The Shimmering Careers Blog

Here’s something I see all the time in my work as a career coach. People tell me about their jobs, their responsibilities, and what they’ve accomplished. But when I ask what makes them particularly valuable to an employer, many struggle to answer. They’ve become so accustomed to doing their jobs well that they no longer realize how much they have to offer. Sound familiar? Take Another Look at What You’ve Accomplished Think about the last year or two. Did you solve a problem n

You found a job opening that looks terrific. The title fits, the salary looks promising, and you meet most of the qualifications. Ready to hit Apply? Not quite. Before spending an hour tailoring your resume and cover letter, spend ten minutes doing some initial research on the company. It’s one of the simplest ways to make your job search more effective. Three Things Worth Checking 1. What does the company actually do? Don’t settle for the description in the job posting. Visi

You’ve applied for dozens of jobs. Maybe hundreds. You’ve spent hours searching job boards, submitting resumes, and writing cover letters. But you’re not getting interviews. What’s the solution? Apply for even more jobs? Not necessarily. One of the first things I look at when helping someone whose job search has stalled isn’t how many applications they’ve submitted. It’s the kinds of jobs they’re pursuing. Are You Targeting the Right Opportunities? A job title can be misleadi

You apply for a job you're well qualified for. You submit your resume. And then? Nothing. Not even an interview. Increasingly, job seekers wonder whether artificial intelligence (AI) rejected their applications before a human being ever saw them. Sometimes automated resume screening plays a role. But the reality is more complicated than the frightening stories circulating online. What's Actually Happening? Many employers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to collect, organi

Almost every job seeker I talk with lately raises some version of the same worry about AI. Will employers need fewer people with my skills? Is my experience becoming less valuable? How do I compete when a language model can do some of the work I've spent years learning? Those are reasonable job search concerns. Here's a question I encourage job seekers to consider: What can you contribute that goes beyond the tasks AI can perform? Your Job Is More Than a List of Tasks Think a

You have the experience. You have the skills. You meet the qualifications in the job description. So why aren't employers calling? Here's something I see regularly in my work as a career coach: Being qualified for a job and giving an employer a compelling reason to hire you are two different things. A resume can document an impressive career without making a persuasive case for hiring the person behind it. Responsibilities Aren't Accomplishments Consider a resume that says: “

Book excerpt: There must be some people who enjoy the job search. After all, there are people who wait with gleeful anticipation for the chance to dive into their income taxes every year. In the end, though, you don’t have to love the search. You do, however, have to be good at it. STEP 1: DECIDE TO DECIDE Before you make any first step, you make the decision to move your foot. The same thing happens here. You can spend a lot of time dreaming about your dream job, but that ge

Guest post by Ashley Lipman Good news: the healthcare industry is expected to grow almost 20% by 2024. That makes health care one of the fastest growing industries in the country, and it’s a great way to make a living while helping others. As the population continues to age, we need more qualified health care workers to meet this demand for care. Working in this health field is becoming a popular choice since you don’t need years of education or experience to get started at

Not every interview in your job search is a job interview. Consider the informational interview. An informational interview is a chance to meet briefly with someone in your field and talk about that person’s company, her career, and the industry as a whole. It’s as simple as that. It’s also a crucial facet of a best practice job search. Unlike a job interview, the informational interview lacks a predetermined structure. In most job interviews, you can expect to be asked a ser

Guest post by Ashley Lipman Career change is rarely simple. While the fantasy of what a new career entails can make the change seem awfully easy, the reality is often different, and how different fantasy and reality are depends on the person making the change and on the career option that person has chosen. One option that has become surprisingly attractive in recent years is the chance to live life as a chef. What’s behind that choice? For one thing, quite a few of us can co

A job search is an exercise in analysis. You must analyze yourself and also the employer you hope will hire you. Ask not what the employer can do for you; ask what you can do for the employer. Keep that thought in mind throughout your job search, especially during interviews. The better you know yourself, the easier it will be to figure out what’s right for you. A useful piece of advice comes from a man who managed to make a successful career in theater and never had to resor

Whether you’re looking for your first job or trying to find a new job, the process might be as consuming as a full-time job. In fact, if you’re currently unemployed, you could find yourself spending as much as 30 or more hours a week on job search-related activities. If you’re already working, you might only have 5 to 10 hours to spare. No matter how much time you have to devote to the process, you can streamline and simplify by using good time management skills. As an added

Updating and improving your LinkedIn profile should be at the top of your career improvement resolution list. So should learning to use LinkedIns useful features. Let me explain. Do you want recruiters to find you? They will find you if you have a stand-out LinkedIn profile. Recruiters are spending millions of dollars on LinkedIn. What about impressing a hiring manager to a great job? It’s standard process for hiring managers to look at your LinkedIn profile once they see you

Your LinkedIn profile is an essential job search tool to attract companies. You want your resume and your LinkedIn profile to tell a consistent story. However, while you can modify your resume for each job that you apply to, your LinkedIn profile remains constant. That’s why it is so important that your profile is focused on your future career aspirations. To accomplish this goal, you want to understand as much as possible about what employers are looking for in the general t

Create Your Brand When it Counts the Most As a sales and marketing professional are you prepared to promote yourself with an effective resume that will land you an interview? The average human resources manager spends less than 30 seconds reviewing a sales resume before deciding to keep it or throw it away. Needless to say, the vast majority of resumes end up in the trashcan. In the current job market, your skills do not matter if no one reads your marketing resume. “Your bra

“Congratulations on the new job!” Life will all be smooth sailing from now on. Won’t it? Actually, starting a new job is not all unicorns and rainbows. Mixed emotions are often the order of the day. There’s a deserved sense of accomplishment that comes from getting hired. There’s also stress, uncertainty, and fear. Those feelings come naturally when you are about to start a new job in a new place filled with strange faces. You will be entering a workplace governed by unfamili

The essentials of the job hunt don’t really change according to your employment status, but employed searchers do have to consider a number of special issues that don’t affect their unemployed counterparts. 10 RULES OF THE ROAD Rule 1: Mum’s the Word The first rule of the searching-while-employed club is: You do not talk about searching while employed. The one exception applies when, and only when, your boss tells you it’s time to look for a new job. For example, layoffs have

No matter the type of company, there are certain fundamental things you need to get right in the workplace to ensure success: 1) Show up. As writer Regina Brett once said, “Most of life is showing up.” You can argue with the how much of life is showing up, but you can’t argue with the saying’s corollary: “Failure to show up is 100 percent guaranteed to be bad for your career.” It’s not just a matter of being physically present. In this context, “showing up” means being there

Research and networking complement each other in your job search. One under-used strategy takes advantage of that overlap and should be part of every applicant’s arsenal: the informational interview. Despite its value, the informational interview has become the poor relation in the family of career strategies. It gets little attention in job-hunting guides, but it should be a standard tactic for job seekers. If anything, the fact that it is so often forgotten makes it more va

Many of my clients ask what to do about age discrimination during the job search. The plain truth is if you’re waiting for ageism to disappear from the job market, one thing is certain: However old you are, you’ll grow much older waiting. Age-based discrimination may be illegal, but it remains pervasive despite its illegality. In any event, the law isn’t the recourse you need. “Failure to Hire” claims are difficult to prove, and that’s almost beside the point. You don’t want