Hannah Morgan

Showing job seekers ways to proactively uncover new opportunities and get discovered! Job Search Strategist, Speaker & Trainer 🏆 LinkedIn Top Voice in Job Search and Careers.

Do you have a plan you are following to find a new job? Without the right to-do list it can take a long time to secure a new job. 

I help job seekers understand how to look for work more effectively and land a job faster. 

What I do is equip people who are serious about managing their careers with the strategies and tools to market themselves during job search (and forever). It's about creating a reputation of excellence and connecting with people you need to know in person or virtually! 

In today’s world, it’s too easy to get overlooked when you just apply for jobs online. I want you to get the attention you deserve. But it isn’t easy. It requires consistent effort and stepping outside of your comfort zone. 

Develop a plan to find your next job faster!

RESOURCES I OFFER:

Do you get my Sunday Career Essentials newsletter? It's curated content by experts in the job search, recruiting and careers fields you need to know! Subscribe here https://career-essentials.beehiiv.com/join

Do you know about my Motivation Monday Job Search Accountability Group? It's a intimate group of job seekers that meet weekly to push through the process, collaborate, and get support and accountability. Learn more here: https://careersherpa.net/need-help/motivation-monday-job-search-accountability-group/

Interested in learning more about my services? See this page: https://careersherpa.net/products-services/

Career Sherpa.net serves as the umbrella for all the things I love doing: training (virtually and in person), speaking, and writing. Visit my website to get the latest on job search trends and tips to improve your online visibility ⇨ 
https://careersherpa.net

 ► Speaker/Trainer ◄ 
Delivering presentations and workshops is my passion.  I love educating and the personal satisfaction that comes from seeing the "a-ha" moments of participants. 


 ► Author/Blogger ◄ 
I’ve been recognized at one of LinkedIn's Top Voices in Job Search and Career in 2019. I've also been featured in USA Today, Money Magazine, Huffington Post, Aol Jobs, LifeHacker, The Muse,  Business Insider and many other media outlets. 

I've written two books: "The Infographic Resume" and co-authored “Social Networking for Business Success: How To Turn Your Ideas Into Income”.

Job Search Strategist

Here's exactly what you should do to prepare for an interview. 

Be prepared.
Be confident. 
Focus on listening, not worrying about what you'll be asked!

Interview preparation for confidence

STOP BRINGING YOUR RESUME TO NETWORKING MEETINGS

If you're job hunting, you might think you need a polished resume before you can start networking.

You don't.

You don't need a completed resume to start having meaningful career conversations. Once you understand why, you'll never feel the need to bring it to a networking meeting again.

WOULD YOU SHARE YOUR RESUME IF YOU ALREADY HAD A JOB?

Imagine you're happily employed and someone asks to meet for coffee. 

Would you bring your resume?

Of course not.

So why do you feel like you need one just because you're job searching? What you actually need is a purpose for the meeting, a few good questions, and a willingness to listen and learn.

NETWORKING IS NOT ABOUT LANDING A JOB. IT'S ABOUT LEARNING.

The best networking conversations aren't job pitches. They're mutual exchanges of insights, experiences, and ideas.

When you lead with "I'm job hunting," you risk shifting the focus off information gathering to "do you know of any jobs?" (This is not likely to help you).

THINK OF NETWORKING AS GETTING SOME FRESH AIR

→ Advice on career moves, job search strategies, or changing direction 
→ Information about companies, industry trends, or future opportunities 
→ Recommendations for people to meet, groups to join, or skills to develop

The best networkers don't wait until they need something to start showing up. They build relationships consistently so when opportunities arise, they're already in the room.

COME PREPARED WITH SMART QUESTIONS

Thoughtful questions signal curiosity and make conversations memorable. Try these:
→ "What challenges are you seeing in [industry] right now?" 
→ "Have you or your team tried any new approaches lately?" 
→ "What trends do you think will have the biggest impact this year?"

These open the door to real dialogue rather than a one-sided pitch.

YOU HAVE VALUE TO OFFER, TOO

You've gained insights, experiences, and lessons worth sharing.

Think about who you've already met on your networking journey. What stories or tips could you pass along? When you show up as a connector and a resource, you become someone people genuinely want to stay in touch with.

WHAT IF SOMEONE ASKS FOR YOUR RESUME?

That's usually a sign that the purpose of your meeting wasn't clear from the start.

Get ahead of it by sharing your LinkedIn profile in your meeting request and being upfront that you're there to learn, not to pitch yourself.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Networking is about building relationships and uncovering opportunities long before a job posting goes live.

Show up curious, prepared, and confident. No paper required.

❓ What is holding you back from having conversations/networking? Drop a comment below.

Here's a challenge for every job seeker this week: 

🤯 Instead of obsessing over how to use AI to customize your resume, why not use it to help you identify target companies? 

