The Layoff Lady: Blog

What To Include On Your LinkedIn Profile

6/6/2023

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Your LinkedIn Profile: Purpose

While your resume is a concise 1-2 page marketing piece intended to showcase your skills as they apply to a specific job, LinkedIn is your professional billboard to the whole working world.

When actively searching and applying for a job, you’ll include your LinkedIn profile on your resume. Hiring managers and recruiters will often view your profile to see which connections you might have in common and to learn more about you in general. Furthermore, recruiters may source you (invite you to apply or interview for an opportunity) based on the content of your LinkedIn profile.

Whether you are actively applying for a new job or simply building your professional network, it's a good idea to review your LinkedIn profile regularly and make updates to ensure your information is current and complete.

Your LinkedIn Profile: The Basics

Filling in these fields on your LinkedIn profile will make it an even more valuable tool as you build and grow your professional network:

Profile Photo: This is the primary image, displayed in a circular frame, that represents you on LinkedIn. It should be a headshot—a photo featuring a recent picture of you focused on your face. You don’t need to suit up for this either. Just make sure you’re pictured solo and you look pleasant and hirable.

Background Photo: When someone views your LinkedIn profile, they’ll see your Profile Photo, front and center, and your background photo along the top of your profile. Be sure to include a background photo aligned with your professional brand. You can even use a tool like Canva to add personalized details to your background.

Headline: Your headline defaults to your last job title. I suggest updating it since this is such a high-value space. Consider including your target job title first, then including additional keywords (like skills, focus areas, and your field). Realize that when you comment on someone’s post, they will see your name and the first part of your headline.

Experience: Here, you can highlight your recent work experience. For each job, fill in the required fields, including dates of employment. For the description, I suggest putting a sentence or two about what you did and including keywords to highlight your skills further.

Education: Include the schools attended and degrees earned here. I suggest leaving off years since they are an indicator of your age. Including your schools here is a great way to later connect with people who attended that school.

Your LinkedIn Profile: Next Level

Here are a few ways to make your LinkedIn profile even more impactful:

About Section: The About section is at the top of your LinkedIn profile and gives you a chance to tell. If you're job searching, this is a great place to include details about who you are and what you are looking for in your next role. You also have room to add additional bulleted points if you like. Write this in the first person (using “I” language) and further showcase who you are professionally.

Customize Your Profile URL: By default, your LinkedIn profile's URL (web address) will be long and not very meaningful. You can customize your URL to make it friendly. I suggest using some version of your name. This minor update will look more professional on your resume—and make your profile easier to find.

Emojis: While you don't want to add too many cutesy emojis, using these tiny graphics is a nice way to break up longer bodies of text. By using a unique graphic for a bulleted list, an envelope next to your email address, or a splash of color to divide up long bodies of text, you can leverage emojis to liven up your profile and posts.

Skills: Within LinkedIn, you can select up to 50 skills that will be included on your profile. This is another great opportunity to look at keywords included in your job listings for your target role. You can even indicate which skills you used in each job you listed.

Learn More

0 Comments

Customizing Your Resume For Each Job Application

5/30/2023

0 Comments

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

A Different Resume for Each Job? Won't That Take Forever?

When applying for jobs, customizing each resume is one way to help you stand out. Unfortunately, it’s easy to spend a lot of time and effort updating your resume. Let's look at shortcuts for customizing your resume that is less time and labor-intensive.

Articulate What You Want

Remember, when you're at the point when you're applying for jobs, you should have already done some prework. By now, you should know what specifically you're looking for in a job. This includes details like your target job title(s), industries, core work responsibilities, geographic location, day-to-day responsibilities, pay rate, and work arrangements (onsite, remote, hybrid).

If you don't have a clear idea of what your target job looks like, it makes everything else harder. I encourage you to take a moment to figure out what your target is. This act will help you be more efficient as you search for a role, decide what to apply for, create your target job resume, and everything after that, too.

For me, in a previous job search, here is how that looked:

Full-time Learning Consultant role at a company in the fields of software/healthcare/finance
100% remote or hybrid in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area
Managing learning projects, completing needs assessments, designing comprehensive training programs for customers and employees

Create a Target Job Resume

To start, create a target job resume. You could also share this resume with those people who say, "Can you send me your resume?" who may not have a specific job description to share. This resume should be a solid representation of your skills, the type of work you do, and the unique value you would bring to the role. Your target job resume should also include keywords commonly appearing in job descriptions for the type of work you do.

To be clear, this IS NOT the resume you use to submit whenever you apply for a job. Instead, this is the resume you customize just a bit for each job for which you apply. Let's look at what to include so you have a robust resume that you'll only need to customize in a few ways for each role.

Target Job Resume: Professional Summary Section

Your resume should start with a professional summary section. The goal of this summary is to let the reader know if it's worth reading further. This summary is comprised of a few sentences that summarize who you are, what drives you, and how those factors align with the available role. This is also an opportunity to highlight important keywords that will resonate with employers.

For me, here is how the Professional Summary in my target job resume looked:

Proactive learning consultant driven to help organizations succeed. Thrives when partnering with leaders and stakeholders to improve performance. Able to think strategically and execute tactically while managing multiple projects. Committed to constant learning, continuous improvement, and delivering training that drives results.

Target Job Resume: Relevant Skills Section

Look at your list of terms included in job descriptions that interest you. Prioritize the ones that you really want the hiring team to know about. Include those in a Relevant Skills section near the top of your resume. Limit what you include to a couple of lines. Here are key skills that I seem the most generally relevant:

Here are keywords I saw in multiple Learning Consultant Jobs and included in my Relevant Skills section:

Blended Learning, Coaching, Collaboration, Communications, Consulting, Facilitation, Instructional Design, Needs Analysis, Onboarding, Project Management, Relationship Building, Strategy, Video Production

Target Job Resume: Work Experience Details

For each role, I include bulleted points describing responsibilities common to people who do this work. This includes a wider variety of keywords to help even the least experienced recruiter see the tie between what I describe and the words used in many job descriptions.

Here are examples of bulleted points under job descriptions that include keywords relevant to my skills:

Implemented a knowledge management strategy for a fast-paced B2B company. Drove platform adoption, standardized training materials, leveraged best practices, and managed a remote team of 5-8.

Developed a blended learning solution to onboard new SaaS customers. Incorporated virtual instructor-led training (VILT), eLearning, hands-on practice, and post-class assessments. Decreased instructor classroom time, customer wait time, and implementation project length.

