Sandra Clark is a treasured consulting resource to The Job Forum and job hunters around the SF Bay Area

At Sandra’s most recent excellent workshop, she emphasizes to job hunters that these elements are among the gold standard for career branding.

• Visuals: Use a professional headshot no more than two to three years old; avoid AI-generated faces or unprofessional backgrounds.
• Headline: Utilize the 220-character limit to include a functional, market-value job title rather than just a payroll title. Front-load important keywords since only 30–50 characters are visible on mobile and desktop.
• About Section: Treat this as an elevator pitch that incorporates personal touches to differentiate from other candidates.
• Experience: Focus on quantifiable deliverables and accomplishments; do not list every role since the beginning of one’s career unless highly relevant.

Advanced Optimization

Strategic use of platform features can significantly increase discoverability by recruiters using LinkedIn’s tool for recruiters searching for candidates: LinkedIn Recruiter.

• Keywords and Skills: Add up to 100 skills, ensuring the top three are most relevant to target roles. Use natural language in searches to find transferable opportunities.
• Employment Gaps: Rather than leaving gaps blank, use the “Career Break” feature or create a “Market Value” position (e.g., listing “Software Engineer” under industry instead of a company name) to remain visible in active searches.
• Networking Hacks: To bypass inability to see “Connect” option on someone’s profile use the “More” button to find connection options. For those seeking work, adding #opentowork at the bottom of the “About” section can help reach recruiters who do not use premium tools.
• AI Integration: Use tools like Claude, ChatGPT, or Canva Magic Edit as collaborators for refining text or backgrounds, but avoid letting AI dictate your entire persona, as recruiters can easily detect it, and it is important that you come across in an authentic way.
• Putting the kind of job you are targeting into your profile: when you are looking and want to be clear about your target you can put this in your LinkedIn headline

         Examples include one for. entry level and one for a veteran liking for civilian role:

• • Project Manager | Targeting Healthcare & Biotech | Operations | Cross-Functional Leadership

 

• • Data Analyst | SQL • Python • Tableau | Seeking Analytics Roles

 

• • Marketing Leader Transitioning to Customer Success | SaaS | Client Strategy

 

• •  Entry-level Financial Analyst l Excel, Financial Modeling, Data Analysis, l Economics Graduate

 

• • Operations & Logistics Manager l U.S. Military veteran ( Marines) l team leadership l Supply Chain & Operations expertise, Project Management skills

 

Strategic and Tactical Advice

The session highlighted how modern job hunting requires both technical literacy and human soft skills and judgment.

• Job Searching: Apply for positions immediately after they are posted; being among the first applicants increases the likelihood of being seen before recruiters pivot to other candidates. Use tools like Hunter.io to find direct contact information for hiring managers for proactive outreach.
• Continuous Learning: Take courses and access resources such as LinkedIn Learning, which is often available for free through local libraries, to stay updated and appear ready to go and seem very current on emerging technologies and industry trends.
• Anthropic offers free, self-paced training through Claude Academy. It includes beginner courses for using Claude at work as well as technical courses on APIs, Claude Code, and MCP.
• Freshen up your ranking in the algorithm: When you started looking for work, which may have been months ago, or maybe even years ago, you turned on your looking for work. Whether you turned it on so it was showing to everybody, or just to recruiters, you turned it on and you left it there. What you can do now is to mark in your calendar once a week. Go in and turn it off, and that doesn’t mean if you’ve got the green banner showing, change it to just recruiters. Literally, you have to delete it. Be sure to make a note of what you had in there. Delete it. Then add it back 30 seconds, and what it does in the algorithm is it brings you to the top of a search again.
•  Use a hashtag : Show up to those recruiters not using the LinkedIn Recruiter product by putting a hashtag at the bottom of your about section, very subtly at the bottom, you put in #opentowork all one word.
• Company branding: If the companies you worked for are not particularly well known now or not in the industry you are targeting, it may be appropriate to say “leading pharmaceutical company” or something similar to identify, by context, that your career work was important

Sandra Clark helps people at The Job Forum transform their LinkedIn profile to increase the probabilities they get the results they want. Her next Job Forum free seminar for job hunters will be on (October 19 at 4pm)  

Janet Beach and Job Forum volunteers, Angel Max Guerrero and Torrance Bynum went to a San Francisco Rotary Club sponsored summer camp for high school sophomore’s and junior’s and the team of 3 made a presentation on the topic of Resumes in the time of AI . The campers were very engaged and asked 34 questions about resumes and job hunting

The summary of advice given is this:

1. Focus on Achievements, Not Just Activities

o   Don’t just list clubs or sports.

o   Show what you accomplished.

o   Example: “Raised $2,000 for the school food drive” or “Captain of a 20-member soccer team.”

