Smart Career Planning

Many of us make poor career decisions when we are in a financial pinch.  Time and time again, I see job seekers quickly jump from one job to the next because of a culture misfit, a company's financial instability, company's sudden change of direction.  Rather than taking the time to find the right opportunity for them, they tend to make quick decisions for financial reasons.   I met Lindsey Maule through a Facebook networking group.  There are several things that jumped out at me about Lindsay: 1.) She lives in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities to live in the world.  Yet, she's able to save up enough to take seven months off from work 2.) As a result, she was able to reflect, properly network and land a dream job while starting her own investment fund Here's Lindsey Maule on her successful journey.  

Welcome to Smart Career Planning, episode 42.  This is also our monthly #DearRecruiter series.  I'm excited about our new guests, Jane Fan and Jimmy Tran.   Jane is currently the HR Recruiter for Goertek Electronics.  Goertek is the biggest China-based design and manufacturing company in smart electronic devices with facilities over the world.  Jimmy is a Technical Recruiter at Collabera, one of the largest IT staffing firms in the world.    Below are the articles we discussed in the interview: How To Write The Perfect Cover Letter According to Experts 8 Things On Your Resume That Annoy The Hiring Manager If you have questions for our future Dear Recruiter guest speakers, please send them to me at helen@interviewrightconsulting.com.

Welcome to episode #41, I know we usually have Dear Recruiter podcast once a month. But I recently received two questions I thought many of you can resonate. So, I’m doing a special “Dear Recruiter Mimi Episode, addressing questions that come from you, my dear listeners. Here are the two questions: 1. How can older career switchers persuade recruiters to give them real consideration for low-/entry-level jobs (that are typically only open to recent graduates)? 2. Which career paths have the highest and lowest ratios of applicants to openings?   Stay tuned for the answers.  You can also email me your questions or future career-related podcast collaborations at helen@interviewrightconsulting.com 

Welcome to Smart Career Planning, episode 40.  This is also our monthly #DearRecruiter series.  I'm excited about our new guests, Bryan Krajeski and Jon Nowakowski.   Bryan Krajeski, at the time of the interview, was the Senior Corporate Recruiter at Applied Underwriters; Jon Nowakowski is the Division Director at Accountemps.   Below are the articles we discussed in the interview: Your Resume Is a Waste of Time: 8 Better Ways to Get Hired for the Job You Want 8 Reasons Why You Haven't Been Promoted Yet Jon, Bryan and I are doing a follow-up podcast, going a little bit deeper on ways to get hired for the job you want as well.  Please stay tuned. Do you have questions for Bryan and Jon?  Send them to me at helen@interviewrightconsulting.com.

Welcome to Smart Career Planning, episode 40. I usually have recruiters or coaches come on our show to speak. Today is a bit different. Our guest Jason Clause is an IT consultant in the SF Bay Area who also have a podcast called The Jason Clause Show. Jason delivered a presentation discussing how to create a professional LinkedIn profile. Now, you should expect me to talk about the importance of a professional LinkedIn profile, but I find it more valuable for someone who's outside the recruitment industry to address this topic.  You can check out his presentation here: https://www.jasonclause.com/linkedin-profile-best-practices/  

Welcome to Smart Career Planning, episode 39.  For this month's Dear Recruiter podcast, I invited Keith Halperin and Tim Hansen back to discuss specific recruitment trends.  For those of you who have questions for our guest recruitment professional speakers, please email them to me at helen@interviewrightconsulting.com.   For this month's podcast, we will be commenting on the following articles: 1.) Five Pieces of Job Search Advice You Should Ignore 2.)  Employees Who Stay In Companies Longer Than Two Years Get Paid 50% Less 3.) Four unexpected ways to impress a hiring manager

Welcome to episode 39.  As much as I'm a believer of a quality education, I am also a believer of gaining quality professional experience.  As someone who've explored the option of an advanced degree, I am a bit torn.   On the one hand, I know I can leverage my education and new relationships to advance my career; on the other hand, I know I can use the time to gain valuable experience.  The hefty education fee can be an opportunity for something else.  So, I reached out to Lorena Morales, a marketer and designer with a dual masters degree, one in International Marketing and the other in Strategic Design.   For those of you who are in the crossroad like I am, I hope you'll find this podcast helpful.  If you have questions for Lorena, please email me at helen@interviewrightconsulting.com. 

I'm very excited about our guest speaker for our 37th episode.  Our guest today, Erin Wilson, is the founder of hirepool, inc.  hirepool, inc is a CRM system for job seekers.  It offers job seekers a place to store all of their job search history and notes.  It's a niche-free platform, which means anyone can use the platform.   Although this platform is still in beta phase, hirepool, inc already has users in 28 countries.  You can also sign up as a beta user by using this link: https://hirepool.io/app/#/invited/Karma-920.

Welcome to Smart Career Planning.  In today's podcast, I am going to address mindset.   Mindset is an incredibly powerful tool that only we have the power to control - we can control what we allow in, train the mindset muscles so we can be mentally tough, let things go as well as work toward being the best you can be.     If you like this podcast, please either share it with your network or give it a good rating.  The better the rating, the more likely they will find it on iTune or your favorite podcast app.  If you have specific suggestions for me, please email me at helen@interviewrightconsulting.com.    

