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Applying for a job can be an overwhelming experience, given the sheer number of available positions. Since the average job search lasted 22 weeks in 2022, most job seekers try to save time by weeding out postings they don't meet all the requirements for rather than submitting a bonanza of applications. According to iHire's 2023 State of Online Recruiting, only 26.4% of candidates admitted to applying for jobs they didn't meet all the requirements for in the past year.
Even if you are underqualified for a job, you shouldn't necessarily forego applying, provided you meet most job requirements. You may have utilized the skills an employer needs through other means, such as volunteering, that you haven't listed on your resume.
On today's episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole explains how to apply to a job you're underqualified for and how to evaluate whether you have enough of what an employer wants when submitting your application. She also explains the ways you can incorporate volunteering experience on your resume to make you a can't-miss candidate.
Subscribe to Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more career advice. You can also find additional content on our YouTube Channel.
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Construction metaphors are a popular way to describe the process of building anything worthwhile, and creating a lucrative career is no different. You begin laying a solid foundation by choosing the career path you wish to take, acquiring the necessary credentials (education, skills, certification, etc.), and earning an entry-level position or internship. Once you start working, you gain a reputation that can help your growth potential through technical and soft skills like communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. Career growth typically follows as you get more experience and show aptitude in your profession.
Today’s guest on Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, Grant Bucher, built his construction career through that foundational work. He earned an engineering degree at Purdue University and leveled up his credentials by picking up his MBA from Indiana. During that time, he worked his way up the ranks with Shambaugh and Son, beginning as a summer intern while he finished his bachelor’s degree and eventually becoming a project manager before moving on to Weigand Construction. He joins host Lori Cole to discuss:
• How to become a construction project manager
• What a typical day looks like in construction project management
• What qualities he looks for when hiring someone to join his team
• How he pivoted into launching a political campaign
Listen to the full episode for more information on construction careers, and subscribe to Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more career advice. You can also find additional content on our YouTube channel!
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Companies spend a lot of energy figuring out their employees’ strengths through their observations, performance metrics, and popular surveys such as the Myers-Briggs Personality Test. With the average hire costing $4,129, employers seek to understand how their existing employees can be best utilized to complement each other’s skills and avoid replacing them in a costly hiring process.
Finding the right job is a matter of matching the skills you possess with a role that consistently utilizes them. When your strengths correlate closely with the work you are doing, success typically follows. An analytical mind lends itself well to a career in data analysis; someone who can coordinate multiple tasks simultaneously may be well suited to project management, and someone with high levels of empathy could excel in therapy or social work.
On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole shares the results of her own strength finder journey. Discovering her strengths was only half the battle, and Cole utilized artificial intelligence to gauge how they could make her a can’t-miss candidate on her (theoretical) job search.
In addition to her strength finder demonstration, Cole speaks with a fellow Certified Career Coach and Clinical Counselor, Caitlin Magidson, about her career path. She also discusses three red flags you should watch out for to avoid taking a job from hell.
Enjoy the full episode, and don’t forget to subscribe to Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more advice. You can also get more career content by checking out our YouTube channel!
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Communication in the workplace often comes with its code. Meetings full of acronyms and infuriating jargon can irritate even the most dedicated employees. Still, communication is one of the most important soft skills to develop if you are going to advance in your career.
Effective Communication in the Workplace
Whether your job is customer-facing or behind the scenes, chances are you have to deal with people in your day-to-day role. On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, Career Coach Lori Cole delves into workplace communication. The show’s topics include:
• The art of active listening
• Mastering your non-verbal cues
• Zoom meeting tips
• Email etiquette
Beyond discussing these valuable communication tools, Cole also speaks with Abby Runk, Client Success Manager (Public Sector) with WalkMe, about:
• How she managed her career transition from educator to media specialist to customer success (and now client success) manager.
• What challenges she faced, and how she overcame them in her career transition.
• The role she sees AI playing in managing customer success.
• What advice she has for others looking to break into customer success.
Enjoy the full episode to learn the keys to effective communication in the workplace, and subscribe to Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more advice to help your professional life flourish. You can also view additional content on our YouTube channel.
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Leadership skills involve more than obtaining a fancy title, and they apply to anyone who can raise the performance level of their teammates/co-workers. It is one of the soft skills that applies to employees at all company levels. Soft skills like leadership are extra traits that are less apparent than the technical proficiency to do the job, and it’s what separates good workers from great ones.