2. Include All Relevant Experience

o   Part-time jobs

o   Babysitting or pet sitting

o   Volunteer work

o   School projects

o   Clubs, sports, music, theater

o   Leadership roles and community service

o   Employers value responsibility, even if it wasn’t a formal job.

3. Customize Your Résumé

o   Adjust it for each job, internship, scholarship, or college application.

o   Highlight the experiences and skills most relevant to that opportunity.

4. Use AI as a Coach, Not a Writer of your resume

o   AI can help improve wording, check grammar, suggest stronger action verbs, and tailor your résumé.

o   Always make sure everything is truthful and reflects your own experience.

5. Keep It Simple and Easy to Read

o   One page.

o   Clean formatting with clear headings.

o   Consistent fonts and spacing.

o   Save and send as a PDF unless another format is requested.

6. Proofread Carefully

o   Even one typo can make a poor first impression.

o   Read it aloud.

o   Have a parent, teacher, mentor, or friend review it before sending.

 Here are the questions the campers asked and the answers we provide:

Resume Fundamentals & Formatting

Q1. What do people look for in resumes? Is it based on a job, based on school, what you say on applications, or other experiences?

Recruiters and hiring managers look for relevance, evidence of impact, and clear skills.

• Relevance to the Job: Above all, employers want to see that your capabilities align with their specific job posting. A tailored resume always beats a generic one.
• School vs. Experience: For students and recent grads, education and coursework play a prominent role. For experienced professionals, real-world work outcomes matter far more than where they went to school.
• Demonstrated Impact: Employers look for proof that you solved problems, took initiative, or generated results in your past roles—whether through paid work, leadership, or volunteer efforts.

Q2. What trends do you see in resumes now versus past decades?

• Objective Statements Professional Summaries: Generic statements that used to be recommended such as “Objective: To gain employment at a growth-oriented company” are now replaced by concise 2–3 line summaries highlighting core strengths and target roles. proven reliable worker with skills in xyz
• Duty-Driven task descriptions vs Accomplishment Outcome-Driven: Old resumes listed job descriptions (“Responsible for managing inventory”). Modern resumes focus on measurable accomplishments (“Streamlined inventory tracking, reducing stock discrepancies by 18%”).
• Length & Clean Layouts: Modern resumes favor clean, single-column, scan-friendly layouts built for automated parsing systems (ATS) rather than wordy, dense multi-page blocks.
• Skills Sections: Dedicated sections for hard technical skills, tools, and certifications are now standard practice to ensure clear visual scanning and keyword alignment.

Q3. How do you make a resume not too wordy, long, or packed with too much information?

• Use Bullets, Not Paragraphs: Limit bullet points to 2–4 per entry, keeping each bullet under two lines.
• Focus on Results, Not Daily Duties: Omit mundane daily tasks (“Opened the store, answered phones”) and focus on significant achievements or projects.
• Apply the “So What?” Test: Read every line and ask: Does this prove a relevant skill or accomplishment? If it doesn’t add value to the role you want, remove it.
• Cut Filler Words: Remove phrases like “responsible for,” “duties included,” or “successfully.” Replace them with strong, direc action verbs (Created, Managed, Engineered, Delivered).

Q4. What should you put on a resume, and how do you convey your skills and achievements in the best way possible?

Core Sections: Contact Information, Professional Summary (optional for entry-level), Core Skills, Work/Practical Experience, Education, and Relevant Projects/Leadership.

The Best Structure for Achievements (XYZ / CAR Formula): Structure your bullet points using the formula: Action Verb + Context/Task + Measurable Result.

• Weak: “Helped manage social media accounts for a club.”
• Strong: “Managed Instagram account for a 150-member student club, publishing 3 weekly posts that grew total engagement by 40%.”

Q5. How to put job experience on a resume without it being extremely long—especially if you’ve worked in many places?

