Your path to a
successful career

Writing a thank you note after a job interview is not optional. This expression of gratitude after an interview is not only good manners, it’s good strategy, keeping you top-of-mind with a potential employer. The thank you note is your opportunity to reinforce why you’re a strong candidate and reiterate your interest in the role you’ve interviewed for.

You know that a strong resume is vital as you market yourself for a new job, but how do you know if yours is the best it can be? In less than half a second, a Google search for “resume writing advice” yields 1.89 million results. Instead of scrolling through a virtually endless list to figure out what to pay most attention to, here are 10 strategic essentials for what you should — and shouldn’t — do to ensure your resume makes the strongest possible first impression.

You benefit from a strong and current professional image whether or not you’re looking for a new job. Don’t wait until you’re considering a professional change to think about your public persona and how you’re perceived by others.

When you take time to assess and enhance your professional image, you’ll gain a competitive advantage, whether you aim to seek new clients, business opportunities, speaking engagements, managing accounts or — of course — consider a new job or board role. Executive and board search firms, who proactively seek out talent, may take notice of your current and consistent presentation, too.

As an executive or experienced professional, you’ve heard that serving on a board benefits your career. Perhaps you’ve been asked to serve in this capacity or are considering a search – be it for a corporate entity, advisory board or nonprofit – and you’re enticed by the potential benefits. However, since pursuing a board position requires a considerable investment of time and effort, you may ask yourself: is the payoff worth it?

Determining when and if it’s time for a job change isn’t easy. Various factors influence timing of a job search, including your level of experience, industry, competitive landscape, market climate and seasonality.

When interviewing for a new job, you’ll likely encounter at least one round over the phone. The key to acing a phone interview is to treat it as if it were an in-person conversation and prepare for it the same way. Since a phone interview can determine whether or not you move forward as a candidate, it’s worth your extra time and attention.

We’re on our phones a lot. We text, email, use apps, take pictures and sometimes even use our phones to call and speak with people. As integral as this device has become to our lives, there’s a time and place to be on it, especially when in professional settings. As our world becomes increasingly digital, opportunities for face-to-face engagement are becoming even more important. If you find yourself choosing a screen over participating in a conversation, you may miss out on potential business, job and professional opportunities.

When conducting a job search, you want the process to go as smoothly as possible. To put your best foot forward, consider the following advice from the perspective of hiring managers. These tips can help you make a positive impression and ultimately land the job.

You may not realize their importance, but your employees’ LinkedIn profiles reflect your company’s brand.

As a company leader or business owner, you think about at least 20 important things at any given time, but chances are that one of them is not how optimized employee LinkedIn profiles can increase the visibility of your brand. Nor is it that employee LinkedIn profiles can impact how your company appears in search results both on and off LinkedIn.

When faced with competing priorities in today’s busy world, responding to everyone who reaches out to you is a challenge, but responding noticeably late (or not at all) is detrimental to job and business opportunities. More broadly, a poor response time reflects negatively on you as a professional, and in turn, on your personal brand. By not acknowledging communications, you impress upon senders a lack of respect for them or their business, indicate that you’re not on top of your workload or that you don’t pay attention to detail –- undesirable conclusions all around.