On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole delves into leadership and how to build your ability (and style) to lift your cohorts, regardless of what role you serve in your company. Since soft skills are more challenging to highlight during your job search, Cole also shares tips on highlighting leadership on your resume and during the interview process. Beyond showcasing how you can become a leader in your organization, Cole is joined by Julie Perrine, Founder and CEO of Julie Perrine International (parent company of All Things Admin). The two speak about:
• Perrine’s career advice built from 13 years as a C-suite administrative professional
• How to become a successful administrative professional
• Her career advice to job seekers trying to forge their path
Enjoy the full episode and subscribe to Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more career advice. You can also find additional content on our YouTube channel.
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According to an American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) survey, 78% of workers aged 40–65 have seen or experienced ageism in the workplace. That percentage is the survey’s highest since it began asking this question in 2003. This presents a problem as some retired workers are choosing to re-enter the workforce following the COVID-19 pandemic that caused financial strain on numerous savings accounts.
On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole delves into age discrimination. For older workers changing careers, looking for a new job, or trying to re-enter the workforce, she offers the following tips for overcoming ageism early in a search:
Age-proof your resume by including only experience from the past 10–15 yearsRemove the graduation date(s) from your resume and LinkedIn profileConsider utilizing a hybrid resume formatAdditionally, hiring a professional resume writer may be a worthwhile investment that can help you get hired faster by ensuring the document highlights your strengths to a potential employer as well as possible.
Listen to the full episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more insights on overcoming ageism in the workplace, plus the pros and cons of a company offering unlimited vacation and sales career advice from iHire Customer Success Director Molly Floyd. Additional content is also available on our YouTube channel!
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Finding a career you are passionate about is the ticket to gaining career fulfillment. Passionate workers are more engaged and more productive at their jobs. However, workplace engagement has been declining in recent years, with the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged US workers sitting at 1.8-to-1, the lowest figure since 2013.
On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, Career Coach Lori Cole dives into matching your passions to your job. She walks through the process of obtaining career fulfillment through the following steps:
• Self-Reflection: Exploring your passions, interests, values, strengths, and skills.
• Research: Seeking roles, companies, and industries that match your passions.
• Experimentation: Stepping out of your comfort zone by getting hands-on experience to build skills in your chosen field (including internships, part-time work, and volunteering).
• Goal-Setting: Putting together SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals that drive you toward your desired result.
• Mentorship: Seeking people who got where you want to be and learning from them.
In addition to revealing the path to career fulfillment, Cole also chats with Todd Youse, KabaFusion’s Director of Talent Acquisition, about finding your passion at work. And, she shares which Artificial Intelligence tool she is utilizing today.
Subscribe to Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more career advice. You can also catch additional content on our YouTube channel.
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Employees and job seekers gained leverage when the COVID pandemic threw a wrench in workplaces worldwide, and they weren’t shy about using it. According to our 2022 Talent Retention Report, 41.2% of employees voluntarily left their job between September 2021 and September 2022, and 42.6% of employers lost productivity due to worker turnover.
While the job-quitting rate is approaching pre-pandemic levels, candidates continue to use the job market to their advantage and have high expectations for how employers treat them. Our 2023 What Candidates Want Survey revealed the following:
Nearly two-thirds (66.1%) of job seekers want to hear back from potential employers within 24 hours of applying for a job or sending follow-up correspondence44.7% of candidates won’t apply for a position if the job ad doesn’t include the salary rangeDespite in-person work (36.3%) being the preferred work environment, 42.7% of job seekers listed remote work options as most important in their searchOn today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole analyzes key findings from the What Candidates Want Report. The episode shares:
The best way to research and negotiate salary during your job searchThe most effective method of maintaining contact with a potential employerHow to prepare for a job interview using AICareer advice from guest Bill Bench, a long-time logistics employee and truck driverEnjoy the full episode to learn how to get what you want from your job search, and subscribe to Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more career advice. You can also find additional content on our YouTube channel!
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It’s no secret that employers scope out candidate social media profiles when they are deciding who to hire. While they ostensibly search for red flags that may derail a job seeker’s chances and prevent a potentially damaging hire, they are also looking for green flags to entice them to bring someone into their organization. The most common place an employer checks before extending an employment offer is LinkedIn. Unfortunately, many job seekers aren’t utilizing their LinkedIn profile to its full potential, which can leave them frustrated during a prolonged career search.
