By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Whether you're searching for a new role or thinking about your professional development, not having the right words to describe your skillset can hinder your progress. Identifying your career keywords will help you create effective messaging for your LinkedIn profile, resume, conversations with colleagues, and other written communications like email and social media posts.

Here is my recommendation for how to begin gathering keywords that align with your chosen profession:

• Identify a job title that interests you.
• On LinkedIn, search for job openings for that job title. Make a note of the specific variations on job titles you see in your search results.
• On LinkedIn, save 5 or more jobs that resonate with you. 
• Make a list of the 10 top skills for 3 or more of those roles you saved. 
• Identify which keywords you saw more than once and look for trends.
• Make special note of keywords that resonate with you. Keep a running list of terms and update it as you encounter new terminology. 

Let me take you through an example.

I searched LinkedIn's Jobs section for Business Partner Organizational Development in the United States. From the results, I selected ten currently open positions to review further (because I'm an overachiever like that). Here are those job titles:
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1. ​Director, People Experience
2. Lead People Business Partner
3. Learning and Development Business Partner
4. Organizational Development Partner
5. Organizational Development Program Manager
6. People Business Partner
7. People Business Partner Director
8. People Partner
9. Principle People Business Partner
10. Senior People Success Partner

Lesson Learned: When you search for a job title, your results will include a variety of titles different companies use. Be sure to review the job description to learn more about what that company expects from that role. The duties for the same job title might vary widely from company to company, as might the terminology they use to describe it.

Total Number of Different Skills Returned for All Ten Jobs
For the 10 jobs I reviewed, 69 different skills were included in the results. For context, if all roles had the exact same skills, this number would be 10. If all of the roles had different skills, this number would be 100. 

Lesson Learned: ​Not only will job titles vary across organizations, but what skills they value can also differ.  Be sure to review the job description to learn more about what skills the company thinks will help make someone in that role successful. 

Specific Skills Returned For More Than One Job
Several skills came up more than once across those ten jobs. Here is the number of times a specific skill appeared for more than one role:
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• Communication: 6
• Human Resources: 6
• Employee Relations: 6
• Employee Engagement: 4
• Problem Solving: 4
• Talent Management: 3
• Confidentiality: 2
• Group Facilitation: 2
• Organizational Development: 2
• Succession Planning: 2
• Teamwork: 2
• Workforce Planning: 2
• Written Communication: 2

Lesson Learned: ​Even if there is not widespread agreement on the terminology used across organizations, some keywords will show up more often. Consider including popular keywords in your skills section on your LinkedIn profile and in your resume.

Different Keywords for Similar Skills 
While specific keywords like "communication" and "problem solving" appeared more than once within the 10 job descriptions, several related terms might be included instead. Here are a few groups of terms that take different approaches to describing similar concepts:
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• Succession Planning, Workforce Planning, Talent Strategy
• Communication, Written Communication, Interpersonal Communication
• Build Strong Relationships, Relationship Building, Relationship Development
• Consultation, Consultative Approach, Influencing Others
• Facilitation, Group Facilitation, Presentations,
• Flexible Approach, Free Thinking, Problem Solving
• Performance Planning, Performance Consulting, Performance Review
• Confidentiality, Sensitive Information, HR Policies

Lesson Learned: When you look at the groupings of keywords, you can see the broader areas where roles like this would operate. Each company may use slightly different terminology regarding the skills that they value. When you talk about the work you do, consider weaving some of these words into your stories. 

How do you identify the right keywords to use to describe what you do? Share your thoughts in the comments.

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Whether you're gainfully employed or looking for a new role, continuing to learn and grow is a valuable career resilience strategy. ​While you can certainly pursue college degrees or certifications, there are many informal ways to increase your knowledge. Here are three of my favorite ways to continue learning and growing.

Staying current on industry trends can be a challenge. One way to learn a little bit at a time is using social media. I use LinkedIn to learn a little at a time on topics that matter to me. Follow thought leaders and regularly read their posts to learn more about emerging trends and technologies. In addition, follow companies to stay current on their new products and positions in the marketplace. You can also follow hashtags for keywords you like to learn about. 

Here are a few topics I consistently learn about from social media posts: 

• I follow CliftonStrengths to learn about the 34 strength themes and how to leverage strengths in different work situations.
• I follow Christopher Voss to learn more about negotiation strategies.
• I follow Remit Sethi to learn about financial wellbeing.
• I follow the hashtag #careerwellbeing to find articles on best practices.

Webinars are an excellent way to learn about a topic in more detail, usually over the course of 30-60 minutes. In a webinar, you can hear a speaker lead you through content, highlight important points, and string those ideas together into a more cohesive whole. In addition, you may also have the opportunity to interact with other webinar attendees. Webinars may focus on presenting content, answering questions from live attendees, or getting the group to share ideas on a specific topic.

