People Want To Help

PLUS: how to answer walk me through your resume, LinkedIn strategies, and more.

Author

Hannah Morgan
February 23, 2025

Welcome to Career Essentials, where I share actionable insights and curated articles that will help accelerate your career and supercharge your job search.

People Want To Help

If you know anything about me, you know my deep commitment is to unemployed job seekers. I’ve spent most of my career working for an outplacement firm and a state One-stop offering workshops and guidance to people who have been laid off. 

Across the country we are seeing both public and private sector jobs being eliminated. Sometimes the logic behind the layoffs is befuddling. It’s not just about an organization not performing well. It comes down to cost-cutting. Period.

Layoffs happen. The emotional roller-coaster is real. Buckle up. 

Lately, there’s been an outpouring of support within the careers community to support the large number of layoffs, especially for public sector employees. 

If you are new to the job search process, please allow me to map out what the process looks like for you. 

When you understand these fundamental steps then you have a plan. 

Every job search must start by assessing your values, priorities and skills you enjoy using. These vital elements lay the foundation. And for those that have been laid off, consider it a a clean slate- you now have the opportunity to focus on what you want. 

Each step builds on the information you collect. 

If you realize this is a process and takes preparation and planning, you’ll be much more productive. 

I fully describe each step of the process in this article.

RESOURCES FOR THE UNEMPLOYED

It’s also hard to know where to go to get information related to your job search. I am sharing resources to vetted/trusted resources I’ve found over the past week. 

It’s also important to be on the lookout for scams. I witnessed first-hand several scams targeting job seekers. Be very alert!

These resources and events are free. 

It takes a village. Thank you to all those sharing these resources and making them easier to find.  

Alison Doyle and Jen Hubley are compiling a list of resources for federal unemployed workers ranging from filing for unemployment, to career guidance and support, to job search resources. It’s very comprehensive. You may also want to note resources in the comments of Alison’s post here. 

These webinars cover everything from job search basics to negotiating job offers. If you miss one, you can find the recording on Karen’s Youtube channel here. Karen is offering this to support federal workers and others who have been or will be laid off. 

Only 10 spots were offered, but worth checking out if you are a US-based USAID employee. 

These 4 free videos are designed to provide recently laid off workers with tips and advice on how to navigate what’s next. 

They include: Uncertain Times, Take Control, Prepare To Pivot, and Start Conversations. 

EVENTS

"Personal Branding for Badass Executives" | Lisa Rangel, Chameleon Resumes Tuesday, February 25th, 2025, at 12 noon ET
A live webinar featuring Paula Edgar, CEO of PGE Consulting and executive branding whisperer.
Register here: ExecutiveCareerChat.com

LinkedIn Power Moves: Transform Your Job Search Beyond Basic Profile Updates  | CareerSherpa
Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 12pm-1pm ET
Register here: Masterclass signup

Job Search Like a Pro: AI, ATS, LinkedIn, Video Interviewing & Biometrics | Erica Reckamp
Wednesday, February 26, 2025 @ 7:00pm ET
Register here: Morton Grove Public Library

Standout Summit | JobScan
Wednesday, February 26-27, 2025
This virtual summit includes presentations from Steve Dalton, Paula Christensen, Jeremy Shifeling, Jane Jackson,  and other career professionals. 
Register here: Stand Out Summit 2025

Thanks to Jan for identifying this new tool by Google (featured as the website of the week below). You simply plug in your past job title, select job duties and skills and see what other career options appear. It’s database, not personal, so you’ll find some careers that won’t be suitable, but you may also discover some that you hadn’t considered. Consider this to be results of brainstorming and know that you’ll have to validate and research the careers that sound interesting. 

💻 LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is so powerful… if you know what to do! Please, take a few minutes to review these 7 things, then set time aside to make the fixes! You’ll see results and it doesn’t take a lot of deep thinking.

🗨 INTERVIEWING

How to Answer “Walk Me Through Your Resume” | Marlo Lyons, Harvard Business Review

No, they don’t really want you to talk about every job you’ve had. Instead, they want to know how your skills and experience align with the job (and why you are interested) all in under two minutes. 