How to Optimize Your LinkedIn ProfileA few reasons recruiters swipe left on (or don’t even find) your LinkedIn account include:
Unpolished Profile Photo: Make sure you have a picture that represents who you are well (Note: this includes your background photo, which is a good chance to promote yourself)Unclear headlines: If you are missing keywords relevant to your industry, recruiters won’t even find your account to begin withIncomplete Profile: You are better off not having one at all instead of having one that isn’t finishedOn today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole explains how to improve your LinkedIn profile and turn it into an asset during your job search and get employers to swipe right on your candidacy. She also discusses career transitions with her guest, Katherine Weaver, who moved out of a job as a registered nurse and offers career advice and a supportive environment to nurses on her thriving YouTube channel.
Learn how to improve your LinkedIn profile by listening to the full episode, and subscribe to Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more actionable advice. You can also find additional content on our YouTube channel!
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The average corporate job receives 250 applications, with four to six securing an interview. Additionally, recruiters spend an average of six seconds scanning a resume, the document you painstakingly crafted to land this job, and the first impression a recruiter/hiring manager gets of you. That’s assuming your resume even clears the Applicant Tracking System to reach human eyes to begin with.
On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole offers the resume writing tips you need to avoid getting an automated “thanks, but no thanks” email, land in the “this is someone we want to interview” pile, and ultimately get hired.
How to Write a ResumeOne resume does not fit all job postings. Therefore, you must customize it for every position you apply for. iHire’s Job X-Ray can help you find the right resume keywords for the job you seek, which will go a long way toward getting you through the Applicant Tracking System and onto a hiring manager’s desk. In this episode, Cole addresses the following resume questions:
• What information should be at the top of the resume?
• How long should your resume be?
• What format is the best to use?
• Are the design and layout of the resume important?
Subscribe to Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more helpful career advice, and catch additional content on our YouTube channel!
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A certain amount of boldness comes with building your brand the right way. On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, career coach Lori Cole takes some inspiration from Star Trek, noting similarities between the way those crews step out of their comfort zones and build bridges with different people and cultures, along with how the principles of the Starship Federation (to boldly go where no one has gone before) apply to building your brand on the job market. Cole discusses:
Examples of people (real and fictional) with strong brands Building a personal brand with Star Trek principles The power of networking The importance of adaptability in? your branding effortsAdditionally, Cole speaks with Ken Troupe, SportsBiz Builders co-founder, about:
What sets SportsBiz Builders apart from other career coaching services Career advice he’s received that stuck with him His suggestions for younger workers to get established in their fieldEnjoy the full episode and subscribe to Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more career advice. You can also find additional content on our YouTube Channel.
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On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole examines these five limiting beliefs and how they impede career growth. She reveals actionable tips to overcome these saboteurs, such as:
Focusing on what you can learn and achieve instead of what you don’t know Creating opportunities to gain experience Practicing self-compassionAdditionally, Cole is joined by Andre Riley, Chief Revenue Officer at iHire. The two discuss the Mamba mentality Riley brings to his work, inspired by Kobe Bryant, and how utilizing that mentality helps him be at his best every day.
Enjoy the full episode to learn how to stop self-sabotaging, and subscribe for more career growth advice. You can also view additional content on our YouTube channel!
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Losing your passion for your job is easy as the to-do list gets longer. Lori Cole examines how to overcome burnout at work on the latest episode of Find Your Niche.
Human beings are at their best when they have an independent sense of purpose and are able to find that purpose in their work. Unfortunately, burnout is increasingly common in the office, leading to less engaged employees and a loss passion for what they do.
Spotting the signs of burnout can be hard, and overcoming it is even harder. On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole looks at how to overcome burnout at work and find your passion again. The three things that Cole recommends for rekindling your enthusiasm at work are:
Challenge Yourself: Volunteering, taking a class, or leaning into a hobby can spark creativity and create a sense of passion that can bleed into your work. Find Your Tribe: Joining professional organizations, attending networking events, or reaching out to colleagues you look up to are a few ways to rediscover your enthusiasm at work. Embrace Failure: When you try new things and take calculated risks, you’ll discover unique strengths and passions, leading to greater fulfillment in your career.In this episode, Cole also explores the career path of event marketing with Live Nation Entertainment Venue Marketing Manager Laura Cross. The two discuss what drew Cross into marketing and how she landed her role with Live Nation.