🤯 Instead of learning AI to improve your resume bullets, why not create a prompt to find related roles/job titles you may be a good fit for?

🤯 Instead of investing time finding job boards and recruiters, invest in reaching out to people you worked with, volunteer with, went to school with, did business with, or know.

🎯 Focus on human-to-human interactions. 

Learning AI skills isn't wrong or bad...
but 
is it distracting you from building relationships and connecting with people?  

There are tools you can test for free to help with your resume customization. Have you tried either of these? 

Huntr (huntr . co)
Teal     (tealhq . com)

And practice AI interview tools also exist. 

Teal
Yoodli AI Roleplays

Rather than build your own, save time and use tools that already exist!

Stop Letting Procrastination Steal Your Job Search Success!

PLUS: 15 scams to watch out for, a job search checklist you need, rules for networking, LinkedIn profile settings that are making you invisible, and more!

Yesterday's Career Essentials featured these posts: 

📌 The All-In Job Search Checklist - Adrienne Tom
📌 15 Ways You Can Easily Stop Job Scams Today - Mark Anthony Dyson
📌 Quickest Way To Lose Your Audience When Networking? - Erica Reckamp
📌 Why Good Candidates Stay Invisible on LinkedIn - Jan Tegze 
📌 Top 10 LinkedIn Premium Benefits for Job Seekers - Sabrina Woods
📌 Have You Verified Your Linkedin Profile? - Linda Brubaker, PhD

Plus more! 

If these are the types of articles you need to help with your job search, subscribe today! 

https://lnkd.in/epP33pJi

Happy March 1st! And here's Career Essentials issue hot off the presses today! 

🔥 7 Things You Can Do To Attract Your Next Opportunity
🔥 How To Find Recruiters - Sarah Johnston
🔥 9 Best Job Sites - Sam Wright of Huntr
🔥 How To Ask For An Informational Interview - Jenny Foss
🔥 6 Ways To Be More Visible To Recruiters on LinkedIn - Mary Southern
🔥 LinkedIn Skills On The Rise - LinkedIn
🔥 Develop the Skills Employers Actually Need - Lightcast

And more news you can use to accelerate your job search! 

https://lnkd.in/eapWMMDa

Stop Asking AI to Fix Your Resume was the subject line of yesterday's Career Essentials newsletter. 

Every Sunday, I curate recent and interesting job search-related articles written by experts and people whose opinions I value. 

These are some of the articles featured yesterday:

💪 Commenting Is The New Posting - LIAM DARMODY

💪 Curiosity And Learning Agility (To Beat AI) - Lars Schmidt

💪 Generative AI Is Eroding Trust - Kelli Hrivnak

💪 Your LLM Resume Isn’t Helping - Steve Levy 🌊 

💪6 Things You Can Do - That Are In Your Control - To Increase Your Chances Of Landing An Interview - Sarah Baker Andrus

Here's the link and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an issue
https://lnkd.in/ej9WC2gc

#SkillsOnTheRise

It doesn't matter what industry you're in... these skills are on the rise. 

This is how LinkedIn compiled the list: 
"LinkedIn measures the year-over-year growth of skills based on two pillars: skill acquisition and hiring success. Skill acquisition measures the growth of a given skill being added to member profiles. Hiring success measures the growth of a given skill possessed by members who have been hired in the past year."

Open article: LinkedIn Skills on the Rise 2026: The fastest-growing skills in the U.S. by LinkedIn News • 5 min read

LinkedIn Skills on the Rise 2026: The fastest-growing skills in the U.S.

Digital Marketing and Technology Recruiter @ Knak Digital | Fractional Talent Acquisition | Hitting Hiring Roadblocks? I can help 🙋🏻‍♀️ Job Search Advisor & Myth Debunker | Baltimore & D.C. 🔊 (Riv-Knack)

Are you struggling to hire tech and marketing talent to keep up with your organization’s growth?

Maybe your internal applications are jammed with tons of inbound resumes, but very few that are actually on target. Meanwhile, your team is buried, deliverables are slipping, and the right roles stay open way too long.

That’s where I come in.

I’m Kelli Hrivnak, a Marketing & Tech Recruiter, who helps hypergrowth companies fill critical roles faster than traditional methods.  For nearly two decades, I've been a trusted ally to small to midmarket businesses in DC, Virginia, and Maryland, building teams that boost revenue, innovation, and collaborative success.  

My background in hospitality and outside sales taught me the art of relationship building and high-pressure, often intense, decision-making skills that translated to the recruiting world.  That experience shaped how I recruit.

