Just when I was thinking I've listened to every episode of every podcast in my feed, rock star psychotherapist Esther Perel has come out with "How's Work?" 

Each episode of the Gimlet Media podcast (available through Spotify) showcases a one-time therapy session focused on work-related relationships and issues. 

(And I'm shamelessly excited for an excuse to post a photo I got to take when I met her at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women in 2017.)

Dorie Clark is my favorite go-to expert for ideas on marketing, networking, and general building-something-out-of-seemingly-nothing. And in her recent Harvard Business Review piece, "How to Reach Out to Someone Whose Career You Admire," she gives some clear and actionable examples of the best strategies you can use to improve your odds of getting a response.

I end up talking a lot about how it's so important to find real-world people doing the type of work ​that you're interested in doing (or that you think you might be interested in doing) as you research new opportunities, and this article provides an especially relevant perspective on how to approach informational interviewing. While I think authentic flattery is often the best opener, this bit of Dorie Clark's advice made me say "Yes!" out loud to nobody:
Successful people ... (are often) approached by people taking the role of supplicants, who only want to ask questions and glean wisdom. It’s flattering at first, but with enough volume, it can become exhausting.

(I feel like I'm obliged to say that how much you try to present yourself as a peer vs. supplicant depends on your ask - and it's pretty easy to imagine someone going overboard with it, but I love it. What we think of as "networking" can easily slip into the simultaneously boring and gross transactional space, and finding genuine connections with inspirational people is the actual point anyway.)

I'm honored and thankful to have been named as providing the Best Career Services in Philadelphia by the Philly Happening List for 2019. It's been a great start to the year, and I'm looking forward to some exciting new things coming up soon!

If you've ever been asked to take some type of pre-employment assessment, you may have wondered why. I recently spoke with Dice.com's Mark Feffer for his article about what employers are even assessing and what it means for you. Companies can screen for a range of things - hard skills, soft skills, personality traits, communication style - and getting a better understanding of how they use these tests can help give the candidate some insight into the corporate culture. 

Quietness can get a bad rap in certain work cultures. Employees who tend toward introversion can find themselves concerned their work is being overlooked but still feel reluctant to shout about their achievements. I shared some tips with Aly Semigran at Well+Good in her new article to help more reserved people stand out and get noticed at work.

Please click over and vote for me, Rita Friedman, Certified Career Coach, in the 2019 Philly Happening List contest. I was honored to win the career services category last year, and would appreciate your vote for Philadelphia's Best in 2019. Thank you!

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After that video of a college-age Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez dancing was shared by some would-be troll, I spoke with Philly.com's Anna Orso about how to audit your online presence.  Whether you're preparing for a job interview or your first day in Congress, check out these seven tips Orso has compiled to make sure you're up to date on what someone might dig up on you. (And whatever it is, may you look as good as AOC.)