Enjoy the full episode for career advice from Cole on burnout and how to work in event marketing. Additional content is available on our YouTube channel!
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Employers are trying to retain their workers and combat the Great Resignation in numerous ways, from giving raises to investing in mental health programs. While that can certainly help with retention, there is an issue that persistently drives away talent: a bad boss. According to our 2022 Talent Retention Report, 43.7% of workers who changed jobs did so because they were unhappy with their manager, even more than unsatisfactory pay (41.2%).
On today's episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole addresses the harmful effects of a bad boss and how one causes a toxic work environment. If you’ve already approached HR and quitting your job isn't an option, there are ways to improve or maintain your mental health in the workplace, such as:
• Make time for self-care activities (exercise, meditation, or hobbies)
• Set boundaries with your boss to improve your relationship with them
• Seek out support, either from friends, family, or a mental health professional
Licensed therapist Hannah Rose also joins Cole to discuss mental health in the workplace. Rose is the founder and clinical supervisor for Rose Wellness. The two talk about:
• Rose's advice for working in mental health therapy
• The challenges of beginning her private practice
• How mental health therapy helps people with their workplace stressors
Subscribe to Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast for more career advice. Also, check out additional content on our YouTube Channel!
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Layoffs have come hard and fast in the first two months of 2023, with several high-profile companies taking part, such as:
• Google (6% of its workforce)
• Disney (3%)
• Salesforce (10%)
• Yankee Candle (13%)
• Goldman Sachs (8%)
Being suddenly thrust onto the job market without a regular paycheck is scary, and the prospect of a long job search can be overwhelming. Beyond the stress of finding a new job, getting laid off frequently creates enormous grief as your world is upended. While you may not have much time to grieve your old position as you pursue your next one, taking the time to process what happened is one of many helpful actions you should take if you get laid off.
On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole offers advice on how to handle a layoff. When processing the bad news, Cole reiterates that you need to work through the understandable negative emotions that layoffs cause before diving into a job search. Some of her suggestions include:
• Finding something you enjoy doing that can help you process the layoff
• Writing down your accomplishments to highlight them in your search
• Figure out what type of company you want to work for
• Define your definition of success at work
• Ask for help from your inner circle
In addition to these suggestions, Cole is joined by Dr. Jeffery Sassmannshausen, a board-certified Dermatologist, to discuss finding a work-life balance in a busy profession.
Enjoy the full episode for career advice on navigating a layoff, and subscribe to Find Your Niche: a Career Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Additional content is available on our YouTube Channel!
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Performance reviews can be an arduous experience, but they are also an opportunity for both employees and supervisors to clear the air, address achievements, and map out future goals and expectations. Viewing these meetings as strictly for the employer’s benefit to document conversations about shortcomings and job expectations can be tempting, but they can also move your career forward.
Career coach Lori Cole shares tips on how to do a performance review in today’s episode of Find Your Niche: a Career Podcast — especially the built-in benefit of a meeting designed specifically to discuss all aspects of your job with a supervisor. That includes topics employees may be uncomfortable bringing up, such as promotions or raises. Before you come out of the gate asking about a raise or promotion, however, you must be prepared to get the most out of your review. Once you feel confident in your preparation, you can move on to addressing your compensation and role with the organization. In addition to avoiding certain areas when asking for a raise, here are a few things you should do to help your case:
• Cite work accomplishments to show your value to the company’s bottom line
• Research the market rate for your skills and job duties
• Have a specific figure or range that is fair
• Be ready to negotiate if things don’t go as planned and you don’t get the raise you want
Beyond maximizing your performance reviews, Cole chats with Trine University Rinker-Ross School of Health Sciences VP and Dean Shane Steele. The two discuss:
• Exploring different options with your degree
• Leveling up your skills
• Getting a read on the job market
Enjoy the full episode and subscribe to Find Your Niche, a Career Podcast, wherever you listen for more career advice. Additional content is also available on our YouTube channel!
