I can’t believe this is episode #300! In honor, I am offering My Best Career Advice, Academy Award style, in each category I cover.

As those of you who listen to the podcast regularly know, I seldom have guests on the podcast – and only when they are fantastic and will add value to you listeners. Today’s guest, Amy Green Smith, is a perfect example of this. We’re talking about People Pleasing – something many of you are very familiar with. Amy tells us when it is okay to people-please in the workplace – and how to know if you’re doing it for the right reasons. She gives several scenarios to help us understand people pleasing, when it’s right, and when it isn’t.

If you’ve been a faithful listener of the podcast for some time, you’ll know that I do a special episode each year during Thanksgiving week.

It started out as five unusual things to be thankful for that weren’t specific to me. Somewhere along the way, they became MY five things. The hope has always been that you will look at the circumstances of your life through a different lens after listening to my list.

When it comes to networking, it’s not about introverts being socially awkward. It’s about the drain on their energy. It’s about having to initiate a conversation (they generally DON’T want to do this). It’s about small talk, which seems pointless to them. I’d like to offer the flip side of networking for introverts, followed by 13 tips for you introverts to…if not love networking, at least not hate it so much. Maybe even enjoy it a little.

Let’s face it: we’re navigating uncharted waters when it comes to the job search these days. So much has changed, and we’re seeing clients struggle to be successful in their job search.

Presenting this information in a Problem/Solution format, today we’ll cover what’s tripping up job seekers up and my recommendations for how to address each issue.

The usual cadence of hiring is this: The biggest push of the year occurs mid-January through March; the second-biggest push occurs after Labor Day until early- to mid-November. So let’s go with there being one more chance to get hired in 2022. This episode will help you get in good job-searching shape for if you’ve been searching for a while, or even if you just started looking, by providing some active job search options you can throw into your search strategy.

This week, I want to talk about one of my favorite subjects, “Managing Your Mind to Advance Your Career.” I created this program because so many trainings focus on the doing part of managing your career, and I wanted to focus on the thinking part.

I’ve talked in previous podcasts about the three numbers you need to know before you enter into salary negotiations. Today, I want to talk about what you should do BEFORE you get to the negotiation phase.

You’ve probably heard the expression that looking for a job IS a full-time job. But what if you already have a full-time job? The biggest issue I see for people in this situation is the tendency to put their job search on the back burner because they have so many priorities going on at work. Today, I wanted to share strategies for those of you who will be conducting a job search this year while working full-time.

For many of you listening—perhaps even most of you—your work has been directly affected by Virus Jail. Perhaps you are unemployed. Maybe you are working from home. Maybe you are working harder than ever, especially if your industry is on the front lines of Covid 19. Maybe you’re working fewer hours than you have in the past. Which got me thinking that some of you may be considering a side hustle—a way to generate income when the way you’re used to generating income doesn’t currently exist. If you want to earn some extra money during the months of Virus Jail, here are some steps.

…okay, maybe I overstated a bit in the heading. Disappointment, rejection, and frustration are part of the deal when it comes to job searching. Here’s what is optional during a job search: Beating. Yourself. Up. Today, we’re talking about taking that rejection notice…that non-response…mean something about you as a human being. As an employee. As a valuable contributor to the world.

Here’s the first thing I want to say about the uncertainty of our future in the face of COVID19: The future has ALWAYS been uncertain. Today we’ll talk about my best strategies for navigating an uncertain future (which, remember, is always).

I’m working with a lot of clients right now who were laid off as a result of COVID. Many others were already job searching when COVID hit. For many of these clients and, I suspect, many of you – you are fighting feelings of despair and frustration as you look for a job right now. What I want to offer you today are some persistence strategies to keep you going in the midst of the most challenging job search environment in, maybe, ever.

Today we’re discussing those of you who will be interviewing for jobs, where questions about why you were let go during COVID, or how you spent your time during COVID, might well be asked.

Many of you have been job searching this year and will be continuing your job search into 2021. Others of you will start a job search in the new year. Here are the 11 steps you should be taking before the end of 2020 so that you are at that starting line by mid-January.

This week, I speak with life coach Jane Springer on the types of mind drama I am hearing from clients related to the current job market, their qualifications, themselves as human beings, their job search strategy, and their career focus.

Today, our focus is on the things I want you to consider adding to your job search, especially if you aren’t getting the results you were expecting. Also, I’ve linked some other recent episodes as well that are particularly helpful for job searching.