• Group or Drop Older Roles: Group short-term or temporary roles under a single entry (e.g., ” Customer Service Roles (2022–2024)”) or drop jobs that are older than 10 years or irrelevant to your current career path.
• Scale Bullet Points by Relevance: Allocate 3–4 detailed bullet points to your most recent or relevant roles,and compress older or less relevant jobs down to 1–2 high-level bullets (or just company name, title, and dates).
• Create a “Selected Experience” Section: Highlight only the roles that directly serve your target application, labeling the section Relevant Experience instead of Work History.

Q6. How do you decide the right amount of description for your experience? What are examples of good ways to describe experience?

Aim for 3 to 5 bullets per recent/major role and 1 to 3 bullets for secondary or older roles. Each bullet should answer: What did you do, how did you do it, and what was the outcome?

Examples of Effective Descriptions:

• Retail / Food Service: “Trained 6 new barista hires on POS systems and beverage prep, improving peak-hour order processing speed by 15%.”
• Office / Administrative: “Organized digital filing system across 4 departments, reducing document retrieval time for team members.”
• Project / Engineering: “Designed and 3D-printed a custom mounting bracket for a robotics team project, reducing total assembly weight by 12%.”

Q7. Is it still important for a resume to be one page long?

Yes, for early-career applicants, students, and anyone with under 5–7 years of experience. Hiring managers spend an average of 6–7 seconds on their initial scan. Keeping your resume to one page forces conciseness and ensures your strongest qualifications aren’t buried on page two. A two-page resume is appropriate primarily for mid-to-senior professionals with deep technical or managerial backgrounds.

Q8. Should I include a photograph of myself on the resume?

In the US, Canada, UK, and Australia: No. Including a photo is strongly discouraged because it can trigger unconscious bias and cause company Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) or HR teams to reject the application to avoid discrimination compliance issues.

Q9. What application is best for resume drafting? Should we use Google Docs, Canva, Adobe, or what?

• Best Choice: Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Plain text-based editors produce clean, single-column documents that ATS software can reliably parse. They export perfectly to standard PDF formats.
• Use Canva/Adobe with Caution: Design tools like Canva produce visually attractive templates, but their underlying code often uses multi-column text boxes, graphics, and custom tables that ATS scanners cannot parse correctly. If applying online via job portals, stick to Google Docs or Word templates exported to PDF. Use Canva only when delivering a printed resume in person or emailing directly to a human contact.

Q10. What is a list of qualifications that are important to include on a resume?

• Core Hard Skills: Proficiency with industry tools, software (Excel, Python, CAD, CRM software), foreign languages, and technical certifications.
• Core Soft / Transferable Skills: Project management, communication, analytical problem-solving, customer service, cross-functional collaboration, and leadership.
• Evidence of Proficiency: Certifications, licenses, academic honors, or specialized training completions (e.g., CPR, OSHA, Google Analytics, CompTIA).

Early Career, Students & Low-Experience Strategies

College / Student Resume Priority Stack

+————————————————–+

| 1. Contact Information & Header                  |

+————————————————–+

| 2. Education (Degree, GPA if >3.5, Expected Date)|

+————————————————–+

| 3. Hands-On Projects / Coursework                |

+————————————————–+

| 4. Leadership & Campus Involvement               |

+————————————————–+

| 5. Work Experience (Part-Time, Summer Jobs,volunteering)      |

+————————————————–+

| 6. Technical Skills & Certifications             |

+————————————————–+

Q11. What is the hierarchy of important things for a college student’s resume?

1. Contact Information: Full name, professional email, phone number, location (City, State), and LinkedIn URL.
2. Education: School name, degree, major/minor, expected graduation date, relevant coursework, and GPA (include if 3.5 or above).
3. Projects / Technical Experience: Academic projects, capstone research, or personal builds that demonstrate practical application of your field of study.
4. Leadership & Campus Involvement: Club leadership roles, athletics, student government, or fraternity/sorority executive positions.
5. Work / Internship Experience: Paid roles, internships, or summer jobs.
6. Skills & Certifications: Languages, software, and technical tools.

Q12. If you have little to no job experience, what are the most important things to put on your resume?

• Academic Projects: Describe major research papers, lab assignments, or team deliverables as if they were work experience, detailing your role and tools used.
• Volunteer Work & Community Involvement: Highlight key responsibilities, hours contributed, and initiatives organized.
• Extracurricular Activities: Student clubs, tutoring, youth coaching, or sports and leadership positions.
• Technical Skills: Proficiency in software, tools, design platforms, or coding languages.

