The silence. This is often the 2nd thing people experience after a layoff, behind the initial feelings of shock.  You are not alone in this. The silence is deafening after you spend 40+ hours/week alongside your team & collaborators, pouring your time and energy into your work, firing messages & emails back and forth, hopping from meeting to meeting... and within minutes or next-day you're sitting alone at your home computer; no Teams or Slack; no work email open; total silen

"But what about the LinkedIn bots!?" you ask, as you consider enabling your #OpenToWork  banner with hesitancy? My opinion: use LinkedIn - its powers with supplementing your job search aren't worth sacrificing due to bot fear. Instead, just educate yourself on how to spot the recruiter bots. Here are some tips. Be weary of: - No headshot. - Has "allegedly" worked for big brand, reputable employers yet hardly anything in their "About" section, or sometimes that section left co

In this market, you MUST leverage LinkedIn for 2 job search use cases: (1) general proactive networking with organizations of interest; (2) following up to all 'cold' applications, after you apply. This may seem forward and a bit uncomfortable to some, but unfortunately it's the new reality. Here's how to do it (including what to write)... Locate your contact of interest, either the hiring manager of your role/the role to which you're applying; their skip-level; and for an ap