I’ve noticed a trend lately.

My executive clients are sending me their college-aged and adult children.

They’re asking for help in one of the most stressful transitions a family can face – the move from college to the real world.

With graduation approaching, I know many of you are dealing with this stress right now so I wanted to share the 4 tips I’ve found most critical during the transition from college to the world of work:

As a career coach, I spend a lot of time giving people feedback on how they’re showing up on LinkedIn. I’ve shared this advice with clients several times in the past week so figured I’d do a quick post on it.

Three things you should be doing if you’re active on LinkedIn (even if you’re not currently looking for a new job):

As a career coach, I’m biased when it comes to how much of a role AI plays in a job search. It definitely has a place but there’s also an important human element to the job search process, to interview prep, and to offer negotiation that no robot or app can beat me at as a veteran coach. But that doesn’t mean I don’t encourage the use of AI-based tools as well. In fact, below are three tools that are worth taking a look at or potentially sharing with someone in your network who is looking for their next role:

Recruiters. They are the secret sauce that makes the job search and hiring world move along smoothly. There are several different kinds of recruiters and just as many questions on how to best work with them so let’s dive in and get you some answers.

I’ve broken this article into the five most common kinds of recruiters: corporate, temp agency, contingency, retained, and executive search. Keep reading for some great tips from recruiting experts in each area.

If and when you are looking for your next job, these are 4 easy ways you can use LinkedIn to make the job search process more fruitful and less painful.  

#1: Use Your Time More Effectively

Most job seekers spend the bulk of their time on LinkedIn scrolling looking for job or reading posts from people in their network. I love the job search feature on LinkedIn but I encourage you to spend an equal amount of time using LinkedIn to identify your targets.

There’s one question you will be asked 100% of the time in every interview. It is, “Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?” It’ll be some variation of that question where you’re asked to tell your own story. It happens EVERY time. And it’s usually where most people lose the job.

I get it, for most people this is the most uncomfortable question. People can talk about all sorts of things very well but when asked to talk about themselves, they struggle. If that’s you, let’s fix that.

There are 5 keys to telling your story well and ultimately making sure you start the interview off the right way. And they are: 

People come to me in all stages of a career change – some are thinking about making a change, some have recently been laid off, and some have been looking for a while without the success they expected.

April has been a rough month for many people. Every time you open LinkedIn there’s more tough news about layoffs. As a career coach, I feel these struggles through my clients and know how challenging the job market feels right now so I wrote a short article with 5 actionable pieces of advice if you have recently been laid off. Or feel free to share this with anyone you care about if they have been affected by a layoff.

5 Things You Can Do if You or Someone You Care About Has Been Affected by a Layoff:

Getting laid off really hurts. It makes you doubt yourself and makes you question why you were so committed to a company that cut ties with you seemingly so easily. And getting laid off leaves most people feeling a little (if not very) lost.

If you feel like this now, please read this post as there are three things I’ve found are consistent misconceptions of people who are where you are at right now:

Looking for a new job can be frustrating. It can feel like a lot of effort for very little return. One of the first questions I ask people when they reach out to me is how many jobs they have applied for online. The second question is usually to ask them what else they did other than just apply online. Job seekers tend to focus more on how many applications they submit each day or week rather than on other things that could be more fruitful.

Here are 3 things I recommend all job seekers consider doing:Here are 3 things I recommend all job seekers consider doing:

If that’s you, you need to listen to this podcast.

I was fortunate to guest on former-NFL player, Alex Molden’s podcast, The Shark Effect. His podcast is all about helping former elite athletes and top performers create impact in their lives beyond just the field or the court or wherever they are used to winning.

We had a very candid conversation about success, failure, and how you can make changes in your life to succeed. It involves getting uncomfortable, getting real, and doing the work.

One of the biggest misconceptions in the job search game is that a short term or temporary or contract position will hurt your career.

I couldn’t disagree more.

If you have a resume that’s longer than 1-page, you need to read this.

A multi-page resume says:

1. You don’t know how to edit your information to amplify what’s important.

2. You think every job you’ve ever had is relevant to every position you’re applying for.

The simple answer is YES, it very well might be. And it’s an issue on both ends of the spectrum – if you’re viewed as being “too young” or “too old”, you may be subject to ageism. In this post, I’m going to focus on ageism against older applicants as this has been a topic many of my career coaching clients have asked about lately.

Nobody said it would be easy to land your dream job. Think for a minute about how many roles you’ve applied for and not heard back on. Argh. That feeling sucks, but it hasn't doesn't have to be nearly as difficult as you're making it.

Here are 3 things you can do today on LinkedIn to help yourself get closer to a job you’ll love:

If you have kids close to college-age you are probably a bit overwhelmed by how to support your kid on the big decision about which college is right for them. While my three kids are too young for college, I can recommend how you help them make this important decision. I currently teach at a major university, I’m a career coach, I’ve held admissions-related roles at two well-known colleges, and, while not as interesting, I spent 6 years in college (undergrad + grad school). The articles you read about how to choose a college all say the same things. My advice is different.

I will argue you should focus on:

a) Will your kid be taught by academics or industry people? and

b) Does the college have a pipeline to help your kid get hired?

In the past month alone, I’ve helped 5 people negotiate thousands of dollars more than they were originally offered by companies looking to hire them.

One of the biggest career mistakes people make is accepting a job offer without negotiating. So much time goes into developing your resume and building other tools like your LinkedIn profile. You then put more time into networking and looking for jobs. And even more time into applying for jobs and if all goes well, interviewing for jobs. But then, the mistake happens…

You’re scrolling LinkedIn again. Some days you’re on it A LOT. If you’re on LinkedIn, it means you have a profile and you think the site is valuable. I get that, I do too. But most of the profiles I see on the site are in need of major work to actually be effective.

LinkedIn has long been a staple in the job search and networking world but since Covid, the virtual nature of interviewing and hiring has made LinkedIn even more important. Your LinkedIn profile is truly your own personal virtual billboard. If you’re going to be on the site, it’s time to step up your game and have a profile you’re proud - not to mention a profile recruiters will notice.

So what are the keys to a great profile? There are many but here are 10 of my favorite tips to quickly improve the appeal and effectiveness of your profile:

Let’s get real, if ALL you’re doing is applying online, you’re wasting your time. With most jobs getting hundreds of applicants, you need to stand out. And standing out starts WELL BEFORE you submit your application online.

Ask yourself these questions:

Job searching can be pretty defeating. There’s the excitement when you see a job posting that actually looks like something you’d want to do everyday followed by the feeling of accomplishment once you send off your application online. Then you wait. And you wait some more. And 99% of the time, nothing happens. Rewind and repeat that several times over the course of many weeks (or months), you have the perfect recipe for self-doubt. Over time you start wondering what’s wrong with you. Let me tell you, there is nothing wrong with you, it’s your approach that stinks.