Career Clarity Resources
From research to resumes to interviewing, job search is different in 2025, even compared to just a few years ago.
These links and tips that will help you find career clarity and communicate it throughout your search.
Unless specified, these links are not affiliates and I don't receive compensation for linking or referring to them.
Never Search Alone Playbook: A Modern Approach to Job Search
I recommend the Never Search Alone (NSA) playbook and its associated Job Search Councils. Working through the processes with others helps cut through the anxiety of job search and helps you understand who you are and how the market sees you. In my opinion, the best part is working through the process to get to what they call a Candidate Market Fit (CMF).
First, request to join a Job Search Council, which is your small team that will support you. The group who sets up the Councils is volunteer run and may take a couple of weeks. https://www.phyl.org/join-jsc
Then, get the book https://www.amazon.com/Never-Search-Alone-Seekers-Playbook/dp/B0B9Q9YDQ5and start reading it.
Even before joining a Job Search Council, you can follow the author Phyl Terry on LinkedIn and join in free online events for lots of tips, suggestions, and recruiter insights! https://www.linkedin.com/in/phylterry/recent-activity/events/
Candidate Fit Clarity Tips
If you see your career as a product, the clarity of its marketability is in two parts: 1) what you want – what you prefer, do best, and the value that your skills and competencies add up to; and 2) what the market wants.
The Never Search Alone playbook confirms this as a crucial step before updating your resume and online profiles.
Regarding what you want, in other (non-NSA) terms there is research in the form of exercises you need to work through to understand your skills, strengths, and preferences. When you are aware of who you are at your best, you will more easily align with the right roles. Just like a product, you need to be able to define and express the benefits or working with you.
KiteTip: Review and articulate your uniqueness. Think about 10 people with your same role. List what you would have in common and then list your unique competitive advantage.
KiteTip: I am not affiliated with Gallup, but I do recommend taking your CliftonStrengths strengths assessment and use it in a few ways for career clarity:
1. Learn from free videos on YouTube by searching “CliftonStrengths strengthname” with the name of the strength your looking for. There are at least 6 official videos per strength with different perspectives on each.
2. Go to this site and read through the content to learn details of each. About halfway down the page of each talent description is a section called “Personal Brand” with a list of keywords you can use on your resume or About in describing how you work.
3. From your top 5 or 10, identify some of those keywords (from #2) that resonate with you and that might be found in a job description you like. For example, a keyword might be “coordination” but you might not want Executive Coordinator roles. Type a few into Indeed to see what roles come up and look for titles, results, or job duties that fit you.
4. Follow Gallup and Gallup leaders in social media.
Recession-Proof/Layoff-Proof Your Career
KiteTip: Follow this advice for keeping your job skills sharp, adding additional streams of income, and documenting your successes while you are employed.
LinkedIn post by Yonelly Guiterrez with additional comments by Dori Gilbert.
Resumes
Tips for resumes to help pass the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).
- Article with tips on getting past the ATS
- Free sites that compare your resume to the job description
https://cultivatedculture.com/resume-scanner/
Use your Candidate Market Fit research to clearly describe your unique value and summarize your career in the summary section of the resume.
In 2025, every bullet must have numbers. They can be contextual (for 2500 staff) or results oriented (save 30% of the budget). This tip came from following Emily Worden, a career coach on LinkedIn.
Interview Prep
Save your stories! While employed, keep a log of accomplishments and things you are proud of. Turn those into stories for your interview behavioral questions, or into graphical “Case Study” 1-page documents for sharing. Follow this coach to learn more about the graphical 1-pagers.
Frame your stories with the STAR method
LinkedIn Premium has a benefit called “Interview Prep” that goes into detail of how to answer interview questions with a framework, examples, and a short video for each.
Use AI to help you develop stories that land! Prompt it with the your description of the story, title and characteristics of your interviewer, the interview question you’re answering, and what types of results you like to show.
Post Interview
Refer to the book The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins. The idea is that you want to be prepared with at least one specific “hit it out of the park” accomplishment in the first 90 days, along with getting to know peers, key stakeholders, and other organizational knowledge.
KiteTip: Send your 90-day plan to the hiring manager after you are done interviewing.
You may also choose to send each interviewer a PDF of select items from your portfolio – copies of kudos, case studies you’ve written, awards you’ve received, training certificates, etc. These can show examples of questions they asked about your results and can be included in your thank you emails.
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