Managed enterprise-wide training initiatives: producing a library of best-in-class microlearning videos, implementing a Digital Adaption Platform (DAP) for in-tool software support, and creating online user communities based on personas.

The words in bold are keywords pulled from relevant job descriptions.

Customizing a Resume: Save As

First, I pull up my target job resume file in a word processing file format. Then, I save a copy of my job-specific resume using the following naming convention:
[My name] Resume, [Job Title] with [Company name].

For a Lead Learning Consultant role for ABC Inc, the name would look like this:
Brenda L. Peterson Resume, Lead Learning Consultant with ABC Inc

Now, I'll edit this new resume so it aligns more directly to the job for which I'm applying.

Customized Resume: Professional Summary Section

Now, I will customize the Professional Summary Section to align with the language used in the Lead Learning Consultant role.

Remember, here is how the Professional Summary in my target job resume looked:

Proactive learning consultant driven to help organizations succeed. Thrives when partnering with leaders and stakeholders to improve performance. Able to think strategically and execute tactically while managing multiple projects. Committed to constant learning, continuous improvement, and delivering training that drives results.

Here is the Professional Summary would look for this Lead Learning Consultant role:

High-performing lead learning consultant who thrives when delivering engaging employee performance solutions. Thrives when partnering with internal and external stakeholders to design innovative talent management programs. Able to think strategically and execute tactically while managing multiple projects. Committed to constant learning, continuous improvement, and delivering talent initiatives that drive engagement.

The sentiment is similar, but now I'm conveying my value add using the employer’s words to describe this position. Note the bolded words were pulled directly from the job description.

Customized Resume: Relevant Skills Section

Now, I will customize the Relevant Skills Section to align with language used in the Lead Learning Consultant role.

Remember, here is how the Relevant Skills section in my target job resume looked:

Blended Learning, Coaching, Collaboration, Communications, Consulting, Facilitation, Instructional Design, Needs Analysis, Onboarding, Project Management, Relationship Building, Strategy, Video Production

Here is the Relevant Skills section would look for this Lead Learning Consultant role:

Blended Learning Solutions, Employee Coaching, Collaboration, Communication Skills, Consulting, Facilitation, Curriculum Design, New Hire Onboarding, Project Management, Relationship Building, Strategy, Talent Management Programs

To mirror language the company used, I added "solutions" to blended learning, changed "instructional" to "curriculum", and added a few terms emphasized in the job description to this list. Realize these skills are also included in bulleted points for each role. This is just another opportunity to help the recruiter align the skills needed with the words listed in the job description.

What Do You Think?

Do you customize a resume for each role? What are your tips, tricks, and strategies? Include your thoughts in the comments.

Learn More

0 Comments

My Top 3: Indispensable Job Search Tools

5/23/2023

0 Comments

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Job Search Challenges

When you're looking for a new role, there is a lot to do to help move your job search along. Getting your resume where you want it to be, tracking application progress, and scheduling meetings with others can take a lot of time and effort. Here are three excellent tools to help manage, streamline, and optimize your job search.

The tools mentioned here all have a robust set of features in the free version with the option to pay for additional functionality. I'll focus on currently available features included as a part of the free version. Links for each tool are included in the "Learn More" section.

Teal: Tracking Applications and Customizing Your Resume

Teal is helpful in multiple aspects of my job search. Teal enables me to save jobs of interest, evaluate highlighted qualifications, and track my application progress with roles.

Here is how I use Teal in my job search:

When I search for jobs on LinkedIn or Indeed, I use the Teal Chrome extension to bookmark roles of interest, which creates a record in Teal.
Then, I read each job description, review keywords included in the listing, and prioritize jobs by rating them from one to five stars.
Next, I use the keywords Teal highlights to customize my resume for the specific position.
Then, after applying, I update my status in Teal to Applied and include any details in the notes.
As I progress through the interview process, I update my job search status, add notes, and include details (like salary range and key people involved in the hiring process) to keep all information for each position in one place.

Teal continues to evolve and add new features--and offers much more than I currently use. This is the cornerstone of how I track my current job-searching activities.

Calendly: Managing Meeting Scheduling

Meeting with people during your job search can be very valuable. Whether you're meeting to learn more about a company, find out what tasks one does in a given line of work, or catch up with a former corworker, streamlining your scheduling process is a big timesaver.

Enter Calendly. You can create a Calendly account, add your personal branding, and add language to describe yourself and what you want. You can also link Calendly with your Google Calendar and your webinar account (like Zoom or Google Meetup). Without paying an additional cost, you can select one free meeting type. I use the half-hour meeting, and I call mine "Virtual Coffee." It’s also helpful because our meeting can last as long as it needs to last (beyond that specified half hour) with no issues.

Within Calendly, you can set up your available days and times, choose how far out in the future people can schedule a meeting with you, and even decide how many meetings you are open to having on a given day. In addition, you can select the mode of the meeting (phone or online) and include a few questions to help clarify the goals of the meeting.

Here is how I use Calendly in my job search:

When one of my LinkedIn connections expresses interest in meeting, I send them a link to my Calendly calendar. This eliminates the 2-10 messages we would otherwise send back and forth to determine when to meet.
They select a time that works for them from the times I provide that I know work for me. They also let me know if they would prefer to meet via Zoom or Phone, provide their contact information, and answer a couple of questions on the purpose of our meeting.
Calendly sends each of us a meeting invitation, including the details they specified. If we're having a webinar, Calendly includes webinar information in the meeting request.
Calendly has features to enable either of us to cancel or reschedule the meeting as needed.
I include my Calendly link on the top of my resume alongside my other contact information to make it easier for a possible hiring manager or recruiter to find a time for us to talk.

Calendly automates key components of scheduling. With a minor setup on the front end, I can spend less time finding a meeting time and more time on other valuable job searching and networking tasks.

Grammarly: Clarifying Your Communications

Your job search is all about communicating your value to hiring managers and recruiters. Ensuring your writing is clear and correct is essential to demonstrate your professional value and credibility. Enter my new best friend, Grammarly. This spelling and grammar checker goes above and beyond what you may already have in word processing or email platforms. I run any communication I will put in front of job-searching influencers through Grammarly.

