Most people only reach out to their network when they need something. A job search starts, and suddenly they’re messaging contacts they haven’t spoken to in a year, asking for a favor out of nowhere. It feels awkward on both sides, and it’s the reason so many people avoid networking

One thing that surprises even experienced professionals every Fall: how quickly the process moves once it starts. A hiring manager who took 3 weeks to respond to an application in July can move from a first call to an offer in 10 days come October.  That speed is good news,

How to Update Your Resume and LinkedIn for Q4 Openings  If the idea of rewriting your resume from scratch makes you want to close the laptop, I understand. The good news is you don’t have to start over. Fall openings usually call for a realignment, not a rebuild.    Resume:

Every year, right around this time, I have the same conversation with clients. They tell me the summer felt quiet, maybe even discouraging, and they ask if it’s worth pushing hard on their search right now or waiting until the new year.  My answer is always the same: don’t wait.

September brings market week season back into fashion and footwear. Trade shows, buying appointments, line reviews, industry events. Calendars that were open in August fill up fast, and the people you most want to talk to become the hardest to reach.  If you want 3 genuine conversations on the calendar

The offer email lands and, almost every time, my clients do 1 of 2 things. They accept on the spot out of pure relief that the search is over, or they freeze because they don’t know what’s reasonable to ask for. Both responses are understandable. Neither serves you well. An

If I had to guess, I’d say most of my clients open LinkedIn a few times a month, update something on their profile, and close the app feeling like they’ve done their part. I understand why. Posting feels exposed. It feels like something reserved for recruiters, founders, and people who

Every year around this time, I have some version of the same conversation with clients. They tell me they’re waiting until Fall hiring “actually picks up” before they touch their resume. I understand the instinct. August feels slow. Inboxes are quiet. It doesn’t feel like the moment to be job

Let’s be honest about the room you’re walking into. With more than 17,250 fashion and footwear job losses in 2025 [1], there are more strong candidates competing for each open role than there were two years ago. When you land an interview right now, you’ve already beaten real odds, and

One of the most common fears I hear from fashion and footwear professionals considering a change, whether it’s a new function, a new category, or an adjacent industry, is this: “I’ll have to start over.” Let me say it plainly: you will not. Pivoting is not starting over. It’s repackaging

I want to push back on a narrative that I’ve been hearing a lot lately.  The fashion and footwear industry is not dying!  Yes, there have been significant layoffs. Yes, some of the biggest names in the industry have made painful cuts. And yes, if you’ve been caught in one

If you’ve been laid off from a fashion or footwear company in the last several months, I want to say something to you before we get into any strategy at all:  This is not a reflection of your talent.  Over the past 18 months, Nike, DSW, Designer Brands, Puma, VF

Interviews have changed more in the last year and a half than in the decade before it. If you’ve stepped back into the process recently and felt like the rules shifted while you weren’t looking, you’re not imagining it.  On one side, some companies now run first-round interviews through AI

I want to start with the most encouraging thing I’ve learned about hiring lately, because almost no one is talking about it and it might be the permission you’ve been waiting for.  The job market has quietly shifted in your favor. Employers care less than they used to about whether you’ve

If you’ve ever applied for a job, you were perfect for and heard nothing back, not a rejection, not even a confirmation, I want you to know something: it probably wasn’t personal. In fact, a human being may never have seen your resume at all.  There’s a silent gatekeeper standing between you and almost every job you apply for, and most people

Let me start by saying something you might not expect from a career coach: I think AI is one of the most useful tools a job seeker has right now. If a blank page has ever made you freeze, AI can get words flowing in seconds. I’m not here to talk you out of

“Tell me about yourself.”  3 of the most deceptively simple words in any professional setting. And yet, for most people, they produce 1 of 2 responses: a nervous, rambling autobiography that goes on 2 minutes too long, or a deer-in-headlights moment where the brain just… stops.  Neither is the impression you want to make.  Here’s the thing:

Let me ask you something.  If a hiring manager had 60 seconds with your resume, which is honestly generous, would they know exactly what you bring to the table and where you’re headed? Or would they walk away with a vague sense of your job history and not much else?  Most resumes I review

You have your value proposition. You know what you bring to the table, who you help, and how you do it.  Now it is time to say it out loud.  Your elevator speech is the verbal version of your personal brand. It is the 30 to 60 second introduction you use at

There is a question every employer is silently asking every time they look at your resume, scroll your LinkedIn, or invite you in for an interview. They may not say it out loud, but it is always there:  ‘Why should we hire you over everyone else?’  Most people answer it

There is a good chance that right now, your LinkedIn URL looks something like this: linkedin.com/in/your-name-483920271. Those numbers at the end? LinkedIn assigns them automatically when you create your account. Most people never change them. And most people have no idea how much that default URL is quietly working against them.  Today I