Briefcase Coach's Career Briefs: Job Search Smarter

Dear Reader:

Don't you just love March Madness? Just to be transparent, I am a casual fan of basketball. I go to a few games in the regular season, but I'm a postseason superfan.

Despite it all, I lucked into an NCAA bracket challenge 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 mainstream). Fast forward to today, he now works in analytics for a major professional sports team & the group is full of other professional sports analytics folks.

I’ve remained in this group after all these years for one reason....curiosity. Every year, I pick my teams based on superficial reasons. And every year, I beat out half of the guys who study player & team analytics for a living. The one thing in sports that you have to remember is that sometimes it boils down to grit and heart (like Florida Gulf Coast in 2013).

Job seekers, remember: 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬. They want to stack their teams with the best “players” who want to win. They are looking for that 2008 Steph Curry (Davidson). In the interview, you have to demonstrate that you have heart ♡

Consider how you can apply the brilliant Southwest Airlines corporate motto, “Heart sets us apart,” as you are preparing for your upcoming interviews.

How does heart set you apart from your competition? I’d love to hear from you this week.

As always, I am rooting for you,

P.S. I would love to gift a cup of coffee to one of you. Reply to this email, or send me a new email with the name of your favorite local coffee shop and I will select one winner at random on Friday, March 17, to receive a $15 gift card for coffee.

Job Search Strategy

Briefcase Coach Original Content: Help allow recruiters to find you on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool for those searching for a job and companies looking to find new hires. As a job seeker, or professional who is open to new opportunities, it is important to allow your LinkedIn profile to be found. In this article, I look at the importance of identifying keywords or phrases and enriching your profile with these words.

Answering “Tell Me About A Time You Worked In A Team”

Job search strategist, Hannah Morgan has a series of articles about crafting the perfect interview answers. Her latest installment focuses on how to explain ones ability to work on a team. Morgan explains why this question is important to recruiters and what job seekers need to portray in their answer.

Personal Productivity

Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time

Decreased workforce is causing more work to be put on employees, which in turn is leading to burnout. While time is a limited resource, energy is different according to Tony Schwartz, founder of the Energy Project. In this Harvard Business Review article, Schwartz and fellow Energy Project executive, Katherine McCarthy dive into practices for expanding and conserving energy in an effort to be more productive.

How to be a high performer without getting ‘stuck’ as a hero

Trying to be the "hero" of your company, excelling at your job and becoming indispensable can sometimes backfire, and leave your career in a flatline. According to this article in Fast Company, "learning to reach out for help and actively pull in your coworkers to problem-solve will help cement better relationships, a stronger career path, and an improved work environment."

Employee Relations

Companies Can’t Ask You to Shut up to Receive Severance, NLRB Rules

The National Labor Relations Board recently passed new legislation that prohibits companies from only offering severance in exchange for silence. This article looks at the historical decisions made in 2020 and the most recent decision to overturn them, allowing employees free speech against their former employer and ability to disclose terms of their exit packages.

Startups that Have Employees In Offices Grow 3½ Times Faster

"Does remote work with ad hoc or fixed meetings via Zoom actually stunt the growth of creativity and new insights, just at the time a startup most needs them?" Professor and entrepreneur, Steve Blank looks at the shift to hybrid work and how a return to the office could expedite a company's growth in this data-driven analysis.

Leadership

What Keeps C-Suite Operations & Supply Chain Leaders Up at Night

"Only one third of operations & supply chain leaders believe their company is prepared to address their top concern—uncertain economic growth." In this article, Russell Reynolds looks at the challenges facing c-suite leaders, how equipped they feel they are to overcome the challenges, and their outlook on their company's economic future.

What Makes Someone Promotable?

Can you do me a favor?

I’m on a mission to help job seekers land amazing jobs. Would you consider doing one of the following:

• Forward or use the referral link below to share this newsletter with your job-searching friends or post about it on social media. This small act really helps!

• Reach out to us about featuring your executive job posting in our newsletter. We are looking for hiring managers, founders, and search firms to talk on video about their ideal candidates.

• Consider sharing my company name with your HR leadership. We are a great “white-glove” boutique option for executive outplacement

• Recommend me as a paid speaker for your company events on networking, job searching, or leveraging LinkedIn

• Recommend my services to high performers wanting to work one-on-one with an executive resume writer / or experienced interview coach