Here is how I use Calendly in my job search:

Each time I write or customize an email, I run it through Grammarly. It catches the times when I update a sentence to make it more applicable to a specific employer but forget to include enough of the right words to make an actual sentence.
Each time I update my resume, I do one last Grammarly check to ensure I'm using the correct word and that it hangs together. I also remind Grammarly in that case that my statements are written correctly.
Each time I make a social media post, especially if I'm thinking and commenting as I write, to ensure that my final product is in actual human-readable sentences.

Even this English major appreciates having Grammarly as a second set of eyes (or, in this case, AI) to polish my writing.

Learn More

0 Comments

Learning About Yourself To Tell Your Story: Saboteurs

5/16/2023

0 Comments

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Learning About Yourself

Whether you’re considering making a career change, are currently in the midst of a job transition, or want to be more effective in your role, increasing your self-knowledge is a great place to start.

A Good Starting Point: Values and Strengths

In other articles here on The Layoff Lady, I’ve outlined ideas for exploring your values and discovering your strengths. Knowing more about what you truly value and what you are good at will help you think about the why, what, and how of the type of work you are driven to do. Reflecting on your findings will also help you have better conversations about your skillset and what motivates you personally and professionally.

A Solid Next Step: Discovering Your Saboteurs

It’s incredible how our strengths and values also show up when we are in challenging situations—often in good ways, but sometimes in more destructive ways. Learning about how you can get in your own way is a valuable strategy for making better decisions when you’re mid-crisis.

Enter Shirzad Chamine. He is a professor, professional coach, and the author of the best-selling book Positive Intelligence. He introduces strategies for how to be mindful of what we know (IQ) our overall emotional intelligence (EQ), and how to leverage our positive intelligence (abbreviated as PQ). The end result is learning to be more effective and increase our overall.

Nine Ways We Self Sabotage (According to Positive Intelligence)

Here arer the nine saboteurs outlind in Positive Intelligence listed in alphabetical order along with my brief description of each:

Avoider: Nope. Not dealing with it. Hey—look over there!
Controller: I’m scared and taking charge! I’m impatience and I will run over everyone else to fix this.
Hyper-achiever: I will work day and night with no breaks to finish all the things by myself.
Hyper-rational: I’m going to logic my way out of this no matter whose stupid feelings get hurt.
Hyper-vigilant: I’m fighting any and all possible catastrophes non-stop. Sleep is for the weak.
Pleaser: I’ll make these people like me even if I make myself sick doing it.
Restless: That other thing looks cool. And that one. And that one. So many shiny things!
Stickler: I’m going to get this all exactly right to the letter if it takes me all night and day.
Victim: Fix my problems because I can’t (or won’t). I’ll be over her brooding and suffering.

Yikes. We're certanly not our best selves when we show up this way. Let's look at how you can identify your saboteurs and use that information to improve how you show up.

About The Assessment To Find Your Top Saboteurs

Set aside time to take the 9 Ways We Self Sabatoge Assessment from Positive Intelligence. The assessment takes 5-10 minutes to complete. In addition, I suggest giving yourself 30-45 minutes to review your results and reflect.

This assessment consists of 45 questions. Each question includes of a statement, and you'll rate your agreement with that statement on a 5-point scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The directions encourage you to answer each question relatively quickly and go with your initial response.

The final 7 questions are about demographics and finding out where they will send your assessment results.

Your Assessment Results

The results you receive include a ranking of your top sabateurs and your score for each. In addition, you will receive the following information about each of your saboteurs:

Basic Description
Characteristics
Thoughts
Feelings
Justification Lies
Impact On Self and Others
Original Survival Function

Reviewing Your Results

I find these types of assessments fascinating. As someone who is committed to ongoing professional development, I appreciate getting insights that might be hard for someone else to share. These insights are valuable, and also help me understand why I do what I’m doing as well as helping me to recognize those non-helpful patterns so I can adjust my approach going forward.

Not at all surprising to me, my top three saboteurs are as follows:

Controller, 8.1
Hyper-Achiever, 7.5
Restless, 5.6

My Initial Reflections On My Results

Here were my initial thoughts as I saw my top three identified saboteurs:

Controller: In other assessments, Bold and Driver have been my identified characteristics. I'm someone who tends to keep things to the point, hold people accountable, and help move projects forward. Consequently, under stress, that tendency to lead a project may become overly tight-fisted control. Not good.

Hyper-Achiever: Achiever is on my top CliftonStrengths, so it makes sense that I may have a tendency to overfocus on that strenght and work to personally achieve my way out of a situation.

Restless: I'm always excited about learning new things, and my brain is always going a million miles an hour. On the flip side, this means I sometimes take on too many new things or even interrupt myself mid-flow to work on something else because of an idea I can not clearly articulate yet.

My Additional Reflections On My Results

Under Controller, here are a few statements resonated with me from the details included within my report:

Characteristic: “Comes alive when doing the impossible and beating the odds.” Most definitely. I am SO the person who digs being able to solve the unsolvable problem. Never tell me the odds!

Thought: “If I work hard enough I can and should control the situation so it goes my way.” Whereas some people need to be motivated to do more to solve a problem, I needed to learn when to stop and either let someone else jump in or realize it might not be readily fixable. I appreciated the reminder.

Feeling: “Angry and intimidating when others don’t follow.” In my area of expertise, I get pushy and controlling when we’re up against the wire and something needs to get resolved. Earlier career, I never realized that my determination and confidence in getting something done was perceived as intimidating. However, after learning that a bunch of my daughter’s friends were scared to death of me when they were little, I realized I need to be mindful of how my determination comes off to others.

Reflecting on Your Results

Which results resonated most with you? Why?
Which results were surprising to you?
Reflect on times you reacted in a way aligned with your results. How might you do that differently now?
What are ways that you can recognize a possible sabotuer and adjust to improve the impact of your reactions?

Learn More

Positive Intelligence book by Shirzad Chamine
Positive Intelligence: 9 Ways We Self Sabotage Assessment
The Layoff Lady: Learning About Yourself To Tell Your Story – Values
The Layoff Lady: Learning About Yourself To Tell Your Story - Strengths
Han Solo Never Tell Me The Odds Video Clip
The Layoff Lady: I Just Got Laid Off--Now What?

0 Comments

Prioritizing Job Applications

5/9/2023

0 Comments

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

So Many Openings!

Depending on your chosen field, and your desired work arrangements, there are a lot of jobs for which you could apply. While remote work availability gives us many more work options, figuring out how to prioritize open positions can be overwhelming.

Here is my process for evaluating open roles and prioritizing those which I will submit an application.

