Summary Sunday is now Career Essentials

Just more of the actionable career info you want!

Author

Hannah Morgan
January 19, 2025

Welcome To Career Essentials!

This is a re-invention and rebrand of my Summary Sunday newsletter which I published consistently for over 10 years. 

I want this newsletter to still be a source of actionable advice for job seekers PLUS offer those thinking about their career progression a place to get useful news.

Career Essentials still contains curated articles from experts and trusted sources! But you won’t need to visit my website to read them. It’s all right here!

I know that everyone’s email is filled with newsletters, some you read and others you don’t. I want Career Essentials to be the one you look forward to opening.

Many of you may not know who I am. I’m Hannah (aka Career Sherpa), a job search strategist, helping job seekers find the fastest way to their new job.

I still write articles on my site, CareerSherpa.net and post regularly on LinkedIn. I’m also active on other socials like BlueSky, Threads and Instagram.

What lights me up is learning about trends in: recruitment, job market, job search and careers. I am fortunate to know many experts in these areas and I regularly feature their insights.

Career Essentials

The future of work is agility and mastering human skills (aka soft or essential skills)

In this week’s LinkedIn post I addressed several factors impacting the world we work in today and moving forward. 

But what I didn’t provide was a solution for job seekers. 

I want to specifically address a long-standing disconnect between where recruiters go to post jobs and look for candidates (called sourcing) and where job seekers look. 

Mis-matched: Job Sourcing vs Searching

There were a couple of small challenges to aligning this data from iHire: The State of Online Recruiting 2024, it clearly shows where job seekers are missing opportunities to uncover jobs or get discovered. 

It’s important to note, that the recruiting data below does not include job boards. In the report, 89% of recruiters stated they used online job boards/recruiting platforms. The job seeker answers are “check all that apply” and do not equal 100%.

 

Use Regularly For Recruiting (not including job boards)

Use Regularly By Job Seekers

Online job boards/recruiting platforms - NA

General Job Boards - 76%

Industry-specific/niche job boards - 49%

Referrals from current employees - 72%

Networking/referral/word of mouth - 29%

Social media - 51%

Social Media - 18%

Professional Networking Sites (LinkedIn) - 58%

Company website/career page - 46%

Company websites - 44%

Professional associations - 31%

Professional associations - 16%

Alumni/school network/career centers - 28%

Alumni/school networks/career centers - 6%

Job fairs - 23%

Job Fairs - 12%

Staffing firms/outsourced recruiters -21%

Social Media Sourcing

Employers use a variety of social media, not just LinkedIn, to look for candidates according to. Employ Recruiter Nation Report 2024

  • LinkedIn 71%

  • Facebook 68%

  • Instagram 43%

  • Twitter 38%

  • Youtube 36%

Diversify Your Search by Focusing On These

The name of the game is diversify! Spend less time scouring the job boards and more time using other methods and strategies to uncover jobs and to be discovered. These methods are under-utilized given the data from iHire above. 

  • Employee referrals/networking

  • All social media

  • Company career pages

  • Professional associations | MeetUps | online forums

  • Alumni/school networks/career centers

  • Staffing firms/outsourced recruiters

Do More To Stand Out

Mass applying or easy applying to jobs doesn’t help you stand out. Instead, try taking some proactive and bold steps like these mentioned below. These ideas have been used successfully by job seekers during down markets (job markets that favor employers). 

✳ Attend a professional association networking event to connect with decision-makers

✳ Comment on a professional LinkedIn post or blog by a department head/leader

✳ Reach out to an author of a professional trade publication to ask for an informational meeting

✳ Write a researched letter of interest

✳ Create a presentation that shows how you have or would solve a company’s problems

✳ Systematically reach out and stay in touch with past colleagues

✳ Post regularly on LinkedIn (and other social networks) related to your industry/occupation

✳ Announce your job search on Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks 

To Sum Up:

We are early in 2025 so we can only use recent past data to help project what the future will look like. 

It will be important to continue to assess your job search progress and adjust as needed. 

As with all advice and tips related to job search, the answer is always “it depends” on your situation, career goals, industry, experience, geographic location and mental outlook.

📢 SUMMARY SUNDAY

CAREER

Watch this 6 minute video by LinkedIn CEO, Ryan Roslansky because he talks about the skills that will be most valued in the age of AI (and this aligns well with the data I provided in this week’s LinkedIn post.)