1. Highlight your experience through the lens of the new job
2. Build clear transitions between jobs
3. Showcase your unique value

⚙ AI

Do you need help writing your origin story? Do you want to post more on LinkedIn but you don’t know what to write about? This article supplies you with 10 prompts to generate ideas and outlines. Simply pick your prompt and get started writing about topics aligned with your interests that will enhance your personal reputation. 

30.1% of adults have used Generative AI at work as of December 2024, with adoption concentrated among younger, more educated, and higher-income workers, particularly in customer service, marketing, and IT sectors. This suggests significant but uneven penetration of AI tools in the workforce. The research also looks at the areas where AI/LLM are having the greatest productivity impacts.

🔮 WORKFORCE

New research by McKinsey makes the point that the choiceit isn’t about in-office, hybrid, or remote, it’s about what outcomes you want to achieve. McKinsey found that the working environment/model doesn’t improve outcomes. 

The five core practices that McKinsey’s research shows improve organizational health and that were the most frequently stated reasons leaders gave for transitioning to RTO are: collaboration, connectivity, innovation, mentorship, skill development. Fascinating research and outcomes.

McKinsey Work Practices

💰 CAREER

Success isn’t just about talent or luck. It’s about understanding the game and playing it well. Rather than summarizing these 21 truths, I’m going to let you read them in the slides provided. I predict some will be difficult or unpleasant to see, but they serve as a powerful reminder that you alone control your career.

📶 RECRUITER PERSPECTIVE

This halting headline comes from an expert whose focus is assessing and improving candidate experience during recruitment and hiring. Candidate resentment is at an all-time high. 

The article outlines factors impacting employers and factors impacting job seekers that led to this prediction. More layoffs and fewer jobs are the major drivers. Employers face larger numbers of applications and difficulty finding the right candidates. Then DEI gets tossed aside. As this is going on, job seekers experience longer job searches and negatively react to AI being used during the screening/interviewing process. Yet they themselves use AI to mass-apply, create resumes, and even answer interview questions. When job seekers don’t receive an offer from a company, no matter how they are treated, they tend to negatively rate their experience as a candidate and worse, never apply to that company again. All this spells trouble.

🚀 PRODUCTIVITY

Work-focused playlists are increasingly appearing on music streaming platforms, with claims that listeners will experience improved concentration, mood, and workplace performance. A recent study found that the only type of music that helped performance was work flow. The increase in performance was attributed to mood enhancement and improvements in focus, which were due to the music reducing performance drops due to distractions. So queue up some “work flow” music from your favorite music platform.

EVENTS

LinkedIn Power Moves: Transform Your Job Search Beyond Basic Profile Updates

Wednesday, February 26, 2025
12pm-1pm ET
No-cost
Masterclass signup here

Job Search Challenge

March 25-April 22, 2025
Get weekly job search goals/actions for 5 weeks plus instructions. Plus weekly check-in calls.
$39
Sign up for your 5-week job search challenge

JOB SEARCH VISUAL

Do you have a clean LinkedIn URL? DO THIS NOW:

➡ Go to your LinkedIn profile
➡ Click Edit public profile and URL in the top right corner
➡ Click the pencil icon next to your URL
➡ Type or edit your new URL
➡ Click Save

Put this clean URL on your resume and in your email signature! Plus anywhere else you want people to see your LinkedIn profile.

Always have a clean URL

DID YOU MISS THESE

COACHES CORNER

March 15 – April 19, 2025
I’m pleased to offer this online seminar that addresses the three major components of LinkedIn.

  • Creating a powerful profile

  • Building a quality network

  • Engaging with one’s connections

Peak-Careers is an NCDA approved provider. Also meets CCE approval for GCDF.
Use promo code: EARLYBIRD to register and pay by March 1, 2025 and save $20!

Details and registration here.

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

Google Career Dreamer

Career Dreamer uses AI to find patterns and connect the dots between your unique experiences, educational background, skills and interests. Think of it like a helping hand to bridge where you’ve been and imagine where you could go next.

It helps you to quickly identify your unique skills and talents and how to talk about them, and connects you with careers (based on job market data from Lightcast and the Bureau of Labor Statistics) that might be a good fit. It can even help you discover training resources

Learn more about how you can use it to create a “career identify statement” or part of your answer to tell me about yourself.

Explore career options and more!

This blog post by Google explains how powerful this tool is.