Searching for Available Jobs

As of this article's original publication date, I just searched on Indeed.com for the job title Training Specialist. This search generated these results:

43 jobs listed within 25 miles of Omaha, NE.
588 jobs categorized as remote.

By any stretch of the imagination, I cannot apply for 631 jobs this week.

Time to Apply and Available Time

Once I decide to apply for a given role, I take about 30 minutes to research the company, customize my resume, and complete my formal application. In a given week, there are 7 days, which is 168 hours. There are not enough hours in a week for me to apply for that many jobs.

Even if I somehow managed not to eat, sleep, or do even the most basic self-care, I could only apply for 336 jobs.

Closer to the realm of feasibility, if I decided to dedicate a full 40 hours per week solely to applying for jobs, I could apply for 80 jobs—but definitely not well. There are also so many other valuable activities (meeting people and professional development being two of the most important) to be done during job searching that this is probably not the best way to spend 40 hours. Working this long and this hard can also put you on the fast track to burnout.

Even dedicating 20 hours solely to applying for jobs, possibly meaning you could apply for 40 jobs in a given week, is most likely overkill.

More Is Not Necessarily Better

The more jobs I try to apply for in rapid succession, the less effective I am. While applying for jobs is in some respects, a numbers game, it’s not as easy as applying to all the jobs and knowing that one will work out. This strategy often causes people to waste time applying for roles where they are not very qualified.

A better strategy is to prioritize jobs that are the best match for your skills and what you want and focus on applying for those well. Instead of solely applying for jobs, spend time building your skills, making new connections, and planning for contingencies.

In any given week, my goal is usually to apply for three jobs. However, if I see several great opportunities or have not searched for a job in a while, I may apply for as many as six. Beyond that, though, my application quality suffers.

Prioritizing Applications

To apply for jobs well, you need to determine the best way to prioritize your applications. Instead of the “spray and pray” approach, think through what you want and apply with more purpose. This approach favors quality over quantity and will help you focus your efforts on where you can get better overall results for your time investment.

Step 1: Know Key Characteristics of What You Want

Early in your job search, it’s essential to do at least a little soul-searching and be able to articulate what you want. This may include revisiting your values, identifying your strengths, and thinking about the work you want to do.

For example, earlier career Brenda would have a list something like this on what she wanted from a role:

Training specialist or related position.
Within 25 miles of home or 100% remote with up to 25% travel.
Full-time role with benefits and within my established salary range.
Opportunities for promotion and advancement.
Working in the software, finance, healthcare, or insurance industry.
I would rather focus on training design and delivery than only delivering training that other people have designed.
I would prefer not to have my main focus be compliance training, developing eLearning, LMS administration, resolving help desk tickets, writing technical documentation, dealing with customer complaints, or recordkeeping.

Having a stated list of preferences, and continuing to hone it as you learn more, is your first step in determining which jobs to target.

Step 2: Narrowing Your Search

Let's go back to those 631 search results from my Training Specialist searches. By adding additional search parameters, we can narrow our results to jobs that more specifically meet our specified criteria:

Starting with those 43 roles in Omaha:

Specifying a full-time role takes me down to 37 jobs
Putting quotes around "Training Specialist" (to specify those actual words need to be in my results) takes me down to 19 jobs
Showing only jobs posted within the last two weeks takes me down to 12 jobs

Starting with those 588 remote jobs:

Specifying a full-time role takes me down to 391 jobs
Putting quotes around "Training Specialist" (to specify those actual words need to be in my results) takes me down to 102 jobs
Showing only jobs posted within the last two weeks takes me down to 45 jobs

Step 3: Quick Job Listing Review

Now that I have a more reasonable number of jobs to go through (12 and 45--57 total), I start to do a cursory review of the short descriptions of each role.

No

I rule out these jobs because the job titles show the roles are outside of my area of focus: Cement Manufacturing Safety Training Coordinator, Auto Glass Repair Specialist (Paid Training), and Clinical Training Specialist (for a registered nurse).
I rule out one because it is a longer commute than I want, one requires a license I do not have (or want to pursue) and one in a field that doesn't interest me.
I rule out a few because the stated salary is significantly outside of my target salary range.

Yes

Those that appeal to me at a glance, I add to TealHQ. Teal is a free service to track jobs, note progress on applications, and make notes on interactions. One feature I especially like with Teal is that when you add a job, it notes keywords included in the job descriptions and any listed salary range.
I add jobs including Technical Training Specialist I-III (remote/Hybrid), Commercial Lines Training Specialist, and a few Training Specialist roles.
For now, I add jobs that interest me into TealHQ. However, I err on the side of adding something for further consideration.

I have now reduced the number of jobs that interest me to 31 roles.

Step 4: More Detailed Job Listing Review

Now that I have those 31 jobs in Teal, I look more closely at the following:

Identifying the work arrangements (onsite, hybrid, remote) and comments about these within the job description.
Ensuring I have the required and many top skills listed.
Assessing if the roles look like a good overall fit.
Noting any information about salary range.

I remove jobs where I am not eligible. This includes the following:

A required credential I don't currently possess or want to pursue.
A hybrid role in a state where I do not live.
An organization who can not hire someone who lives in my current state of residence.

I remove jobs with anything that might be a dealbreaker for me. This includes the following:

A focus area that doesn't appeal to me.
A commute that I won't be happy with longer term.
A job description that asks for a wide variety of skills with a low salary.

For the remaining jobs, I give them an initial rating of 1-5 stars and make notes on any areas I might want to explore further.

I now have 18 jobs in Teal.

Step 5: A Little More Research

Next, I investigate a few things outside of the immediate job descriptions.

I visit LinkedIn and see if I know anyone with a specific company who could give me additional information, put in a good word for me, or refer me for a role.
For a remote role that doesn't include a list of eligible states, I search LinkedIn to see if a remote company has people currently living in my state of residence. This may indicate if they can hire people in my state.
I follow the company on LinkedIn and follow anyone involved in the hiring process.
I click the apply link to ensure it works, the position is still open, and they are still accepting applications.
I do a quick Google News search on the organization to see if and how they show up in the news.

Now, I have 13 jobs In Teal.

Step 6: Customize a Resume and Prepare to Apply

From the 13 jobs I have listed, I will apply for the jobs I'm most excited about and continue to reassess other openings listed. I will also add, remove, reprioritize, and take notes on specific roles as needed.

