You open your inbox to find an intriguing email heralding an upcoming professional event – a big industry conference, a thought leadership summit, a local meet-up or a networking group of movers and shakers. This year, however, instead of the pleasure of a lavish coffee and croissant setup paired with a company-paid hotel stay, the conference will reach you through your home computer screen, accompanied by home-made, possibly even re-heated, coffee or tea. You may wonder if there’s any point in attending, or it’s worth the money – or just as valuable these days, the time – to attend a virtua ..read more

Well before day one of your new job, feelings of happiness and relief build up on both sides. Their reaction, upon your offer acceptance: “We can’t wait!” Notes float around the team with congratulations and anticipation about the hire that will finally allow them to have a stronger team and get more work done. Your reaction: “I can’t wait!” You celebrate with friends and family and await your onboarding with a heady mix of nervousness and excitement.   Without a clear plan, sometimes your onboarding feels more like “lost at sea” than “smooth sailing.” Then exciting Day One arrives, a ..read more

Your fingers hover over the keyboard, unsure how to fill in your annual performance review self-evaluation. On the one hand, you know deep down that you didn’t – couldn’t – show up at work as your fully productive self the way you wanted to this year. On the other hand, if they only knew how you pulled off the blend of professional, personal, and in many cases schooling-from-home work you actually were able to accomplish this past year, you’d win the award for High Achievement Under Pressure. You have those last-year goals staring at you, demanding to be assigned into ACCOMPLISHED or NOT ACC ..read more

You’re browsing online for connections when a familiar profile catches your eye. It’s your ex… employer. The possibilities are intriguing, but you’ve got some history together, and—whether you’re aware of it or not—you each have pre-established impressions of the other that could influence you both. Should you consider giving this relationship a second chance? In reality, going back to an employer from your past can have excellent outcomes for both of you. Consider these examples from TurningPoint clients: One client originally held an HR role at a field office for two years, and then after ..read more

As you prepare for an upcoming job interview, your mind may wander once or twice to the potential other candidates for the role. Whether or not the hiring team has clued you in to a wide berth of competitive job seekers, the idea of someone scooping up this coveted job will likely have you fretting about how to come out on top. What if you could make those competitors irrelevant, or, better yet, disappear?   A Blue Ocean job search strategy may save the day   You may want to consider, and leverage, a Blue Ocean strategy for your job search to do just that. Blue Ocean Strategy, a bo ..read more

Does your work spark joy? It’s a question you’ve probably considered a time or two. Most people will find throughout the course of their career that there are times they wonder whether the work they do day in and day out is really suited to them, or perhaps the best use of their time and skills. But with the world flipped on its head and unemployment at a record high, priorities right now are shifting, and everything we’ve lived with, and lived for, is under much greater scrutiny. What do you want your future career to look like? To feel like? Now is the time to take a close look at how you ..read more

Once in a while, when you throw out the casual question “what do you do for work” at a party or networking event, you get a response that feels refreshingly different from the rest. You may hear “I have a company that makes dog biscuits,” “I started a vintage wine membership company,” “I run an online school that has improv classes for kids,” or something along those lines that immediately captures your attention. More often than not, this answer inspires a bit of jealousy, accompanied by the thought “why can’t I do something fun like that?” Well, now you can, as part of the Passion Economy ..read more

If you’ve ever undertaken a job search, you’ve undoubtedly experienced the worst part of the entire experience: the job search rejection. For most, it’s a visceral experience when you get the call or email (if one comes at all, that is) – a feeling in the pit of your stomach, a full body dread and hopelessness that is very hard to shake. Perhaps there were signs and you were anticipating the rejection- a rude interviewer, weeks without a response, or something you regret saying that has played over and over in your mind. Perhaps it came as a complete surprise, you thought you did everything ..read more

10 Ways to Save Time on Your Job Search In the blink of an eye, several months have passed since COVID-19 made its attention-grabbing, dramatic entrance on the global stage, and it feels like no time has passed at all. What day is it? What month is it, for that matter? Forget the to-do list, or the ideals of personal improvement, or, for most people, the “wouldn’t it be fun to consider” aspirational job search. Hanging on to current (or getting back to February’s) circumstances feels as aspirational as it comes, for many people. We’re balancing added personal and family responsibilities, and ..read more

“How you do anything is how you do everything,” or so goes the maxim that floats around self-improvement literature. Although no one knows who first coined the phrase, there’s truth to it when it comes to career decision-making. Here’s why: when you’re facing a bold life decision, how you go about doing it matters just as much as why you’re thinking about it in the first place, and what you end up deciding to do in the long run. The more you know your “how” – how you react to challenges, how you make decisions, and how you motivate yourself – the faster you’ll reap progress in your search fo ..read more