Q13. How do you go about getting a job if you have no previous job experience and nothing to put on a resume?

• Build “Bridge” Experience First: Volunteer for a local charity, complete a free online certificate course (e.g., Google, Coursera, HubSpot), or offer to assist a local business with a small project.
• Leverage a Functional/Hybrid Resume: Emphasize your core skills, education, and personal/school projects at the top of the resume rather than leading with a blank work history section.
• Apply for Roles with Low Barriers to Entry: Target local retail, food service, seasonal positions, campus jobs, or community center roles where willingness to learn and reliability matter more than formal work history.
• Network Directly: Reach out to family, friends, neighbors, teachers, or community contacts to ask if they know of entry-level openings where a personal recommendation carries weight.

Q14. What aspects of my resume should I emphasize in terms of activities to show up the most?

Emphasize activities where you demonstrated leadership, initiative, problem-solving, or consistency.

• Holding an executive role in a student organization (e.g., Treasurer, Event Coordinator).
• Captaining an athletic team or leading a volunteer drive.
• Completing a complex capstone project or competing in hackathons/case competitions. Make these stand out by giving them dedicated bullet points structured with action verbs and outcomes.

Q15. How exactly does volunteering affect your resume?

Volunteering counts as real experience. Hiring managers view volunteer roles similarly to paid work when evaluating your soft skills, work ethic, and ability to collaborate in a team. It fills resume gaps, demonstrates community engagement, and provides concrete bullet points showing leadership, communication, and project coordination.

Q16. As a teen looking for a part-time job, where would you start looking?

• Local Retail & Food Service: Coffee shops, grocery stores, ice cream shops, clothing stores, and fast-casual restaurants.
• Seasonal & Youth Organizations: Parks and recreation departments, community pools (lifeguard, snack bar), summer camps, and tutoring centers.
• In-Person Applications: Visit local small businesses during non-busy hours (e.g., 2 PM–4 PM), dress neatly, ask to speak with a hiring manager, and hand them your printed resume or application.
• Online Boards: Check platforms like Snagajob, Indeed, or hyper-local community message boards and school bulletin boards.

Q17. How should you go about preparing your first resume?

1. Brainstorm Everything: Write down all high school/college achievements, volunteer days, club activities, honors, babysitting/yard work jobs, and software tools you know.
2. Select a Clean Template: Use a single-column, standard Google Docs template.
3. Structure Key Sections: Put Header Education Projects/Activities Work/Volunteer Experience Skills.
4. Draft Action-Oriented Bullets: Begin every description line with a strong action verb (Organized, Built, Coordinated, Assisted).
5. Proofread Thoroughly: Check for typos and formatting consistency, then export as a PDF.

Q18. How can you start at age 16 to build up skills and work history so you end up with a good resume later?

• Seek Informal Roles: Offer neighborhood services like babysitting, pet sitting, lawn care, or private tutoring. Treat these professionally by tracking client rosters and hours.
• Join School Clubs & Aim for Officer Positions: Become a treasurer, social media director, or committee head in clubs like DECA, FBLA, Robotics, or Key Club.
• Earn Technical Certifications: Spend spare time completing free or low-cost online skill tracks (Microsoft Excel, basic coding, Google Workspace, digital marketing).
• Commit to Regular Volunteering: Find an organization you care about (animal shelter, food bank, library) and log consistent hours over months or years.

AI & The Modern Job Search

Q19. How can you use AI to improve the quality of your resume?

• Bullet Point Enhancement: Input raw, simple descriptions of past tasks into an AI tool and ask it to phrase them into achievement-focused statements using active verbs.
• Tailoring for Specific Job Descriptions: Paste a job posting alongside your resume draft and prompt the AI to identify missing keywords, industry terms, or skill gaps.
• Grammar & Tone Proofreading: Use AI to check for wordiness, passive voice, tense inconsistencies, or structural typos.

Q20. Is it visible or obvious to hiring managers when you use AI to find ways to improve your resume?

It is not obvious when used responsibly as an editing assistant. However, it becomes immediately obvious when applicants copy and paste generic AI output verbatim. AI writing often uses repetitive jargon (“spearheaded,” “testament to,” “dynamic professional,” “leveraged cutting-edge solutions”) and overly polished, generic phrasing that lacks personal context or concrete details. Always edit AI suggestions into your authentic voice.