Hiring Hurdles Impacting my Clients:

✔️ Speed to hire.   A vacant position is slowing down your project deliverables and product development.
✔️ Hiring surge and internal recruitment/TA team is swamped.
✔️ Burned by past mis-hires and unsuccessful track record of hiring
✔️ No time to review resumes or screen candidates thoroughly.
✔️ Job Postings that result in 100's of applicants with no time to review
✔️ Underlying need to replace underperformers, confidentially
✔️ Skills gap and the relentless competition for the same pool of talent

Knak Digital Solutions:

Placement & Sourcing:
✔️ 30,000+ vetted tech and marketing contacts in our proprietary database
✔️ 100% dedication to networking, sourcing, and interviewing for faster fill times
✔️ Tailored recruiting approach that fits your team’s culture
✔️ Project-based consultants when you don't need full-time specialists

Embedded Recruiting Support:
✔️ On-demand, flexible recruiting help that scales with your needs
✔️ Extra capacity during hiring spikes so your team doesn’t get overloaded
✔️ Alternative model to project-based searches, especially when hiring 3 or more roles.

Talent Consulting:
✔️ Discreet searches for underperformers, leadership changes, and succession planning
✔️ Employer brand support to improve candidate attraction
✔️ Market intel on competitors, salary trends, and talent movement

Ready to break through your hiring bottlenecks?  Let's start a conversation. 

📧 Email: kelli@Knakdigital.com

Search job listings here ▶ https://jobs.crelate.com/portal/knakdigital

Kelli Hrivnak

When you outreach to a Yahoo address thinking it’s inactive…and it delivers.

And they actually write back.  #recruiterwin

IYKYK.

Toggling from tech to GTM recruiting, there is one interesting difference.

In some tech searches, fraud is an issue.  As in bait and switch, deepfakes, or just fraudulent profiles in general.

In GTM, I haven't come across this (yet).   The only deception is the interpretation of results.

Quota numbers.  Millions worth of business.  Strong pipelines.  But the nuance of not knowing team dynamic, support, and strength of territory can change things.

A few weeks ago, I was talking through this exact problem with a sales leader, specifically how to sniff out BS.  So how to get past the actual numbers and understand what a candidate actually did to drive them. 

Because any outcome is only meaningful with context around strategy and process.

Anyone can put those important numbers in a resume.  It's the story behind the numbers that is a differentiator.

What questions are you asking to gain clarity around metrics in a resume?

Attention to my lady community interested in building apps!  

In honor of International Women's Day, Lovable is offering free usage of its platform for 24 hours on March 8th.   Anthropic is throwing in $100 worth of API credits, too.

If you have time next Sunday, this could be a good opportunity to bring an idea to prototype.

Open article: SheBuilds on Lovable for International Women's Day by shebuilds.lovable.app

SheBuilds on Lovable for International Women's Day

Some hiring managers don't see what goes into a search.  Here is what is happening in my day when leaders are focused on scaling business:

🔹Researching the landscape first, before a single outreach goes out. This is mapping competitors, understanding the skill sets, and finding those gems that are adjacent and could be overlooked.  (Yes, there are AI tools that can help, but they don't always pick up nuance.)

🔹Fielding and engaging in emails, texts, calls, and video conversations with prospects.  This can consume hours on end per day.

🔹Creating and maintaining a running list of these targets. In an ATS or even a simple spreadsheet.  Tracking who's a miss and why (comp misaligned, timing off with a growing family, skill set not quite there)

🔹Gathering real-time comp data, not what's published on Level.Fyi.

🔹Learning WHY talent is passing.  This is the intel to bring back to hiring teams when time-to-fill exceeds the usual TTF.

🔹Hearing where your brand resonates and where it doesn't.

Every prospect who passes is still giving data.  Hesitations on equity, comp, benefits, team structure, title inflation, or off-leveling.

Some of those things just can't be changed, period. Budget or onsite needs. But bringing those market realities back to a hiring team, with legit intel instead of gut or opinion, is where that advisory piece comes in.   

 At the end of the day, a search is the outbound strategy. Inbound is dandy, especially when it attracts solid talent, but it's not JUST the plan.

Are you validating your hiring strategy with real candidate feedback?

Attrition.  There tends to be two waves.

The first wave could be a single employee departure on a team or a mass RIF.  

The second wave is one I think most should anticipate but often don't:  the people who stayed.

The disruption of the team dynamic can stir up a feeling of instability and uncertainty.  And some can power through.  In some cases, a toxic employee peaced out, which can improve the dynamic among the standing soldiers.

The adverse?  Workloads are reshuffled and reporting lines are changed.  Teams could be understaffed and overworked.    Just the catalyst for those still on the team to start thinking and planning for options outside the company.   Typical in M&As.

If you're hiring right now for a replacement role or just leading a team through it, pay attention to who's still standing and check in on them.

taplio

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Hannah Morgan

Kelli Hrivnak

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taplio

The Battle

Hannah Morgan

Kelli Hrivnak

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Hannah Morgan's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKelli Hrivnak's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreHannah Morgan's LinkedIn Performance