Sometimes golden opportunities arrive through sheer luck, though other times we must make our own luck. Most often, it’s a marriage of both.

Ideally, you’re researching your market prior to actually applying for any position. You should preliminarily become familiar with as much about the target industry as possible.

Too frequently, college graduates looking for a position, uneducated in the larger job market, communicate to me a startling amount of naivety.

Hi there, my name is Nancy Shield! If you’ve read my blog, or clicked around www.idealinterviewco.com, you might already know about me and my professional background. While I usually use this blog to offer practical job advice for job seekers, I’m diverging from that format this week to give you some insight into myself, my expertise, and my talents.

Preparation. The word comes up constantly, and for good reason. It is the key to success, no matter what that success looks like.

The truth is that many of us will eventually face a gap in our employment. Despite our best attempts to prevent one, there are countless reasons why employment may lapse, with most being perfectly valid.

If a resume is the formal, objective part of your application, then a cover letter is its foil, a highly-subjective attempt to point hiring managers towards the specificities of your ability.

Receiving an offer is cause for celebration: You’ve navigated a difficult job market and sufficiently impressed an employer! Regardless, there is still work to be done.

Ask anyone, rejection really is unavoidable. And at the entry-level, without previous industry experience, employers will expect you to encapsulate your entire personality, convey all you can bring to a role, and note your qualifications with only a resume and cover letter.

Providing advice on one’s interview performance, which has traditionally been considered an interview coach’s main role, is actually a massive minimization of what a coach does.

Unemployment happens. It happens to millions of people annually, and is almost always uncontrollable.

First-time job seekers frequently wonder whether they should take the first position offered to them, or wait for something that corresponds more with their passions.