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Ageless Careers Insider Weekly

by Colleen Paulson

I'm a Career Consultant and 5x career changer who helps Gen X and Baby Boomer job seekers find jobs quickly. I've written/reviewed 1000s of resumes, so I know what works (and what doesn't). As a former Fortune 50 leader, I use my insider knowledge to help you position yourself for your next role.

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6 weeks ➡️ new job

6 weeks ➡️ new job I'm very skeptical of any *quick fix* strategies for anything. I've been doing career coaching work for 15+ years, so I know that finding a new role typically takes some time. The average job search takes 5 months (but this includes entry-level roles, which are often easier to land). In this market, I'm seeing it take Gen X and Baby Boomer job seekers at least 6-12 months to find a new role (if not longer). However, I recently worked with a client who was able to land a new...

7 days ago • 3 min read

Make it easy for yourself I don't know about you, but we're heading into a busy season here. I'm excited about all of the milestones that are coming. But I don't have a lot of time for busy work. When clients come to me, they often have ignored their LinkedIn profiles and resumes because they just had too many competing priorities. They haven't needed to update, so they just put it on the backburner. The good news is that if this is you, you can make up for lost time fairly quickly. Here's...

14 days ago • 3 min read

Least complicated A recent client confided in me that he hadn't interviewed in about 20 years. He was a high-level executive at a Fortune 50 company. For every promotion that he earned, he really hadn't needed to formally interview - he had worked hard in the roles that he was in and that was enough. Now, he had interviewed lots of folks, so he knew how to interview others. He just wasn't sure about how to present himself in an interview. For me, an interview really should be a conversation....

28 days ago • 2 min read

Times like these It's easy for us coaches to give advice. The truth is: career development and job search is a lot harder than anyone gives it credit for in practice. I'll often tell my clients to not focus on the quantity of jobs that they are applying for (and instead focus on how the roles match with their goals, skills, and experience). I wasn't completely surprised that 39% of respondents in one of my recent polls applied for 100+ jobs in their most recent jobs search. For me, it really...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read

Flip the script Being told that you are *overqualified* for a role just hurts. But, it's very common feedback, with 92% of respondents in my recent LinkedIn poll saying that they have heard it. If you are hearing this a lot, you may want to rethink the roles that you are applying for. Let me tell you about a recent scenario. My client is a Gen Xer who has been out of work for 8 months. He was VP for a high-profile firm for 10 years. That's a long time, friends. When we spoke, he was applying...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read

Wish you were here It helps to have a community behind you. Unfortunately in this messy, virtual world, it can be really tough to figure out how to best become part of an online community. For those of you looking for a place to ask questions and find support, you might want to check out Glassdoor. (Full disclosure: I just joined the Glassdoor Content Creator program and am a paid contributor over there). I've recommended Glassdoor to my clients for years as a way to check out companies and...

about 2 months ago • 3 min read

Lost in translation I've worked with 35+ new clients so far this year. Each client has their own situation, their own unique goals, and distinctive career journey. But they all typically have one common question: "Why is it so hard for me to find a new role?" "What am I doing wrong?" February's employment report was released this morning. If you read the headlines, it sure sounds like the economy is doing well enough and hiring is relatively strong. But something is lost here in translation....

about 2 months ago • 3 min read

Reboot the mission If you're actively looking for a job right now, let me start by saying that this market is a lot tougher than folks are giving it credit for. Sure, the unemployment rate is low, but the jobs that are being filled tend to be clustered in certain industries (healthcare/government). From what I'm seeing, it's especially tough if you have progressed to Director-level or above. Even with an optimized resume and LinkedIn profile, I'm seeing clients with extended job searches of 6...

2 months ago • 3 min read

In between days We're at that point in the work year where lots of folks are waiting. You're waiting for your raise to kick in. You're waiting for your bonus. Maybe you're waiting for stock options. But you're waiting for that payout for all of your hard work. As you can see from my recent LinkedIn poll, raises aren't expected to be huge this year. It's not a huge surprise: companies still aren't sure where things are going with this market, so everyone seems to be playing it cautious right...

2 months ago • 2 min read

You won't know until you try Right now, my kitchen is completely torn apart. We've put off remodeling it for 20 years, but with our oldest graduating from high school, it felt like time to finally do it. Well, if you've ever done any sort of work like this, you know that there are unforeseen challenges. For us, it's a slight slant in our cabinets that won't support the new countertop that we've ordered. Of course, we didn't known about it until the old countertop was removed. And we couldn't...

3 months ago • 3 min read
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