Q21. Does using AI to write your resume get flagged or inspected in some way?

Generally, Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) do not flag or disqualify resumes simply for containing AI-generated text. ATS platforms scan for keyword relevance, formatting, and structural data—not AI detection scores. However, human recruiters will inspect your resume, and if it sounds robotic, generic, or inflated, your application will likely be rejected during human review.

Q22. How can you make your resume stand out to hiring managers who might be using AI to select applicants?

• Mirror Job Description Keywords: Scan the job posting for core requirements, tools, and technical terms, and incorporate those exact phrases naturally throughout your experience and skills sections.
• Keep Formatting Machine-Readable: Avoid tables, text boxes, images, or non-standard fonts that confuse automated scanners. Use standard section headers (Work Experience, Education, Skills).
• Include Quantifiable Metrics: AI scoring tools favor entries supported by concrete numbers, percentages, dollar amounts, or timeframe metrics.

Q23. How does the overall use of AI impact resumes?

AI has dramatically raised the volume of job applications submitted, which means recruiters face hundreds of AI-generated, highly polished resumes for every opening. Because generic “AI polished” text is now common, employers place far higher value on verifiable proof of accomplishments, specific metrics, unique project examples, and authentic personal interviews.

Q24. How do you feel AI will impact the job market, and what is the plan to overcome AI closing off entry-level jobs?

AI is replacing routine administrative, basic coding, and entry-level drafting tasks. To adapt, entry-level candidates should focus on:

1. Developing Tool Proficiency: Learn to use AI tools relevant to your target field so you can position yourself as a worker who can leverage AI for higher productivity.
2. Focusing on “Human-In-The-Loop” Skills: Emphasize soft skills that AI cannot replicate—client relation, critical thinking, complex problem-solving, collaboration, and adaptability.
3. Building Concrete Portfolio Evidence: Create tangible proof of your abilities (github repos, design portfolios, written analysis, physical engineering projects) rather than relying solely on credentials.

Q25. How will my job search be affected by AI as an aspiring engineer, and what fields can Electrical, Mechanical, or Aerospace Engineers target for the future?

AI is automating routine CAD drafting, basic simulation setups, and standard code generation. Engineering candidates are expected to understand how to incorporate AI and machine learning tools into traditional engineering workflows.

High-Growth Target Fields for Engineers:

• Electrical Engineering (EE): Embedded systems and IoT, semiconductor manufacturing, power grid modernization & renewable energy integration, and hardware acceleration for AI/datacenter chips.
• Mechanical Engineering (ME): Robotics and automation, advanced additive manufacturing, thermal management systems for electronics/batteries, and electric vehicle powertrain design.
• Aerospace Engineering: Autonomous flight systems, drone fleet logistics, commercial space systems, propulsion development, and satellite mesh networking.

Specialized Experience, Non-Traditional Paths & Careers

Q26. How can you use military experience to support your resume and create impact for your application or interview?

• Translate Military Terminology: Convert military titles, acronyms, and operational jargon into civilian language. (e.g., Translate “NCOIC of a 12-person squad” to “Operations Supervisor leading a 12-person team”).
• Highlight Core Competencies: Emphasize high-demand transferable traits such as crisis leadership, resource allocation, inventory management, risk mitigation, security compliance, and adaptability under pressure.
• Quantify Responsibility: Specify the dollar value of equipment managed, number of personnel supervised, or logistics volume handled.

Q27. What are some examples of organizations that can interview me and help write my resume?

• University/College Career Centers: Offer free resume reviews, mock interviews, and career advising for current students and alumni.
• State/Local Workforce Development Agencies (e.g., American Job Centers): Provide free career coaching, resume workshops, and interview preparation for local residents.
• Non-Profit Organizations: Groups like Goodwill Career Centers, Workforce50, Hire Heroes USA (for veterans), or local youth leadership funds.
• Professional Resume Writers & Career Coaches: Paid private services (ensure they hold certifications like CPRW – Certified Professional Resume Writer).

Q28. When thinking about “professional qualifications,” does “professional” mean only skills gained while being paid?