Here are a few webinars I have attended and what I took away from each: 

• I attended Kassy LaBorie's Virtual Training Hero Hangout monthly webinar to meet other trainers and learn virtual facilitation best practices. 
• I attended The Association for Talent Development - Nebraska Chapter's monthly Learning Leaders Monthly Meeting to chat with colleagues about each person’s challenges and possible approaches.
• I attended virtual meetings of The White Box Club to learn tips and tricks about managing my mindset during my career transition.
• I attended a Fredrickson Roundtable for Learning Leaders meeting to learn about a specific organization's process for designing and implementing a company-wide educational program.

Professional organizations are a great way to learn more about a wide variety of topics. For one, you can attend regularly scheduled meetings, which typically have an educational component, to learn industry-specific content. Most groups have a social component, whether it is networking time during meetings or separate events that focus on getting to know other members.

​There are also volunteer opportunities, from helping check people in at a monthly meeting, being on an event-specific committee, and taking on a leadership role. These opportunities provide multiple ways to learn from a structured event or learn by doing. 

Here are a few professional organizations I have been a part of and ways I have learned content and skills:
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• I attended a monthly meeting of The Omaha Organizational Development Network to learn how to boost team performance using positive intelligence. 
• I designed and delivered a breakout session for the PACT MN ExcellenceShare event to teach people how to build their professional networks using LinkedIn.
• I developed relationships with presenters, coordinated virtual events, and produced one-hour learning sessions for people in career transition for The White Box Club. 
• I planned, organized, and facilitated Career Development Special Interest Group meetings for The Association for Talent Development - Nebraska Chapter to share career resilience strategies for members. 

When you've been laid off before, or just seen people around you lose their jobs, it's hard not to worry about it happening to you. Whenever you read about layoffs in the news, hear that your company's sales numbers were lower than expected, or hear rumors about a company merger, your mind might jump to conclusions. Instead of letting a wave of panic run through you each time your boss invites you to meet one-on-one, there is an alternative: changing your overall mindset. 

Earlier in my career, I had two operating modes when it came to work: “I’m happy with my job” and “I need to find a new job right this minute.” 

When I was happy with my job, I did excellent work at my day job and didn't worry much about the future beyond that role. I would learn new skills for the job, but I didn't always think about my overall career trajectory. 

Conversely, when I knew I needed to launch a job search, I shifted away from the work I was doing and started focusing solely on taking my next steps outside of my current role and organization. Only then did I shift to developing skills applicable to another workplace, meeting more people to help me get a new job, and planning to exit the organization.

I finally realized I didn't have to pick between these two operating modes. Instead, I needed to shift my overall way of thinking and adopt the both/and mindset that was also more long-term and sustainable.

I started focusing on myself as a working professional and what I needed to do to succeed personally, regardless of who my specific employer was. This included focusing on my ongoing learning and development, building my professional network, and planning for contingencies. This built up my career resilience, which helped me feel more confident that I would thrive regardless of my current work situation. 

When people think of learning, they often focus on formal degrees, certifications, and completion certificates from instructor-led classes. While these are valuable, and often a great foundation, ongoing learning can take many forms. Whether you attend a webinar, watch a TedTalk, read an article online, or listen to podcasts on your area of interest, you are continuing your professional development. 

Staying current with industry trends and continuing to learn and grow helps me perform well in my current role while also allowing me to be future ready. In an ever-changing world, continued professional growth is the best way to manage whatever happens next.

Too often, networking is depicted as a superficial act that involves making initial connections with people, then dreading the next day’s “Would you like to buy something from me” calls. I approach networking differently. My goal is to build mutually beneficial relationships with people. Interacting with these connections provides opportunities to share information, learn from one another, and help one another out along the way. 

I use LinkedIn to track my professional network. I connect with people I've met before and with whom I share something in common. My LinkedIn network includes former coworkers, individuals I've sat next to at in-person events, people I've attended an online event with, and professionals working in the same field as me. 

Regardless of my role, and even if it seems to be going well, I always have a backup plan, a backup backup plan, and then a couple more backup plans after those.

After weathering many layoffs and the unique challenges of each, I have a broad sense of the situations I may need to mitigate. Those include an unexpected job loss, choosing an interim health care option, and how to launch a post-layoff job search. 

Here are a few steps I have taken to help prepare for possible situations:

• Identified the people I'll contact when launching a job search. 
• Found a  few companies to contact for contract work. 
• Outlined my short and longer term layoff budget.
• Created supplemental income options beyond a full-time job.

How do you help yourself not worry about being laid off? Share your thoughts in the comments.