Welcome to episode 35.  I'm very excited about our guest, Albert Qian.  Not only is Albert is an accomplished B2B marketer, he's also the Founder of Albert's list.  If you are not one of the 25,000 subscribers of Albert's list, go on Facebook and check it out!   If you like this podcast, please write a review and share it to your network.  The more positive reviews this podcast gets, the more likely people will find it on iTune.  If you have specific suggestions for me, please email them directly to me at helen@interviewrightconsulting.com.  

Welcome to Smart Career Planning, episode 34.  I came across Michelle Augenstein's work on LinkedIn, and I was immediately drawn to her.  Michelle's company, The Corner Office Image, helps professionals identify their personal brands, teaches them tools to be their authentic selves and helps propel their career forward.

Welcome to episode 33 and our third DearRecruiter Series.  The Dear Recruiter series aims to explain why the decision-making process of a recruiter or hiring manager or debunk some of the outdated beliefs about interviews.   In this episode, we will be commenting on the following articles:   1.) Single interview question to end all interview questions 2.) Here's how to get a sales job   If you have questions you want to ask our future guest speakers, please email me at helen@interviewrightconsulting.com.

Hi everyone, welcome to Smart Career Planning, episode #32.  Many of you really liked my podcast with Pamela Prather addressing the technical part of “Presence.” For those of you who missed it, you can listen to it here.  Our speaker today, Michael Collins, has a background in acting, improv and sketch comedy.  His company, Be Story Driven specifically coaches individuals and groups on being a better storyteller.  Here's a Michael Collins introduction of what he does and how he gets here.  

Welcome to Smart Career Planning, episode 31.  For this month’s DearRecruiter podcast, we have two wonderful speakers, Vivi Fenwick and Alan Bailey.  If their names seem familiar, it’s because they were guest speakers for two of my earlier podcasts, episode 9 and episode 7.   The two questions we'll discuss today are: 1.) The best and worst things you can do following your interview and 2.) How to skillfully answer "what is your desired salary" question?  If you have a personal interview or career-related questions for my future guest speakers, please send them to helen@interviewrightconsulting.com.  

Welcome to Smart Career Planning episode #30.  I recently posted an article titled “Three books to read this quarter for professional growth.” One of the books I highlighted was “Presence” by Amy Cuddy.  One of Cuddy’s beliefs is - fake it until you become it.  In her book, Cuddy shared a lot of examples as to how to tweak simple things such as posture to project more confidence and even come across more present.  To me, charisma and presence are two things I know I cannot perfect on my own.  And that’s why I reached out to Pamela Prather.     Pamela is a professor, coach, workshop facilitator and public speaker. Not only does she work with directors and actors to design voices and dialects for productions, she also works with executives both individually and in groups to help them access their sparkle and use the presence and gravitas to further communication goals.    Here are links to the coaches Pamela mentioned in the podcast: 1.) Doug Honoroff from dialectdoug.com 2.) David Ley from vibrantvoicetechniqu

Welcome to our first monthly #dearrecruiter podcast series.  I know some of you listened to my "teaser" episode about a month ago, but this is the inaugural podcast in which I have two guest speakers with me, Tim Hansen and Keith Halperin.     We recently came across two articles.  The first one is an article from Glassdoor about salary negotiation and the other one is a "dear Abby" type column in which a reader asked "should I hire someone who's over-qualified?"     

As I mentioned in my previous episode, I’m putting together a monthly recruitment and hiring trend podcast series and have recruitment professionals join me to talk about those trends.   I’ve already recruited several recruiters and headhunters and we’ll start recording soon.  But just to give you a little taste of what I’m hoping to do, I will kickstart this monthly series with the following two trendy topics

For episode #27, I am going to replay of one of the most popular podcasts titled “The Benefits of a Side Gig” with Amanda Wowk from AmandaWowk Creative.     The reason I decided to replay this particular podcast is, in part, follow up with the challenge I shared with my listeners at the end of my previous podcast titled “Career Advice for the Emergent Professional.” The other reason is - I’m swamped!!  I’m in the middle of creating an E-course that addresses silent killers in a job interview, redesigning my company website, interviewrightconsulting.com, while keeping very busy with a full-time headhunting business.  So, I thought I could use this time to prepare for my next podcast series, which has something to do with with creating a powerful presence that will help you land a great job, feel successful as you are mapping out your career journey.  I am also working with several other headhunters on a monthly podcast series.  I don’t have a title yet, but the idea is - I follow closely job interviews, career

Welcome to Smart Career Planning, episode 26.  I recently posted a whitepaper for the soon to be graduates on my social media channel.  Many of you emailed me and asked me to talk more about this subject.  So, I’m going to dedicate time to talk about career development for emergent professionals.

I am dedicating Q1 to discuss topics that will help you develop a powerful 30-60-90 day career plan.  This particular podcast is specifically for individuals who want to leverage their existing experience to move up the ladder within their own company.  There are probably several ways to do that, but I find the most legitimate way is using your performance review.