Happy Wednesday y’all!

I’m excited to mix it up this week and bring a fresh mind and voice to The Career Kickstarter. Jonathan Alba is a good friend of mine and is also an Austinite and Career Coach.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

1. How do you coach people to find the right career for them?

It all starts with the vision. The first step is helping my clients articulate a vision for their career, or even on a larger scale, their life and/or how work fits into their lives.

This is typically done through lots of questions, self-reflective exercises and truly getting to know a person and their skills, strengths, weaknesses, etc. 

2. How do you encourage people to articulate their value during interviews?

I work with them to understand and communicate that on command BEFORE they get in the interview. The interview itself is actually more of a listening session and a time to ask questions.

Then, when the time is right they can articulate their value. Put simply, when done well my clients can “read the interview” and perform as needed.

3. What is your best piece of advice on job hunting you have for people who have been recently laid off?

Make a list of 20 people that you want to contact and stop applying to massive amounts of jobs. Tap into the people in your life and know what you are looking for first.

Most jobs come through a secondhand connection so always be connecting. If you don’t know what you are looking for, start there. People can’t help you if you don’t know what you want.

4. How can young professionals mix work and passion?

The first step is to be very very clear about what you love doing and what brings you the most joy. Once you are clear on that you can create more situations where you can mix the two.

Knowing beforehand what you want is the first part. And then the critical piece is knowing when to get out. If you no longer love it, stop doing it!

5. How do you see the developments in AI impacting the job hunt process ?

It is becoming much easier to edit resumes and track jobs. AI is also making it more fun to craft personalized resumes. That said, people will need to be able to articulate their value more than ever.

What will set people apart is their ability to communicate not only their value, but their curiosity towards a role. Communication skills will become more important than ever as more and more people start leveraging AI tools. Ultimately, how you show up and perform in an interview will become a crucial part of the process. 

If you want to learn more about Jonathan or his coaching process you can shoot him an email at jonathanpalba@gmail.com or hit him up on LinkedIn.

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