A followup to ideas (predictions) for what job seekers need to think about in 2025. It mentions things like AI and green jobs, but also touches on gigs for older workers, highlighting the trades and keeping hobbies as hobbies (not money generators). See if you get new ideas or a fresh perspective from reading this. 

LINKEDIN

This new feature being rolled out on LinkedIn will benefit the free users and even more functionality for paid LinkedIn users. 

Things like:  see how your skills and experience align with job requirements and a detailed match summary highlighting your qualifications. You’ll have to be a paying customer to get categorized match ratings (high/medium/low) and access AI-powered tools to: Improve resumes, Enhance cover letters & Identify top applicant opportunities.

Do not change the end date on your most recent job on LinkedIn until you read and watch this! Without a “current job” listed, your LinkedIn profile will show up in search results AFTER those who do have a current job. You don’t want that. 

And in case you need to know what to do instead, here are 3 Options To Update Your LinkedIn Job Title and Employer When Unemployed

NETWORKING

If you’ve tried using either of these as a way to have a conversation with someone, you are going to want to rethink your approach. Luckily you get ideas on better ways to network! (Spoiler: It requires you to make deposits before you earn the right to ask for a conversation!) 

INTERVIEWING

Many job seekers struggle to come up with “good” questions to ask during the job interview. If you want to evaluate your future boss/manager, these are some questions to ask. 

Do you need more questions to ask the hiring manager? Here are 30+ Unique Interview Questions To Ask Employers

AI

Perplexity.ai is research tool I’ve recommended before. It’s good to see this post with prompts to help you identify target companies! Do you know why you need to a list of target companies? The post explains! Here are some of Jessica’s prompts: 

"Create a list of top [industry] companies in [your location]"

"Who are the main competitors of [company you're interested in]?"

"What are the best target companies in [location] for [your role]?"

AI at Work: Here’s What’s Changing | Karin Kimbrough, LinkedIn

Here’s all you need to know: “Companies want talent that will lean into new technology and can learn new technical skills while maintaining strong human skills.” They said computers would replace jobs… but instead we all learned to use them. The same could be said about AI. Don’t fight it. Learn about it and use it. For the deep dive report, see the full report. 

📰 TRENDING CAREER NEWS

  • Meta to lay off 5% of 'lowest performers'. FYI: This comes after eliminating the Fact Checking division and Zuckerberg referring to 2023 as the "Year of Efficiency" as Meta announced its decision to eliminate around 10,000 roles.

  • Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban slated to start Sunday

 📞 COACHES CORNER

If you are a career practitioner (resume writer, career coach, job search strategist), I want to dedicate a special spot in Career Essentials specifically for you! 

Do you know what the most used social media channels are by age? (source: Statista)

  • 18-29 years – Snapchat (41%), TikTok (35%), Instagram (32%)

  • 30-39 years – LinkedIn (34%), X/Twitter (34%), Snapchat (33%), Instagram (32%)

  • 40-49 years – LinkedIn (25%), Facebook (22%), X/Twitter (21%)

  • 50-59 years – Facebook (29%), LinkedIn (24%), Pinterest (24%)

Where are your ideal clients spending time and what are you doing to reach them?

This week, I’m promoting a seminar I’m delivering Social Media Strategies for Career Practitioners It starts February 8, 2025 and runs for 5 weeks. Learn more here. 

🖼 JOB SEARCH VISUAL

Save time and energy by learning how to use AI as a research assistant! Scroll through this to get ideas.

💥 DID YOU MISS THESE

📆 EVENTS

Event by Gillian Whitney
Tue, Jan 21, 2025, 1:00 PM 
LinkedIn Live Registration here. If you miss it, you can watch the recording. 

If you are interested in publishing a book, I’m a guest on this LinkedIn Live. I will talk about how my book, The Infographic Resume, came to be.

Begins February 10, 2025
6 weeks of weekly meetings to drive your job search forward. 
Details and registration here. 

💻 WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

Layoffs.fyi

Layoffs.fyi is a free, comprehensive tech layoff tracking website created by Roger Lee, an entrepreneur in San Francisco. The website provides a detailed database of tech company layoffs since the COVID-19 pandemic, offering valuable insights for job seekers, recruiters, and industry observers. Layoffs.fyi stands out because it:

  • Provides more transparent data than government sources

  • Names specific companies and links to sources

  • Offers a real-time, continuously updated tracker

  • Is free and does not require registration

Bonus tool: Visit Comprehensive.io for FREE salary range data from 5,000 tech companies. Find out what companies are paying today for any role.

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