Learn More

0 Comments

Let's Talk Money: Your Target Salary Range

5/2/2023

0 Comments

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Your Salary Requirements

Most of us work so we can pay for our lives. When you are job searching, it’s important to determine your target salary range to make your job search more effective.

Having this information will help you prioritize which jobs to apply for and help you have those early salary conversations. Let’s look at a few strategies for answering the question, “What are your salary requirements?”

Start With Your Target Roles

First, ensure you’ve done the requisite amount of soul-searching to determine what you want to be next in your career. Have a list of what you want to do, possible job titles, relevant skills, core responsibilities, daily activities, focus areas, types of companies, and industries. Having these details on your desired job will help as you start to do salary research.

The Disclaimer

While I feel comfortable discussing various financial and insurance concepts, I do not currently hold a license or any certification that deems me inherently qualified to give financial advice. The information provided here is intended to be used for educational purposes only.

Sometimes, the core challenge is knowing how a system generally works, the terms used to describe what you’re asking about, and where to go for additional help. My goal for this article is to share information to guide you as you navigate the murky waters of job searching. I hope my personal experiences can help you cut a path through the wilderness as you try to figure out your next steps.

Feel free to take my recommendations or not. Whatever you do, double-check my facts--and everyone's purported facts, for that matter. This is your life, and you will care more about your financial and healthcare decisions than anyone else. Use this information as a starting point for further research as you ultimately decide what’s right for you.

Identify Your Priorities

Now that you understand your target job and what that looks like, think about what you value in a job.

For example, some may prioritize having a specific job title, receiving tuition reimbursement money to earn their next credential, and opportunities for a promotion within the company. Another person may prioritize having interesting work while also having schedule flexibility, the ability to work remotely most days, and low health insurance premiums. Still another person may prioritize alongside colleagues in an office, having the opportunity to mentor new employees, and finding a job they can keep for the next 20 years. Think about what is the most important to you.

In addition, think about what you value in an employer. Working for a non-profit, government entity, start-up, family business, or Fortune 500 company will have salary, benefit, job security, and total compensation-related implications.

Overall, think about what matters to you, and be aware of the salaries that align with your overall job preferences.

Factors That Influence Your Target Salary Range

When considering your salary requirements, I suggest using a range instead of one specific number. Let’s look at strategies for determining your target salary range.

Here are numbers you might have in mind that could impact your range:

What you need to make to pay your core monthly bills
The absolute minimum salary you are willing to accept
What you need, based on your budget, savings plan, and financial goals
The minimum salary you would happily accept
What you’ve made previously
What colleagues make
What you’ve seen listed in current job postings
What you think you are worth
What would you like to make
What you’d be really excited about
Your dream salary

I suggest the salary range you share with potential employers includes the lower number that is the minum salary you would happily accept and the maximum number is what you'd be really excited about.

What Companies Are Paying

Knowing what companies are paying for what you do should also factor in to your target salary range. Here are a few strategies for finding out more:

Search For Open Positions in States With Pay Transparency Laws

Take these steps to find out what open positions are paying:

Search for your target job title and details in a major city in a state with pay transparency laws. I often search for San Francisco, CA or Denver, CO.
Find positions that most closely match your target job and details.
Make a note ofthe minimum and maximum salary range numbers, and any descriptors the company has on what qualifications would push a candidate towards the upper end of the salary range.
As needed, use a Cost of Living calculator to adjust the minum and maximum numbers for each role. Make a note of these numbers.
Repeat this process a few times to identify trends.

Research Your Job Title and Geographic Location

Many websites have salary information. Two that come highly recommended by recruiters are Salary.com and Payscale.com. In fact, Salary.com has a Know Your Worth calculator where you can add details like your job title, location, education level, and years of experience and see the impact each factor has on your potential market value.

Ask Around

Find out from other job searchers, recruiters, and hiring managers what salaries companies are paying for specific roles. You can also inquire with professional development organizations to see if there are industry or job-specific studies available that include salary-related information.

Confounding Factors

Here are a few factors that might make this process challenging:

Salaries vary by industry, geographic region, job title, and individual company.
Not all companies (even those that are legally required to do so) always publish salary information on job postings.
During the application or interview process, companies may ask you for your salary requiements before you know their target salary range.
Some companies adjust salaries by geographical area for the same role, while others do not.
Titles are not used consistently across organizations. Titles may have varying responsibilities as well as salary levels.
Company benefits can range from few and expensive to plentiful and low-cost. Benefit costs can impact your take home pay significantly.
Not all interesting jobs will pay what you want them to pay.
Some companies will pay sinificantly lower or higher than the salary information you find.
Not all companies, even with your target job title, will have salary ranges that align with yours.

Learn More

0 Comments

Let's Talk Money: Salary and Total Compensation

4/25/2023

0 Comments

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Contract vs Benefits Eligible Roles

When you're looking for work, it's important to know what salary range you have in mind. As you are initially searching for jobs, a key factor in deciding which jobs to pursue and which to pass on will be what you will earn.

If you are looking at contract positions, the salary you will receive is the same as your base salary. Usually, you are paid a set amount for each hour worked with no additional benefits. Consequently, contract positions often have a higher hourly rate knowing that each contractor will have to cover their health insurance and other additional benefits that may be included in other job offers.

However, If you are in a benefits-eligible role, you will receive additional value above and beyond your base salary rate. Let's consider what factors may be included in your total compensation package.

A Disclaimer

Your Work Income

First, let’s look at a high-level, generalized overview of the money you may receive:

Base salary: Money you will earn for showing up and meeting basic employer expectations for your job. This is typically paid on a bi-weekly or bi-monthly basis. This is usually what recruiters are asking for when they inquire about your "salary requirements."
Bonus: Additional money you may (or may not) receive based on the performance of you individually, your team, and/or the organization as a whole. Bonus payment depends on the organization and may be paid quarterly, annually, or on another schedule.
Commission: Additional money you may earn, typically based on what and how much you sell. Commissions are often a percentage of what you have sold. Bonus payment depends on the organization and may be paid monthly, quarterly, or on another schedule.
Signing Bonus: Additional money you may receive for agreeing to work for a given company outside of your agreed-upon salary. This is usually a one-time payment paid out as an incentive to accept a job offer.

Employer Money You May Recieve For A Specific Purpose

In addition to receiving money in the form of a check or payment payable to you, you may also receive money earmarked for a specific purpose.