No. Professional qualifications represent any demonstrated ability to perform a skill to an industry standard. Skills acquired through unpaid internships, open-source software contributions, student organizations, volunteer leadership, personal technical projects, or self-directed certifications count fully as professional qualifications.

Q29. What are the best careers for liberal arts majors?

Liberal arts majors excel in communication, qualitative analysis, adaptability, and critical thinking. Top career paths include:

• Corporate & Marketing: Content strategy, public relations, brand management, digital marketing, and corporate communications.
• Operations & Sales: Account management, business development, customer success management, and project management.
• People & Policy: Human resources, corporate recruiting, public policy analysis, non-profit administration, and grant writing.
• Technical Integration: User Experience (UX) research, technical writing, and business/data analysis.

Interview Preparation & Standing Out

Q30. How do you stand out on your resume?

• Lead with High-Impact Metrics: Use numbers, percentages, and performance results right at the beginning of bullet points.
• Highlight Unique Projects: Include a dedicated Key Projects section showcasing self-initiated builds, research papers, or community solutions.
• Tailor Directly to the Role: Match the employer’s specific vocabulary and business challenges directly in your summary and experience bullet points.

Q31. How should you prepare for an interview?

1. Research the Company: Review their website, recent news releases, core products/services, and company culture.
2. Practice the STAR Method: Prepare 5–6 stories from your past experiences structured as Situation, Task, Action, and Result.
3. Review the Job Description: Identify the primary skills required and align your stories to address those specific requirements.
4. Prepare Questions to Ask: Formulate 3–4 thoughtful questions for the interviewer regarding team structure, immediate challenges, and growth opportunities.

Q32. What makes a person stand out in a job interview?

• Authentic Enthusiasm & Curiosity: Showing genuine interest in the company’s work and asking insightful questions about their challenges.
• Structured, Evidence-Based Responses: Answering questions clearly without rambling, using concrete metrics and real examples.
• Self-Awareness & Problem-Solving Orientation: Candidly explaining past mistakes alongside what was learned, and articulating how you approach solving novel problems.
• Clear Post-Interview Follow-Up: Sending a concise, personalized thank-you note within 24 hours referencing specific points discussed during the interview.

Workshop / Presentation Clarification

Q33. Do adults use Ai for slideshows?

Yes As an AI assistant, many modern presenters at leadership events use AI-assisted tools (such as Canva Magic Design, Beautiful.ai, or Gamma) to help outline ideas, structure slide content, or generate initial visual layouts before customizing the final deck.

Q34 how do you Tailor a resume for a specific job posting?

Use some of their language but don’t just copy the sentences…rewrite the top 1/3 of the resume for the job and prioritize rather than just add. Base your customizing on the 5-7 things your careful reading suggests the employer really wants/needs by filling the job  (results they seek/ expect problems they need to solve, skills they want) Show evidence and accomplishments and connect these to what is wanted for the role.

Why smart, capable people feel stuck in today’s job search,

and how to change that.

You’re doing everything right. You’re applying for roles you’re qualified for. You’re following up. You’re showing up to interviews prepared, articulate, and ready. And still — silence. Or worse: several interviews in, only to be ghosted.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. In workshops and networking events over the past several years, I’ve met countless professionals experiencing the same thing: strategies that worked earlier in their careers no longer producing the same results.

The natural assumption is that the problem is the market. And to be fair, the market has changed. But over time, I’ve become convinced that part of the challenge isn’t just the market — it’s the way we’re thinking about it.

• What assumptions are we making?
• What stories are we telling ourselves?
• What beliefs are shaping our decisions, our actions, and ultimately our results?

We can’t always control the market. But we do have influence over how we interpret it, how we respond to it, and the choices we make. To be clear, not pretending that the job market is easy, but learning to notice — and choose — the thinking that actually supports the future we’re trying to create.

 

The Market Has Changed. Have Our Assumptions?

More than ever, with the prevalence of AI, opportunities are increasingly shaped by visibility and initiative.

Your skills still matter. Opportunities exist. But many of them now emerge through forming relationships in deeper ways, by showing people how you think, not just asking for an informational interview.

If you feel stuck, it’s not because you lack intelligence, effort, or talent. More often, it’s because you’re still approaching the market with assumptions that no longer reflect how opportunities are actually created today.

 

Every Result Begins With a Thought

Before every action, every decision, every opportunity pursued or missed — there was a thought.

