It is almost inevitable that anyone who is active in the job market will be faced with some sort of challenge, whether it is poor work-life balance, a toxic work environment, performance issues, or stagnation. To complicate things even further, workers’ concerns and needs will probably change as they navigate their career journey.

The specific challenge you are facing will determine what kind of help you may need and who could best provide it. Career coaches vary in terms of how they help their clients identify their strengths, address their weakness, define their interests, and identify career paths.

Employer reviews are a terrific way to identify areas to investigate before accepting a role with a new organization. But they are not a be-all end-all. As with product and service reviews, most of the input will come from people who have had either a highly positive or highly negative experience. With most reviews, getting exactly what we expected doesn’t inspire the need to share that an extraordinarily great or poor experience would.

Recruiters are not usually the best way to tap into hidden opportunities. We have established that identifying the need to hire is Step One for companies in the hiring process.

Finding the right candidates is Step Two. With a few exceptions, internal and external recruiters (headhunters) are brought in at Step Two, not Step One. Job seekers who land jobs through the hidden job market may never even encounter a recruiter or may do so as a formality after the decision has been made.

6 Commonly Missed Opportunities When Negotiating a New Job

5 keys to finding jobs through networking.

Does Resume Formatting Matter?

There is no debate that graphics, color, headers, and columns can make a resume stand out in the stack. Why, then, do I so vigorously advise against those things?

I am often asked how long a job search typically takes. While many “experts” share statistics on this, the reality is that the speed of the search varies based on three factors:

1. The quantity of jobs you can realistically compete for

2. Alignment of your skills with those jobs

3. Your success rate getting in front of hiring managers

The best way to stay on top of these three keys is by performing an annual three-step “career health check” while you are still actively employed.