Careers for Social Impact

15Dec 2020 by Erin Ewart No Comments

Job Searching? Take These 3 Steps Now to Start the New Year Strong

By Erin Ewart The end of the year is so close we can taste it. This is a great time to take a break, especially if you’re job searching or in career transition. While it may feel tough to step away from your search, it's an important way to keep your energy and motivation up during this process so you won't burn out. So if you’re planning to take a little break from your search over the holidays - great! Make sure to decompress and truly unplug for a few days if you can. But before you step away, there are three important things you can do to wrap up the year on a great note and make sure you’re prepared to hit the ground running again in January. 1.…

28Oct 2020 by Erin Ewart No Comments

5 Ways Your Network Can Sustain – Not Drain – You

networking

By Erin Ewart This week in our Job Search Bootcamp program, we’re focused on networking, a topic that our clients often have a lot of anxiety and negative perceptions about before we dive into what it actually means. I’ve written a lot in the past about networking because I think it’s one of the most challenging, misunderstood, and important parts of the job search and career development process. People often say they find networking to be draining, but I believe it doesn’t have to be, and that if you can do it in a way that feels authentic to you it can be fun and energizing (yes, even if you're an introvert like me!). And I would argue that rather than draining us, our networks are actually the thing we…

26Jun 2020 by Erin Ewart No Comments

We’re Halfway Through the Year. How’s it Going?

career coaching, strategy

By Erin Ewart All the sudden it's June, and we're almost halfway through the year already. As we continue to navigate a lot of transition, it’s especially important to take a step back at this point in the year and ask ourselves how we're doing and how things are going in our lives and careers. So much has changed and shifted over the past few years. For me, those shifts included moving to a part-time work schedule (and then back to full-time again) while taking care of two small kids, rethinking our business strategy in light of the changing job market and economic climate, and working to build a bigger focus on racial and social justice into my life and work. As we continue to return to "normal" ways of…

22May 2020 by Erin Ewart No Comments

How to Plan When Planning Feels Impossible

job search, strategy

By Erin Ewart 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 - but we still have to think about what's next. It’s such a paradox: how can we plan our lives, careers, or anything else, when things are changing all the time and we have no idea what will happen next month, or even next week? It’s a question I’m really grappling with right now, both personally and professionally. We have…

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 a topic everyone wants to focus on, and that nearly everyone finds challenging. Of course there are people out there who feel confident about telling their stories, but 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 is hard. We don’t spend a lot of time reflecting on what…

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. 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 left. I went for a walk,…

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…