SoFi Blog

Do you ever wonder if potential employers are Googling you before they even invite you in for a job interview? Well, wonder no more – because in most cases, the answer is yes.

Employers will often do online due diligence before making contact with a candidate. With the amount of info that’s publicly available online today, they can use the web to do everything from vetting credentials to identifying potential risks related to faulty hires.

Whether you’re looking for a new job, angling for a promotion or just seeking more responsibility in your current role, most people would agree that summer is not the best time to accomplish big career moves.   People are out on vacation, attitudes are relaxed and things move slowly, making it difficult to schedule interviews and get exposure at work.

As a career counselor and career coach, one of the most common questions I hear from clients is how to improve a resume.  While there are plenty of tips and best practices out there, I find that a lot of job seekers get tripped up from hearing too much advice about what to include, how to format things, etc.  Clients often say to me, “Someone told me to do this, but someone else told me to do that – which one should I do?”

It’s a fair question, but it’s one that always raises a red flag for me.  Why?  Because I don’t think job candidates should spend excessive time and effort on their resumes.  And that’s exactly what all this well-meaning advice causes them to do.

To get ahead in your career, technical expertise is a must-have.  But many experts agree that it’s a mastery of the less tangible qualities – things like leadership, communication and interpersonal skills – that differentiates the great from the good.  You can have advanced degrees, experience and IQ in spades, but if you don’t develop your EQ and other non-technical competencies, your career prospects will likely be limited.

Holiday downtime is a great opportunity to start planning your career strategy for the new year.  In a recent guest post I wrote for The Daily Muse, I shared one of my favorite tips for people who want to be on an executive career path: build a “career advisory board.”  To learn more about it and how to create your own board, read on . . .