But because thoughts influence what we notice, what we believe is possible, what actions we take, and how consistently we persist,  those actions shape our results.

Consider two people responding to the same internal doubt:

Thought: “I don’t have enough experience for this.”

Feeling: Discouraged.

Action: Avoid outreach. Wait to apply. Stay invisible.

Result: Fewer opportunities.

Now contrast it with:

Thought: “My experience may be more transferable than I realize.”

Feeling: Curious.

Action: Research organizations. Initiate conversations. Explore opportunities.

Result: More possibilities.

Same person. Same skill set. Same job market. Different thought and entirely different trajectory.

 

Interpretation Shapes Experience

Here’s something we rarely stop to examine: what shapes our experience isn’t only what happens — it’s the meaning we automatically assign to it.

Say you apply for a job and never get a response The action is simple: you applied. But what happens next, in your head, is where things diverge.

Many of us immediately create an interpretation:

• “They found someone better.”
• “This is never going to happen for me.”

Notice that neither of those is a fact. They’re interpretations. And once we believe them, they start shaping how we feel, how we behave, and what we do next.

Now imagine a different interpretation of the exact same event:

• “Maybe they’re still reviewing candidates.”
• “Maybe the process is taking longer than expected for a variety of reasons.”

Same event. Different interpretations. Entirely different experience.

We don’t actually experience actions and events directly; we experience our interpretation of them. Which raises a genuinely useful question: what if the event isn’t creating your experience? What if your interpretation is?

 

Awareness Creates Choice

Once we notice an interpretation, we gain the ability to examine it. Without awareness, we react automatically, we assume our interpretation is reality. But the moment we notice it, a small space opens up. And in that space, we create choice.

We can ask:

• “Is this actually true?”
• “Is there another way to look at this?”
• “Is this helping me move forward?”
• “What might be possible if I challenged this assumption?”

Awareness doesn’t immediately change our circumstances. But it changes our relationship to them, and that’s where real change begins.

 

A Simple Practice: Raise Your Awareness

One of the most useful tools I share with clients is deceptively simple: raise your awareness or notice what you’re noticing: a practice of meta-cognition, or becoming curious about what’s happening in your own mind, without judging it or trying to fix it.

You submit an application. You don’t hear back. What’s the first thought that appears?

You meet someone at a networking event. What story are you telling yourself?

You see a job posting that excites you. What’s your immediate reaction?

The moment you notice a thought, an assumption, or an interpretation, you create a little space between yourself and that pattern. And in that space, you have the ability to choose.

Once you can see a pattern, you can interrupt it. And once you can interrupt it, you can start building a new one.

 

Protective Thoughts

Many of the thoughts that quietly stall a job search are protective in nature:  they’re trying to guard us from something. A few common ones:

“I need more experience before I begin.”

What is this thought protecting you from? Usually failure, rejection, or embarrassment. Is it objectively true? Rarely. Is it helping you? Almost never.

“I don’t want to bother people.”

This one often protects against imagined rejection. But a more useful reframe: “I bring value. Reaching out is a contribution, not an imposition.”

“Someone else is more qualified.”

This might be protecting you from disappointment, but it also guarantees you won’t show up at all. A more useful thought: “I’ll set myself apart simply by showing up, because others who think this way won’t.”

We’re not trying to eliminate uncertainty. We’re trying to stop letting uncertainty make our decisions for us.

 

From Waiting to Participating

Many people believe opportunities are “found.” More often, they’re created, through participation.

It’s important to note that most people assume confidence creates action. In reality, it’s the reverse. Action creates confidence, and as  that confidence grows, you feel more empowered to take more actions.

 

The Gap Between Old and New Thinking

If you try this and notice old thinking creeping back in, that’s not failure, that’s you beginning to raise your awareness. And the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

Thinking patterns practiced for years, sometimes decades, don’t disappear the moment we identify them. They’re familiar. Automatic. They may keep showing up for a while even after you’ve named them.

That’s the gap between old thinking and new thinking. Everyone spends time there. The goal isn’t to never think the old thought again, it’s to notice it sooner, interrupt it sooner, and identify and practice the thinking that actually serve you.

Over time, with practice, the new thought becomes easier to access. More familiar. More natural. Eventually, it becomes your default.

 

Notice the thought.

Interrupt the automatic pattern.

Challenge whether it’s true or even useful.

