was more like coaching found me. In a big way… So how did I get into life and career coaching? Well,...