Career Advice
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Looking for high-quality career advice and materials available online, but don’t have a large budget to work with? The Briefcase Coach has compiled a list of the best digital career resources you can access—right now—for every step of your job search. The best part: they’re free. This post walks you through resources broken up in several…
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Covid-19 Job Search Advice from 9 Career Experts In the last two weeks, the United States has flipped upside down in the face of COVID-19. With school closures, reduced work for hourly wage workers, and calls to stay indoors and with immediate family, it’s easy to put off the job search process. However, this is…
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10 out of the box ways to build a target company list Savvy job seekers often already know that the best way to approach a job search is not to spend all day on job boards, but to develop a written target list of organizations where they’d like to work. Orville Pierson, author of the…
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The Briefcase Coach was just voted a Top 100 Career Blog! Feedspot.com puts out an annual list of the best career websites every year. The competition in this space is fierce. I am excited to shared that Briefcasecoach.com just made the top 100. Thank you for reading and engaging with our content. Check out the…
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Mind Mapping Networks The Impeccable Strategy to Find a Job The first thing people do to search for a job is go online. They go onto the internet and spend countless hours on LinkedIn looking for a suitable job. However, what a lot of people don’t realize is that the best way to find a…
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Why “Squiggly Careers” is my favorite buzz word for 2019 My favorite career buzzword for 2019 is “Squiggly Careers”. I have to credit Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis for this genius description of how our career ladder has shifted. Click on the video below to learn what “squiggly careers” means to me and why storytelling…
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WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO DEMONSTRATE YOUR UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND DURING A JOB SEARCH When Vanshika Mehta was job searching, she branded herself as the #purpleskittle. She clearly articulated to employers that she is different than other job seekers— that she thinks outside of the box and has a unique skill set. When Nina Mufleh relocated…
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I MAILED A FAN LETTER YESTERDAY TO SOMEONE WHO IS A REALLY BIG DEAL. My daughter, who is 5, spent over an hour working on the letter and drawing an accompanying picture. In her mind, this person is the best thing since sliced bread. Who is this you ask? Taylor Swift? Michelle Obama? Kate Middleton?…
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My good friend, who is the Queen of Yard Sales, often says that the “Early Bird Gets the Worm”. According to, this is also true for job seekers. LINKEDIN USERS WHO ARE AMONG THE FIRST 25 APPLICANTS ARE UP TO 3 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO LAND THE JOB, ON AVERAGE Find out what I mean…
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Running a strategic job search means that sometimes you need to send cold e-mails to people that you don’t know asking for a networking meeting. When you send cold messages, you want to be thoughtful about your subject line and the body of your message. You want to encourage the unsuspecting person to open the…
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How to get a job at a good startup company ACCORDING TO A 2016 STUDY BY ACCENTURE, ONLY 14% OF U.S. GRADUATES WANT TO WORK AT A LARGE FIRM? 44% WANT TO WORK IN A STARTUP OR OTHER SMALL ENTERPRISE. While there are a lot of pros and cons to working in a startup (spoiler…
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You’ve been out performing your colleagues for months. You’ve put in long hours, hit all your target numbers….& you know that you could easily get another job making more money . ” The best time to ask for a raise is now. If you have completed a major project, your company just landed a new…
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You know what I love?? BEHAVIORAL BASED INTERVIEWS! Behavioral based interviews are often fairly predictable, the STAR method is an excellent formula for structuring your responses and they give job seekers a platform to highlight their RESULTS. Numbers tell a great story! Check out my video this morning for some quick tips to help you…
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Raise your hand if you crowd source advice? <????guilty here> Webster’s Dictionary defines crowd sourcing as: the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet. Crowd sourcing can be great. I recently asked my…
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I am in an NCAA bracket competition with some of the greatest minds in sports. Long story short, my first job out of college was with a guy who loved the tournament & started a bracket pool (before it became super mainstream). Fast forward, he now works in analytics for a major professional sports team…
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Chew on this. In modern times, an in-person impression is formed AFTER a digital impression. (thanks William Arruda for that lightbulb moment at the Career Thought Leaders Consortium conference). What does this mean? Are there people that you follow on social platforms—- corporate leaders, influencers, thought leaders? Do you Google someone before a meeting? Do…
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Did you watch Sandra Oh’s monologue on SNL this week? She “explained that her identity as an Asian-Canadian combines two of the most compliment-averse cultures in the world; she joked that the only appropriate response for an compliment if you’re a Canadian is to say “sorry,” and that as an Asian women she has become…
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I went on a blind date once. I was in college and a good friend was convinced she has “the perfect match” for me. I love meeting new people and agreed to dinner. He was a true gentleman. He did all of the right things and on paper *was* a great match— but in person,…
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The average search now takes five months, according to a new survey by recruiters Randstad USA of 2,000 people across the U.S. who have recently changed jobs. That’s about the same length of time as before the unemployment rate fell to its current 49-year low of 3.7%. Five months can feel like an eternity when…
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One of my former clients, let’s call him Paul, used to love his job. He was a top performer and his boss recognized his efforts. Then his boss got a new job & they brought in a new leader who…how do I say this…didn’t like Paul. In fact, he really didn’t like Paul & would…
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JOB SEEKERS: BEWARE OF EMPLOYER BRANDING According to Glassdoor, 84% of you would consider leaving your current job if offered another role with a company that had an excellent corporate reputation (or perceived reputation) According to an article by Sarah Lybrand, “employer branding, is simply how you market your company to desired job seekers. You…
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One of my LinkedIn connections e-mailed me a question last week that was a little dicey.” “He is a mid-level manager and recently accepted a position at a competitor. He wants to give a courtesy 2-weeks notice at his current job but knows that often when employees leave to work for a competitor they are…
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I often describe informational interviews as the secret sauce” in an effective job search. Most of my clients are really intimidated by these meetings. I’ll tell you what I tell them. If someone approached you and said, “I really admire the work that you do. I am looking to enter into your field. Would you…
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“One in three recruiting professionals believe job candidates soft skills have gotten worse in the past five years”, said Susan Vitale, Chief Marketing Officer for iCIMS Companies can train employees in technical skills. Soft skills, on the other hand, are harder to teach. If you’re looking for a new job, these are some of the…