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You've known since winter. You updated the resume, had a few conversations, told yourself you'd really get going once the launch shipped, the reorg settled, or some other milestone outside your control arrived. It's June. You haven't really started. I don't think that's procrastination, and I don't think it's fear of rejection. Most senior people I talk to are avoiding something more specific: the length. A senior search runs six to nine months on a good day — no deadline, no

There's a specific kind of paralysis that hits senior Amazon leaders when they start interviewing externally. It's not that they don't know what they've done. They know exactly what they've built, the scale they've operated at, the decisions they've owned. The problem is that at Amazon, they never had to explain it. The system did that for you. Your level, your scope, your org chart position — it all spoke before you opened your mouth. The people you were trying to impress al

Most of my clients don’t come to me at the worst moment. They come to me about a year after it. They’ll say something like “I’ve been thinking about this for a while” or “I probably should have started sooner.” And when we unpack the timeline, there’s almost always a moment — a conversation, a reorg, a review that didn’t go the way they expected — where they knew. Not knew-knew. But felt it. The thing that told them this wasn’t going to get better on its own. And then they wa

Want to move faster in your job search? Here's a breakdown of how to activate your network.

Everyone’s talking about how hard the market is right now. Tech stocks are down. Hiring feels slower. The headlines make it sound like nobody’s moving. And yet — in the last 12 months, 10 of my 24 US clients have landed new roles and the rest are still in active searches at various stages. Same market. Same economy. Same headlines. So what’s actually going on? The patterns from inside my practice I started tracking something simple: time from locked personal brand to accepted

Last week I wrote about why capable people stall mid-search — how most of the time it's not a tactics problem, it's a compression problem. The direction isn't tight enough for effort to compound. A few of you wrote back and said: I've made the decision. I know what I'm going after. It's still slow. So this week I want to talk about what comes after the decision. Because that part is less obvious than people think. And it's where a lot of senior searches quietly lose weeks. Th

One of the trickier moments in a job search looks like this: Things are finally moving. Conversations are warmer. Your name is circulating. And instead of feeling calm, you start thinking: “Should I be doing more?” ​​ “Should I broaden this?” ​​ “Am I being too narrow?” That impulse is understandable.It ’s also where a lot of people quietly derail themselves. The mistake I see at this stage When early momentum shows up, people often respond by expanding : More roles More titl

A lot of people tell me they’re networking. They’re having coffees. Catching up with former colleagues. Putting themselves out there. And still - nothing really moves. Here’s one thing worth checking: Does your network know what to think of you for? The confusion here isn't necessarily because you don't know what you want next. Nor is it because you lack experience. But because there's this tendency to hedge - and talk about everything you’ve done instead of the role or outc

TL;DR: December conversations look casual, but this is when people are the most reflective and the most willing to talk about what’s actually going on inside their teams. If you stay in intel-gathering mode instead of “please validate me” mode, you’ll get context you won’t get any other time of year. Why “Just Catching Up” Is More Strategic Than You Think December is the easiest month of the year to get someone on a call. People slow down.They look back at the year.They thin

Problem: Referrals help you stand out amongst applicants - but waiting for one stalls momentum.​ Why it matters: Shortlists often fill early. Many referral systems only add a flag in the ATS. Speed + clarity gets you seen.​ TL;DR: Apply first. Then send the same 2–3 sentence blurb to either (a) a hiring manager/recruiter or (b) a warm contact to forward/flag. Company referral policies vary—ask your contact how they’d like to handle it. Timing rule: Warm contact who repli