Choose a thought and subsequent action/response that better supports your goals.

 

This isn’t a one-time exercise — it’s a practice. And we’re not looking for the perfect thought. We’re looking for a more useful one.  Something like:

• “My experience may be more transferable than I realize.”
• “The market is selective, but opportunities still exist.”
• “I can take the next step.”

 

What If More Were Possible?

Not because the market is easy. Not because there are guarantees. But because some of the assumptions you’ve been treating as facts may not actually be facts.

• What if your experience is more valuable than you’ve given yourself credit for?
• What if the story you’ve been telling yourself about what’s possible is incomplete?

Thoughts influence actions. Actions create momentum. Momentum creates opportunities. Opportunities change lives.

 

Change your thinking. Change your results.

 

Lisa B. Saxe is a Career Strategist and MBA in Sustainable Enterprise, and the founder of Green Career Shift, where she coaches professionals through the mindset and strategy work of a career transition.

 

Lisa B. Saxe, Career Strategist

MBA, Sustainable Enterprise

415.203.3400 | lisa@greencareershift.com

GreenCareerShift.com

Click here to schedule a free Discovery Session

 

Come to “Change Your Thinking, Change Your Results” presented by Lisa Saxe at The Job Forum on October 21 at 6 pm on Zoom. Register here: https://changeyourresults.eventbrite.com

…and What is Positive about being a Doctor or being in Nursing?  

Dr Steve Hetts of UCSF explains some real advantages:

“One really nice thing about being a doctor is there’s a tremendous range of things that you can do following medical school. You do a lot of training after medical school ranging from three years to be a general practice internist, to more training for very sub- specialized doctors.  Often in surgical fields, you’re training for a decade after medical school.

Another thing that is positive nowadays is the fact there are so many more things that medicine can do for patients today.

Twenty-five years ago, if somebody was having a stroke, it was basically untreatable, and most people would do terribly. Now we’ve developed a field where we can use a catheter, get it up into the blood vessels in the brain, pull a blood clot out in a stroke situation, and restore that blood flow, and now a lot of those patients get partially or fully better. It is great when we have patients wake up on the procedure table and be just fine.

As you’ll hear from other experts, at this Job Forum health care event, it really does take a whole range of health care people and skills to be able to produce the medical devices and to analyze the imaging and to have a healthcare system that can ingest people into it in an emergency situation, get them efficiently treated, and then get them back out into the community and back to their lives.

What else that is truly positive about being a doctor is, that in your area, you are who the buck stops with. You are providing the definitive diagnosis based on the images or the lab results, or you’re producing the definitive treatment, or you’re coordinating the patient’s care, and so you are the essential person in that patient’s medical home. So one of the really nice things about being a doctor, is that you’re very central to either a very small sub-specialized part of somebody’s care, or you are responsible for a really broad portfolio of their care. You make a difference.

 What about being in nursing?

 Dr Steve Hetts describe :

Nursing is a wonderful profession as well. I, as a doctor, work with nurses of various different kinds every day. The classic picture of a nurse is somebody who goes to nursing school and then works in the hospital caring for patients directly on the hospital ward, at the bedside. They are the person who is touching the patient, administering the medications, making sure the patient is doing well, alerting other people when the patient is not doing well. They are the epitome of hands-on care. That is your classic sort of registered nurse position.

Nowadays often nurses become more sub specialized, and some of them do intensive care unit nursing, which is more complex. Instead of taking care of a few patients now, they are managing the patients. They may be messaging with the doctors and the other specialists in respiratory and other fields, about a patient who may have a breathing tube and is critically ill and has multiple organ systems failing or needs to be supported, and so it’s a much more complex set of care that he nurse needs to deliver. For this one has to become expert in pharmacology and managing intravenous medications to help the patient survive and recover.

There are also more office-based nurses who will see patients in clinics. There are nursing positions where they become more independent and they become the core medical care providers. Job titles such as  nurse practitioner or certified registered nurse anesthetist are  higher level nursing positions where they are technically supervised by doctors, but the doctors are typically not right next to them, and they’re providing very high level care, diagnosing patients, prescribing medications, administering medications, or anesthetizing patients for surgeries.

Nursing is a very diverse field that has many more  specializations now. I think it’s come a very long way just as medicine in general has. There are lots of opportunities within nursing in healthcare too.