Erin Ewart

22May 2020 by Erin Ewart No Comments

How to Plan When Planning Feels Impossible

By Erin Ewart It's here: Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of summer. How did that happen? Where did the spring go? If you’re anything like me, these last few months have passed in a weird time warp, seeming to both take forever and fly by at the same time. And it’s no wonder we’re feeling this way: we’re experiencing something called “temporal disintegration”, which means we lose track of time when the future is in question. And the future is definitely a great big question mark right now. Yet, as we enter the third month of quarantine and some segments of society tentatively begin to reopen, we have to think about what's next. It’s such a paradox: how can we plan our lives, careers, or anything else, when…

01Apr 2020 by Erin Ewart No Comments

How to Network Right Now

job search, networking

By Erin Ewart What a month it’s been. Like all of you, I’m feeling overwhelmed as I process everything that’s happened in just a few short weeks. I’m also feeling overwhelmed by the volume of content that’s being shared right now, and I know you may be as well - so if you’d like a quick summary of the tips below in video format, click here! In the coming weeks, we'll aim to address some of the common questions we’re hearing from our clients, and the first one I wanted to tackle is how to network right now. Networking is always important for your career, and that’s going to be true more than ever as the hiring landscape gets more and more competitive in the coming months. But it’s also…

12Mar 2020 by Erin Ewart No Comments

Job Searching During Uncertain Times

job search, strategy

By Erin Ewart As I write this, we are experiencing a unique and in some ways unprecedented series of events. The news is constantly shifting and has us on high alert: a global pandemic. Markets falling, schools closing, and events and travel plans canceled. We are all being impacted by this, and it’s infusing a level of uncertainty and anxiety into our lives in a way we rarely experience. If you’re looking for a new job, you may be feeling especially worried right now. What does this mean for your search? Is there anything you can or should be doing differently in response to what’s happening in the world? It’s a tough question to answer, because there is still so much we don’t know about how this will all play out.…

07Feb 2020 by Erin Ewart No Comments

What’s Your Story?

career story, job search

By Erin Ewart How do you feel about telling your career story? When we ask our clients this question, we often get responses like “anxious”, “confused”, and “frustrated.” This is hands down the biggest topic they want help with, and also the one they find the most difficult. Of course there are people out there who feel confident about telling their stories, but they are in the minority and they have one thing in common: they practice A LOT. To illustrate this point, I was in a training with other business owners recently, and everyone went around the room and gave their 15-30 second pitch on the spot without a hitch. You know why? Because business owners do this all the time. But for most of us, talking about ourselves…

25Nov 2019 by Erin Ewart No Comments

How to Job Search During the Holidays

career coaching, job search, networking, strategy

BY ERIN EWART The holiday season is here, and every year around this time we get questions from our clients who are in career transition about what this means for them. One of the biggest questions we get is whether any hiring happens this time of year, and the answer to that is a definite yes! But while hiring happens year round, it does tend to slow down around the holidays, and it can be discouraging to see fewer new jobs being posted and to get so many out of office replies to your networking outreach. But that doesn't mean you should take a time out from your job search during the holidays; that's a mistake that will come back to bite you in January. Instead, think about how you can…

25Sep 2019 by Erin Ewart No Comments

Why Feeling Stuck Sucks – And What To Do About It

career coaching, job search, strategy

BY ERIN EWART Yesterday I got stuck. Not physically stuck, but mentally and emotionally stuck. I felt like I had so many things competing for my attention that I couldn’t decide what to focus on. I am wrestling with a few big decisions right now, and I was feeling completely stressed about what to do next and where I should be spending my time and energy. And so it hit me. As I sat at my desk, toggling between my to do list and my email inbox and the many, many open tabs in my browser (yes, I am one of those people), I felt the tightness of panic rise in my chest. I was paralyzed. Overwhelmed. Completely stuck. And I knew I had to do something. So I…

30Jul 2019 by Erin Ewart No Comments

A Year of Big Changes

strategy

BY ERIN EWART 2019 is turning out to be a year of big personal and professional change - maybe more than I bargained for! On the professional front, we’ve recently updated our name to Careers for Social Impact, which I’m incredibly excited about. We launched a new Self-Study version of our Job Search Bootcamp program earlier this year, and we're in the midst of growing our team and hiring additional coaches to help us expand our impact and work with more clients. On the personal front, our family welcomed a new baby in March (hi Kieran!). And after five years in Seattle, my husband and I have decided to relocate back to the east coast to be closer to our extended family. We’ll be heading back to New York City…

30Jan 2019 by Erin Ewart No Comments

Three Ways To Refresh Your Resume For the New Year

job search, resume

BY ERIN EWART If landing a new job is one of your goals for the new year, you’re likely thinking about updating your resume. While that’s actually not the first thing you should do to prepare for your search (see here for the steps you should take to build a strong job search strategy), crafting a compelling resume certainly is an important piece of the job hunt. Resume conventions and preferences are always shifting. As someone who reads a lot of resumes in my recruiting work in addition to coaching our clients on resume best practices, I stay attuned to the latest trends. Here are three recommendations I’ve been making frequently to my clients as we work to update and refresh their resumes for the new year. 1. Add…

20Dec 2018 by Erin Ewart No Comments

Give Yourself a Holiday Gift: Celebrate Your Accomplishments

career coaching, job search, strategy

BY ERIN EWART Recently we hosted an event for our clients and asked them to share an accomplishment they were proud of from this year with each other. While people are often initially stumped in reaction to this question, soon the answers started flowing - projects completed, new jobs landed, personal goals achieved (and even an appearance on Jeopardy!). There was so much positive energy in the room as everyone shared the things they were proud of; I wish I could have bottled it up and captured it! It’s sadly rare to have these kinds of conversations, because we are all naturally programmed to focus on what doesn’t go well: what we wish we’d done differently, or how we didn’t get it exactly right or achieve every single thing we…

18Oct 2018 by Erin Ewart No Comments

What If We All Stopped “Networking”?

job search, networking

BY ERIN EWART Today I'm writing about one of the scariest topics out there for many job seekers: networking. This is one of the biggest topics we focus on with our clients, and it’s a critical element of both the job search process and your overall career development. There’s so much to say about networking, but I want to start with demystifying the process and helping overcome some of the negative perceptions out there. For many people, the idea of networking feels "icky", transactional, or intimidating. And understandably so, if you think about it solely as a means to getting your next job. I felt that way too when I first started doing it. It felt like something I “had” to do, but I wasn’t really sure why, or how to…