Invincible Career - Claim your power and regain your freedom

The Job Market Is Frozen

That was the recent headline of an Atlantic article. It reflects the baffling frustration many job seekers are feeling right now.

“Six months. Five-hundred-seventy-six applications. Twenty-nine responses. Four interviews. And still, no job.”

Already in 2025, we are seeing a flurry of firings and layoffs happening across the corporate world and now in the U.S. federal government, too. This means that an estima...

We may feel powerless at times like these, but we are not.

Over 70M people in the U.S. didn’t want the outcome we are dealing with now. Millions more are now regretting choices made that enabled what is happening.

However, if we unite, we become powerful. The coordinated focus of our time, energy, and money would have a massive impact on those who think we have no voice.

We are familiar with the idea of voting with our dollars. We c...

My guest for this episode is Sarah JanTausch, the Founder of SRJ Coaching and Consulting and creator of the Values-Based Career method. This method helps individuals unlock the hidden job market and ditch burnout while creating a career move rooted in their core values, ideal work style, and goals.

Before starting her own business, she worked in politics and government, serving Ohio’s Governor and lieutenant governor. She holds a Ba...

My guest for this episode is Isabel Sterne, a writer, designer, and brand strategist who helps entrepreneurs and professionals build aligned brands. She offers LinkedIn visual design, content writing, marketing clarity calls, and monthly and project-based marketing and branding support.

I always talk about treating your career like a business that sells a product called “you.” As such, you should invest in your professional brand an...

My guest for this episode is Emily Schneider, a visual storyteller specializing in presentation design. She helps businesses and corporate leaders confidently transform their messages into beautiful, effective presentations that genuinely resonate with their intended audiences.

If you give talks and presentations, her advice is invaluable. Becoming comfortable with public speaking is one of the best investments I have made in my car...

My guest for this episode is Maureen Wiley Clough. Maureen is the host of It Gets Late Early, a podcast and community of tech employees bringing awareness to the issues facing experienced workers and striving to create a better working world for all.

I’ve talked about the issue of ageism in the tech industry before. I faced it myself a few times, and I witnessed discriminatory behavior during my decades-long career (e.g., during jo...

Do you have an enemy at work?

Okay, maybe that’s too strong of a word. 😂

How about people who make your life harder than it needs to be, react to everything you do with some negativity, and generally make you wish they weren’t in your life?

I often talk about using a pull to draw you toward better opportunities in your career.

* Growth opportunities

* Professional challenges

* New jobs that offer a promotion or significant raise

* A c...

Have you experienced one of those one-way video interviews during a job search? It can feel a little intimidating to talk into your laptop camera, knowing it’s recorded and you’re not speaking live with another human being.

I recently helped my son prepare for one of these interviews. We focused on three main strategies to ensure his readiness.

* Analyzing the job description

* Talking with current and past employees

* Preparing for ...

“I’m putting in long hours and working harder than ever. Why am I not getting promoted?”

Do you know how many times I’ve heard that complaint?

Sure, working harder than your peers can get you promoted during the early years of your career. But you will soon find that what got you where you are today won’t get you where you want to be tomorrow.

Most people play checkers with their careers. They hop around the board, marching ahead, s...

In this episode, I share an overview of my upcoming course. Play the audio to hear my description of each of the steps below.

10 Steps to Prepare for a Successful Job Interview

* Research your target employer

* Identify their biggest problems

* Map your expertise

* Tune your resume, LinkedIn, etc.

* Find your inside champions and connections

* Prepare and rehearse

* Setting the stage

* How to crush your interview

* Follow up

* Maintain relati...

No one ever said the job market was fair. That’s even more true in the current economy which has been plagued with layoff after layoff.

Now, in this race for a new job, some candidates are clearly driving race cars, while others are struggling to make it around the job search track with an underpowered engine or even a flat tire.

Why is that?

Let me play with this metaphor for a bit, starting with the diagram below. Note: I go into...

In this podcast episode, I share a sneak peek at my recent Invincible Career Job Search workshop I hosted on April 1st.

In the previous podcast episode, when I shared a preview of the workshop, I talked quite a bit about the Connecting strategy.

In this episode, I discuss positioning (e.g., LinkedIn, resume, cover letter) a little more and then dive into the Broadcasting strategy. If you want opportunities to come your way, the pro...

In this episode, I share an overview of the presentation materials to give you a sense of the 2-hour workshop I’ll be hosting on April 1st. So, make sure to play the audio since I’m not including 2 hours of text material in this newsletter article.

➡️ “Find a Better Job Using 3 Essential Job Search Strategies”

The price for the workshop goes up again next week. So, if you're interested in joining us, grab a ticket now. Or, use the ad...

This is one of the worst job markets I’ve experienced in quite some time. It seems like new layoffs are being announced every day.

In this podcast episode, I talk more about what’s going on, how to tell if a layoff might be coming, what to do about it, and how to get back into the game after one happens.

I’ve linked some of my past articles you might find useful if you’re concerned about a layoff or recently went through one.

Have ...

The most successful people in your industry and profession may not be better than you. They also may not be more intelligent, talented, or hardworking than you.

However, I bet they are great at something most of us usually are not:

Promoting themselves.

Of course, self-promotion isn’t enough. You do need a baseline of competence in your job.

However, I think we’ve all noticed that management will promote someone who is good enough ...

This year, I spent hundreds of hours researching and writing newsletter articles — and recording podcast episodes — to share with you. I listed the top 10 below.

If you found my advice and articles helpful this year and would like to support my continued writing and podcasting next year, please consider upgrading to a premium membership that also grants you access to:

* My private Invincible Career community of ambitious professional...

Why do some people hear about opportunities before you do?

* Are they that much smarter than you?

* Are they liked more than you?

* Are they better than you?

Before you get angry with me, let me say it’s probably none of the above. When this happens, it’s usually because:

* More people know who they are.

* More people see their work.

* People think about them.

But why are more people thinking of them more often? Well, the answer lies...

“Staying employed at the same company for over two years on average is going to make you earn less over your lifetime by about 50% or more.” — Cameron Keng

You may be underpaid if you’ve stayed with your current employer for longer than two years. Consider the following chart. On average, people who change jobs see bigger increases in their income.

Haven’t you noticed this in your career? When you took a new job, you probably enjoye...

Let me start by saying I’m using a metaphor here. I haven’t hunted since I was a teenager in the Midwest. I love animals, so please don’t take my talk of “hunting” literally and miss the advice I’m trying to share in this article.

Human beings have been acquiring food to survive for millions of years. We’ve used a combination of active/direct and passive/indirect methods to find the animals and plants we eat.

* Actively hunting, sc...