Many professionals and executives have made a significant step in their career or even changed the trajectory of their career thanks to riding a wave. While it can happen accidentally, paying attention to your environment can significantly increase the likelihood of catching your next industry wave. Learn how to ride a career wave.

What is an Industry Wave?

Nothing more than a ripple far from shore, a wave slowly begins to pick up energy and size. The art of surfing is to spot the right wave, catc…

Targeted Planning

The prospect of making some form of career change is both exhilarating -- and daunting. If you’ve decided to change careers -- and you know exactly the new career you want to pursue -- it’s important not to be stymied by the enormity of the challenges associated with the career-change process. So, how do you get the ball rolling? Drawing from my experience as an executive recruiter, director of an MBA career centre and as career coach, here are some powerful strategies you can e…

Understand Your Strengths

I can’t sing. I’d like to, but I am hopelessly off key. In the company of more musically gifted friends, it is glaringly obvious to them, and the more musical they are, the more uncomfortable it is for them to listen to me. They hear, or see something that I don’t.

What do I mean by “seeing”? 

We all have the ability to see things that not everyone else does. Patterns, ideas, problems, structure, systems. They are subtle, near invisible things, obvious only to those who ha…

Let Your Company Work For You

Does your company do something exceptionally well as a result of industry dynamics? Quality processes. Mission critical systems. Marketing discipline. Customer support. Distribution precision. Don’t take that level of excellence for granted. There may be organizations who look to your employer as a leader in this area and covet that expertise. The expertise you’ve gained from your employer’s unique circumstances may be just the career move strategy you need to empowe…

LinkedIn Relationships

Our LinkedIn connections and other digital relationships require care and nurturing to prevent stagnation. I previously wrote about how you can better get to know your LinkedIn connections. Here, I cover ways to stay in touch and support your LinkedIn relationships on the fly. That is, during the normal course of your weekly internet activity.

Network & Emotions

Let’s start with why. I have a network. You have a network. But a network is a concept that only becomes real and …

Evaluating and Using Your LinkedIn Connections

While there are many important LinkedIn tips, having a focus on the relationship with our connections is critical. Once upon a time on LinkedIn, we only connected with people that we actually knew and endorsed. Today, its likely that you and I have connected with people who we wouldn’t recognize if we bumped into them on the street. In this article, I cover LinkedIn tips related to strengthening the relationship with select connections which increas…