“Have you ever been terminated from your position?” your interviewer asks you. You may fear this question because you don’t want to have to say, “Yes.” However, you may be confusing the terms layoff, resignation, and termination. If you were laid off, you have not been terminated. Being laid off from work means the employer could not afford to continue paying your salary or did not have enough work for you to do. When a c...

Thank you to Stacy Smyk-Santiago, one of our certified career coaches, for this article! What should I choose for my LinkedIn profile picture? You may not think it matters much or that your “stock” picture will get you by, but you only have seconds to make a first impression. Studies have shown that people respond in dramatically different ways to slight picture variations which affect your connection rate, recruiter contac...

In our next 2 posts we are focusing on advice for those of you ready for your “encore career” or closer to retirement, in 2 retirement coaching articles… Thank you to Katie Weiser, one of our associate career coaches for these posts. Steve Jobs has had an enormous impact on the world. His quote, below is a reminder to all the baby-boomers who are working or retired who still have not learned how to say NO. People think foc...

Here is a very helpful article that our certified resume writer, Jasmine Marchong, shared with me recently about being a polite pest during your job search… (I’m telling our clients this all the time by the way, be a pest, just be professional and polite about it!) We’re doing this as a Q&A format again to help you think outside the box using your resume as a tool for your search. Read the article here. Hallie: How can you...

We have clients all the time who have trouble coming up with a list of things they want in a job. It’s hard to pull things out of the air sometimes, especially when most of what you come up with are things you don’t want to have instead of what you do want to have. My career coaching client Margaret in Atlanta said she had a hard time pulling ideas of what she wanted out of thin air. This is understandable, it can be diffic...

So, you have created your profile and now you are done with the obligatory LinkedIn stuff. Hold on a minute! You might be okay with passively using LinkedIn if you’re not currently job searching, but in order to reap the benefits of a live network, you need to nurture it so it grows over time. Here are 5 things you should do on LinkedIn each week to stay engaged, grow your network, and connect with opportunities: 1. Update...

I was excited to be on the radio again with Matt Jones, of Q100, Rock 105 and the Cumulus stations in Atlanta, regarding career fairs. Here is your checklist to know that you are ready, an expanded version of one of our previous posts about career fairs. Prepare mentally first. Career fairs can be mobbed and overwhelming. Fighting the crowds can be intimidating as well as the prospect of making an impression in the fir...

I was excited to be interviewed for a recent article about the compensation conversation. I always get questions about compensation from my clients who are in career transition and wanting to know for their career planning purposes – “Am I going to have to take a cut in salary to move into my dream job?” First, a couple of notes about discussing compensation during the interview process. I spoke with a career coaching clien...

I was talking to my career book editor, Anne, the other day. As a professional writer she has helped many people with their resume writing over the years. We were working on the portion of my book (coming in early 2014, I’m very excited!) regarding resume advice and we were brainstorming tips that you don’t hear every day regarding your resume update. One of her suggestions, was after you have edited your resume and you hav...

I was recently honored to be featured in this US News article, How to Convince a Prospective Employer to Overlook Poor Credit. There are many obstacles people have to overcome when applying for job search and bad credit is a common concern among job seekers. A potential employer cannot check it without your consent, but this could be seen as a red flag and decrease your chances of getting hired. You’re better off consen...