Retirement Account Contribution: Your employer may give you a matching contribution as a percentage of what you contribute to your retirement account (usually a company-sponsored 401(k) or 403(b) plan). Alternatively, you may receive a retirement contribution before you put any money in. This money is typically deposited into your retirement account and invested alongside your other retirement account money.
A Post-Retirement Pension Payment: Upon retirement (and based upon requirements and guidelines set up by the employer), you may be promised a series of payments. The details of that pension will be set up on an employer-by-employer basis. (Pensions are not as common.)
Health Savings Account (HSA) Contribution: If your insurance is a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), your employer may contribute money to your Health Savings Account. This may be a one-time contribution given right away when you start your job, a monthly amount, or money awarded at another interval. This account is specifically designated to be used for qualifying healthcare expenses.
Tuition Reimbursement or Educational Assistance: If you want to pursue a college degree, some organizations may assist with that cost. Depending on the organization, they could pay the cost upfront or reimburse you after you successfully complete a course.
Professional Development: Some organizations will pay for memberships in professional organizations, certifications, or additional job-specific training. Depending on the organization, they could pay the cost upfront or reimburse you after you successfully complete a course.
Offsetting Specific Costs: You may receive a payment or stipend to offset your costs for various expenses. Here are a few examples: gym membership, home office setup, internet access, cell phone access, uniforms, passport, mileage, lunch, parking, travel, rent, and student loan payments.

Insurance and Benefits, At Least Partially Employer Paid

In the United States, many people obtain different types of insurance through their employers. Employers often pay administration costs of the plan and help cover some of the costs.

Health Insurance: Employers may offer one or more health insurance plan options and usually cover administrative costs and part of the monthly premiums. Costs will vary widely. When reviewing benefit premium costs for recent jobs, I saw health insurance rates for my family of three range from $255.00 per month to $1,249.30 per month for the least expensive High Deductible Healthcare Plan options they had.
Dental Insurance: Employers may offer one or more dental insurance plan options, usually covering administrative costs. They may cover a portion of the monthly premiums as well.
Life Insurance: Employers may pay for a life insurance plan. The coverage may be a set amount, like $50,000, or a multiple of the employee’s salary.
Long-Term Disability: Employers may offer disability insurance plans and usually cover administrative costs. They may also cover some or all of the monthly premiums as well.
Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Usually employers include EAP access to give their employees access to counseling services as needed, referrals, basic budgeting help, and basic legal assistance as needed.
Flexible Spending Account Access: On a related note, employers may pay administrative fees so employees can use flexible spending accounts for healthcare, dependent care, or transportation. These are typically employee-funded accounts.

Access To Purchase Additional Benefits

Many employers offer the option for employees to purchase additional benefits. These can include vision insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, enhanced disability coverage, supplemental life insurance, spouse life insurance, child life insurance, accident insurance, condition-specific health insurance, a legal protection plan, or orthodontic benefits.

Perks

Companies may also offer a variety of perks. These can include items you can purchase for a lower cost or resources you can take advantage of that you might otherwise pay for elsewhere. These could include an onsite gym, onsite daycare, free parking, entertainment discounts, stamps, bus passes, use of the company van, cell phone plan discounts, or reduced entry fees for area attractions.

Perks can also be anything that makes work easier, more engaging, or more pleasant. These could include shift bidding, flexible work arrangements, remote work, work-from-home days, summer hours, four-day workweeks, onsite flu shots, overtime opportunities, or company events.

Time Off

Employers also often pay you for specific hours when you do not work. Here are a few standard categorizations for different types of paid time off: paid time off (PTO), sick time, vacation time, paid holidays, floating holidays, volunteer time, bereavement leave, jury duty pay, or military leave.

Instead of having a specific number of paid days available for sick or vacation time, some companies have unlimited time off policies. In most cases, instead of earning and then choosing to use paid time off, you work with your manager whenever you want to take off. In general, as long as you are performing your job to an acceptable level, you can take time off.

The Salary Question: Revisited

Remember, when a recruiter asks about your salary range, there is a lot more going on than just your base salary. Overall, I suggest giving a salary range instead of a set number to account for possible differences in company-offered benefits.

Learn More

0 Comments

Job Listing Challenges: Remote, Hybrid, and Onsite Labels

4/18/2023

0 Comments

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Onsite, Remote, and Hybrid Work Implications

One challenge during my most recent job search has been the newly added focus on work location. Specifically, the following labels have become more standard on job listings: onsite, hybrid, and remote.

While there are, indeed, many remote jobs available, I discovered first-hand that companies and job search sites are not necessarily aligned on what remote, hybrid, and onsite work arrangements mean. Let's dig a little deeper.

Remote Job Clarifications

Overall, a "remote" job could mean one or more of the following are true:

The candidate lives in the United States and can work from anywhere.
The candidate lives in the United States and must work from their home.
The candidate lives within a specific list of states where the potential employer is set up to conduct business.
The candidate lives within a specific time zone.
The candidate is willing to work hours in a specified time zone.
The candidate lives within a specified distance from one of the company's physical office locations.
The candidate lives in the metropolitan area of the company's headquarters.
The company is "remote first" with no physical office location.
The company is "remote-friendly," meaning there may be the option to work in an office location, a designated shared space, or fully remote.
The company is "open to remote" and may consider a candidate who does not work in their office location.

Onsite, Remote, and Hybrid Roles in Practice

Regardless of the label, jobs may work differently in practice. Here are a few of the many possible scenarios:

A company may label a job as remote, then later in the job description mention preferences for being onsite.
A company may label a job as hybrid when it could more accurately be described as remote with some travel to the corporate office.
A company may label a job as onsite or hybrid, and in the body of the job description, explain that they are also open to remote.
A company may label a job hybrid, expecting people to be onsite (in the office) anywhere from never to 4 days per week.
A company may have an unstated preference for the location of employees.
A company may not be clear about their ongoing thoughts on having workers return to the office or the timeline for that change.
Many companies label roles as remote but do not clarify additional details about arrangements (which states, preferences for specific geographical locations).
Companies may decide on a case by case basis where they prefer employees to be located or if they will be remote, hybrid, or onsite.
Any of these designations may also include travel.