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Compensation was a primary catalyst of the Great Resignation as the economic prospects of workers rebounded following the COVID-19 pandemic. In our 2022 Talent Retention Report, 43.4% of employees who left their job did so because they were unhappy with their compensation. However, as inflation stresses household finances, employees are still looking for ways to improve their salaries.
While salary is a primary motivation for workers, many don’t know how to ask for a raise and avoid it altogether. A survey by PayScale revealed that only 37% of workers have ever asked for a raise from their current employer.
On today’s episode of Find Your Niche, a Career Podcast, host Lori Cole breaks down the behaviors that prevent you from earning a pay raise at your current job. Some of those behaviors include:
• Not asking for a raise: You can’t get what you don’t ask for
• Not preparing for a salary conversation: You need to research the market and explain why you should earn more
• Not showing your value: You have to share what you’ve been doing that warrants the raise
Enjoy the full episode to learn more about the steps to avoid when asking for a raise. Also, subscribe to Find Your Niche, a Career Podcast, for more career advice!
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Getting a new job requires planning, intention, and patience over a long process. While applying immediately (and as often as possible) with a generic resume is tempting, that’s not the most effective way to go about your search. On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole explains how to find a job effectively with a few tips before you start applying:
Define your career objectives and research job postings to figure out what you wantSet up a dedicated work area in your home for job searching without any distractionsCreate a professional email account specifically for finding a jobDon’t mass apply with a generic resume, tailor it for each job postingUtilize a password manager to keep track of the accounts you create when applyingRecord a professional-sounding voicemail greeting and make sure your voicemail box doesn’t get fullEstablish your salary expectationsCole also gathers more job searching tips from Andres Lares, co-author of Persuade and Managing Partner for Shapiro Negotiations Institute. Lares outlines four steps that will help you be more persuasive in any negotiation (or job interview).
Subscribe to Find Your Niche for more career advice from Lori Cole.
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Unconscious bias is prevalent in everyone’s day-to-day thoughts as we process countless amounts of information. This tendency to of categorizing experiences and people can be useful when making quick decisions, but it can also harm those around you if left unexamined.
When unconscious bias seeps into the workplace, whether in the recruiting process, interview stage, or during evaluations or promotional considerations, it can create an overly homogenous atmosphere with blind spots that affect the bottom line. Some unconscious bias examples include:
• First Impression: The first few minutes of an interview stick more in the hiring manager’s mind than anything else, especially if they are negative
• Similarity Bias: An employer tends to favor candidates who remind them of themselves
• Effective Heuristics: Interviewers allow superficial factors (e.g., weight, age, gender, and attractiveness) to influence decisions
While unconscious bias compromising objectivity during a job interview is a significant hurdle, other forms occur even earlier in the process. For example, studies have revealed employers tend to favor applicants with more common-sounding (or whiter) names by giving them interviews at a higher rate than minority candidates. Job description bias can even prevent entire demographics of candidates from applying altogether based on masculine or feminine wording within job postings.
On today’s episode of Find Your Niche:A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole lists the types of unconscious bias you need to be aware of in your career journey, how to identify them, and, most importantly, how to prevent them from derailing your career prospects. She also discusses the issue with HR Shield Human Resources Consultant Jenni Stone, who shares a personal story of bias she combatted in one interview during her career.
Subscribe to Find Your Niche wherever you listen to podcasts for more career advice!
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It is easy to get into negative thought patterns when you make a mistake at work. We are frequently our worst critic, and those thoughts spiral during tough times. Our brains have a negativity bias where it takes three positive thoughts or experiences to outweigh a single negative one. This tendency is called cognitive distortion, and the thinking traps it leads to manifest in various ways, including:
• Overgeneralization: Extrapolating one mistake to mean you are mistake prone
• Me/Them Trap: Either blaming yourself or someone else entirely for a problem
• Mind Reading: Assuming someone is thinking negatively about you without evidence
On today’s episode of Find Your Niche: A Career Podcast, host Lori Cole discusses the strategizes for avoiding thinking traps with Jacob Goldstein, Executive Director for Leadership and Organizational Development at the Leadership Laboratory. Goldstein speaks to Fortune 500 companies about creating positive mental health outcomes and how leaders can create a culture of psychological safety for their employees.
Enjoy the full episode, and be sure to subscribe to Find Your Niche wherever you listen to podcasts for more career advice!
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