Navigating Job Listings for Remote Roles

As a job seeker, knowing that companies may vary on how they list details in their job descriptions, here are a few strategies for navigating job listings:

Review posted job openings for additional details on work arrangements. For remote roles, read the main job description and skim the listing for additional location restrictions (time zones, states, and proximity to a physical office).
If you're on a job search site, find the job listing on the company's website. Sometimes they will include additional details on the specific states where they are able to hire and/or want to hire for a given position.
If you’re not sure if a company can do business in your state, use LinkedIn to search for employees at that company who currently live in your state. This would indicate that the company is legally able to hire someone in your state.
Connect with and speak with someone at the organization and ask for additional clarification on work arrangements and remote work policies.
If it’s unclear, reach out to a company recruiter to clarify details (or, if time is of the essence, apply first, then ask questions later).

Remote Work Implications: Candidate Location, Job Location, and Pay

There are also a few other implications of remote work to keep in mind:

Salary ranges will be all over the board for the same role. For example, a title like "Training Manager" could have a salary of anywhere from $50,000 - $225,000 per year, depending on the location of the company's corporate office.
In addition, some companies adjust their salary ranges based on the candidate's geographic area, while others do not.
Even with pay transparency laws in some states, not all jobs list the salary range--even when they are now required to do so.

Strategies for Remote Work Salary Conversations

Given these variations on how salaries work for remote roles, be sure to think through your financial requirements and how you will address questions about your desired salary:

Identify your desired salary range overall. Use this range as a starting point for all conversations.
Review posted salary ranges for the role. Make sure they at least meet your minimum salary.
During the interview process, when a recruiter or hiring manager asks you for your desired salary range, answer that question with the question, “what is the salary range for this position?” This assures that you’re not selling yourself short.

Learn More

0 Comments

Asking for Help Using LinkedIn Messaging

4/11/2023

0 Comments

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Messaging With Your Connections

One of the benefits of having connections on LinkedIn is that you are able to directly send them messages. This is also a feature that I've seen used poorly on several occasions. Let's look at how to use LinkedIn messaging effectively to continue to build professional relationships. Let's also look at some guidelines for how to use this feature well.

The Value of Mutually Beneficial Relationships

To have successful professional networking relationships, make sure those relationships are mutually beneficial. Networking is about give and take. Make sure that you are adding value along the way. This includes sharing useful content, congratulating people on their accomplishments, and answering one-off questions when people are asking for advice. In short, be a good LinkedIn neighbor. If you give more than you take, your LinkedIn connections will be more likely to want to help you. This is the real secret to successful professional networking--make sure it's a two-way street.

Messages That Add Value

When you contact people directly, be sure your messages are not all you asking others to do things for you. Here are a few types of messages you can send to your connections that add value to the relationship and give more than they take:

Wishing them a happy holiday
Congratulating them on a promotion, job, degree, personal milestone, or accomplishment
Thanking them for sharing useful content that helped you personally
Thanking them for helping people in general
Checking in on them to see how they are
Telling them it was nice seeing them at an in-person or online event
Following up on a previous topic of conversation
Offering help on one of your areas of expertise
Sharing a resource, article, or piece of information that would benefit them

Make sure you are not THAT PERSON who only reaches out when they need a favor.

Direct Asks For Help: Worst Practices

Asking for help is an art. First, you need to be willing to ask for help. Next, you need to craft your ask in a way that you have a higher likelihood of getting that help.
Here are the most significant issues I’ve seen with how people ask for job search help:

Connect and pitch
Making a big ask early on
Making a vague ask
Making an ask that is disproportionate to how well you know someone
Making frequent asks
Being aggressive in asks
Re-asking too many times
Not being able to hear no
Being angry if they don’t get what you want

The Worst Asks

Even though I am, by nature, a helper, here are the types of requests I receive via LinkedIn messages that will not get much of a response from me.

Can you get me a job at your company?
Can you introduce me to people?
If you hear of any openings, let me know.

Why are these not good asks? For one, these are big asks. These are also the types of requests that would require me to do a lot of investigation to be truly helpful.

I’m not going to magically get you a job at my company. Being hired isn't quite as simple as that.
I’m also not going to go through my list of professional contacts, prioritize who I think you should meet, and facilitate multiple introductions.
I will also not be your personal job searcher and send you roles—partly because there is no guarantee that my assumptions based on our past experience working together will align with your current job search goals.

When you ask people to help you, put in your work first. Then, when they know you are committed to being successful, they are much more likely to help you clarify details.

Direct Asks For Help: Better Practices

Here are a few better asks, but may only work with connections who you know very well and who you have helped in the past:

Would you review my resume?
Would you review my LinkedIn profile?
Would you refer me for a position at your company?
Would you pass my resume on to your connection, the hiring manager?
Would you meet with me for 30 minutes to discuss [a professional topic]?

These requests are specific, which is better, but each is still a sizeable request. The first two may be time intensive. The next two involve me putting my reputation on the line to recommend you for a role. The final one requires a block of my time on my calendar. Depending on our interactions prior to these requests, my response may vary from “of course!” to no response at all.

Again, remember to make sure your asks are aligned with how well you know one another.

Direct Asks for Help: Best Practices

Asks are better when they are more specific and less time intensive. It’s also helpful if there is context. Here are a few asks that are more likely to get responses. The requests earlier in this list are more likely to get a response than the ones later on:

I just made a job search post on LinkedIn. Would you be willing to visit the post [link here] and like, comment on, or share this post to help me boost my signal?
I’m considering applying for the Associate Project Manager position with Super Cool Company. How do you like working there? Would you recommend it as a workplace?
I am working on a career transition from being a software trainer to a project manager. What do you like about your current role as a project manager? What skills would help me in that role?
I am working on a career transition from being a software trainer to a project manager. I see you’re connected to Alonzo Johnson, a project manager with Super Cool Company. Would you be willing to facilitate an introduction between us on LinkedIn?
I’m considering applying for the Associate Project Manager position with Super Cool Company. As I get my application materials together, I’d appreciate your insights on the company and how to position myself for success. Would you be willing to have a 15-minute phone call sometime over the next week to talk?
I’m considering applying for the Associate Project Manager position with Super Cool Company. As I get my application materials together, I’d appreciate your insights on the company and how to position myself for success. Would you be willing to have a 30-minute virtual coffee zoom meeting sometime over the next week?
I’m considering applying for the Associate Project Manager position with Super Cool Company. As I get my application materials together, I’d appreciate your insights on the company and how to position myself for success. Would you be willing to meet for a coffee at the local coffee shop of your choosing? The first cup is on me!

People Get To Say No

Remember, when you are asking for help, people will tell you no. More likely than telling you a direct no, they may just not respond. Ever. Keep in mind that job searching, like sales, means that you're going to hear a whole lot of no on the way to that one yes you need. When you need a specific thing, it's useful to ask multiple people for help to give you a better chance of getting a response. It's also not personal. We're each on LinkedIn using it to varying degrees and all trying to accomplish our own goals.

Making sure that you are making the relationships mutually beneficial will make it much more likely that people will respond to you and want to lend you a hand when you need it.

Learn More

0 Comments

Strengthening Professional Relationships: Interacting With LinkedIn Posts

4/4/2023

0 Comments

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Getting To Know Your LinkedIn Connections

Connecting with someone on LinkedIn is a great way to start a formalized relationship with someone in your professional network. While that is a great start, deepening those relationships is a helpful next step to get more value out of LinkedIn. Let's look at a few ways to do just that.

Interacting with Posts

Interacting with posts on LinkedIn is a great way to continue to build relationships with your connections and demonstrate your professional value. Not only is this a great way to build your credibility with many connections at the same time, it also gives you an opportunity to showcase your knowledge without having to choose the initial content for the post. You can also use your comments to interact with others and even use this as a starting point to invite other commenters to connect.

Adding Your Reaction

The easiest way to interact is by adding a reaction to a post. With a click of a button, you can like a post or select from the other available responses. When you react to a post, your name will be listed on the post as well. This is an easy way to have people see your name and affiliate it with the content you liked. Adding your reaction also helps more people see the original post.

Commenting on a Post

An even more valuable way to interact with a post is by commenting. Once you have connected with someone, reading and commenting on their posts is an excellent way to build on that relationship. This way, they are starting the conversation, and you are helping expand on that content by adding your ideas. In addition, you can comment on other people's comments and share additional value.

You can thank the initial poster for sharing the idea, add your thoughts, share your experiences, and illustrate how you have used the concept in practice. Commenting on posts also gives you an inroad to connect with someone else who is also interacting with that post. Commenting is a great way to interact with others in your profession, build credibility, and make more meaningful connections. It also helps to achieve one of your LinkedIn goals of showcasing your knowledge and also sharing valuable information.

Reposting

If someone posts something of value to your connections, you may want to comment on the post itself and then consider reposting it with your comments. When you repost content, first, you'll see anything you typed, then LinkedIn will include the entire original post. This helps the original post get additional views and also enables you to share useful content with your network.

When I repost content, I usually include "Thanks [original poster] for sharing this information!" To include the original poster's name, include the @, then type the first part of their name, and choose their name from the options provided. (This is often called an "at mention." This will tag them in the post so they can interact with your new post, which will help boost the number of people who see the post.

Sharing Your Own LinkedIn Posts

Sharing content on LinkedIn is a great way to engage with your connections, add value to your professional relationships, and promote who you are and what you know. Unfortunately, very few people ever post anything at all--which is a huge missed opportunity to differentiate yourself from others in your field.

Another question that comes up is the frequency of posting. I recommend posting on LinkedIn no more than twice per day and posting one to four times per week. Use your favorite search engine for recommendations on the best times and days of the week to post to get the most views on your posts.

As for content, you don't have to write a lengthy, original manifesto to post on LinkedIn and make an impact. Personally, most of the content I share on LinkedIn includes some version of the following:

Context: A sentence or two framing the information I share and presenting its value.
A Resource: A link to an article, post, or eye-catching graphic.
Keywords: 2-4 hashtags to make my post more findable.

Once you make a post, be sure to like any comments other people make on your post and even reply to each comment. The more likes and comments you receive on your post, the more people will see it. This will continue to build your professional brand and add value to the networking relationships you are fostering through LinkedIn.

Learn More

0 Comments

<<Previous

The Layoff Lady

Your LinkedIn Profile: Purpose

Your LinkedIn Profile: The Basics

​Your LinkedIn Profile: Next Level

Learn More

A Different Resume for Each Job? Won't That Take Forever?

Articulate What You Want

Create a Target Job Resume

Target Job Resume: Professional Summary Section

Target Job Resume: Relevant Skills Section

Target Job Resume: Work Experience Details

Customizing a Resume: Save As

Customized Resume: Professional Summary Section

Customized Resume: Relevant Skills Section

What Do You Think?

Learn More

Job Search Challenges

Teal: Tracking Applications and Customizing Your Resume

Calendly: Managing Meeting Scheduling

Grammarly: Clarifying Your Communications

Learn More

Learning About Yourself

A Good Starting Point: Values and Strengths

A Solid Next Step: Discovering Your Saboteurs

Nine Ways We Self Sabotage (According to Positive Intelligence)

About The Assessment To Find Your Top Saboteurs

Your Assessment Results

Reviewing Your Results

My Initial Reflections On My Results

My Additional Reflections On My Results

Reflecting on Your Results

Learn More

So Many Openings!

Searching for Available Jobs

Time to Apply and Available Time

More Is Not Necessarily Better

Prioritizing Applications

Step 1: Know Key Characteristics of What You Want

Step 2: Narrowing Your Search

Step 3: Quick Job Listing Review

Step 4: More Detailed Job Listing Review

Step 5: A Little More Research

Step 6: Customize a Resume and Prepare to Apply

Learn More

Your Salary Requirements

Start With Your Target Roles

The Disclaimer

Identify Your Priorities

Factors That Influence Your Target Salary Range

What Companies Are Paying

Search For Open Positions in States With Pay Transparency Laws

Research Your Job Title and Geographic Location

Ask Around

Confounding Factors

Learn More

Contract vs Benefits Eligible Roles

A Disclaimer

Your Work Income

Employer Money You May Recieve For A Specific Purpose

Insurance and Benefits, At Least Partially Employer Paid

Access To Purchase Additional Benefits

Perks

Time Off

The Salary Question: Revisited

Learn More

Onsite, Remote, and Hybrid Work Implications

Remote Job Clarifications

Onsite, Remote, and Hybrid Roles in Practice

Navigating Job Listings for Remote Roles

Remote Work Implications: Candidate Location, Job Location, and Pay

Strategies for Remote Work Salary Conversations

Learn More

Messaging With Your Connections

The Value of Mutually Beneficial Relationships

Messages That Add Value

Direct Asks For Help: Worst Practices

The Worst Asks

Direct Asks For Help: Better Practices

Direct Asks for Help: Best Practices

People Get To Say No

Your LinkedIn Profile: Next Level